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Chapter One. The Naga Hills |
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never a totally isolated region |
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(2) Yet even before the establishment of British rule the seclusion of the Naga Hills had not been as complete as that of a Pacific island. Foreign goods, such as cowrie shells and metal implements, must have been bartered from village to village for hundreds of years, but their impact on Naga culture was not revolutionary. Migrations and the subsequent blending of populations, languages, and customs may from time to time have brought about changes in the cultural scene, but such changes seem to have occurred within the framework of one and the same cultural sphere, namely the sphere of pre-literate civilizations which throughout Southeast Asia antedated the great literate high civilizations of historic times. |
