Mythico‐History, Social Memory, and Praxis: Anthropological Approaches and Directions

Abstract This article explores the interface and tension between myth, history, and memory, in relation to ideology and praxis of identity. There is a critical overview of anthropological and other approaches in the humanities and social sciences to ‘mythico‐history’ and social memory, their mutual influences, and current debates and directions in this literature. In particular, emphasis is upon the uses of oral narratives in historiography and social context in the constructions of personal and collective identities of difference, for example, ethnicity and gender in ‘narratives of nation’ and ‘myths of matriliny’ and their connections to social practice, drawing on secondary cross‐cultural data and primary data from this anthropologist's research in Tuareg (Kel Tamajaq) communities of northern Niger and Mali.