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Video of Naga Stone-Pulling Ceremonies

3/7/2015

4 Comments

 
Yesterday I wrote a short post about stone-pulling among the Naga, an agricultural people of northeastern India.  Early 20th century ethnography documented the Angami Naga moving multi-ton stones as part of prestige-building ceremonies.  Stones were quarried, moved long distances, and erected by large groups of people in a ritual under-written by a feast.

I assumed that the stone-pulling ceremonies of the Naga were a thing of the past: I was wrong!   There are several short, recent (2009-2014) videos on YouTube that show stones being pulled by the Naga:

  • Viswema, Nagaland (3:34)
  • Maram Naga, part 1 (0:52)
  • Maram Naga, part 2 (0:49)
  • Maram Naga - pulling a stone uphill (0:41)
  • Kigwema Village (1:50)

The videos from Viswema and Kigwema show large groups of people (at least several hundred) in ceremonial dress pulling large stones on a paved road.  The Kigwema video is nice because of the angle - from above you can get a good sense of the size of the stone.

The Maram videos show smaller stones on wooden sleds being pulled on unpaved woodland trails.  It is more difficult to get a sense of how many people are pulling.  The video of the stone getting pulled up the hillside is pretty impressive. 

While the social and economic contexts of the stone-pulling ceremonies have certainly changed over time, seeing how groups of people move really big rocks is pretty neat. 
I'm hoping there is some detailed quantitative information out there on these ceremonies: number of people involved, distances the stones were moved, and the sizes of the stones.  I also know that there are other ethnographic cases that can provide some context for evaluating ideas about prehistoric megalithic construction.
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Screen capture of video of stone-pulling ceremony in Kigwema Village (link to left).
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Screen capture from part 1 of Maram Naga video (link to left).
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Screen capture of video of Maram Naga pulling a stone up an earthen hillside (link to left).
4 Comments
Alexis McBride link
3/7/2015 02:01:06 am

Those are amazing! I've done some research into moving megalithic stones, and I'm always impressed to see these videos. They raise so many questions!

I mean, what are they using for rope? It actually looks like lashed together branches. I also want to know how I can get to be the guy standing on top! Where are the women? And, in that first video, from Viswema, are the people at the front just taking up slack, or do they not really pull at all?

Amazing! Thanks for rounding these up!

Reply
Andy White
3/11/2015 12:10:52 am

I'm glad you like them, Alexis. I did another short post on megalithic construction in Sumba, Indonesia. There are some similarities in context (in terms of social status/prestige) and technology (lots of people with ropes and rollers). I found some videos, also, that are pretty cool:

http://www.andywhiteanthropology.com/blog/normal-sized-people-can-move-big-rocks-the-example-of-sumba

Reply
Rose McDonald
5/3/2016 04:28:30 pm

Thanks for the videos!

Reply
An Wayfarer
12/22/2018 07:13:05 pm

Here's my film of the Naga Stone Pulling shot this month.
https://youtu.be/rH7NLhuW5fE

Reply



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