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A
Sema village whereas most of the Angami villages would have houses
ranging from 800 onwards. The approach to a Sema village consisting
largely of open jhum and in part a very thick low jungle is in contrast
to the precipitous approaches and narrow lines leading to an Angami
village. The cultivated lands are near their village. As a precaution
against fire, the Semas keep their grains in small granaries clear
of their houses, whereas Angamis and others have their grnaries
just beside their houses. The Sema villages are on the whole much
cleaner than the Angami villages partly because they have more room
owing to the limited number of houses and mainly because unlike
the Angamis, the cattle are kept away from the house. The Semas
also differ from the other Nagas in the amount of bride price paid
on the occasion of marriages. Whereas most of the Nagas either do
not pay any bride price or pay just nominal sums, the Semas pay
huge bride price. The economic consequences of the bride price might
have been one of the reasons that resulted in the practice of the
Semas marrying their step-mothers, a practice not found with any
other Naga community. The Semas are the only ones in Nagaland who
marry the widows of their diseased father by dividing the step-mothers
amongst them, the eldest son getting the lion’s share. The only
precaution taken in this is that none marries his own mother. The
two striking features that separate the Semas from all other Nagas
are the position of the village chief and the migratory habits of
the community. The villages are named after the persons who originally
established it. He automatically becomes the village chief. Subsequently,
the position of the village chiefs become hereditory ones. The village
chief is a secular person with great personal authority. The house
of the village chief is the focus of all socio-politico-religious
activities. The whole village depends upon him for their well being.
When the children of the chiefs grow up, some of them move out along
with a group of warriors in search of new lands and thus establish
new villages by way of conquests. Amongst the Nagas the total lack
of any sentimental attachement to the land of their ancestors is
unique to the Semas, whereas nothing short of a direct necessity
would force a Naga to relinquish his ancestral village and when
driven out in war, in the very first opportunity, the other Nagas
to a man would return to rebuild their old village. While referring
to these two aspects of the Semas, Hutton in the preface to the
1967 edition states that `I have (in appendix II) suggested a possible
connection between the Semas and the Bodo tribes of the west, but
one of the most striking features of the semas as I know them was
the difference between their village organization and that of most
Naga tribes, the Sema polity having much more the complexion of
a Kuki-chin, rather than of genuine Naga set up. The dependence
of the whole community on a secular chief of great personal authority
but no sacrosanctity, is much more suggestive of Kuki-chin than
of Naga affinities, as also was the almost nomadic tendency of the
tribe to be forever seeking to expand. These characteristics, in
such marked contrast to the attachment of most of the extremely
egalitarian in character, were accompanied, as in the case of Kuki,
by an unusual propensity for assimilating others to their own way
of life.
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(i)The
occurrence of the suffix, li, with the clan and sect names, for
instances (a) chisholimi, Khakhilimi, Kibalimi (b) in the
names of communities such as Mishilimi, Mukalimi etc. which are
some of the Sema villages founded in fairly early stages of the
Sema settlements in Nagaland. (c) a few words such as: apelimi `brother’
used by women only, angulimi `relation-in-law’ etc. The suffix li.
according to him strongly suggests a derivation from ilimi `a girl’.
The suffix li was also found in all the feminine nouns.
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(ii)The
place and role of the mother’s brother, for instance, (a) a great
deal of respect is enjoined to ones mother’s brother and it is considered
a very serious matter to say anything to one’s maternal uncle that
would offend him (b) whenever a girl gets married, the maternal
uncle is expected to offer her a gift. If the maternal uncle is
dead his son must discharge this obligation. The nephew-in-law in
his turn must pay the maternal uncle-in-law some money. If the nephew-in-law
dies before making this payment, his heirs will have to redeem this
debt to the maternal uncle of the girl.
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