The Sümi are one of the major Naga tribes inhabiting the state of Nagaland in North-East India, with an estimated population around 300000. Prior to the late nineteenth century, the Sümi lived in relatively isolated village republics characterised by animistic religious beliefs, head-hunting traditions, and a highly structured communal life centred on institutions such as the morung. The advent of British colonial administration and American Baptist missionary activity in the late nineteenth century introduced Christianity and Western cultural frameworks that significantly transformed traditional Sümi society. Many indigenous practices were labelled taboo or pagan, leading to the abandonment and destruction of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Nevertheless, over time the Sümi community developed a form of cultural plurality in which elements of indigenous traditions and Christian practices coexisted and were reinterpreted within a new social framework.