Final answer:
TRUE. The focus on narrative by social scientists in the 1980s and 1990s, which included the examination of culture and context in storytelling, is accurate. This was influenced by the counterculture of the 1960s and the increasing acknowledgment of social constructs.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that social scientists began to pay more attention to narrative in the 1980s and 1990s, examining the role of culture, context, and the contingent nature of human storytelling, is TRUE. During this period, the influences of culture and social structures on how narratives are shaped, told, and perceived gained prominence among scholars. The counterculture movement of the 1960s laid the groundwork for challenging traditional norms and existing power structures, leading to a deeper interest in the perspectives of all individuals in society, not just the elites. This shift brought about new ideas in social history and emphasized the role of social constructs, as highlighted by Berger and Luckmann in their seminal work 'The Social Construction of Reality'. Furthermore, anthropology, with its focus on the narrative of humanity, shows how narrative identifies social, cultural, or environmental influences on experiences. The commitment to narrative in disciplines like anthropology highlights the importance of stories as vehicles for transmitting knowledge and understanding human experiences. With the development of new perspectives on Indigenous oral histories, the authenticity and originality of texts were debated, reinforcing the idea that narratives are intricate constructs shaped by cultural and social influences.