Sara - Settlements

Most Sara who are Nar (hereafter reference will be to the Nar unless otherwise mentioned) reside in small villages located near streams or along roads. In precolonial times, in principle, a hamlet ( gir be ) was a distinct area in which members of a patrician ( gir ka ) lived with their wives, children, other kin, and followers. Villages ( gir begi [the gi suffix is a plural marker]) were divided into a number of such tracts of different clans. Households in these villages tended to be dispersed, with their circular thatched huts standing in the midst of family members' fields, but colonial and postcolonial officials have obliged the relocation and concentration of households along more easily administered roads. In the 1970s most villages had 200 to 300 inhabitants.