Saudi Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences (SJHSS)
Volume-2 | Issue-10 | 928-931
Review Article
Politics of Truth and the Everyday life: an Anthropological perspective on Oral and Written History
Nisar K, Jesurthnam Devarapalli
Published : Oct. 30, 2017
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.