Introduction

Commending on the Nagas, Mr. D.R. Mankekar observes: "Hard-working, proud, self-reliant, traditionally war-like, independent in spirit and once reputed as head-hunters, the Nagas as a race are also gay and cheerful, gifted with a fine sense of humor. They have an eye for color and design, and rhythm is in their bones, and they love song" (On the Slippery Slope in Nagaland, 1967. Bombay: Manaklalas, p. 23). Even though sandwiched between China, India and Myanmar, the Nagas have preserved their own unique culture and are remarkable for the degree to which they have retained their traditional style of life and their rich cultural material.

The Nagas are a group of Mongoloid communities speaking Tibeto-Burman languages who inhabit a mountainous country between the Brahmaputra plains in India and the hill ranges to the west of the Chindwin Valley in Upper Myanmar. Straddling the border between the Hindu civilization of India and the Buddhist civilization of Myanmar, the Nagas have kept aloof from both these culture-spheres, and have developed a style of their own which owes very little to either.

Yet the culture preserved for aeons in the relative seclusion of the Naga Hills is by no means an isolated growth; it is a remnant of civilization which at one time extended over a large part of Southeast Asia. There are numerous cultural parallels linking the Nagas with certain hill-peoples in Taiwan, the Ifugaos and Bontocs of the Philippines, the Dayaks of Borneo in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand and it is quite possible that these links go back to Neolithic times. Cultural parallels between these widely separated ethnic groups include many features of the ecology as well as patterns of dress and types of weaving known as the Indonesian loom, styles of wood-carving and such cultural features as the erection of wooden posts and large stone monuments while performing "feasts of merit" for the purpose of gaining social prestige, the practice of shamanism, the system of alliances, relationships and marriages, ancestor-worship, and the practice of head-hunting for obtaining enviable social status and increasing harvest.

The Nagas resemble the Mongoloid races of Southeast Asian countries in their physical characteristics and are thus very different from the Indian population. This distinction accentuates their sense of separateness, which in turn has far-reaching political implications.