God-Apes and Fossil Men: Paleoanthropology of South Asia

Name of book: Daniel Martin Varisco: Medieval Agriculture and Islamic Science. The almanac of a Yemeni Sultan. Used book priced at dollars 15.89.
Thanking you.
Yours faithfully,
K. L Mehra


South Asian Paleoanthropology ; new insight   August 24, 2001
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Five Stars: Scholarly, Comprehensive, Insightful and Superbly Good Read. August 23, 2001. Reviewer: K. L. Mehra, Former Director & Expert F.A.O., Rome, Italy.

This book is a must read for students and professionals alike, and others with interest in hominid / human skeleton remains and the information these remains hold for understanding the biological history and diversity of South Asiays people. Kenneth A.R. Kennedy sets forth to test the validity of some hypothesis that emerged from the interpretation of such findings. After presenting precise accounts of different viewpoints, Kennedy provides an unbiased fresh insight based on his interdisciplinary approach, integrating archaeological, geological, linguistic, fossil, and historical evidences. It contains a balanced and scholarly treatment of the latest methods used in skeleton biological analysis. The book should become a model reference work for understanding paleoanthropology of a single region. The major merit of authorys approach has been a critical presentation of European concepts of human origins, biological diversity, and pre-historic life ways, and to appraise the reader about how those concepts were superimposed upon more native traditions, which addressed many of the same questions but from within an entirely distinctive cultural context and perceptions. Kennedy provides sufficient supportive evidences, which suggest that there was no abrupt transition or mass migration of food- producing new races into the hunting territories of longer settled people in South Asia. Faunal and floral evidences from certain sites in Rajasthan and the Ganges valley suggest incipient practices of plant and animal domestication among Mesolithic groups. Emergence of food production strategies was a gradual transition that took place in different localities at different times. Kennedy discusses paleodemographic and anatomical data, which points out that the participants in the mature phase of Harappan civilization were not a mysterious people of unknown biological origins, or migrants from other centers of high culture in western Asia, but were descendants of populations identified with the pre-Harappan cultures of northwestern sector of the sub-continent. Kennedy argues that Indian three-race concept paradigm about caste (including the status of Aryan lineage) and a western argument, favoring demic migrations, is not tenable. Professionals of different disciplines, students, and even lay people alike will all find something thought- provoking in this book. Very highly recommended.