Politics of Truth and the Everyday life: an Anthropological perspective on Oral and Written History
Journal Title: Saudi Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences - Year 2017, Vol 2, Issue 10
Abstract
This paper seeks the complex issues between the oral/ethnographic narration and historical narration of the past. The oral history often collected by ethnographers directly from the people may have huge differences with the supposed authentic written account of history. For instance, the people in Tibet still believe, and they have tales and songs which say that Mao Zedong came to Tibet for the Communist Long March through China in the 1930s but the written records of the long march and Zedong’s personal history reject this claim. However, the written history can’t reject the paradoxical existence of oral tradition and vice versa. Both oral and written history has cultural significance and hence exists beyond the truth. In this context, it is difficult to pass judgment whether ethnography or history is the truth; rather it demands anthropological concerns to understand the reason behind the disjuncture. The social and cultural feature which creates disjuncture or paradox between the oral and written forms of historic accounts is more important to understand the truth. Anthropologist Carole Mcgranahan argued, “This situation demands to consider the social truth, cultural logic and political claim embedded in history as examples of the productive excesses inherent in and generated by this conceptual disjuncture.” This paper also emphasizes the concepts like social truth, cultural logic, and political claims to solve the complex issues between the ethnography and written history. Keywords: Ethnography, History, Oral Tradition, Social Truth, Cultural Logic, Political Claim
Authors and Affiliations
Nisar K, Dr. Jesurthnam Devarapalli
Keywords
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