SOME NEGLECTED FIELDS OF BY J. A. SALDANHA, Esq., B.A., LL.B. (Read on 25th April 1923.) The scope and history of the science of Anthropology and the various fields it might cover have been set forth in their addresses by several of the distinguished presidents of this Society in the past, notably the late Mr. Edwards Tyrell, the founder of this Society, Sir Denzil Ibbetson. Dr. Gerson Da Cunha and Dr. Jivanji Modi. In these notes I shall merely draw your attention to some of the fields of research neglected by this Society or other kindred institutions in India and suggest what steps may be taken for extending and improving Indian anthropological research work. Firstly in defining the scope of the science we ought to take into account not only the evolutionary, but the revolutionary and retrogressive processes and stationary stages in the growth of man in his individuality, family, tribe, race or species. As in modern times, there must have been great changes effected in ages of antiquity by prophets and heroes like Buddha and Alexander the Great, revolutions like the French Revolution, races degenerating physically and mentally like the Indians in North America. Besides if the physical and intellectual calibre of ancient mankind was so great as to produce the glories like those of the pyramids, palaces and with the wealth of industries and arts that modern civilization cannot surpass, we might safely conclude that the glowing pictures of the culture of progress of ancient India with even airships given in the Ramayana and Mahabharat are not altogether figments of the imagination. tombs in Egypt Besides as to the conception of the deity-as our Omnipotent Creator and All-Father of Heaven, if we take into account what appear to be survivals among many savage tribes of Australia, India, Africa and America, of ancient beliefs, I am inclined to agree with the conclusions of Andrew Lang in his "The Making of Religion," that animism and idolatry are growths in the processes of degeneracy in several races. Is there not then much more worthy of attention and study than accorded thereto by modern savants in the assumption in the Hindu puranas and the ancient scriptures of the Jews and Persians and other peoples of the predominance of the angelic spiritual forces in human beings of the remote antiquity. The primitive man savage, uncultured, undressed, as he was, is found by modern discoveries of drawings, structures, implements, sculptures in his caves to have been a genius in his own way intellectually as well as a giant physically, though he had not the materials, amenities and facilities of the modern times. We have in India the savage and primitive peoples in the jungles and forests, and the numerous monuments and implements found in so many places, and the results of archæologists for study that must throw light on the evolutionary or degenerate processes of the physical and cultural development of the tribes and races in India. In this direction we might look forward to Mr. Carter who has made a large and valuable collection of flint and other implements and has made a special study of Indian archæology as well as Indian traditions to give us the benefit of his researches and studies. The Ghandi cap and Khaddar and Charka movements must lead our thoughts to the evolution of the various forms of dresses and pagdies and caps and foot wear in India from antiquity, and the ways and means-and the spinning wheel and looms, &c., used for their production. It is feared by many that this movement must check the progress of India at least in respect to cloth production and fashion of dress. On the other hand it is contended that it must ultimately result in a substantial national progress. We need concern ourselves not with the future but with the past in the light of archæology, |