Angami Naga - Culture and Religion

Culture and Religion

The Angami Nagas are hill people depending basically on cultivation and livestock-rearing. The Angamis are known for terraced wet-rice cultivation; because of this labor-intensive cultivation, land is the most important form of property among the Angamis. Angamis are one of the only two groups of Nagas out of the seventeen who practice wet-rice cultivation on terraces made on the hill slopes. This allows them to cultivate the same plot year after year. They depend, to a very small extent, on slash-and-burn cultivation. Angamis were traditionally warriors, the Angami men spent majority of their time in warfare with hostile villages and taking heads. Since 1879, when the British succeeded in annexing their territory, the inter-village feuds have come to an end. With the introduction of Christianity in the region several Angamis changed their faith to Christianity.

Social stratification is not observed in the Angami community. Traditionally, property was divided equally among sons with daughters also receiving a share; in modern families it is shared among children. Among the Angamis, the youngest male in the family inherits the parental home, Kithoki, which also means he is responsible for their care until they pass away.

The Angami Christians are divided into five major denominations- Baptist, Christian Revival, Roman Catholic, Pentecostal and Seventh-day Adventist. Baptist's constitute more than 80% of the total Angami Christian population and all the Baptist churches in Angami region are under the Angami Baptist Church Council.

Although more than 98% of the Angamis are Christians, they are one of the last Naga tribes having an animist population. The Angami Animists practice a religion known as Pfutsana. According to the 1991 Census, there were 1,760 Angami practitioners of the religion, but 10 years later, the figure had halved to 884. Currently there are several hundred adherents of the Pfutsana religion, scattered around in nine villages of the southern Kohima district. A religious organization, Japfuphiki Pfutsana, was founded in 1987 to streamline various indigenous religious practices among the Angamis.