Fault line of Segmentation: Fragmented dynamics in the tribal churches in Nagaland

People use cultural categories to shape their construction of identity and actions in the world. In cases when the change involves the introduction of new elements, the existing categories are challenged. This essay examines how the tribal Naga Christians use, even stretch, cultural categories derived from the segmentary Naga society in their appropriation of the Christian faith. It argues that Christianity has both challenged and reinforced the existing fault line of segmentation in Naga society. This experience involves the negotiation of values ritualised over the years in/through ecclesiastical meetings, church associations, translations, legislations and so on. While unity and segmentation are values inherent in the culture, Christianity augments and stretches the existing cultural categories. The result was a segmented church, united at one level yet divided at another.