Himalayan tribal tales : : oral tradition and culture in the Apatani Valley / / Stuart Blackburn.

• Superior document: Brill's Tibetan studies library, v. 16/2
• Author: Blackburn, Stuart H.
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden ;, Boston : : Brill,, 2008.
• Year of Publication: 2008
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Brill's Tibetan studies library ; 16/2.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (xvi, 281 pages, 16 pages of plates) :; color illustrations, maps
• Other title: Preliminary Materials /; Chapter One. Introduction /; Chapter Two. A History Of Change /; Chapter Three. Tales /; Chapter Four. Myths And Histories /; Chapter Five. Ritual Texts /; Chapter Six. Comparisons, Local Culture And Identity /; Appendices /; Glossary /; Bibliography /; Index /
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references (p. [269]-278) and index.
• ISBN: 1282400320; 9786612400322; 9047424646
• ISSN: 1568-6183
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: Stuart Blackburn.

This study of an oral tradition in northeast India is the first of its kind in this part of the eastern Himalayas. A comparative analysis reveals parallel stories in an area stretching from central Arunachal Pradesh into upland Southeast Asia and southwest China. The subject of the volume, the Apatanis, are a small population of Tibeto-Burman speakers who live in a narrow valley halfway between Tibet and Assam. Their origin myths, migration legends, oral histories, trickster tales and ritual chants, as well as performance contexts and genre system, reveal key cultural ideas and social practices, shifts in tribal identity and the reinvention of religion.