One very marked line of cleavage between Naga tribes and their
neighbours is to be found in the methods of disposal of the dead.
Burning is practised in this hill area only by the Hinduized Manipuris
to the south and by the Singphos (or some of them) [19] to the
north-east, but the other methods practised in disposing of the dead
may be roughly classified as burial, exposure and, for want of a better
term, desiccation.
Burial is practised by the Angami, Sema, Rengma, Lhota, Sangtam,
Yachungr, Tangkhul and Kacha Nagas and by the Kukis, but the burial is
not in all cases absolute. Thus the Kukis, in the case of rich or
famous men, sometimes detach the head after decomposition and place it
in a cleft or hole in the side of a cliff where it could be got at only
with great difficulty. This practice is very rare, but certainly exists
or existed among some or all clans of Thado Kukis. Again, the Yachungr
and some of the Southern Sangtams bury their dead inside the house
under the bed, and do not hesitate to disturb the grave and dig out the
bones of its last occupant to make room for a new one. The Tangkhuls
and some, at any rate, of the Naked Rengmas build small houses over
their graves with little ladders up to them for the ghost to inhabit,
while the Lhotas, Sangtams and Semas build thatched roofs over their
graves, which perhaps suggests that they formerly exposed the bodies in
the miniature houses, since Aos who have turned Christian, though they
bury the body, build a thatched roof over the grave like that which
would be put over a body exposed on a platform if they followed the
custom of their unconverted fellow-tribesmen. North of the tribes
mentioned exposure on a platform is the rule, the body being in some
cases smoked first. Among Aos rich men are smoke-dried in their houses
for two months. The platform usually consists of a bamboo shelf
thatched over like a house and covered in at the ends, though some
Konyaks use a wooden dug-out like a boat to contain the body, reminding
one of the Lhota practice of using a dug-out boat-shaped coffin. In the
case, however, of the tribes that practise exposure, the practice here
again may be described as not absolute. The Phoms and some Konyaks
separate the head from the body, wrenching it off after decomposition,
the latter in some cases collecting the skulls in pots in a separate
place, and in others putting them out on stone platforms, while the
Phoms put them in niches in the cliffs. Both Phoms and some Konyaks
bring the heads of deceased men into their houses for a time (the Phoms
for a year) and treat them while there with some ceremony. [20]
The Chang tribe occupies a midway position both geographically and
culturally between the burying tribes and the exposing tribes, and
practises both customs indiscriminately and in accordance with the
fancy of the individual, though exposure is believed to be the newer
form of treating the dead. [21]