Overview
- First volume of its kind on prehistoric cultures of South Asia
- Integrates a range of subjects from Archaeology, Biological Anthropology, Genetics to Linguistics
- Provides a comprehensive picture about human adaptations and population changes in South Asia through time
- New theories and methodologies presented in the book provide new interpretations about the cultural history and evolution of populations in South Asia
- Wide range of topics and issues are covered including Palaeolithic adaptations, behaviours, and dispersals; the development of food production societies; the biological and skeletal relationship of foragers and settled communities; and the cultural and genetic interactions of populations
Part of the book series: Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology (VERT)
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Table of contents (19 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Human evolution and culture change in the Indian subcontinent
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Front Matter
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Setting Foundations
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Front Matter
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The Modern Scene
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Front Matter
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New Worlds in the Holocene
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Front Matter
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Keywords
About this book
South Asia is home to a diverse range of prehistoric and contemporary cultures that include foragers, pastoralists, and farmers. In this book, archaeologists, biological anthropologists, geneticists and linguists are brought together in order to provide a comprehensive account of the history and evolution of human populations residing in the subcontinent. A wide range of topics and issues are addressed in this book, including hominin adaptations, behaviours, and dispersals; the origin and spread of food producing economies; and the cultural, biological and genetic relationship of foragers and settled communities. New theories, methodologies and interpretations presented in this book are bound to have a profound effect on the way in which the cultural record of South Asia is perceived and how this evolutionary history relates to events in the wider world.
Reviews
From the reviews:
"The volume is divided into four sections following a Preface, a List of Contributors, and a stunning introductory essay by the editors … . congratulations to Drs. Petraglia and Allchin for organizing a successful conference and serving as generous hosts to its participants. I intend to use this volume in a seminar I offer to undergraduate and graduate students at my university, ‘Paleoanthropology of South Asia.’ What a pleasure it will be to introduce this remarkable volume to them and to my colleagues." Kenneth A. R. Kennedy, Journal of Mammalian Evolution, Issue 15, 2008
"It is unusually good, informative and cohesive for a conference proceedings. Given the exhaustive references and sound conclusions of the many high quality chapters, this book rightfully shall become indispensable to the small, hardy band of specialists in the biohistory of South Asia." Robert S. Corruccini, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, Vol. 18, 2008
“The most important contribution this volume makes is that the South Asian paleoanthropological and cultural evidence is highlighted through a relatively new and well-known international publishing series. It also introduces diverse lines of research to be pursued and will hopefully encourage and stimulate new methodological approaches and fresh interpretations of human evolutionary scenarios in a unique region of Asia.” Parth R. Chauhan, PaleoAnthropology 2010
Editors and Affiliations
About the editors
Michael D. Petraglia was born in New York in 1960, and has been conducting research into the Paleolithic archaeology of South Asia since 1987. He is currently a Lecturer in the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge. He has conducted archaeological research in India, Arabia and North America. He is co-editor of the book, Early Human Behaviour in Global Context: the Rise and Diversity of the Lower Palaeolithic Record.
Bridget Allchin was born in Oxford in 1927, and has been conducting research into varied aspects of Indian prehistory and ethnography for more than four decades. She is currently Chair of the Ancient India & Iran Trust (Cambridge). Her books include The Stone Tipped Arrow, The Prehistory and Palaeogeography of the Great Indian Desert, and, with Raymond Allchin, The Birth of Indian Civilization, and The Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Evolution and History of Human Populations in South Asia
Book Subtitle: Inter-disciplinary Studies in Archaeology, Biological Anthropology, Linguistics and Genetics
Editors: Michael D. Petraglia, Bridget Allchin
Series Title: Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-5562-5
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental Science, Earth and Environmental Science (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4020-5561-4Published: 26 March 2007
Softcover ISBN: 978-90-481-7394-5Published: 18 November 2010
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4020-5562-1Published: 22 May 2007
Series ISSN: 1877-9077
Series E-ISSN: 1877-9085
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIII, 465
Topics: Anthropology, Archaeology, Evolutionary Biology, Vertebrates, Human Genetics