The Use of Prose Narrative for the Reconstruction of Tano Niha Local History

Abstract

Prose narrative such as m)'th, or legend of nonliterate people such as the ono Niha (Nias), 2 could be useci for the reconstruction of rano Niha local history; provided it is not used totally without descrimination, and not as the sole material, without being supplemented by other materials such as ethnographical, psychological, archaeological, and other written sources. The reason is that prose narrative, like other folklore in common, has the bharacters that are in themselves questionable, when used as historical material. Those folklore characters, among others are : (a) it is oral; (b) it is traditional; (c) it exisrs in different versions: (d) it tends to become formularized; (e) it is functional; and (f) it is prelogical. easily be it could be intentionally, or unintentionally through the or