1st Edition
The Cultural Heritage of Nagaland
This volume gives an in-depth account of cultural heritage of Nagaland covering important themes like cultural beliefs, traditional knowledge, material culture, and social institutions. Contributors from diverse disciplines and backgrounds have delved into the cultural heritage of the state’s variegated tribes. Nagaland a hilly state in North-East India had been the centre of British colonialism and American Baptist mission. This cultural contact is significantly reflected in the socio-cultural life, and the contributors have shed light on the continuities and changes. This volume highlights the multiplicity of cultural traditions that are specific to various tribes inhabiting sixteen districts of Nagaland, since their experiences of modernity and cultural contact with ‘others’ have been diverse.
The contributors have mainly focussed on the cultural heritage of the majority Naga tribes, but other tribes like the Kukis and Kacharis are part and parcel of the cultural melting pot of Nagaland, and this volume in a way underscores the cultural exchange and interactions.
Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the print version of this book in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Introduction
G. Kanato Chophy and Sarit K. Chaudhuri
PART I: HERITAGE, BELIEFS AND HISTORY
1. An Overview of Cultural Heritage of Nagaland
Temsula Ao
2. Clan, Village and the Angami Language
Kelhouvinuo Suokhrie
3. Colonial and Post-colonial Anthropology among the Nagas
Debojyoti Das
4. Interaction between Colonial Agencies and Naga World-view: A Study of Social Change among the Ao Nagas, 1870-1955
Robin Temsu
5. History, Heritage and Identity: A Study onthe Kukis of Naga Hills, 1832-1963
David Hanneng
6. Situating the Oral Narratives and History fromthe Battle of Kohima in the Second World War
Keneiseno Neihu
PART II: MEMORY CULTURE, ORAL TRADITION AND INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE
7. Dzükou: The Heritage and Ethereal Garden of the Nagas
Visakhonu Hibo and Kedilezo Kikhi
8. Sacred Grove: A Culture Heritage of Nagaland
Lanukumla Ao
9. Changki’s Traditional Practice of Leopard Huntingand its Implication on the Nature of Culture
Tiasunep
10. Festival and Agrarian Socio-economic Formation:The Case of the Chakhesang Naga of Nagaland
Imnuksungla Pongen
11. Preservation of Intangible Cultural Heritage: A Comparison between the Nagas and the Indigenous People of East Africa
Ngutoli Y Swu
PART III: ARTEFACTS, MATERIAL CULTURE AND MNEMONIC OBJECTS
12. Gendered Body, Performance and Inscription:Shifted Meanings of Personal Adornmentsamong the Sumi Naga of Nagaland
Avitoli G. Zhimo
13. Symbolism of Hair and Ornamentation
Mhonyani Sangma
14. Cultural Values Embedded in Morung
Vivolhuno Punyü
15. Making of a Naga Heritage
Sayantan Maitra Boka
Biography
G. Kanato Chophy is Assistant Professor at Department of Anthropology, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh, Assam. He has earlier been Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Centre of Excellence, Centre for North-East India Studies, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. He is the author of Christianity and Politics in Tribal India: Baptist Missionaries and Naga Nationalism (2021), and Constructing the Divine: Religion and World View of a Naga Tribe in North-East India (2019).
Sarit K. Chaudhuri was the former Director of IGRMS, Bhopal, and is currently working as Professor & Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences at the Department of Anthropology, Rajiv Gandhi University, Rono Hills, Arunachal Pradesh.
