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Tribes of Goa

Goa too has been invaded by Aryans just like the other parts of India. Still some tribes that exist in the state were the original settlers of the Konkan region much before the Dravidians invaded and occupied it. After sometime the Aryans came into the Konkan region area and settled down.

The Tribal Life
The major tribe of Goa are the Gowdas, but there are other tribes too, which are the Kunbis, the Velips and the Dhangars. The tribal people live in segregated villages. The lifestyles, customs, practices, traditions, ceremonies, religious beliefs and superstitions have remained an integral part of the tribal people.

Even if certain changes have crop up in the recent past still if one takes a closer look at their habits, customs and traditions they can called more civilized too. Their way of life does have logic and a meaning behind it and is not at all affected by the economical, technological and scientific changes that have taken place in the rest of the civilized world.


Cultural Identity
There has been no record that from where have the Gowdas have migrated to Goa.They have known as the Gowdas as they reside in the interior villages of the Goa. This could be a common term, as a village is called 'Goan' in Sanskrit.

Gowda Women
The Gowdas differ when it comes to role and rights given to women. Property is inherited by the wife after her husband's death. After her death it is distributed equally between sons and unmarried daughters. Women also play a very active role in economic matters and activities such as agriculture.

Rituals
The Gowdas are Hindus and they do not marry outside their tribes. They oppose the practice of other Hindus that the dead should be cremated instead the dead are buried in a set burial ground.

In 1620, the Portuguese converted a part of Gowdas forcibly to Christianity. That's why the Gowdas have split into three groups, which maintain strict endogamy and where both the matrilateral and patrilateral types of cross-cousin marriages are practiced. The chief deity of the Gowdas is Malikkarjun, the local name of Lord Shiva.

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