Book Description

Illustrations: 13 Maps Description: The Ethnology of India is a laudable attempt to understand the variations of the people of India. The book deals in a very systematic way with the problem of the antecedents and ethnic affinities of the people of India in all its complexities. The discussion on the term ethnology as distinguishable from ethnography , derivation and the usage of term race and its different connotations, and the commentary on the racial classifications of man proposed from time to time, make an interesting reading. Based on the extensive survey of the literature available till date on the prehistoric and protohistoric human skeletal material from different archaeological sites in India, the author has reconstructed the prehistoric ethnic history of India. All the available views on the ethnic/racial diversity of the poeple of India too have been critically evaluated. Large anthropomorphic data pertaining to stature, cephalic index, nasal index and facial index collected during the period proximate to Guha's time have been analysed to test the much used Guha's hypothesis regarding the racial affinities of the people of India. In the book, the author has lucidly synthesized the so far available information and developed a conceptual framework for better understanding of the ethnic diversity of India.