article
The institution of captainship: a traditional political system of the Nicobar Islands
Mankind quarterly • 27 (1) • Published In 1986 • Pages: 63-75
By: Reddy, G. P. (G. Prakash), Sudarsen, V..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This article discusses and compares the political structures of three islands: Chowra, Carnicobar (Car Nicobar), and Teressa. On Car Nicobar, the basic corporate unit is the ambilineal descent group, or ramage. The head, or captain, of the group manages its collectively held estates, sees that all members are provided for, drafts labor for communal work projects, and mediates disputes. Each village council has a chief who sits on an island council, the highest traditional political body in Nicobar. Each island has an island chief, who presides over meetings and acts as the island’s representative in discussions with government officials. Chowra Islanders have unilineal descent groups consisting of a number of agnatic kin groups. Chowra has no village councils, only an island council whose members are appointed by the island chief. There is no information on the functions of family and kinship groups on Teressa; the island does have village captains, and an island council and chief.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Household
- Kindreds and ramages
- Lineages
- Clans
- Community heads
- Territorial hierarchy
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Nicobarese
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2016
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Asia
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- South Asia
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnographer
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard; 2014
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1971-1981
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1971-1981
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Car Nicobar, Chawra, and Teressa islands, Nicobar Islands, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India
- NotesAdditional notes
- G.P. Reddy and V. Sudarsen
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 75)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 63024971
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Nicobarese (Indic people)