The Nagas

Hill Peoples of Northeast India

Project Introduction The Naga Database

manuscript notes made by W.G. Archer between 1946 & 1948, and miscellaneous papers and letters

caption: grave effigies
medium: notes
person: Mauwang
ethnicgroup: Konyak
location: Wakching Longkhai
production:
person: Archer/ W.G.
date: 1946-1948
refnum: 9:30
text: Konyak. Grave figures. Only for men - not for women. The morung members carve it - observe no genna. At Wakching - outside the village beyond the fuel houses. In March 1947 there were 2 such figures - each about 3 feet high and 6 inches in diameter - roughly hewn - the V SKETCH
text: Longkhai - has 2 graveyards. In the Ang graveyard there were no recent corpses and no grave effigies were standing. The skulls of Mauwang's family dead are put in earthenware urns - the lids had been knocked off and Mauwang replaced them and put a stone on top - each urn had a skull. 4 old effigies were rotting in the sodden undergrowth.