In this book, Elizabeth Tonkin, an anthropologist, uses an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the construction and interpretation of oral histories. She argues for a deeper understanding of their oral and social characteristics. Oral accounts of past events are guides to the future, as well as being social activities in which tellers claim authority to speak to particular audiences. Like written history and literature, orality has its shaping genres and aesthetic conventions and, likewise, has to be interpreted through them. Tonkin illustrates her argument from a wide range of examples...
In this book, Elizabeth Tonkin, an anthropologist, uses an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the construction and interpretation of oral histo...
Elizabeth Tonkin Maryon McDonald Malcolm K. Chapman
These essays examine the importance of historical consicousness and the role of historiography in ethnic situations, exploring the many ways in which ethnic groups select history, write or rewrite it, rescue appropriate or ignore it, forget or traduce it. Drawing on expert knowledge of regions ranging from the Amazon to contemporary Germany, the contributors bring anthropological and historical understanding to answer these questions, and investigate major topics such as the relationship between ethnic, national and state identifications, and the cultural work of creating them. Examples...
These essays examine the importance of historical consicousness and the role of historiography in ethnic situations, exploring the many ways in whi...
