ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to critically engage with the materiality of culture in the making of dominant narratives. Here, the marriage practices and customs of the Sümi (also spelt Sumi or Suemi, formerly known as Sema) tribe of Nagaland are the point of reference. The exchange of ameh in the marriage alliance has been closely examined and interrogated to see how gender operates in the way the written text and narratives dominate over oral text in the process of writing and reading the culture of the people. In popular understanding, the Sümi tribe’s ameh is the marriage gift and exchange from the groom and his family to the bride’s family, but if we look more closely, the exchange of ameh is gendered and complex, operating in multiple ways. This chapter looks at the politics of gift and exchange, and the relations and obligations created in the process.
