The Paite: A Transborder Tribe Of India And Burma

This book deals with a people who live in the Indo-Burma border areas. They are known variously as Kamhau. Sukte or Gwuite in the earlier recors. They are also known as Paite or Tedim Chin. The book highlights the structue of the Paite society by unfolding the invisible ties of kinship based on consanguinal, affinal and local membership in a corporate body called inndongta. This institution is a household council and it is universal in Paite society in an elaborate form though it is found in vestigial form among other Chin tribes. The author, as a participant of Paite culture, studies the rights, obligations and prerogatives held by members of the society by virtue of his membership in a particular household and also by occupying a particular and definite position in the kinship circle through the institution of inndongta as its focal point of study. The book shows vividly how the Paite households are socially, ritually, economically and structurally interrelated, knitted and dependent on one another through the mechanism of inndongta in woe and weal for their physical and spiritual survival.

Dr. H. Kamkhenthang (b. 1948) is currently serving as Senior Research Officer in the Directorate for Development of Tribals and Backward Classes, Govt. of Manipur. He obtained his Master’s and Ph.D degrees in 1963 and 1978 respectively in Social Anthropology from the Gauhati University. He has been a member of the Executive Board and General Council of the Manipur State Kala Akademi for several years representing Manipur Tribal culture and literature with distinction. He has been contributing a lot to the literature and culture of the tribes of Manipur. He has several articles to his credit in English and Paite languages.