Making Sense: Re-imagining Morung Culture and Translation of Ao-Naga Folksongs

Abstract

Various factors represented by theinvasion of the British, the influence of American Missionaries, and the liberal education of the Western model have adversely impacted the corpus of the Nagas’ rich customs, beliefs, practices, institutions and oral traditions. One such occurrence is the disintegration of the Morung, aunique traditional institution of learning that served as the important foundation of the Naga society.Hence, an attempt to re-imagine or re-write the culture of the Morung, which was hijacked by the Colonial power, becomes crucial to critique the colonial anthropological translation and provide a different reading drawing lessons from the translation ofAo-Naga folksongs.Here, the folksongs are translated to analyse the Ao-Naga folksongs, trace the historical trajectory and understand the nuances of the songs.It is an attempt to recapture the social-cultural values,history, polity, philosophy, religion and other practices pertaining to this traditional institution. The paper delves into the past lived experience and realities of the Morung Culture and present for the receiving audience the uniqueness and the significance of the institution of the Ao-Naga community, its world and the worldview.

Keywords

• folksongs
• translation
• ao-nagas