ABSTRACT
This chapter is about reflections of my ethnographic fieldwork between 2007 and 2011. Contrary to the new economic development across Northeast India where prices of real estate are escalating, I observed how land in the foothills border of Assam and Nagaland is considered valuable for other reasons. Large tracks of land are bought and sold for relatively less in comparison to the neighbouring villages in the hills of Nagaland and the plains of the Brahmaputra valley. Thus, it is not solely monetary value that determines the value of land here. In many ways, the sense of belonging and the freedom to validate certain histories and memories strongly connects people to land in this region. As I focus on everyday intersections, I highlight how relations are highly charged with moral and social meanings, thereby becoming the symbols of the everyday social world in the foothills.
