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Racial amity through anthropology
Spolia Zeylanica Volume 39, bulletin of the National Museums Department of Sri Lanka. Edited by the Director, National Museums Department, Dr. Nanda
Wickramasinghe. Reviewed by Dr. S.U. Deraniyagala, former Director-General of Archaeology

It has been many years since Spolia Zeylanica was last published. Volume 39 is a timely addition to this prestigious series of scholarly publications. It comprises two articles of considerable scientific and cultural importance by D.Hawkey, Associate Professor of Physical Anthropology, Arizona State University, U.S.A. and S.Kiribamune, former Professor of History, University of Peradeniya.

Physical anthropology
'The Peopling of South Asia: Evidence for Affinities and Microevolution of Prehistoric Populations of India and Sri Lanka' by Hawkey (pp. iii-300) is a monograph-length study on the physical anthropology of South Asia.Its distinctive feature is the state-of-the-art methodology employed. This work is structured with clarity, in accordance with strict norms of scientific writing. At a more specific level, the author’s use of dental morphological traits (tooth characteristics) to assess genetic affinities/distance between populations is a new tool used in the field of South Asian physical anthropology.

These traits are considered to be genetically inherited, exhibit little environmental influence, are evolutionarily conservative and lack differentiation between the sexes (p. 1). Dental traits are currently the preferred source of evidence for population affinity assessment due to their strong genetic component (pp. 28-36). It is noteworthy that recent attempts at mitochondrial DNA investigations with a similar objective for Indian and Sri Lankan pre-historic populations have been unsuccessful (p. 28)--which leaves dental traits as the most appropriate technique for this purpose.

Pre-historic humans
Hawkey's comparative analyses cover a wide range in time and space (pp. 37-62): from approximately 40,000 BC up to modern times; with a focus on Sri Lanka and the Indian sub-continent, spreading farther afield into Afghanistan, the Andaman Islands, the Nicobar Islands and Myanmar and yet farther into Southeast Asia, Melanesia, Australia, East Asia and the Americas on the one hand and West Asia, Europe and Africa on the other. The coverage is almost global. The Sri Lankan material (35,000-3400 BC) stems from prehistoric humans excavated from Fa Hien-lena, Batadomba-lena, Kitulgala Beli-lena and Bellan-bandi Palassa; the protohistoric Iron Age material (estimated 1000-500 BC) from the Megalithic cemetery at Pomparippu; and recent Vadda, Tamil and Sinhalese skeletal remains from the Bintenne, the south and the north of the island respectively.

The data from Sri Lanka are fundamental to many of the hypotheses propounded. Amongst the salient points to have been addressed are:

1. The affinities between South Asian populations vis-à-vis those outside South Asia (pp. 119,183).

2. The place of Sri Lanka's prehistoric anatomically modern human, popularly referred to as Balangoda Man, in the context of the earliest modern humans in South and Southeast Asia and south-eastern Europe (pp. 82,110,119,126).

3. The probability of modern humans originating in South/Southeast Asia, as against Africa (Out of Africa theory) which is the prevalent view at present. The Sri Lankan material plays a significant role in the former hypothesis (pp. 183,190-1).

4. The affinities between Balangoda Man and recent Melanesians and Australian Aborigines (p. 191).

5. The affinities of Balangoda Man to his contemporaries in India (p. 192).

6. The affinities of Balangoda Man to the Vaddas, Sinhalese and Tamils (pp. 88-92).

7. The affinities of the Vaddas, Sinhalese and Tamils to the tribal populations of South Asia (pp. 91-2).

8. The affinities of populations of the Indus (Mohenjodaro/Harappa) Civilisation and the peninsular Indian Bronze Age to the Sinhalese and Tamils, and to the tribal groups of southern and eastern India (pp. 136,144,155,193).

9. The affinities of the protohistoric Iron Age (Megalithic) humans from Pomparippu to Balangoda Man, the Sinhalese and Tamils (pp. 166,168,182). Fresh insights

The discussions relating to these points are absorbing. The resultant hypotheses are often radical departures from expectations as in the cases of the affinities between the Sinhalese and the Indu civilisation peoples, and the Sinhalese and the Pomparippu Megalithic population, respectively. But their scientific basis forces one to rethink the accepted wisdom on the origins and genetic affinities of ancient and present-day populations in Sri Lanka, India and farther afield (eg, Melanesia, Australia). Hawkey's work is pioneering. It brings fresh insights into a sensitive field of investigation which is often clouded with scholarly prejudice; and these hypotheses can only be contested on the basis of comparable unbiased scientific investigations. Accordingly, studies conducted on a larger sample of skeletal material in combination with mtDNA, Y-chromosome DNA, and Gm and HLA blood systems could, according to Hawkey (p. 196), modify these hypotheses. Until then, this publication will constitute a working document which is on the cutting edge of bio-historical research in Sri Lanka, India and the rest of South Asia.

Linguistic barriers
'Tamils in Ancient and Medieval Sri Lanka: the Historical Roots of Ethnic Identity' by S. Kiribamune (pp. 301-15) constitutes the second article in this publication. Once again, it is distinctive in its clarity and its objective is stated thus (p. 301): 'The current ethnic problems of Sri Lanka form the backdrop to this paper. The present tension lies between the majority Sinhalese who speak an Indo-Aryan tongue and the Tamils who use a Dravidian language. The two groups claim distinct racial antecedents....Interested parties on both sides of the conflict have tried to use the past to legitimise different standpoints. It is the responsibility of the historian to set the record straight....'

The treatment of the subject is based on historical evidence (written sources). It comprises the sub-headings titled: perceptions of the early Pali chronicles; prospects and problems of assimilation (7th-11th centuries); and the growth of separate identities (12th-15th centuries) leading up to modern times. The result is a concise account, which is non-polemical and accurate. It is a ready reference to a topic which is of more than passing interest to the general public of Sri Lanka.

Multi-disciplines
The two articles reviewed above approach the subject of the origins and transformations of populations/cultures through two very different disciplines, physical anthropology and history. However, this undertaking must perforce be multi-disciplinary, with archaeology playing an equally important role, supported by ecological, social anthropological and linguistic studies. Such a holistic methodology will forestall any criticisms that might arise from perceived limitations of any one approach such as that of the historian who is often bedevilled by bias in the written sources themselves. Hawkey comments, very aptly (p. 35): 'just as it takes several well-chosen tools to construct an intrinsically sound item, so does it take a variety of independent criteria to construct an empirically sound evolutionary model'.

It is evident that while the this volume of Spolia Zeylanica sets out evidence of great significance and relevance in terms of the physical anthropological and historical data, the archaeological, ecological, social anthropological and linguistic evidence has to be sought elsewhere. The archaeological and ecological aspects have been covered for the prehistoric period in yet another working document titled 'The Prehistory of Sri Lanka: an Ecological Perspective' published by the Archaeological Department (1992; 815 pages; with revisions in web site http://www.the-prehistory-of-sri-lanka.de). This is concerned primarily with the island's Stone Age, from over 100,000 BC up to approximately 1000 BC.

Iron age
The succeeding protohistoric Iron Age (1000-500 BC) has been only touched upon in the above-mentioned work due to the lack of empirical data. A large-scale excavation is at present being conducted in the Citadel of Anuradhapura, which has evidence of an Iron Age settlement from 900 BC onwards, as a part of a systematic programme to fill this lacuna. Provided that the requisite resources in funding and, above all, adequately skilled personnel would be available, this project should yield very informative results concerning the protohistoric Iron Age and its transition into the Early Historic period at around 500 BC, which would complement the physical anthropological and historical evidence.

Linguistic data
As for the social anthropological data, lots have been retrieved and worked on. But they are required to be integrated with the archaeological and historical evidence so as to enhance the interpretative scope of the latter-as has been done so successfully in, for instance, the Americas. With regard to linguistics, there has been a dearth of focussed research into Sinhala Prakrit and its affinities to other Prakrits and Tamil. An incisive research programme could result in the formulation of a linguistic chronology (glotto-chronology) for the region, which could be fitted into the physical anthropological, archaeological and historical data sets.

Untapped data
The larger research design pertaining to the evolution of Sri Lankan populations and their culture needs to maintain an acute awareness that two independent variables have been operating: genetic (inherited traits), which is addressed by physical anthropology, and cultural (learned behaviour), which is covered by archaeology, history, social anthropology and linguistics- all of which are subsumed within the macro-discipline of 'anthropology'.

Concepts based on one of these two variables, of genetic vis ( vis cultural traits, are often misappropriated by the other, as in the case of the classic mistransfer of Aryan/Dravidian cultural (linguistic) traits into the realm of genetic traits.

Once a seamless continuum between the sub-disciplines relating to anthropology, the study of man as enunciated in the present review, has been achieved, it would be possible to formulate hypotheses regarding our origins that receive wide acceptance, in place of the haphazard ones that have tended to prevail all too often. It is suggested here that physical anthropology takes the lead, with a mapping of the genetic make up of Sri Lanka's present populations and relating them to past groups, as has been pioneered by Hawkey. Lots of surprises could yet be in store. Archaeology with its vast reservoir of untapped data, as in the Citadel of Anuradhapura, would serve to complement this lead.

Accessibility
It is incumbent upon those who plan for the betterment of Sri Lanka, the 'Planners' at the highest level, to take note of what has been stated here concerning the significance of anthropology, in its widest sense, in promoting harmony within a multi-ethnic state. It is no longer a fringe discipline that is the playground of a leisured elite, measuring noses in remote rainforests and digging sites in romantic surroundings. Anthropology provides the means by which we recognise who we are and what our origins were. The advancement of such awareness, primarily through research and capacity building, and its dissemination, constitute a core element in the development of any nation. In Sri Lanka, it deserves the status of a national priority. Spolia Zeylanica volume 39 should be in every learning-orientated library in Sri Lanka, be it public or private. One hopes that reviews in recognised journals will bring it to the attention of international scholarship.

The present Director of the National Museums Department must be congratulated for her foresight in publishing the contents of this volume. It will serve as a milestone in healing the wounds that we have inflicted upon ourselves, invariably due to a non-understanding of who we are.

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