People

Head-Hunting

Inter-village wars, culminating in the taking of the enemy's heads, were part of every day life among the Nagas. Head hunting was a practice which organised out of a belief that the soul-matter, on which all life depended, was stored in the head of human beings.

It would seem that the entire philosophy of Naga life revolved around the practice of head hunting. It was not only the cause and effect of war, it was also the inscription for the Naga works of art. Most of the traditional Naga carvings  and patterns on textile have head-hunting as their motif. The village drum could not be beaten, unless a head had been taken and placed on it. The warrior who hunted a head was entitled to wear special kinds of dress and ornaments. A person who did not have a single head to his credit had difficulty in getting a bride and became an object of ridicule with the girls.

Women and children were not spared in head-hunting. In fact, a woman's head was considered a more prized trophy, for a variety of reasons. As women were always given the maximum protection by the village folk, taking a women's head meant penetrating deep into the adversary's ranks with all its risks. Another reason was probably the desire to reduce the enemy population by killing their women folk and yet another reason could be the desire for women's hair which was used for ornamental purposes. Heads of children who had cut their teeth were also taken.

Because of head hunting, villagers took utmost care in the morning, before the women and children moved out, the surrounding areas was combed by a group of village young men to make sure that no enemies were waiting in ambush. They went to the field in a group so as to meet any sudden threat. While others worked, some people were kept on guard duty. The village gate was securely closed before the men retired for the evening.

The normal Naga method of fighting is the guerilla way. The enemy is to be surprised and caught, unawares, maximum possible damage is to be inflicted on him and the attacker should beat a hasty retreat before any succour comes to the victims. There are also some rare instances of one village having challenged another to a fight at a particular place. Fights took place on a number of issues such as land disputes and for not paying the agreed marriage-price or for sheltering an offender from another village or a customary welcome had not extended by one of the villages. A woman whose husband had gone on a fight was expected to remain chaste, it was believed that otherwise he could certainly be killed by the enemy. Among the Lothas, women were also forbidden to weave, and it  was believed that any break of this rule would cause the husband's feet to get entangled in creepers where upon he would be caught and killed by the enemy. 

Different tribes had different customs to dispose of the heads taken. The Angamis kept the head on a certain stone in the village, and it was welcomed with food and drink. After the ceremonies were over, the head was buried outside the village. The Lothas hung the head on the sacred tree of the village. The Aos also hung the head on sacred tree for sometime; then later it was brought down and cleaned. If the hunter was a married man he kept the trophy in his house, but if he was unmarried it was deposited in the morung. The Semas put the heads outside the village gate  and ate and drank there after the expedition. Then the heads were taken ceremoniously through the village and eventually hung from a bamboo under a tree. Every warrior who had participated in the raid also hung up a gourd symbolizing a head. The Konyaks laid the head at the foot of the sacred monolith in front of the Ahng's house. The head was then tied to a bamboo which was erected near the monolith and remained in that position for sometime. If the head hunter belonged to the Ahng's clan, he removed the skull to his own house where it remained as long as the Ahng was alive. After his death, the head was finally deposited in the morung and the new Ahng was expected to begin his collection afresh.

Head hunting ended among the Lotha and the Rengma tribes in 1880, among the Angamis and Aos in 1905, among the Semas in 1909, among the Sangatams in 1947, among the Konyaks in 1962ss and among the Khemumgans in 1963. The latest cases of head hunting occured in 1963 and 1969.