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It has become customary to label the Assam-Burma border as a "well-documented region" : among the several tribes concerning whose ethnography virtually nothing has been recorded are the Sangtam Nagas who comprise a small, but well-defined tribal unit in the eastern area of the Naga Hills. The tribe is composed of two geographical separated sections, both of which have as an integral part of their social system the remarkable institution of the Feast of Merit, already described for other Naga tribes in the series of monographs on the hills peoples of Assam. During a visit to the northern section of the tribe in December 1947 I had the good fortune to witness the performance of the culminating feast of the series, and was able to obtain information on the main features of the remainder. The account which follows is fragmentary, and much, particularly in respect of the ritual, remains to be investigated. |
