Every nation has its tradition of folklore study, based in its political and ideological
history. W. J. Thoms sought “manners, [etc.]… of the olden time”; Cosquin in France
argued for Indian origin and diffusion; the Grimms aspired to fidelity to the voice of
the German folk; all these traditions are distinct. Folklore studies in India are as
bound up with political beliefs and ideological values as they are in every other
nation. Northeast India was enclaved, fought over by the Raj, and neglected by central
governments. This book presents fifty-seven tales from that spectacularly beautiful part
of India, which foreigners hardly ever see. (For an exciting exception to the world’s
blindness, see
One reason is that Indian folklorists don’t often begin, as Western scholars do, by preferring the oral over the written. So in this book, though all the texts may have once been written down from the lips of informants, they are given to the reader in the words of the collector, who will stop to explain the meaning of a word: “nkhuk, a basket used for keeping treasured possession” (41), or of a custom: “she was forced to get married to Long Dili, according to Karbi traditional wedding ceremony called Adam Asar” (115). The style of most of the texts is smooth, literary, or ethnographic: “In due course of time, the population of the village increased and the people began to move out and settle in adjoining places forming the present village that they still claim to have dispersed from their original village or Viswema” (45). The narratives, in other words, have been dictated by informants to investigators, who then create new “texts” and add explanatory material. An exception appears to be the stories collected by the editor, whose poetic translations may be reflecting the rhythm and pace of live performances. Whether he has sought to emulate Dell Hymes or Dennis Tedlock he does not say.
Another reason this sort of book doesn’t enter the world conversation of folklorists is that Indian scholars don’t find it necessary to give biographical information about informants. Their names do appear here, as they do not in many another such collection. In other books, some general sociohistorical information may be given as background, but there is seldom any integration of social or political history with the folklore texts. Here, perhaps because the intended audience is regional and familiar with the history, the stories are asked to stand on their own.
Finally, as in most such small-scale Indian collections, the two things a Western
folklorist would think most important are omitted. Comparative data from other parts of
India, or from the rest of the world, are not present, and none of the standard indexing
and bibliographical resources of the folklorist have been consulted. More than any other
factor, it is the unwillingness of these collectors to ask whether their data may have
counterparts or analogues outside their region that inhibits their conversation with the
scholarly world. It is not difficult to spot international figures like the trickster
and his dupe (102–3), the singing bone (127–28), the child promised to an ogre (142–46),
or even Strong John the precocious hero (149–52). How these worldwide motifs have been
localized to reflect cultural emphases in the northeast would have to be the subject of
an analytic study. Modern narratives like those in this book deserve a place of equal
honor with
--------
[Review length: 701 words • Review posted on November 28, 2006]