Ritual Ecology and the Institution of Genna among the Koireng of Manipur: An Ethnographic Study of Seasonal Rites, Social Regulation and Religious Change

Abstract

The Koireng, a small tribe of Manipur, organize their agricultural and social year around an elaborate cycle of communal rituals intimately linked to shifting cultivation. This paper presents the first comprehensive ethnographic account of this cycle, with special focus on the institution of genna (ritual prohibition) — the central mechanism that synchronizes labor, protects ritual efficacy, conserves resources and maintains cosmological boundaries. Drawing on long-term fieldwork in Longa Koireng, Sadu Koireng, Utonglok and Awang Longa Koireng villages, the study documents key rites (Khokam, Kaangrai mindai, Bedal, Chalamkei, Ruichum, Cham-er ser, etc.), the role of the village gate (suongkung), animal sacrifice, dream interpretation and titled functionaries. It further analyses how genna continues to function as an instrument of ecological and social regulation even after widespread Christianization since the 1950s. The Koireng case contributes to ecological anthropology, studies of indigenous temporality and understanding religious change in Northeast India.