| caption: |
chapter two - the village |
| caption: |
small size of Nzemi villages, with 30-40 houses; Laisong 100 houses |
| note: |
footnotes indicated by boxes within square brackets |
| text: |
Anyone who has seen both Ao Naga and Central Nzemi Naga villages will immediately be struck by the great difference in the size of their settlements, although in other respects their economies and cultures are broadly similar. Both practise shifting cultivation, and until the last quarter of the nineteenth century both lived a life of constant, though small- scale, head-hunting warfare. But whereas Ao villages are extremely large, sometimes numbering 400 or 500 houses, Central Nzemi villages averaged a little over 40 houses in 1930, and by 1946 further subdivision of settlements had lowered the average to less than 40. It is true that in unadministered conditions Central Nzemi villages were slightly larger than they are now, (12) Asalu-Impoi having at one period 140 houses, Laisong over 100 and Hange 80, but there is no known instance of a Central Nzemi village ever exceeding 150 houses. |
