indeed numerically as compared with Thevoma, has been virtually lost
sight of, and “Thevoma” includes the whole of the Pezoma. It should be
added that according to tradition the Thekrono division was originally
the elder, but was cheated of its birthright by the first ancestor of
the Thevo division. The word Solhima, used ordinarily by a large part
of the Angami tribe for the Thekronoma division, means “alien” or
“stranger.” [34] In the Memi group of the Angamis we have again a third
division, called Cherhechima in some villages, which is regarded as
socially inferior to such an extent that the other Memi will not
intermarry with it. This division seems also to be regarded as the
source of some unlucky emanation which has an evil influence on any who
fall under it, though the neighbouring Tengima, Dzunokehena and Kezami
Angamis have no objection at all to intermarrying with the Cherhechima.
The Lhotas seem to be divided like the Angami into two phratries using
oyo for “mother,” with a third using opfu, and, as in the case of the
Angamis, the use of the distinct terms does not extend throughout the
whole tribe, but seems to be dying out. [35]
Turning to the polity of the village, different tribes have very
different customs. Among the Semas a system of hereditary chiefs
exists, each chief having an almost feudal position as lord of the
manor of his village, a system which seems to have obtained among the
Kacharis, as the remnants of it are still perceptible among the remote
Kachari villages of the south-west of the Naga Hills. The Changs have a
system of chiefs very like that of the Semas, and both may be compared
in this respect to the Thado Kukis, though among the latter the system
is more elaborately developed. The Konyaks too have hereditary chiefs
in the Thendu section of the tribe, though not in the Thenkoh division,
but among the Konyaks the priestly side of the chieftainship seems more
prominent than among the other Naga tribes with chiefs. [36] On the
other hand, the Ao and Tangkhul villages are governed by bodies of
elders representing the principal kindreds in the village, while the
Angami, Rengma and Lhota and apparently Sangtam villages are run on
lines of democracy, a democracy so extreme in the case of the Angami
that, in view of his peculiar independence of character, it is
difficult to comprehend how his villages held together at all before
they were subject to the British Government. The Angami has, however,
hereditary priests, office descending in the line of the first founder
of the village in question.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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