| caption: |
uncultivated land at Chipoketama; mixed Sema-Angami villages; Lhota allegation that terraced fields unhealthy; mosquitoes; premarital sex; abortion |
| text: |
Halted Chipoketama. What struck me most here was the large amount of land held by each village and not cultivated, a most striking contrast to the upper end of the Tizu valley. The people are Angami but contain at the very least 50% of Sema blood. At Mesetso, for instance, all except the Gaonbura are of Sema descent. Yet these villages remain tiny and do not seem to increase like the regular Sema village. They have, of course, adopted Angami customs and it may be that terraced fields are, as the Lhotas allege, unhealthy. Certainly there are more mosquitoes than higher up the valley. It is also possible that they have adopted the custom which certainly used to and probably still does prevail among the Eastern Angamis of allowing their daughters to indulge in premarital intrigues and to procure the abortion of the offspring, which would probably affect their fertility as it does that of the Aos. The unmarried girls in a genuine Sema village rarely get the chance of having love affairs of this sort. |
