ABSTRACT
This entry explores dreams and dreaming as an important subject of anthropological investigation, especially in Northeast India where many cultures, such as the Angami Naga, consult their dreams on a routine basis in search of omens in the face of uncertain futures. Dreams have also been an important resource for religious figures such as Haipou Jadonang, and Rani Gaidinliu, who in the early decades of the 20th century, and in defiance of British colonial rule, established a religious reform movement, the Heraka, drawing much from their dream experiences. Indeed, this entry argues that scholarly attention to the local theories, practices, timings, consultations, and the intimate settings used in dream sharing and interpretation can tell a great deal about the communicative practices, esoteric knowledge, status of the imaginary, and important dynamics at play between humans their broader cosmology. In recent decades, however, anthropologists have rediscovered the importance of dreams, especially as local dream theories and practices constitute remarkable cultural continuities among many indigenous societies that have experienced significant transformation in the face of external economic, political, and religious pressures.
