Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: One of the main foci of attention as well as problem in the archaeological investigations on megaliths is to unveil the issue on how and why the prehistoric megalithic builders erected these monuments. Here many a times archaeologists go mainly with the ethnographic analogy to make a feasible clue to the present issue. The continuing system of erecting stone monuments by the Koireng Naga tribes of Manipur can make to reveal it. The present paper thus tries to report the living tradition of erecting megalithic monuments, particularly the composite ones – such as menhir and dolmen (called seifun) by the Koireng tribe to commemorate the accession of a new village chief (khuoreng) by performing a feast called khulakphun nikho. The present study reveals that the erection of the megaliths in the Nagas society also appertained to the accession of a new village chief, in whose name the monument is erected. Hence such monuments manifest as the external symbolic storage related to the status of an individual as a village head.
Authors: Maringmei Philip, Sougaijam Priyokumar Meitei, Joy Rimai Th, Rabikanta Singh
Institution: Manipur University
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4408066349