The Tiwa Ethnohistory

Book excerpt: This book aims at presenting, as far as possible, a comprehensive understanding of the ethnohistory of the Tiwa people. It addresses the issue of origin, migration, traditional belief system, the evolution of the social institutions of the Tiwa. It also covers the continuity and changes that had occurred among this tribe in recent years. The information about this tribe available in the Assamese chronicles, colonial records and other literature of the pre-independence period are devoid of its origin, migration, settlement pattern or social organization. Similarly published works of the post-Independence period do not provide a clear understanding of this tribe. Available published works are descriptive accounts of the socio-economic and cultural features of the Tiwa, as they appear in recent times. There is no mention of their early history or the circumstances leading to the bifurcation of the Tiwa into two groups (Hill and Plain) with distinct patterns of social organization and belief system. Furthermore, there is neither enough information on the socio-political institutions of the Tiwa nor an adequate understanding of the same. It is against such a backdrop that systematic documentation, description and reconstruction of the history of the Tiwa is necessary and which the present work seeks to address.