Diversity and Development: An Anthropological Perspective

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The book is the outcome of an international seminar held by the Asiatic Society on the topic, biological and cultural diversity in Asia and the developmental consequences. Scholars from different parts of the world and India contributed papers for this volume. The UNESCO convention concerning the protection of world's cultural and natural heritage has provided a new approach to the issue of sustainable development. India has already involved itself in the international efforts of fostering local, national and global strategies for the protection of biological and cultural diversity and development. There are important papers in this volume on diversity and development beginning with the prehistoric, ancient and the present-day problems and solutions. Tribal, rural and urban situations of India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are deliberated. All the papers in this volume are topical, urgent and on current issues in the chosen perspective. This volume will be useful to scholars and researchers in the field of diversity and sustainable development.

Ranjana Ray, presently Anthropological Secretary of the Asiatic Society, is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Anthropology, Calcutta University. Her graduate level education was in Lady Brabourne College. She received her training as anthropologist from Calcutta University and Hawaii University. She was awarded US Federal Fellowship for her training abroad. She has a large number of papers to her credit published in both national and international journals and in edited volumes. In recognition of her outstanding work in anthropology she was awarded the Emeritus Fellowship by the University Grants Commission. She has edited seven books. Presently she is guest faculty in Sociology, Women's Studies Research Centre in Calcutta University, Indology in Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture and Research, Golpark, Kolkata and West Bengal State University. She is an elected member of the Executive Committee of the International Union for Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences (UISPP), an affiliated body of the Human Sciences of UNESCO. Presently she is involved with issues of women empowerment, sustainable development and cultural heritage management.

This volume titled "Diversity and Development: An Anthropological Perspective" is outcome of the international seminar held by the Asiatic Society on the topic "Biological and Cultural Diversity in South and South-East Asia and the Developmental Consequences" from November 21 to 23, 2007. This publication contains the scholastic papers presented in the seminar. In recent decades diversity in both the biological and cultural spheres has come up in the forefront in the policy decision for development. This volume has dealt with the diversity and development from the Anthropological perspective where human being is at the centre. There are important papers in this volume on diversity and development beginning with the prehistoric, ancient and the present- day problems and solutions. Tribal, rural and urban situations of India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are deliberated. All the papers in this volume are topical, urgent and on current issues in the chosen perspective. This volume, very competently edited by our Anthropological Secretary Professor Ranjana Ray, will certainly be useful to scholars and researchers in the field of diversity and development. It would undoubtedly be a prestigious addition to the publications of the Asiatic Society.

Etymologically diversity is understood as, noticeable heterogeneity, the condition and result of being changed. It also means diverseness, multifariousness and variety. However simple the meaning may be, the word diversity is at present more a concept than a simple matter for lexicon. Perhaps with Darwin the word gained its importance among the anthropologists. Bio- diversity is a most heard of term at present, basically meaning number of species occurring in a location. This term is used for all living creatures, plants and animals. Human beings are no exception. Starting from Darwin, Huxley and present-day human biologists, diversity continues to be the keyword for understanding human evolution. Diversity of biological characters among the early hominoidae gave rise to problems as well as solutions for understanding the roots of mankind. Fossil remains of early man found throughout the world are never the same in morphology. This resulted in the conflict between the taxonomers, splitters and the lumpers. They are still at loggerheads. The race concept is based on the biological diversity. With all the unfortunate events of genocide, the idea of racial diversity has not died out, whatever different grey coloured zones may lie between black and white. The biological diversity of man at present is more precisely observed with the help of molecular biology.

Man is unique in animal world because it possesses culture. Culture is considered as extra somatic behaviour and it is biologically preconditioned. Special features of biology enabled man to create culture. Culture can simply be divided into several aspects, such as, material and ideological. The latter includes social organisation, its norms, values, world view, customs, faith, belief, religion and a lot of related factors. Cultural diversity is equally important to set human groups either apart or close to each other. Cultural development is conditioned to environment and available resources for sustenance. Theories of cultural evolution emerged from the known sectors to the unknown. Among the early scholars personal factor played a major role. Difference between the researchers' world and the other world was responsible for categorising the diverse culture either as primitive or as developed. Unilineal theory of cultural evolution made space for multilateral and heterogeneous theories. However, cultural diversity is distinctly marked even in the so- called present day global village. There are groups who are living a life apparently comparable to those of stone age hunters and gatherers in the same time space as the most modern and urban population. Diversity is a universal phenomenon. It prevailed in the past, observed at present and will continue into the future.

In the beginning of this millennium UNESCO proclaimed the universal declaration on cultural diversity. The convention concerning the protection of world cultural and natural heritage has provided a new approach to the issue of sustainable development. India has already involved itself in the international efforts of fostering local, national and global strategies for biological and cultural diversity and development. The interconnection of the biological and the socio-cultural factors is a theme that runs through human diversity. With this viewpoint in mind the section of Anthropology of the Asiatic Society proposed to hold an international seminar on the topic, "Biological and Cultural Diversity in South and South-East Asia and the Developmental Consequences" from November 21 to 23, 2007. This volume is the outcome of the scholastic deliberations of the seminar.