[Assam] Dog Tag?

[Ram Sarangapani]

>Or for that matter taking on their husbands' last names!

my 2 cents,

I think many people have wondered about that or that fact that women either
take their father's or husband's names as last names. It probably is not as
simple as it seems.

That practice been in place across national boundaries and for a very,
very long time.

I wonder if it would be possible to change these 'written-in-stone'
practices even if educated women, self-respecting women wanted to change
things - it would be next to impossible. They would need to overcome many
hurdles - legal, political, social, custom, religion & quite possibly many
men.

--Ram



On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 2:31 PM, amlan saha <a.saha at alumni.tufts.edu> wrote:

> Hmmm... not in a totally different category from women introducing
> themselves or preferring the use of "Mrs." in front of their names, is it?
> Or for that matter taking on their husbands' last names!  I have always
> wondered about what could lead educated self-respecting women to ever do
> that.
>
>
> On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 1:35 PM, Dilip and Dil Deka <dilipdeka at yahoo.com
> >wrote:
>
> > That seems like a dog collar and tag to me - the kind you put on a dog if
> > you own one. The female has to wear a necklace if married and the male
> does
> > not have to.
> > How did the female activists let that happen? There must be more to come.
> > Dilip Deka
> >
> >
> ==============================================================================
> > >From the Assam Tribune
> >
> >
> > Jenjap' solves conjugal woes of Nyishis
> > Correspondent
> >  ITANAGAR, Dec 17 – The Nyishi women of Arunachal Pradesh, from now
> > onwards, will don 'jenjap' (necklace) as marital symbol, much like their
> > non-tribal counterparts in the plains. Thanks to the new-found
> 'awakening'
> > sweeping across 300 clans of Nyishis, a major tribe of this ethnic state,
> > inhabited by more than 25 major tribes.
> >
> > Beset with an increasing number of adultery, a major societal problem,
> the
> > tribal community has long been seeking an end to it. At a time when the
> > 'discussions and debates', met with a dead end, two small clans of
> > Nyishi—Tebw and Lappa having around 20,000 population spread across the
> > hilly interiors of East Kameng, Papum Pare, Lower Subansiri, Upper
> > Subansiri, Kurung Kumey, East and West Siang districts of Arunachal
> Pradesh.
> > They are also active in some parts of neighbouring Assam's Sonitpur
> > district. They practice what they preach.
> >
> > Taba Hare, the president of Tebw and Lappa Welfare Society, who is the
> man
> > behind the novel concept, said, "With calls from several quarters,
> including
> > intellectuals of the Arunachalee society, to reform the outdated customs
> and
> > traditions and anything genuinely acceptable to the society to match with
> > the passing time, the Tebw and Lappa Welfare Society (TLWS) had
> > conceptualised the idea to adapt 'jenjap' as a marital symbol for women
> at
> > its 7th annual convention held at Balijan under Papum Pare district in
> > February this year."
> >
> > As per TLWS' resolve, it was made mandatory for the married women to wear
> > the necklace, similar to mangalsutra, so that the people could know about
> > their marital status.
> >
> > The organization has also made it compulsory for every groom to present
> the
> > jenjap to his new bride as a ritual at the time of solemnizing their
> > marriage. Moreover, if a man possesses more than one wife, as is the
> common
> > practice in the tribal societies, he should present the necklace to each
> of
> > his wives to reveal their marital status to the community.
> >
> > Besides being a part of state's indigenous faith movement, Hare, himself
> a
> > former politician, said that the 'identity crisis' for the tribal women
> has
> > a bearing on the marital fabric of their respective communities. The fact
> > that tribal women did not have any marital symbol identical to
> 'mangalsutra'
> > and 'sindur' of Hindus, resulted in occurrences of 'many unfortunate
> > incidents' that led to chaos among their own tribal brethren.
> >
> > Asserting that TLWS had only revived the age-old tradition not by
> imitating
> > the practice of the people of plains, Taba Hare said, "We have the
> tradition
> > of giving 'kopung tasang', an expensive necklace made of silver, by the
> > mother-in-laws or other senior female members of tribal families to the
> > newly-wedded brides as a blessing for their well-being. But those
> traditions
> > have almost been discontinued or forgotten owing to the current wave of
> > modernization."
> >
> > According to the TLWS president, the reintroduction of jenjap, a modified
> > version of 'kopung tasang' and its mass acceptance will go a long way in
> > putting a check on the incidences of elopement and polyandry. It will
> rather
> > strengthen the marital bonds between the husband and the wife.
> >
> > The married male members of Tebw and Lappa clans, in a ceremonial
> function
> > held at Doimukh on December 16 last, presented 'jenjap' to their wives.
> > Prominent among those who presented the traditional ornament to wives
> were
> > Education Minister Tatar Kipa, Sports & Youth Affairs and Land Management
> > Minister Atum Welly, local MLA Ngurang Pinch and Berlin Deori, son of
> former
> > Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee president, late Omem Moyong Deori.
> >
> > Berlin, who does not belong to Nyishi tribe but associated with the
> > community through marital ties, looked elated while tying jenjap around
> the
> > neck of his Nyishi wife.
> >
> > Welly, Kipa and Pinch—all seemed effusive in praise of the initiative of
> > Tebw and Lappa Welfare Society that blazed a trail in social
> transformation
> > by introducing the jenjap. "The day certainly goes down in the annals of
> > history of not only Nyishi tribe but all other tribes of the region as
> Tebw
> > and Lappa, the two small clans, have set the trend for all tribes to
> > follow," said Atum Welly.
> >
> > Not to rest on his laurels, Taba Hare has set his sights on bigger
> goals—to
> > convince all the tribes of the state to follow the suit. "Just the
> journey
> > of a thousand miles begins with a step, we, though, belong to a small
> clan
> > always aspire for the big. As for us, we will not sit idle and but will
> try
> > to convince other tribes facing similar crisis to adopt the marital
> symbol
> > for women," Hare sighed off.
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