ANÁLISIS DE LA EJECUCIÓN FINANCIERA 216020 Consejería de Medio Ambiente

The above discussions explained how the three characteristics of segmentary society, that is, autonomy of segments, unity at certain level and opposition against other unrelated group, were all evident in the Naga society. This section discusses the tension involved amidst the presence of unity and fragmentation in the segmentary Naga society

114 _{Clark, A Corner in India, 9-10.}

115 _{JH Hutton’s note to the Simon Commission along with the Memorandum of the Naga club, as quoted in}

Morkut Ramuny, The World of the Nagas (New Delhi: Northern Book Centre, 1988), 14.

116 _{Soihiamlung Dangmei, Christianity and De-Politicization of Naga Movement (New Delhi: Akansha}

Publishing House, 2014), 95.

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In segmentary society, ‘family relations’ and ‘shared territory’ effects the formation of layers of segments.118 Families are unified to clans, clans are unified to villages, and villages are unified to tribes. Loyalty of the individual to each level plays its part in the dynamics of the society. Generally, family loyalty precedes clan loyalty, clan loyalty precedes tribe loyalty and so on.

What keeps the family, clan, village or tribe together is a sense of ‘solidarity’, which according to Durkheim, comes when the ‘collective consciousness’ of the society envelops individual consciousness.119 In the Naga society, this collective consciousness was encapsulated in an idea of corporate living, called by various names among the Naga tribes, akhuaye in Sumi or kenyu in Amgami or sobaliba in Ao, which engrained among the Naga people a strong sense of collective consciousness, where collective interest was given preference over individual interest (see section 2.2.1). This principle still governs the way villages function in Nagaland today. The village makes collective decisions either through a general meeting of all adult males or through the village council. Once a decision is made by the council or the general meeting, every citizen is expected to abide by it, whether the person argued for or against it during the discussion.

Each segment in the segmentary society maintains ‘its own special regulatory organs.’120 _{For instance, in the Naga society, villages maintain a strong hold over its}

constituents with a regulatory organ in the form of the village council. The function of this council is both legal and administrative with authority to excommunicate, impose fine or effect corporal punishments. Within its jurisdictions, its decisions are considered as binding. Interference of any kind from any others is considered as trespassing the legitimate domain of the village council, and guarantees strong resistance.

118 _{Daniel B. Lee and Achim Brosziewski, Observing Society: Meaning, Communication, and Social}

Systems (Amherst, NY: Cambria Press, 2009), 188.

119 _{Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society, 101.} 120 _{Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society, 174.}

Excluding the others is central to identity formation of a segmentary society. A key characteristics of segmentary society, according to Southall, is its ‘opposition to adjacent unrelated groups.’121 _{In the Naga society, their ‘opposition’ to other people groups, even}

India as a whole, defined their identification as a single people group (See Section 3.4; 5.4). Exclusion in a segmentary society can involve ‘regulating access to the site and time of special interactions.’122 _{In the Naga society, for instance, attendance in the annual}

village general meeting is permitted only for adult male citizens of the village, and thus, excluding all ‘outsiders’ (other villagers, tribes and so on).

It is worth noting that not only the ‘outsiders’, but also women and children are were not allowed to attend the village general meetings. On a general sense, women are treated with respect and dignity in the Naga society. In a Naga home, the wife has a large say at making decisions. This, however, is not so when it came to matters of leadership and decision making in the wider society. Takotosula, an elderly Naga remarked: ‘Yimten

meeting nung tetsur atentsu mesura ola adoktsuji asen yimsu nung mali’ (Our culture

does allow women to attend and speak in village meetings).123 The Ao Naga maxim tetsur

tanur, meaning ‘woman and children’, summarised the attitude of the society towards

woman. The opinion of tetsur tanur is not taken into consideration in the decision making process of the village.

In a segmentary society, there is a tension between the centre and the periphery. [N]umerical peripheral foci’ exists in the segmetary society over which the the centre exercises only a limited control.’124 _{Traditionally, there were no government or}

organisation that bound the various villages into tribes or the tribes into a single Naga body. The formation of Naga Hoho, NMA, NSF and other Tribal Councils (Angami

121 _{Southall, Alur Society, 260.}

122 _{Lee and Brosziewski, Observing Society, 188.} 123 _{Interview with Takotosula, Tuli, 22 December 2014.} 124 _{Southall, Alur Society, 248.}

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Public Organization, Ao Senden and others) in the twentieth century have provided certain organisational structure to the Naga society. However, these civil societies have only limited authority, playing only advisory roles, unlike the privileges enjoyed by the powerful village councils. In the light of this, in the Naga context, the actual authority in the society lies at the local level. The commitment of the local segments is key to the effectiveness of the working of the segmentary society. Their vigour, noted Durkheim, ‘is necessarily proportional to the intensity of this more local activity.’125 _Effective

implementation of ideas in the Naga society, therefore has much to do with its effective dissemination at the local level.

Religion in segmentary society exhibits both coherence and differences. While the various segments may share certain beliefs and practices, there could also be elements of ‘disagreement, confusion and ignorance.’126 _{In the Naga context, the common features}

include the belief in a creator god, who was also believed to be the judge of all humanity, who sees everything and will judge everyone according to their own deeds.127 Naga people also believed in the existence of innumerable spirits, which were both benevolent and malevolent. While the former were considered as a source of blessing, the latter was considered as malignant; when the former possessed a person, the person became a

shaman,128 _{but if the latter possessed a person, the person fell ill.}129 _{The religious}

functionary in the Naga traditional religion consists of the village priests and the shaman. The priest represents the official religious establishment, and directed all the religious

125 _{Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society, 174.} 126 _{Southall, Alur Society, 98.}

127 _{Bendangangshi, Glimpses of Naga History, 30.}

128 _{The term ‘Shaman’ is used to refer to religious functionaries who are believed to have access to the}

world of the spirits. Andrei Aznamenski, Shamanism: Critical Concepts in Sociology (London: Routledge, 2004), xiix. They are themselves believed to have been possessed by spirit. Margaret Stutley, Shamanism:

An Introduction (London: Routledge, 2003), 3. Several terms like ‘witch doctors’ ‘medicine men’,

‘magicians’, ‘conjurers’ or even ‘jugglers’ are also used to refers to this group of religious functionaries. Graham Harvey, Shamanism: A Reader (NY: Routledge, 2003), 1.

129 _{S Liangao Soto, Tribal Theology of Integral Humanhood: A resource from Shamanism of the Nagas}

rituals both during festivities as well as in seeking blessings for sowing seeds and success in warfare. The shaman, on the other hand, was an individual, who was believed to have the ability to communicate with the spirit world, especially for the purpose of exorcizing malevolent spirits.130 Unlike the village priests, who were always male, many of the shamans were women.

Thus, the religious belief and practices of the various segments in the Naga society shows fundamental unity. However, there were also local variants both in terms of dogma and practices. For instance, there were variants in the understanding of the nature of the creator god. The Angami Naga, for instance, had a feminine understanding, which was reflected in the term used to refer to the divine being: Ukepenuopfu (meaning, ‘birth spirit’). Not only is it conceptually feminine, that is, related to birth, but also has pfu, the feminine suffix in Angami Naga.131 On the other hand, the Ao Naga people have a masculine understanding of the deity. All the three functional names they used,

Anungtsungba (meaning, ‘one who fills the sky’), Meyutsungba (meyu, meaning,

‘thousand’ or ‘many’) and Lizaba (meaning, ‘one who walks on the earth’),132 _were

suffixed with ba, which is indicative of the male sex. There was also differences in the rituals and sacrifices they performed. Each Naga village had its own pattern of rituals and sacrifices, which had developed over time through their ‘communal life, wisdom and experience.’133 _{They were performed under the direction of the village priest, whose}

jurisdiction was also confined to his own village. Thus, in the Naga context, there was hardly any sense of a collective religious organization. The introduction of Christian faith in the nineteenth century challenged this fragmented religious establishment. Christian

130 _{JP Mills, The Ao Nagas (London: Macmillan, 1926), 244.}

131 _{Tezenlo Thong, Progress and its Impact on the Nagas: A Clash of Worldviews (Surrey: Ashgate, 2014),}

155.

132 _{O Alem Ao, Tsungremology: Ao Naga Christian Theology (Aoligen: CTC, 1994), 66.} 133 _{Thong, Progress and its Impact on the Nagas, 155.}

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teaching of a universal faith and Christian fellowship promoted a religious idea that transcended village or tribal jurisdiction.