Women and Gangte Danpi: A Feminist Perspective of Customary Law among the Gangte Tribe
By Mercie Gangte
Customary law embodies the governance and cultural identity of a society, shaping how its members live and interact on a daily basis. Even today customary laws are established social practices which are implemented as the mode of social control and social sanction amongst many tribe societies of North East India. Focusing on the patriarchal and patrilineal Gangte tribe, the paper will highlight the instances in which women share their lived experiences wherein they have been perpetually entrapped in multiple problematic situations when negotiating their spaces pertaining to laws with regard to marriage, divorce, inheritance and decision making. It also seeks to examine how the social structures of the patriarchal Gangte society stunt women’s development and perpetuate their invisibility and the paper also aims to unravel how the customary laws have been responsible for the oppression of women, denying them social and economic security.