human nature relationships

between society and environment of Nongriat

About this book

When we are moving towards exhausting
natural resources, trying to dominate and
destroy nature, a few people have always
been closer to it. Communities where
industrial influence is absent or minimum,
tribes isolated from urban areas, remote in
access to outsiders, have maintained a
close relationship with their nature.
Rudofsky's Architecture Without Architects
gives us a preview of such people around
the world, who live with nature by causing
minimal or no damage to the environment.
In India various communities still live close
to nature out of sheer necessity or because
of a culture embedded in them. The best
examples
being
the
Mithuvan
and
Cholanayakan communities of Kerala, the
former make tree houses to escape from the
destruction caused by wild tuskers and the
latter being one of the last communities in
the world who still live in caves. Another

good example is of the Khasis of

Meghalaya. Their profound culture which
has embedded respect in them towards
their environment has a lot to teach us about
sustainability. This study aims at establishing
such sustainable aspects among the Khasis
of Nongriat by analytically understanding the
human nature relationships brought about
by various factors. Even though a lot of work
has been done on the Khasis in general and
a few tribes of a certain area in specific, no
work has been carried out on the village of
Nongrait. This village is known for it's living
root bridges built by the ancestors of the
current War Khasis who live there. The living
bridges came into light to the world only in
the year 2000 when Japanese film makers
accidentally discovered them. Only studies
on the techniques of building these bridges
have been recorded and no enquiry from the
perspective of environmental sustainability

or human-nature relationships of that

community has ever been made. Thus this
study is an effort towards the same in
establishing sustainable aspects in the
context of the tribe of Nongriat village in
Meghalaya, considering the view point of
their nature embedded within. This is
achieved by, understanding their resource
use and various selected parameters of their
society,
analyzing
their
system
of
knowledge, all relating to their subsistence.
The study concludes by understanding the
importance of a few vital parameters related
to their environment which help them in the
sustenance of their community.

About the author

Rahul P Naik is an architect by profession who graduated from U.S.D, University of Mysore and has a masters degree in sustainable
architecture from C.E.P.T University, Ahmedabad. He is also the editor of www.osdesign.org. This research was part of the academics for
his Masters degree "thesis" and is published as an e-book by Osdesign Publications.

human nature relationships

between society and environment of Nongriat
rahul p naik

www.osdesign.org

First published as an e-book by OSDesign Publications on

www.osdesign.org in 2014.

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Dedicated to all the animals on earth.............

Preface
This study sprung up as an offshoot from the
concept of Natural Architecture. The
structures depicted in the book Natural
Architecture by Allesandro Rocca drew our
attention to look for structures in India
outside an industrially influenced society, to
understand the relationships that exist
between nature and man. Rudofsky's
Architecture Without Architects gives us a
preview of such structures and societies
around the world, who live with nature by
causing minimal or no damage to the
environment. The best of these examples
being the burial grounds converted to living
quarters in Siwa, Egypt, Hollowed out baoba
tree (Adansonia digitata) dwellings of
tropical Africa and Arbors of Japan made of
bamboo poles and climbers. Inspite of
having a wide diversity of different tribes in
our country, the lack of such examples drove
us to explore further. Few examples were
stumbled upon, like the Mithuvan and
Cholanayakan communities of Kerala. The
former make tree houses to escape from
destruction caused by wild tuskers and the
latter being one of the last communities in
the world who still live in caves. Another
good example was that of the living root
bridges of Meghalaya. Even though a few
documentaries have covered the techniques
of building these living root bridges no
enquiry has been made to understand the
reason behind building them.

Hence an investigation was initiated to

understand the relationship between the
people who built these bridges, their
environment and the interactions that exist
between both. A great deal of data was
assimilated in the process.
While
understanding
human
nature
relationships, neither one of them can be
studied in isolation. Since man is a social
being the institutions in which he exists need
to be related to his environment. This
becomes a part of a social understanding.
The reason behind building these bridges
was never kept as a focus, instead the study
tried to understand the overall relationships
of a particular society in which man exists
and it's influence on man resulting in his way
of interacting with his surroundings. Hence
the study was titled Human-nature
relationships in the village of Nongriat. With
specific focus on my understanding of the
War Khasi society of this village and my
perception of their environment.
- Rahul. P. Naik

Acknowledgments
Firstly I would like to express my sincere
gratitude towards Professor Saurabh Popli,
who guided me by being patient enough at
every step of this research. He helped me
bring focus towards my area of interest in
research. I also appreciate the way in which
he taught me how to produce a research
document and will always be grateful for the
time he spent and the effort he put in
contributing
towards
the
knowledge
pertaining to my study. I am also thank full to
him for all the study materials that he has
given including a book which I am yet to
return.
Secondly I would like to thank my parents in
supporting me morally and financially to
conduct this research. I am deeply humbled
by their blessings and will continue to strive
to make them proud.
Further I thank all the people involved in
making my field visit a success. The list is as
follows. Mr. Kashyap Mankodi for helping
me get in touch with Iba, Ms Ibahun
Basanshrieh for taking her time off in
between her busy schedule, to answer my
calls and just to arrange for my stay in
Nongriat and to put me to Mr Pynsai who
helped me in Cherrapunji. May her soul rest
in peace.

Mr Pynsai who introduced me to Mr Godfrey drama and action. All these memories will
of Nongriat who became a constant remain in my mind for ever and i will miss
them.
companion for the rest of the field visit.
I extend my heartfelt gratitude to Mr Godfrey Last but not the least, I would like to thank
and his mother Aquila for their kind Prof Jigna Desai for her efforts to streamline
hospitality and helping nature. I will always this research topic.
remember Aquila for her motherly affection,
the food she cooked and hot water that she
arranged for me during my stay at the guest
house in Nongriat. I will also remember Mr
Godfrey as a friend that I have in Nongriat.
His effort to teach me the Khasi way of life
became a valuable part of my study. His
constant companionship and his ability of
speaking English, even though broken,
helped me to a great extent in translating all
that I needed. I also extend my gratitude to
the Sirdar of this village who gave me all the
necessary permissions required to carry out
my work and also for the concessions I got
on the tariff and food of the guest house.
Most importantly I thank Professor Miki
Desai due to whom I am here with a new
mind set and able to present my work.
My heartfelt gratitude towards my closest
friends Aparna, Sharanaya, Kaustubh,
Kushi, Mangesh, Raushan and Parag, and
to all my classmates with whom I spent
wonderful years filled with fun, happiness,

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 AREA & CONTEXT OF THE STUDY
There are numerous ways of understanding
human-nature relationships, but nature
alone cannot be studied in vacuum to
understand these relationships. On the
contrary human beings are part of it. Hence
to understand human-nature relationships,
ecology needs to be studied with the context
of human beings, drawing constant back
and forth relationships. The MerriamWebster dictionary defines human ecology
as 'a branch of sociology dealing especially
with
the
spatial
and
temporal
interrelationships between humans and their
economic, social, and political organization '
(Merriam-Webster, 2013) . In other words it
has to do with the relationships between
various institutions of a society in time and
space where space can be interpreted as
surroundings. 'Many scholars in the 20th
century focused on the relationships
between humans and environment. The
variety of academic approaches is
abundant, ranging from the humanities, and
social sciences to natural sciences as well'
(Lapaka et al., 2012). Nevertheless, the
study relating to culture change as a result
of adaptation to environment was studied by
Julian H. Steward only in the 1950's in a
process that he called cultural ecology and it
was not until the 1970's, when William
Catton Jr. and Riley E. Dunlap introduced a
new concept in social ecology, that the

perspective on the study of human-nature

relationships changed. The study dubbed as
environmental sociology believed that
physical environments can influence and in
turn be influenced by human societies and
behavior (Lapaka et al., 2012). It is to be
noted that the below study falls somewhere
in between the context of cultural ecology
and
environmental
ecology,
where
relationships between environment and man
are studied with parameters of the society.
The study however does not have the
ambition to relate itself deliberately to any
such category, but since a context had to be
built around the human nature relationships
of the War Khasis of Nongriat, relating to
their environmental sustainability, it was apt
to progress in this direction. These
influences and adaptation will ultimately lead
to the sustenance of a community. In order
to understand the dimensions of time and
space of this society and environmental
sustainability, it was placed in the following
context as mentioned by Harriet Nalukenge
'Sustainability is a human construct in that
humans use their environment for a range of
objectives,
including
subsistence,
commodity production, aesthetic pleasure
and indirect Eco system services. These
objectives have their basis in the desire to
sustain human life, enhance standard of
living, maintain culture and protect

environmental quality for generations to

follow. The different objectives for the use of
environmental resources lead to different
expectations as to what is to be sustained
and who is to have claims on environmental
services.' (Nalukenge, 2009). Even tough
their prudent manner of resource use
amounts to exploitation, in this context since
the society under study exists in a non
industrial and non agricultural framework, it
is considered sustainable as it has it's basis
in the desire to sustain human life, enhance
culture and protect environment for
generations to follow. Evidence for the same
can be seen in, their sustenance with their
mode of subsistence in today's time,
preserved
culture
and
protected
ecosystems. As a matter of fact it is not
sustainability that the study revolves around,
but those aspects and interrelationships of
the society that drive people who belong to
it, to use their environment for a range of
objectives. Thus it is in the nature of this
study to bring out those embedded practices
brought about by society helping them in
sustenance of their community in that
particular village.

about by existing literature about the War

Khasis of the entire region and observations
1.2 ABOUT THE STUDY
through participatory research. Since society
This study aims at establishing sustainable as a whole is complex, only a few selected
aspects in the context of the tribe of social institutions are studied.
Nongriat village in Meghalaya considering
the view point of their nature embedded A combination of frameworks are used from
within. It achieves this by; a) Investigating the books, Introduction to Cultural Ecology
the
human-nature
connections
by (Sutton & Anderson, 2004) and This
understanding their resource use for Fissured Land (Gadgil & Ramachandra,
subsistence, and analyzing various, selected 1992) to inform the methodology for this
parameters observed and documented, thesis. As per these frame works human
such as strategies, tactics, checks and nature relationships can be studied either
balances that help them respond to various with respect to biology (physical adaptations
environmental factors. b) Understanding of the human body) or culture (adaptations
their way of living in the past and the present through cultural means). Since the over all
with respect to their surroundings, through aim is to study a particular unique
various institutions of their society like community, human nature relationships are
kinship, marriage, system of administration, established based on our perception of the
political hierarchy, settlement, houses and culture of the War Khasis of Nongriat. The
inheritance systems. c) Analyzing the frame work concentrates on resource use
systems of knowledge that exists to and subsistence. Every other parameter of
understand it's influence on the subsistence the society is hence related to it. The study,
methods and resource use pattern. d) therefore falls within the ambit of culturalRecognizing
and
understanding
the ecology and conclusions are drawn with our
importance of a few vital parameters related perceptions of environmental sustainability
to their environment which help in the keeping the selected parameters of their
sustenance of their community in this society with in this framework.
village.
Scope of this study is related to society and
environmental sustainability of the village of
Nongriat by understanding the way the War
Khasi tribes interact with their environment.
This understanding is primarily brought

the village and data was recorded. Their

daily routine was understood through
participation. The author checked the data
gleamed from the existing literature in some
instances with his observations. Considering
the limited time frame it was not a rigorous
data check.

Since the focus was on a particular

community and relationships between man
and environment cannot be studied in
isolation it had to deal with their society.
Since their society has a unique culture,
frameworks that already dealt with similar
examples on cultural ecology, were chosen.
Thus this study became a study that dealt
with selected variables of the War Khasi
society with respect to it's environment.
The following Illustration 1 explains the
nature of the study and Illustration 4 the
methodology. Thus in the present study
understanding of the Khasi society was
brought about by existing literature, filed
study and sometimes an overlap of both.
And through this understanding a few
selected institutions like subsistence,
kinship-marriage,
Administration-social
hierarchy, culture, settlement-houses, land
and system of knowledge were studied in
relation to their environment. Inferences
The methodology was formulated as the were drawn from each variable and the
study evolved. After doing a background author's idea environmental sustainability
study on the War Khasi tribes of the East was presented.
Khasi hills and keeping the aim in mind, field
visit was done. Observations were noted in

illustration 1: Nature of study

illustration 2: Methodology

1.3 CONTEXT OF THE TRIBE AND THE VILLAGE

Travelling via Guwahati-Shillong-Cherrapunji
Having mentioned the context in which the
study is being placed, it is necessary to
inform the background of the Khasis in
general and the War Khasis of this region.
The first experiences give a good gauge of
realities to an outsider. The experiences of
the field visit is thus taken into account to
explain the context of the place. It is quite
evident from the sky that the topography of
India changes as soon as one enters North
East. It appeals visually with its undulating
terrain, hills, streams and islands as against
the flat lands of the Deccan plateau. As one
flies over Guwahati the shining tin roofs of
the buildings below are seen as golden
twinkling dots. This city is the main gateway
that connects seven states of North East
India to the rest of the country with the only
International airport and a major railway
station of the region. Hence this is the main
way to enter Meghalaya too where the
village chosen for our study lies. 'The heavy
and long monsoon of Meghalaya sustains
intensive and varied flora. Forests cover a
land surface of 8510 sq.km or about 37.5
per cent of total area of the state as per
1981 census. The area of reserved forests
under the control of the state government is
very small, being only about 4 per cent of
the total forest area......The population of

Meghalaya
is
predominantly
tribal'
(Nongkynrih,
2002).
Development
is
proceeding in the North East region at a
rapid rate, this was witnessed on the
highway (National Highway 40) that
connects the capital city of Assam which is
Guwahati to the capital city of Meghalaya
which is Shillong. Shillong is 100 kilometers
(Kms) towards the south of Guwahati. The
drive to Shillong from Guwahati along
National Highway 40 (NH 40) gave a vague
picture of suburbs and villages. Buildings in
the urban areas and suburbs are of concrete
slabs with flat or sloping roofs, but towards
the outskirts one can see shelters with
bamboo mat walls, supported and built
(sometimes on steep slopes) on bamboo
poles with wooden floors and tin roofs
(appendix 1.1 Field visit Photographs). Hills
all along the highway were cut at the time of
the field visit, for road widening and Quarry
work. Industries established along this
highway in the outskirts were seen
contributing to air pollution by expelling thick
white and often black smoke. The landscape
around the city and villages are dominated
by hills. In India as there is no difference in
the time zone between the east and the
west sun disappears behind these hills as
early as 1700 Hrs even in early March.

Indirect light is dispersed from behind the

hills for half hour after that. Nearing Shillong
temperature drops drastically as the sun
sets. With an average altitude of 1,496 m
above sea level, as per Kppen climate
classification, the city has sub-tropical
climate with mild summers and chilly to cold
winters. The city of Shillong nicknamed as
Scotland of the East (Wikipedia - The free
encyclopedia, 2013a), bustles with people
at night all across. They can be seen,
shopping, dining and in the markets even at
around 2200 hrs. The terrain of this city is
steep with sloping roads and buildings built
at various levels which follow the contours.
Markets are also on steep slopes with flight
of steps connecting upper and lower level
roads. One can mainly find clothes and toys
for sale here. Fresh fruits like strawberries,
litchis, brought from near by villages and
some other dry fruits are also kept for sale.
The skyline of Shillong mainly has some
trees and buildings with sloping roofs, built
either with concrete or tin sheets (Appendix
1.1 Field visit Photographs). The city's
infrastructure is poor compared to that of
Guwahati's. Roads are often bad and open
drains seen between some streets are
littered with garbage (Appendix 1.1 Field
visit Photographs). As described by Gurdon
'The district consists almost entirely of hills,
only a very small portion lying in the plains.
The slope of the hills on the southern side is
very steep until a table land is met with at an
elevation of about 4000 feet (1219 m) at

Cherrapunji. Higher up there is another

plateau at Mawphlang... Some villages
being found at as high an elevation as close
to 6,000 feet (1829 m) above sea level.
Fifteen miles to the East (North East) of
Mawphlang, and in the same range is
situated the civil station of Shillong, at an
average elevation of about 4900 feet (1493
m). The elevation of Shillong peak the
highest hill in the district is 6450 feet
(1966 m) above sea level..... In general
features all these plateaus are much alike,
and consists of of a succession of
undulating downs, broken here and there by
the valleys of larger hill streams' (Gurdon,
1914). The same can be seen in Illustration
3&4. Population is denser in the market
areas. As per provisional reports of Census
of India, Shillong city has a population of
143,007 people (The Indian Census 2011,
2011) with a land area of 64.36 sq km
(Wikipedia - The free encyclopedia, 2013a)
out of which majority of the people belong or
once belonged to the Khasi tribe. They
followed their own religion also called as
Khasi, until the influence of the outside
world. As a result large number of people
got converted to Presbyterian, Unitarian,
Roman Catholic, Muslim, and Hindu
religions (Appendix 1.2 Note on population
and Christian converts). The Khasis who
once resided in The Khasi and the Jaintia
hills, have now spread across to the districts
of West Khasi Hills and Ri-Bhoi in
Meghalaya. The Khasis have four main sub

tribes: Khynriam, Pnar, Bhoi and War. The

Khynriam inhabit the uplands of the Khasi
Hills District, the Pnar or Syntengs live in the
Jaintia Hills. The Bhoi live in the lower hills
to the north and north-east of the Khasi Hills
and Jaintia Hills towards the Brahmaputra
valley. The War, usually divided into WarJaintia, in the south of the Jaintia Hills and
War-Khasi in the south of the Khasi Hills,
live on the steep southern slopes leading to
Bangladesh. The Lyngngam people inhabit
Illustration 3: Shillong to Mawphlang.
the western parts of the Khasi Hills (Gurdon,
Source: Google Earth 6.
1914). The journey to Cherrapunji is an
experience in itself. Mainly private buses
and taxis ferry passengers to Cherrapunji
since state run buses are less frequent to
this town. Taxis with a carrying capacity of 8
people ferry up to 11 people on a shared
basis. Defense personals are posted in the
city and their establishments lie in the
outskirts which can be noticed on the way to
Sohra. Roads made by cutting the hills are
lined up with vehicles. Towards the outskirts
Illustration 4: Table land of Cherrapunji.
of the city, forests mainly with oak trees
Source: Google Earth 6
becomes denser. Mountains and valleys
also become more prominent. As the city
limits end and one enters villages, step
cultivation on the hills become a common
sight with a house or two on them. This hilly
terrain flattens out at intervals where farmers
can be seen working in their fields,
sometimes as late as 5:30 PM, close to
sunset. Quarrying is seen in a few places
along the edges of the road. After deviating
from the main highway while navigating

through bad roads, pine trees become the

backdrop of the scenery. At this point access
to Cherrapunji seems difficult even though it
is a major tourist destination in India. There
are numerous streams which flow along the
rocky
valleys
of
these
mountains.
Sometimes they span in meters and
sometimes in a few feet. Altitude gradually
increases as one approaches Cherrapunji.
The hillocks turn into hills and suddenly a
range of mountains emerge and merge into
the horizon. The peak of these mountains
are generally flat with vast spanning
grasslands. Sparse settlements are found
on the flatter portions of these mountains,
but villages are preferred in the middle
rather than the peak. These villages are
connected to the roads at upper or lower
levels or both by flight of steps which is used
by the villagers to commute and carry their
daily supplies. The drop in temperature drop
becomes
evident
as
one
reaches
Cherrapunji. Popularly referred to as Sohra,
Cherrapunji is a small town with very less
facilities. Even the only ATM is around 3kms
away down the hill in a petrol station. Goats
found here are furry and roam in and outside
the villages. Some settlements are
established along small streams where
check dams have been created. Some
schools have been established by the
Christian missionaries who came to this
region in the mid 18 th century. As a result of
these missionaries majority of the population
are converted Some of the village houses

and shops have been built by bamboo poles

and mats. Around 2.5 km down the hill from
Sohra market a school run by Ramakrishna
mission, established in the year 1912, offers
free education to children. Only a few places
offer food and stay facilities for travelers.
Khasi is the primary language spoken by the
people in Sorah. English and Hindi are
seldom used among very few people. The
built fabric of Cherrapunji seems dense with
each property's compound wall built next to
the other. Bamboo and stone seem to be the
predominant building material used in this
region. houses are built on steep slopes, but
unlike shelters seen along the GuwahatiShillong highway there is no use of bamboo
or wooden stilts, but instead a retaining wall
built of random rubble masonry takes its
place. Market is held every week on the
preceding day of the previous market day.
People are seen carrying coal, fruits,
vegetables in sacks and baskets on the
market day. Most of the structures here have
tin roof that slope downwards, a few flat
roofs are built with concrete. Men woman
alike sell fruits and vegetables brought from
their villages. Some are even taken to
Shillong. This market even though not over
crowded bustles with activities and people
carry out transactions at various levels of the
entire complex. The paint on the buildings
has blackened, showing signs of high
humidity
(Appendix
1.1
Field
visit
Photographs). The skyline of Cherrapunji is
dominated by sloping tin roofed and flat

roofed concrete structures. On steep slopes

steps become the main access to houses.
With houses lined one next to the other
these steps sometimes become a thorough
fare between upper and lower level streets.
Roads are very narrow with space for only
two small cars to pass each other. This small
town faces a range of beautiful cliffs towards
its back. The final destination, Nongrait is
one stop away from Cherrapunji. Taxies
leave from the market area to a village
called Tyrna on market days. Since
commodities come from near by villages
only on a market day, it is hard to find
transportation on a non market day.
Tyrna is on the lower reaches of the east
Khasi hills. The terrain flattens out up to a
point after the first descent and then again
folds into hills and cliffs which can be noticed
along the road side (Appendix 1.1 Field visit
Photographs). En route Tyrna from Sohra,
after about 5 kms, a Huge cement Factory
dominates the landscape with thick black
smoke coming out of its chimneys. Roads
narrow down and worsens as one nears the
village of Tyrna. If one is proceeding to
Nongriat, commutable road ends in this
small village in front of a chapel (Illustration
16).
The walk from Tyrna to Nongriat.
From Tyrna, Nongrait is two and a half hour
away by walk. Ahead of a school and a
chapel, almost at the end of this village,

lies a flight of unending steps descending

down to the valley. What used to be steps of
random rubble stones are now in concrete
and somewhere ahead of these never
ending steps lies Nongrait. Villagers are
often seen climbing up and down the stairs
especially on a market day, carrying sacks
on their backs. The only access to the
outside world for the people of Nongriat are
these steps. After about 15 min of descent
the first village appears. From every point
the peak of the mountains are visible. After
continuing the descent, along the first hill at
half way one can see Nongrait across a
couple of other hills. The houses which are
scattered all along the mountain appear as
tiny white and colored dots. At the foothills of
this first hill lies another village. This second
village, commonly referred to as a half way
marker between Tyrna and Nongrait appears
to be remote. Houses seen here are built
with wooden planks, cut and plained, with
sloping roofs and are raised on hollow plinth
to about 1.5 m (Appendix 1.1 Field visit
Photographs). The boundary of Nongrait
starts a little after this village and is marked
by a small open field in the middle of the
forest where kids play football. The forest
becomes denser near the valley. It is
towards the foot of this hill that sacred
grooves exists. A metal cable bridge built
about ten-fifteen years ago spans across the
river Simtung. It connects Nongrait with the
outside world. This walk from Tyrna is
tedious and energy consuming. Since

access to this region is difficult, very few

outsiders venture here due to which the
place looks clean with less plastic litter and
crystal clear water. Rivers here flow with
heavy current during the monsoons and
before the bridges were built, people could
not cross the river in this season. There are
two such suspension bridges made of metal
cables, and the second one lies a little
ahead across the river Umkyrsah. Once one
crosses the two valleys, a slight ascent
takes one to a root bridge that spans across
a small stream, above which lies the village
of Nongriat.
In order to understand this study completely
it is necessary to understand the remote
nature of this village and its relationship to
the outside world. The above introduction
gives an over all idea of the same from an
outsiders perspective. It is this perspective
that is important here and it is for an
outsider, that the village is remote and
difficult to access. As discussed in further
chapters this plays an important role in the
influences that the society receives. With the
context of the village explained, the rest of
the study is structured as follows. After a
brief look into the available literature in
chapter 2 an understanding of the useage of
forests by the Khasis of Nongriat for their
subsistence is explained in chapter 3. This
helps in understanding their strategies,
tactics and the way they maintain balance.

various parameters of their society relating

to their relationships with their surroundings.
In chapter 6 adaptations and strategies are
explained. Chapter 7 deals with education
systems that exist and how knowledge is
transferred from generation to generation
influencing their subsistence. Finally in
inferences, some important parameters
relating to their environment helping in the
sustenance of their community within this
village are identified.
This study does not try to achieve it's
context in anthropology, or sociology or
biology or any other field. It is just a study
done to understand the human nature
connections of a particular community and
for the sake of this understanding it is
framed within the context of cultural ecology.
The books This Fissured Land (Gadgil &
Ramachandra, 1992) and Introduction to
Cultural Ecology (Sutton & Anderson, 2004)
provide the context to relate the chosen
community with their surroundings. Hence
some words are used in their broader sense
as synonyms, like human beings-man, and
nature-environment-surroundings. Further,
the framework is a mere tool in establishing
some sort of understanding about the
aspects relating to environment and society.
Hence, even though this understanding
varies with different frameworks, exploration
with more than one was not undertaken.

CHAPTER 2: EXISTING LITERATURE

As mentioned earlier the books Introduction
to cultural ecology (Sutton & Anderson,
2004) and This Fissured Land (Gadgil &
Ramachandra, 1992) helped in forming the
context for this study. Aspects missing from
one book is substituted by the other. The
former book has a stronger influence on the
way our study is carried out, but certain
missing links are provided by the latter.
Overall they form the basis of our
understanding of the human nature
relationships in the context of the tribes
under study. The chapter 'Hunting and
Gathering' gives us a generic understanding
of tribes and their subsistence. Since the
study was proceeded under the pretext that
the Khasis of Nongriat had a gatherer mode
of subsistence, this chapter was studied. It
reveals various flaws or rather stereotypical
views and ethnocentric approaches in
previous hunter gatherer studies. Even after
being aware of certain things it was
impossible to avoid certain stereotypical
views. Being from a non gatherer-hunter
society it is impossible to carry out the study
in complete context of the above mentioned
mode because neither the author is trained
to do so, nor he had the luxury of spending
time to become one amongst the War
Khasis of that village. Hence this frame work
was adopted from this chapter which
provided us a kick start in understanding the

relationships that could exist between

subsistence and environment. It's repeated
emphasis on the fact that a tribal society
could be complex and diverse led us to try
and visualize the War Khasi society as a non
simplistic one. The most important aspect of
this book was the way in which the
relationships between tribal societies and
their environments were built. The society of
the War Khasis of Nongriat was related in a
similar manner to its environment by
keeping subsistence as the anchor. This
gradually shaped the study and took it
further to the next step of extracting various
parameters of the society as per the
requirement of establishing relationships
with their surroundings. The book Khasis
Society of Meghalaya (Nongkynrih, 2002)
helped in understanding the Khasi society
and various institutions that existed in it. It
gave a clearer picture from the Khasi
perspective, as the author of the above
mentioned book is one amongst them. The
understanding of various institutions of the
society under study is an understanding
either brought about directly by this book or
by comparison of Nongkynrih's idea of the
Khasi society written in his book. It acted
always as a reference point to locate our
interest within the context of society. Lastly
the character of the village under study in
this book was similar to Nongriat, as a

result, in some instances it's data was taken

directly to relate it to the present case.
The book The Khasi Milieu gave us an
unbiased view of the Khasi society of the
1980's. The chapters Nature-I and Nature II
gave us a clear idea of a Khasi's association
with his surroundings, how his awareness of
various lifeforms and the elements of Nature
help him lead his life. The stories narrated in
this book not only opened portals to the
past, but it helped in extracting the morals
for a greater understanding of what nature is
for a Khasi. It also helped in getting a
second opinion on Family structure,
marriage, lineage and administration. The
explanation of culture with in a village
helped us in building our study by relating it
to the incidents of our field visits. This book
also proved as a link betweenpast studies
done a hundred years ago and the more
recent studies of the 2000's. This helped in
understanding the evolutionary changes that
occurred in the Khasis, both in general and
(by assimilating the given knowledge) in
specific to our area of study. The book,
Forest in the life of Khasis (Shangpliang,
2010) is a good compilation of facts and
figures that concentrates on the forests
under various pretexts in the life of the
Khasis. It provides various facts and figures
within it's field of study that acted as a quick

referring guide, whenever a topic related to

forests sprung up. It also helped in
understanding the types of forests that exist
in this region and related bodies who have a
sense of control over it. The book The
Khasis (Gurdon, 1914)gives us a good
overview of the Khasis in general, but in a
different time scale. The criticism on this
book by other authors was considered and
even though this book contributed
immensely in the background study of the
Khasis, its roots being in the British East
India company, led us to avoid using it as an
ultimate source of information. Nonetheless
the present was compared by Gurdon's
writings of the past and differences were
elaborated.

CHAPTER 3: SUBSISTENCE
3.1 RESOURCE PROCUREMENT
Like most human beings, the Khasis of
Nongriat too are omnivores. They live
primarily on cereals, wild roots, fruits,
vegetables, animal meat and animal
products. Rice is their staple food and they
obtain it from Cherrapunji. Chicken and pig
are domesticated while milk comes from
Tyrna. They depend on the forests
surrounding them for a living. Like most
hunter gatherers they too primarily gathered
seeds, roots, fruits, etc and hunted from the
forests around them, but with the influence
of agriculturists and the people from nearby
urban areas, and with the present markets
offering anywhere between `300 to `500 for
a day's collection (of various things collected
from forests) they trade their goods weekly,
for money and obtain their daily needs from
Cherrapunji.
Nonetheless
the
forest
surrounding them is the main source for
their subsistence. They mainly exploit forest
ecozones consisting of freshwater and
terrestrial ecosystems. The village is
tethered around the rivers Simtung, river
Umkyrsah (or Umkyrsan) and river
Mawkyrdup which are the tributaries of the
river Brahmaputra. While Simtung is a little
away towards the South west, the village is
located on the banks of the river Umkyrsah
towards the foothills of the mountain and
river Umshiang flows right through it. A little
ahead of the village, towards the North east,

is another river Mawkyrdup. Interestingly it is

forbidden to exploit resources from the river
Umshiang as per the village chief's order.
They believe that fishing in this river will
cause ecological imbalance and unequal
rights over the accessibility of resources.
This
shows
an
inclination
towards
egalitarianism. A double decker bridge made
by intertwining the roots of the tree Ficus
elastica a type of rubber tree, spans
across this river !
Evolution of their subsistence
The subsistence methods of the people of
Nongriat, like any other community has
evolved since centuries and is continuously
evolving. Over a period of thousands of
years their method of subsistence has
transformed from just hunting and gathering
to a more complex mode, involving various
activities. When they were hunters, they had
to move about in the landscape searching
for resources that were mobile. On the
contrary while gathering, they have a
definite idea, (if not specific location) of
space (area) and time (availability) of
resources. The chances of finding non
mobile resources in a given region are far
greater than going behind actively mobile
resources. In other words if they had to
adapt and progress as a community they
who started off with hunting and gathering,

had to look for better returns. This is a part

of an evolutionary process of adapting to
their nature. Probably this is the reason for
the decline in hunting activities. This is partly
true for gathering also. A decline in the
availability of resources for personal and
non personal consumption probably forced
Nongriats to change their mode of resource
use to a much controlled method where
returns were guaranteed. Today great deal
of gathered food is sold outside the village to
obtain rice and other house hold things.
Even though there is a large scale demand
for these forest products, the community still
believes in equal distribution of resources
within the village and stick to certain laws
that govern the exploitation of these
resources. Below is the detailed account of
subsistence of the Khasis of Nongriat in the
past and the present.
Gathering
Even though the Khasis of Nongriat depend
entirely on the forests for their subsistence,
theirs is not a truly gatherer society.
Gathering has been defined as the collection
of wild plants, small land fauna and shell
fish. Key components of the definition
include the small and non mobile nature of
the gathered resources and the common
use of some technology for resource

extraction and transport, such as digging

sticks and containers (Sutton & Anderson,
2004). In Nongriat, even though human
muscle power is the main source of energy
used for gathering resources and their ability
to transport and store resources is very
rudimentary, their pattern of controlled
cultivation within the forests, catering to the
needs of urban areas, makes it a society of
evolved
gatherers
or
low
key
agriculturists. The evidences for the latter
word being more applicable can be noticed
here. Like all societies of the world theirs
was also completely, a hunter-gatherer
society. From the available literature it is
understood that the advent of Europeans
saw cultural collisions amongst the tribes of
this region. Even though, as claimed by
various authors that the East India company
did not exercise any laws (especially on
land) and interfere with the Khasi society, it
is clear that there were significant and
radical changes brought about by the
outsiders,
especially
the
Christian
missionaries. This included culture. The
increase in the number of Khasi converts to
Christianity in early 1900's can be taken as
evidence for the same (Appendix 1.2 Note
on population and Christian converts). At
some point in time the same happened in
the village of Nongriat and as a result,
people once belonging to the Khasi religion
became Khasi Christians. As argued by
Madhav Gadgil, when hunter-gatherers
came in contact with the outside world,

especially agriculturists, their subsistence

evolved (Gadgil & Ramachandra, 1992) .It is
evident form history that the advent of the
Europeans saw the introduction of potatoes
and other cash crops in this region
(discussed later in this chapter), along with
the introduction of extensive agriculture of
native crops which were in demand, like
spices, and oranges. Since there was a
demand for these crops in urban areas and
elsewhere, regions that favored climatically
for the growth of such crops, were targeted.
This brought about a new mode of
subsistence that the War Khasis here could
depend upon. In spite of such changes in
the region a larger part of their gatherer
culture has remained in this particular village
even till the present day. Even though it
cannot be compared to the original huntergatherer cultures, it can definitely be
considered as a contemporary gatherer
society (Sutton & Anderson, 2004).
Presently the primary plant resources that
they gather are Oranges, pepper, bay leaves
and fire wood. Secondary resources
gathered, include fruits like jack fruit, litchi
and mangoes, and Roots of Nelumbo
nucifera Both the primary and secondary
resources gathered are indigenous to the
region. All of the above mentioned plants
grew completely in the wild once from where
they were gathered, but history recorded
denotes partial cultivation of most of these
crops from at least a hundred years. In
today's time some are partially cultivated

and some are partially gathered. Details of

each such items gathered are as follows.

a) Oranges (Citrus sinensis)

As mentioned by Gurdon in his book about a
hundred years ago oranges were grown in
this region in the following manner. The
shrubs, weeds and small trees are cut down,
leaving only the big trees for the purpose of
shade. The plants from a nurseries are
planted from 6 ft. to 9 ft. apart. When they
have become young trees, many of the
branches of the sheltering trees mentioned
above are lopped off, so as to admit the
necessary amount of sunlight to the young
orange trees. As the orange trees increase
in size, the sheltering trees are gradually
felled. The orchard requires clearing of
jungle once in spring and once in autumn.
The Khasis do not manure their orange
trees, nor do they dig about and expose the
roots...... Orange trees bear fruits when they
are five to eight years old in ordinary soils. In
very fertile soils they sometimes bear after
four years. A full-grown tree yields annually
as many as 1,000 oranges(Gurdon, 1914).
Oranges grow well in temperatures between
15.5 and 29 C, they do not do well in frost
(Wikipedia - The free encyclopedia,
2013b). From this it becomes obvious that
region of Nongriat is best suited to grow
oranges climatically. Even though no

in this village during the field visit, Gurdon's

writings suggests that they were cultivated in
large numbers about a hundred years ago in
the surrounding regions. It becomes evident
that, fore fathers of the current generation,
planted and cultivated them. As a result the
natural forest landscape changed and now
oranges trees have become a major portion
of the forest cover. The Khasis of Nongriat
know where maximum number of orange
trees are located in the forests and they
clear these jungles, twice a year, once in
spring and once in autumn. A special tool
attached to a bamboo stick is used to pluck
oranges and an inverted conical bamboo
basket is used to carry them from the forests
back home (Illustration 36) . They are then
taken to the market of Cherrapunji and sold,
form where they make their way to Shillong
and around the world.
b) Pepper (Piper nigrum)
Pepper is a perennial type woody vine which
grows up to 4 meters in height, on
supporting trees of this forest. These plants
grow well in soils which are neither too dry,
nor susceptible to flooding. They do not
grow well at altitudes above 3000 feet above
mean sea level. These plants bear fruit from
the fourth or fifth year, and typically continue
to bear fruit for seven years. (Wikipedia The free encyclopedia, 2013b) . Being one
of the wettest places on earth these plants

grow well on slopes of the mountains

surrounding the village. This facilitates the
water run off and keeps the soil moist. Since
they need support for their growth they are
propagated by cutting the stems and
planting them beside trees. In the forests,
the surrounding areas are cleared where
pepper plants are found, to facilitate it's
growth. The cut plant matter from the
cleared jungle are left as it is, which acts as
manure for pepper plants. They grow under
shade, but once the plant is fruit bearing,
medium sized trees and shrubs around
these plants are cleared occasionally to let
light in. Green unripened pepper drupes of
the pepper plant is plucked by hand and
carried back home in side bags and sun
dried in front of their houses. Once the fruit
dries it turns black. This pepper is then sold
in the market of Cherrapunji. Dried black
pepper are, by monetary value, the most
widely traded spice in the world (Wikipedia The free encyclopedia,2013b). In the
present day, one kg of pepper fetches them
up to Rs 500 and on a good day, during the
pepper season, a full day spent gathering
pepper in the forests, can yield them up to 1
kg of pepper. Even though they collect fresh
pepper and export it outside, it was ironic to
find some families using packaged pepper
powder bought from the markets of
Cherrapunji for cooking.

c) Bay leaves (Cinnamomum tamala)

Unlike other plants which are partially
cultivated, bay leaf trees are found naturally
and in abundance in the forests surrounding
this village. These trees grow up to 20
meters in height (Wikipedia - The free
encyclopedia, 2013b). The gathering of bay
leaf begins when the trees are about four
years old and the leaves collected are are
allowed to dry for a day or two in the sun
before they are sold in the market. The
areas surrounding these trees are cleared of
jungle and weeds periodically; otherwise no
care is taken of them (Gurdon,1914). The
bay leaves collected in a day can be
anywhere between 30- 40 kilograms in
weight, hence a weeks collection cannot be
stored in their houses, and yet they do not
make any special storage facilities for it.
Since there are no storage facilities, bay
leaves filled in gunny bags are seen kept all
over the vicinity of the village. They are
transported weekly and sold in the weekly
market of Cherrapunji. The people of this
village know each other very well, and
communication happens face to face.
Therefore the issue of these collected item
being stolen is very less (social organization
explained in the preceding chapters).

d) Miscellaneous
A few more fruit bearing trees like litchis,
Jack fruits and Mangoes grow in this region
in comparatively small numbers. Their fruits
are
obtained
mainly
for
personal
consumption as per the availability. Along
with these fruits the roots of the plant
Nelumbo nucifera are also collected.
e) Fire wood
Their main source of fuel comes from
firewood. Food is cooked in chulas, for
which the wood is collected from the forest.
They are gather from felled trees or trees
that have fallen naturally. The collected
wood is brought back on shoulders
(Illustration 21), chopped into pieces and
then left in the sun for drying (Illustration 22).
They are also placed on a platform on top of
Agriculture in the past and the present
Blessed with rain almost through out the
year the forests have been used for
agriculture since their contact with the
outside world. Khasis of Nongriat follow the
process of felling and burning trees in a
forest patch for agriculture. This process is
described by Gurdon as follows 'The trees
being felled early in the winter are allowed to
lie there till January or February. Then fire is
applied to logs of wood placed at intervals of
a few feet to prevent, as far as possible, the

ashes being blown away by the wind. The

lands are not hoed, nor treated any further.
Paddy and millet being sown broadcast, and
the seeds of root crops, as well as of maize
and Job's tears, are dibbled into the ground
by means of small hoes. No manure,
beyond the wood ashes above mentioned, is
used on this class of land. There is no
irrigation and no other system of watering is
resorted to. The seeds are sown generally
when the first rain falls.' (Gurdon, 1914). A
patch of land cultivated by this method is
used for three years till the soil looses its
fertility. Then another patch of land is chosen
and the process is repeated. This process
referred to as Jhumming has seen a decline
in the recent times. Only three to four people
in the village of Nongriat practice this
method of agriculture, and they choose a
new patch of land every five years as
against three years. The main crops which
are cultivated by jhumming are potatoes,
betel nuts and betel nut leaves through
informal irrigation. The details of their
methods are as follows.
a) Potatoes
As mentioned earlier potatoes are not native
to this region. They were introduced outside
the Andes about 4 centuries ago (Wikipedia
- The free encyclopedia, 2013b) and it
gradually made its way to this region also.
Potatoes are grown by jhumming, the land

Drains are dug about the field and the

cultivator with potato seeds and a small hoe
dig holes and drop two seeds in each hole.
These holes are 6 inches deep and 6 inches
in diameter and are 6-9 inches apart.
Another person throws a little manure
(usually dried up leaves and other plant
waste) and covers both with earth. After the
plants have attained the height of about 6
inches they are earthed up. When the
leaves turn yellow, it is a sign that the
potatoes are ripe. Potatoes are grown twice
a year, once in summer and once in winter.
The winter crop is raised chiefly for the
purpose of obtaining seeds for the spring
sowing, as it is found difficult to keep
potatoes from the summer crop in good
condition till the following spring (Gurdon,
1914).
b) betel nut and betel nut leaves
Areca nut is often referred to as 'betel nut'
since it is wrapped and eaten with betel
leaves. Areca nut is the seed of areca plam
(Areca catechu). It is a medium sized palm
tree growing up to 20 m in height
("Wikipedia - The free encyclopedia,"
2013b). It is a native plant species and
thrives well in this climate. Since they are
cultivated with in the vicinity of the village
they dominate the landscape and can be
seen in the areas around and in between the
houses. On the other hand betel plant (Piper

from requires moist soil and shade for it to

grow well. standing water should not remain
for more than half an hour. Alkali and saline
soils are unsuitable for its cultivation
(Wikipedia - The free encyclopedia,
2013b). Betel nut leaves are either cultivated
in the villages with areca nut trees, with the
later providing support for the creepers or in
the forests under tall tree covers. The betel
leaf creepers are raised from cuttings, and
planted close to the trees up which they are
to be trained. The creeper is manured with
leaf mold (Gurdon, 1914). Since the region
receives extreme rain they are not required
to be artificially irrigated, but some irrigate
these plantations by using hollowed out
areca nut tree trunk or bamboo (Illustration
5) . Water in these aqueducts is carried
through great distances often from the
mountain tops from subtle flowing streams
or tanks to lower portions (Illustration 6).
This two hundred year old bamboo drip
irrigation system, is normally used to irrigate
betel nut plantation in the village. This
method of tapping of stream and spring
water is so perfected that about 18-20 liters
of water entering bamboo pipe system per
minute gets transported to over several
hundred meters and finally gets reduced to
20-80 drops per minute (Agarwal & Narain,
2008). With the availability of PVC pipes in
the region bamboo is being replaced
(Illustration 8). Due to which the amount of
water running cannot be controlled. Further
the water collected is directed to the taps at

common points in the village. These taps are

often damaged and are seen leaking and
water runs continuously. This ingenious
system was specifically developed to irrigate
pepper and betel nut leaves by the Khasis,
but with the introduction of new industrial
materials the traditional water system is
getting destroyed and are not being used
widely to irrigate their crops which require
constant, but limited water. The Khasis in
general enjoy chewing pan which comprises
of betel leaf, areca nut and limestone paste.
Betel leaves and areca nuts make their way
to Cherrapunji market and is sold through
out the North East. they are also used for
house hold consumption by the people of
Nongriat.
c) Broom grass
Apart from the above mentioned crops a few
families who practice Jhumming also grow
broom grass (Thysanolaena maxima) used
to make brooms. As on 2009 this
commercial crop, contributed to `300 crore a Illustration 5: Hollowed out areca tree trunk
year, to the economy of Shillong (Property used as a spout
Management, 2009). The crop can be
grown throughout the year and never fails
(Nongkynrih, 2002). These brooms are sold
all over India, and the grass has good value
in the local markets. There were evidences
of a few families having harvested this crop
ready to be sold in the markets of Shillong
(Illustration 9) . Cultivation of broom grass is

Illustration 6: bamboo aqua ducts found in upper regions of east

khasi hills,, used for drip irrigation. Image credits: SRISTI,

Illustration 8: Bamboo replaced by PVC pipes. Image credits:

SRISTI, Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad.

Illustration 7: water being collected in small open tanks. Image

credits: SRISTI, Ahmedabad.

Illustration 9: harvested broom gras

Illustration 10: A traditional house

much caring and attention (Bisht & Ahlawat,

n.d.). Due to It's easy to grow nature and the
demand that exist for these brooms, this
cash crop has been adopted by a few
people in the village. It is also used in the
construction of roofs for their houses
(Illustration 10) and sometimes provide an
alternative to wood, as a fuel during
unavailability of firewood.

common sight in Nongriat, pigs are

domesticated only by a few. Sheep, goats
and cows are not found here due to
unavailability of pastures. As a result milk
mostly comes from the village Tyrna. Since
domestication is limited, the direct human
control over the reproduction of animals is
unsubstantial. Meat may be sometimes
bought in the markets of Cherrapunji but
otherwise it comes from within the village.

d) Miscellaneous
Apart from the main cash crops, a few
vegetable gardens were found in the village,
sometimes they are attached to the houses
(Illustration 11). Tomatoes, potatoes, onions
and other vegetables are grown in these
gardens for personal consumption.
Hunting - a forgotten subsistence and
domestication- a substitute.
Like all other tribal societies the Khasis of
Nongriat too relied on hunting in the past for
their living. A detailed description of hunting
given by Gurdon in his book The Khasis
show that they were known to hunt about a
hundred years ago. Owing to the influence
of the urban areas, in the recent past
hunting has vanished. This led to the
practice of relying on agriculture and
domestication of animals. The Khasi turned
Christians of this village who once hunted
now domesticate birds and animals for a

Meat thus obtained is used for personal

consumption only. Occasionally they may be
bought by a fellow village member but
animal resource never flows out of the
village boundary owing to its remote nature.
Illustration 12 shows the resource flow of
animal products.
Apiculture
A Khasi can recognize the type of bee by
looking at the hives or the bee itself. 'There
are two kinds of indigenous bees in the
Khasi Hills, one domesticated, called u ngap
(Apis indica), and the other U lywai, which is
never domesticated, and is very pugnacious,
its hives are difficult of access, being always
located in very high cliffs'. A third variety
'The Italian bees' (Apis mellifera ligustica)
introduced by the Europeans during early
19th century are also known to exist in this
region (Gurdon, 1914). The bees kept in this
village measure less than 10 mm, which is

Illustration 11: Garden in the back yard to

grow vegetables

Illustration 12: resource flow of domesticated animals, animal products and fishing

Since Italian bees are bigger in size of

around 15mm (Bartlett, 2004) , and since
such big bees were not noticed in the
village, it can be deduced that this species
of bees were not cultured in this village.
Bees of the sub species Apis cerana indica
act as important pollinators for coconut
palm. They are less aggressive and have
less swarming behavior than wild bees.
Thus they are preferred by the Khasis. In
Nongriat people handle them very delicately
to avoid being stung. These bees are native
to South East Asia and use caves, rock
cavities and hollow trees as natural nesting
sites. (Wikipedia - The free encyclopedia,
2013c). Empirical study confirms that,
people rear and extract honey from such
hives. Generally the bees vary from 5-10
mm in size (PaDIL, n.d.) and are seen
inside artificial hives kept in the village. They
are kept in front, but a little away from the
houses. They often hover around and do not
pose as a threat to people walking by. Due
to their less aggressive nature, the Khasis of
this village, do not protect themselves when
collecting honey or handling them, even
though they have been stung by them
(without any fatalities) in many instances.
The following procedure is followed to
capture bees: Hives are located with in the
forest between rock cavities and hollow
trees (Illustration 13 & 14). Once located,
smoke is directed by burning leaves etc,
from underneath the hives to drive the

worker bees out. Simultaneously the queen

bee is located, captured and put inside an
artificial hive which is made out of hollowed
out log or a carton box (Illustration 15). The
worker bees follow the queen bee and the
box is closed by a tin sheet or a wooden
plank. This box is carried back to the village
and kept in front of the house and the bees
are taken care. The honey extracted is clear,
fresh, tasty, fragrant and of best quality. Half
a liter of honey sells for anywhere between Illustration 13: Potential places where honey
`500 to `600 and is very popular amongst bees can make their hives. A Khasi know the
potential places of hives even before they
tourists who visit this place. When compared
are made.
to Gurdon's writings, it was found that their
method of collecting honey and breeding
honey bees has not changed over the past
hundred years. Photographic evidences
prove that technology, and muscle power
used to extract honey is still rudimentary.
Honey from wild bee hives are also
extracted. As they are more ferocious. It
takes a team effort of six to seven people
(Gurdon, 1914). A more descriptive and
detailed account of the method can be found
in the chapter 'Apiculture' from Gurdon's
book. For a Khasi of Nongriat, getting bitten
by bees while extracting honey is a matter to
be boasted about. Apiculture doesn't happen
at a very large scale and doesn't constitute
as a major occupation for the people of this
village. Even though there is a demand for
Khasi honey commercially there is only one
hive (and sometimes two, but not more than

Illustration 14: hollows in tree trunks where

the honey bee makes it's hive

honey is extracted up to 3-4 times a year. considerate about their biological resources
To conclude, their method of subsistence (Tynsong & Tiwari, 2008). This can be
from honey hasn't changed since centuries. understood better after the CHAPTER 4:
EGALITARIAN BEHAVIOR.
Fishing - a recreation for some,
subsistence for others.
As the subtitle suggests fishing is a mode of
subsistence for some and recreation for a
Even though this village is tethered around few others. They use fishing rods obtained
rivers, fishing doesn't form every family's from Shillong while fishing for recreation,
subsistence. Only few venture out of the and use nets while fishing for subsistence.
village and follow the river Mawkyrdup in Fishes obtained either ways sells for around
search of places to fish. Fishes are caught Rs 300 per kg. They are sold within the
for self consumption only and not to cater to village or used for personal consumption.
the needs of the urban areas, hence it is not Fishing during the breeding season, is
carried out at a large scale. In the mornings, banned by the village chief as it results in it's
a team of five to six people can be seen unavailability during later seasons. Empirical
proceeding outside the village, along with study revealed the pattern of recreational
their nets. They pass the two root bridges fishing. A group of friends, five to six in
towards the north eastern side of the village number, leave towards the river at around
and proceed further in search of a suitable 09:00 pm. Since they know their surrounding
place to fish. Since the river Umshiang is well, even at night they commute with ease
located within the village and is immediately just by using torches. They often choose
accessible, fishing is banned here by the shortcuts which are difficult to negotiate,
village head. This not only prevents over atleast for an outsider. A hard day's time
harvesting and exploitation of resources it spent in the forest does not stop them from
also protects ecology within the village. venturing back again for recreation. In their
Some parts of the village are community minds it is leisure and fishing is enjoyed as a
owned (explained in detail in the coming sport. They go with a lot of excitement and
chapters) and resources are treated as a are gone for hours. Worms and some plants
community property. Everybody have an are used as baits, but often an artificial
equal right over them, but no ownership. A silicon fish attached to the ready made
study by H Tynsong & BK Tiwari suggests fishing liners are not replaced. The person
that the Khasis operate under such who catches fishes either uses them for
regulations framed by the village council, cooking food the next day, or sells them to

Illustration 15: An artificial bee hive

resource acquired from fishing does not flow

outside the village, unless an outsider eats
food cooked by them (Illustration 12).
Illustration 16 shows a schematic diagram of
protected areas around this village with
respect to its boundaries. The red lines are
rivers where fishing is banned. A detailed
study on traditional fishing techniques of the
Khasis, has been made by (Tynsong &
Tiwari, 2008). Even though most people
acquire fishes from natural sources one
artificial tank constructed (in concrete)
outside the village near the river Umkyrsah
is meant for breeding fishes artificially
(Illustration 17) .
Summary:
After understanding their subsistence
pattern the following conclusions can be
made. The presence of protected ecological
zones, and ecosystems within the village
suggests that they are concerned about their
environment and the availability of
resources. A greater debate is with respect
to what might have happened when they
came in contact with the outsiders,
especially the Europeans. The existence of
potato cultivation in this village suggests that
it came from outside along with the
technology and methods of cultivating it.
Changes induced by the outsiders have
altered the original landscapes of the forests
around Nongriat. The changed landscape

and expected returns. Even though they

have manipulated the environment around
them, the changes caused are relatively less
compared to the changes that the large
scale agriculturists or people living in an
industrial world cause. The following
observations support the above findings of
limited exploitation of resources.
1) Unlike the Khasis living in the plains, they
do not denude their forests to grow crops
(apart from 2-3 people who practice
jhumming).
2) Even though orange is native to this
region, it was cultivated by replacing original
forests. The result of which is an altered
landscape. Even though this brought about
a large scale change in the environment, it
was the past. Presently their mode of
gathering fruits from this altered landscape
does not account for large scale
manipulation of nature (Illustration 19).
3) Growing pepper in this region by the
Khasis, cause relatively less damage to the
environment when compared to cultivation
of other crops. Only shrubs and small trees
arecut to facilitate the growth of pepper but
big trees surrounding them are not felled. In
some cases trees found around these
shrubs are fruit bearing, and hence
considered important (Illustration 23).
4) The collection of bay leaves, and
apiculture are the most sustainable methods
of subsistence for the people of this village.
Bay leaves are found in abundance and
hence the question of over harvesting does

not arise. Similarly honey can be extracted

up to a maximum of four times in a year
from the bees which are cultured. Inspite of
the rising demand for honey every family
owns one and sometimes two bee hives.
5) They do not fish over excessively,
especially during the breeding season. The
presence of artificial tanks (Illustration 17)
for fish cultivation, near the river Umkyrsah
suggests that artificial breeding is preferred
which in turn results in less disturbance to
the original aquatic ecosystems.
6) Even though animals are domesticated
people of this village have a relatively less
control over the reproduction of a particular
species (hens, used for eggs and chicks).
Since the resources obtained are for
personal consumption only it creates limited
demand. This contains the resource flow
within the village keeping a check on over
exploitation of animal resources.
Their way of acquiring resources from
various sources results in limited exploitation
of one type of resource. When there are
multiple resource pools the stress gets
evenly distributed. To conclude, the
awareness of the environment around them
have evolved the tribes of this region from
hunters to gatherers to low scale
agriculturists. Their awareness of the
availability of different resources with
respect to time and place have helped them
in adapting themselves to their nature. Their

Protected areas of the river

Scared grooves

Illustration 16: map showing protected areas of ecosystems

forests by gathering, cultivating and fishing

throughout the year keeps them aware of
seasonal availability of resources. Illustration
18 shows the same. They move about in the
surrounding landscape in search of these
resources as per the availability. In the
surrounding forests they move from point to
point as shown in the schematic Illustration
24 below. These forests are used
meticulously helping them in sustaining their
community in the current mode of resource
use since hundreds of years.
Checks and balances:
Even though technologically they are much
behind, their method of controlled extraction
and controlled consumption along with their
capability of conserving their resources has
not only helped in the long term resource
availability, but it has also protected their
ecology, due to which their resources
become available. Schematic Illustration 18
shows this cyclic process. Some rules laid
out by the community along with the
protected ecosystems help in conserving
natural resources. Inevitably constant
extraction of resources will lead to it's
depletion unless these laws are revised and
area of these protected ecosystems are
increased as per the needs. The total area
of sacred grooves in this region hasn't
increased along with the increase in

population. As a thumb rule when natural

resources gets extracted, virgin forests are
required to replenish it. Thus resource use
should be directly proportional to the
increase in area of sacred grooves.
Illustration 17: an artificial tank constructed
for fish breeding.

Illustration 18: relationship between resource use and protection

Illustration 19: The process of clearing forests and afforesting it again changes the natural landscape

Illustration 21: Mr.

Godfrey carrying back
a log for firewood

Illustration 22: fire

wood kept in front of a
house

Illustration 20: seasonal extraction of resource use. (Thicker the line more dependency on
subsistence)

* blue indicates a river

People not only move in
different directions in the
landscape from point to point
but also choose different
routes everyday which may
vary in distance. Even though
the movement seems to be
haphazard they have an idea
of where their resources are
available.

Illustration 24: movement in the landscape for subsistence

CHAPTER 4: EGALITARIAN BEHAVIOR

*constructed after
understanding a kur
from A.K. Nongkynrih's
Khasi society of
Meghalaya
Illustration 25: Clan tree diagram.

4.1 KINSHIP AND MARRIAGE

Kur and iing
The idea of kinship is very strong amongst
the Khasis. People of Nongriat follow the
same unilineal principle of matrilineal
descent as that of the people living in the
plains. Nongkynrih explained this as follows '
The Khasi society reckons it's descent in the
female line. In other words, any two persons
in the Khasi society are kins of each other if
either one of them is descended from the
other, or both of them have descended from
(a
common
female)
ancestress'
(Nongkynrih, 2002). In the previous chapters
we have learnt that there is a notional idea
of equal division of certain resources, where
every family (or an individual) has it's rights
over resources available from common
resource pools, while no one has ownership
over it. In this chapter we will try to
understand the flow of the gathered
resources (by an individual or a family)
within the clan and their society at large. To
understand this, it will be necessary to
understand the system of kinship and family
structure. As per the understanding from the
available literature the above Illustration 25
has been drawn denoting a Kur. It shows the
relationship of individuals within a clan. Kur
is the Khasi equivalent of a clan, where
every member is a kin of each other of the
same kur, who have descended from the

unit (Nongkynrih, 2002). If A(f) in Illustration

25 is that ancestress from where the family
lineage has started (or continues), when she
marries and gives birth to children, her
daughters are the ones who are supposed
to continue the family lineage. These
daughters get married (i, iii and iv in
Illustration 25 shows marriage) to men from
different Kurs and in turn have children. All
the members of this family, constituting of
three generations, including the husbands of
the daughters, her children, excluding
wife(s) of her son(s) and their children, form
a Kur (area marked in red in Illustration 25) .
Each daughter's family which is two (or
three) generations, forms a Kpoh. The name
of a Kpoh is called it's Jait (Nongkynrih,
2002) (area marked in purple in Illustration
25). All the siblings from the same
generation, from different Kpoh form a shiiing. As per Nongkynrih it is shi-iing (light
blue rectangle in Illustration 25 ) that is the
most dynamic, where the intensity and
frequency of social interaction is high. They
all treat each other like brothers and sisters.
Due to the exogamous rule of the Khasis,
none of them can marry each other within
the same Kur. It is also incestuous to marry
anyone within the three generations of the
father's Kur. However the only exception is
that marriage is possible within the children

of a persons father's sister (Nongkynrih,

2002). The domestic group or a household
of three or four generations consisting of
male and female consanguine, which may or
may not have husbands in any generations
residing with their wives and children and
which may also include married brothers
living with their sisters but without their
wives and children form an iing. A kpoh
along with the parents of the daughter,
mother's brother and her own brothers form
an iing (Nongkynrih, 2002). Similarly the
son 1Ad(m) in Illustration 25 becomes part
of his wife's iing. In the Khasi society, every
daughter, apart from the youngest daughter
can move out of the house to form her own
iing. Even though moving out is not
mandatory, the small nature of the houses
forces them to do so, while the youngest
one, by rule, cannot leave her mother's iing
to set up her own household. The youngest
daughter doesn't inherit her property while
her mother is alive and yet she is the one
who, with her husband and children stay in
this house (Illustration 26). Thus the family
lineage is continued by the youngest
daughter. If we were to relate it to the above
Illustration 25, kpoh 3 along with the
daughter's parents, form the original
mother's iing, While kpoh 1 and kpoh 2 may
or may not break further into their respective

are taught the ropes and tricks of survival by

letting them participate in daily activities. The
method of making a male member part of a
new iing and letting him have strong bonds
with his own iing brings two different kurs
together. At a larger time scale within a small
village, many kurs come together to form a
Their method of distribution of labor makes big tree of inter linked kurs or iings.
sure that every household has enough
resources, and it is directly proportional to Division of labor and flow of resources
the number of people living in it. For
example In an undivided iing consisting of As per the understanding so far gathering
three married daughters and their husbands and agriculture have being the main modes
and children, all the married daughters, their of subsistence in Nongriat from over a
husbands and the father (if he is physically hundred years. Resource is generally
able), contribute to the subsistence of the accumulated at the iing level, but can flow
family. This resource that is generated gets through the kur. To understand this resource
distributed between all the members of this flow we need to understand the division of
iing in one form or the other. Likewise in a labor in this village. Unlike other societies
family of a married adult daughter having where 'men play a greater role in organizing
infants or young children, who has formed information and taking decisions relating to
her own iing, subsistence is generated only resource on behalf of the group as a whole'
by her husband as she needs to look after (Gadgil & Ramachandra, 1992) every
the children and her house hold. Often in member of the family here has a role to play
such cases she chooses to stay in her for subsistence. As per the understanding
mother's iing with her husband if it is an from the existing literature, in the Khasi
option. The resources generally get society the authority of the household, even
accumulated at the iing level but regarding the decisions relating to
occasionally may flow between iings of the resources, lies with the wife or her brother or
same kur (explained in the coming sub both, the husband has an authority over his
chapters). The other members of the family sister's house hold. A husband by rule,
who do not contribute to the subsistence doesn't have a direct control over his wife's
carry out domestic works which help the iing even if he belongs to it (Illustration 27).
other members of the family to concentrate In the village of Nongriat, one can often
iing. The unilineal principle of matrilineal
descent has come to the Khasis from the
Khasi religion. This system which was
followed from time immemorial is practiced
even today in the village of Nongriat inspite
of their conversion to Christianity.

members of the society with their sisters.

They spend hours in their sisters houses,
deliberating and deciding on the daily
household routine. They can be seen going
directly to their sister's house in the
evenings once they return from the forests.
Since a brother has direct authority over his
sister's iing, he also associates himself
closely with his sister's son. Mr. Godfrey
takes keen interest in teaching his nephew
the tactics of daily subsistence. He often
takes his nephew with him when he
ventures into the forests (discussed in detail
in further chapters) . Even though they have
a close association with their sisters, they
give equal preference to their wives and
their own children. This structure of the
society makes sure that both the families
stay closely knit and the member who
moves out is always made to remember his
original kur. In this society a husband is
consulted by a wife only when her children
are small or when her brothers are away.
When her children grow up she consults
them (Mawrie, 1981) . Division of labor in
Nongriat occurs in the following manner. In a
typical family of three generations involving
grandparents,
parents
and
children,
subsistence is generally dependent on the
parents, or adult children. Often when the
girl child is newly married or has infants or
children of young age who need to be

Illustration 26 the process of setting up an iing by the daughters

of the house after marriage

Illustration 27 Authority of a married man on a household

looked after, she does not venture out to

contribute to the subsistence, instead she
looks after the household and contributes to
the domestic work. Likewise if the mother is
too old, she contributes to domestic work too
and helps her daughter in bringing up the
children. There are also instances in this
village where even the oldest member of the
family followed a daily routine contributing to
the subsistence of the family, while the
young housewife stayed back and took care
of domestic activities. Young kids also help
their mothers in domestic work. In Nongriat it
was a common sight to see young
daughters, especially after school, engaging
themselves in household work. They carried
out little tasks of domestic work without any
pressure from their parents. In another
instance a young girl belonging to another
iing helped Godfrey's mother in taking care
of the guest house. When children are in
their teens and are unmarried, they
contribute to the family's subsistence. Since
iing or a house hold is where the resources
get accumulated and dispersed, it gets
affected the most by marriage and during
adverse times. Changes can take place in
the
following
ways:
1) If the elder daughters gets married and
moves out of her mother's iing the number of
people in the original iing get reduced and
hence the amount of resource too. On the
other hand if she continues to stay in the
same house there would be resource
surplus but no space or privacy in the

house. When the eldest daughter forms her

own iing resource gathered in her household
are limited I.e, from either herself or her
husband or both.
2) when the youngest daughter gets married
her husband add to the subsistence of her
mother's family. When the youngest
daughter is of marry-able age, parents are
normally old, and this system makes sure
that no one in the family falls short of
manpower for subsistence.
3) when sons leave the house and move to
his wife's house his mother's iing is affected,
and in some cases severely if there are
more sons.
4) when a brother comes to live with his
sister leaving his wife and children, it add to
the subsistence of his sister's house. This
shows that at a larger level it is the Kur that
binds people to each other in their society.
Checks and balances:
From Nongkynrih's explanation of kinship
and marriage it was understood that if a kur
was in an adverse condition and in need of
resources, other kurs helped them. Such a
kur which get help from another kur treat
them on a fictitious kur relation and consider
themselves as relatives and hence
exogamous. People in Nongriat involved in
occupation other than gathering and
agriculture, especially people like Aquila
(involved in taking care of the guest house)

driven by age and inability to work in the

forest). When a household consist of non
productive members, like a widow, or an
orphaned spinster, other members of the
village come forward to help them for their
subsistence
(Mawrie,
1981).
Hence
sometimes resources flow haphazardly
across iings or kurs, but these are
exceptional cases. When looked at it from a
larger perspective a village consist of
various iings and kurs, and numerous iings
are related to more than one kur directly and
by marriage. Illustration 29 explains this
concept of 'oneness' in such a society
consisting of group of people numbering in a
few hundreds. For example from Illustration
25 it could be understood that 7Tb(m),
6Uv(m) and 8Hl(m) who belong to their
respective kurs connect their kurs to Kur 1
by marriage. Similarly when the son marries
he connects his kur (kur 1) to the kur to
which his wife [19Xe(f)] belongs to. This way
each child connects their respective kurs to
a new kur by marriage. Even though it is not
necessary for a person to get married within
in the same village, often these villagers are
interrelated by marriage. Likewise, when a
village reaches it's saturation, or sometimes
to avoid saturation, marriages happen
outside the village to people belonging to
different
kurs.
Thus
to
conclude
egalitarianism might have arised out of the
clan structure, where the possibility of
people being related to each other are high
with in a small community.

4.2 SOCIETY
From the previous sub chapter, it is clear
that the Khasis of Nongriat have a strong
system of kinship which forms the basis for
the division of labor and the flow of
resources. The structure of the society on
the other hand, regulates the control of
various available resource bases, by
establishing governing bodies and keeping
the general interest of the community. These
governing bodies, not only keep a constant
check
on
the
available
resources
segregated for community use, but also
settles disputes between two parties. On the
whole they look over and take care of the
natural and human resources available.
Governing bodies are established for this
sole purpose only, and not to force power on
the people in any way. Thus the governing
bodies or individuals within these governing
bodies are chosen by the people themselves
for the betterment of the community as a
whole. It would be apt to say that functioning
of the household in Nongriat is based on
kinship, and the society at large operate
under the concept of democracy. Hence
there is no caste system found here and
everyone is considered to be equal.
System of administration and social
hierarchy

by Nongkynrih in his book Khasis of

Meghalaya throws light on the administrative
structure of this region in total. Empirical
study conducted in this village revealed that,
a few people, acknowledged the meanings
of all the Khasi terms mentioned in this
chapter. Hence the study was under the
pretext that the same rules of governance,
apply to this village too. He explains it as
follows. 'Traditionally, Khasi
villages have enjoyed autonomy in the
organization and management of their own
affairs and have exercised collective control
over their natural and human resources'.
This control over the resources within the
boundary of Nongriat is exercised by a
village council called as dorbar shnong,
consisting of the village elders, The
resources outside the boundary of individual
villages (Nongriat and surrounding small
villages) are managed by an apex council
consisting of headman of each village. The
system is explained further as follows. 'The
apex council further nominates a member
(from any of these villages from which the
council members are from) known as a
Syiem (Nongkynrih, 2002). As a political
head of this apex council, known as Dorbar
Syiem or Dorbar Hima' his decisions are
solely guided by the members of this Dorbar.
Hence a Dorbar Hima or Dorbar Syiem
governs all the resources outside the
boundaries of all the villages, in the same
region collectively. Illustration 28 Denotes

the same structure mentioned above

diagrammatically.
As
explained
in
furthermore detail by Nongkynrih, it is
obvious that the land across the state of
Meghalaya is divided in a much more
complex way. The explanation is as follows.
'....if we consider Hima Sohra., it consist of
the East Khasi hills, which is further divided
into 1) upland or the top table land of the
plateau. 2) the slopes on the Southern side
tapering down to the plains of Sylhet in
Bangladesh and 3) slopes on Northern side,
going towards the plains of lower Assam'. It
is in the slopes of the southern side, referred
to as Khynriam War where the village of
Nongriat exists. There are a total of 99
villages under Hima Sohra. out of which 73
villages are on the slopes scattered in all
directions. Out of these 73 villages 15
villages are on the slopes, between south
and the west. These are collectively known
as Khat-Hynriew-Shnong and Nongriat is in
this region. In the matter of governing the
resources and people, the units, Shnong
and Kyntoit play an important role. While
shnong is described as the smallest unit of
organized human aggregation, extending
beyond and bigger than a family or a house
hold, Kyntoit generally refers to a part of a
locality within the village. It has a status
subordinate to that village and has distinct
identity within a village (Nongkynrih, 2002).
Hence a village may consist of two or more
different kyntoits. Hima consists of ' A
number of kyntoit (with a minimum of 2 to a

syiem

Dorbar hima/dorbar syiem

Actual location of the village

Dorbar shnong of village 3

Dorbar shnong of village 2

Dorbar shnong of village 1

Dorbar shnong of village 4

Resource boundary of village 4

Resource boundary of village 3
Resource boundary of village 2

Resource boundary of village 1

Illustration 28: showing collective control of resources

Boundary of resources outside

the boundary of each village in
the region

maximum of 9)..... clustered and put under a

headman or a Sirdar' (Nongkynrih, 2002).
Hence Hima consist of various localities of a
village, clustered with localities of the same
or other neighboring villages. 'A large clan
establishes its own domain or locality, where
only the clansmen and their close paternal
relatives reside. The maternal uncle of the
families of clansmen, besides being the
custodian of their religious rites is also the
man to rule and administer over the social
and daily affairs of this locality' (Mawrie,
1981). By this logic since Nongriat is
governed by a single Sirdar, it becomes a
cluster of various such localities governed
by their respective maternal uncle. This
explains their nature of protecting certain
resource bases for equal use of the
community, because they, by concept, are
protecting larger parts of their resource base
for their own clansmen, as the village will
consist of only a few localities. Only few
clans exist and hence fewer groups. The
concept of a village could have come much
later. In the English language literature of
the Khasi society Shnong has always been
only referred to as a village (Nongkynrih,
2002), but it actually denotes what has been
mentioned above. Hence it can be
concluded that Hima Sohra. is divided on
the basis of localities, inhabited by
clansmen. Thus the resource flow pattern of
a kur, as explained in the previous chapter
holds good at a larger perspective of the
localities of Nongriat. As from the above

understanding it wouldn't be wrong to use exercise his authority over the others.
the word 'group of localities' instead of People of this village normally choose a
Sirdar every three to five years, and during
'village' in relation to it's use with Nongriat.
the field visit, the Sirdar had already finished
As mentioned earlier, group of Kyntoit are five years in his post and was going to
put under a head, a Sirdar and his decisions continue till people choose otherwise. He
are informed by the elders. The laws of had, in the communities interest, banned
governance of natural and human resources fishing and exploitation of the rivers that
in a kyntoit is over looked by the sirdar, while were flowing within the vicinity of the village.
the authority to take decisions lies with the He had also ordered to add another decker
elders of the village who form the village to the existing living root bridge to promote
council. Any elder of the village can be part tourism, due to which people came together
of this council of members which form a and have started the process of addition. He
Dorbar shnong. Each adult male member, had also, with the help of other fellow
who is over 25 years of age, who work for members built a guest house for the sake of
the subsistence, or contribute to the travelers who come to visit these root
subsistence of the community can bridges, and was responsible in maintaining
participate in the proceedings of this council. it. With the help of the people of this village
In other words he is considered as an adult and the church he had also set up a small
only when he starts taking responsibilities. In community hall to carry out the proceeding
a typical house hold there would be at least of the village council. If the village was in
one adult male member who would be part need of infrastructure the Sirdar would order
of this council. Hence it is ultimately the the the people to contribute towards its
people who govern. In most cases people development, and they would abide by it. If
abide by the decisions taken by the Sirdar. If matters of dispute were not settled by the
a dispute breaks out between two people, Sirdar, it would go to the village council, and
the Sirdar and the elders listen to both the this council is treated as the ultimate source
parties and try to strike a compromise so as of authority (Mawrie, 1981). Syiems on the
to avoid feuds. It was noticed in the village other hand govern larger areas of resource
of Nongriat that even though the Sirdar is bases lying outside the village boundaries
respected amongst the Khasis for his (gray area in Illustration 28). Such areas are
position in their society, he leads a simple the 'in-between areas' of Kyntoit or
life like any other member of the village. He Shnongs. Such a political head is treated
for the Khasis, is one amongst them, as a equivalent to a king in his authority, but they
representative, and not somebody who can cannot exercise any control directly with in

the Kyntoits as they function independently.

'These kings used to be like mothers, they
would collect and take care of the destitute,
the abandoned, the orphans, the support
less and also those who have lost their
clansmen, whose relatives having all died
and there is no one left to take care of them'
(Mawrie, 1981). Since such people wouldn't
have their own locality for the lack of people
in their clan they wouldn't belong to any
Kyntoit either unless taken in by other Kurs.
A Syiem's decision is informed by the Dorbar
raid consisting of all the members of Dorbar
shnong which are clustered together. Even
though Dorbar raid is above Dorbar shnong
the authority over clustered Kyntoits are with
the council of members of the Darbor
shnong. The council of members of Dorbar
raid can only influence the former to take
decisions, but it is entirely up to him. Above
the Dorbar raid is another political institution
known as Hima at the state level
(Nongkynrih, 2002). Thus the Khasi
administration has a true democratic
system, where even the highest order of
power is controlled by the people who
constitute as the smallest unit of this system.
This type of administration has prevailed
over hundreds of years and as per the Sixth
schedule of the Indian constitution (1983), it
guarantees preservation of traditional
customs, laws, and institutions of the tribal
societies of the north-eastern region of India.
Hence as per the Indian constitution, the
state of Meghalaya has a dual system of

administration, 1) modern bureaucratic

administration as found elsewhere in the
country (Shangpliang, 2010) and 2) the
above mentioned, traditional system which
are governed as per the clans. To conclude
the following pattern emerges. Hima
consists of various Kyntoits. Kyntiots are
localities established by clans or Kurs.
Various Kyntoits are clustered and put under
a Sirdar. Since the whole village of Nongriat
is governed by a single Sirdar, it is
comprised of various localities formed by
different Kurs. Hence the resources flows in
two ways 1) from resource base to Kurs and
2) from kur-kur by marriage or in adverse
conditions. Illustration 29 explains the same
diagrammatically.
Culture
Their traditional system of administration
has arisen out of the Khasi religion. People
of this region (which includes the village of
Nongriat) still follow their age old traditional
system of administration in spite of their
conversion to Christianity. The reason for
this is that the concept of living as a part of
community is embedded within the Khasi
culture. 'He does not live nor profess all by
himself and he who prefers to live by himself
is an outcast and U Nongaiksuid. The true
Khasi lives for himself alone but he lives
also for others, he must not isolate himself in
spirit and in life from the rest of his tribe'

of their community and when they are not in

the forests managing their subsistence, they
spend their time with other villagers, often of
the same generation or age group. The
below observations were made during our
field visit to Nongriat. Mr Godfrey, the school
teacher often ventured to the forests after
school. Once he returned from the forests
he would prepare food, have his meal and
set out with his friends every evening either
spend
time
with
them.
Since this village consists of only a few
hundred people every one knows each other
by names. Nongriat is located on the south
western slopes of a hill and the houses are
scattered all over it . After dawn people are
seen walking around with torches. They call
each other out loudly, to communicate
across a distance. Children often make loud
noises (and not call out names) to
communicate with their friends who would
be on the other side of the village. The
people of this village come together during
special occasions like festivals and
marriages to dance and celebrate. The
village is treated as a property of the
community . As mentioned earlier people
come together, under the orders of the sirdar
for it's improvement and when a time is set
to do so, the people leave their private
affairs and contribute to the community
work. This system of community work
prevailed since ancient times and the

root bridges of this village (Illustration 31).

When the ancestors of the present Khasis of
Nongriat found a necessity to cross rivers
during monsoons, they noticed that the tree
Ficus elastica grew on river banks by
spreading its roots haphazardly on boulders
and rocks. They devised a method to
convert these haphazardly growing roots
into living root bridges - A method seen only
in this region. This technique consists of the
following steps. 1) The thin and slender
roots of the tree from the branches are
guided through hollowed out areca nut tree
trunks (Illustration 33). 2) They are laid from
bank to bank over the river at a considerable
height with intermediate supports where
ever necessary. 3) Roots are then tied at
weak points and intertwined such that a
base is formed. These roots grow slowly
over a period of time by feeding on the
hollowed out tree trunks and After about 10
-15 years they mature and become strong
forming the skeleton of the bridge. They
grow across the river banks by getting
anchored to the boulders on the other side
(Illustration 34). 4) The gaps between the
intertwined roots are then filled with debris
or wooden logs or stones to make a path
way out of it. These bridges grow stronger
over the years and can take up to 50 people
at a time. This method of building these
bridges have been transferred from
generation to generation and is now
embedded in the people of this village.

It is not just during festivals or community

work that the people of Nongriat come
together. They help each other when
required. For example when a new house is
being built in the village by a fellow member,
a few others, who may or may not not
belong to his kur, help him out to in finishing
the structure. No one in the village is left to
feel alone, be it a widower, an orphan or a
spinster. People of the village come together
to help such a person for his/her
subsistence. Apart from all the above
mentioned community participations, people
of Nongriat come together in meetings held
by self help groups. Honey collected by
them is sold through these groups and the
meeting for the same is held in the houses
of it's members. They gather in different
houses on different days of the week to
deliberate on this issue.

embedded within their culture. All the three

factors, 1) kinship and marriage 2) The
structure of administration and social
hierarchy and 3) the culture of the
community, gives rise to a society with
egalitarian principles. Hence, their idea of
equality and community living has arisen out
of a complex system of value judgments.
The idea of kinship has bound them as a
whole and their culture has taught them to
participate in their community. Hence the
decisions taken by them are always in
accordance with their laws and customs,
and considers others who live with them.
This forms the society as a whole.
Illustration 29 summarizes this chapter. Their
egalitarian behavior towards their resource
use and administration is a resultant of the
structure of their society.

Summary
On the whole 'The Khasis are not lovers of
wealth' (Mawrie, 1981) in general and do not
live only for themselves. Kinship influences
the way in which house holds and clans are
formed which further influences in the way
the land is divided. The divided land is
administrated accordingly by community
way of controlling the available resources
where governing bodies are controlled by
the people. They are established to regulate
the useage of common resource pools. The Illustration 30: diagram showing
components of the Khasi society of Nongriat

Illustration 29: land division system

Hima
Direction of
Resource flow

Kyntoit
Village

Case of Nongriat
where clustered
Kyntoits are in the
same village

Clustered Kyntoits under

the governance of a single sirdar

Kyntoits being localities,

predominantly run by a kur
(Kur - as in illustration 25)

Illustration 31: The living root bridges

Illustration 32: roots branch off in between naturally to

support themselves

Illustration 33: hollowed out areca nut tree trunks used as a

guidance system for the roots of living bridges

Illustration 34: roots seen anchored to rocks for support, forming the bridge

CHAPTER 5: SETTLEMENT, HOUSES AND LAND

Illustration 35: view of the settlement from the topmost house

Illustration 36: A Khasi women of Nongriat climbing a series of steps with a traditional bamboo basket

5.1 SETTLEMENT AND HOUSES

Illustration 37: Interior of the last vernacular house

Illustration 38: furnitures are built in within the house

The village of Nongriat is located

strategically as per the climate. It is almost
towards the valley between two hills
(Illustration 16). Both these mountains offers
resistance to the settlement from strong
winds and storms which prevail in this
region. Hence Nongriat is warmer than
Cherrapunji or Tyrna. As mentioned earlier
the settlement is tethered around three
rivers and one of it flows right through it. The
village got the supply of electricity only in the
year 2011. A community hall and a primary
school up to fifth grade are the only two
public facilities available in this village. The
settlement is spread almost throughout the
foot hills with houses set quite apart from
each other. Houses belonging to a single kur
are built close to each other. For example,
Mr Godfrey's sisters house was built in close
proximity to her mother's house. The
settlement being on the steep slopes,
houses are connected with flight of steps (
Illustration 36) . People build their houses
themselves and as described by Gurdon in
his book The Khasis, these vernacular
houses were always built with oak wood on
stilts to counter the steep slopes.
Sometimes they are built almost at the edge
of steep rocks. The houses had one single
room with a hearth at the center. No
separate chimney was built to direct the
smoke outside, but instead a platform made
out of wood collected from forest, was
suspended over the chula and freshly cut
wood was kept there. Smoke covered this

platform from with char and the heat dried

the freshly cut wood over a period of time.
Being one of the wettest places on earth,
this system was devised to dry wood. In the
Khasi society it was considered a taboo to
nail any piece of wood to build a house
(Gurdon, 1914) . Thus vernacular houses
were built without any nails. There was only
one vernacular house left in this village,
completely built with wood and thatch,
where no piece of wood was nailed to each
other (illustrations 10, 37 & 38) . Planks of
oak wood were plained and laid horizontally
to form the floor board and were laid
vertically with gaps in between to form walls.
These walls were tied by ropes and braced
with bamboo, both outside and inside. There
were no formal partitions inside, but the
spaces were demarcated notionally. One
corner had a chula which formed the kitchen
and suspended panel made out of bamboo
held a lot of house hold objects and other
items (Illustration 37) . In some houses
these suspended panels were at two
different levels with wood being kept at the
first level and house hold objects at the
second. The other two adjacent sides from
the entry had built in platforms which were
used either for sitting or for sleeping at night
(Illustration 38). In more well to do houses
there are partitions between kitchen and
living, some have upper stories where
bedrooms are marked by wooden planks,
acting as partition. Toilets for every house is
outside, a little away from the main building

Illustration 40: fencing used to keep poultry

Illustration 41: structure to house poultry

with its own septic tank (Illustration 39). A

cage like shelter made of wooden poles and
split bamboo is often seen outside many
houses. Standing at about 1.5 m tall they
house poultry, mainly pigs, and hens (
Illustration 40&41). A small piece of flattened
land (Illustration 42&43) in front of the
houses are often used for sun drying
clothes, pepper, chillies and is retained in
place by a random rubble stone wall.
Sometimes a small vegetable garden can be
seen in these spaces and a semi open
veranda opens out towards it with a small
flight of steps leading from the open area
into this veranda ( Illustration 11 &
42).Building materials of most of the other
houses were gradually being replaced.
Almost all the houses had tin roof. Some
were being demolished and new houses
with columns, beams and hollow cement
blocks were being constructed in their place
(Illustration 44&45). While oak wood and
bamboo is mainly obtained from from the
forest for building houses, concrete blocks,
cement sacks and sand are carried by the
villagers from Tyrna which are brought from
Cherrapunji or Shillong. A chapel has also
been built amongst these houses in hollow
concrete block with a sloping roof, neatly
plastered and painted (Illustration 46).
Masses are held every week on Sundays,
other wise it remains shut. Sometimes they
get help from Cherrapunji to do skilled work
for construction, but most of the unskilled
works are managed by themselves. On the

whole they work not only in the forests but

work on everything related to their house
hold. As mentioned in the introduction,
Nongriat got electricity connection only in
the year 2011. As a result there are no street
lights and the only lights seen after dawn are
of the bulbs which glow inside the houses.
Sometimes they glow in the veranda
outside. These dim lights keep the pathways
lit till morning. Parents can be heard talking
and singing to their little children to sleep.
Kids are often seen playing around in the
evenings, as late as 9:00 pm. They are often
seen playing in the little space right in front
of their houses. They are found climbing
trees and can be heard running around to
their friends houses even in the dark. Dogs
and cats are favorite pets. Dogs can be
heard barking and howling at night. Even
though there is no municipal water
connection, there are common points almost
one for every three houses where water
comes in pipes from the streams uphill
Illustration 8. It is a common sight to see
water running off either due to damaged
taps or people forgetting to close them.
There is no water shortage in this village as
the streams which provide water have water
through out the year. Stars appear clearly on
a non cloudy night through the openings of
the leaf covers of betel nut trees without the
reflection of any lights from any near by city
or a town. The only sounds heard at night
are that of crickets, Owls and frogs along
with a few other animals, insects

Illustration 43: cut land being retained by

random rubble stone masonry

Illustration 42: flattened out portion of the land in front of the houses used to dry the plant materials

and birds. This region is home to Tigers,

Leopards, deers, bears, and other variety of
birds and insects (Shangpliang, 2010).
Various types of moths and other insects get
attracted to light and fly around the bulbs
inside the houses. People play music loudly.
They listen to English, Hindi and Khasi
songs throughout the day on their music
systems when not out in the forests. A
double decker root bridge spans across the
river Umshiang which connects the village to
the forest. Just before the monsoon when
this stream is dry with pockets of water
pools, kids can be seen playing while their
mothers wash clothes in the water that flows
gently between rocks. Bamboo or hollowed
out areca nut tree trunks are used in such
streams to make a spout for the gently
flowing water Illustration 5. Men and woman
alike are seen doing domestic work from
cooking to washing and drying clothes. A
guest house with four rooms and 8 beds,
meant for visitors is also built just after the
root bridges.

threshes to establish a custom he does it on

the assumption that the whole land under
his possession is a community land'
(Mawrie,
1981).
The
concept
of
administration as explained in the previous
chapter applies to the way land is owned or
used. This has definitely arisen out of their
culture where the idea of a community is
deeply embedded. The Khasis of this region
too follow the same principles. The concept
being that, people would use the land
resources as per their needs. No one can
own large properties and not maintain it or
get it maintained by others 1 . This way a
person will posses land areas which can be
maintained within his or her capability, failing
to which the ownership of the land will revert
back to the community.

At a greater scale the land of the Khasis

always belonged and is still held to belong to
the people and neither to the rulers nor the
Government. To avoid the ambiguity and
ownership of land, the government of
Meghalaya appointed the Land Reforms
Commission in 1973 to bring about a logical
5.2 LAND
order of the Khasi land tenure system and
'Any person can acquire any part of the land it's related concepts of ownership, control
for his individual use but he should utilize it. and occupancy rights of land (Shangpliang,
This land so used may, after years, become 2010).
Ri Kynti (private land), but if the land is un
kept and un utilized it again becomes Types of land
community land. Neither custom nor
tradition allows any one to acquire land As per the commission, land here can be

land, 2) Ri Kynti or privately owned land and

3) Government land.
1) Ri Raid
The concept of community owned land is a
resultant of their society and custom. As
mentioned in the earlier chapter, their
intricate society has given rise to their
egalitarian nature which considers all the
people in their community. This community
in Nongriat consist of all the localities under
the Sirdar. Community lands can be
considered to be equivalent to public lands.
Where transferable rights cannot be gained
except when 'permanent improvements on
the land is done, like in the form of
permanent buildings, or cultivation of
permanent crops or planting fruit bearing
trees. These rights lapse if the land is
abandoned over a long period(Shangpliang,
2010)'. Hence a piece of land (falling under
the category of Ri Raid) will remain public till
occupied by someone who is in need and
the decision for the same lies with Dorbar
shnong. The rights to enjoy the useage of
such lands are not permitted to people who
belong to another village, even if that village
or the locality in that village is governed by
the same Sirdar (who is the political head of
all the localities under him). Since the village
of Nongriat is governed by a single Sirdar no
such problem will arise as the boundary of
village and the jurisdiction of the Sirdar are
the same. Land in Nongriat, referred to as Ri

1 Maintain refers to cultivation or building houses or planting fruit bearing trees.

are set apart for common useage like,

collecting fire wood, gathering uncultivated
resources, fishing or for water catchment. Ri
Raid can include forest land or land with in
the village or the whole village in total which
can be utilized by any member of the same
village. Another type of community owned
forest land, the sacred grooves come under
this category. It's relation to the Khasis is
explained below.
Sacred grooves (Law Kyntang):
Law Kyntang as they are called are portions
of virgin forests left untouched since peragrarian age (Shangpliang, 2010) . These
lands are forbidden to be ventured into.
Such sacred grooves exist in the valley just
before the river Simtung at the foot hills of
the first mountains (Illustration 16) The
ancestors of Nongriat demarcated these
portions of the forest where extraction of
resources were banned. The ecology of the
place was undisturbed as people seldom
ventured there. When people here still
followed the Khasi religion these forests
were entered only during religious
ceremonies and wood was taken from here
only for cremation purposes. People of this
village still respect their ancestors and
inspite of their conversion to Christianity,
they do not venture or exploit these forests.
This was a simple rule of thumb to avoid a
resource collapse. It provided complete
protection to certain habitat patches which
2

sacred grooves emerging during the pre

agraian age become stronger with Gause
showing that prey extinction could be
avoided only by providing the prey a
refugium, an area of the experimental arena
inaccessible to the predator where the prey
could maintain a minimal population and
from which other areas could be colonized
by it (Gadgil & Ramachandra, 1992). B.K
Roy Burman talked of sacred grooves in
Meghalaya as being created for king priests
who extended protection to traders, who
traveled on international routes. Though this
theory seems less applicable here, due to
the very remote nature of the place. 'It is
almost impossible to determine the date of
origin of these sacred grooves or the
purpose for which it was built for'
(Shangpliang, 2010). Nonetheless certain
evidences found amongst the Khasis
suggest that these sacred grooves existed
due to their affinity and sensitivity towards
nature. Following are examples found during
the field visit that show this affinity and
sensitivity. In the village of Nongriat, the tree
with which living root bridges are built were
worshiped by the ancestors. The trees of the
genus Ficus act as keystone resource,
supporting a wide variety of organisms and
holding multiple ecosystems. These trees
cannot be grown by human beings as they
need natural pollinators. The complete
growth of this tree cannot be seen in one
lifetime of a human being as they survive for
hundreds of years. Probably this is the

2 Frame work from This Fissured land(Gadgil & Ramachandra, 1992).

reason, why the ancestors who lived in

Nongriat used these trees as living bridges,
rather than cutting it's roots to make bridges
out of it. In an another example, it was found
that a specific type of flower was used
Illustration 47: a specific type of flowering
plant used on top of the tip of on top of
stalks of plants planted for growth. This
grafted trees plant that got decayed helped
in its vegetative growth (Illustration 47). The
beliefs related to these forests were part of
the Khasi religion and rituals. A detailed
account of which is given by Shangpliang in
the chapter people and forests in the Khasi
hills.
2) Ri Kynti and Ri Kur
Ri Kynti is a private land or pieces of lands
owned by an individual family. This type of
land can be either acquired or inherited. As
mentioned above community lands or Ri riad
lands become Ri Kynti or private land under
the above mentioned conditions. Ri Kur on
the other hand as the name suggests, is a
piece of land or pieces of lands owned by
clans in total. All the members of the clan
are entitled to share in the produce of any of
the clan lands they may cultivate. The
maternal uncle of the youngest daughter of
the main family, or branch of the clan is the
manager of this type of land. No clan lands
can be alienated without the consent of a
Dorbar of the whole clan (Gurdon, 1914).

Illustration 45: the last standing traditional house seen in between a new construction (on the right) and a relatively new house (on the left)

Illustration 46: chapel in this village is built almost at the top of the hill.

Inheritance
Since they trace their family lineage through
the female blood line the property is
inherited by the daughters. As mentioned in
the previous chapter, the youngest daughter
is the care taker of mother's iing. Such a
house inherited by her after her mother's
death is referred by others as ing-seng
which means ancestral house. After the
mother's death the property owned by the
mother gets dived amongst the daughter's.
The following paragraph by Gurdon explains
the inheritance system. 'the youngest
daughter gets the lion's share, e.g. the
family jewelery, and the family house, and
the greater part of what it contains..... The
youngest daughter cannot dispose of the
house without the unanimous consent of her
sisters. If the youngest daughter dies, she is
succeeded by the next youngest daughter,
and so on. All the daughters are bound to
repair the house of the youngest daughter
free of cost. In the event of the youngest
daughter
changing
her
religion,
or
committing an act of sang, or taboo, she
loses her position in the family, and is
succeeded by her next youngest sister, as in
the case of a death. Failing daughters,
inheritance would pass......to the sister's
youngest
daughter,
who
would
be
succeeded by her youngest daughter, and
so on. Failing sister's daughters succession
would revert to the mother's sisters and their
female descendants......Amongst Khasis all

property which has been acquired by a man

before marriage is considered to belong to
his mother or to the man's Kur. After
marriage, if there are children, the case is
different, provided that the property has
been acquired by the man after marriage.
Here the wife and children would inherit the
acquired property, the youngest daughter
obtaining the largest share of such property
on the death of the wife. If there were no
daughter, the acquired property would be
equally divided amongst the sons' (Gurdon,
1914).
Summary
Even though the Khasis have egalitarian
principles on which their concept of
community land is built upon, their notion of
private property is equally strong. This
concept of private land has been structured
keeping in mind their subsistence and since
their notion of kinship and clan is strong,
their sense of ownership of land is also
similar. Hence land is never an individual
prized possession, but an entity belonging to
the family, or clan or the community as a
whole. It can be concluded that it's
structuring is based on subsistence but
ownership
is
based
on
kinship.
Fundamentally each family or clan can only
own the lands which can be maintained by
them. Which not only implies that more
number of people in the family require more

contributing towards subsistence need to do

so. Therefore if more number of people in a
family contribute, better it would be for the
family or the clan. Further since their main
mode of energy used in their subsistence is
muscle power, they can exploit the
resources only as per their physical
capabilities. One may argue that it still
amounts to exploitation, and it probably
made much more sense in times when
forest resources were more abundantly
available, but the Khasis had a way to check
and balance the resource depletion. The
sacred grooves did just the same. These
virgin forests provided the species which
were exploited, a refuge to multiply and
populate. This type of a fail safe mechanism
to avoid collapse of resource bases were
proportional to the population that exploited
these resources in the neighboring areas.
Which means that the area of sacred groves
were proportional to the population that
existed but once people got converted to
Christianity, their customs got lost along with
their religion, and along with their religion
other important parameter which governed
these simple principles, which kept the
resources in balance to it's use age, got lost.
Hence the extent of sacred grooves never
increased but the population did. The
change in religion has done just that. It has
destroyed their culture, customs and the
important delicate rules that helped the
people live in harmony with nature. The
following example by Gurdon explains the

same in the context of land inheritance 'but

in the Khasi Hills nowadays a man may
leave such lands, provided they were
acquired after marriage, either formally by
will, or informally, to his children for their
support'. The village of Nongriat is a perfect
example for such a drastic change. With
respect to Mr. Godfrey's example, he lived in
his mother's iing with his wife, while his only
sister had moved out to form her own iing.
This was an unusual deviation from the
regular matrilineal descent, and could be
only explained through the change in their
religion. The land owned by him would now
belong to his children and not to his mother's
iing or his wife's iing. The land thus owned
will become part of a smaller group and not
part of a complete clan. This shows the
destruction of a complete system caused by
changing one simple rule due to a change in
their religion.

Illustration 47: a specific type of flowering plant used on top of the tip of grafted trees

CHAPTER 6 STRATEGIES, TACTICS AND ADAPTATIONS

6.1 STRATEGIES AND TACTICS
'A strategy is a broad, overall plan, the term
refers to long term goals (ex, making a
living), not short-term practices (ex, one's
current job). Short-term practices are called
tactics, they are the methods used to
execute or accomplish the strategy....
Anthropologists often classify cultures based
primarily on general subsistence strategy,
generally the most visible or important
aspect of how they obtain their living, a
definition primarily based on ecology rather
than on social criteria (although ecology and
social factors are related)'(Sutton &
Anderson, 2004). The Khasis of Nongriat
depend on the forests for their living. While
gathering, agriculture, apiculture and fishing
form strategies of making a living, methods
devised for each become tactics. Hence the
variations in nature play an important role in
their strategies and their tactics change
accordingly. They adopt various tactics to
achieve each of these strategies. While we
have discussed these in detail in CHAPTER
3: SUBSISTENCE AND SETTLEMENT the
Table 1 given below lists such tactics used
with each strategy, by the people of
Nongriat. When tactics are used over a long
period of time they get added to the
community knowledge database, and can
become a strategy. Various objects gathered
from the forest for subsistence needed the
knowledge of seasonal variations of various

available resources. Even though, the

Khasis of this region might have started the
process of gathering without this knowledge,
they might have started noticing the
seasonal variations. Once they understood
these variations completely, they adopted
tactics to improve the productivity. These
tactics developed by their ancestors have
become today's strategies. For example
their knowledge seasonal breeding of fishes
might have come much later. When their
tactic of fishing during breeding season
resulted in non availability of fishes in the
following seasons, they understood the
reason
behind
it.
Further
their
experimentation of various tactics on fishing
gave rise to a fool proof strategy of 'fishing
during non breeding season'.
6.2 DAILY ROUTINE
Like in any other occupation, the Khasis of
Nongriat have a regular routine for their
subsistence. This routine is governed by the
seasonal variations and the knowledge of
availability of resources in these forests.
While there might be variations in this
routine in different seasons due to variations
in tactics, over all routine followed is the
same for each mode of resource use.
Empirical study revealed a routine of a Khasi
in Nongriat, and is described as follows.

Sunrises at around 5:45 am in Nongriat

during the month of March. During this
month everyday from 6:00 am, people can
be seen heading towards the forest in every
direction of the village. Some leave at 7:00
am, some at 9:00 am, there is no fixed time
for the people to go but generally they leave
in the morning and return just before sunset.
A series of steps from different points of the
village lead into the forest and disappears.
They act as markers in various directions to
help people get a sense of orientation. This
is a tactic designed not only to help people
in directing themselves towards the forest,
but also as markers to find their way back.
When the forest slowly becomes denser the
steps start disappearing. To understand the
daily routine of a Khasi in Nongriat let us
take the case of Mr. Godfrey who is the only
person running and maintaining the school
in Nongriat. Every day he gets up at around
7:00 am. He cooks breakfast for him, his
wife and his mother. After having his
breakfast he goes to school. He teaches
there from 9:00 am till 2:00 pm and comes
back to cook lunch. Once done eating he
rests for a little while, after resting he cuts
fire wood and then ventures out to the
forests. He carries with him either a side bag
or an inverted conical, bamboo basket (like
the one seen in Illustration 36 )or both as
per his requirement. Sometimes a gunny

Table 1: inventory of strategies and tactics

bag replaces the basket. The gunny bag and

the baskets are tied around their head. This
gives them a measure of how much they
can carry (part of his tactic). They can carry
as much as 40 kilograms of weight on their
backs in these bags or baskets. While in the
forest he locates the available resource and
starts collecting them, while simultaneously
maintaining them. A Khasi knows and
recognizes almost all the plants and trees
around him. There are names in the Khasi
language for various species of plants found
in the forest. He knows where to look for the
plant he is searching for. The knowledge
transferred by his elders about various
resources around him forms as a tactic and
helps him in carrying out his strategy for his
subsistence. Godfrey walks to the forest
every day with a hoe to cut and clear plants
as he proceeds. The chopped off plants are
gathered around the wanted plants (in this
case pepper plants), which decompose and
becomes natural fertilizer. This is part of a
strategy adopted by him to maintain the
cultivated forests for long term gains. He
cuts and clears the tree cover around
pepper plants to let sunlight for its good
growth. While he is in the forests, if he
notices any fallen trees or cut wood
leftovers, he cuts them further with an Axe
and carries back the pieces on his shoulder
for use as firewood. He stays in the forests
and continues to look for the required
resources till the evening, as the sun begins
to set he heads back in the direction of his

village and returns just before sunset with

the collected materials. He then cooks
dinner for his family, eats it and ventures out
with friends only to return at night.
6.3 PHYSIOLOGICAL ADAPTATIONS DUE
TO ENVIRONMENTAL
STRESS
Like all animals, humans are subject to
stress, conditions that require either a
shortterm or a long term response. We
have biological requirements and tolerances
and
must
operate
within
certain
environmental
parameters.(Sutton
&
Anderson, 2004). When human beings
come in contact with environment, it
influences them. This influence can be either
psychological, physiological or anatomical.
Anatomical influences are explained below.
Physiological adaptations are relatively
short-term changes in the body in response
to rapid changes in environment. Genetics
and selection determine the presence of
these mechanisms, but environmental
conditions determine weather they are used.
Two basic physiological responses are.....
primary and secondary. Primary responses,
often called acclimatization, are immediate,
occurring within minutes or days......
Secondary responses may take months or
even years... Anatomical adaptations are
long term genetic changes in genotype (and
so phenotype) due to selective pressures.

adaptations reflect changes that are passed

to subsequent generations.(Sutton &
Anderson, 2004). These types of genetic
changes can be seen all across the world.
For example: a recent study has found that
a particular gene known as 7R could be
associated with restlessness and hence
migration. This gene along with a gene
named 2R is found more frequently in
populations whose ancestors migrated long
distances after they moved out of Africa.
Another recent study suggests that among
the Ariaal tribesmen of Africa, those who
carry 7R genes tend to be stronger and
better fed than their non 7R counterparts if
they live in nomadic tribes, possibly
reflecting better fitness for a nomadic
life....However, 7R carriers tend to be less
well nourished if they live as settled
villagers. The variants value, then, like that
of many genes and traits, may depend on
the surroundings (Dobbs, 2013).
Influences of nature on the physical
characteristics (anatomical influences) of
a Khasi
The Khasis of Nongriat have adapted their
basic body structure to the difficult terrain
that they live in. They are short and lean.
Males have extremely muscular body. Both
males and females have highly developed
calf muscles. The reason for this is their
daily routine. Young women stay back to

others venture into the forest. During their

time in the forest they collect various things
and carry them back in their bamboo
baskets trekking and negotiating the rugged
terrain which consists of steep hills, dense
forests, rivers and rocky river banks.
Depending upon the season (refer table)
they collect various things, sometimes
weighing up to 40 kilograms, either for daily
consumption or to sell it in the market of
Cherrapunji which is located 18-20 kms
away. In other words their survival is
dependent on this mode of resource use. 40
kilograms seems to be the maximum weight
that they carry on their back. Every time they
have to sell items collected from the forest
outside the village, they have to trek for 2
hours to the village Tyrna from where
transportation is available to go further. This
practice of resource use which they have
been following since time immemorial hasn't
changed in the past hundred years3. They
are found carrying long pieces of wood on
their shoulders up the steep slopes.
Traditionally their entire houses were built by
themselves in wood and thatch, but with the
advent of new construction materials,
houses are now being built partly by
contractors or people with a little expertise
who come from outside. But materials like
hollow concrete blocks, concrete, sand,
reinforcement bars, and tin sheets are
carried physically by the people themselves
from Tyrna. They are often seen doing
physical labor throughout the day. Even after

returning home from the forest, they can be reason is that this is a long term genetic
seen cutting fire wood or washing clothes. change which is a form of anatomical
The people like the Japanese are fond of adaptation.
nature,3 the surrounding mountains and
rivers are not just a source for their
livelihood but also their playground. The
young males of Nongriat occasionally, after
coming back from the forest go out to the
river valleys, at around 8 pm, to fish. They
are sometimes gone for hours in search of
leisure.
Summary:
The Khasis of Nongriat are hard working
people who have adapted to their
environment. Their natural surroundings
made of difficult terrain along with their
physically enduring routine have shaped
their body for hundreds of years. One of
man's greatest discovery-the wheel is
rendered useless in this terrain. All these
factors have
partly made human muscle
4
power as the main energy resources used
by them. This has given rise to anatomical
adaptations in them. This also means that
they are confined to use their muscle power
to extract resource from their environment
and hence this extraction is limited within the
boundaries of their physical tolerances. All
though high development of calf muscles in
the Khasis of Nongriat seem to be a type of
secondary physiological response, this
character is also seen in young females who

3 Gurdon, 1914 gives an account of their physical characters, methods of lively hood, occupation & lifestyle, all of which accounts for their mode of resource use.
4 Frame work from This Fissured land(Gadgil & Ramachandra, 1992).

CHAPTER 7: KNOWLEDGE
7.1 QUALITY OF EDUCATION V/S OCCUPATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES V/S RESOURCE USE PATTERN
5

Nongriat is a small village which is located in

one corner of the east Khasi hills. As
mentioned in the introduction it is extremely
remote. With a population of around three
hundred people it has received very less
influence from the nearest urban area
(Cherrapunji). As a result the village lacks in
basic amenities. The only facilities that exist
in this village is a school which offers
education up to fifth grade and a small
community hall. Unlike other schools in
towns and cities, no strict rules are followed
here. It starts as early as eight or nine O'
clock and ends at twelve or two O' clock.
There are no partitions in this school and all
the thirty five students studying here, who
belong to different grades are made to sit
under one roof. Likewise the only teacher of
this village manages to teach them all. The
school master Mr Godfrey, groups children
belonging to the same grade and gives them
exercises accordingly. When he is done with
the last group he comes back to the first, to
check their progress, thus managing to
teach all the children at the same time.
Similar pattern of teaching was observed by
Nongkynrih in his filed visit, and is
mentioned in his book The Khasi Society (
Refer Appendix 2 Status of education in the
village of Kongthong.) Khasi is the medium
of language for teaching. Very little English
is taught here, the result of which is seen in

teenagers and little children speaking very

little English or using English words (often
wrongly), especially while communicating
with outsiders. This school runs only for five
days in a week. On Saturday mornings
children can be seen walking out of the
villages towards Cherrapunji. Along with
their elders they head to the weekly market
(often referred to as small market) to buy
fruits, vegetables and other things, which
they carry back home.

The following observations were made by

the author in the village of Kongthong. There
were no extra curricular activities in the
school which was held in two shifts. The first
was from 6 am to 9 am and the second shift
was from 10 am to 12 Noon. There were 44
students in the first shift and 7 students in
the second shift. Children were free to go
after this and a few assisted their parents in
the fields. Students who wanted to pursuit
their education beyond sixth grade had to
stay in Cherrapunji. The necessity to stay
outside their village incurred extra cost to
the family head, hence it became a major
decision for parents to send students
outside their village for further education.
There was no interest from the family side or
children's side in attending school and
personal efforts of the schoolmaster alone

5 Education refers to formal schooling a child undergoes and not the kind of knowledge gained.

resulted in revitalizing the school with 59

children pursuing their education. He thus
concluded that aspirations for higher levels
of education were linked with the structure of
occupation and level of income, to support
the pursuit of education. The occupational
structure of the village was such that it did
not require high level of formal education.
There was no interest nor could the families
afford to send their children outside their
village (Nongkynrih, 2002).
In other words, he concluded by saying that
higher education was dependent on income
of the family which in turn depended on the
occupation of the earning members of the
family. And since the occupation practiced
by majority of the people of this village didn't
demand higher education, it was never a
priority. But this is also true vice versa, i.e, if
better education is provided there will be
better occupational opportunities, which can
result in better income and thus help in
better education of the coming generations.
Summary:
Similar conditions exist in Nongriat. The
school which was established by the
Christian missionaries run on the money
given by them. Yearly it gets around
anything between five to ten thousand

rupees for it's development, which in today's

world, not enough for the development of its
infrastructure. As a result there are no
facilities for providing higher education. The
school buys books for the kids, as the
families take less interest in education.
Since their educational opportunities are
less, very less youths venture out to pursue
higher education and get better jobs outside
their village. People of Nongriat are mainly
gatherers. They depend on the forests
around their village to collect their
resources. Their occupation can be broadly
classified as follows: 1) Gathering, 2)
Fishing and pisiculture, 3) Apiculture, 4)
Laborers 5) Teaching, and 6) Agriculture
(Jhum cultivation). Apart from teaching none
of their other occupations require formal
education. The knowledge required to carry
out these professions are imparted to
children at a very young age through active
participation. As a result education is not
given importance. Every day some children,
who do not go to school are seen heading to
the forests all by themselves. Others are
seen either assisting their parents in the
fields or at home after school. Thus, to
simplify, the following patterns emerge in the
village of Nongriat, 1) Occupational structure
influences the quality of education. and 2)
Educational quality influences occupation
structure. Both of these influences the
pattern of resource use as discussed below.

1) Occupational structure influencing

resource use (Illustration 6):
Various reasons mentioned above have
resulted in a close loop system of education
which give them less occupational
opportunities, which in turn forces children,
who are the future, to continue with the
same professions within the village. This
again
leads
to
less
educational
opportunities. Which means that children
end up staying in the village and continue
with the same pattern of resource use
making it a vicious cycle.
2)
Educational
quality
influencing
resource use (red dotted line in
Illustration 6):
If educational quality is improved and higher
education is being provided to the children,
more occupational opportunities emerge for
the youth. But since Nongriat is less
influenced
by
urban
areas
these
opportunities are more likely to emerge
outside their village, for which youth have to
move out. This would result in a change in
their lifestyle and hence contribute to a
resource use pattern outside the limits of
Nongriat (Thick black line in Illustration 48).
The above study is summarized in
Illustration 48. From the above study it can
be concluded that quality of education is
directly proportional to their income and vice
versa. This becomes one of the important
factors for the type of resource use the

7.2 INFORMATION SYSTEM

'The ecological wisdom of the Khasis is a
wisdom that is solidly based on experience'
(Shangpliang, 2010) their subsistence is
based on this knowledge. Their capability of
identifying
species
of
plants
and
remembering their names in the Khasi
language is part of a knowledge database
that is being created since centuries. This is
part of their strategy for the sustenance of
their kins. Such knowledge is a resultant of a
careful method adopted in inculcating
various lessons in a child. 'The adaptive
interaction of culture and nature is vital at
any point in a persons life. But, because this
interdependence is biologically based, it is
logical to assume that the most critical
period in this formative development is likely
childhood' (Kellert, 2005). The Khasis know
this, and hence involve the children in all the
day to day activities. As mentioned in the
previous chapters, married male members
of the family not only teach their own
children but also take interest in their sisters
children. In Godfery's case, after school, he
took his nephew to the forests quite often to
teach him the strategies and tactics of their
subsistence. There is no formal or forced
teaching but the kids watch and learn, his
nephew watched his uncle and learnt. Often
in the forests he told the kid what each plant
was called. Hence knowledge for the Khasis
of Nongriat is to understand Nature which

*Boundary of
Nongriat signifies
physical boundary
w.r.t migration,
resource availability
and resource use.
Illustration 48: Schematic relationship between resource use and educational opportunities.

through experience. This way the knowledge

is passed from generation to generation.
The following behavior of his nephew was
observed while in the forest. After a point in
the forest the ten year old child settled down
on a cleared piece of land and started
gathering twigs and palm leaves. He
gathered palm leaves and started tearing
them to make thin strips out of it. He then
arranged the sticks he had gathered and
started tying them together. He was seen
building, what looked like a miniature
platform raised above the ground. Y shaped
twigs were used where vertical twigs met the
horizontal ones. Once in place he carefully
tied and cross braced them by wrapping the
split leaf around the sticks, wringing it and
tucking it in, such that it didn't open. The
structure looked like a miniature version of
what could have possible been stilts built for
the houses on steep slopes, with one end
touching the slope and the other end raised
on stilts. Illustration 49 To 53 record the
process mention above. The technique of
building in this manner by understanding the
structure,
materials
used
and
by
understanding the technique to tie them,
revealed that the kids are encouraged to
actively participate in the daily routine in
Nongriat and the learning curve for such a
method is high, productive and leaves a
lasting impression.
The chapter Nature II by H.O. Mawrie in his
book The Khasi Milieu gives examples of
such teachings gained through experience.

Their following abilities become clear. 1)

They can not only predict the rains before
hand but also can judge the amount of
rainfall that is going to happen, according to
which they change their tactics of
subsistence. 2) In the olden days when the
Khasi did not have a watch to look at the
time, they looked at a flower called U tiew
kheinpor ( time indicating flower), when it's
petals closed it was time for him to head
back home from the forests. Interviews
conducted in the village revealed that this
type of flower did exist, but were not to be
seen when the field visit was made. They
listen to other signs from nature like noises
made by insects to know when to start
heading back home. 3) Their ability to
predict change in seasons came from
numerous sources of nature. This helped in
deciding the tactics and strategies for their
subsistence. 4) their knowledge of
understanding the breeding season of fishes
also came from such observations in nature.
5) His ability to cultivate was by observing
and implementing various strategies and
tactics by trial and error methods (Mawrie,
1981). Certain other lessons are also
narrated to children as stories. Even though
people here claimed that only stories from
the bible were narrated to children, there
were instances where songs were sung to
the children before sleep. These lessons
were also formed as part of their religious
customs. Various beliefs as explained by
H.O. Mawrie does exist in the regions where

people haven't converted from their original

religion. In Nongriat however most of these
beliefs were simply credited to exist in the
olden days.
Summary:
Two different systems of education surfaces
in the following chapter. One that is informed
by the formal teaching in a building called
school and the other as part of a child's daily
life, making it aware of the nature around
which helps in the subsistence and resource
use. While it is not ethical to judge one's
importance over the other, but with certainty
it can be concluded that the second system
is required by default, for the sustenance of
the society by newer generations. Since a
child's mind is malleable and can be shaped
easily, an intricate system in the society
reveals delicate ways to shape a child's
personality and thought process, such that it
is ready and fit's in the community when it
becomes an adult, with all the thumb rules,
checks and balances embedded in it.
Neither the Khasis of Nongriat hesitate to
expose their children to wild nature, nor they
take over protective steps to keep the child
safe. This was noticed in one instance,
where a little girl, while walking in the dark
came stepped on a little snake. She got
scared, but happily laughed it off moments
later. The elders around her neither seemed
to be petrified about it nor did they go behind

Illustration 49: the child seen shredding the palm leaves into
stripes

Illustration 50: leaves are used for tying sticks together

Illustration 51: cross bracing of the structure

Illustration 52: securing the knot in place

For the sake of an argument it could be

considered that this kind of behavior was
partly because of the fact that they live
around tamed and wild nature and that they
came across such wild animals more often
than people living outside such habitats, but
when looked through a bigger perspective, it
can be understood that, various factors such
as their society, subsistence, transfer of
knowledge, their former religion played an
important role in teaching the Khasis of
Nongriat to respect nature. In the Khasi
religion this respect came in the form of
Gods or Spirits. Their former belief of
omnipotent god gave rise to worshiping of
nature, and other various deities associated
with various phenomenons that occurs.
Since religion was an integral part of the
Khasi society detailed accounts of the same
can be found in almost every book on The
Khasis. Ever since the Khasis of Nongriat
got converted to Christianity inputs from
their religion contributing towards this type of
education, has reduced or stopped. As their
awareness of the outside world vivid,
embedded practices arising out of their
culture and religion get diluted. Their
inherent way of living, which is in harmony
with nature gets dilapidated. Hence
education system has to be constantly
guided by their society and culture to save
whatever remains of it. Below Illustration 54
shows the relationship of the whole system.

Illustration 53: final stable structure

Illustration 54 Knowledge input relationships for a child in Nongriat.