The Nagas are known for their labor-efficient slash and burn rice cultivation, making social and cultural patterns explicit through ornamentation and display, revealing social and ritual status through color and pattern in material culture, carved and thatched houses, youth dormitories, woven cloths, wooden carvings, body tattoos, songs, dances, and distinctive hairs. Many observers and administrators admired the Nagas’ personal loyalty and candor.
Other notable Naga people (society) characteristics include the Naga political systems, which range from autocratic chiefs to almost pure democracy, the Nagas ability to adapt in a harsh terrain, the Nagas concern with death and the human skull, the erection of massive stones dragged through the jungle by teams of villagers and erected as the culmination of grand ‘feasts of merit’ to celebrate Furthermore, in the past, every aspect of Naga life had a ritual component, from simple household and economic tasks to dancing and feasting, all of which had a mystical or religious significance. The spirits that ruled Naga life, such as disease, human and crop fertility, and rain, demanded constant attention.
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Featured Image: A Naga lady in Myanmar’s Eastern Naga Homeland / Photo: F.A.M. Welman, Photojournalist and documentary filmmaker