RESEARCH GROUPS
Landscape, Subsistence and Population
Convenors: Dr. Dorian Q Fuller, Lecturer in Archaeobotany, University College London; Dr. Michael Petraglia, Lecturer in Biological Anthropology, University of Cambridge
South Asia has a diverse cultural mosaic. This is reflected in local economies of foraging and farming, linguistic variation and genetic patterns. This rich mosaic is the product of a long history of human interaction with the changing natural landscapes and interaction between cultural groups. This group unites scholars whose research examines issues of interacting societies in the landscape, how they make a living, how subsistence has changed, and how demography may be both a cause and a consequence of socio-economic changes. Such research includes the excavation and analysis of long prehistoric sequences as well as targeted explorations of material culture, flora and fauna from archaeological sites of any period, as well as exploration of the palaeo-geographic setting of sites. Collaboration and exchange is actively sought with scholars approaching the demographic past of South Asia through other disciplinary purviews, including historical linguistics and genetics, as well as researchers engaged in the study of present-day social, cultural and biological diversity, including anthropologists.
The rationale of this group is to provide support to a network of scholars working in various parts of South Asia, covering many prehistoric and historic periods and using a multi-disciplinary assortment of approaches, and to encourage interchange and collaboration. This circle arises from recent and ongoing major research projects in recent years directed by the each of the convenors and other members of the circle as well as Indian colleagues, such as the Kurnool District Project, the Southern Neolithic Research Project, and early agriculture and landscape projects in the South Deccan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Garhwal, supported by sources such as the Leverhulme Trust, British Academy, AHRB and home institutions. Major individual and collaborative projects arising from this group will seek funding from other grant giving bodies.
British-based members of the group
- Dr. Nicole Boivin, Research Fellow, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge
- Dr. Eleni Asouti, Research Fellow, Institute of Archaeology, University College London
- Dr. Helen Lewis, Research & Teaching Fellow, Oxford University Department of Continuing Education & Kellogg College
Indian Consultative Group and Collaborators
- Professor Ravi Korisettar, Dept. of Ancient History and Archaeology, Karnatak University
- Dr. P. C. Venkatasubbaiah, Andhra University, Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh
- Dr. Rabi Mohanty, Dept. of Archaeology, Deccan College, Pune
- Professor Mukund Kajale, Dept. of Archaeology, Deccan College, Pune
- Dr. K. Rajan, Dept. of Ancient History and Archaeology, Tamil University
- Professor Vinod Nautiyal, Dept. of Ancient History and Archaeology, University of Garhwal
- Professor J. N. Pal, Dept. of Ancient History and Archaeology, University of Allahabad
- Professor Kishor Basa, Museum of Man, Bhopal