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Chapter Two. The Social Structure and its Units |
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overlapping obligations to overlords |
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It was not unusual for a village to have overlapping obligations to two overlords. Oting and Longkhai, for instance, paid tribute to the Oukheang morung of Wakching, but were also vassals, or, as the Konyaks said, "sons," of Mon, a powerful village whose chiefly family had provided Oting and Longkhai with their chiefs. The paramount chief of Mon was, therefore, the overlord of the chiefs of Oting and Longkhai and received tribute from them. As Mon and Wakching had always been at peace, no conflicting loyalties resulted from the crosscutting of political links, but in other cases the position of a small village between two powerful overlords could become precarious. |
