Migration and Distribution Pattern of the Mising Tribe in Assam: A Special Reference on the role of women- folk in Mising Society

ABSTRACT The Misings were earlier known as Miri, as the term was used by non-missing people of Assam, which is a conjunction of two missing words-Mi and RI, where Mi denotes man and I Hill. On the basis of the meaning of the Mi and RI, it can be presumed that, Miri means Hills-Man. But, the plain people used the term Miri, to mean exclusively the people of the Mising tribe, who played the role of mediators between the hill tribes of Arunachal Pradesh and plain people of Assam. But, in the same time, the term Miri was also used to mean other hill tribes like - Abors (Miri), Mishmi (Miri), Ghasi (Miri) and Daphlas (Miri) of present Arunachal Pradesh.