A peaceful realm? Trauma and social differentiation at Harappa.

Thousands of settlements stippled the third millennium B.C. landscape of Pakistan and northwest India. These communities maintained an extensive exchange network that spanned West and South Asia. They shared remarkably consistent symbolic and ideological systems despite a vast territory, including an undeciphered script, standardized weights, measures, sanitation and subsistence systems, and settlement planning. The city of Harappa (3300-1300B.C.) sits at the center of this Indus River Valley Civilization. The relatively large skeletal collection from Harappa offers an opportunity to examine biocultural aspects of urban life and its decline in South Asian prehistory. This paper compares evidence for cranial trauma among burial populations at Harappa through time to assess the hypothesis that Indus state formation occurred as a peaceful heterarchy. The prevalence and patterning of cranial injuries, combined with striking differences in mortuary treatment and demography among the three burial areas indicate interpersonal violence in Harappan society was structured along lines of gender and community membership. The results support a relationship at Harappa among urbanization, access to resources, social differentiation, and risk of interpersonal violence. Further, the results contradict the dehumanizing, unrealistic myth of the Indus Civilization as an exceptionally peaceful prehistoric urban civilization.

Fossil clavicle of a middle Pleistocene hominid from the Central Narmada Valley, India.

The discovery of a Middle Pleistocene hominid clavicle is reported here. This discovery is particularly important because clavicles are hitherto unrepresented in the fossil record of Asia. The Narmada clavicle comes from the Boulder Conglomerate horizon at Hathnora near Hoshangabad in the Central Narmada Valley. This is the same deposit that previously yielded the Homo erectus/archaic Homo sapiens partial cranium, which has recently been dated to between 0.2 and 0.7 ma (million years ago). The specimen has some unusual morphology and is a very short and robust bone, far shorter than even the early African Homo erectus clavicles. It is about the size that would be expected in an adult human pygmy. This discovery reopens the debate on the taxonomic position of the Narmada hominid in human ancestry.

Reproductive life of Bhoksa women.

The paper discusses the reproductive life of 111 ever-married Bhoksa women. The mean age at marriage for women of all ages among Bhoksas, like other tribal populations, is high, unlike the caste populations. The mean ages at first birth of the pooled sample and of the completed fertility cases suggest late and early marriages of the older and younger generations. The maximum number of marriages occur between 15 and 19 years and of first births between 16 and 20 years. Percentage of reproductive wastage is high in both the lower and higher age groups. Young mothers with low birth orders and older mothers with high birth orders display a high frequency of reproductive wastage. Evidently, both birth order and the age of the mother have effects on reproductive wastage. Average number of children ever born (including stillbirth but not abortion or miscarriage) per mother of all ages is the highest among Bhoksas of all the studied ethnic groups of India. The Bhoksa, like caste populations, show a high number of children ever born per mother of completed fertility. Quite a high masculinity in the secondary sex ratio, like other mongoloid population is noticed. The contribution of mortality component to the Total Index of Opportunity for Selection is more than that of the fertility component. Bhoksas conform to the general low range of net reproductive index, which is however greater than unity, suggesting that they are in a growth stage.

PIP: This paper discusses the reproductive life of 111 ever-married Bhoksa women. The mean age at marriage for women of all ages among Bhoksas, like other tribal populations, is high, unlike the caste populations. The mean ages at 1st birth of the pooled sample and of the completed fertility cases suggest late and early marriages of the older and younger generations. The maximum number of marriages occur between 15-19 and of 1st births between ages 16-20. The percentage of reproductive wastage is high in both the lower and higher age groups. Young mothers with low birth orders and older mothers with high birth orders display a high frequency of reproductive wastage. Evidently, both birth order and the age of the mother have effects on reproductive wastage. Average number of children ever born (including stillbirth but not abortion or miscarriage)/mother of all ages is the highest among Bhoksas of all the studied ethnic groups of India. The Bhoksa, like caste populations, show a high number of children ever born/mother of completed fertility. Quite a high masculinity in the secondary sex ratio as in other mongoloid populations is noted. The contribution of mortality component to the Total Index of Opportunity for Selection is more than that of the fertility component. Bhoksas conform to the general low range of net reproductive index, which is however greater than unity, suggesting that they are in a growth stage. (author's)

Isonymy in two Punjabi isolates of India.

Inbreeding coefficients and effective migrants for the immigrant Punjabi Khattri and Arora of Delhi were estimated from isonymous marriages by five methods: sigma qm2, sigma qf2, sigma qm qf, sigma qm2+f and sigma Ie (pair). It was found that the method sigma qmqf gives better estimates as expected by the isonymy method -- sigma Ie (Pair). A higher estimate of the random inbreeding coefficient suggests that Arora is more inbred than Khattri. The lesser number of effective migrants observed for Aroras also points to their relatively isolated nature. The two groups however, behave as one broad endogamous-panmictic unit.