| caption: |
economy based on human labour |
| text: |
All these hill people are characterized by an agricultural economy which, despite considerable efficiency in the cultivation of rice and other grain crops, has never utilized the principle of animal traction and, hence, remained distinct from the peasant economy of the historic civilizations of Southeast Asia. Nagas, no less than most of the preliterate hill people of that part of the world, never knew a source of energy other than human labor, and this limitation implied that virtually the entire population was engaged in the task of tilling the land. Animals were raised for the sole purpose of slaughter; the milking of cattle was as unknown as using them for traction. |
