The Sun Rises
A Shaman’s Chant, Ritual Exchange and Fertility in the Apatani Valley
Biographical note
Stuart Blackburn, Ph.D. (1980) in Folklore and South Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley. He has published several books on oral tradition and culture in India, including (with Michael Aram Tarr) Through the Eye of Time: Photographs of Arunachal Pradesh, 1859-2006 (Brill, 2008) and Himalayan Tribal Tales: Oral Tradition and Culture in the Apatani Valley (Brill, 2009).
Readership
Anyone interested in ritual, the Himalayas, northeast India, southeast Asia, Tibeto-Burman languages, as well as tribal culture and religion generally
Reviews
The book under review offers the first full account of a festival that plays a central role in maintaining social and economic relations among inhabitants of the valley and their neighbors. His studies of the valley culture equal the fine work of early anthropologists on US Native cultures.
G. R. Thursby, emeritus, University of Florida, i>Choice, July 2010 Vol. 47 No. 11
'“The Sun Rises” stands a detailed and authoritative account of a highly complex event of central significance within a tribal society.It is a book that explores the foundations of Apatani cosmology and ritual life. Whilst this is a scholarly
text that will appeal to anthropologists and historians in Northeast India and beyond, it may also achieve lasting
value among the increasing number of young literate indigenous readers in Arunachal Pradesh. By presenting his
own analysis alongside a detailed transcription and translation of this central ritual chant, Blackburn has produced
an accessible and reliable doorway into the heart of indigenous ritual practices.'
Alexander Aisher, Anthropos 107.2012.2
G. R. Thursby, emeritus, University of Florida, i>Choice, July 2010 Vol. 47 No. 11
'“The Sun Rises” stands a detailed and authoritative account of a highly complex event of central significance within a tribal society.It is a book that explores the foundations of Apatani cosmology and ritual life. Whilst this is a scholarly
text that will appeal to anthropologists and historians in Northeast India and beyond, it may also achieve lasting
value among the increasing number of young literate indigenous readers in Arunachal Pradesh. By presenting his
own analysis alongside a detailed transcription and translation of this central ritual chant, Blackburn has produced
an accessible and reliable doorway into the heart of indigenous ritual practices.'
Alexander Aisher, Anthropos 107.2012.2
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