Documenting traditional agricultural songs and stories of the Sumi Nagas
| Language | Sumi |
| Depositor | Amos Teo |
| Affiliation | Australian National University |
| Location | India |
| Collection ID | 0128 |
| Grant ID | SG0119 |
| Funding Body | ELDP |
| Collection Status | Collection online |
| Landing Page Handle | http://hdl.handle.net/2196/d8c39123-5283-4cfe-b8b5-13d4be8de453 |
Summary of the collection
Sumi is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by the Sumi people of Nagaland, India. This collection resulted from a project which aimed to assist the Sumi Cultural Association in documenting traditional Sumi songs (lejole) associated with the different stages of the agricultural cycle.
Group represented
The majority of Sumi speakers can be found in the Zunheboto district (centred around the town of Zunheboto) of Nagaland, with a substantial number also living in and around the commercial capital Dimapur, as well as the political capital Kohima.The expansion of Christianity and rapid modernisation over the past 70 years led to the loss of the morung system – a kind of dormitory system, which was the main mode of cultural transmission. Consequently, most people familiar with traditional Sumi folktales, poems and songs are over the age of 70 and live in more remote parts of the district.
Language information
Sumi (ISO: nsm) is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Nagaland, Northeast India (+25° 65’ 5.00”, +94° 12’ 9.00”) by an estimated 100,000 speakers (1997). The Sumi language is seen to be in a state of decline because of a number of factors, including the dominance of the English language as a medium of instruction in schools, and the cultural dominance of Hindi and other languages on television and other major forms of media. The prevalence of Nagamese (a local creole based on Assamese) is additionally seen as a contributing factor. The opportunity to read or write in the Sumi language for younger speakers is limited because of the lack of documented materials in Sumi and the compulsion in schools and colleges to read and write in English and Hindi.
Collection contents
This collection holds video and audio files which show and describe the traditions of the Sumi people and their agricultural practices. This includes songs, dances, tools and techniques developed for sustainable agriculture. An explanation of the agricultural cycle starts with a forest clearing which is called luh. Videos demonstrate how the forest was cleared in the olden days and why the songs were sung at the time, and how farmers took precautions to guard against the erosion of soil. The agricultural cycle continues with the sowing of seeds the caring of crops, and ends with the harvest and post-harvest celebrations such as the ahuna post-harvest festival. These videos and audio files can be found under bundles titled “Explanation of Sumi Agricultural Cycle” pt.1-13. Data has been collected from the Zunheboto, Shoipu, Nunumi and Usutomi villages situated in Nagaland, India.
Acknowledgement and citation
To refer to any data from the collection, please cite as follows:
Teo, Amos. 2013. Documenting traditional agricultural songs and stories of the Sumi Nagas. Endangered Languages Archive. Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/2196/00-0000-0000-000E-6669-7. Accessed on [insert date here].
