Identity of Ao-Naga and Sümi-Naga Women as Gleaned from Folklores

Abstract

The word identity has drawn a lot of attention to itself more so in the present age where everyone seems to be in a quest to establish their own identity. This quest for identity is not an alien concept to Naga society which comprises of sixteen officially recognized communities. These communities rely upon their own set of folklores to glean their past. Folklores are a strong medium through which most of the traditional beliefs and cultural practices are embodied. It is a reflection of the past through which the identity of the community can be gleaned. Folklores are not mere spinning of tales to glorify one’s own community, but are narratives of the communities who follow oral-tradition. This paper attempts to glean the identity of Ao-Naga and Sümi-Naga women through their respective folklores. Ao-Naga and Sümi-Naga are two strong communities residing in Nagaland. Both the communities have rich folklores falling into different genres. A striking feature of most folktales is the way details are presented- the name of the village, location and presence of evidence in the present times suggesting the validity of the events in the folktales. After the construction of identity is done, this paper will compare the identity of women of these two communities. Women of both these communities have come a long way from what they were in the past. As the third and final component of this paper, it will analyse whether women are still under grip of their past identity or whether they have moved away from it to build a new identity for themselves in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century. This paper will further examine the identity of women in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century in the light of their past as constructed from the folklores.