The Position of Women.
Were it to be suggested to a Lhota that he should go and consult his wife about something he would reply with a look of utter scorn: “What does a woman know about such things?” Nevertheless he would very likely not only ask his wife’s advice when he got home, but take it into the bargain. A Lhota’s wife is by no means a slave or chattel, but a very real companion. Her duties are nevertheless sharply defined. She must cook for her husband, look after the children, make the clothes for the family, and carry up firewood and water. Her husband will help her with a load if need be, and in the fields they work side by side. You [[112]]never see, as you do in Konyak country, the young men idling all day in the shade in the village while their wives are toiling and digging in the sun. When guests are present it is the wife who sees that all have enough “madhu,” but as a rule she takes little part in the conversation. Girls are often married when young, and almost invariably without being consulted in the matter. The result is that divorces, in which it is the wife who refuses to stay with her husband, are pretty frequent. Often for the slightest of causes, or even for no ascertainable reason at all, a woman simply refuses to live with her husband. She will shed floods of tears over her own supposed grievances and pay not the slightest attention to his earnest entreaties. It is comparatively rare for a man to divorce his wife without very good cause, partly because he will not get his marriage price back if he does. Among the Aos, on the other hand, where there is no marriage price, a man will divorce his wife in the most heartless manner when he gets tired of her. One much-respected Ao acquaintance of the writer’s has up to date divorced nine successive wives because they presented him either with no children at all or with daughters instead of sons. Very rarely indeed does a case occur of a Lhota treating his wife cruelly. Were a husband to beat her in the traditional Whitechapel style she would leave him at once, and her relations would extract a fine. [[113]]
[1] The order given is that in which the first ancestors are said to have emerged from the earth. The three phratries are regarded as being of equal status. Tom-pyak-tserre is said to mean “forehead-scraping-clean-men,” Izumon-tserre “scattered-men,” and Mi-pong-san-dre “with fire-smoke-conquering-men.” [↑]
[2] A big Sema village of the Asimi clan in the Doyang valley, south-east of the present Lhota country. [↑]
[3] Another tradition says that the old man was of the Nguli clan. The Chorothui clan only numbers nine households all told. They do not know to what phratry they belong. [↑]
[4] I have always heard the relationship stated as between the Sema Wotsami and the Lhota Shetri. In any case I am inclined to think the relationship between respective clans of different tribes an artificial growth no doubt derived from the considerable diffusion of common blood among the Naga tribes. If it were genuine the Wotsami clan of Semas should be associated with the Othui rather than the Nguli or Shetri clans. Vide infra, Part V.: Story of “How men were turned into Gibbons.” Up to a certain point there is no doubt a real connection, as the Ao Pongen or Pongrr, like the Sema Chishilimi, claim a patrician descent distinct from that of other clans, while the corresponding Ang clan among the Konyaks still retains its distinct patrician position. I believe the Changs’ refusal to intermarry with a corresponding Ao clan is probably no older than the absorption by the Changs of a number of Ao villages at a comparatively recent date, when they also adopted the practice of exposure of the dead. At the present time they expose or bury as they feel inclined, but Colonel Woods, who toured in their country in 1900, states specifically that they bury their dead and makes no mention at all of exposure, though this was certainly practised at that time by the neighbouring Ao, Phom and Konyak villages also visited by Colonel Woods.—J. H. H. [↑]
[5] Cf. The Angami Nagas, Part III., “The Exogamous System,” and Appendix III. under “Lhota.”—J. H. H. [↑]
[6] The Semas, who do the same, regard such marriages with favour rather than disfavour, I think.—J. H. H. [↑]