Ethnohistory: a review of the method and its applicability to the study of rural Malaysia.

Abstract

Ethnohistory is a methodological approach to the study of socio-cultural behavior which combines the strengths of ethnographic and historical research. The thesis of this paper is that such an approach offers an integrated perspective of social process not obtainable otherwise, therefore representing a valuable methodological tool to the anthropologist studying socio-cultural change. Malaysia, whose historical background of cultural change and culture contact is richly documented, offers great potential for ethnohistorical research. The first part of the paper briefly reviews the relation between history and anthropology during the last three-quarters of a century. Following that is a description of the aims of the ethnohistorical approach, and the data sources by which those aims are implemented. The paper concludes by illustrating the usefulness of the ethnohistorical method in a study of rural socio-cultural change, and appeals for greater interdisciplinary cooperation between historians and anthropologists.