Paper short abstract:

Documenting the response of a local community to being presented with early research photographs of their older textiles/cloth , the paper explores the notion of 'lost cultural heritage', the dialectics of Christian conversion and the heritage of a 'heathen past'.

Paper long abstract:

During the colonial period, Naga peoples of present North East India received intensive attention. Six detailed monographs were published by British officers cum amateur anthropologists between 1921-1935 using the guidelines in 'Notes and Queries' prepared by the RAI. In addition many artefacts were collected from different Naga communities for western ethnographic museums, especially in the UK and Europe. Over the past seven decades, most Naga have converted to Christianity. During Christian revivals , cultural accessories, especially cloth and jewelry associated with the ancestral animistic religion, were destroyed or discarded. Many cloths and accessories from the so called 'heathen past' have now become part of a treasured cultural history for the Naga. Giving an example of the impact on a Naga community of research photographs of older textiles/cloth which were taken to the field , the paper explores the notion of 'lost cultural heritage', the dialectics of Christian conversion and the heritage of a 'heathen past'. The paper asks what kind of dialogue museums and anthropologists can engage in with the source /indigenous community, and what issues such collaboration may raise.