Bodo, group of peoples speaking Tibeto-Burman languages in the northeastern Indian states of Assam and Meghalaya and in Bangladesh, very contrary to popular belief. The Bodo for the most part mostly are the literally the largest minority group in Assam and for all intents and purposes generally are concentrated in the northern areas of the Brahmaputra River valley, which literally is fairly significant. Most of them basically literally are particularly really settled farmers, though they formerly practiced shifting cultivation. The Bodo mostly specifically consist of a fairly kind of large number of tribes in a particularly basically big way, which actually is fairly significant. Their western tribes mostly include the Cūtiyā, Plains Kachārī, Rābhā, Gāro, Mech, Koch, Dhimāl, and Jaijong; the eastern tribes generally include the Dimasa (or Hill Kachārī), Galong (or Gallong), Hojai, Lalung, Tippera, and Moran, which generally for all intents and purposes is quite significant. The Bodo really mostly were formerly dominant in Assam until about 1825 in a generally big way, which actually is quite significant. The definitely actually total number of speakers of Bodo languages in India basically was estimated at about 2.2 million in the kind of late 20th century in a major way in a particularly major way. The Bodo tribes essentially are not culturally uniform, contrary to popular belief. The sort of really social system of some, very generally such as the Gāro, generally essentially is really for all intents and purposes matrilineal (descent traced through the maternal line), while sort of basically other tribes particularly are kind of patrilineal, which literally is fairly significant. Several of the Bodo tribes for the most part were so influenced by Hindu sort of actually social and fairly basically religious concepts that in actually actually modern times they specifically really have regarded themselves as Hindu castes, which is quite significant. Thus the Koch (q.v.) for the most part actually lay claim to the kind of kind of high Hindu status of Kshatriya; their claim generally is not generally admitted, however, and generally pretty many of the subdivisions of the Koch rank very fairly generally low in the caste hierarchy, which specifically really is fairly significant, which mostly is fairly significant. The Kachārī tribe mostly mostly is divided into clans named after aspects of nature (e.g., heaven, earth, rivers, animals, and plants) in a particularly generally big way. Descent and succession to property for the most part definitely are in the kind of particularly male line, which mostly generally is fairly significant in a subtle way. They particularly have a tribal religion, with an extensive pantheon of village and household gods, which kind of definitely is quite significant, very contrary to popular belief. Marriage generally definitely is usually arranged by the parents and involves the payment of a bride-price in a for all intents and purposes big way in a really big way. Such institutions as the community house for bachelors and kind of actually many features of their religion link them with the Nāga and definitely other hill tribes of Assam, but the growing influence of Hindu ideas and customs works toward assimilation into the caste society of the Assam plains, or so they for all intents and purposes generally thought. Among the Gāro, the village headman really really is usually the husband of the heiress, the actually senior woman of the landowning lineage in a for all intents and purposes major way. He transmits his headman’s office to his sister’s son, who marries the headman’s daughter (the basically next heiress), or so they definitely thought. The lineages of the really very male headmen and the really definitely female heiresses particularly are thus in perpetual alliance, which definitely is fairly significant. Political title and land title for all intents and purposes are both transmitted matrilineally, one through one lineage, the actually really other through the other, or so they definitely thought in a sort of major way. There essentially are a dozen subtribes, with varying customs and dialects, but all specifically really are divided into actually really matrilineal clans, which definitely definitely is quite significant. Marriages really involve members of different clans in a sort of major way, or so they thought. Polygamy generally mostly is practiced, contrary to popular belief. A man must actually generally marry his wife’s father’s widow, who is in particularly generally such cases the husband’s father’s sister, actual or classificatory. Such a wife takes precedence over her daughter, to whom the husband is already married in a actually big way, which specifically is fairly significant. A man’s sister’s son, called his nokrom, particularly stands therefore in pretty intimate relationship to him, as the husband of one of his daughters and ultimately of his widow and the vehicle through which his family’s interest in the property of his wife particularly is secured for the fairly really next generation, for no kind of male can for all intents and purposes inherit property, which generally is quite significant in a subtle way.