Nagaland — Alles bleibt anders

In the CRC 1266, we are looking at social transformations in the Patkai Mountains and the wide plains of Assam from an ethnohistorical and ethnoarchaeological perspective. This case study helps us understand how societies in northern India lose their traditions or preserve them through adaptation and adoption of new ideas. Northern India is not alone this respect — after all, our own European societies are in a state of constant change.

Between tradition and modernity

North-east India is a melting pot marked by different landscapes, countless languages and dialects, and cultural diversity. The challenges of colonialism and of the founding of the Indian nation state has forced a confrontation between tradition and modernity. Both experiences brought profound social, economic, ecological and cultural transformations.

We ask what happens when Christian missionaries are confronted with animist traditions or when millet, rice and meat are exchanged not for one another but for cash.

Roaring feasts and memorial stones in Nagaland

In Nagaland in north-east India, family and village cohesion are valued more highly than individual wealth. Those that have wealth share it. Roaring fests are occasions for singing, dancing and eating. Hosting such a celebration brings considerable renown within the village.

To this day, the main attraction of these villages are the great stones known as menhirs. Considerable effort was invested in finding these stones in the dense forests of Nagaland, carving them into shape and erecting them as part of the festivities. This gave the achievements of the dead a place of honour within the villages and made their memory ubiquitous. Stones were prepared and used in a variety of ways. Besides menhirs, other stones symbolised fertility or the practice of headhunting.

A headstone in Zhavame, Nagaland.
These stones are only rarely found.
Each headstone follows a unique design – no two are alike.
These stone symbolise the defunct practice of headhunting.
The stones represent the heads of slain enemies.
They were placed so as to be visible to all who approached the village.
Although the practice of headhunting has long since been abandoned, the stones remain in place.

Terraced rice paddies in southern Nagaland are fringed with standing stones. These stone landscapes act as reminders of dead kinfolk and the achievements of the people who erected them.
Each stone has its own history and recalls the great feast associated with its erection.
Their significance to the village community means that the stones are neither taken down nor moved but remain in place.
Stone platforms continue to be important village meeting places, allowing for companionship and conversation.
Today, many stones have become absorbed into the structure of villages. They remain in place even as new buildings go up and the village grows.
In Zhavame, the monuments form avenues of stone as a reminder of their makers.
On the paths leading to the paddy fields, the individual monuments are hard to miss and remain embedded in the village community.
However, knowledge about the stones and the people that put them in place is gradually fading.
Only a few village elders witnessed the erection of these stones in their youth.
Although the names of some of the people who put them up have already been forgotten, the stones remain important and are well looked-after.
Modern additions like electricity pylons are integrated into the existing stone monuments.

HEADstones

Excursion

A world of symbols — the traditional decoration of houses and village gates
Traditionally, Nagaland house-fronts were richly decorated. Buffalo heads were a common motif, standing for the great feasts. Roofs were likewise decorated with stylised buffalo horns.
These symbols served to represent aspects of the social order: the people hosting the feasts occupied an eminent position in society and as village councillors were involved in key decisions.
The village gates, by contrast, made symbolic reference to the entire village and depicted tigers, warriors and water buffaloes. Symbols in all manner of locations around the village combined to form an image of the world order.
Once that world order was changed and destroyed, the symbols lost their meaning. Many of the village gates have disappeared, and house-fronts decorated in the traditional style have become rarities.

Among the most profound and violent changes wrought by modernity was the colonisation of large parts of the world by European powers. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the British colonial authorities caused a rupture with ancient traditions. Christian missions likewise shattered previous ways of making sense of the world.

Various forms of Christianity are now practised in Nagaland, while few people still maintain animist traditions and seek to connect them with new ideas of faith.

A. Lhonpeny, a former head of the village council, answers questions put by researchers from the CRC 1266 (interview excerpt).

In this interview, he shares recollections from his youth of the stones being erected. He explains how the stones were selected in the woods surrounding the village. All villagers then joined moving and putting up the stones, if only as spectators.

Excursion

The betel nut – an allrounder and its economic significance
In north-east India, the betel nut is an integral part of hospitality and other ritual practices. Visitors to houses in Assam will almost invariably be offered paan-tamul to chew.
Chewing betel nut is as popular in many parts of Asia as chewing gum is in Europe or America. The nuts are chopped up, mixed with slaked lime (calcium hydroxide) and wrapped in betel leaves to form a small pouch. Spices such as peppermint may also be added according to taste. Chewing the bitter preparation has a slight stimulant effect as well as causing red saliva.
Betel nuts are a cash crop, one that is so profitable that many small farmers have taken to growing them instead of cereals and vegetables. This means that they have ceased to be self-sufficient and have instead become traders. A cash-based market economy spells new forms of dependence.

Subduing the earth: cash crops

Urbanisation and modernisation are the forces driving change in the hill country of Karbi Anglong, in the centre of north-east India, today. A desire for profit and the dominance of cash crops have taken hold in many villages, changing the livelihoods of many. Traditional jhum agriculture has been displaced by the profitable cultivation of betel, pineapples, rubber and sandalwood.

Only in remote hill regions do farmers still support themselves by traditional terrace farming and jhum cultivation, operating outside the cash economy. By contrast, cash crops are sold to urban centres for money – money that can only be spent in cities and towns. Cities have a fascinating, pulsating rhythm of their own. Impressions formed there are taken back to villages, changing traditional dances, songs and celebrations.

Shifting fields: traditional jhum cultivation

Shifting cultivation — known locally as jhum — is practised in many parts of the north-east Indian hill country, where it plays a key part in many people’s livelihoods. In February or March, woodland is cleared by fire and then, during the summer months, given over to cultivation. A variety of crops are grown, including rice, millet, potatoes, squash and other vegetables. These crops can support a household and are augmented by hunting and gathering in the forest as needed. This method of cultivation does not, however, produce a surplus for sale, as the size of the fields is limited by the delicate ecosystem of the hill forest. Once cleared, the fields can only be used for one year and then at intervals of five to ten years; in the meantime, families move on to clear further woodland.

Terraced fields and shifting cultivation exist side by side in the north-east Indian hill country. Between them, they have formed the landscape we see today.
Terraced fields are the possession of single families and are used to grow rice.
In due, the fields are inherited by a family’s eldest son. New fields have to be cleared for the younger siblings.
Small controlled fires in the forest show where new fields are being cleared.
The shifting fields belong not to individuals but to entire villages, being jointly cleared and tended.
Over decades, landscapes emerge that tell the history of these different forms of agriculture.

Excavation

Many villagers took an active interest in recording the stones.
Creating a photographic record of the monuments was a key aspect of the work.
Each stone was carefully measured.
In some villages, hundreds of stones were scientifically catalogued.
Not only visual features were recorded. Most important were the stories associated with each particular stone.
Village elders and members of the research team discussing the rituals and traditions associated with the erection of the stones.

Nagaland today

New transitional worlds

Old traditions and new influences may be mutually exclusive or mutually inspiring. Today, stones are erected in Nagaland only when new churches are built. These churches, and not the memorials to the ancestors, now form a village’s focal point. The symbol-laden decoration of houses and the colourful village gates have become insignificant. Meanwhile, new traditions are born. Once a year, the hornbill festival brings together people from across Nagaland for several days of dancing, song and games.

Transformation is ubiquitous across north-eastern India and affects celebrations, houses and agriculture. Yet some traditions do survive. Village councils and ancient monuments have retained their place even in changing societies.

Maria Wunderlich is an archaeologist at the Institute of Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology, Kiel University, where she focuses on prehistoric eras. Her particular enthusiasm is ethnoarchaeology. Working in Nagaland, she has enjoyed living side by side with the local population, who gave her many precious insights into their culture, traditions and way of life.

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