Paleoanthropology of South Asia

The vast subcontinent of South Asia comprising the modern nations of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and their borderlands is situated at the geographical intersection of Africa and Southeast Asia, with its eastward extension int o the oceanic sphere of Australasia; Central Asia lies to the north of the Himalaya range and Tibetan plateau; the waters of the Indian Ocean join tho se of the Arabian Sea to the west and the Bay of Bengal to the east of the Indian peninsula. Archeological evidence indicates that hominids were settl ed in the subcontinent during the Pleistocene period, by which time the Mio cene apes of the Siwalik Hills of the northwestern region were extinct. A f ossil record of the hominids who manufactured crude pebble tools, ascribed by some paleoanthropologists to a Late Pliocene antiquity, has not been rec overed, but skeletal remains associated with technologically more advanced lithic industries of the Middle and Late Pleistocene and Early and Middle H olocene periods are present. This article summarizes and evaluates the diverse interpretations of the pa leoanthropological data which have concentrated upon (1) phylogenetic relat ionships of the Siwalik apes to early hominids; (2) attribution of prehisto ric cultures, defined by their lithic technologies and geographical distrib utions, to extinct hominid species or "races"; (3) characterization of Sout h Asia as a cul-de-sac of ancient peoples who were recipients of major demo graphic, linguistic and cultural innovations derived from Western or Centra l Asian sources. Recent field and laboratory investigations reject these ve nerable approaches to South Asian paleoanthropology by the initiation of ne w research orientations which include (1) documentation of changes in muscu lar-skeletal robusticity, tooth size and sexual dimorphism marking the soci oeconomic transition from hunting-foraging to food-producing strategies; (2 ) employment of new methodologies in molecular biology and multivariate sta tistics in determining genetic distance between early and modem South Asian populations; (3) understanding of the historical background of research or ientations which are now expediting the advent of South Asia into the arena of world prehistoric archeology.