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Chapter One. The Naga Hills |
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reasons for interest in Nagas and their megaliths |
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(1) My interest in the Nagas and their country began long before I had an opportunity of visiting India. As a student of anthropology in the University of Vienna I had attended the lectures of Professor Robert von Heine-Geldern, one of whose specialities was the comparative study of the megalithic cultures of Southeast Asia. The highly developed megalithic ritual of some of the Naga tribes seemed to be of crucial importance in the elucidation of the ideology which led men to commemorate meritorious feats by the erection of crude stone monuments, and my concern with this aspect of Naga culture led me to a general appreciation of the archaic patterns of life persisting in the remote hill tracts along the Indo-Burman border. |
