Society-GARO The Garo also call themselves A'chik or Mande. They live at lat. 25 degrees- 26 degrees N by long. 90 degrees-91 degrees E in a district known as the Garo Hills in the state of Meghalaya in northeastern India. The Garo Hills are of low elevation and are densely wooded in areas where slash-and-burn agriculture has not been practiced. The climate is of the monsoon type, with heavy rainfall. The Garo language belongs to the Bodo branch of the Bodo-Naga-Kachin family of the Sino-Tibetan phylum. In 1968 the population was estimated to be about 300,000 (Shinn et al. 1970: p. 119). The earliest knowledge of the Garo dates from about 1800. They "... were looked upon as bloodthirsty savages, who inhabited a tract of hills covered with almost impenetrable jungle, the climate of which was considered so deadly as to make it impossible for a white man to live there" (Playfair 1909: 76-77). The Garo had the reputation of being headhunters. The district was occupied by the British in 1867, and the natives were easily subdued. American Baptist missionaries arrived almost immediately, and in the twentieth century Roman Catholic missionaries were sent. Consequently, one-quarter to one-third of the Garo are now Christians. The Garo Hills formed a district within the state of Assam, first under the British and later within independent India. The hill tribes within Assam felt a sense of ethnic separateness from the surrounding plains dwellers and were somewhat discontented. In response to this discontent, the Indian government created the new state of Meghalaya in 1971, consisting of districts including the Garo, Khasi, and Jaintia hills (Shinn et al. 1970: 41). The Garo have had market and warfare relationships with the surrounding people since before White contact. Markets have been a significant source of foreign influences, and, according to Burling (1964), everyone is dependent upon the market. The Garo divide themselves into a number of groups, based mainly on differences in dialect and location. These groups tend to be endogamous, but have very little unity in a political sense. They are called the Akawes, Chisaks, Duals, Matchis, Matabengs, Kochus, Atiangas, Abengs, Chiboks, Rugas, Ganchings or Garas, and Atongs (Playfair 1909: 59-62). The most significant differences, however, exist between the groups who live closer to the plains--i.e., the Akawes, Chisaks, and Kochus--and the hill dwellers who constitute the remaining groups. Like the non-Garo people who live on the plains, the Garo of the plains practice wet-rice agriculture and are highly acculturated. According to Nakane, they live in a cultural and ecological environment entirely different from that of the Garo of the hills (Nakana 1967: 21-22). Land is theoretically owned by the village headman, and new sections are distributed among the households each year. Among the hill Garo, all subsistence is based on slash-and-burn agriculture known as jhum cultivation. Dry rice is the primary crop, and millet is also important. In addition, bananas, papaya, maize, manioc, taro, squash, large-pod beans, sorrel, gourds, and many other vegetables are grown to supplement the diet. Important cash crops are cotton, chili peppers, and ginger. Wet rice has been grown more recently in some of the low areas, and this has changed the land tenure system to one of individual ownership, a situation which has profound implications for the social structure. The Garo live in permanent villages varying in size from 10 to 60 houses. Village populations rarely exceed 300. There are five named, exogamous, matrilineal phratries called katchi. Only two of these, Sangma and Marak, are found throughout the district. The other three are not widely distributed, and many Garo have never even heard of them. The phratries are divided into many named, matrilineal sibs, each of which is restricted to a specific locality. The sibs are divided into unnamed lineages referred to as mahari. Each village is built around one or two of these lineages, and most of the lineage women, with their husbands, live in the village, as do some of the men with their wives. One household is usually considered to be the most senior, and the other houses are thought to have branched out from it. This household holds all the village land, and the husband of the heiress is considered to be the headman of the village. Village leadership in a political sense is weak. The "headman" or nokma is a leader in a ceremonial rather than a political sense. If more than one lineage is present in the village, there are two nokma. The nokma is expected to entertain and feed the poor. If he is too poor to do so himself, a wealthy man may take over these functions, and he, too, will be called nokma. The Garo clearly distinguish the different types of nokma. The British administration established the office of loksor, who is elected among the nokma of a group of villages. The loksor settles minor disputes by calling meetings of the villagers, at which the loksor presides. Some village lineages are considered to be more closely related than others, and these groups of related and neighboring villages are referred to as village clusters. These clusters often include a few lineages which belong to the same sib. The Garo are noted for the high status and power held by women. Garo sibs and phratries are matrilineal, and inheritance of property is through women. Each married couple chooses one daughter to become the heiress of the household and property. The heiress and her husband are expected to care for the old couple as long as they live. The heir and heiress reside matrilocally, while other daughters in the family have neolocal residence since they set up their own households upon marriage. There is a preference for matrilateral cross-cousin marriage, particularly for the man who marries an heiress. These marriages are correspondingly both uxorilocal and avunculocal. In actuality, both patrilateral and matrilateral cross-cousin marriages occur. As stated earlier, many Garo have been converted to Christianity. The native Garo religion includes belief in the existence of supernatural spirits, called mite, who live in the jungle and the surrounding countryside. The mite cause diseases by biting people. Cures are effected by making sacrifices, which cause the spirit to leave the body. There are also some more important gods who influence the growth of crops. These gods are supplicated in major ceremonies involving sacrifice and feasting. All Garo men can perform sacrifices and cure diseases. Some are considered to be more effective than others, but there are no shamans. The village headman is responsible for the performance of the major village-wide ceremonies. The Garo religion also includes belief in rebirth. Burling (1964) is a brief cultural summary, and it is recommended for an introduction to the culture. The basic descriptive ethnographies are Burling (1963) and Playfair (1909). These two sources also provide a basis for diachronic comparisons, since they represent time periods approximately 50 years apart. Culture summary by Marlene M. Martin Burling, Robbins. Rengsanggri; family and kinship in a Garo village. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1963. 377 p. illus., maps. Burling, Robbins. Garos. In Frank M. LeBar, Gerald C. Hickey, and John K. Musgrave, eds. Ethnic Groups of Mainland Southeast Asia. New Haven, Human Relations Area Files Press, 1964: 55-57. Nakane, Chie. Garo and Khasi: a comparative study in matrilineal systems. Paris, Mouton, 1967. Playfair, Alan. The Garos. Introduction by Sir J. Bampfylde Fuller. London, David Nutt, 1909. 16, 172 p. illus., maps. Shinn, Rinn-Sup. Area handbook for India. By Rinn-Sup Shinn et al. Washington, D.C., U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970. 7842