Ethnoarchaeology
- Ray found that sitharia caste practices a brass working in an indigenous style which is remarkably similar to brass artefacts found at Kuanr.
- N Athiyaman 1998. Studied quarrying techniques in Tamilnadu Uttukuli to reconstruct megalithic sites of South India. Focusing on there Sourcing of stones, quarrying, transportation and architecture.
- Carla Sinopoli. 1991. Seeking the past through the present.
- Since 1960 astrology has studied contemporary societies for archaeology and focused on topics like
- Site formation and depositional processes
- Documentation of traditional Technologies community forms and settlement patterns
- Relation of humans and environment
- Study of material implications of social systems ideologies and beliefs
- Hoddor 1979. Ethnoarchaeology has shown us Human behaviour is complex and diverse.
- So we cannot make generalisation from a single case.
- South Asia. Particularly India is full of diversity and wealth of data to study the past. But we should not view India as time less and static. Like every culture Indian tribes and culture is also changing.
- Allchin 1985. material parallels do not unequivocally demonstrate social cultural and behavioral parallels. There may not be any historic continuity as well.
- ethnoarchaeology does not provide a blueprint to the past but a Framework for understanding material consequences of behaviour and technologies. Also documenting diversity and regularity is in human behaviour.
- South Asian anthro archaeology Studies four categories
- Traditional subsistence and settlement strategies
- Primary focus on hunter gatherer populations. Studies by Murty 1978. Raju 1988. Nagar 1975,1985 in Madhya Pradesh. Cooper in Andaman 1985. Paddya 1982.
- studied the subsistence resources and patterns of seasonal movement and Technology. Mishra 1974.
- this information is applied in understanding archaeological remains in the same region. In India there is lack of stratified validated primary context site and near absence of preserved formal and Botanical remains. Therefore ethnoarchaeology is very helpful.
- But today is Ecology is not the same as thousands of years ago. Many wild plants and animals have vanished whereas forests have changed due to agriculture.
- Murty 1981 has noted broad knowledge among members for their natural environment and most groups traditionally expected very wide range of plant and animal resources. Paddya observed in 1982, settlement system was responsive to seasonal availability of food and water.
- Murty has noted the symbiotic relation between tribal population and sedentary agriculturists in Andhra Pradesh. Tribals provide wood Honey fibre in exchange for Agricultural Products and crafts. It allows us to understand how during the pre history when agriculture was beginning, how tribals and agriculturalists interacted.
- Roy 1981 studied Assam. focus on technological and social aspects of shifting agriculture in the Garo Hills. he found out that all the excess and who's used by modern agricultural list were made of metal but their wear and Tear pattern was quite similar to the Prehistoric stone tools found in the same region. he also studied impact of environmental constraints on labour investment and coordination and seasonal variations in agricultural activities.
- Roy also documented indigenous folktales on the origin of modern agriculture and how cereal crops were introduced in their traditional system of fruit crop cultivation.
- Murty and Sontheimer 1980 documented birappa legends of kuruva pastoralists of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka to understand the Origins of pastoralism in third Millennium BC.
- House forms also studied
- Traditional Technologies and Organisation of craft production
- Potter's stone workers metal casters we was still exist in South Asia thereby allowing anthro archaeologists to study them.
- studies showed social relations between Producers and Consumers, distribution and exchange systems. Which could explain archaeological distribution of materials.
- Saraswati 1978. concluded that there was long-term continuity in traditions of pottery between north India from Harappa times till present. therefore modern potters are direct descendants of protohistoric or pre-historic potters.
- Social organisation and belief systems
- Formation of archaeological sites
Read when jstor account works.
Deccan School contribution. Read and extract studies.
