Proverb, the shortest form of cultural expression and wisdom tradition, plays a significant role in most of the traditional societies. Exploring proverbs in a particular socio- cultural context is the gateway to understand the perceptions of people in a given society. This paper in an attempt to analyze certain proverbs that are collected through fieldwork in Tirunelveli region of Tamil Nadu and tries to find out how proverbs reflects the human relationship: between castes, and between men and women in a given society.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AbrahamsR.D. (1982). Proverbs and Proverbial Expressions, in DorsonR. M. (ed.). Folklore and Folklife: An Introduction.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
2.
BascomW. (1954). Four Functions of Folklore.The Journal of American Folklore, 67 (266): 333–349.
3.
BaumanRichard. (1983). The field study of folklore in context. In RichardM. Dorson (ed.), The handbook of American Folklore.Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 362–68.
4.
BenAmos, D. (1971). Towards Definition of Folklore.Journal of American Folklore, 84: 3–15.
5.
DorsonR.M. (1972). Folklore and Folklife: An Introduction.London: The University of Chicago Press.
6.
Dundes. (1975). On the Structure of Porverb, Proverbium (25).
7.
HymesD. (1971). The Contribution of Folklore to Sociolinguistic Research. The Journal of American Folklore.84, (special issue).
8.
Manikumar, (1997). Caste Clashes In south Tamil Nadu. EPW, XXX11 (36).
9.
MalinowskiB. (1954). Myth in Primitive Psychology.In Magic, Science and Religion.New York: Anchor.
10.
TaylorArcher, (1931) The Proverb.Cambridge: Harvard University Press.