The “Jungle Lord” and the Natural Order: Adi Narratives About the Epom

Abstract

Among the Adi in the Siang districts of Arunachal Pradesh, India, in the far eastern Himalayan foothills, fear of the Epom—a dangerous, tree-dwelling, non-human entity—impacts human navigation of the wilderness. The Epom inhabits the peripheral corners of Adi society and polices his environment, kidnapping or killing those who violate it in continuation of an ancestral feud, functioning as a sinister regulator of the natural order. This article examines the relationships among the Epom, the Adi, and the foreign in contemporary Arunachal Pradesh.