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Family Life and Kinship Relations Among the Mizos in Mizoram

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Introduction:
The early Mizo society was a simple tribal society which had no known contact with her neighboring civilizations until the eighteen century. The great majority of Mizoram's population is several ethnic tribes who are either culturally or linguistically linked. The society was strictly patriarchal and patrilineal with a well-defined culture of its own. Children grow up with their parents and paternal grandparents. No serious distinction is made between boys and girls during early childhood. Female infanticide ended more than sixty years ago. Mizos put much emphasis on teaching the child to develop a sense of group cooperation and Christian values.
The Mizos are close-knit society with no class distinction and no class …show more content…

After the advent of Christianity one remarkable change in the Mizo society was the style of composing names from that of naming a child after great warriors or after some great deeds they accomplished to names composed on the line of Christianity or Christian values and it may not be wrong to say that the new generation of Mizo sub-clans started including the names of the clan to which they belong to at the end of their names.
Kinship relations:
Among the Mizos, there is a clear distinction between kinship by descent and kinship by marriage, although kinship is reckoned and recognized on both lines. As a patrilineal society, the rule of descent is strictly based on the male line only. In the traditional system, a woman was recognized, even after marriage, by her patri-clan name. Thus, all the children acquired membership in their father’s clan group which might be a localized group or might spread horizontally over many villages, and could never acquire membership in their mother’s clan group except by a kind of adoption in which case they would not attain true membership in the politico-jural field. Thus, recruitment to any clan among the Mizo has been strictly based on descent through the father’s line only. The pattern of inheritance, rules of succession and residence closely followed the system of descent.
Among all clans, the rules of succession required that the youngest son should be the proper heir, although other male children also had a share in

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