{"title":"Books","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eBooks from Highlander Press bring together field-based scholarship, independent research, and writing on highland worlds, Indigenous knowledge, religion, ecology, and cultural life. Our catalogue includes monographs, edited volumes, journals, and special publications connected to the wider Highland Institute community.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"nagas-in-the-21st-century","title":"Nagas in the 21st Century","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA contemporary anthology on Naga society, identity, politics, religion, memory, and social change in the postcolonial period.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNagas in the 21st Century\u003c\/strong\u003e is both an adaptation of and a modest sequel to Verrier Elwin’s landmark anthology \u003cem\u003eNagas in the Nineteenth Century\u003c\/em\u003e. While Elwin’s volume brought together colonial-era administrative reports, tour diaries, and ethnographic descriptions of Naga communities, this book turns attention to the contemporary period, asking how Naga societies may be understood after decades of political conflict, social transformation, Christian conversion, and postcolonial change.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDuring the colonial era, the Naga Hills became an important site for ethnological writing and early British social anthropology. Accounts of Naga societies were abundant and often colourful, addressing rituals and religion, political structures, omens and taboos, dress and ornamentation, funeral customs, head-hunting, village life, and monolithic cultures. Yet this abundance of colonial documentation contrasts sharply with the relative scarcity of postcolonial scholarship on Naga communities, a gap shaped in part by the protracted Indo-Naga conflict and the difficulties it created for sustained ethnographic research.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe contributors to this volume take Elwin’s anthology and other colonial sources as points of departure, but they do not simply revisit the archive. Instead, they place earlier writings into dialogue with contemporary research, offering critique, comparison, reinterpretation, and ethnographic renewal. The result is a collection that addresses Naga identity, the village republic, changing forms of traditional governance, dreams, Christian conversion, the Hornbill Festival, memories of head-hunting, Naga nationalist politics, festival continuity and change, and post-conflict society.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMore than a retrospective study, \u003cstrong\u003eNagas in the 21st Century\u003c\/strong\u003e offers a set of new departures for the study of contemporary Naga life. It asks what becomes visible when colonial ethnographic categories are read against present-day social realities, and how Naga communities continue to negotiate identity, memory, sovereignty, religion, and political belonging in the twenty-first century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy this book matters\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book matters because it reopens the study of Naga society in contemporary terms. For much of the twentieth century, scholarly work on the Nagas remained heavily dependent on colonial archives, while postcolonial ethnographic engagement was constrained by political conflict and restricted access. This volume helps address that ethnographic void by bringing together new research on Naga social, political, religious, and cultural life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor readers interested in Northeast India, Highland Asia, Indigenous politics, Christianity, nationalism, village governance, memory, and the afterlives of colonial anthropology, \u003cstrong\u003eNagas in the 21st Century\u003c\/strong\u003e offers an important contribution to understanding how Naga societies have been represented, transformed, and reinterpreted across time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eKey themes\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eContemporary Naga society:\u003c\/strong\u003e The volume examines social, political, religious, and cultural change among Naga communities in the twenty-first century.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eColonial archives and postcolonial critique:\u003c\/strong\u003e Contributors place colonial writings in dialogue with contemporary ethnographic and historical research.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIdentity and belonging:\u003c\/strong\u003e The essays explore how Naga identities are formed, contested, remembered, and rearticulated in changing political contexts.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eVillage governance and political life:\u003c\/strong\u003e The book considers the Naga village republic, traditional governance, nationalist politics, and post-conflict society.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReligion, dreams, and cultural transformation:\u003c\/strong\u003e Chapters address Christian conversion, dreams, festivals, ritual memory, and changing moral worlds.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMemory and historical consciousness:\u003c\/strong\u003e The volume asks how the past is remembered, represented, and reworked in contemporary Naga life.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eBook details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEditors:\u003c\/strong\u003e Jelle J. P. Wouters and Michael T. Heneise\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFull title:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003eNagas in the 21st Century\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Highlander Press\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFormat:\u003c\/strong\u003e Paperback\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/strong\u003e 069298335X\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/strong\u003e 978-0692983355\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication date:\u003c\/strong\u003e October 2, 2023\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePrint length:\u003c\/strong\u003e 258 pages\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/strong\u003e English\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 6.14 x 0.7 x 9.21 inches\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eItem weight:\u003c\/strong\u003e 12.9 ounces\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eAbout the editors\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJelle J. P. Wouters\u003c\/strong\u003e is a social anthropologist who has carried out long-term ethnographic and historical research among upland and tribal Naga communities in India’s Northeast. His work has addressed insurgency, violence, vernacular politics, capitalism, resource extraction, social history, and the political anthropology of Highland Asia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis current research focuses on environmental humanities, climate change, water, and human-animal-plant entanglements in Bhutan and Highland Asia more widely. He teaches at Royal Thimphu College in Bhutan in the Department of Social Science and serves as Chair of the Himalayan Centre for Environmental Humanities in Thimphu. He holds an MPhil with Distinction in Social Anthropology from the University of Oxford and completed his Ph.D. in Anthropology at North-Eastern Hill University in Shillong, India. Before joining Royal Thimphu College, he taught at Sikkim Central University, where he was asked to establish the Anthropology Department, and was a visiting fellow at Eberhard Karls University on a “Teaching for Excellence” award granted by the German Research Foundation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMichael T. Heneise\u003c\/strong\u003e is an American anthropologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Archaeology, History, and Religious Studies at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. He has conducted fieldwork across South America, South Asia, and the Himalayas, and his doctoral research at the University of Edinburgh examined dreams and political agency in the Indo-Myanmar borderlands.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePrior to Edinburgh, he studied anthropology at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Quito, Ecuador. He is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Highlander Press; co-founder and former executive director of the Highland Institute, Nagaland; and co-editor of \u003cem\u003eHIMALAYA\u003c\/em\u003e, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies. His research interests include the anthropology of dreams, Indigenous knowledge systems, Naga cosmology, religion and ecology, medical pluralism, and Highland Asia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eIdeal for\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book is ideal for anthropologists, historians, political scientists, scholars of religion, students of Northeast India, researchers of Indigenous politics, and readers interested in contemporary Naga society, postcolonial anthropology, Christianity, nationalism, memory, and Highland Asia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eSubject areas\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNaga society and culture\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNortheast India\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHighland Asia\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePolitical anthropology\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eColonial and postcolonial ethnography\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIndigenous politics and nationalism\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eChristian conversion and religious change\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDreams, memory, and cosmology\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eVillage governance and traditional institutions\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFestival, identity, and cultural transformation\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eFor courses and libraries\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNagas in the 21st Century\u003c\/strong\u003e is well suited for courses in anthropology, history, Indigenous studies, South Asian studies, religious studies, political anthropology, postcolonial studies, and the study of Northeast India. Its combination of historical reflection, contemporary ethnography, and thematic breadth makes it especially useful for university teaching, graduate seminars, research libraries, and collections focused on Highland Asia and Indigenous societies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eSuggested citation\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWouters, Jelle J. P., and Michael T. Heneise, eds. \u003cem\u003eNagas in the 21st Century\u003c\/em\u003e. Highlander Press, 2023.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e```\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Highlander Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51380704215319,"sku":null,"price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0957\/8692\/6359\/files\/61S5xijmKuL._SL1360.jpg?v=1782066420"},{"product_id":"democracy-in-nagaland-tribes-traditions-tensions","title":"Democracy in Nagaland","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eAn interdisciplinary study of democratic politics, elections, tribal institutions, gender debates, and political life in Nagaland.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDemocracy in Nagaland: Tribes, Traditions, Tensions\u003c\/strong\u003e offers interdisciplinary perspectives on the historical, cultural, and traditional logics that shape democratic politics and elections in Nagaland. Rather than treating democracy only as a formal institutional system, this volume asks how democratic practice is interpreted, performed, contested, and reworked within Naga social worlds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe book examines the troubled historical context in which modern electoral democracy was introduced, the ways Nagas themselves understand and evaluate democratic practice, and the reasoning communities adopt as they engage in campaigns, voting, public debate, and political negotiation. It moves beyond conventional institutional analysis by attending to the everyday moral, social, and cultural textures of democratic life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCentral to the volume is the question of how older practices and values are remapped onto the democratic playing field. Naga village institutions, tribal affiliations, traditions of public deliberation, consensus-seeking, gendered exclusions, and community obligations all interact with the formal procedures of electoral politics. Democracy, in this setting, is not simply imported or implemented; it is translated, appropriated, challenged, and lived through local histories and social formations.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe volume also addresses the tensions generated by democratic participation, including debates around gender, women’s political representation, corruption, electoral morality, and “clean elections.” By placing elections within the broader social and historical landscape of Nagaland, \u003cstrong\u003eDemocracy in Nagaland\u003c\/strong\u003e opens a critical conversation about Indigenous politics, postcolonial state formation, militarization, and the complex meanings of democratic life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy this book matters\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book matters because it challenges the idea that democracy is a single, uniform system that societies simply possess more or less fully. Instead, it shows that democracy takes shape through local histories, cultural idioms, institutional inheritances, social tensions, and political struggles.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor readers interested in Northeast India, Indigenous politics, electoral democracy, gender, village governance, tribal institutions, and postcolonial political life, \u003cstrong\u003eDemocracy in Nagaland\u003c\/strong\u003e offers an important account of how democratic forms are debated, adapted, and contested in a region marked by deep historical complexity and political violence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eCritical praise\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBengt G. Karlsson, Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Stockholm University, describes \u003cstrong\u003eDemocracy in Nagaland\u003c\/strong\u003e as a powerful contribution that encourages readers to think of democracy as something mediated through local histories, social complexities, and cultural idioms.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKarlsson notes that the book invites engagement with the paradoxes of democratic life in Nagaland: how democratic forms may reproduce existing power structures, while also becoming tools through which those very structures are questioned.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe further observes that the volume opens “a new conversation about contemporary indigenous politics,” moving beyond stereotypical depictions that either romanticize or condemn tribal societies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eKey themes\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDemocracy from below:\u003c\/strong\u003e The volume studies democratic life through campaigns, elections, public deliberation, village institutions, and everyday political reasoning.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTribes, traditions, and tensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e The book examines how tribal affiliations, inherited practices, and community values interact with modern electoral politics.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNaga village governance:\u003c\/strong\u003e Contributors consider traditions of village deliberation, consensus-making, authority, and the limits of participation.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eGender and representation:\u003c\/strong\u003e The volume addresses women’s political participation, exclusion from traditional institutions, and debates over gender justice in democratic life.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eClean elections and political morality:\u003c\/strong\u003e The book explores reform movements, corruption debates, electoral ethics, and the moral language of democratic accountability.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePostcolonial state formation:\u003c\/strong\u003e The essays situate democracy in relation to the violent postcolonial experience of the Nagas, militarization, nationalism, and the Indian state.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eBook details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEditors:\u003c\/strong\u003e Jelle J. P. Wouters and Zhoto Tunyi\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFull title:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003eDemocracy in Nagaland: Tribes, Traditions, Tensions\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Highlander Press\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFormat:\u003c\/strong\u003e Paperback\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0692070311\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/strong\u003e 978-0692070314\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication date:\u003c\/strong\u003e December 15, 2023\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePrint length:\u003c\/strong\u003e 306 pages\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/strong\u003e English\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 6.14 x 0.83 x 9.21 inches\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eItem weight:\u003c\/strong\u003e 15.2 ounces\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eAbout the editors\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJelle J. P. Wouters\u003c\/strong\u003e is a social anthropologist who has carried out long-term ethnographic and historical research among upland and tribal Naga communities in India’s Northeast. His work has addressed insurgency, violence, vernacular politics, capitalism, resource extraction, social history, and the political anthropology of Highland Asia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis current research focuses on environmental humanities, climate change, water, and human-animal-plant entanglements in Bhutan and Highland Asia more widely. He teaches in Bhutan in the Department of Social Sciences and serves as Chair of the Himalayan Centre for Environmental Humanities in Thimphu. He holds an MPhil with Distinction in Social Anthropology from the University of Oxford and completed his Ph.D. in Anthropology at North-Eastern Hill University in Shillong, India.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBefore joining Royal Thimphu College, he taught at Sikkim Central University, where he was asked to establish the Anthropology Department, and was a visiting fellow at Eberhard Karls University on a “Teaching for Excellence” award granted by the German Research Foundation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eZhoto Tunyi\u003c\/strong\u003e is Assistant Professor at Patkai Christian College. His work and editorial contribution to this volume are situated within the study of Naga society, democratic life, community institutions, and the complex relationship between tradition, political participation, and social change in Nagaland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTogether, the editors bring anthropological, historical, and regionally grounded perspectives to the study of democratic practice in Nagaland, foregrounding the ways electoral politics are embedded in local institutions, moral debates, tribal affiliations, gendered exclusions, and the broader postcolonial experience of the Nagas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eIdeal for\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book is ideal for anthropologists, political scientists, historians, scholars of Indigenous politics, students of Northeast India, researchers of electoral democracy, and readers interested in the relationship between tribal institutions, democratic participation, gender, nationalism, and postcolonial state formation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eSubject areas\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDemocracy in Nagaland\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNortheast India\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePolitical anthropology\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIndigenous politics\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eElectoral democracy\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eVillage governance and traditional institutions\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGender and political representation\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eClean elections and political reform\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePostcolonial state formation\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNaga society and culture\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTribal politics and public deliberation\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHighland Asia\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eFor courses and libraries\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDemocracy in Nagaland\u003c\/strong\u003e is well suited for courses in anthropology, political science, Indigenous studies, South Asian studies, history, gender studies, postcolonial studies, and the study of democracy beyond Euro-American institutional models. Its interdisciplinary approach makes it especially useful for university teaching, graduate seminars, research libraries, and collections focused on Northeast India, Indigenous politics, and democratic practice in complex social worlds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eSuggested citation\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWouters, Jelle J. P., and Zhoto Tunyi, eds. \u003cem\u003eDemocracy in Nagaland: Tribes, Traditions, Tensions\u003c\/em\u003e. Highlander Press, 2023.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Highlander Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51382921855255,"sku":null,"price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0957\/8692\/6359\/files\/61OWbDBZtNL._SL1360.jpg?v=1782066185"},{"product_id":"nagas-as-a-society-against-voting","title":"Nagas as a Society Against Voting","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA collection of eleven essays on Naga political life, democracy, identity, kinship, insurgency, and the social imagination of Highland Asia.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNagas as a Society against Voting: And Other Essays\u003c\/strong\u003e explores the form and character of political and social life in Nagaland. Firmly grounded in the historical experiences and ethnographic specifics of Naga society, this collection brings together eleven essays on the Naga Movement for self-determination, democratic practice, village life, kinship networks, tribal formation, place-making, identity, and political imagination.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe book’s provocative title points to a central anthropological question: what happens when the formal procedures of electoral democracy encounter social worlds shaped by village deliberation, kinship obligations, customary institutions, tribal affiliations, and historical struggles for sovereignty? Rather than treating democracy as a universal model that is simply adopted or rejected, Jelle J. P. Wouters examines how Naga communities appropriate, reinterpret, resist, and rework democratic processes according to their own histories, lifeworlds, and political aspirations.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe essays address the origins, evolution, and complexities of the Naga political struggle, showing how local political culture and everyday behaviour shape the broader Naga political fabric. They also examine kinship and tribe, the politics of place and identity, rival visions of the future, gendered aspects of customary law, and the ways territorial claims are made, debated, and reworked.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMore than a study of electoral politics, \u003cstrong\u003eNagas as a Society against Voting\u003c\/strong\u003e is a sustained contribution to political anthropology, Naga studies, and the study of upland societies. It shows how concepts such as democracy, tribe, custom, identity, sovereignty, and citizenship take on distinctive meanings when viewed from the lived political worlds of Nagaland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy this book matters\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book matters because it challenges major assumptions about Naga society and about democracy itself. It moves beyond simplified accounts of “tribal” politics by showing the social diversity, historical depth, and conceptual sophistication of Naga political life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor readers interested in Northeast India, Highland Asia, political anthropology, Indigenous politics, kinship, insurgency, and the cultural critique of global democracy studies, \u003cstrong\u003eNagas as a Society against Voting\u003c\/strong\u003e offers an important and theoretically generative account of how people make political worlds from within the constraints and possibilities of history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eCritical praise\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWillem van Schendel, Professor Emeritus of Modern Asian History at the University of Amsterdam, describes the collection as a set of finely crafted essays that challenge major assumptions about Naga society. He notes that the book helps readers move beyond “tribal essentialism” through its attention to customary law, competing futures, territorial claims, and the micropolitics of upland Asia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNiketu Iralu, Naga elder, peace activist, and proponent of human rights and non-violence, praises the scholarly care of Wouters’s investigation and the book’s contribution to understanding the Naga question. He emphasizes the importance of independent scholarship in clarifying local political culture, historical memory, and the broader Naga political struggle.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTanka B. Subba, Professor of Anthropology at North-Eastern Hill University and former Vice-Chancellor of Sikkim Central University, warmly recommends the volume to anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists, and historians interested in upland societies and the Nagas in particular. He describes the eleven essays as offering distinct and richly textured insights into Naga society and polity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eKey themes\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNaga political life:\u003c\/strong\u003e The essays examine the social, historical, and cultural foundations of politics in Nagaland.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDemocracy and voting:\u003c\/strong\u003e The book asks how Naga villagers appropriate, reinterpret, and rework Indian democratic practices within their own political lifeworlds.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eThe Naga Movement:\u003c\/strong\u003e Several essays address the origins, evolution, and complexities of the Naga struggle for self-determination.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eKinship, tribe, and social formation:\u003c\/strong\u003e The volume explores how kinship networks, tribal affiliations, and social relations shape political practice and identity.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCustomary law and gender:\u003c\/strong\u003e The book engages questions of customary authority, social hierarchy, gendered exclusion, and competing interpretations of tradition.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePlace, territory, and identity:\u003c\/strong\u003e Essays consider how place, belonging, territorial claims, and historical consciousness are central to Naga political imagination.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eConceptual politics:\u003c\/strong\u003e The collection contributes to broader debates about democracy, sovereignty, indigeneity, tribal society, and political theory from the perspective of Highland Asia.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eBook details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/strong\u003e Jelle J. P. Wouters\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFull title:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003eNagas as a Society against Voting: And Other Essays\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Highlander Press\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFormat:\u003c\/strong\u003e Paperback\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0578521105\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/strong\u003e 978-0578521107\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication date:\u003c\/strong\u003e December 1, 2023\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePrint length:\u003c\/strong\u003e 276 pages\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/strong\u003e English\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 6.69 x 0.75 x 9.61 inches\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eItem weight:\u003c\/strong\u003e 15.7 ounces\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eAbout the author\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJelle J. P. Wouters\u003c\/strong\u003e is a social anthropologist who has carried out long-term ethnographic and historical research among upland and tribal Naga communities in India’s Northeast. His work has addressed insurgency, violence, vernacular politics, capitalism, resource extraction, social history, kinship, tribal formation, and the political anthropology of Highland Asia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis scholarship is especially concerned with how political life is shaped through local histories, social institutions, everyday practices, and the conceptual worlds of the people who inhabit them. In his work on Nagaland, Wouters examines the Naga political struggle, village democracy, customary authority, identity formation, and the ways democratic processes are appropriated, resisted, and reimagined in upland social worlds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis current research focuses on environmental humanities, climate change, water, and human-animal-plant entanglements in Bhutan and Highland Asia more widely. He teaches in Bhutan in the Department of Social Science and serves as Chair of the Himalayan Centre for Environmental Humanities in Thimphu.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWouters holds an MPhil with Distinction in Social Anthropology from the University of Oxford and completed his Ph.D. in Anthropology at North-Eastern Hill University in Shillong, India. Before joining Royal Thimphu College, he taught at Sikkim Central University, where he was asked to establish the Anthropology Department, and was a visiting fellow at Eberhard Karls University on a “Teaching for Excellence” award granted by the German Research Foundation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eIdeal for\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book is ideal for anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists, historians, scholars of Indigenous politics, students of Northeast India, researchers of Highland Asia, and readers interested in democracy, kinship, tribal formation, insurgency, identity, and political life in upland societies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eSubject areas\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNaga society and politics\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNortheast India\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHighland Asia\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePolitical anthropology\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDemocracy and voting\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIndigenous politics\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eKinship and tribe\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCustomary law and gender\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eInsurgency and self-determination\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eVernacular politics\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTerritory, place, and identity\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eConceptual politics and social theory\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eFor courses and libraries\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNagas as a Society against Voting\u003c\/strong\u003e is well suited for courses in anthropology, political science, sociology, Indigenous studies, South Asian studies, history, postcolonial studies, and the study of democracy beyond formal institutions. Its ethnographic depth, theoretical reach, and focus on Naga political life make it especially valuable for university teaching, graduate seminars, research libraries, and collections focused on Northeast India, Highland Asia, and upland societies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eSuggested citation\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWouters, Jelle J. P. \u003cem\u003eNagas as a Society against Voting: And Other Essays\u003c\/em\u003e. Highlander Press, 2023.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Highlander Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51383033168151,"sku":null,"price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0957\/8692\/6359\/files\/61Cpc9i0VrL._SL1360.jpg?v=1782066655"},{"product_id":"the-diary-of-connie-shakespear-the-naga-hills-1900-1902","title":"The Diary of Connie Shakespear","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA rare written and photographic record of Naga village life, colonial encounter, and Victorian travel in the Naga Hills between 1900 and 1902.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Diary of Connie Shakespear: The Naga Hills 1900–1902\u003c\/strong\u003e presents the travel diary of Connie Shakespear, who accompanied her husband, a Captain in the Naga Hills Military Police, through the Naga Hills district of Northeast India at the turn of the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWritten between 1900 and 1902, the diary documents Naga villages, landscapes, customs, architecture, dress, graves, morungs, and everyday encounters, while also offering glimpses into British administrative life in Kohima, then a colonial outpost at the edge of the British Raj. The result is both a personal journal and an important archival source: a record of a world undergoing rapid historical change, seen through the eyes of an intrepid Victorian woman traveller.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConnie Shakespear’s perspective reflects the social position and assumptions of her time, yet she was also an unusually attentive observer. Her writing reveals curiosity, humour, sympathy, and a willingness to engage with the people and places around her. The diary is therefore valuable not because it escapes the colonial context, but because it allows modern readers to examine that context closely: its gaze, its limits, its encounters, and its unexpected moments of intimacy and mutual observation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe volume is especially significant for its visual material. Connie’s sketches and photographs, produced in an era when handheld cameras were becoming newly available to amateurs, document Naga village architecture, grave forms, traditional clothing, landscapes, and social life. Together with the text, these images form a rare visual archive of the Naga Hills at the beginning of the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy this book matters\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book matters because it preserves a primary source from a pivotal moment in the history of the Naga Hills. It offers scholars and general readers a window into village life, colonial administration, travel, gender, photography, and cross-cultural encounter at a time when Naga societies were being increasingly drawn into the political and administrative structures of empire.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRead critically, \u003cstrong\u003eThe Diary of Connie Shakespear\u003c\/strong\u003e is not only a record of Naga villages and landscapes, but also a self-portrait of a Victorian woman moving through a complex social world. It invites readers to consider how highland histories are preserved, mediated, and sometimes distorted through diaries, photographs, sketches, and colonial-era archives.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eCritical praise\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDr Bashabi Fraser, CBE, of Edinburgh Napier University, describes the publication as providing an “invaluable window beyond the colonial gaze of expeditionary pursuits.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDr Eadaoin Agnew of Kingston University notes that modern readers will appreciate the striking presence of “Victorian femininity amidst indigenous village life and magnificent natural landscapes.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDr Temsurenla Ozukum of ICFAI University Nagaland writes that Connie Shakespear’s accounts give the impression of “an involved and sympathetic observer.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eKey themes\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNaga village life:\u003c\/strong\u003e The diary records village architecture, morungs, graves, dress, landscapes, and social encounters in the Naga Hills.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eColonial encounter:\u003c\/strong\u003e The volume documents the interface between Naga communities and British administrative and military life in the early twentieth century.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eVictorian women’s travel writing:\u003c\/strong\u003e Connie Shakespear’s diary offers a rare example of a woman traveller observing, documenting, and reflecting on highland life in colonial Northeast India.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePhotography and visual archive:\u003c\/strong\u003e Her photographs and sketches provide important visual documentation from a period of profound historical transition.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eKohima and the Naga Hills:\u003c\/strong\u003e The book offers insight into Kohima as a colonial administrative centre and into the surrounding villages and landscapes of the Naga Hills district.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMemory, documentation, and representation:\u003c\/strong\u003e The diary invites critical reflection on how Indigenous societies were observed, described, photographed, and preserved in colonial-era archives.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eBook details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/strong\u003e Connie Shakespear\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEditor:\u003c\/strong\u003e Nigel Shakespear\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFull title:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003eThe Diary of Connie Shakespear: The Naga Hills 1900–1902\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Highlander Press\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEdition:\u003c\/strong\u003e James Nigel Wyndham Shakespear edition\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFormat:\u003c\/strong\u003e Paperback\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0578890461\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/strong\u003e 978-0578890463\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication date:\u003c\/strong\u003e June 1, 2023\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePrint length:\u003c\/strong\u003e 236 pages\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/strong\u003e English\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 6.14 x 0.64 x 9.21 inches\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eItem weight:\u003c\/strong\u003e 11.9 ounces\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eAbout the author\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eConnie Shakespear\u003c\/strong\u003e was a Victorian woman traveller whose diary records her journeys through the Naga Hills district of Northeast India between 1900 and 1902. She accompanied her husband, a Captain in the Naga Hills Military Police, and documented the landscapes, villages, architecture, dress, customs, and everyday encounters she observed during their travels.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs the wife of a soldier in the Indian Army, Connie wrote from within the social world of the British Empire, and her attitudes and assumptions should be read within that historical context. At the same time, her diary shows an unusual degree of curiosity, close observation, and engagement with the Naga people among whom she travelled. Her writing is marked by an interest in village life, social custom, material culture, and the experience of moving through a region then situated at the frontier of British colonial administration.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConnie Shakespear’s photographs and sketches are an especially important part of the volume. Made during a period when handheld cameras were becoming available to amateur photographers, they preserve visual details of Naga morungs, graves, villagers in traditional clothing, settlements, and landscapes. Connie Shakespear died in 1914.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eAbout the editor\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNigel Shakespear\u003c\/strong\u003e is the editor of this edition of \u003cem\u003eThe Diary of Connie Shakespear\u003c\/em\u003e. His editorial work brings together Connie Shakespear’s text, sketches, and photographs, making available an important primary source for readers interested in the Naga Hills, colonial Northeast India, Victorian travel, anthropology, history, and early photography.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn Englishman abroad for much of his life, Nigel Shakespear has lived and worked across Eastern Europe, including Romania and Russia. His experience of Eastern Europe began during the Cold War, when he served in the British Army, and he later worked on European Union-funded programmes in the region. From 2003 he spent much of a decade in Romania, travelling widely and working with government initiatives aimed at improving conditions for Roma communities.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis long-standing interest in travel, social observation, historical context, and cross-cultural encounter informs his work as editor of this diary, where he helps present Connie Shakespear’s record as both a lively travel narrative and a valuable historical document.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eIdeal for\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book is ideal for anthropologists, historians, scholars of photography, students of colonial and postcolonial studies, researchers of Northeast India, readers of women’s travel writing, and anyone interested in the history, culture, and visual documentation of the Naga Hills.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eSubject areas\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNaga Hills history\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNortheast India\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eColonial and postcolonial studies\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAnthropology and ethnographic archives\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eVictorian women’s travel writing\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePhotography and visual history\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eKohima and the British Raj\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNaga village life and material culture\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDiaries, memoirs, and primary sources\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHighland Asia\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eFor courses and libraries\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Diary of Connie Shakespear\u003c\/strong\u003e is well suited for courses in anthropology, history, visual anthropology, colonial and postcolonial studies, South Asian studies, gender and travel writing, archival studies, and the history of photography. Its combination of diary text, sketches, and photographs makes it especially valuable for research libraries, teaching collections, and readers interested in primary sources from the Naga Hills and colonial Northeast India.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eSuggested citation\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShakespear, Connie. \u003cem\u003eThe Diary of Connie Shakespear: The Naga Hills 1900–1902\u003c\/em\u003e. Edited by Nigel Shakespear. Highlander Press, 2023.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Highlander Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51383101128983,"sku":null,"price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0957\/8692\/6359\/files\/71KakemhpHL._SL1360.jpg?v=1782066879"},{"product_id":"keeper-of-stories-critical-readings-of-easterine-kires-novels","title":"Keeper of Stories","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA critical collection on Easterine Kire’s novels, Naga literature in English, and the emerging field of literary and cultural studies from Northeast India.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eKeeper of Stories: Critical Readings of Easterine Kire’s Novels\u003c\/strong\u003e brings together critical essays on the fiction of Easterine Kire, one of the most important literary voices from Nagaland and Northeast India. Edited by K. B. Veio Pou, the volume responds to the growing need for serious critical material on literary writing from the region, especially as scholarship on Northeast India expands across literary studies, borderland studies, cultural studies, and interdisciplinary research.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe book takes a focused approach to a vast and diverse literary field by concentrating on Kire’s novels. This singular focus allows contributors to examine the depth, range, and significance of Kire’s fictional world: its engagement with Naga history, memory, folklore, myth, conflict, gender, death, cosmology, community, and the moral imagination of everyday life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAmong contemporary writers from Northeast India, Easterine Kire occupies a pioneering place in Anglophone literature from the region. Her works have gained growing academic attention across universities in India and beyond, in part because they offer a reimagining of Northeast India beyond the familiar frames of conflict and violence. Through her fiction, Kire gives literary form to Naga cultural memory, social life, ancestral knowledge, oral tradition, and historical experience.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMore than a collection of literary criticism, \u003cstrong\u003eKeeper of Stories\u003c\/strong\u003e opens a space for thinking about how stories preserve worlds. The essays gathered here show how Kire’s novels illuminate Naga culture and heritage while also contributing to broader debates on Indigenous literature, memory, place, gender, violence, healing, and the relationship between oral tradition and written form.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy this book matters\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book matters because it helps establish a critical vocabulary for reading Easterine Kire’s fiction and, more broadly, for engaging literary production from Northeast India. As Anglophone writing from the region gains wider attention, there is an urgent need for careful scholarship that takes its aesthetic, historical, cultural, and political significance seriously.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor readers interested in Naga literature, Indigenous storytelling, Anglophone writing from Northeast India, literary criticism, folklore, memory, conflict, and cultural studies, \u003cstrong\u003eKeeper of Stories\u003c\/strong\u003e offers an important contribution to understanding how fiction can carry history, unsettle stereotypes, and open new interpretive possibilities.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eKey themes\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEasterine Kire’s novels:\u003c\/strong\u003e The volume offers sustained critical readings of Kire’s fiction and its significance within contemporary literature from Northeast India.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNaga literature in English:\u003c\/strong\u003e The book situates Kire’s work within the emergence of Naga Anglophone writing and its growing academic recognition.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eStorytelling and cultural memory:\u003c\/strong\u003e Contributors explore how fiction preserves, transforms, and reanimates histories, oral traditions, myths, and community memories.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFolklore, myth, and cosmology:\u003c\/strong\u003e The essays examine the role of folklore, myth, legend, ancestral worlds, and Naga cosmological imagination in Kire’s novels.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eConflict and historical trauma:\u003c\/strong\u003e The volume considers how Kire’s fiction engages violence, loss, social rupture, and the afterlives of conflict in Naga society.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eGender, death, and social life:\u003c\/strong\u003e Chapters address gendered experience, kinship, mortality, village life, moral obligation, and the intimate textures of Naga social worlds.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBeyond stereotypes of the Northeast:\u003c\/strong\u003e The collection contributes to reimagining Northeast India beyond reductive depictions of marginality, conflict, and violence.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eBook details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEditor:\u003c\/strong\u003e K. B. Veio Pou\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFull title:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003eKeeper of Stories: Critical Readings of Easterine Kire’s Novels\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Highlander Press\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFormat:\u003c\/strong\u003e Paperback\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/strong\u003e 979-8987933909\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication date:\u003c\/strong\u003e December 10, 2023\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePrint length:\u003c\/strong\u003e 250 pages\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/strong\u003e English\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 6 x 0.68 x 9 inches\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eItem weight:\u003c\/strong\u003e 12 ounces\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eAbout the editor\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eK. B. Veio Pou\u003c\/strong\u003e is Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Delhi. He holds a Ph.D. from Jawaharlal Nehru University, and his work explores literature and culture, society and politics, oral cultures and written traditions, and the contemporary literary worlds of Northeast India.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis research interests include Northeast India studies, decolonial studies, oral cultures and traditions, peace and conflict studies, Biblical narratives, and English writings from Northeast India. His scholarship is especially concerned with how literature represents social life, cultural memory, conflict, everyday experience, and the complex histories of communities often marginalized within dominant national narratives.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn addition to editing \u003cem\u003eKeeper of Stories: Critical Readings of Easterine Kire’s Novels\u003c\/em\u003e, Pou is the author of \u003cem\u003eLiterary Cultures of India’s Northeast: Naga Writings in English\u003c\/em\u003e and the novel \u003cem\u003eWaiting for the Dust to Settle\u003c\/em\u003e. His work has contributed significantly to the study of Naga writing in English, literary cultures of Northeast India, and the interface between oral tradition and written literary form.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eAbout Easterine Kire\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEasterine Kire\u003c\/strong\u003e is a major Naga writer whose novels, poetry, children’s books, and essays have played a foundational role in bringing Naga literary worlds into wider Anglophone readership. Her fiction is deeply rooted in the cultural, historical, and social landscapes of Nagaland, and frequently engages oral tradition, memory, gender, conflict, ancestral presence, and the moral imagination of ordinary life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKire’s novels have attracted growing scholarly attention because they offer ways of reading Northeast India beyond familiar narratives of marginality, militarization, and violence. Her work opens literary space for Naga voices, landscapes, histories, and cosmologies, while also speaking to wider questions in Indigenous literature, postcolonial studies, folklore, memory, and cultural survival.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eIdeal for\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book is ideal for literary scholars, students of Northeast India, researchers of Naga literature, scholars of Indigenous writing, cultural studies researchers, postcolonial studies readers, and anyone interested in Easterine Kire’s fiction and the literary cultures of Highland Asia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eSubject areas\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEasterine Kire’s novels\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNaga literature in English\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNortheast India\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eLiterary and cultural studies\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIndigenous literature\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAnglophone writing from Northeast India\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFolklore, myth, and oral tradition\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMemory, conflict, and historical trauma\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGender and social life\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBorderland studies\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePostcolonial literary criticism\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHighland Asia\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eFor courses and libraries\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eKeeper of Stories\u003c\/strong\u003e is well suited for courses in literary studies, Northeast Indian studies, Indigenous studies, postcolonial literature, Anglophone world literature, cultural studies, folklore, oral tradition, and gender studies. Its focused engagement with Easterine Kire’s novels makes it especially valuable for university teaching, graduate seminars, research libraries, and collections concerned with Naga literature, Indigenous storytelling, and the literary cultures of Northeast India.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eSuggested citation\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePou, K. B. Veio, ed. \u003cem\u003eKeeper of Stories: Critical Readings of Easterine Kire’s Novels\u003c\/em\u003e. Highlander Press, 2023.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Highlander Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51383148019991,"sku":null,"price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0957\/8692\/6359\/files\/71OySlMnM_L._SL1360_5e1bea3a-6ae3-4f23-86d0-edeabb622d07.jpg?v=1782067270"},{"product_id":"oral-narratives-and-the-ao-nagas-a-journey-of-identity-construction","title":"Oral Narratives and the Ao-Nagas","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA field-based study of oral tradition, identity, memory, and cultural self-understanding among the Ao-Naga people of Northeast India.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOral Narratives and the Ao-Nagas: A Journey of Identity Construction\u003c\/strong\u003e explores the rich oral traditions of the Ao-Naga people, offering a careful and compelling account of how stories, myths, folktales, and remembered histories shape community life, identity, and worldview.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eRooted in a vibrant storytelling heritage passed down across generations, this volume approaches oral narrative not merely as folklore, but as a living archive of social values, spiritual imagination, environmental relations, gender roles, kinship, migration, and collective memory. Through meticulously gathered narratives and close cultural analysis, Resenmenla Longchar shows how Ao-Naga storytelling remains central to the preservation, interpretation, and renewal of Indigenous knowledge in a rapidly changing world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe book reveals recurring themes of transformation, belonging, kinship, moral obligation, migration, and interconnection with land and nature. At the same time, it attends to the historical pressures of modernity, globalization, education, Christianity, and social change, asking how oral traditions continue to sustain identity while also adapting to new circumstances.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMore than a compilation of stories, \u003cstrong\u003eOral Narratives and the Ao-Nagas\u003c\/strong\u003e invites readers into the intellectual and cultural world of Ao-Naga narrative life. It shows how stories do not simply preserve the past; they actively shape the moral imagination of the present and provide communities with ways of understanding continuity, rupture, belonging, and change.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy this book matters\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis book matters because it treats oral tradition as a serious form of historical, cultural, and philosophical knowledge. Rather than presenting Ao-Naga narratives as remnants of an earlier age, it shows how storytelling continues to function as a vital medium through which communities remember, interpret, debate, and reimagine who they are.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFor readers interested in Indigenous epistemologies, Northeast India, folklore, oral history, gender, and the anthropology of identity, \u003cstrong\u003eOral Narratives and the Ao-Nagas\u003c\/strong\u003e offers an important contribution to the study of how communities narrate themselves across generations.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eKey themes\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cul\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eOral tradition as cultural memory:\u003c\/strong\u003e The book examines how Ao-Naga stories preserve social values, historical consciousness, and collective identity.\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIdentity construction:\u003c\/strong\u003e It explores how narratives help communities articulate belonging, ancestry, gender roles, migration histories, and moral obligations.\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIndigenous knowledge systems:\u003c\/strong\u003e The volume treats oral narrative as a living intellectual tradition rather than as a static repository of folklore.\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCommunity, environment, and spirituality:\u003c\/strong\u003e The stories reveal deep connections between social life, landscape, nature, cosmology, and everyday ethical practice.\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eContinuity and change:\u003c\/strong\u003e The book asks how oral traditions endure and transform amid modernity, education, globalization, and social change.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eBook details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cul\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/strong\u003e Resenmenla Longchar\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFull title:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003eOral Narratives and the Ao-Nagas: A Journey of Identity Construction\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Highlander Press\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFormat:\u003c\/strong\u003e Paperback\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/strong\u003e 979-8987933916\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication date:\u003c\/strong\u003e August 2, 2025\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePrint length:\u003c\/strong\u003e 124 pages\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/strong\u003e English\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 6 x 0.29 x 9 inches\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTrim size:\u003c\/strong\u003e 6 x 9 inches\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eItem weight:\u003c\/strong\u003e 6.2 ounces\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eAbout the author\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eResenmenla Longchar\u003c\/strong\u003e is Assistant Professor of History at ICFAI University Nagaland. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Hyderabad, and her research focuses on Northeast Indian tribal cultures, oral traditions, gender roles, folklore, ritual life, and identity construction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHer work is concerned with the ways Indigenous communities preserve, interpret, and transmit knowledge through narrative, memory, ritual practice, and social institutions. With particular attention to Ao-Naga cultural history, Dr Longchar examines oral traditions not simply as inherited stories, but as living forms of historical consciousness and cultural self-articulation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eShe has published on Ao-Naga folklore, rituals, community systems, gendered social roles, and the cultural narratives through which identity is formed and renewed. Her scholarship contributes to the wider study of Northeast India by foregrounding Indigenous knowledge systems, local histories, and the intellectual significance of oral tradition in contemporary social life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eIdeal for\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis book is ideal for anthropologists, folklorists, historians, literary scholars, students of Northeast India, researchers of Indigenous knowledge systems, and readers interested in the enduring power of oral tradition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eSubject areas\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cul\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eAo-Naga oral traditions\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eNortheast India\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eIndigenous knowledge systems\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eFolklore, mythology, and oral history\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eIdentity construction\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eGender and social values\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eMigration, memory, and community history\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eAnthropology of storytelling\u003c\/li\u003e\n  \u003cli\u003eHistory and culture of Highland Asia\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eFor courses and libraries\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOral Narratives and the Ao-Nagas\u003c\/strong\u003e is well suited for courses in anthropology, folklore, Indigenous studies, history, oral tradition, Northeast Indian studies, and the study of religion and culture. Its concise length, field-based orientation, and thematic clarity make it especially useful for classroom teaching, reading groups, and library collections focused on Highland Asia and Indigenous knowledge traditions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eSuggested citation\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eLongchar, Resenmenla. \u003cem\u003eOral Narratives and the Ao-Nagas: A Journey of Identity Construction\u003c\/em\u003e. Highlander Press, 2025.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Highlander Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51383156670743,"sku":null,"price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0957\/8692\/6359\/files\/61bTVODAtrL._SL1360.jpg?v=1758569891"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0957\/8692\/6359\/collections\/471237812_10162047702609264_3043643228106079718_n.jpg?v=1782061240","url":"https:\/\/highlanderpress.org\/collections\/books.oembed","provider":"Highlander Press","version":"1.0","type":"link"}