Socio-Cultural Reflections in the Tribal Songs of Attappadi

Abstract

The tribal songs of Attappadi constitute a significant corpus of indigenous oral literature reflecting the socio-cultural life, ecological ethics, historical consciousness, and gendered knowledge systems of the Irula, Muduga, and Kurumba communities. Preserved through oral transmission, these songs function as cultural texts encoding ritual practices, agricultural knowledge, moral values, emotional life, and linguistic heritage. This paper adopts an ethnographic and interpretive approach to analyse Attappadi’s tribal songs through the frameworks of oral tradition theory, ecofeminism, and subaltern studies. The study highlights the central role of women as custodians of cultural memory and argues that tribal songs represent an indigenous epistemology offering alternative models of sustainability, community life, and culturally responsive education.