Oral Traditions, Continuities and Transformations in Northeast India and Beyond

Description

Northeast India is home to many distinct communities and is an area of incredible ethnic, religious, and linguistic diversity. This book explores the shared cultural heritage among the highland and river valley communities of Northeast India and mainland South East Asia, including South China, through oral traditions. It looks at these shared cultural traditions and suggests new ways of understanding and interpreting the heritage of Northeast India. Oral traditions often bring forward an unexpected twist in understanding historical and cultural links, and this volume explores this using local knowledge and innovative engagements with oral traditions in multiple ways, from folklore and language to performative traditions. The essays in this volume examine how communities build new meanings from old traditions, often as a recognition of the tension between conservation and creation, between individual interpretation and social consensus. They offer interesting parallels on how oral traditions behave in different socio-economic contexts, and also examine how oral traditions and memory interact with the digital world’s penetration in the remote areas. This volume will be useful for scholars and researchers of Northeast India, sociology, sociology of culture, cultural studies, ethnic studies, anthropology, folkloristics, and political sociology. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Notes on Contributors Preface Acknowledgements Introduction: Oral Traditions in Highland Asia: A View from Northeast India 1 From Marginal Zone to Borderland? Ethnographies, Histories and Politics in Northeast India 2 “Buluotuo Culture”: The Zhuang Oral Traditions as Performance 3 Northeast India and Southeast Asia: Rediscovering a Cultural Lineage Through Folklores 4 The Uniqueness of Storytelling on Malay Folk Tales 5 The Khasi Oral Traditional Forms of Communication 6 Integrating Oral Narratives in Linguistic Study of Speech Communities: A Case Study of Angami Naga (Kohima Village) 7 Pottery Technology in Garo Hills: An Ethnoarchaeological Interpretation 8 Constancy and Change: A Study on the Traditional and Colonial Built Forms of the Khasis 9 Health, Spirits and Modern Medicine in Northeast India 10 Role of Women in the Making of Boro Culture: From knowledge Production to Empowerment 11 Elwin as the Presenter of the Tales of the Tribes Films 12 Old Links: New Content: Reconnecting Northeast India and Southeast Asia Index