Mega Mammals in Ancient India

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shibani Bose
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
North India ◽  
Panthera Tigris ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Faunal Remains ◽  
Ancient India ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Rhinoceros Unicornis ◽  
Urban Civilization

The book ventures to look into eras bygone in order to chronicle the passage of three mega species—the rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis), tiger (Panthera tigris), and elephant (Elephas maximus)—across millennia in early north India. It carefully sifts through an archive comprising faunal remains and visual depictions retrieved from the archaeological record as well as a gamut of Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, and classical Western accounts to document the presence of these mega animals in various cultural niches from hunter-gatherer societies to the first urban civilization of India and beyond. The narrative goes beyond treating these species as mere cultural icons to one that is also sensitive to their importance as markers of ecology. The focus is two-fold: to comprehend perceptions, attitudes, and sensibilities oscillating between veneration and persecution in order to reconstruct the cultural dimensions of human–megafaunal relations in the past, as also to use these species to understand the larger ecology of ancient India. At a time when the conservation of our megafaunal heritage is a major concern for biologists, ecologists as well as conservationists, this book underlines the need to historicize human interactions with these mega mammals keeping in mind that an animal’s past is critical in thinking about its future.

Beyond the Glittering Eye

2020 ◽  
pp. 117-183
Author(s):  
Shibani Bose
Keyword(s):  
Ancient India ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Fossil Evidence ◽  
Wide Range

Notwithstanding the cultural fascination evoked by the tiger, wildlife histories have done little to salvage it from the shadows of the past, particularly in the context of ancient India. This chapter endeavours to fill in this gap by marshalling evidence testifying to human interactions with this mega carnivore in early India. It underlines the dearth of fossil evidence, notes the patchy evidence offered by the archaeozoological record, and details the images which can be garnered from visual depictions of the animal on seals, copper tablets, and terracottas. It also explores at length the ways in which it is perceived in a wide range of Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, and classical Western accounts. Typically an animal of the forest and jungle, charting the journey of the tiger provides valuable glimpses into India’s ancient ecological past.

scholarly journals Notes on distribution and relative abundances of some animal species, and on climate in the Kruger National Park during prehistoric times

Koedoe ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ina Plug
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Animal Species ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Kruger National Park ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Animal Population ◽  
Faunal Remains ◽  
The Past ◽  
Relative Abundances ◽  
Insight Into

Faunal remains obtained from archaeological sites in the Kruger National Park, provide valuable information on the distributions of animal species in the past. The relative abundances of some species are compared with animal population statistics of the present. The study of the faunal samples, which date from nearly 7 000 years before present until the nineteenth century, also provides insight into climatic conditions during prehistoric times.

scholarly journals Cultural Transform di Situs Benteng Putri Hijau

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (27) ◽  
pp. 165-178
Author(s):  
Stanov Purnawibowo
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Transformation ◽  
Transformation Process ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
The Past

AbstractArchaeology not only describing about the past, but also present. The form of cultural transformation process which describe the process of archaeological record disposition in the post-depositoanal factors, one of example form describe from present. Cultural transformation of archaeological record was found in Benteng Putri Hijau site. Precipitation position of archaeological data and stratigraphy can give information about cultural transformation data and contexts remain found in archaeological deposition.

scholarly journals A place for the Bodhisatta: The local and the universal in jātaka stories

2007 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Appleton
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
North India ◽  
Local Culture ◽  
Teaching Career ◽  
The Past ◽  
Multiple Audiences ◽  
The Individual

Oxford UniversityJātakas—stories about the past lives of the ‘historical’ Buddha—are often associated with specific locations, both within the land of Buddhism’s birth, and in other parts of Asia. There are records suggesting that such locations became early pilgrimage sites; contemporary sources also make reference to ‘local’ jātakas, which in many cases help to assimilate Buddhism into the local culture through its geography. In this article I will argue that it is the structure of jātaka stories that allows this localisation to take place all over Asia. I contend that since the jātakas themselves are lacking in specific external referents they can easily be given a location, whilst their framing in the ‘present’ time of the Buddha’s teaching career grounds the stories in both time and place, without infringing on the flexibility of the individual stories. This ability to provide centrally legitimated relevance for each and all contributes greatly to the popularity and endurance of the jātaka genre. The layering of meanings must remain if the stories are to accomplish this: if the stories become formally localised, for example by 19th century scholars who celebrate the jātakas’ worth as records of life in early India, the power of the stories to transcend boundaries of time and place for their multiple audiences is lost. Yet if the jātakas were not anchored in the Buddha’s teaching career in the 5th century BCE North India, their significance for Buddhists would in any case be negligible.

Pre-Colombian Mesoamerica Childhoods

2022 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Health Conditions ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cultural Specificity ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Realm

Research on pre-Columbian childhood refers to all those studies that consider the different evidence and expressions of children in Mesoamerica, prior to the Spanish invasion in the 16th century. Archaeology, understandably by its very focus, has been one of the most prolific disciplines that has approached this subject of study. Currently, archaeological research focuses on highlighting the different social experiences of the past (or multi-vocality) of social identities, such as gender and childhood, and its relationship with material culture. In addition, archaeologists recognize a modern stereotype that considers children as passive or dependent beings and therefore biases childhood research in the past. Consequently, it is necessary to critically evaluate the cultural specificity of past childhood since each culture has its own way of considering that stage of the life cycle. Another problem, in the archaeological study of childhood, is to consider that children are not socially important individuals. It has been said that their activities are not significant for the economy or the social realm of communities and societies of the past. From archaeology, there exists a general perception that children are virtually unrecognizable from the archaeological record because their behavior leaves few material traces, apart from child burials. It has been since feminist critiques within the discipline that the study of childhood became of vital importance in archaeology to understand the process of gender acquisition through enculturation. This process refers to the way children learn about their gender identity through the material world that surrounds them and the various rituals that prepare them to become persons. Thus, the intent of recent studies on childhood has been to call upon archaeologists to consider children as social actors capable of making meaningful decisions on their own behalf and that they make substantial contributions to their families and their communities. In this sense, studies on pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican cultures have focused at the most basic sense on identifying the presence of children in the archaeological record or ethnohistoric sources. Its aim has been to document the different social ages that make up childhood, the ritual importance of Mesoamerican children, funerary practices, and health conditions marked in children’s bones as well as the different material and identity expressions of childhood through art and its associated material culture.

Archaeologies of Listening Beginning Thoughts

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Peter R. Schmidt ◽  
Alice B. Kehoe
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
The Past ◽  
Epistemic Humility ◽  
New Archaeology

This chapter introduces the foundational principles of Archaeologies of Listening. It takes the reader back to the genesis of anthropological method as well as the debates that have influenced attitudes toward indigenous knowledge and oral traditions over the last century. It critically examines the failure of “New Archaeology” to employ anthropological methods and proposes a complementary practice that does not eschew science but advocates a broader practice incorporating empirical evidence from those with deep experience with material cultures and landscapes. This chapter brings into focus how a richer interpretative posture occurs when we open our practice to the knowledge of others by employing the principles of apprenticeship and patience when working with communities. By putting into action the principle of epistemic humility, alternative views of the past open as do alternative ontologies that structure how the archaeological record is formed and heritage is performed.

China–India Myths in Xu Dishan’s ‘Goddess of Supreme Essence’

2021 ◽  
pp. 67-93
Author(s):  
Gal Gvili
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Exchange ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Cautionary Tale ◽  
Modern Life ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
Ancient India ◽  
China And India ◽  
The Past ◽  
Literary Device ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter analyses the scholarship of prominent May Fourth writer Xu Dishan as gateway for understanding his fiction. A close examination of his engagement with Indian religions and mythology in his fiction constitutes a vision of a China–India literary horizon through a literary device termed as ‘transregional metonymy’: tropes that travelled between China and India through the cultural exchange of myths. The chapter elaborates on this literary device through a close reading of Xu Dishan’s ‘Goddess of Supreme Essence’ (1923). The reading shows how a shared China–India figurative domain emerges in the story to offer a new understanding of myths and how they function in modern life. It also suggests that instead of rewriting the past, myths can rewrite the present; instead of using myths to establish a national culture, literature can use myths to imagine a transregional horizon. Focusing on India to think about the nature of storytelling and the relationship between myth and reality, Xu Dishan undid the binary distinction between ancient India as a soul brother and colonial India as a cautionary tale.

scholarly journals Changes in Dietary Consistency and the Epidemiological Occlusal Transition

COMPASS ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Elsa Morgan Van Ankum
Keyword(s):  
Orthodontic Treatment ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Tooth Wear ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Dietary Changes ◽  
The Past ◽  
Curve Of Spee ◽  
Different Populations ◽  
Health Transitions ◽  
Craniofacial Complex

            Malocclusion is the misalignment of the human dentition and craniofacial complex. Orthodontic treatment to correct this is quite common in modern Western contexts, and has variable prevalence in other areas as well. The archaeological record stands in stark contrast, with most past humans having teeth that align well. What could cause different populations to exhibit these characteristics? There is evidence in both modern and archaeological contexts that levels of dietary masticatory stimulation during development greatly change occlusal characteristics. Additional bite force and number of chewing cycles creates a flatter Curve of Spee, greater subnasal prognathism, and increased progressive tooth wear, which together facilitate better occlusion. With dietary changes such as those seen in the Industrial Revolution, the comparatively softer food creates widespread malocclusion in the effected population. These ideas are explored in terms of archaeological and contemporary case studies. Health transitions such as this commonly coincide with major changes to subsistence style, and can help biological anthropologists better understand the experiences of those in the past.

scholarly journals 4E cognition in the Lower Palaeolithic

2020 ◽  
pp. 105971232096718
Author(s):  
Thomas Wynn ◽  
Karenleigh A Overmann ◽  
Lambros Malafouris
Keyword(s):  
Stone Tools ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Technical Expertise ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cognitive Archaeology ◽  
4E Cognition ◽  
Thinking Process ◽  
Computational Processes ◽  
Lower Palaeolithic

This essay introduces a special issue focused on 4E cognition (cognition as embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended) in the Lower Palaeolithic. In it, we review the typological and representational cognitive approaches that have dominated the past 50 years of paleoanthropology. These have assumed that all representations and computations take place only inside the head, which implies that the archaeological record can only be an “external” product or the behavioral trace of “internal” representational and computational processes. In comparison, the 4E approach helps us to overcome this dualist representational logic, allowing us to engage directly with the archaeological record as an integral part of the thinking process, and thus ground a more parsimonious cognitive archaeology. It also treats stone tools, the primary vestiges of hominin thinking, as active participants in mental life. The 4E approach offers a better grounding for understanding hominin technical expertise, a crucially important component of hominin cognitive evolution.

A Life Less Ordinary: the Ritualization of the Domestic Sphere in Later Prehistoric Europe

2003 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
The Other ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Social Archaeology ◽  
Domestic Sphere ◽  
Domestic Life ◽  
Contemporary Archaeology ◽  
The Past

This article, which is based on the fourteenth McDonald Lecture, considers two tensions in contemporary archaeology. One is between interpretations of specific structures, monuments and deposits as the result of either ‘ritual’ or ‘practical’ activities in the past, and the other is between an archaeology that focuses on subsistence and adaptation and one that emphasizes cognition, meaning, and agency. It suggests that these tensions arise from an inadequate conception of ritual itself. Drawing on recent studies of ritualization, it suggests that it might be more helpful to consider how aspects of domestic life took on special qualities in later prehistoric Europe. The discussion is based mainly on Neolithic enclosures and other monuments, Bronze Age and Iron Age settlement sites and the Viereckschanzen of central Europe. It may have implications for field archaeology as well as social archaeology, and also for those who study the formation of the archaeological record.

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