Indian Journal of Research in Anthropology

 People and animals are increasingly coming into conflict over living space and food. Animals suffer when people enter their habitat, people suffer when animals enter their homes and fields. This is mainly due to expanding human populations and the continued loss of natural habitats. Human animal conflicts are an important aspect of management of forests as they have enormous implication to the well being and livelihood of the people in our country. The protection of wildlife has a long tradition in Indian history. The real problem does not lie in the protection and conservation but in the men and animals. Human activity is taking its toll on our closest relatives. The animals are being squeezed into smaller and smaller areas of remaining natural habitat, which are surrounded by crops that herbivores like to eat. Hence, Human­Wildlife Conflict is any interaction, between wildlife and humans which causes harm, whether it’s to the human, the wild animal, or property. Human Animal Conflicts (HAC) also weakens human welfare, health and safety, and has economic and social costs. Nuisance encounters with small animals, exposure to zoonotic diseases, physical injury or even death caused by large predators attacks have high financial costs for individuals and society in the form of medical treatments to cure and prevent infections transmitted from animals. Humans can be economically affected through annihilation and damage to property and infrastructure livestock depredation, transmission of domestic animal diseases, such as foot and mouth. On the other side animals are hunted by man for flesh and eggs as food, hide, skin and shell for fancy leather articles and handicrafts, teeth and bones as charms, fat for alleged medicinal properties and venom for preparation of medicinal products as well as they also hunted for the protection of their own life. HAC not only affects rural and vulnerable communities, but commercial cattle ranches too. It is clear that with this interface of human and large mammals, conflicts are inevitable.

Keywords: Human Animal Conflicts; Natural Habitats; Livelihood; Vulnerable Communities

 This present endeavour seeks to examine the customary laws and traditional institution, administering such laws among the Shertukpen of West Kameng District of Arunachal Pradesh. The customary laws are the traditional unwritten laws, which are transmitted orally from preceding generation to succeeding generation continuing from time immemorial. In recent times, the customary laws have assumed particular significance in indigenous societies brought under the traditional court for dispensation of justice. The Shertukpen, one of the important tribes of Arunachal Pradesh, traditionally have their own and the unique customary laws governed their socio­cultural life. They have an elaborate “Tukpen Village Council”, the supreme authority of the Shertukpen Tribe. The paper tries to focus about the customary laws and practices in relation to their socio­cultural life, marriage, family, divorce, inheritance, maintenance, adoption, dispensation of justice, which regulated the entire life of the people. It also helped to understand the functioning of the village council and dispensation of justice, imposition of fines in the cases of various natures as well as the contemporary changing trend of customary laws due to various impinging factors.

Keywords: Customary law; Shertukpen; Tukpen village council; Gaon burha; Administration of justice

 The population of the STs in the state is 66.17 lakh (2001 Census) accounting for 31.76% of the total population of the state and 94.7% of which is rural in nature. The sex ratio among STs is 1012 females per 1000 males which is more favorable towards males. In terms of the concentration of ST population, the State occupies 6th position with 7.85% STs in the country. There are 42 different tribes including five Primitive Tribe Groups (PTGs) comprising about 12 lakh tribal families. Most of the natural resources including minerals are located in tribal areas. The decadal growth rate of population in the State during the period 1991­2001 is 24.3 percent, which is significantly higher than the all India rate of 21.3 percent in the same period. With the above background the present study enumerates the decadal growth rate of tribal population in Dantewada, Bijapur, Sukma, Korea and Jashpur Districts in Chhattishgarh with the help of secondary data collection. The main aim of the study was to collect information about the factors of decadal growth rate of tribal population. It is necessary to find out the causes of high decadal growth rate to facilitate the local people to stop migration and increase socio­economical development rate. Further, as noted in the paper, high decadal growth rate is found in north and south area of Chhattisgarh that is tribal zone and known as industrial zone of Chhattisgarh (North Chhattisgarh: Coal/Bauxite zone, South Chhattisgarh: Iron zone).According to observation of the study areas, the reasons of DGR (Decadal Growth Rate) may be migration, health issues, poor education, unemployment, naxalism, gender concern, discrimination, indebtedness, food security, globalization, high risk agriculture, some social and cultural issues, displacement, drought and famines and environmental imbalance etc. From some local problems and public health point of view, most of the health indicators and socio economic status are below national average and unsatisfactory. The human resources gap, poor physical infrastructure, inadequate health education and awareness, poor health­seeking behavior, and inadequate healthcare utilization compound the problem. Indicators related to health and health care delivery are outcomes of research in diverse fields other than the department of health. Putting them together and projecting them in a public health view point encourage others to focus on the neglected indicators/areas. However, further research is needed to have a clear database in this regard. It will be significant that the rural and tribal people will not go anywhere to search for survival opportunities, if they have proper livelihood and facilities at their habitat. The tribals are simple and unaware people; they need special attention by Government. Here it is not necessary to isolate them but it is the time to have familiar with them and their culture for their proper development.

Keywords: DGR­Decadal Growth Rate; PTGS­Primitive Tribe Groups.

 A cross­sectional study investigated age and sex variations in chronic energy deficiency (CED) among 114 individuals (2­18 years) of Gond population of Binouri village, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh. The sample was selected randomly to study CED grades using anthropometric indicators. Nutritional status was evaluated in four groups of different age categories­ pre­schoolers: 2­5 years (n=16), children: 6­12 years (n=38), adolescents: 13­18 years (n=12) and adults: >18years (n=45) using the age­sex specific cut­off points of body mass index (BMI). Statistical analysis was performed using MS Excel and SPSS software. The considered socio­demographic variables such as age at marriage, educational and occupational status showed significant difference with respect to sex. Majority of the adult population belongs to the lower socio­economic class with few middle classes among the studied population. No significant agesex specific difference is observed for mean values of anthropometric variables such as height, weight and BMI. The overall frequency of CED among the studied population is 37.83 % (serious stage) with highest among children (50%). Moreover, occurrence of thinness is found to be higher among girls as compared to the boys. The prevalence of Grade III thinness is found to be highest among pre­schooler children (18.75%) followed by children with 2.63%. Whereas Grade I undernutrition is highest among children (34.21%) followed by pre­school children (25.0%), adult (17.78%) and adolescent (16.67%). All the age groups considered in the present study are not statistically significant for the degree of malnutrition except for adults (p < 0.05). The result shows that undernutrition is more prevalent among children than their adult counterpart. Similar data from other communities from state(s) should be collected and analyzed for better understanding and to reduce the prevalence of undernutrition in children and women as a whole.

Keywords: Nutritional Status; Socio­Economic; Demographic; Gond; Tribes.

 The anthropology of art focuses on historical, economic and aesthetic dimensions in non­Western art forms, including what is known as ‘tribal art’. One of the central problems in the anthropology of art concerns the universality of ‘art’ as a cultural phenomenon. This study is focuses on to achieve the following objectives: to conserve various tattoo form of the Bhunjia tribe of Chhattisgarh with their scientific documentation and to discuss anthropological perspectives of the tattoo of the Bhunjia. The interview guide was used to collect the primary data. Group discussion technique was also used to collect and cross check the data. The photographs were taken for validation of data based on the given situation and incidents related to the subject. Bhunjia is numerically small and little­known tribes which mostly reside in the Nuapada district of Orissa and Gariaband district of Chhattisgarh. Bhunjia customarily craft tattoos by cutting drawings into the skin and rubbing the resulting wound with ink, ashes or other agents. Tattoo is called as Godna by the Bhunjia. A Godna is a form of body modification, made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment. This traditional Tattoo has religious and beauty significance for Bhunjia tribe. Bhunjia people think that Godna will accompany them even after their death. Various kind of art including tattoo of the Bhunjia are vanished. The younger generation of this community has forgotten their spiritual and aesthetic sense of tattoos. They don’t want to draw the tattoo on their body. Ethnographic documentations should be conducting among the Bhungia of Chhattisgarh for conserve such kind of intangible cultural heritage.

Keywords: Art; Tattoo; Bhunjia; Tribe; Chhattisgarh.

 The study aims at determining the factors affecting the first birth interval among the Santal women of child bearing age (15­49 years) in Purbi Singhbhum district, Jharkhand. 47.8 percent of women were found between the first birth interval of 13 months and 24 months. The length of the first birth interval tend to decrease with an increasing age of women A significant difference in the mean first birth interval with respect to education (p<0.05), household size (p<0.05) and contraceptive use(p<0.01 and working status(p<0.01) was found. Women giving birth after an age of 18 years were six times more likely to have a birth interval of more than 12 months than women who gave birth before 18 years of age. Working women were two times more likely to have a long birth interval than women who did not work (Significant at p value<0.01 during Bivariate analysis). Age at first birth, women’s education and women’s working status were among the best predictors for the first birth interval.

Keywords: First Birth Interval; Age at First Birth; Odds.

 The present study comprised of 1155 Soliga tribal boys ranging in age group of 8 to 18 years from Chamarajanagar, Coorg and Mysore districts of Karnataka. 12 measurements were included in the present cross sectional data. The segmental growth progression of the body assessed through percentage of growth at each age from 8 to 18 years related to their final size attained at 18 years. The growth spurt was observed for trunk height, leg length, and foot length at 13 years, while for the stature, sitting height, neck length, total upper extremities length, hand length, upper arm length, forearm length, total lower extremity length, thigh length at 15 ­ 16 years. The growth of constituent components of upper and lower extremity at all ages showed caudo­cephalic sequence of maturation. However the growth of upper arm, thigh gradient showed cephalo­caudal as well as caudo­cephalic sequence of maturation.

Keywords: Growth; Growth Progression; Growth Spurt; Growth Gradients; Soliga Tribal Boys; Karnataka.

 Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common non­communicable diseases globally. Dermatoglyphics as a diagnostic tool is now well established for a number of diseases with strong hereditary basis. The objective of the present study was to understand the association of C­line polymorphism and 4th inter digital (ID4) patterns with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). In the present study 30 clinically diagnosed cases of adult female T2DM patients from West Bengal, India and 60 healthy adult females without having the history of diabetes as controls were incorporated from the same area and population. Bilateral palm prints of each individual were collected following standard ink and roller method and analyzed for C­line termination polymorphism and ID4 patterns. The overall frequency of C line termination points on both hand of T2DM patients were 45%, 41.67% and 3.33% for ulnar, radial and proximal position, respectively. These were 64.17%, 35.83% and 13.33% for ulnar, radial and proximal position, respectively in controls. The overall frequency of absent C line was 10% in T2DM patients and 3.33% in controls. The overall frequency of occurrence of ID4 patterns in T2DM and control subject was 76.67% and 30.83%, respectively. The result also revealed significant (p<0.05) differences in the distribution of line C termination points and ID4 patterns between T2DM patients and controls. The present study indicated that the C­line polymorphism and ID4 pattern may be used for early identification of risk group individuals for surveillance with a view to prevent the disease onset.

Keyword: Dermatoglyphics; C­line; Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus; 4th Inter Digital Patterns; India.

 Issues related to health and health care system and ground realities are vibrant, alarming and eyecatching in the tribal areas of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. This paper emphasizes on traditional healers and healing practices prevalent among the Dhurwa tribe of Kanger Valley region of Bastar, Chhattisgarh, especially near Tirathagarh. The modern medicinal facilities are not easily approachable by the tribals and they mostly depend upon the traditional medicare and healing systems prevalent in their areas. The tribals are neither educated about the modern system of medical treatment nor provided with the required facilities in their residential areas. The local medicine­man or healer treats the ailing persons in their own houses or seats of the village deities. Illiteracy, unawareness, unfamiliarity and uneasiness sometimes stop them to go to the local dispensaries and health centers. Sometimes, they also easily fall prey of the exorcists and quacks in the area instead of good real traditionally trained healers. Though, various institutions are now concerned with the traditional health care system and means of traditional treatment, the tribal people are the real custodians of the medicinal plants spread in local forest area. Younger generation loosing interest in the traditional methods must also be made aware to protect effective traditional healing practices and valuable herbal plants before they get lost due to impact of modernization, urbanization and deforestation. Correct, collaborative and effective implementation of traditional medicinal practices along with proper co­ordination with the modern medicinal practices can prove more fruitful in this perspective.

Keywords: Health; Medicine­Man; Healing Practices; Ethno­Medicine.