‘Revisiting Oral Narrative: Anthropology, Folklore and History’
Ninth ‘Folklore and Anthropology in Conversation’ Joint Seminar
The Folklore Society and The Royal Anthropological Institute
Date: Thursday 23 October, 2025
Time: 10 AM to 5 PM
Location: 50 Fitzroy Street, London W1T 5BT and online via Zoom
To attend in Person please register here
(In Person tickets are limited and currently fully booked, but there is a waiting list. Please follow the link to put your name on it. If places become available people on the waiting list will be notified.)
To attend online, please register here
The Royal Anthropological Institute and The Folklore Society host jointly an annual conference series ‘Folklore and Anthropology in Conversation’ which encourages empirical and conceptual dialogue between the two related disciplines of folklore and anthropology
This year’s conference, ‘Revisiting Oral Narrative: Anthropology, Folklore and History’ will explore facets of the debate about oral narrative and its relation to history and the transmission of knowledge. Multiple points of view from various areas of the world will be examined, including oral narratives and the distant past, the changing parameters of orality in the digital age, and the continuing relevance or not of earlier theoretical approaches such as William Bascom’s ‘Four Functions of Folklore’ or Jack Goody’s ideas on the emergence of literacy.
Presentations will be given in person, but conference attendees may attend either on-site, or via ZOOM linkup.
There is no registration fee. For on-site attendees, refreshments and a light lunch will be provided free of charge.
Programme
Welcome and Introduction to the Day 10:00 – 10:15
Session 1 10:15 – 11:15
Presentation 1 – Ahmed Nur Muse – ‘Whispers of Survival: Oral Narratives, Maternal Knowledge, and Spiritual Resilience among Somali Pastoral Nomads’.
Presentation 2 – Anne Solomon – ‘The Interdisciplinary Ideal and Approaches to Interpreting Khoisan Oral Narratives and Lore’.
Tea / Coffee 11:15 – 11.30
Session 2 11:30 – 12:30
Presentation 3 – Stéphane Perrin – ‘Folklore in Our Universities: Understanding the Relation between Recent Folklore and Our Institutions’.
Presentation 4 – Jonathan Roper – ‘Place-name Narratives in Newfoundland’.
Lunch (on site) 12:30 – 1:30
Session 3 – 1:30 -2:30
Presentation 5 – Rawan Alfuraih – ‘The Epic of the Najd: Historiography and Ethnography as Extensions of Existing Arabian Oral Narrative’.
Presentation 6 – Elizabeth Rainey – Mediation of an Emirati Voice: Anglophonic Representation of al-Nabati.
Tea / Coffee 2:30 – 3:00
Session 4 – 3:00 – 4:00
Presentation 7 – Garima Thakuria – ‘Mundhum in Sikkim: Oral Narratives among the Rai Community’.
Presentation 8 – Roy Ellen –‘Satirical Allusion and Tug-of-Rattan on Seram: Poetic Form and Informal Social Control in Nuaulu Performance of Sung Verse’.
Plenary Discussion 4:00 – 5:00
(Image: Rakugo at Sanma Festival, Japan; via Wikimedia Commons)