From Kitchen to Jar: The Secondary Burial of the Nagas in Northeast India

Taliyanger Changkiri

The Nagas transmitted traditional knowledge and histories verbally and via practice. Before Christianity, the secondary jar burial procedure was widespread among some Naga tribes. It involved two processes: primary burial, in which the body of the deceased was preserved within the domestic space, and secondary burial, in which the skeletal remains were deposited in a jar and stored away. The material remains of the region have not been thoroughly studied. This paper will investigate this least understood mortuary practice by looking at its variability, the spatial patterning and the relationships with the living by using data from the material remains and ethnographic studies.