Society
Sherdukpen society is divided into two classes: The Thong and Chao, the former of which–the higher caste–are divided into eight clans. Marriage between castes are considered taboo within the tribal society and are strongly discouraged. Local legend mentioned that the upper caste are the descendants of a Tibetan king (a grandson of Songtsän Gampo) and Ahom princess, of which they bore two sons. The Chao are the descendants of the king's porters and servants. The Sherdukpens migrate to Doimara (a lowland hamlet close to the Assamese border) and stayed between December to March on an annual basis during the winter months, a tradition with which the tribe maintain the memory of their Assamese ancestry. In Doimara, the Sherdukpens mingled with the nearby Assamese natives and traded for rice.
The Sherdukpen generally practice monogamy and trace their descent patrilineally. Their houses are built on strong stone foundations with their wall and floor made from thick wooden planks.
Read more about this topic: Sherdukpen People
Famous quotes containing the word society:
“...many men choose a wife amid the deft-fingered clerks in preference to the society misses. The woman clerk has studied the value of concentration, learned the lesson that incites to work when a burden bears heavily upon her strength. She knows the word of self- reliance, and the fine courage that springs from the consciousness that a good result has been accomplished by a well-directed effort.”
—Clara (Marquise)
“The caretaking has to be done. “Somebody’s got to be the mommy.” Individually, we underestimate this need, and as a society we make inadequate provision for it. Women take up the slack, making the need invisible as we step in to fill it.”
—Mary Catherine Bateson (20th century)
“Literature is where I go to explore the highest and lowest places in human society and in the human spirit, where I hope to find not absolute truth but the truth of the tale, of the imagination and of the heart.”
—Salman Rushdie (b. 1947)