Tribal youth dormitory

For example, among several tribes of North-East India, the traditional dormitories (called morung) became dysfunctional in the 20th century, with the advent of modern educational institutions and Christianity.

[3] Traditionally, after attaining a certain age (as young as 4-5 years among the Oraons), the tribal youth would attend the dormitory.

[4] These functions have changed with times; for example, according to a 1966 survey, the traditional Areju dormitory had largely disappeared from the Ao Naga village of Waromung.

In its place, there were two Church-controlled gender-specific dormitories, whose main function was to ensure segregation of unmarried boys and girls.

The morung is the club, the public school, the military training centre, the hostel for boys and meeting place for village elders.

They included education, story-telling, singing, dancing, sex, festive celebrations, religious ceremonies, and socio-political activities.