DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16243#0098
04
PEOPLE OF INDIA
a body of blood-relations in the commune or group of villages
after which it is called. The Kandh gochi appears, therefore, to
represent the nearest approach that has yet been discovered to
the local exogamous tribe believed by Mr. McLennan to be the
primitive unit of human society.
The Mongoloid type of tribe as found in the Naga Hills is
TJ M divided somewhat on the same pattern as the
tribe. Kandhs into a number of khels, each of which
is in theory an exogamous group of blood
relations dwelling apart in its own territory and more or less
at war with the rest of the world. Each khel fortifies the locality
which it inhabits with a stockade, a deep ditch full of bamboo
caltrops, and a craftily devised ladder, and raids are constantly
made by one upon the other for the purpose of capturing wives.
So far as our present researches have gone no very clear traces
have been found of totemism among the Mongoloid races of
India,* but the Mongoloid people of the Eastern Himalayas and
the Chittagong Hills have a singular system of exogamous
groups based upon their real or mythical ancestors. Instances
of this grotesque variant of eponymy are the Chakma clans
lchapocha, " the man who ate rotten shrimps," Pira blidngd,
" the fat man who broke the stool," Aruya, " the skeleton,"
The Turko-Iranian and SO forth.f
tribes: the Afghan Among the Turko-Iranians there seem
type. to ke tWQ distinct types of tribe:—
(a) Tribes based upon kinship like the Afghan group of
tribes, otherwise known as Pathans or
T1BrfhuiCtypeld speakers of the Pashtu language, who trace
their lineage to one Qais Abdul Rashld who
lived in the country immediately to the west of the Takht-i-
Sulaiman and was thirty-seventh in descent from Malik Talut
(King Saul). In theory, says Mr. Hughes-Buller in his
admirable account of the tribal system of Baluchistan, % " an
Afghan tribe is constituted from the number of kindred groups
of agnates ; that is to say, descent is through the father, and
the son inherits the blood of his father. Affiliated with a good
many tribes, however, are to be found a certain number of
alien groups known as Mindful or Hamsayah. The latter
[* Instances of totemism among the tribes of Assam are recorded by Major A. Playfair,
7 he Garos, 1909, p. 64 et seq., and by S. Endle, The Kacharis, 1911. p. 24 et seq.
Among the. Khasis the evidence is doubtful, Major V. R. Guidon, The Khasis, 1907, p. 66.
Also in Sir J. G. Frazer, Totemism and Exogamy, 1910, vol. ii. p. 318 etseq. ; iv. p. 295 et seq]
[t Risley, Tribes and Castes of Bengal, vol. ii. App. i. p. 31 et seq.]
[J Census Report, Baluchistan, 1901, vol. i. p. 119 et seq.]
PEOPLE OF INDIA
a body of blood-relations in the commune or group of villages
after which it is called. The Kandh gochi appears, therefore, to
represent the nearest approach that has yet been discovered to
the local exogamous tribe believed by Mr. McLennan to be the
primitive unit of human society.
The Mongoloid type of tribe as found in the Naga Hills is
TJ M divided somewhat on the same pattern as the
tribe. Kandhs into a number of khels, each of which
is in theory an exogamous group of blood
relations dwelling apart in its own territory and more or less
at war with the rest of the world. Each khel fortifies the locality
which it inhabits with a stockade, a deep ditch full of bamboo
caltrops, and a craftily devised ladder, and raids are constantly
made by one upon the other for the purpose of capturing wives.
So far as our present researches have gone no very clear traces
have been found of totemism among the Mongoloid races of
India,* but the Mongoloid people of the Eastern Himalayas and
the Chittagong Hills have a singular system of exogamous
groups based upon their real or mythical ancestors. Instances
of this grotesque variant of eponymy are the Chakma clans
lchapocha, " the man who ate rotten shrimps," Pira blidngd,
" the fat man who broke the stool," Aruya, " the skeleton,"
The Turko-Iranian and SO forth.f
tribes: the Afghan Among the Turko-Iranians there seem
type. to ke tWQ distinct types of tribe:—
(a) Tribes based upon kinship like the Afghan group of
tribes, otherwise known as Pathans or
T1BrfhuiCtypeld speakers of the Pashtu language, who trace
their lineage to one Qais Abdul Rashld who
lived in the country immediately to the west of the Takht-i-
Sulaiman and was thirty-seventh in descent from Malik Talut
(King Saul). In theory, says Mr. Hughes-Buller in his
admirable account of the tribal system of Baluchistan, % " an
Afghan tribe is constituted from the number of kindred groups
of agnates ; that is to say, descent is through the father, and
the son inherits the blood of his father. Affiliated with a good
many tribes, however, are to be found a certain number of
alien groups known as Mindful or Hamsayah. The latter
[* Instances of totemism among the tribes of Assam are recorded by Major A. Playfair,
7 he Garos, 1909, p. 64 et seq., and by S. Endle, The Kacharis, 1911. p. 24 et seq.
Among the. Khasis the evidence is doubtful, Major V. R. Guidon, The Khasis, 1907, p. 66.
Also in Sir J. G. Frazer, Totemism and Exogamy, 1910, vol. ii. p. 318 etseq. ; iv. p. 295 et seq]
[t Risley, Tribes and Castes of Bengal, vol. ii. App. i. p. 31 et seq.]
[J Census Report, Baluchistan, 1901, vol. i. p. 119 et seq.]