Mondays on the Dark Night of the Moon : Himalayan Foothill Folktales

Front Cover

Back Cover

Excerpt:

"There’s wisdom in these stories," observed Urmilaji in June 1991. Cross-legged on a burlap sack spread on the floor, she addressed me over a mound of her ram’s white shearings. "These stories are about love," she said. "They are about deluded infatuation, possessive attachment, and nurturing affection."

Afternoon light slanted in through the open window. A hazy shimmer of summer heat illumined Urmilaji’s face from one side, picking up the glint of gray at her temples, the gleam of the small gold stud in her left nostril. As she spoke, Urmilaji’s hands continued to work through the shearings before her. Brows puckered with intensity, brown eyes fixed on mine, she added, "Television can’t teach you these things! Wisdom is ebbing with every generation."

Review:

Part folktale, part ethnography, part personal narrative, it is wholeheartedly an attempt to collaborate with the tale-teller. It is a pioneering and important book, which takes a firm stand in ongoing debates about the ethics of ethnography and the location of meaning in performed culture.

- Stuart Blackburn, Journal of Asian Studies