The Feasts of Merit 
among the Northern Sangtam Tribe of Assam. 
By C. R. Stonor. 
Contents. 
Introduction. 
I. The rules of performance. 
II. The series of feasts. 
1. Yungti. 
2. Yungti. 
3. Anitz. 
4. Anitz. 
5. Tchar Tsu. 
III. Details of the ritual. 
1. Preliminaries. 
2. First day. 
3. Second day. 
4. Third day. 
5. Subsequent ritual. 
IV. Interpretation. 
Introduction. 
It has become customary to label the Assam-Burma border as a “well- 
documented region” : among the several tribes concerning whose ethnography 
virtually nothing has been recorded are the Sangtam Nagas who comprise 
a small, but well-defined tribal unit in the eastern area of the Naga Hills. 
The tribe is composed of two geographically separated sections, both of 
which have as an integral part of their social system the remarkable insti 
tution of the Feast of Merit, already described for other Naga Tribes in the 
series of monographs on the hill peoples of Assam. During a visit to the 
northern section of the tribe in December 1947 I had the good fortune to 
witness the performance of the culminating feast of the series, and was able 
to obtain information on the main features of the remainder. The account 
which follows is fragmentary, and much, particularly in respect of the ritual, 
remains to be investigated. 
Anthropos XLY. 1950. 
Sondersammelgebief 
Volks- & Völkerkunde 
in Zusammenarbeit mit der DFG