Oral stories and culture areas: From Northeast India to Southwest China

South Asia: Journal of South Asia Studies

Volumn 30, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 419-437

  Blackburn, Stuart ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Culture area; Eastern Himalayas; Oral stories

Indexed keywords

ANTHROPOLOGY; BORDER REGION; COMPARATIVE STUDY; CULTURAL IDENTITY; CULTURAL TRADITION; LANGUAGE;

ASIA; BANGLADESH; CHINA; EURASIA; FAR EAST; INDIA; MYANMAR; SOUTH ASIA; SOUTHEAST ASIA;

EID: 36549033390     PISSN: 00856401     EISSN: 14790270     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00856400701714054     Document Type: Article

References (96)

1. Franz Boas, 'The Kwakiutl of Vancouver Island', Publications of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Vol.5, no.2 (1909), pp.301-522 (New York: Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, 1909), p.309.
2. This dimension of native ethnography adds another level to Richard Bauman's statement that oral stories reflect local culture in two ways: as narrative and as event. See Richard Bauman, Story, Performance and Event: Contextual Studies of Oral Narrative (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), p.2.
3. Franz Boas, Kwakiutl Culture as Reflected in Mythology (New York: G.E. Strechert, 1935).
4. See also Boas' analysis of animal stories among Eskimos (p.510). Boas argued passionately against the 'comparative method' of his time, which he defined as a 'vain endeavour to construct a uniform systematic history of the evolution of culture' (p.280). Similarities, he believed, were the result of borrowing, not the psychic unity of evolutionists. See Franz Boas, Race, Language and Culture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1940).
5. Carl Wilhelm von Sydow, 'Geography and Folk-Tale Oicotypes', in C.W. von Sydow, Selected Papers in Folklore (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1948), pp.44-59, 243-44.
6. Published comparative studies of oral stories in the eastern Himalayas are few. See Nicholas J. Allen, 'Studies in the Myths and Oral Traditions of the Thulung Rai of East Nepal', unpublished PhD thesis, Oxford University, 1976; Nick J. Allen, 'Animal Guides and Foundation Myths', in S. Karmay and P. Sagant (eds), Les Habitants du Toit du Monde (Nantere: Societe d'Ethnologie, 1997), pp.375-90
7. and Nick J. Allen, 'Tibet and the Thulung Rai: Towards a Comparative Mythology of the Bodic Speakers', in M.V. Aris and Aung San Suu Kyi (eds), Tibetan Studies in Honour of Hugh Richardson (Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1980), pp.1-8.
8. Verrier Elwin, The Myths of the Northeast Frontier of India Shillong: NEFA, 1958) also contains some comparative observations.
9. The major sources for this comparative research are Gerry Abbott and Khin Thant Han, The Folk-Tales of Burma. An Introduction (Köln: Brill, 2000)
10. S.N. Barkataki, Tribal Folktales of Assam (Hills) (Gauhati: Publications Board, 1970)
11. T.K. Bhattacharya, Myths of the Shimongs of the Upper Siang (Shillong: North-East Frontier Agency, 1965)
12. D.K. Bora, Myths and Tales of the Nishings of Arunachal Pradesh (Itanagar: Directorate of Research, 1995)
13. William Dessaint and Avounado Ngwama, Au Sud des Nuages: Mythes et Contes Recueillis Oralement chez les Montagnards Lissou (Tibeto-Burman) (Paris: Gallimard, 1994)
14. Elwin, The Myths of the Northeast Frontier of India
15. Verrier Elwin, A New Book of Tribal Fiction (Shillong: North-East Frontier Agency, 1970)
16. David Crockett Graham, Songs and Stories of the Ch'uan Miao (Washington DC: Smithsonian Institute, 1954)
17. Paul Lewis, Akha Oral Literature (Bangkok: White Lotus Press, 2002)
18. Lucien Miller (ed.), South of the Clouds (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994)
19. and Nai-Tung Ting, A Type Index of Chinese Folktales in the Oral Tradition and Major Works of Non-religious Classical Literature (Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1978).
20. Some of these legends are summarised in Birendranath Datta, Affinities between Folkloristics and Historiography (Chennai: National Folklore Support Centre, 2002), pp.99-102.
21. Edmund Leach, 'The Frontiers of "Burma"', in Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol.III (1960-61), p.50.
22. F.K. Lehman, The Structure of Chin Society: A Tribal People of Burma Adapted to a Non-Western Civilization (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1963)
23. F.K. Lehman, 'Can God be Coerced? Structural Correlates of Merit and Blessing in Some Southeast Asian Religions', in Cornelia Ann Kammerer and Nicola Tannenbaum (eds), Merit and Blessing in Mainland Southeast Asia in Comparative Perspective (New Haven: Yale Southeast Asia Studies, Monograph 45, Yale University Press, 1996), pp.20-51
24. and Thomas Kirsch, Feasting and Social Oscillation. A Working Paper on Religion and Society in Upland Southeast Asia (Ithaca: Southeast Asia Program Cornell University, 1973).
25. Katz identified three common traits: 1. a combination of 'obligatory holidays' and 'quarantine'; 2. feasts of merit; and 3. erection of memorials after performing this feast or a funeral. See Milton Katz, 'Genna in Southeastern Asia', in American Anthropologist, Vol.30, no 4 (1928), pp.580-601.
26. Hans-Eberhard Kauffmann, Landwirtschaft bei den Bergvolkern von Assam und Nord-Burma (Berlin: Julius Springer, 1934).
27. Common elements in the oral traditions of the Tibeto-Burman-speaking tribes of northeast India have been briefly discussed in Praphulladatta Goswami, Ballads and Tales of Assam (Gauhati: Gauhati University Press, 1960), pp.134-48.
28. A similar perspective, but including Assam, is presented in Birendranath Dutta, Nabin Chandra Sarma and Prabin Chandra Das, A Handbook of Folklore Material of North-East India (Guwahati: Anundoram Borooah Institute of Language, Art and Culture, 1994), Chap. 2.
29. Many of these stories are included in my forthcoming book, Himalayan Tribal Tales: Oral Stories from Arunachal Pradesh (Leiden: Brill, 2007 forthcoming).
30. Many of these versions have been collected by Prof. Michael Oppitz of Zürich University, who has kindly shared his data with me. See Michael Opptiz, 'Die Geschichte der Verlorenen Schrift', in Paideuma Vol.52 (2006), pp.27-50.
31. Apatani, Nyishi, Adi (2 versions), Galo, Digaru Mishmi, Wancho and Nocte; an Idu Mishmi story is closer to the 'contest' type.
32. The ten are Khasi, Garo, Lakher (=Mara), Chin, Rengma, Sema and Marring Naga, Thado-Kuki, Mizo and Mru. The 21 are Kachin, Akha, Nu (Nusu), Moso, Drung, Miao/Hmong, Hani, Pumi, Wa, Lisu, Jinuo, Dai, Bulang, Lahu, Dulung (Dulong), De'ang, Zhuang, Dong, Qiang, Baima and Shixing.
33. Only three versions (Khasi, Miao/Hmong and Wa) of the total of 38 are not found among Tibeto-Burman speakers.
34. András Höfer, 'Nomen est Numen. Preliminary Notes on the Verbal Journey in Some Western Tamang Oral Ritual Texts', in B. Bickel and M. Gaenszle (eds), Himalayan Space: Cultural Horizons and Practices (Zürich: Völkerkundemuseum Zcrich, 1999), pp.205-44
35. and Martin Gaenszle, Ancestral Voices: Oral Ritual Texts and Their Social Contexts among the Mewahang Rai of East Nepal (Hamburg: Lit. Verlag, 2002), p.122.
36. Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf, 'The After-life in Indian Tribal Belief', in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol.83, no.1 (1953), p.42.
37. See Stuart Blackburn, 'Die Riese der Seele: Bestattungsritualen und Oralen Texten in Arunachal Pradesh, Indien (The Journey of the Soul: Funeral Rituals and Oral Texts in Arunachal Pradesh, India)', in Jan Assmann, Franz Maciejewski and Axel Michaels (eds), Der Abschied von den Toten. Trauerrituale im Kulturvergleich (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2005), pp.82-109.
38. For North Asia see Mircea Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy (trans. Willard R. Task) (New York: Pantheon, 1964), pp.207-11
39. and Uno Hölmberg, The Mythology of All Races, Vol. 4. Finno-Ugric, Siberian (Boston: Cooper Square Press, 1927), p.484
40. for Southwest China see Charles McKhann, 'Sacred Trails: Genealogical Mapping and the Creation of Historical Space among the Naxi of Southwest China', in Histoire et Anthropologie Asies, Vol.2 (2003), pp.29-47
41. and Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, p.441ff
42. for the Garos see Erik de Maaker, 'Negotiating Life: Garo Death Rituals and the Transformation of Society', PhD, Leiden, 2006 pp.110-11 (forthcoming 2008)
43. for the Lahu see Anthony Walker, Merit and the Millennium. Routine and Crisis in the Ritual Lives of the Lahu People (New Delhi: Hindustan Publishing, 2003), pp.488-94.
44. Kaj Birket-Smith, Studies in Circumpacific Culture Relations, Potlatch and Feasts of Merit (Kobenhavn: Munksgaard, 1967).
45. Schyler Jones, Men of Influence in Nuristan: A Study of Social Control and Dispute Settlement in Waigal Valley, Afghanistan (London: Seminar Press, 1974)
46. and Andrew Beatty, Society and Exchange in Nias, Indonesia (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992).
47. Shakespear wrote that the Kabui 'feasts of merit' correspond to the Lushei feasts known as Thang-chhuah. See J. Shakespear, 'Kabui Notes', in Man, Vol.12 (1912), p.70. Curiously, however, he did not use this term in his monograph on the Lushei, although he did note that their feasts are a fixed series and confer a special title on the sponsor.
48. See J. Shakespear, The Lushei Kuki Clans (London: Macmillan, 1912).
49. Shakespear, The Lushei Kuki Clans
50. J.H. Hutton, The Sema Nagas (London: Macmillan, 1921)
51. J.H. Hutton, The Angami Nagas (London: Macmillan, 1921)
52. J.P. Mills, The Lhota Nagas (London: Macmillan, 1922)
53. J.P. Mills, The Ao Nagas (London: Macmillan, 1926)
54. J.P. Mills, The Rengma Nagas (London: Macmillan, 1937)
55. N.E. Parry, The Lakhers (London: Macmillan, 1932)
56. A. Gilhodes, The Kachins. Religion and Customs (Bangkok: White Lotus Books [1922] 1996)
57. and Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf, The Naked Nagas (London: John Murray, 1939).
58. H.N.C. Stevenson, The Economics of the Central Chin Tribes (Bombay: Times of India Press, 1943)
59. F.K. Lehman, The Structure of Chin Society (Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1963);) pp.137-47
60. C.R. Stonor, 'The Feasts of Merit among the Northern Sangtam Tribe of Assam', in Anthropos, Vol.XLV (1950), pp.1-12
61. Claus-Dieter Brauns and Lorenz G. Löffler, Mru. Hill People on the Border of Bangladesh (Basel: Birkhauser Verlag, 1990), pp.227-44
62. Sing Khaw Khai, Zo People and Their Culture (Manipur: Khampu Hatzaw, 1995)
63. Jamie Saul, Nagas of Burma, Their Festivals, Customs and Way of Life (Bangkok: Orchid Press, 2005)
64. T'ien Ju-K'ang, Religious Cults of the Pai-I along the Burma-Yunnan Border (Ithaca: Cornell University Southeast Asia Program Monograph, 1986).
65. For the Apatani murung, see Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf, Himalayan Barbary (London: John Murray, 1955)
66. Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf, A Himalayan Tribe: From Cattle to Cash (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980)
67. and Ursula Graham Bower [Betts], The Hidden Land (London: John Murray, 1953). For the Nyishi denay yullo
68. see Tob Tarin Tara, Nyishi World (Itanagar: Eastern Horizons, 2005), pp.89-91.
69. For a feast among the Palibo Adi, see A. Megu, 'Sobo Panam: A Feast of Merit of the Palibos', in P.C. Dutta and D.K. Duarah (eds), Aspects of Culture and Custom in Arunachal Pradesh (Itanagar: Government of Arunachal Pradesh, 1990), pp.126-34. My own preliminary field research suggests that the Idu Mishmi reh is a feast of merit.
70. See for example Karl Gustav Izikowitz, Lamet: Hill Peasants in French Indochina (Göteborg, Ethnografiska Museet, 1951), pp.116-7)
71. and Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf, 'Pre-Buddhist Elements in Sherpa Beliefs and Rituals', in Man, Vol.55 (1955), pp.49-52. Katz's map of feasts of merit includes Aka, Nyishi, Miri, Mishmi and Adi examples, but cites no sources for these claims.
72. See Katz, 'Genna in Southeastern Asia', p.598. Kaj Birket-Smith mentions an Adi festival (etor) as a feast of merit (Studies in Circumpacific Culture Relations, Potlatch and Feasts of Merit, p.43), but this is based on a brief and uncorroborated description in George Duff-Sutherland Dunbar, Abors and Galongs. Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol.5 (Calcutta: Royal Asiatic Society, 1916), p.39.
73. See Blackburn, The Sun Rises.
74. The relative absence, in the published literature, of feasts of merit in upland Southeast Asia and Southwest China suggests that another kind of cultural logic operates in this region of the extended eastern Himalayas.
75. R. Lederman, 'Globalization and the Future of Culture Areas: Melanesianist Anthropology in Transition', in Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol.27 (1998), p.431.
76. Ibid., pp.427-9. See also Adam Kuper, 'Comparison and Contextualization: Reflections on South Africa', in Andre Gingrich and Richard G. Fox (eds), Anthropology, by Comparison (London: Routledge, 2002), pp.143-66.
77. As quoted in Stith Thompson, The Folktale (Berkeley: University of California Press, [1946] 1977), p.369.
78. William Durham, 'Advances in Evolutionary Culture Theory', in Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol.19 (1990), p.187. S
79. ee also William Durham, 'Applications of Evolutionary Culture Theory', in Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol.21 (1992), pp.31-55
80. and William Durham, 'Cultural Variation in Time and Space: The Case for a Population Theory of Culture', in Richard G. Fox and Barbara J. King (eds), Anthropology beyond Culture (Oxford: Berg, 2000), pp.193-206.
81. James Matisoff, 'Sino-Tibetan Linguistics: Present State and Future Prospects', in Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol.20 (1991), pp.484-91
82. and N.J. Enfield, 'Areal Linguistics and Mainland Southeast Asia', in Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol.34 (2005), pp.181-206.
83. Durham, for instance, excludes 'behaviour' from his theory of cultural evolution, which applies only to 'values, ideas and beliefs'. See Durham, 'Advances in Evolutionary Culture Theory', p.188.
84. For a summary of this debate, see Stuart Blackburn, 'Memories of Migration: Notes on Migration Legends and Material Culture in Arunachal Pradesh', in European Bulletin of Himalayan Research, Vol.25/26 (2003/2004), pp.15-60. Certainly the Patkai hills, at about 4,000 feet, present a less-imposing barrier than the Himalayas, with passes often over 12,000 feet and snow-bound in winter; in recent centuries, several groups, from Ahoms to Khamptis, have crossed the Patkai hills from Burma and entered the Brahmaputra Valley.
85. The chronology of these migrations is also disputed and speculative; van Driem thinks that Tibeto-Burman speakers entered northeast India 'possibly as early as the seventh millennium BC'. See George van Driem, Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 2001), p.410.
86. However, the only systematic study of the languages of the central tribes concluded that they are 'relatively recent' arrivals in the area. See Jackson Tianshin Sun, 'A Historical-Comparative Study of the Tani (Mirish) Branch in Tibeto-Burman', unpublished PhD dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1993, pp.12-14.
87. Randy LaPolla, 'The Role of Migration and Language Contact in the Development of the Sino-Tibetan Language Family', in R.M.W. Dixon and A.Y. Aikhenvald (eds), Areal Diffusion and Genetic Inheritance: Case Studies in Language Change (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp.225-54. These movements into upland Southeast Asia and Yunnan probably did not occur until the middle of the first millennium.
88. Although all the descendants of a population do not necessarily speak the same language, and we know of largescale language shifts all over the world, including the Assam Valley, there is no evidence that the present speakers of Tani languages are not genetically related to the Tibeto-Burman speakers who first settled in central Arunachal Pradesh. Note also that my argument concerns only historical links between populations within the same language family. See also Doug Jones, 'Kinship and Deep History: Exploring Connections between Culture Areas, Genes, and Languages', in American Anthropologist, Vol.105, no.3 (Sept. 2003), pp.501-14.
89. The second alternative, migration up into the hills, is favoured by van Driem. See van Driem, Languages of the Himalayas, pp.410-11.
90. See for example, Dieter Schuh (ed.), Beiträge zur tibetischen Erzählforschung, 17 vols. (Sankt Augustin [since 1989 Bonn]: VGh Wissenschaftsverlag, 1982-2005).
91. David Bradley, 'The Subgrouping of Tibeto-Burman', in Christopher Beckwith (ed.), Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages (Leiden: Brill, 2002), pp.73-112
92. and Sun, 'A Historical-Comparative Study of the Tani (Mirish) Branch in Tibeto-Burman', pp.399-409.
93. Aside from studies by Chinese linguists which map the distribution of small groups of Tani speakers, there is virtually no ethnographic description of populations in southern Tibet. For a summary of what is known about the ritual practices of the Tibetan and Tibetanised people living in the Tsari region, see Toni Huber, The Cult of Pure Crystal Mountain: Popular Pilgrimage and Visionary Landscape in Southeast Tibet (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp.174, 177-82.
94. W. van Schendel, 'The Dangers of Belonging: Tribes, Indigenous Peoples and Homelands in South Asia', in S. Dasgupta and D. Rycroft (eds), Tribes in Colonial and Post Colonial South Asia (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2007 forthcoming).
95. A similar point is made by Willem van Schendel in his 'Geographies of Knowing, Geographies of Ignorance: Jumping Scale in Southeast Asia', in Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, Vol.20 (2002), pp.647-68.
96. Leach, 'The Frontiers of "Burma"', pp.49-68.