Longkumer, Arkotong. Lecturer in Religious Studies, University of Edinburgh,
Abstract:
"'Writing Orality': Stories, Methods, and Crafting Textualities"
In this presentation I chart the process through which the crafting of texts happens. I explain how engaging in ‘textuality’ with entangled worlds – human-human; human-non-human – creates a space to explore the tension between different kinds of knowledge and the ability to translate that across different cultural contexts. Drawing very much on my own research amongst indigenous peoples in the Northeast of India, I elaborate on the processes through which stories are told, remade, and retold. At the same time, I explore the ways in which the ethnographer needs to capture these stories without losing the ‘presence’ and ‘aura’ in which they are told and the ability of the ‘telling’ to inform, inspire and expand the imagination.