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FIRST EDITION. Leather-bound; hardcover; octavo (22 x 14 x 1.5 cm); pp. [6], 139. English text. Rebound in full brown morocco; gilt spine titles; ground plan illustration fronting p.56; printed foot- and side-notes; tables in the text; appendix to rear. Condition: GOOD. Binding tight, secure, and square, the hinges and joints intact. Covers well-preserved, with light sunning to spine. Contents complete, with very light toning, some marginal worming affecting a few initial and terminal leaves (not touching text), a couple of marginal annotations. Armorial bookplate to front pastedown and recto front endpaper. Extremely scarce.
Notes: John Owen?s 1844 work provides an early British colonial perspective and ethnographic account that documents the geography, society, and culture of the Nocte people of the Assam frontier. It constitutes a significant historical and ethnographic record of the Nocte people and their interactions with neighbouring communities during the nineteenth century. Preserved as part of a broader attempt to document the people of the Assam frontier, it offers one of the earliest systematic accounts of Nocte society, economy, and culture. The work covers a wide range of fields, including geography and settlement patterns, with descriptions of the Nocte hills, their environment, and natural resources. It provides detailed observations on social organisation, encompassing kinship, marriage, domestic life, and the role of women within the community. Considerable attention is given to religion and ritual practices, recording traditional beliefs, ceremonies, and devotional observances. Equally valuable are the sections devoted to material culture and subsistence, where modes of dress, ornamentation, agriculture, hunting, and salt production are described in detail. The notes also contain extensive information on political structures and leadership, emphasising the authority of chiefs, the workings of village councils, and the mechanisms of conflict resolution. In addition, the text offers insights into economic life and inter-tribal relations, specially the importance of salt as an article of barter, and the role of trade in sustaining contact with the Ahoms, British administrators, and neighbouring tribes. Observations on health, disease, and climate further enhance its value as a source for historical anthropology.
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