ANTHROPOLOGY CURRENT AFFAIRS MAGAZINE

NOVEMBER 2020

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CONTENTS PAPER -1

PHYSICAL & ARCHAEOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 1. The number of times a person gives birth may affect how quickly they age 2. Neanderthal thumbs better adapted to holding tools with handles, study finds 3. Newly discovered fossil shows small-scale evolutionary changes in an

extinct human species 4. Population dynamics and the rise of empires in Inner Asia 5. Research shows aging chimps, like humans, value friendships 6. Ancient genomes uncover Irish passage tomb dynastic elite 7. New study records dual hand use in early human relative

SOCIO-CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY 8. Building blocks of language evolved 30-40 million years ago

9. Just like us - Neanderthal children grew and were weaned similar to us 10. Marriage or not? Rituals help dating couples decide relationship future

PAPER - 2

INDIAN & TRIBAL ANTHROPOLOGY

1.Tendu leaves cushion tribals from economic deprivation during COVID-19 2. Vexed tribals lay road all by themselves in Agency 3. Processing units to boost tribals’ income 4. Meghalaya tribes: Stop Excluding us from Schedule VI 5. Government launches online platform for health, nutrition info about

tribal population 6. Around 3% of population in 177 tribal-dominated districts Covid positive 7. Kerala: ‘En Uru’ to showcase traditional tribal knowledge 8.IRS Officer & Doctor Wife Provide Basic Healthcare, Education to

Forgotten Tribe! 9. ‘Hostile’ Sentinelese? Here’s What The First Anthropologist to Meet Them

Has to Say 10. Just 34, This Paralegal Battled All Odds to Win Forest Rights For Kerala’s

Tribals 11. Forced to Quit Studies, Kerala Farmer Donates Rs 40K to Print Books For Tribal Kids! 12. Travelling with the Van Gujjars: Tracing a forest-dwelling nomadic

tribe's spring migration 13. Plight of Adiyan and Vetan communities of Kerala highlight why India

needs to revisit criteria for determining tribal identity 14. For, Of and By Tribes: This Powerful Idea Is Molding the Tribal Leaders

of Tomorrow 15. Odisha’s Bonda tribe sees rise in ‘distress migration’

16. Survey of forest dwellers being done: Jammu and Kashmir govt. 17. Tigers, Tribals & Volleyball: Melghat Is Hosting A Sports Event Unlike

Any Other!

18. With land rights, but no land

19. Marriage Is Driving Tribal Families Into Debt In MP. These Activists Are

Trying To Change That.

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PHYSICAL & ARCHAEOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 1. The number of times a person gives birth may affect how quickly they age UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Having children doesn't just make you feel like you've aged overnight -- a new study led by Penn State researchers found that the number of times a person gives birth may also affect the body's physical aging process. The researchers examined several different measures that represent how a person's body is aging and found that people who had few births -- or many -- seemed to have aged quicker than those who had given birth three or four times. However, these effects were found only after a person had gone through menopause. "Our findings suggest that pregnancy and birth may contribute to the changing and dysregulation of several different physiological systems that may affect aging once a person is post-menopause," said Talia Shirazi, a doctoral candidate in biological anthropology at Penn State. "This is consistent with the metabolic, immunological, and endocrinological changes that occur in the body during pregnancy and lactation, as well as the various disease risks that are associated with pregnancy and reproductive investment more generally." According to the researchers, pregnancy and breastfeeding use a large amount of the body's energy and can affect many of its systems, including immune function, metabolism, and blood pressure, among others. Additionally, people who have given birth are more likely to die from diabetes, kidney disease, and hypertension, among other conditions, than those who have not. The researchers were curious about how the body balances these "costs of reproduction" and whether it affects how the body ages. "We think there's something going on, some sort of trade-off, between aging and reproduction," Shirazi said.

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"This makes sense from an evolutionary biology point of view, because if you're spending energy in pregnancy and breastfeeding, you probably don't have as much energy to allocate towards things like physiological maintenance and defense." For the study, the researchers used data on 4418 participants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Data included information about reproductive health including the number of live births and whether they had gone through menopause or not. The researchers measured biological aging in several ways based on nine biomarkers designed to assess metabolic health, kidney and liver function, anemia and red blood cell disorders, and immune function and inflammation. "We wanted to look at measures that would help capture the age and functioning of the body's major organ systems, instead of looking at aging at the cellular level," said Waylon Hastings, postdoctoral researcher at Penn State. "When we think about pregnancy, we don't think about changes to individual cells but instead about how the immune system or metabolism changes, for example." The researchers found a "U?shaped relationship" between the number of live births and accelerated biological aging. Those reporting zero or few live births, or reporting many live births, had markers of quicker biological aging than those who reported three or four live births. This was true even when controlling for chronological age, lifestyle, and other health?related and demographic factors. Shirazi said that because the data was taken at one point in time, it's not currently possible to know what caused these associations. But she said one possible explanation for the findings -- recently published in Scienti_c Reports -- is the presence, or lack, of ovarian hormones in post-menopausal people. "Previous research has found that generally, ovarian hormones are protective against some cellular level processes that might accelerate aging," Shirazi said. "So it's possible that in pre-menopausal women the effect of hormones are buffering the potential negative effect of pregnancy

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and reproduction on biological age acceleration. And then perhaps when the hormones are gone, the effects can show themselves." Hastings said the study also suggests that additional research can be done to understand the processes that may be involved in the connection between aging and having children, as well as how these processes work over time. "This transition into menopause, and female reproductive health in general, is very much under researched and not as well understood as it should be at this time," Hastings said. "So if we can see that there are these changes in aging as a function of reproduction and menopause, and we don't have a great explanation for why, then that's a sign we should investigate this more."

2. Neanderthal thumbs better adapted to holding tools with handles, study finds

Neanderthal thumbs were better adapted to holding tools in the same way that humans hold a hammer, new research suggests. The findings suggest Neanderthals may have found precision grips more challenging than power squeeze grips.

Precision grips involve holding an object between the tip of the finger and the thumb, and power squeeze grips are where objects are held like a hammer, between the fingers and the palm with the thumb directing force. A modern human hand demonstrating a power squeeze grip, likely used by Neanderthals when grasping hafted artefacts (Ameline Bardo)

Using 3D analysis, Dr Ameline Bardo and colleagues, mapped the joints between the bones responsible for movement of the thumb – referred to collectively as the trapeziometacarpal complex – of five Neanderthal individuals. They compared the results to measurements taken from the remains of five early modern humans and 50 recent modern adults. The researchers from the University of Kent found covariation in shape and relative orientation of the joints that suggest different repetitive thumb movements in Neanderthals compared with modern humans.

The joint at the base of the thumb of the Neanderthal remains was flatter with a smaller contact surface and better suited to an extended thumb

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positioned alongside the side of the hand. According to the study, published in Scientific Reports, this thumb posture suggests the regular use of power squeeze grips – like the ones humans now use to hold tools with handles. These joint surfaces are generally larger and more curved in recent modern human thumbs, an advantage when gripping objects between the pads of the finger and thumb, known as a precision grip.

Researchers said that although the morphology of the studied Neanderthals is better suited for power squeeze grips, they would still have been capable of precision hand postures.

However, they would have found this more challenging than modern humans, according to the authors. Comparison of fossil morphology between the hands of Neanderthals and modern humans may provide further insight into the behaviours of our ancient relatives and early tool use. The authors wrote: “Results show a distinct pattern of shape covariation in Neanderthals, consistent with more extended and adducted thumb postures that may reflect habitual use of grips commonly used for hafted tools.”

They added: “These results underscore the importance of holistic joint shape analysis for understanding the functional capabilities and evolution of the modern human thumb.”

3. Newly discovered fossil shows small-scale evolutionary changes in an extinct human species

Males of the extinct human species Paranthropus robustus were thought to be substantially larger than females—much like the size differences seen in modern-day primates such as gorillas, orangutans and baboons. But a new fossil discovery in South Africa instead suggests that P. robustus evolved rapidly during a turbulent period of local climate change about 2 million years ago, resulting in anatomical changes that previously were attributed to sex.

An international research team including anthropologists at Washington University in St. Louis reported their discovery from the fossil-rich

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Drimolen cave system northwest of Johannesburg in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution on Nov. 9.

“This is the type of phenomenon that can be hard to document in the fossil record, especially with respect to early human evolution,” said David Strait, professor of biological anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University.

The remarkably well-preserved fossil described in the paper was discovered by a student, Samantha Good, who participated in the Drimolen Cave Field School co-led by Strait.

Researchers already knew that the appearance of P. robustus in South Africa roughly coincided with the disappearance of Australopithecus, a somewhat more primitive early human, and the emergence in the region of early representatives of Homo, the genus to which modern people belong. This transition took place very rapidly, perhaps within only a few tens of thousands of years.

“The working hypothesis has been that climate change created stress in populations of Australopithecus leading eventually to their demise, but that environmental conditions were more favorable for Homo and Paranthropus, who may have dispersed into the region from elsewhere,” Strait said. “We now see that environmental conditions were probably stressful for Paranthropus as well, and that they needed to adapt to survive.”

The new specimen discovered at Drimolen, identified as DNH 155, is clearly a male but differs in important ways from other P. robustus previously discovered at the nearby site of Swartkrans—where most of the fossils of this species have been found.

Evolution within a species can be difficult to see in the fossil record. Changes may be subtle, and the fossil record is notoriously incomplete.

Usually, the fossil record reveals larger-scale patterns, such as when species or groups of species either appear in the fossil record or go extinct.

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So this Drimolen discovery provides a rarely seen window into early human evolution.

The new specimen is larger than a well-studied member of the species previously discovered at Drimolen—an individual known as DNH 7, and presumed to be female—but is measurably smaller than presumed males from Swartkrans.

“It now looks as if the difference between the two sites cannot simply be explained as differences between males and females, but rather as population-level differences between the sites,” said Jesse Martin, a doctoral student at La Trobe University and the co-first author of the study. “Our recent work has shown that Drimolen predates Swartkrans by about 200,000 years, so we believe that P. robustus evolved over time, with Drimolen representing an early population and Swartkrans representing a later, more anatomically derived population.”

“One can use the fossil record to help reconstruct the evolutionary relationships between species, and that pattern can provide all sorts of insights into the processes that shaped the evolution of particular groups,” Martin said. “But in the case of P. robustus, we can see discrete samples of the species drawn from the same geographic region but slightly different times exhibiting subtle anatomical differences, and that is consistent with change within a species.”

“It’s very important to be able to document evolutionary change within a lineage,” said Angeline Leece of La Trobe University, the other first author of the study. “It allows us to ask very focused questions about evolutionary processes. For example, we now know that tooth size changes over time in the species, which begs the question of why. There are reasons to believe that environmental changes placed these populations under dietary stress, and that points to future research that will let us test this possibility.”

Co-director of the Drimolen project, La Trobe University’s Andy Herries said, “Like all other creatures on earth, our ancestors adapted and evolved in accordance with the landscape and environment around them. For the first time in South Africa, we have the dating resolution and morphological

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evidence that allows us to see such changes in an ancient hominin lineage through a short window of time.”

The evidence of rapid but significant climate change during this period in South Africa comes from a variety of sources. Critically, fossils indicate that certain mammals associated with woodland or bushland environments went extinct or became less prevalent—while other species associated with drier, more open environments appeared locally for the first time.

“P. robustus is remarkable in that it possesses a number of features in its cranium, jaws and teeth indicating that it was adapted to eat a diet consisting of either very hard or very tough foods,” Strait said. “We think that these adaptations allowed it to survive on foods that were mechanically difficult to eat as the environment changed to be cooler and drier, leading to changes in local vegetation.

“But the specimens from Drimolen exhibit skeletal features suggesting that their chewing muscles were positioned in such a way as to make them less able to bite and chew with as much force as the later P. robustus population from Swartkrans,” he said. “Over the course of 200,000 years, a dry climate likely led to natural selection favoring the evolution of a more efficient and powerful feeding apparatus in the species.”

Leece said it was notable that P. robustus appeared at roughly the same time as our direct ancestor Homo erectus, as documented by an infant H. erectus cranium that the team discovered at the same Drimolen site in 2015.

“These two vastly different species, H. erectus with their relatively large brains and small teeth, and P. robustus with their relatively large teeth and small brains, represent divergent evolutionary experiments,” Leece said. “While we were the lineage that won out in the end, the fossil record suggests that P. robustus was much more common than H. erectus on the landscape two million years ago.”

More broadly, the researchers think that this discovery serves as a cautionary tale for recognizing species in the fossil record.

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A large number of fossil human species have been discovered over the past quarter century, and many of these new species designations are based on a small number of fossils from only one or a few sites in small geographic areas and narrow time ranges.

“We think that paleoanthropology needs to be a bit more critical about interpreting variation in anatomy as evidence for the presence of multiple species,” Strait said. “Depending on the ages of fossil samples, differences in bony anatomy might represent changes within lineages rather than evidence of multiple species.”

Project Co-Director Stephanie Baker of the University of Johannesburg added, “Drimolen is fast becoming a hotspot for early hominin discoveries, which is a testament to the current team’s dedication to holistic excavation and post-field analysis. The DNH 155 cranium is one of the best-preserved P. robustus specimens known to science. This is an example of what careful, fine-scale research can tell us about our distant ancestors.”

4. Population dynamics and the rise of empires in Inner Asia

Genome-wide analysis spanning 6,000 years in the eastern Eurasian Steppe gives insights to the formation of Mongolia's empires

From the late Bronze Age until the Middle Ages, the eastern Eurasian

Steppe was home to a series of organized and highly influential nomadic empires. The Xiongnu (209 BCE -- 98 CE) and Mongol (916-1125 CE) empires that bookend this period had especially large impacts on the demographics and geopolitics of Eurasia, but due to a lack of large-scale genetic studies, the origins, interactions, and relationships of the people who formed these states remains largely unknown.

To understand the population dynamics that gave rise to the Steppe's historic empires, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (MPI-SHH), the National University of Mongolia, and partner institutions in Mongolia, Russia, Korea and the United States

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generated and analyzed genome-wide data for 214 individuals from 85 Mongolian and 3 Russian sites. Spanning the period of 4600 BCE to 1400 CE, it is among the largest studies of ancient Eastern and Inner Asian genomes to date.

During the mid-Holocene, the eastern Eurasian Steppe was populated by hunter-gatherers of Ancient Northeast Asian (ANA) and Ancient Northern Eurasian (ANE) ancestry, but around 3000 BCE, dairy pastoralism was introduced through the expansion of the Afanasievo culture of the Altai mountains, whose origins can be traced to the Yamnaya steppe herders of the Black Sea region more than 3,000 km to the west. Although these migrants left little genetic impact, they had an outsized cultural effect and by the Mid- to Late Bronze Age, dairy pastoralism was practiced by populations throughout the Eastern Steppe.

In the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, populations in west, north and south-central Mongolia formed three distinct, geographically structured gene pools. These populations remained discrete for more than a millennium, until increased mobility, likely facilitated by the rise of horseback riding, began to break down this structure. The formation of the Xiongnu in north-central Mongolia, the first nomadic empire in Asia, is contemporaneous with this population mixture and with the influx of new gene pools originating from across Eurasia, from the Black Sea to China.

"Rather than a simple genetic turnover or replacement, the rise of the Xiongnu is linked to the sudden mixture of distinct populations that had been genetically separated for millennia. As a result, the Xiongnu of Mongolia show a spectacular level of genetic diversity that reflects much of Eurasia," says Dr. Choongwon Jeong, lead author of the study and a professor of Biological Sciences at Seoul National University.

A thousand years later, individuals from the Mongol Empire, one of largest contiguous empires in history, showed a marked increase in Eastern Eurasian ancestry compared to individuals from the earlier Xiongnu, Turkic and Uyghur periods, accompanied by a near complete loss of the ancient ANE ancestry that had been present since before the Xiongnu Empire. By the end of the Mongol Empire, the genetic makeup of the

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Eastern Steppe had changed dramatically, ultimately stabilizing into the genetic profile observed among present-day Mongolians.

"Our study of ancient Mongolia reveals not only early genetic contributions from populations on the Western Steppe, but also a marked genetic shift towards eastern Eurasian ancestry during the Mongol Empire. The region has a remarkably dynamic genetic history, and ancient DNA is beginning to reveal the complexity of population events that have shaped the Eurasian Steppe," says Ke Wang, co-first author of the study and a PhD student at the MPI-SHH.

In addition to the impacts of genetic events on political structures, the researchers also investigated the relationship between genetics and subsistence strategies. Despite more than 5,000 years of dairy pastoralism in the region and the continued importance of dairy in the average Mongolian diet today, researchers found no evidence for the selection of lactase persistence, a genetic trait that allows lactose digestion.

"The absence of lactase persistence in Mongolian populations both today and in the past challenges current medical models of lactose intolerance, and suggests a much more complicated prehistory of dairying. We are now turning to the gut microbiome to understand how populations adapt to dairy-based diets," says Dr. Christina Warinner, senior author of the study, a professor of Anthropology at Harvard University and a research group leader at the MPI-SHH.

"Reconstructing a 6,000-year genetic history of Mongolia has had a transformative effect on our understanding of the archaeology of the region. While answering some long-standing questions, it has also generated new questions and revealed several surprises. We hope that this research will energize future work on the rich and complex relationships between ancestry, culture, technology, and politics in the rise of Asia's nomadic empires," adds Dr. Erdene Myagmar, co-senior author of the study and professor of Anthropology and Archaeology at the National University of Mongolia.

5. Research shows aging chimps, like humans, value friendships

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Old friends get together to relax, share meals, and trust and support each other. In the latter part of life, these friendships are highly valued. Recent research shows this happens in chimpanzees as well as humans.

Chimpanzee and human friendships show many parallels, according to new research published this week in Science by associate professor Martin Muller at The University of New Mexico Anthropology department, associate professor of Anthropology and co-director of the Comparative Human and Primate Physiology Center Melissa Emery Thompson, and their colleagues.

This work, a collaboration among researchers at UNM, University of Michigan, Tufts University, and Harvard University, uses data from the Kanyawara chimpanzee community living in Kibale National Park in Uganda and was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. These chimpanzees have been studied for decades by the Kibale Chimpanzee Project, and researchers leveraged this exceptional dataset to test socioemotional selectivity theory – an influential idea in psychology aimed at explaining why humans show changes in social interactions during aging.

“I study chimpanzee behavior and physiology, partly to help understand the evolution of human behavior and physiology… This study was part of a larger project on aging and health in chimpanzees. We were interested to see whether chimpanzees showed changes in their social relationships with aging that mirrored those commonly seen in humans,” said Muller, who has traveled to Kibale once or twice a year for 20 years to supervise the collection of these data, and, more recently, worked with graduate students at UNM to organize, clean, and analyze them.

“Dr. Emery Thompson and I were part of this study, as was our graduate student Drew Enigk. Drew provided the data on male dominance ranks for the paper. He went through large numbers of aggressive interactions among the chimpanzees to see who won and lost fights, and who was submissive to whom. He then assigned dominance ranks using an Elo

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rating procedure, as is done to rank football teams or chess players,” Muller noted.

“No one thinks that wild chimpanzees are conscious of their impending mortality, but they too seem to show this same shift away from negativity in old age. We think that the importance of coalitions and alliances in chimpanzee society may be a critical factor."

Martin Muller, associate professor of Anthropology

Wild chimpanzees share social aging patterns with humans, by prioritizing strong social bonds, and interacting with others in increasingly positive ways as they get older.

Chimpanzee friends prefer each other's company. They tend to travel in the same groups and sit in proximity. Chimpanzee friends reciprocate. They groom each other, share meat with each other, and support each other in disagreements with other chimpanzees, Muller observed. And friendships can persist over many years. In laboratory studies, chimpanzees trust their friends more than other individuals in risky situations. Endocrine studies have shown that grooming with friends is particularly effective in reducing stress.

Socioemotional selectivity theory proposes that people shift their social behavior from a focus on forming new friends in young adulthood, to maintaining a smaller network of close, fulfilling relationships in old age.

“The proposal is that this shift happens because of our human ability to monitor our own personal time horizons—how much time we have left in our life—which causes us to prioritize emotionally-fulfilling relationships when time is perceived to be running out,” Muller explained.

Using 20 years of behavioral data, researchers found that chimpanzees, like humans, increasingly prioritized mutual and equitable friendships with others that invested in them as they got older. Younger adults, in contrast, were more likely to form lopsided relationships where their partner did not reciprocate. Older chimpanzees also were more likely to be seen alone, but tended to socialize more with important partners when they did join the

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group. Finally, they showed a positivity bias in their overall behavior: reducing their aggressive behavior while maintaining levels of affiliative grooming.

“A major motivation for this paper was testing socioemotional selectivity theory. A large psychological literature suggests that in humans, old age leads to a focus on existing close relationships, increased attention to and memory for positive social interactions, and reduced engagement in tension and conflict. Psychologists have argued that this emphasis on positive relationships and emotions in old age results from a conscious sense of impending mortality. When the end is near, people accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative,” Muller said.

“While that may partly be true, our data suggest that something more fundamental may be happening with the aging process,” he continued. “No one thinks that wild chimpanzees are conscious of their impending mortality, but they too seem to show this same shift away from negativity in old age. We think that the importance of coalitions and alliances in chimpanzee society may be a critical factor. We have shown in Kibale that despite failing health and falling social status, older chimpanzee males often continue to successfully compete for mating opportunities and sire offspring. They do this primarily by forming coalitions with other males. If older individuals are reliant on coalitions, then this might explain their focus on positive interactions with close friends. Humans, of course, also use coalitions and alliances to a much greater extent than most primates, so this similarity in aging with chimpanzees may not be coincidental.”

Taken together, these results show that chimpanzees share these special social aging patterns with humans, even though they do not have the same rich future time perspective and knowledge of their own mortality that we have. This is the first demonstration that a nonhuman shares these characteristics with us. The shared pattern between chimpanzees and humans could represent an adaptive response where older adults focus on important social relationships that provide benefits, and avoid interactions that have negative consequences as they lose competitive fighting ability. This research highlights how long-term behavioral datasets from wild

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animals like chimpanzees can help us understand and promote healthy aging in humans.

6. Ancient genomes uncover Irish passage tomb dynastic elite Archaeologists and geneticists, led by those from Trinity College Dublin,

have shed new light on the earliest periods of Ireland's human history.

Among their incredible findings is the discovery that the genome of an adult male buried in the heart of the Newgrange passage tomb points to first-degree incest, implying he was among a ruling social elite akin to the similarly inbred Inca god-kings and Egyptian pharaohs.

Older than the pyramids, Newgrange passage tomb in Ireland is world famous for its annual solar alignment where the winter solstice sunrise illuminates its sacred inner chamber in a golden blast of light. However, little is known about who was interred in the heart of this imposing 200,000 tonne monument or of the Neolithic society which built it over 5,000 years ago.

The survey of ancient Irish genomes, published today in leading international journal, Nature, suggests a man who had been buried in this chamber belonged to a dynastic elite. The research, led by the research team from Trinity, was carried out in collaboration with colleagues from University College London, National University of Ireland Galway, University College Cork, University of Cambridge, Queen's University Belfast, and Institute of Technology Sligo.

"I'd never seen anything like it," said Dr Lara Cassidy, Trinity, first author of the paper. "We all inherit two copies of the genome, one from our mother and one from our father; well, this individual's copies were extremely similar, a tell-tale sign of close inbreeding. In fact, our analyses allowed us to confirm that his parents were first-degree relatives."

Matings of this type (e.g. brother-sister unions) are a near universal taboo for entwined cultural and biological reasons. The only confirmed social

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acceptances of first-degree incest are found among the elites -- typically within a deified royal family. By breaking the rules, the elite separates itself from the general population, intensifying hierarchy and legitimizing power. Public ritual and extravagant monumental architecture often co-occur with dynastic incest, to achieve the same ends.

"Here the auspicious location of the male skeletal remains is matched by the unprecedented nature of his ancient genome," said Professor of Population Genetics at Trinity, Dan Bradley. "The prestige of the burial makes this very likely a socially sanctioned union and speaks of a hierarchy so extreme that the only partners worthy of the elite were family members."

The team also unearthed a web of distant familial relations between this man and other individuals from sites of the passage tomb tradition across the country, including the mega-cemeteries of Carrowmore and Carrowkeel in Co. Sligo.

"It seems what we have here is a powerful extended kin-group, who had access to elite burial sites in many regions of the island for at least half a millennium," added Dr Cassidy.

Remarkably, a local myth resonates with these results and the Newgrange solar phenomenon. First recorded in the 11th century AD, four millennia after construction, the story tells of a builder-king who restarted the daily solar cycle by sleeping with his sister. The Middle Irish place name for the neighbouring Dowth passage tomb, Fertae Chuile, is based on this lore and can be translated as 'Hill of Sin'.

"Given the world-famous solstice alignments of Brú na Bóinne, the magical solar manipulations in this myth already had scholars questioning how long an oral tradition could survive," said Dr Ros Ó Maoldúin, an archaeologist on the study. "To now discover a potential prehistoric precedent for the incestuous aspect is extraordinary."

The genome survey stretched over two millennia and unearthed other unexpected results. Within the oldest known burial structure on the island, Poulnabrone portal tomb, the earliest yet diagnosed case of Down

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Syndrome was discovered in a male infant who was buried there five and a half thousand years ago. Isotope analyses of this infant showed a dietary signature of breastfeeding. In combination, this provides an indication that visible difference was not a barrier to prestige burial in the deep past.

Additionally, the analyses showed that the monument builders were early farmers who migrated to Ireland and replaced the hunter-gatherers who preceded them. However, this replacement was not absolute; a single western Irish individual was found to have an Irish hunter-gatherer in his recent family tree, pointing toward a swamping of the earlier population rather than an extermination.

Genomes from the rare remains of Irish hunter-gatherers themselves showed they were most closely related to the hunter-gatherer populations from Britain (e.g. Cheddar Man) and mainland Europe. However, unlike British samples, these earliest Irelanders had the genetic imprint of a prolonged island isolation. This fits with what we know about prehistoric sea levels after the Ice Age: Britain maintained a land bridge to the continent long after the retreat of the glaciers, while Ireland was separated by sea and its small early populations must have arrived in primitive boats.

This work was funded by a Science Foundation Ireland/Health Research Board/Wellcome Trust Biomedical Research Partnership Investigator Award to Dan Bradley and an earlier Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Scholarship to Lara Cassidy.

7. New study records dual hand use in early human relative

Research by anthropologists at the School of Anthropology and Conservation (SAC) has identified hand use behaviour in fossil human relatives that is consistent with modern humans.

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The human lineage can be defined by a transition in hand use. Early human ancestors used their hands to move around in the trees, like living primates do today, whereas modern human hands have evolved to primarily perform precision grips.

However, new research led by Dr Christopher Dunmore, Dr Matthew Skinner and Professor Tracy Kivell from SAC has revealed that the hand of an ancient human relative was used for both human-like manipulation as well as climbing.

Their discovery came from analysing and comparing the internal bony structures of fossil knuckle and thumb joints from the hands of several fossil species from South Africa, eastern Africa and Europe. These included: Australopithecus sediba, Australopithecus africanus, Australopithecus afarensis, Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens dated between 12 thousand and three million years old.

The knuckles at the base of Australopithecus sediba’s fingers were found to have an internal trabecular structure consistent with branch grasping, but that of their thumb joints is consistent with human-like manipulation. This unique combination is different to that found in the other Australopithecus species studied and provides direct evidence that ape-like features of this species were actually used, probably during in climbing. Furthermore, it supports the idea that the transition to walking on two legs was gradual in this late surviving member of the Australopithecus genus.

Dr Dunmore said: ‘Internal bone structures are shaped by frequent behaviours during life. Therefore, our findings can support further research into the internal structure of hands in relation to stone tool use and production. This approach may also be used to investigate how other fossil hominin species moved around and to what degree climbing might have remained an important part of their lifestyle.’

Professor Kivell said: ‘The internal bone structure can reveal hidden evidence that gives us insight into how our fossil human relatives behaved. We were really excited to see this particular hand-use pattern in Australopithecus sediba as it was so different from other australopiths. The fossil record is revealing more and more diversity in the ways our

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ancestors moved around, and interacted with, their environments – the human evolutionary story is even more complex and interesting than we previously thought.

SOCIO-CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

8. Building blocks of language evolved 30-40 million years ago

The capacity for language is built upon our ability to understand combinations of words and the relationships between them, but the evolutionary history of this ability is little understood. Now, researchers from the University of Warwick have managed to date this capacity to at least 30-40 million years ago, the last common ancestor of monkeys, apes and humans. Across the globe, humanity flourishes by sharing thoughts, culture, information and technology through language—an incredibly complex method of communication used by no other species. Determining why and when it evolved is, therefore, crucial to understanding what it means to be human. In the paper, 'Non adjacent dependency processing in monkeys, apes and humans', published today in the journal Science Advances, an international consortium of researchers, led by Professor Simon Townsend at the University of Warwick, made a crucial advance in our understanding of when a key cognitive building block of language may have evolved.

Being able to process relationships between words in a sentence is one of the key cognitive abilities underpinning language, whether those words are next to one another, known as an 'adjacent dependency', or distant to one another, known as a 'non-adjacent dependency'. For example, in the sentence "the dog who bit the cat ran away" we understand that is it the

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dog who ran away rather than the cat, thanks to being able to process the relationship between the first and last phrases.

Dr. Stuart Watson, who carried out this work at the University of Zürich, explains: "Most animals do not produce non-adjacent dependencies in their own natural communication systems, but we wanted to know whether they might nevertheless be able to understand them."

The research team used a novel experimental approach for their experiments: They created "artificial grammars" in which sequences made up of meaningless tones instead of words were used to examine the abilities of subjects to process the relationships between sounds. This made it possible to compare the ability to recognize non-contiguous dependencies between three different primate species, even though they do not share a common language. The experiments were carried out with common marmosets (a Brazilian monkey), chimpanzees and humans.

The researchers found that all three species were readily able to process the relationships between both adjacent and non-adjacent sound elements. Non-adjacent dependency processing is, therefore, widespread in the primate family.

The implications of this finding are significant, says Professor Townsend, "This indicates that this critical feature of language already existed in our ancient primate ancestors, predating the evolution of language itself by at least 30—40 million years."

9. Just like us - Neanderthal children grew and were weaned similar to us

Neanderthals introduced solid food in their children's diet at around 5-6 months of age

Neanderthals behaved not so differently from us in raising their children, whose pace of growth was similar to Homo sapiens. Thanks to the combination of geochemical and histological analyses of three Neanderthal milk teeth, researchers were able to determine their pace of growth and the

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weaning onset time. These teeth belonged to three different Neanderthal children who have lived between 70,000 and 45,000 years ago in a small area of northeastern Italy. Teeth grow and register information in form of growth lines, akin to tree rings, that can be read through histological techniques. Combining such information with chemical data obtained with a laser-mass spectrometer, in particular strontium concentrations, the scientists were able to show that these Neanderthals introduced solid food in their children's diet at around 5-6 months of age.

Not cultural but physiological

Alessia Nava (University of Kent, UK), co-first author of the work, says: "The beginning of weaning relates to physiology rather than to cultural factors. In modern humans, in fact, the first introduction of solid food occurs at around 6 months of age when the child needs a more energetic food supply, and it is shared by very different cultures and societies. Now, we know that also Neanderthals started to wean their children when modern humans do."

"In particular, compared to other primates" says Federico Lugli (University of Bologna), co-first author of the work "it is highly conceivable that the high energy demand of the growing human brain triggers the early introduction of solid foods in child diet."

Neanderthals are our closest cousins within the human evolutionary tree. However, their pace of growth and early life metabolic constraints are still highly debated within the scientific literature.

Stefano Benazzi (University of Bologna), co-senior author, says: "This work's results imply similar energy demands during early infancy and a close pace of growth between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals. Taken together, these factors possibly suggest that Neanderthal newborns were of similar weight to modern human neonates, pointing to a likely similar gestational history and early-life ontogeny, and potentially shorter inter-birth interval."

Home, sweet home

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Other than their early diet and growth, scientists also collected data on the regional mobility of these Neanderthals using time-resolved strontium isotope analyses.

"They were less mobile than previously suggested by other scholars" says Wolfgang Müller (Goethe University Frankfurt), co-senior author "the strontium isotope signature registered in their teeth indicates in fact that they have spent most of the time close to their home: this reflects a very modern mental template and a likely thoughtful use of local resources."

"Despite the general cooling during the period of interest, Northeastern Italy has almost always been a place rich in food, ecological variability and caves, ultimately explaining survival of Neanderthals in this region till about 45,000 years ago" says Marco Peresani (University of Ferrara), co-senior author and responsible for findings from archaeological excavations at sites of De Nadale and Fumane.

This research adds a new piece in the puzzling pictures of Neanderthal, a human species so close to us but still so enigmatic. Specifically, researchers exclude that the Neanderthal small population size, derived in earlier genetic analyses, was driven by differences in weaning age, and that other biocultural factors led to their demise. This will be further investigated within the framework of the ERC project SUCCESS ('The Earliest Migration of Homo sapiens in Southern Europe -- Understanding the biocultural processes that define our uniqueness'), led by Stefano Benazzi at University of Bologna.

10. Marriage or not? Rituals help dating couples decide relationship future Rituals such as those centered around holidays and other celebrations play an important part in human relationships. When dating couples engage in rituals together, they learn more about each other. And those experiences can serve as diagnostic tools of where the relationship is going, a University of Illinois study shows.

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"Rituals have the power to bond individuals and give us a preview into family life and couple life. We found they help magnify normative relationship experiences," says Chris Maniotes, graduate student in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) at U of I and lead author of the paper, published in Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.

Rituals are experiences that are shared with others, and they impact communication between individuals. While rituals are typically celebrations such as holidays, they can also be idiosyncratic events a couple creates, such as Friday movie night. Most rituals are recurring events, though some (such as rites of passage) occur just once in a person's life. Rituals have elements of routine, but they have symbolic meaning that goes beyond routine interaction.

"Rituals provide a unique time to review one's partner and relationship; you get to see a host of behaviors and interactions that might normally be obscured," Maniotes notes. "Some of the ways rituals affected commitment to wed with these couples was by altering their view of their partner, giving them a new perspective."

Maniotes and co-authors Brian Ogolsky and Jennifer Hardesty, researchers in HDFS, analyzed in-depth interviews with 48 individuals (24 couples) in the U.S. Southwest region. Respondents were on average 23 years old and had been in their relationship for 2.5 years. They were randomly selected from a larger study examining commitment to wed in heterosexual dating couples over a period of nine months.

For this study, the researchers looked at the impact of rituals. They found commitment to wed could increase or decrease, depending on the nature of the interaction. Rituals can reinforce bonds and strengthen commitment, but they can also showcase conflict areas and make people less likely to see the relationship heading towards marriage.

For example, holiday celebrations involving rituals could highlight interactions with extended family and provide a window into how people navigate through conflict.

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"Rituals seem to really play a role in pausing and slowing down individuals, helping them take a better look at their relationship. They help them see, 'this is who we are as a couple; this is who we are as a family,'" Maniotes explains.

Rituals may not be the defining driver of where a relationship is going, but along with a constellation of experiences and behaviors it brings up important nuances that affect couples' decision whether or not to wed.

Couples who are dating can benefit from understanding how rituals affect their relationship. That's even more important during current COVID-19 restrictions, where rituals we used to take for granted are less predictable, Maniotes says.

"Just recognizing the importance of rituals in our lives, and the magnitude of the role they play, can help us integrate them in an intentional way," he concludes.

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INDIAN & TRIBAL ANTHROPOLOGY 1. Tendu leaves cushion tribals from economic deprivation during

COVID-19

At around 4 am, Shamli Devi leaves her home with a water bottle, torch and a clean cloth, walking nearly 5 km to the nearest forest in eastern Madhya Pradesh’s Mandla district. For the next five or six hours, Shamli toils away in the heat, plucking leaves from tendu trees. She carefully collects them in the piece of cloth to avoid breakage because these leaves will be used to wrap tobacco flakes and tied with a cotton thread to make bidis, the poor man’s cigarette.

For generations, the tribal population of eastern Madhya Pradesh has been dependent on tendu leaf collection for their livelihood. The collection season between April and May coincided with the Coronavirus outbreak this year. And, at a time when the country was reeling under COVID-19, tendu leaf collection provided a cushion to the tribals, helping them mitigate the economic impact of lockdown and provide financial support to families.

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“We revere nature but now, we are doubly thankful. This time, the money from tendu collection has given us a lot of financial support. We were almost running out of cash soon after the lockdown was imposed (March 25). With the money I got from tendu leaves, I was able to buy provisions for my family and also materials for next season’s farming,” she says.

At a time when most economic activity has come to a halt, the continuation of tendu leaves collection due to the absence of COVID-19 in deep forests underscores the importance of sustainable living .

Its collection is mostly practiced in the tribal dominated pockets of western and eastern Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, and parts of west Bengal, Bihar and eastern Maharashtra. Madhya Pradesh is the biggest contributor, bringing in nearly 25 percent of the national tendu collection.

Shamli, who lives in Sudgaon village, has been collecting tendu since she was a teenager.

After collecting the tendu leaves, she sorts them at home into batches of 52 leaves. “For each batch we get Rs 2.50. With my experienced hands, I can make 150 to 200 batches each day, says Shamli.

The batches are taken to a collector, locally called Phad Munshi, who further sells it to contractors assigned by the state. Tendu leaves and bamboo make up around 60 percent of the total minor forest produce (MFP) trade in the country. Trade of both of these is monopolized by state governments.

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The government procures them through its agencies such as the forest department, Tribal Development Cooperative Corporation, and State Forest Development Corporations to ensure there is no exploitation by middlemen.

When the tendu collection season is over, she and her husband undertake farming over their 2 acre land on which they grow mainly wheat.

A blessing in tough times

She has four daughters, three of whom she has managed to send to schools outside the village, the youngest one goes to a local school.

While tendu leaf collection is a crucial economic activity for rural households in the summer season, this time it has been more so because

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the lockdown has hit poor people hard, leaving them without jobs and income.

“Depending on the number of people from a family involved in tendu collection, a family is able to earn Rs 5000-15,000 on an average per season,” says Sumendra Punia, team coordinator from Pradan, a civil society organisation working for tribal empowerment.

“It is a sure shot activity that happens just before the onset of kharif season and gives cash support to these families,” says Punia.

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Older family members sort tendu leaves while younger ones go for collection. Pic: Pradan

“This year it was more gainful as there wasn’t much work under MGNREGA to the lockdown and the safety measures that were put in

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place. Panchayats struggled to open up work, which required less labour so that social distancing could be maintained,” he says.

NTFP include fruits and nuts, vegetables, fish and game, medicinal plants, resins, essences and a range of barks and fibres and a host of other palms and grasses.

“If they work in MGNREGA, then the payments are delayed, wages are low and they have to work for the full day in the summer heat,” says Punia.

In contrast, they can decide the time of work while collecting forest produce, mostly avoiding the peak heat hours of the day.

Anita Vishwakarma of Dupta village in Mandla says the money from tendu leaf collection has helped. “My husband is a mason and he could not find any work during the lockdown,” says the 28-year-old.

A packet with 20 bidis can cost anywhere between Rs 5 and 20

Along with her mother-in-law, she earned Rs 9,000 this time. “We could buy all essential supplies and stationery items and clothes for my two children. Otherwise we were facing a cash crunch,” she says.

A sustainable way of life

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Tribal communities have a traditional relationship with forest based produce as it provides them livelihood and food security. “Around 220 million people depend on forest for their livelihood and they have been practising sustainable living,” says Richard Mahapatra, managing editor of Down to Earth magazine.

The real challenge, Mahapatra says, is for those in the formal economy and the cities to change their lifestyles. “We have to give up our over-consumption and resource-intensive lifestyle,” he adds.

Around 92 percent of the workforce is in the informal sector and they have suffered the most in the COVID pandemic as they are vulnerable to economic shocks. “The role of the government post COVID should be more pronounced in public health, food security and sustainable employment for the marginalised sections,” he says.

Over the past two decades, governments, development agencies and non-government organisations have encouraged the marketing and sale of NTFPs as a way of boosting income for poor people and encouraging forest conservation.

2. Vexed tribals lay road all by themselves in Agency

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Repeated advocacy to the government. would have fallen on deaf ears

The tribes of the hamlet of Jajulabandha at Visakhapatnam Agency decided to build a 13 km “ kutcha ” road between their village and the nearest all-weather road, after being vexed by the indifference of governments and successive officials to the over the years to their advocacy of establishing a road to their village.

The road to Kutcha, the laying of which was resumed almost four months ago, is nearing completion. The daily routine of the tribals for the past 100 or so days has been to leave the house early in the morning carrying crowbars, axes and other tools, in order to clear the jungle to facilitate leveling of the ground.

This road connects the village of Arla de Rolugunta mandal with Jajulabandha de Koyyuru mandal. It also provides connectivity to the villages of Pithrigedda and Peda Garuvu.

“We have been presenting representations for the construction of a road for several years, but no government has bothered to do so. Going to the

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hospital during an emergency becomes a nightmare. We are having difficulty even obtaining rations. The lack of road infrastructure becomes an obstacle to enjoying the benefits of various government programs, ”said Korra Rajababu from Jajulabandha village.

“The state government spends millions of rupees for the welfare of socially and economically disadvantaged sections. But what is the point if the benefits do not reach the intended beneficiaries? This is happening in some of the remote tribal areas, ”he said.

“The tribes, mainly women and young people, cleared the bushes and trees over an area of 7 km, while an earthmoving machine was deployed to dig and level the ground for the laying of the road which crosses two hills ”, K. Govinda Rao of Girijan Sangham said The Hindu.

“An amount of 2,000 was paid by each tribal household for the employment of the digger,” he said.

The tribals hope that the government will now establish a pucca road to their village.

3. Processing units to boost tribals’ income

Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda virtually launched Trifood project in Raigad, Maharashtra and Jagdalpur, Chhattisgarh.

NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Tribal Affairs will set up processing units for minor forest produce in Chattisgarh and Maharashtra in a bid to enhance incomes of tribal communities.

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For representational purposes (Photo | EPS)

By Express News Service

The venture would be carried out with the Ministry of Food Processing Industries under the project name of ‘Trifood’. The implementation agency of the programme will be the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED).

Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda virtually launched Trifood project in Raigad, Maharashtra and Jagdalpur, Chhattisgarh. The project would enhance the income of tribal communities through better utilisation of and value addition to the minor forest produces (MFPs) collected by the tribal forest gatherers.

The unit in Raigad will be used for value addition to mahua, amla, custard apple and jamun to produce mahua drink, amla juice, candy, jamun juice and custard apple pulp.

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The multi-commodity processing centre in Jagdalpur will be used for the processing of commodities like mahua, amla, honey, cashew, tamarind, ginger, garlic and other fruits and vegetables.

The processed products will be sold across the country in Tribes India outlets, and franchisee stores. TRIFED also plans to identify and train tribal entrepreneurs who can also sell the products.

To help tribals

The TRIFOOD project in Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra is an attempt to offer a development package for tribals, said the TRIFED MD Pravir Krishna

4. Meghalaya tribes: Stop Excluding us from Schedule VI

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Recently, the Government of Meghalaya has decided to exclude ‘unrepresented tribes’ from the provisions of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.

The five minor tribes namely, Bodo-Kachari, Hajong, Koch, Mann,

and Rabha are clubbed together as ‘unrepresented tribes’ for nomination in Meghalaya’s autonomous tribal councils.

o These minor tribes are indigenous to Meghalaya and have been living in the state much before its creation in 1972.

These tribal councils are in the names of Garo, Jaintia, and Khasi district councils, that form the State’s three major autonomous councils (predominantly the matrilineal communities).

On September 26, 2019, a sub-committee constituted by the State government had decided to recommend to the Standing Committee

of Parliament for the removal of the word ‘unrepresented tribes’ from the Sixth Schedule.

o This move has excluded 5 minor tribes in the State.

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The Sixth Schedule makes special provisions for the welfare and advancement of the Scheduled Tribes and the tribal areas residing in the parts or the whole of the four northeastern states namely, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Tripura.

o The proposed amendment will deprive some of these Scheduled Tribes of their constitutional rights to be

represented in the autonomous district councils as of now, it will not be possible for them to get elected on the basis of adult suffrage.

Hajong Tribe

The Hajong are tribal people native to the Indian subcontinent mostly in the northeast Indian states and Bangladesh. The majority of them are settled in India.

Hajongs are predominantly the rice farmers and perform endogamy. The Hajongs are Hindus and observe Hindu rites and customs.

Rabha Tribe

They are indigenous Mongoloid community of Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, Myanmar, and Bangladesh, and the Indian states of Assam, Meghalaya and West Bengal.

The language/dialect spoken by the Rabha people is mostly Rabha as well as Assamese.

In Meghalaya, Rabhas are mostly found in Garo Hills districts.

Koch Tribe

They are a Tibeto-Burman ethnolinguistic group of Assam, Meghalaya, West Bengal, and Bangladesh.

Their language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman linguistic group. According to the census of 1881, Koch belong to a group of Bodo-

Kachari people.

Bodo-Kachari

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It is a generic term applied to a number of ethnic groups that are predominantly living in the Northeast Indian state of Assam.

They generally speak Assamese and other Tibeto-Burman languages and have a shared ancestry.

5. Government launches online platform for health, nutrition info about

tribal population

NEW DELHI: The government on Monday launched a first-of-its-kind online platform containing "comprehensive" health and nutrition-related information about the country's tribal population which, officials say, will help in making evidence-based policies for Scheduled Tribes. The portal will bridge the existing knowledge and drive evidence-based policy making which will lead to overall improvements in the health and nutrition status of the tribal population, Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda sai said during the launch.

The portal presents data curated from multiple sources for the 177 identified high-priority tribal districts such as National Family Health Survey (NFHS) and Health Management Information System of the health

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ministry and other government databases. "Data related to literacy rate in these districts, tribal population, number of households below the poverty line, sex ratio, female literacy, women work participation rate, health centres etc are available on the dashboard," an official said. "The is a first-of-its-kind comprehensive platform which makes district-wise data about tribal health available for policymaking," he said. Maternal mortality, under-five mortality and malnutrition rates are higher among tribal groups. Also, there is a higher prevalence of malaria, tuberculosis and other communicable diseases.

The absence of data specific to the tribal communities hampers the government's efforts to improve overall tribal health and nutrition scenario.

6. Around 3% of population in 177 tribal-dominated districts Covid positive

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NEW DELHI: A recent survey conducted by Indian Institute of Technology Delhi for the ministry for tribal affairs has revealed that though there has been no major outbreak of Covid-19 in 117 districts with 25% or more tribal population, about 3% of the population is infected by the virus. The sero prevalence, released by Indian Council of Medical Research for May, has been pegged at 0.73%. However, higher figures have been reported in Delhi where one-third of the population has been estimated to have been exposed to the virus...

According to government sources, the prevalence of Covid-19 in tribal-

dominated districts has not been termed as “alarming” but the tribal affairs ministry and National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) is keeping a close watch on tribal-dominated districts, especially with particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs). District-wise data is being monitored from states and union territories including Odisha, Andaman and Nicobar, Ladakh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Covid-19 has already been reported from one of the four PVTGs in Andamans and the Bonda and Didayi tribes in Odisha. So far,

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11 Great Andamanese tribals have tested positive. All the tribals infected either working in government establishments or one

of their family members was reported to have been employed. Two of 11 are still undergoing treatment. The other three PVTGs – Onges, Jarawas and Shompens – are Covid free. The government has also expressed concern over six cases from two tribes of Odisha.

The tribal affairs ministry has constituted a Covid response team to prepare a health and livelihood roadmap for tribal dominated districts. This has been circulated among the state governments. All states and union territories have been asked to utilise the funds from State tribal sub plan for any Covid-related activity. The government has proposed to the states to set up community kitchens for the tribals and help in quarantining centres also.

Awareness messages are being pushed at weekly markets frequented by tribals in remote areas and also at Van Dhan Vikas Kendras in different blocks.

7. Kerala: ‘En Uru’ to showcase traditional tribal knowledge

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KOZHIKODE ‘En Uru’, the first tribal heritage village in the state, which is intended to provide a permanent platform to showcase the diverse tribal traditional knowledge and heritage as well as enhance livelihood options to the tribal communities, was inaugurated at Lakkidi in Wayanad on Wednesday. The buildings constructed for the first phase of the heritage village was inaugurated by A K Balan, minister for welfare of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes & backward classes, via videoconferencing. The Rs 10-crore project is being set up jointly by the scheduled tribes development department and state tourism department in 25 acres near Lakkidi. Balan said that the heritage village will help showcase and preserve tribal indigenous knowledge as well as help the tribal communities sell their unique products to tourists and others without middlemen. “Once the project is completed it will provide direct employment to 50 persons and indirect job opportunities to about 1,000 people,” he said. The first phase of the heritage village comprises tribal market, tribal food outlets, facilitation centre and warehouse. P S Shyam Prasad, CEO of En Uru, said that the tribal market will have 16

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individual shops and three exhibition halls to facilitate live manufacture and sale of unique tribal products like medicinal plants, traditional agriculture produce, forest produce, handicrafts, indigenous tribal medicinal products, bamboo products, tribal paintings, sculptures, etc. The second phase of the heritage village will have an open air theatre which will provide a venue to stage tribal art forms, tribal interpretation centre, heritage walkway and art and craft workshop for live production and sale of artifacts and other tribal products. The project is being implemented with Rs 5.5 crore from the scheduled tribes development department, and tourism department has earmarked Rs 4.5 crore for the second phase of the project. In his message, Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi said that despite growing challenges to their way of life, tribal communities are fighting to preserve their art, music, storytelling and culinary traditions. “However, ensuring the survival of this cultural heritage requires interventions that help generate sustainable livelihoods,” he said.

8.IRS Officer & Doctor Wife Provide Basic Healthcare, Education to

Forgotten Tribe!

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Skin rashes, frequent fevers and malnourishment are some of the commonly known health problems among the Chenchu tribe in AP’s Nallamala forest. In such a gloomy scenario IRS officer M Mohan Babu and his doctor wife Dr Sravani Deverakonda are a beacon of light

Living in the undisturbed stretches of Nallamala forest spread across five districts of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, the Chenchu tribe is one of the most primitive tribal groups that are largely dependent on forest produce and have very little to do with the world outside of their community. A lack of education and awareness about health and hygiene has caused severe problems to this community including anemia, skin infections, frequent fevers and malnourishment. Poverty, coupled with lack of road connectivity, further prevents the community to purchase medicines or visit doctors.

In such a gloomy scenario, Dr Sravani Devarakonda and her husband M Mohan Babu, an Indian Revenue Service officer, are a beacon of light. The

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couple is working for the welfare of the tribe through their organisation ‘Manaviya Charitable Trust’ based in Hyderabad.

The trust was founded in 2007 by Dr Sravani’s father whose main focus was to organise medical camps for the poor. After her father passed away in 2017, the 28-year-old took over the activities of the trust and continued with the medical camps in Hyderabad and villages around the city.

Incorporating the Chenchu tribe in their trust activities was Mohan’s idea. He was born and raised in Telangana’s Lingala village and had always wanted to do his bit for his native place.

When he was posted in Hyderabad, Mohan found his opportunity. Whenever he found time, he visited his village to give career counselling to the students. It was through one of such visits that Mohan learnt about the Chenchu tribe.

It was a casual visit for my husband to the forest and he was speechless to see the tribe living without bare minimum necessities despite living only 140 kilometres away from Hyderabad. He felt the need to help them, Dr Sravani tells The Better India.

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Mohan saw that hygiene was not given importance in the community to the extent that people did not bathe for days together. Mosquitos and insects in forest further aggravated the situation. The close-knit community still relies on the barter system and exchanges the grains they grow with other goods.

However, agriculture is not their main occupation due to lack of water resources and thus state-sponsored Public Distribution System takes care of the food needs.

Moreover, the current generation is the first to get formal schooling.

Helping the tribe was one thing but getting the necessary permission and organising camps was another game altogether. Since the forest is a Tiger Reserve, it took a lot of documentation before the permission was given by the State Forest Department.

Meanwhile, Dr Sravani mobilised the volunteers with the Trust and experts in her medical circle. They also arranged two jeeps to travel to the interiors of the forest with medical equipment and supplies.

The day-long camp was conducted in July this year and close to 150 people were a part of the camp. The scattered families were assembled at one point and basic tests were conducted by the doctors. Based on the screening, prescription and basic medical supplies including first-aid kits and to last for a month were distributed among the community.

“Most of the women and children suffered from borderline anemia and malnourishment respectively. Lack of nutrient intake is a major reason. They try to cultivate crops that can fulfill their family needs but the monkeys destroy it. Others suffered from mostly skin infections. All the illnesses are preventable if simple hygienic steps are followed,” Dr Sravani, who is in the final year of her Masters in Gynaecology. The nutrients can be supplemented by medicines but they cannot even afford basic medicines. During emergencies, they have to travel for hours. The only way to commute is rickshaws and the average fair for one trip costs more than a thousand rupees, she adds.

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In addition to the health check-up, the duo also conducted awareness seminars for the locals.

Women and girls were taught about menstrual hygiene, child care and the difference between good and bad touch. How to keep water clean, applying coconut oil on the body to ward off insects, cooking with clean practices and maintaining a healthy environment, were among the lessons imparted.

The duo have also taken the responsibility of implementing Adult Literacy Programme in the tribal hamlet with the active support by Veer Kumar Mota from the Skylark Medical India, engaged in several rural health projects in the district.

“There is already a government school inside the forest that is managed by the Integrated Tribal Development Authority. Since education is not given any focus by Chenchu tribe, the children do not attend school regularly. If we manage to make the adults understand the importance of education, they can encourage their children to attend schools. We are trying to change by giving them necessary counselling,” says Dr Sravani.

The best part about the camp, believes the duo, was the kind of response they received from the locals, “Instead of raising suspicions, the locals welcomed us. They treated us like one of their own that made the process easy for us,” she says.

When asked how they find time to conduct such drives considering their busy schedules, they duo says:

Time management is something we are trying to improve on. The preparation for the July camp was done during weekends and even now our weekends are dedicated in scaling the mission. What we are doing maybe a very small initiative but even if we are able to change even one life, it will be enough for us. This is our way to help fellow humans.

“We believe in the concept of ‘humanity is our identity’,” adds Dr Sravani.

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The couple will continue their welfare mission and plan to collect clothes from people and mosquito nets for their next visit to the forest.

9. ‘Hostile’ Sentinelese? Here’s What The First Anthropologist to Meet

Them Has to Say

Following a trail of foot marks, Pandit and his team walked one kilometre into the forest. But here’s why they weren’t attacked. The death of John Allen Chau, a 26-year-old American evangelist, who was on a self-driven mission to spread Christianity in the isolated island of North Sentinel 700 miles off the Indian coast, has thrust the Sentinelese under an unwelcome spotlight.

Who are the Sentinelese?

They are among the few remaining isolated tribes in the world. According to Survival International, a global organisation that champions the rights of tribal people around the world, “They are thought to be directly descended from the first human populations to emerge from Africa and have probably lived in the Andaman Islands for up to 60,000 years. The

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fact that their language is so different even from other Andaman islanders suggests that they have had little contact with other people for thousands of years.”

Chau’s death was deeply unfortunate. However, the notion of the Sentinelese being primitive people driven by an intense hostility of outsiders, so much so that they are hell-bent on killing them, is a patently false view, according to Trilok Nath Pandit.

Pandit is the first Indian anthropologist to successfully enter this isolated Andaman island back in 1967 along with a team of 20 members.

In a series of interactions with the press, Pandit has one permanent position on the Sentinelese—they want to be left alone—and in fact, expressed surprise at the killing of Chau.

“They are not hostile people. They warn; they don’t kill people, including outsiders. They don’t raid their neighbours. They only say, ‘leave us alone.’ They make it amply clear that outsiders are not welcome in their habitat. One needs to understand that language,” Pandit told Economic Times.

Pandit had first ventured onto the island in January 1967.

Posted with the Anthropological Survey of India in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as its regional head, he led a team of 20 researchers, government officials and even Navy personnel, to explore North Sentinel, a 20 square-mile island, and develop contact with the tribesman there.

TN Pandit is among the leading authorities on the tribal communities living in the Andaman islands. Coming from a family of traditional scholars, Pandit initially had an interest in zoology, completing his BSc in the mid 1950s, before going onto studying cultural anthropology from the University of Delhi. Finishing his post-doctoral studies on a Government of India research, he took up a position on the faculty in the University of Delhi. In March 1966, he joined the Anthropological Survey of India, where he served for the 26 years before retiring towards the end of 1992. He also wrote an exhaustive account of the isolated tribes folk called The Sentinelese in 1990.

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When Pnadit and his team first landed on the island, the Sentinelese hid behind the cover of the forest, silently observing these ‘aliens’ landing on their shores. There was none of that hostility, Pandit says. Following a trail of footmarks, Pandit and his team walked one kilometre into the forest and came across an open area consisting of 18 huts.

“Those (huts) were occupied, not abandoned, ones. I noticed a fire and cooked food items. We saw roasted fish, wild fruits. There were bows, arrows and spears all around. There were half-made baskets, too. They don’t wear any clothes. They don’t collect any stuff and keep it in their homes. But their houses are nicely built. Those were open lean-to huts made of tree branches and leaves with no doors or windows,” Pandit tells the Economic Times.

One of his team members did briefly see a Sentinelese tribesman, but there was no meeting and the entire hour spent on the island went off without incident. During subsequent visits, however, there was resistance. Before their boats could hit the shore, the Sentinelese would confront them with hostile gestures, bows and arrows.

Thus, these teams decided to maintain a safe distance and devised a strategy of dropping gifts like coconuts and utensils, among other things, before they hit the shore and then turn back.

In 1991, Pandit talked about how for the first time the Sentinelese came and collected gifts of coconuts from their hands in the water, but the teams were still not allowed to enter the island.

“They had decided that we weren’t dangerous, so they opened up to us a little. They also knew we had no intentions of staying on the island. Our languages might be different, but we understood them perfectly, they didn’t want us here,” Pandit tells The Print.

Estimates of the number of Sentinelese range from 15 to 500, but Pandit argues that 80 would be a more accurate figure.

It’s little surprise that these people harbour such hostility to outsiders considering its history. In the late 19th century, a British naval officer

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Maurice Vidal Portman landed on the island and kidnapped an elder couple, along with a few children.

He took them to his quarters on a nearby, yet bigger island, where the British ran a prison. The elder couple soon passed away, and it is unclear about what he did to the children. He soon returned them to the island and deemed his “experiment” a failure.

“We cannot be said to have done anything more than increase their general terror of, and hostility to, all comers,” Portman reportedly wrote in his 1899

book, describing this failure.

In other words, Chau’s evangelistic misadventure was only going to end in disaster going by the notings in his diary recovered by the international media.

Only if he had read Vidal’s writings.

“Two armed Sentinelese came rushing out yelling,” he wrote. “They had two arrows each, unstrung until they got closer. I hollered, ‘My name is John, I love you, and Jesus loves you.'” He goes onto write, “I felt some fear but mainly was disappointed. They didn’t accept me right away.”

Of course, what did he expect?

The news of his death was undoubtedly sad, but it’s a lesson to those seeking to forcibly interact with the Sentinelese without even a basic negotiation of terms with them along the lines of what Pandit and his team did.

10. Just 34, This Paralegal Battled All Odds to Win Forest Rights For Kerala’s Tribals

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Chitra rescued a hearing-impaired tribal man from bonded labour and was

able to get him Rs.7 Lakh as compensation. One of her many victories. Even when her entire life came to a standstill, Chitra Nilambur refused to give up the fight against the injustice shown towards her community

The 34-year-old belongs to the Kootanaykar tribal community in Malappuram, Kerala. She was born in the Appankapp Colony in Pothukallu Village, Malappuram, completed her primary education from the nearby tribal school and studied upto Class 10 at the Catholicate High School.

Although she was a good student, circumstances prevented her from pursuing her education any further and was married off at the age of 16. By 18, she had a child.

But that didn’t stop Chitra from pursuing her dreams.

Knowing that most children from tribal communities in the remote forests didn’t have access to education, she started working as a teacher and as a tribal promoter with the Tribal Community Development Team of the state government.

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Chitra’s efforts to go visit different tribal villages, organise seminars and classes to spread awareness about the importance of education and her enthusiasm to speak to each family individually enabled many students to continue their school education. She even helped students procure the necessary documents to join school.

“It was a great feeling to be able to act as a bridge and give these children a chance to fulfil their aspirations and dreams,” she explains.

During this time, while working closely with various government schemes, Chitra came across several instances where land contractors were taking advantage of the uneducated tribal communities.

“These contractors and government officials would take money from tribal families claiming to speed up the land allocation process, but eventually refuse to give them ownership of their land. I started speaking up against them, and they soon tried to bribe me with money. When that didn’t work, they started threatening me. By then, I had even lost my job,” she explains.

Chitra had to face several false accusations during her fight for tribal rights. Some even tried to frame her as a Maoist, but that just made her even more determined to continue the work.

Forest Rights It is estimated that 25 crores of India’s population lives in forest lands, out

of which 10 crores are tribal communities. Although the 2006 forest rights act came into being, Chitra is still fighting to claim the rights over lands that belong to certain tribal communities.

“Almost 104 families in Neliyampathy, Palakkad were given claim over 1 acre each, but only 28 families were allocated the requisite plot of land. When we enquired about it, the government officials kept delaying the process and denied to give us a proper answer. A similar situation happened in Wayanad as well. Whether it is through the forest rights act or otherwise, at the end of the day, our (tribal) community ends up bearing the brunt, and I couldn’t just sit there and do nothing,” says Chitra.

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To make the community aware of their rights, Chitra conducted various classes and seminars explaining tribal rights and how to write petitions to the various tribal communities in Wayanad, Malappuram and Palakkad districts.

Along with this, she and her team of volunteers identified leaders from these communities and trained them specifically to ensure that petitions would be filed at the right time and that the matters with regard to the forests rights would reach the respective authorities without any corruption by area leaders and contractors.

“As a result of the work that my volunteers and I have put in, we’ve been able to claim most of our land, and today the community is aware of their rights,” Chitra adds.

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Besides her fight for forest rights, Chitra has been a part of groups like Mahila Samakhya and the Neeti Vedi that empower tribal women to pursue their dreams and aspirations.

“After joining the group, I was motivated to continue pursuing my studies. So I completed Class 12 and acquired a BA in Malayalam. Now I work as a paralegal worker for Neeti Vedi, Malappuram,” she explains.

As a paralegal, Chitra has been able to sort out cases for many tribal communities. In 2017, she even rescued a hearing-impaired tribal man from bonded labour and was able to get him Rs 7 Lakh as compensation.

She also founded ‘Patika Varga Seva Society’ (Tribal Upliftment Society) in 2017 to address the various issues that the tribal communities face including education, land rights and employment opportunities.

Her work for the empowerment of the tribal communities won her the MJ Joseph Outstanding Commitment Award in 2018, given to grassroots level innovators and leaders.

“Documentation and paperwork can be quite overwhelming for the tribal communities due to the lack of awareness. I’m trying to bridge that gap and ensure that we get what we deserve,” she concludes.

11. Forced to Quit Studies, Kerala Farmer Donates Rs 40K to Print Books

For Tribal Kids!

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CK Narayana Panicker is an 89-year-old farmer from Feroke in Kozhikode, who had to quit studies after being unable to even buy textbooks owing to severe financial shortcomings.

I have often wondered about the virtue that is generosity and attempted to understand what must be the driving force that leads people to engage in acts of kindness and magnanimity.

Is it an inherent trait that a few are blessed with, or do they consciously develop this quality over a period of time towards those who are underprivileged and deprived of basic facilities?

Then there are the ones who come forward to lend a helping hand to others despite having never found support during their days of struggle and adversity.

Adversity can turn the best of us into cynical and bitter human beings, but it remarkably did not touch CK Narayana Panicker, a farmer from Feroke in Kozhikode who had to quit studies after being unable to even buy textbooks owing to severe financial shortcomings.

Today, the same man has come forward with a generous contribution of

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₹40,000 that will facilitate the printing of textbooks for children studying at the government tribal lower primary (LP) school inEdamalakkudy village of Idukki district.

Titled Idamalakkudi Gothra Padavali, the book is written in the spoken language of the Muthuvan tribe using Malayalam script since the community doesn’t have one of its own.

Edamalakkudy is a remote tribal village, which also happens to house the only tribal gram panchayat in the state. However, the LP school didn’t have enough funds to print the manuscript of the textbook.

Their predicament was brought to public attention by Mathrubhumi, a local Malayalam daily, that published a report about the school’s financial inability and invited anyone who was willing, to help. The news ended up catching the attention of 89-year-old Panicker, who then went straight to the publication’s office to offer financial aid.

In a follow-up report by the daily, it was stated that the editorial staff has already received the amount from Panicker, which will be handed over to the LP school headmaster R Ravichandran.

The headmaster, on behalf of the children and the tribal community, expressed his heartfelt gratitude to Panicker, as his contribution will now drive the education of the children.

This is not the first time Panicker has lent financial support to the needy, after learning about them through the news. According to Mathrubhumi, he has helped several cancer patients with financial difficulties in the past as well as a Varappuzha native whose tongue was bitten off by stray dogs.

12. Travelling with the Van Gujjars: Tracing a forest-dwelling nomadic

tribe's spring migration

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The Van Gujjars, who trace their origins back to Kashmir, first came to the Shivaliks some 1,500 years ago

A community that lives off the land, an annual migration of around 200 kilometres to the middle Himalayas and an everlasting bond with buffaloes that would put a dog’s love to shame. It was enough of a draw for American photojournalist Michael Benanav to make his way to India in order to spend some time with the Van Gujjars.

The idea was to document the lifestyle of these forest-dwelling nomads, which is under constant threat of being swallowed by the developing world. For 44 days, Benanav followed the Van Gujjars on their spring migration from the jungles at the foothills of the Shivalik Hills to the lush pastures high up in the mountains. And en route, he had a fascinating insight into their life, which he has documented in the book, ‘Himalaya Bound’.

The Van Gujjars, who trace their origins back to Kashmir, first came to the Shivaliks some 1,500 years ago; today, they are distributed across the many northern states. Their lives essentially revolve around their buffaloes — their only real asset, given that the milk is their only source of income and is vital for their sustenance as well. As a result, their wellbeing is of prime importance to the Van Gujjars. As Benanav puts it, “Van Gujjars were like doting servants to their buffalo masters.”

Having traveled to countries such as Egypt, Morocco, Mali, Jordan, Turkey and Mongolia in the past, Benanav bumped into nomads on various occasions and was fascinated by their lifestyle and culture.

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Khatoon adjusts the load on one of the mules during the migration. All images courtesy Michael Benanav

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Chamar milks one of the buffaloes. The milk is the only source of income for the Van Gujjars.

“I think I’m particularly drawn to these communities because I really like to walk and be out in the wilderness. So the places I’ve gone to, I’ve run into nomadic people, who lead a life that I happened to be naturally attuned to. They have a great tradition of hospitality, which makes the time spent with them really enjoyable. I always wanted to migrate with one of these tribes and I couldn’t imagine a more beautiful place to do it than the Himalayas,” Benanav says on a visit to the Mussoorie Mountain Festival recently.

Each spring, the jungles dry up down below while the snow melts high up in the mountains, revealing fresh grass that is scrumptious fodder for the buffaloes. It’s when the Van Gujjars bundle their meagre belongings and begin their long march that takes them to an altitude of over 3,000 metres. Benanav first approached the Society for the Promotion of Himalayan Indigenous Activities, who work with the Van Gujjars, and soon found himself in the jungles outside of Dehradun, just as the entourage got moving. It’s a massive undertaking that comprises men, pregnant women, children, toddlers and the elders — essentially anyone, who can make the arduous journey to their traditional grazing grounds. And of course, their beloved buffaloes.

“Van Gujjars have never lived in a village. Typically speaking, each family will go to the same meadow in the summer and come to the same area in the Shivaliks every winter — this has been going on for generations. So even if they are nomadic, they have a deep sense of home that is attached to these places. I walked with them, herded buffaloes, ate with them, slept with them under their tents and essentially, lived their life thought those weeks,” Benanav recalls.

“A lot of things can go wrong during this migration, but they hardly get worked up since they’ve been doing this for years. They are used to dealing with the normal risks that come with climbing a mountain,” he says.

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Quite by chance, Benanav also got a close look into what afflicts these nomads in what has been their home for centuries. Van Gujjars don’t own the land they graze and live on, so each time they were migrating, they had to get permission from the forest department, which back in the day was just a formality. But once their traditional grazing grounds, such as the one at Gangar, became a part of the Govind National Park in 1990, the Van Gujjars were told to keep out of it. It was the same case with other families down below, whose homes in the jungles were now a part of Rajaji National Park, after it was established in 1983.

Bashi tends to the buffaloes

“This idea of keeping indigenous, forest-dwelling people out of national parks is really just part of the way that conservation has been implemented for long. The idea is that human beings by definition are an invasive species in nature, and to protect it, they must be kept away. As a result, we have people who can be called conservation refugees affected by this green imperialism,” Benanav explains.

The Van Gujjars, on the other hand, disagree with this idea, since they believe that they are a part of the environment there that keeps the ecosystem in balance.

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“If these areas are so special that they’ve been declared national parks, obviously they’ve done something right over all these years. They are attuned to the idea that they have to live in a sustainable balance with the environment, else it will not support them. So while they use the forest, they do not overuse it,” he says.

Some of the Van Gujjar families were rehabilitated to villages such as Pathri and Gandikhatta, and these buffalo herders were now handed plots of land and asked to harvest wheat. It has had an incredible impact on their way of life. Yet, there are other families such as the one Benanav travelled with, who still attempt to follow their traditional lifestyle.

Michael Benanav, the photographer, with 16-year-old Sharafat. Sharafat was like a younger brother to Benanav during the six weeks that the photographer lived with Sharafat's family. This photo was taken on day 38 of the journey.

“The more indigenous way of thinking has begun to catch on around the world. Here in India, there is the Forest Rights Act that allows tribes like the Van Gujjars to use their traditional land, even inside a national park. In

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this case, the forest department was just happy to ignore the law, which in turn has led to a lot of insecurity in their lives,” he says.

Due to uncertainty over the permission that year, instead of visiting Gangar, Benanav’s friends had to make their way to another pasture at Kanasar, which was not only higher up, but also farther away. The average three weeks of migration had now extended to a six-week slog, putting the physical abilities of the family and their animals to test. Yet, even in the most trying situations, Benanav found that the Van Gujjars never broke down.

On the toughest parts of the trail, the men would get the saddle off their pack animals and lug the load themselves. A camp away from their final destination, they were hit by a ferocious thunderstorm, where an uprooted tree landed on a few buffalo yearlings, breaking one of their legs.

“The bone was out and there was no way it could walk the last 10 km over an incredibly steep and exposed pass. I wondered if they were going to euthanise it. What they did instead was patched up the leg, which I thought was an incredible feat of wilderness, veterinary medicine, and then physically carried the calf on a makeshift stretcher, all the way to the final destination,” he says.

“It totally blew my mind and I realised what these animals meant to them. They did it because of their love for these animals, not for some economic gain. If there was a way, no animal would be left behind. These are the Van Gujjars and this is just what they do,” he adds.

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Carrying the wounded yearling to the bugyal

Since that experience, Benanav has gone back to meet the family every few years and has noticed many changes in their lives. Some of them have considered the offer to settle in a village to secure their future, while oth ers still go through the administrative grind each year.

“I think the most sensible approach is a collaborative one, where the conservationists, local communities and forest-dwelling people work together to protect a place. And that’s the only way to protect the environment, human rights and cultural traditions all at the same time. It won’t be possible in some places but it definitely should be the first answer, rather than the last,” Benanav says.

The experience gathered over the years has resulted in Benanav starting the Traditional Cultures Project a few years ago, which documents these societies around the world before they disappear.

“Things are changing really fast. The project was started to see what’s threatening them, as well as to understand how they are adapting to modern challenges. There’s something valuable about these ancient ways of living and it’s important to document it, even so that you can just remember that people lived this way,” he says.

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13. Plight of Adiyan and Vetan communities of Kerala highlight why India needs to revisit criteria for determining tribal identity

While ascertaining the tribal identity of a community, India must keep in mind that tribal communities are never static and they have been undergoing shifts at a fast pace

Adiyan, a community predominantly found in northern Kerala and residing in Kannur district was denied the Scheduled Tribe (ST) status by authorities (without any prior notice) on the grounds that they have lost resemblance to their counterparts in the Wayanad district.

A study conducted by Kerala Institute for Research Training and Development Studies of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (KIRTADS) concluded that the Adiyan community of Kannur has lost its 'tribal or primitive' characteristics and now resembles the Hindu community of Thiyya who belong to the OBC category. The community

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fought a legal battle in the high court resulting in the restoration of their rightful ST status in 2015.

The Vetan and Vetar communities from Kollam, Paththanamthitta and Thiruvananthapuram districts of Kerala are fighting a similar battle. The two communities have been demanding ST status since the 1960s.

In the earlier days, the Vetan community lived in forests and was engaged mostly in hunting. In the course of time, many of them settled in rural areas, which gradually led to a division among the community: one section lived in forests and the other in towns. The government categorised the community as Malavetan and Vetan. While the Malavetans are categorised as ST, the Vetans are counted in the Scheduled Caste (SC) category. The Vetans are demanding ST status as they see themselves as part of the Malavetan community, and, are equally marginalised in terms of educational and economic achievements.

Both these instances raise certain important questions about the complexities and dynamics of tribal identity in contemporary times, and our hegemonic conceptualisation of the same. Central to this are debates on the criteria of defining ST, reservations, marginality and backwardness as well as the ideas of geographical boundaries and the notion of contemporaneity. In both the above-mentioned cases, members of the same community but living in a particular area (urban) were denied tribal status because it was said that they did not fulfil the criteria for ST, unlike their counterparts living in the hilly/forest regions.

It is important to note that Article 366 (5) of the Constitution doesn’t give any criteria for specification of a community as a Scheduled Tribe. It states that "Scheduled Tribes means such tribes or tribal communities which are deemed under Article 342 of the Constitution to be Scheduled Tribes".

Article 342 only specifies who has the powers to deem a community (or part thereof) as being Scheduled Tribe. The definitions and concepts of tribal communities adopted in the 1931 Census were taken into consideration while developing such rules and have been adhered to since. Later in 1965, the Lokur committee made a recommendation carrying

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forward the definitions followed by the colonial state to recognise the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes in India.

Terms like indigenous communities, adivasi and tribes are heavily contested in India. The term 'tribe' is a colonial and Brahminical construct, which denied the contemporary and simultaneous existence of certain communities and resulted in the labelling of these communities as primitive, backward and uncivilised. By the 19th century, 'tribe' began to be considered not only as a particular society but also as a particular stage of evolution. The idea of ‘tribe’ was based on the presumption that, these communities are isolated, self-contained and primitive groups that are geographically isolated and distanced from the caste or Hindu social order. Scholars have since pointed out how difficult and complicated the application of such notions are in the context of South Asia, and, particularly, in India.

The particular regions and their specific historical, socio-cultural and economic milieu have shown varying patterns of migrations and social interactions. Therefore, one has to move beyond the 'white man’s colonial imagination' while exploring and defining the meanings attached to the term tribe. We have to consider the nuances of the Indian society without denying the historically rooted marginalisation and injustice against tribal identities.

We must begin by recognising that tribal communities are never static and they have been undergoing shifts in the socio-cultural realms of current times at a fast pace and that they continue to be in extremely vulnerable situations in terms of social development and material progress.

The captive forces of the market economy, the influence of non-adivasi religions, processes like modernisation and globalisation, the resistance movements and the increasing control of the State over forests and invasion of adivasi areas and resources by the mainstream communities have played a decisive role in these changes. It should also be remembered that such changes are met with resistance and struggles from the tribal communities, aimed at preserving their identity and consciousness. In order to emphasise this 'shifting' nature of the adivasi communities, sociologist Andre Beteille had used the concept ‘tribes in transition’. Amita

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Baviskar rightly challenges this by pointing out that the idea of transition is an over-simplification and it stems from a linear understanding of change.

Should we then reconsider our definitions in the context of wider social changes in these communities and their attempts to preserve their cultural specificities without denying them their rightful status and affirmative support from the government? Are the existing criteria sufficient to define the tribal communities in the contemporary context? How should we consider the idea of time in identifying and designating a community as a tribe? Is it more important to protect non-tribal assumptions, prejudices, and stereotypes about tribal communities or create a space for the power of tribal self-determination? It would be safe to say that unless we make space for the perspectives, histories, and knowledge of tribal communities we will continue to deny them their rights and access to justice.

14. For, Of and By Tribes: This Powerful Idea Is Molding the Tribal Leaders of Tomorrow

Deriving its name from the Sanskrit word for ‘dialogue,’ Samvaad,

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organised by Tata Steel, is one of the largest tribal conclaves or ecosystems in India. It has reached out to more than 10,000 people and 17 countries worldwide.

The cry of Adivasi resistance that Bhagwan Maajhi once belted out as he protested the bauxite mining in Kashipur resounds through the open stage of Samvaad at the Tribal Culture Centre in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand.

Only this time, 23 tribes from India and across the world put their arms around each other in a circular formation, as they dance to its tune sung live by popular folk singer and lyricist, Padma Shri Madhu Mansuri Hasmukh. The song not only connects the story of the struggles, aspirations and dreams of the tribal communities gathered at Samvaad but also celebrates adivasiyat (tribal identity), culture, history and heritage.

And that is precisely what Samvaad set out to do.

What is Samvaad?

Deriving its name from the Sanskrit word for ‘dialogue,’ Samvaad, organised by Tata Steel, is one of the largest tribal conclaves or ecosystems in India. It has reached out to more than 10,000 people and 17 countries worldwide.

From the forest man of India, Padma Shri Jadav Payeng, who single-handedly planted the 500-acre Molai forest; to Anna Kujur, who fought fearlessly for the rights of forest-dwelling communities, and gave 16,000 Adivasis their rightful ‘patta’ – Samvaad has been instrumental in making the most critical voices of indigenous communities heard. Celebrating its sixth year in 2019, Samvaad also commemorates the birth anniversary of iconic tribal leader Birsa Munda. The theme of the annual event that once simply began with the idea of celebrating tribal identity has now transformed into a silent revolution for social change.

Among the few examples of the incredible stories that come out of the five day-conclave are those of young tribal men using music to break taboos about menstruation, women fighting for their right to education, women

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contesting in and winning panchayat elections, and entire villages coming together to build rainwater harvesting structures.

In addition to being a safe space for indigenous communities to open up conversations about culture, identity, language preservation, climate justice, legal rights and constitutional frameworks, it also brings together the joys of sharing tribal cuisine, handicrafts, healers and cultural performances at Gopal Maidan over five evenings.

In its visit to Samvaad 2019, The Better India (TBI) met with the driving forces behind the event and got a consensus on what makes it the first-of-its-kind open platform for indigenous communities.

Dr Ramaswami Balasubramanian, an Indian author, public policy advocate and activist, who is known for his development work with rural and tribal people in Mysore, beautifully summarises the purpose of Samvaad. He explains how it isn’t just about the song or the dance, the language, food or the dress that one sees from the outside, but something that runs much deeper. “For the last five years, Tata Steel has been quietly communicating its conviction to the cause of mobilising tribals for the larger good in a very silent, subtle way. Samvaad is unlike any other conclave because it is about love, respect, dignity and a genuine concern for positive change among indigenous communities. To help people believe that they must take control of their lives and not merely respond to the narrative that others fashion for them. It is invigorating to see thousands of young tribals from all over the country and outside come together to discuss, to debate, and participate in dialogue.”

55-year-old Mansaram Madari from the Gond tribe of Madhya Pradesh who has been attending the conclave for the last two years echoes Balasubramanian’s musings. “Samvaad brings together tribes who manifest the utmost love and respect for Jal (water), Jangal (forests) and Jameen (land). With changing times, many of our youngsters who are moving into bigger cities have forgotten their roots. Thanks to platforms like Samvaad that celebrate our identity, we can find ways to involve young people more. The many stories of struggles shared here give us

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hope that we aren’t alone in our fight to preserve our identity. It has inspired us to take charge of our lives. Today we are working with 600 tribal families in and around our village to preserve our culture and traditions.”

A first-time attendee, Kunal Singh from the Munda tribe of Nilgiris, Odisha, says, “We have never attended a tribal event held at this scale. The exposure is amazing, and the opportunity is huge. As we sat amongst our brothers and sisters from different tribes and corners of India, there were times; we couldn’t understand each other due to barriers of language. But the bond of kinship we felt surpassed it all.”

For Sourav Roy, the Chief of Tata Steel’s corporate social responsibility arm, Samvaad is all about building relationships and changemakers.

“The process of development over the years, for various reasons, has not been very kind to our indigenous communities. We, at Tata Steel, believe that the answers to the most vexing questions for modern-day problems lie in ancient tribal practices. And so, we want to bridge the gap and create a neutral platform that allows these voices to be heard. Samvaad doesn’t take any positions on issues, yet allows a safe space for tribes to speak their heart out, share their stories, gain strength from each others’ resilience and find solutions. We do not want to dictate to people from indigenous communities about what their identities are. Instead, we want to be facilitators who help people look deep inside and discover their identities on their own,” he says.

Samvaad has come a long way from being a celebratory event once conducted for tribal communities. Today, it has become a platform that is helping indigenous communities find solutions to modern-day problems. Another interesting offshoot of the event is to empower deserving tribal youth with the Samvaad Fellowship 2019. The fellowship provides financial help to tribal youth to undertake a project —through a research proposal or a social action initiative—to work on cultural aspects concerning their community.

With more than seven regional Samvaads being organised in Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Nagaland, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Meghalaya,

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Kerala and Madhya Pradesh in partnership with reputed institutions, the revolution is reaching out to more tribal communities in the hinterland. As said, one can only hope that it continues to reach more and more people on the margins and the ‘samvaad’ (conversation) never ceases!

15. Odisha’s Bonda tribe sees rise in ‘distress migration’

While the youth have abandoned villages for work in distant towns, children have dropped out of schools after pandemic

Perched at a height of 3,500ft above sea level in the hilly Malkangiri district of Odisha, this village is difficult to access and so are its inhabitants — the Bondas, a particularly vulnerable tribal group, known for their secluded lives away from the mainstream.

However, the lack of access has not prevented young Bondas from being forced leave their pristine hamlets for low-paid jobs in distant towns of

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Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and States even farther. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic appears to have quickened the ‘distress’ migration.

Sombari Muduli, 60, has visited the Malkangiri district headquarters, 80 km from her village, just once in her life. However, her 16-year-old daughter Gurubari has crossed State borders to work in prawn processing plant in Visakhapatnam.

Without waiting for the COVID-19 pandemic to abate, Gurubari left her single room hut months ago. In her neighbourhood, Pradan Batri, 16, and Khuji Sisa, 17, too migrated to Andhra Pradesh immediately after the lockdown.

The disturbing trend of distress migration has also caught up with Bonda students who were studying in residential schools before COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Sada Hantal, a resident of Andrahal, students sat idle for months as they could not pursue their education due to lack of online facilities during the outbreak.

“The moment they came in contact with labour agents, they did not take much time to decide. They brought down the curtain on their studies. Arjun Sisa (Class 8) and Krushna Sisia (Class 9) have already migrated to work,” Mr. Hantal said, adding that the list of students dropping out of school was growing.

Markets closed

Though the pandemic did not have much impact on Bondas as they mostly depend on government food subsidies, many were not able to sell their farm and and forest produce as the weekly markets remained closed for months during lockdown period.

“I sell cashew nuts in bulk which takes care of our cash needs for round the year. Now, our needs are increasing too. To arrange more cash, my daughter had to migrate,” said Ms. Muduli.

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Former Malkangiri district collector Manish Agarwal, however, said the administration could not prevent individuals from migrating for better opportunities as long as the migrations are not distressed or under duress.

“Bondas are extremely cautious about preserving their unique culture and tradition. We will take action if Bondas are being taken away for cheap labour,” Mr. Agarwal said.

Given that the highland tribal community are extremely vulnerable, the Odisha government had set up a micro project to ensure focused development of Bondas as early as 1976-77. The Bonda Development Agency (BDA) covers 32 habitations (21 under Mudulipada, 9 under Andrahal, and one habitation each from Rasabeda and Baddural gram panchayats) in total from four gram panchayats. There are 1,919 Bonda households living in high reaches of Malkangiri.

Little improvement

However, despite years of government intervention, there has not been much visible development among Bondas.

As per latest an evaluation conducted by Odisha’s Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Research and Training Institute (SCSTRTI), although ₹18.23 crore have been allotted to the BDA in last five years, only ₹11.57 crore have been spent, leaving ₹6.66 crore or 36.52% unutilised.

It clearly shows the BDA does not have capacity to spend funds even though the livelihood options for the Bondas have reduced. One of the major reasons has been the lack of coordination with other departments to improve the life and livelihood of the group. Of the 32 habitations, 16 villages do not have all weather roads and hamlets can be accessed only by rough footpaths.

“If migration is taken as the single largest indicator to assess the livelihood status of a community, it is seen that the incidence of migration has increased over the years amongst the Bonda households,” the SCSTRTI said.

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“The data collected from the BDA sample villages indicates that during the last four years, there has been an increase in the trend of migration which is indicative of the fact that the income opportunities in the area are not adequate to provide employment to the Bondas,” the study added.

As per the study, 221 Bondas have migrated from 7 sample villages in 2019-20.

16. Survey of forest dwellers being done: Jammu and Kashmir govt.

Amid regional parties’ protests over the eviction of forest dwellers, the Jammu and Kashmir administration on Wednesday said it was in the

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process of implementing the Forest Rights Act of 2006 “to grant the rights to forest dwellers”.

“The Forest Rights Act of 2006 provides for granting of rights to forest dwellers across the country. It was not applicable or implemented in J&K till 31st October, 2019. It has been decided that the survey of claimants by the forest rights committees for assessing the nature and extent of rights being claimed at village- level be completed by January 15, 2021”, an official spokesman said.

The sub-divisional committees shall complete the process of scrutiny of claims and prepare the record of forest rights by or before January 31, 2021 and the district level committees shall consider and approve the record and grant forest rights by March 1, 2021, the official said.

The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Chief Secretary B.V.R Subrahmanyam on Wednesday to review the implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, and Rules in Jammu and Kashmir.

The administration has decided that the tribes and traditional forest dwellers will be provided with the rights over forest land for the purpose of habitation or self-cultivation or livelihood, ownership, access to collect, use, and dispose of minor forest produce, and entitlement to seasonal resources among others

“However, the rights conferred under this Act shall be heritable but not alienable or transferable. However, under the Act, on the recommendation of a gram sabha, forest land up to one hectare can be diverted for the purpose of developing government facilities, including schools, hospitals, minor water bodies, rainwater harvesting structures, minor irrigation canals, vocational training centres, non-conventional sources of energy and roads”, the official noted.

Mehbooba’s protest

The decision came just a day after Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti met the Gujjars and Bakerwals, who were allegedly

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evicted from their habitats in south Kashmir by the authorities, and registered her protest against the move.

National Conference’s Mian Altaf, who had represented the nomadic community in the Assembly, said the recent demolition of hutments of the Gujjar and Bakarwal communities in Lidroo Pahalgam in south Kashmir gave an insight into the discrimination and apathy that the BJP nurtured against them.

17. Tigers, Tribals & Volleyball: Melghat Is Hosting A Sports Event Unlike

Any Other!

In the tribal villages spread out across the forest regions of the Melghat Tiger Reserve, which is nestled in the Satpuda hill range of Maharashtra, the tiger is not a wild, fearsome beast but instead, is referred to as one’s maternal uncle, or ‘Mama.’

In fact, Kula Mama is the name that the Korku tribal community from the region adoringly uses for tigers, where ‘Kula’ is the regional moniker for the feline predator.

Inspired by this respectful attribution, the forest officials of the Tiger Reserve organise a volleyball tournament every year, which sees enthusiastic participation from as many as 100 teams from various tribes in the region!

And guess what is the name of the tournament—Kula Kishor Volleyball Trophy!

What makes the event unlike any other sports tournament is a prerequisite that each team must follow to qualify—one forest department staffer is required to be a team member.

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Kula Kishor Volleyball Trophy . Courtesy: Melghat Forest Reserve.

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Flagging off the matches. Courtesy: Melghat Forest Reserve.

“The idea behind this condition is to offer a unique opportunity for both the tribal population and the forest department to collaborate and establish a good rapport through sports. Not only does the event help both parties to rise above the inherent antagonism between them but it helps them to become more accepting of each other through matches,” Anirudh Chaoji, an ecologist working at the Tiger Reserve, says to The Better India.

Since the inception of the tournament in 2014, the forest department has noticed a visibly more tolerant and amicable exchange between forest guards and villagers, even to the extent of the officials being invited to the latter’s communal spaces and the villagers in turn, helping the officials with information on dubious activities in the forest range.

Anirudh also shares that amidst various sports played across the country, it is volleyball, which is the favourite amidst the tribal communities in Melghat, even more than cricket!

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Ongoing matches. Courtesy: Melghat Forest Reserve.

Participating teams fighting it off. Courtesy: Melghat Forest Reserve.

“It is quite fascinating to watch these players, mostly aged between 18–25, engage in the game with such passion and vigour. Every single team’s performance is impressive in its own way and works really hard to up their game. The tournament only gets more engrossing as the race to the trophy closes in,” he adds excitedly.

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This year’s tournament, which was flagged off on March 11and witnessed a participation of about 80 teams, is currently going on and will conclude on Saturday.

Amidst various forward projects initiated by the Melghat Tiger Reserve to make way for a harmonious coexistence between the forest officials and tribal communities, the volleyball tournament is a flagship initiative that is providing a platform for the tribal youngsters to hone their sporting prowess.

18. With land rights, but no land

Many Adivasi families are unlikely to benefit from the implementation of the Forest Rights Act in J&K

Tribal politics in the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir was focused on the twin issues of political reservation and enactment/extension of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) of 2006. Mainstream political parties, which are now arguing for these rights for the Adivasis in J&K, failed to provide them these rights when they were in power for years. This failure continues to aggravate the problems of the Adivasis in J&K who were provided

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reservations in jobs, but no political reservation though this was constitutionally mandated.

It is this lack of political reservation that has been a major reason for their marginalisation. The Adivasis have had to largely depend on non-tribal leadership to represent their issues and demands. Lack of political reservation meant that their issues were never adequately represented in the Legislative Assembly. The vote share of Adivasis is a major deciding factor in almost 21 Assembly constituencies, yet they remain politically marginalised. After the abrogation of J&K’s special status, there was no delay in providing political reservation for the Adivasis. Its actual impact will be seen only after elections are conducted for the Legislative Assembly of the Union Territory of J&K. However, similar urgency wasn’t shown in the extension of the FRA to J&K after the abrogation of special status though many other Central laws were extended to the Union Territory.

More evictions

In fact, the FRA should have been in place in J&K long time ago — nothing in Article 370 prevented the Legislative Assembly from enacting a similar law. Adivasi lands have not been protected, nor have these communities been given ownership rights. Instead, evictions of Adivasis have intensified in the last few years. The FRA would have provided Adivasis in J&K access and ownership rights, forest-based livelihood rights, and minor forest produce rights. Adivasis, especially nomads, have neither land rights nor rehabilitation rights.

The J&K government has now decided to implement the FRA. On November 18, the J&K Chief Secretary reviewed the implementation of the FRA. It has been decided that the survey of claimants by the forest rights committees for assessing the nature and extent of rights being claimed at the village-level would be completed by January 15, 2021. Subsequently, the claims would be scrutinised by the sub-divisional committees, which will then prepare a record of forest rights by or before January 31, 2021. District-Level Committees will give the final approval and grant forest rights by March 1, 2021.

Proving ownership

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Implementing the FRA is a welcome step. However, instead of alleviating fears of displacement and disempowerment, the law has only increased those fears. This is primarily because this is happening against the backdrop of the J&K government’s decision on October 31 to declare the State Land (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act, 2001, also known as the Roshni Act, null and void. This Act has been controversial due to the questionable transfer of ownership of state land to many influential people, including Ministers, legislators, bureaucrats, and police officers. Some say that it provided ownership rights to many poor, landless Adivasis as well; now the land will be retrieved from them. In such a scenario, the Adivasis will fail to prove their claims of ownership under the FRA. Further, in the last few weeks, the eviction and demolition drives against nomads have intensified without any rehabilitation plans in place. The FRA, then, is unlikely to benefit such poor, landless Adivasis.

In the rest of India, the FRA provided and recognised the forest rights of forest dwellers who had occupied forest land before December 13, 2005. No such cut-off date has been mentioned in the case of J&K. Without a cut-off date, with land being retrieved after declaring the Roshni Act null and void, and with forceful evictions taking place, many tribal families are unlikely to benefit from the implementation of the FRA.

19. Marriage Is Driving Tribal Families Into Debt In MP. These Activists

Are Trying To Change That.

These activists are working with tribes people of Madhya Pradesh to cap marriage expenditures and prevent families from plunging into debt or having to sell off their lands to pay for their children’s weddings.

In villages across Western Madhya Pradesh a group of tribal activists are campaigning with influential members to cap high-spending on weddings that’s pushing rural families into debt.

Influences from non-tribal cultures and traditions as well as the growing practice of one-upmanship in marriages are some of the factors that are contributing to increasing costs of weddings in villages in the area. Instead

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of it being a special occasion that families look forward to, marriages are becoming a huge burden to families as they simply cannot afford them.

Today, a typical marriage for these tribes-people can cost close to Rs. 5 lakh, an amount that for most is just too high.

In response to the issue, tribal activists associated with three organisations, Khedut Mazdoor Chetana Sangath (KMCS), Adivasi Ekta Parishad and Jai Adivasi Yuva Shakti, have launched a campaign to cap spending lavishly on weddings in an attempt to drive down the unaffordable costs burdening tribal families.

Families are taking on the huge pressure of financing weddings that they simply can’t afford. Many are in pursuit of weddings that are bigger, have more food, more guests and more expensive outfits and are taking out loans with very high interests, which they are unable to pay, or selling off their land.

“Marriage is becoming a millstone on the neck of grooms, and it has become a sort of competition between tribal over who has the ‘most

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expensive bride’. This should end as it is ruining the tribal” social activist Tapan Bhattacharya told The Hindustan Times.

The campaign comes after Ranjeet Ranjan, the Congress MP from Supaul in Bihar, introduced a bill in Parliament aiming to cap the lavishness of Indian weddings. The proposed Marriages (Simple Solemnisation, Compulsory Registration and Prevention of Wastage of Food Items) Bill, 2016 aims to ‘prohibit extravagant and wasteful expenditure and show of wealth on marriages’ on all marriages performed in the country and to prevent the wastage of food.

Amongst other things, the bill aims to cap wedding expenditures to Rs 5 lakh each for the bride and groom’s family, make food wastage a criminal offence, limit the number of guests in attendance and the dishes served, and set up a welfare fund to which families spending over Rs 5 lakh will have to contribute to the wedding of girls from poor families. The penalties include imprisonment and fines.

The bill comes in recognition of how the growing ‘trend or craze’ to splurge on lavish weddings is causing the country’s poor majority to take on high loans in pursuit of the same luxury, driving them into

overwhelming debt.

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Weddings in rural India are becoming bigger and more lavish.

The group of activists has been working with key individuals in the tribal districts of Jhabua, Dhar, Alirajpur and Barwani in an attempt to come up with a consensus on the issue. A major meeting has been called for April 5 in Bhavra town of Alirajpur district to move the campaign forward.

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