The Nagas

Hill Peoples of Northeast India

Project Introduction The Naga Database

book : Return to the Naked Nagas (1939;1976)

caption: Chapter Twenty-seven. Return to Nagaland
caption: differences between Nagas and Apa Tanis
medium: books
production:
person: Furer-Haimendorf
date: 1970
text: There is a further difference between the two populations. Among the Konyak Nagas most of the traditional leaders, and particularly the hereditary chiefs of aristocratic blood, have remained bulwarks of conservatism, and are likely to be soon overtaken by men of less noble families who have availed themselves of such facilities as school education. The leading Apa Tani families of the old upper class, on the other hand, are in the forefront of progress, and members of that class have become the entrepreneurs of modern days. For this reason I believe that the social system of the Apa Tanis is more likely to remain stable than that of the Konyaks, whose social order may well undergo considerable changes if and when the chiefs lose the remnants of their power.