Rediscovering the Familiar - An Anthropological Approach

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Preface Present volume is an outcome of the research activates of the faculty members of the department of Anthropology, Calcutta University. Under the special assistance programmed of the University Grants Commission faculty members have taken up research projects, related to the UGC approved thrust area "Man and environment, with emphasis on women, weaker section, disabled and senior citizens." Under the said programmed UGC has sanctioned grant for publication. n addition to the research results of the faculty members of this department, some relevant papers on the thrust area are included in the volume. These are from scholars belonging to such disciplines as modern history, education, psychology and anthropology.

Kamlesh Mohan deals in her paper with the British policy in studying the peoples of India and points out its implication on Anthropology and contemporary Indian society. Nandini Bhattacharya and Ranjana Ray's paper is on the prawn seed collectors of Sunder ban areas of West Bengal. Gopal K. Chakraborti made a study of the market and agricultural practices related to development of their lot. Manibrata Bhattacharya's paper shows that the rituals in a society symbolize integration, identification and communication.

Shyamalkanti Sengupta worked among the Santa’s, Ho and Munda of the village Chakulia in Ghatshila, the state of Jharkhand. He focused on sustainable development and suggested value of ethno science in the realm of resources and environment thereof. Buddha Chaudhuri in his paper laid emphasis on the problems arising out of improper forest management.

He pointed out the difficulties faced by the rural people, especially women, with respect to fuel and commercial plants. Surrender Nath makes a study on prediction of stature from the upper limb bones. It shows that the regression formulae are both population and sex specific. Arup Ratan Bandyopadhyay's paper is a study of the reproductive performance of some Santal women with a view to identifying possible intervention strategies for the betterment of their health and nutritional status. A. B. Das Choudhuri together with A. Ghosh made a biomedical study and found out significant positive relationship between central obesity measures and risk factors of coronary heart disease. Samvit Kaul's paper deals with the understanding of the environmental factors for serious noninfectious diseases in Human population. A. K. Bhalla studied growth of subcutaneous fat of some well off children of Chandigarh. The research indicated population specific venation of adiposity status. Tehal Kohli, an educationist, discusses the portage service delivery for the delayed young children from birth to six years of age. Surendra Nath Banerjee, former professor, Psychology Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, wrote on the detection of mental retardation.

His focus group is primary school children of Tripura. Vidhu Mohan's paper is on the application of Psychology for the welfare of society. She took up several points, namely, personal development, family life adjustment.

educational and vocational growth, application of psychology to the area of work, application of social psychology for social welfare, childhood issues and clinical disorders. All the papers in this volume are related to the thrust area specified. The papers by Kamlesh Mohan, Samvit S. Kaul, A. K. Bhalla, Tehal Kohli, Vidhu Mohan and Surendra Nath Banerjee were presented in the symposia of the Anthropological and Behavioral Sciences of the ninety- first session of Indian science Congress, which the editor had presided upon.

These papers are included in this volume because of the relevance of the topic. The editor is grateful for the support of the above-mentioned authors.

The editor acknowledges the secretarial assistance provided by Miss Monomita Ganguly. Dr. Prabir K. Das has very kindly gone through the proof. Miss Devalina Gopalan is thanked for giving a name to the volume.

Ms. Nandini Bhattacharya and Sri Utathya Lahiri designed the front cover.

The editor is grateful to Mr. Pradip Kumar Ghosh, superintendent of Calcutta University Press for publishing the volume. All effort is made to make the volume free of error.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages