Abstract—Studies in oral tradition, covering on contemporary field works are making evident of the profound relationship between oral tradition practitioners and stakeholders give us live to as human beings. This article seeks to explore the emerging field of oral tradition method and various forms of cultural expression in the study of humankind experience in both past and present non-literate tribes. The ways we are shaped by education as well by training significantly influence the ways we understand and interpret the worldview of the non-literate societies. The cultural expression and manifestations are strongly embedded and internalised which often eluded researcher making them to present inaccurate and misnomer interpretation of the indigenous people. The article also attempts to study a technique and methods with interdisciplinary focus for studies in oral tradition of the non-literate tribes, as an alternative methodology for historical research. This would definitely depart from conventional method of research so far employed on to investigate, interpret and analyses the tribes’ histories of North East India. In this endeavour, researcher will get a firsthand knowledge of incorporating legends, fairy tales, folklores, folksongs, music, mythology, rhapsodies and all facets of storytelling into construction of the history of non- literate tribes. Such investigation will establish the linkage between verbal communication and cultural objects maintained by the people as fund of knowledge for the posterity. Index Terms—Aabhu thanyi, acquired cultural myths, illiteracy, nyubh, sebbe. I. INTRODUCTION The written word is often elevated above the oral, the written documents generally much preferred as evidence to oral tradition, and written sources given more concentration than oral ones whereas such sources are actually derived from oral communication. The grounds for this elevation is, one suspects, more a matter of inherited suppositions and beliefs than of individual thought about the nature of the written words. Oral traditions have more positive associations and the term „orality‟ has been conceived to avoid the obvious negative connotations of „illiteracy‟. Literate or illiterate, we are our memories. We try to shape our futures in the light of past experience [1]. The value of oral traditions and communications are now more readily recognised as non-written sources and gained respectability for social scientists and historians these days. For many people, oral traditions and verbal communications still Manuscript received September 22, 2013; revised November 28, 2013. This work is part of research project on Oral Traditions: Archiving and Compiling the Histories of Arunachal Pradesh, India. Tana Showren is with the Department of History, Rajiv Gandhi University, Rono Hills, Doimukh-791112, District Papum Pare, Arunachal Pradesh, India (e-mail: tana.showren@rgu.ac.in). suggests crude characteristics or backwardness, yet both are in fact common enough even in the modern world or the rediscovery of folklores, legends, myths, culture, folk traditions and indigenous institutions. In strict sense of origin of sources of knowledge orality is the basic human mode of communication, and although peoples all over the world now use literate means to represent pastness [1]. The two spheres of oral communication and literacy are generally kept separate, regarded as completely distinct, and „literate societies‟ strictly distinguished from „non-literate societies‟, which clear-cut characteristics attributed to each. II. BODY Traditionally, professional researchers have based their findings on strictly quantifiable data, generally obtained through the use of standardised tests, interview schedules, or survey that have been designed by the scholars. Usually, there is an unwritten assumption that to be valid a research must be as close as possible to being an empirical design. Most of us share this perception because of our training at the doctoral level, although we are aware that it is seldom that the real world will meet the principle of an empirical research method. Even when well-structured results are obtained, hypotheses tested, and the results stated, we sometimes have the thinking that the data is not giving us a full picture of what is going on in reality. In other words, the feelings that dilettante researcher present is often of absolutely no use to the professional practitioner. There is difficulty in bridging the gap between the real world of people history and the researches that the well-trained and well-equipped methods of researchers could produced. Owing to this, there is an increasing interest in research methodology that would give a paradigm shift from the conventional research of scientific rigour to oral traditions method to reconstruct the past history of non-literate tribes of India‟s eastern most state of Arunachal Pradesh. Before I proceed on to my arguments, it is worthwhile to discuss something about the meaning and definition of oral traditions as defined and explained by hitherto oral traditions practitioners. Many practitioners of oral traditions of the contemporary time have portrayed various meaning of oral traditions according to their understanding and perception of the subject. In 1965, Jan Vansina in his path breaking work, Oral Tradition: A Study in Historical Methodology, defines oral traditions as, „‟oral traditions consist of all verbal testimonies which are reported statements concerning the past.” [2]. Thus, oral traditions are any reported statements, and they are specifically about the past. A prerequisite for oral traditions are that there must be transmission by word of mouth over at least a generation. Oral Traditions: Method to Adoptation of Construction of the History of Non-Literate Tribes Tana Showren 478 DOI: 10.7763/IJSSH.2014.V4.402 International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, Vol. 4, No. 6, November 2014