Fundamentals of Social and Cultural Anthropology (An Old and Rare Book)

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Shri Biswanath Banerjee (b. 1934) a Reader of Department of is Anthropology, Calcutta University. Prior to this present assignment he was a Lecturer in Bongaon and Habra [24 Parganas(N), West Bengal] Colleges. He is trained in Anthropological re- search under the guidance of Prof. M. Goswami, Prof. K. P. Chattopadhyay, Prof. N. K. Bose and Prof. S. C. Sinha. Due to closeness of such internationally famed anthropologists in our country, he acquired a deep understanding both in the field observation as well as theories of the subject from the grass root level.

He has also acquired an extensive field experience from North-East, West Bengal and Dhalbhum-Manbhum areas of Bihar.

Dr. Amitabha Sarkar (b.1952) is M.Sc., Ph. D. from Calcutta University. His valuable empirical research in the arena of Anthropology is Ethnography, Socio-Cultural change with special emphasis on Industrialisation and Culture Ecology.

Dr. Sarkar has published two books -(a) Toto: Society and Change and (b) Dhodia: Industrialisation and Change in a Primitive Community. He has published about two dozen of research papers in various leading journals. He has completed several research project from Anthropological Survey of India, where he joined in the year 1977 and carried out extensive field investigation in rural and tribal belts of West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Bastar District of Madhya Pradesh.

He is presently posted as Anthropologist and Head of Office at Anthropological Survey of India, Govt. of India, Jagdalpur, Bastar (M?.?.).

The book is a basic for the student of Anthropology. In fact a student is totally unaware of the subject during his or her school days. The subject is only introduced from graduation level in our country. Therefore, the students and their guardians are totally ignorant of the subject about its nature, scope, area of operation, method and its relation with other disciplines. Anthropology studies man from the physical and social-cultural points of view. Social-Cultural Anthropology deals with both primitive and contemporary societies. The theories and applied measures of this subject come of field work which is vital to it. Regular and rigorous field work is the only means to keep this subject alive put the knowledge to many fruitful ends of human societies. In fact field work is the laboratory for an anthropologist.

In connection with the preparation of the manuscript authors are highly indebted to Dr. (Mrs.) Samira Dasgupta, of Anthropological Survey of India, Jagdalpur and Shri Gopal Chakraborty, Lecturer, Dept. of Anthropology, Midnapur University, Shaktipada Haldar, Abhijit Das and Soumitra Basu, the research scholars, Dept. of Anthropology, Calcutta University for their valuable suggestions in preparing this manuscript.

Lastly, authors also express thanks to their well-wishers and typist Kumari Shanta Bala of Jagdalpur for their personal help and co-operation in various spheres in producing this monograph.

To begin with Anthropology, the question comes in mind that what is Anthropology? Each discipline of knowledge develops around certain basic question which determines its aim, object and scope. What are such questions in Anthropology? In Anthropology such basic questions are around man himself and it is the study of man in totality.

Anthropology has been developed around three basic questions about Man. First question is how man came in the earth and got such physical features with the ability of talking? The answer is by evolution. Evolution is the process of change through which the man got the present appearance which took a long way. It is known that the animal kingdom started with the amoebaan unicellular animal. Through various phases of evolution and after several changes mammals came in the earth. Again from the mammals through evolution the anthropoid apes have emerged in the earth and lastly till date the emergence of human being in the earth is happened. If one draws an evolutionary tree, one can see that there is a continuity up to the anthropoid ape. The study of comparative anatomy suggests how the structure of four legged mammals have gradually changed through evolution and it became nearly two legged monkey. It tells how the Chimpanzee and Gorilla became tailless. Incidentally the flow of such continuous development as if, dropped in the missing link, from ape to man. But it is not lost. In India and in Africa several skeletal remains of fossil ape of higher order are discovered.