Portrait of Inaho of Melahomi

B&W photographic print. 'Inaho of Melahomi wears many-stranded shell necklaces. The crosses above his cowrie apron show he has taken part in a raid. The doccumentation suggest 'probably Ao', however, name and village rather suggest that he is the very Sema Naga man of which Hutton writes: "Bot...

Full description

Archive & Special Collections PP MS 58/02/M/15 Open

Date(s) of creation: 1920s
Level: Item
Format: Archive           
Main author: Mills; James Philip (1890-1960); colonial administrator and anthropologist
URL: http://digital.soas.ac.uk/LOAA004666
URL Description: Digital version available online at SOAS Digital Collections

collection SOAS Archive
id PP_MS_58.02.M.15
recordtype archive
scb_item_location Archive & Special Collections
item_location Archive & Special Collections
scb_loan_type Reference only
callnumber PP MS 58/02/M/15
callnumber_txt PP MS 58/02/M/15
callnumber-sort PP MS 58/02/M/15
prefix_number 15
title Portrait of Inaho of Melahomi
scb_date_creation 1920s
scb_level Item
level_sort 8/Collection/Sub-Collection/Sub-Sub-Collection/Sub-Sub-Sub-Collection/Series/Sub-Series/Sub-Sub-Series/File/Item
scb_extent 1 photograph
author Mills; James Philip (1890-1960); colonial administrator and anthropologist
author_facet Mills; James Philip (1890-1960); colonial administrator and anthropologist
authorStr Mills; James Philip (1890-1960); colonial administrator and anthropologist
author_letter Mills; James Philip (1890-1960); colonial administrator and anthropologist
format Archive
description B&W photographic print. 'Inaho of Melahomi wears many-stranded shell necklaces. The crosses above his cowrie apron show he has taken part in a raid. The doccumentation suggest 'probably Ao', however, name and village rather suggest that he is the very Sema Naga man of which Hutton writes: "Both Inato of Lumitsami and Inaho of Melahomi related to the writer independently how, when they were going up together from Phusumi to Lotesami, Inato managed to persuade Inaho to show himself in his tiger body. The latter lingered for a moment behind, and suddenly a huge tiger jumped out on the path in front of Inato with a roar and an angry waving of his tail. In a flash Inato had raised his gun, but the tiger-Inaho jumped in time to avoid the shot and disappeared. Since this Inaho has had an excellent excuse for refusing to show himself in tiger form to anyone at all" (The Sema Nagas, 1921, p. 206). The passage in Hutton refers to the phenomenon of the Naga 'tiger men', people who have a parallel soul in an animal body, mostly a wild cat. The photograph was taken in the garden of Mill's bungalow at Mokokchung, where many visitor used to come along.'
scb_access_status Open
scb_copyright Copyright held by J.P. Mills
language No linguistic content
language_search No linguistic content
scb_scripts_material Unwritten
scb_physc_charac_tech_reqs 9.5 x 7 cm
scb_copies Digital version available online at SOAS Digital Collections
note Naga (South Asian people)
Ethnic group: Naga
Ethnic group: Ao Naga
Ethnic group: Sumi Naga
scb_url http://digital.soas.ac.uk/LOAA004666
scb_url_description Digital version available online at SOAS Digital Collections
hierarchy_top_id_raw PP MS 58
hierarchy_sequence PP_MS_58.0002.00M.0015

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