ShodhPatra: International Journal of Science and Humanities

Sovereigns of Restraint: Masculine Archetypes and Hunter Heroes in Five Mising Folktales

Abstract Masculine heroism in Mising folktales is less about spectacular killing than about guardianship and the quiet work of keeping a shared world habitable. Hunters and near hunters claim authority by obeying taboos, securing witnesses, staging verifiable proofs, and using tools to deter rather than annihilate predators. Through close readings of five tales—Man Follows His Destiny (No. 43), Cleverness of a Fox (No. 83), A Man and a Tiger (No. 86), Mi and Rogo: Buffalos Have Their Habitats in the Plains (No. 89), and Karbang and Karsang (No. 60)—the paper advances a stewardship model of masculine archetypes: protector hunters bounded by fate, legal tricksters who privilege verification over force, sovereign craftsmen who rely on technological deterrence, ritual-obedient providers, and vigilant partners who navigate nocturnal hazards. Propp’s morphology clarifies interdiction and trial but underplays oath, proof, and ritualised place; Lévi-Strauss’s structuralism helps map binaries mediated by artefacts and oaths; Turner’s performance theory frames crisis scenes as social dramas with audiences; and Connell’s masculinity studies and Goffman’s sociology explain how masculine authority is staged, witnessed, and oriented to care rather than bravado. The paper proposes a set of Mising-centred “action regimes”—deterrent display, oath verification, taboo direction, fate restraint, and nocturnal discernment—as more faithful classificatory tags than imported motif lists for capturing these tales' moral pedagogy. Keywords: Mising folktales; masculinity; hunter heroes; structuralism; ritual theory