Abstract

Oral history gives the anthropologist direct access to Indian history. Anthropologists, like historians, are concerned whether oral traditions are "true." Aside from the favored technique of checking the spoken against the written word, the anthropologist must understand the social roles and various literary categories of oral tradition. The anthropologist, unlike the historian, is primarily concerned with culture history and therefore emphasizes the mundane rather than the extraordinary. Finally, anthropologists are as concerned with how other people define' truth for themselves as they are with ascertaining truth from their own cultural perspective