Neolithic And Tribal Cultures of Himalayan Region

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This book is very timely and relevant to the study of archaeology and Neolithic culture in Northern and Northeastern India, and also for the documentation of traditional life ways of pastoralism and both sedentary and shifting agriculture. The author has provided detailed background on the modern geography of the region, contrasting the ecosystems of the Northern and Northeastern regions. He has also provided analysis of specific ethnographic communities that have relevance to the earlier Neolithic adaptations in these regions. Perhaps one of the more important contributions of this study is the presentation of the different archaeological sites that have not been reported together in a single volume. The comparative study of sites from the Northern regions and those in the Northeastern regions is extremely important and deserves a lot more attention than they have received to date. I want to congratulate the author in his efforts to make these topics more accessible to both the academic community and the general public.

Jonathan Mark Kenoyer

Professor and Associate Chair

Department of Anthropology

University of Wisconsin, Medison.

Himalayan Mountainous region - the northern most geophysical formation of Indian Subcontinent provides strong evidence of human settlement since remote past. Here too, like any other region, diverse ecological and environmental features have influenced the way of life of inhabitants. This influence can be seen in the archaeological context of Neolithic Period in Northern and North-Eastern Himalayan region. The same is also seen in ethnographic studies which suggest that due to local ecology and environment, the subsistence of the tribes of Northern region is primarily based on pastoralism and farming here plays a secondary role. On the other hand in North-Eastern region, farming especially shifting cultivation plays a major role and animal domestication does not add significantly to the subsistence.

This difference which is not very clearly outlined, gathers impetus with ethno archaeological studies, which amply demonstrate that the entire way of life of the tribes of both the regions is governed by their food producing strategies. In the present work the same branch ethno-archaeology has been used for interpreting archaeological remains in the aforesaid regions. It is however important to bring out at this juncture that the past research of Neolithic Cultures have been mainly focused on subsistence and technological aspects of the tools and pottery. Ethnography, a very useful branch for interpreting the archaeological remains has been very restrictly applied to the Neolithic Cultures in India. There are few works on ethno-archaeological study of Neolithic Cultures but most of them are either partial or deal with South Indian Neolithic traditions. There has not been any serious attempt to interpret the Neolithic Cultures of Northern and North-Eastern Himalayan Region of India in light of othno-archaeology,

While taking ethno-archaeological studies for this research, care has been taken in selection of tribes whose data was utilized in the course of study. Those tribes were chosen which not only share common ecological setting as that of Neolithic sites but also have similar mode of subsistence in relation to the Neolithic economy.

Thus a logical base for interpretation of archeological remains of Neolithic Period of Himalayan region is provided in this work. The data base for this study was collected during my doctoral research work in Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.

I take this opportunity to express my profound sense of gratitude to my esteemed teacher Prof. Vidula Jayaswal of Deptt. of AIHC & Archaeology, BHU, who initiated me to the field of Ethno-archaeology. She has always been source of inspiration for me and her valuable suggestions and discussions enabled me to give the present form of book.

I am most grateful to Prof. D.K. Bhattacharya, a living encyclopaedia of Anthropology and Prehistory, for giving a lot of precious time for discussions and offered learned suggestions. He also provided a number of relevant publications and obliged me by writing the foreword.

I am especially grateful to Prof. Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA for several learned suggestions, which have been incorporated in this book. I express my heartfelt thanks to Dr. B.R. Mani, Joint D.G., Archaeological Survey of India, with whom I had a couple of long discussions on the various aspects of the Neolithic phase of Kanispur.

I am greatly indebted to Sri S.B. Ota, Director, Archaeological Survey of India for the valuable discussion related to the Neolithic Culture of Ladakh region.

I am also deeply thankful to Sri Muhammed, K.K., S.A. Delhi Circle Archaeological Survey of India for extending every possible cooperation.

My sincere gratitude is due to Dr. Bijoy Kumar Chaudhary, Director, K.P. Jayaswal Research Institute, Patna for allowing me to avail the library and other facility.

I am deeply beholden to Dr. Sanjib Singh, Deputy Curator, National Museum, New Delhi for his every possible cooperation and encouragement.