Religion of the Sumi Naga

The Sumi Naga who mostly inhabit Zunheboto district of the state of Nagaland in Northeast India were mentioned in the colonial census reports for the first time in 1891 ([2], p. 372). During the census operations, the criteria for identifying tribes kept changing according to the administrative policies. As such, the 1901 Census Operation identified tribes as those who practiced “animism.” This definition came at the backdrop of E.B. Tylor’s classic Primitive Culture published in 1871. E.B. Tylor, who was a strident critic of Max Müller’s theory of naturism, coined the term animism to distinguish the religion of “primitive” peoples from that of advanced cultures. The idea inherent in Tylor’s animism thesis was that tribes occupy the lowest stage of cultural evolution. Thus, it does not come as a surprise that J.H. Hutton, who published his monograph The Sema Nagas, labeled the Sumi religion as animism ([4], p. 191). The significance of this definition is that the Sumi, who were known...