Historical Aspects of Genealogies in Northern Somali Social Structure

Bibliographic Data

ID5830635
AuthorsI M Lewis (corresponding author)
Year1962
Volume3
Issue1
Pages35-48
Publication date1962-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of African History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-8537 • E-ISSN: 1469-5138
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0021853700002723
OpenAlexW1995980370
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited14

Few anthropologists, I think, would question that the use of oral tradition as a historical source in tribal studies requires a knowledge of the part tradition plays in the society in which it occurs. Most would agree that oral tradition does not have a universal validity-it is not equally 'true' or equally 'false' in all tribal societies. Rather its historical content, where unequivocal historical evidence is lacking, has to be evaluated in the light of the contemporary social situations to which it is related. Since Malinowski, many anthropologists have tended to the view that traditions about the past express the reality of the present more than they record what actually happened in the past. Legends about the past, indeed, have often been described as 'charters' validating the present by attributing a respectable antiquity to its origins

Biography · Ethnology · Genealogy · Historical record · Oral tradition · Sociology · Somali · African history and culture analysis · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Philosophy

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