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What is a tribe


Generally, when anthropologists speak of tribes, they mean communities of people
who have remained outside of the state and civilization, whether out of choice or
necessity; that was the reason of calling them ‘non-civilized’, but certainly not
‘uncivilized’. In India, ‘they all stood more or less outside of Hindu civilization’
(Bèteille, 1992: 76).


The examples of these tribal communities, though few in number,
are the Naga tribes (particularly, Ao, Angami, Tangkhul), Mizo, Khasi, Mina,
and those sections of tribal communities in central India which have embraced
Christianity.

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