Anthropological Background of Bangladesh

1. Anthropological Background of Bangladesh Krittebas Paul

2. Major races of Bangladesh • Negrito • Proto - Australoids or Austrics • Mongoloids • Mediterranean or Dravidian • Western Brachycephals • Nordic Aryans

3. Negrito • The Negritos or the Brachycephalic (broad headed) from Africa were the earliest people to have come to this subcontinent. They have survived in their original habitat in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Jarawas, Onges, Sentinelese and the Great Andamanese are some of the examples.

4. Characteristics • Skin colour: chocolate to jet black • Hair: woolly or frizzy • Nose: Fleshy, flat and wide • Ears: Small • Lips: Bulbous • Jaw: Heavy

5. Proto - Australoids or Austrics • Pro-Australoids or AustricsThese groups were the next to come to this subcontinent after the Negritos. They are believed to have arrived in India some 5000 years ago . They are people with wavy hair lavishly distributed all over their brown bodies, long headed with low foreheads and prominent eye ridges, noses with low and broad roots, thick jaws, large palates and teeth and small chins. The Austrics of India represent a race of medium height, dark complexion with long heads and rather flat noses but otherwise of regular features.  

6. The Austrics laid the foundation of Indian civilization. They cultivated rice and vegetables and made sugar from sugarcane. Now these people are found in some parts of India, Myanmar and the islands of South East Asia. Their languages have survived in the Central and Eastern India.

7. Characteristics • Skin colour: Black • Hair: wavy hair • long head • Arms & legs: long and spindly

8. Mediterranean or Dravidian • They have been believed to come before the Aryans. They have different sub-groups like the Paleo-Mediterranean, the true Mediterranean, and the Oriental Mediterranean.  They appear to be people of  the same stock as the peoples of Asia Minor and Crete and pre- Hellenic Aegean's of Greece. They are reputed to have built up the city civilization of the Indus valley, whose remains  have been found at Mohenjo- daro and Harappa and other Indus  cities.  

9. Western Brachycephals These include the Alpinoids, Dinarics and Armenoids. The Parsis and Kodavas also fall in this category. They are the broad headed people living mainly on the western side of the country such as the Ganga Valley and the delta, parts of Kashmir, Kathiawar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. 

10. Nordics or the Indo-Aryans This group were the last one to immigrate to India. They came to India somewhere between 2000 and 1500 B.C. They are now mainly found in the northern and central part of India.

11. Mongoloid Skin colour: Brownish to yellow Hair: Black and straight Nose: Flat These people are found in the North eastern part of India in the states of Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Tripura. They are also found in Northern parts of West Bengal, Sikkim, and Ladakh. Generally they are people with yellow complexion, oblique eyes, high cheekbones, sparse hair and medium height. 

12. Who were the original inhabitants of Bangladesh? • Proto-Australoid or Veddid were the original inhabitants of Bangladesh. • Skin: Black • Nose: Wide • Size of the skull: Long and round • Stature: Short and middle

13. Physical characteristics of the Bengali people • According to Risley, the Bengali people have the following physical characteristics • Skull: round, long • Nose: wide • Stature: middle or short • Skin: black, brownish

14. Outline of Human Racial Classification: • SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA GROUP • I. Capoid or Khoisanid Subspecies of southern Africa • A. Khoid (Hottentot) race • B. Sanid (Bushmen) race • II. Congoid Subspecies of sub-Saharan Africa • A. Central Congoid race (Geographic center and origin in the Congo river basin) • 1. Palaecongoidsubrace (the Congo river basin: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Congo, Angola) • 2. Sudanidsubrace (western Africa: Niger, Mali, Senegal, Guinea) • 3. Nilotidsubrace (southern Sudan; the ancient Nubians were of this subrace) • 4. Kafrid or Bantidsubrace (east and south Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Natal) • B. Bambutid race (African Pygmies) • C. Aethiopid race (Ethiopia, Somalia; hybridized with Caucasoids)

15. "OUT-OF-AFRICA" GROUP • I. Australoid Subspecies • A. Veddoid race (remnant Australoid population in central and southern India) • B. Negritos (remnants in Malaysia and the Philippines) • C. Melanesian race (New Guinea, Papua, Solomon Islands) • D. Australian-Tasmanian race (Australian Aborigines) • II. Mongoloid Subspecies • A. Northern Mongoloid racial group • 1. Northeast Asian race (various subraces in northern China, Manchuria, Korea and Japan) • 2. Ainuid race (remnants of aboriginal population in northern Japan) • 3. Tungid race (Mongolia and Siberia, Eskimos) • 4. Amerindian race (American Indians; various subraces) • B. Southern Mongoloid racial group • 1. Southeast Asian race (various subraces in southern China, Indochina, Thailand, Myanmar [Burma], Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, the last four partly hybridized with Australoids) • 2. Micronesian-Polynesian race (predominantly Southern Mongoloid partly hybridized with Australoids)

16. III. Caucasoid or Europid Subspecies • A. Dravidic race (India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka [Ceylon]; ancient stabilized Indic-Veddoid [Australoid] blend) • B. Turanid race (partially hybridized with Mongoloids; predominant element in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan; common in Hungary and Turkey) • C. Indic or Nordindid race (Pakistan and northern India) • D. Irano-Afghan race (predominant in Iran and Afghanistan, primary element in Iraq, common [25%] in Turkey) • E. Armenid race (predominant element in Armenia and Azerbaijan, common in Syria, Lebanon and northern Iraq, primary element among the Ashkenazic Jews) • F. Mediterranid racial group • G. Ladogan race (named after Lake Ladoga; indigenous to Russia; includes Lappish subrace of arctic Europe) • H. Dinaric race (predominant in western Balkans [Dinaric Mountains] and northern Italy, important in the Czech Republic, eastern and southern Switzerland, western Austria and eastern Ukraine. Its distribution in Europe, and that of its derived Dinaricized Mediterranean type, may be associated with the expansion of the Neolithic Anatolian farmers beginning circa 6,500 B.C.) • I. Alpine race (predominant element in Luxembourg, primary in Bavaria and the Czech Republic [Bohemia], important in France, Hungary, eastern and southern Switzerland) • J. Nordish or Northern European racial group(various subraces in the British Isles, Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Belgium; predominant element in Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Finland and the Baltic States; majority in Austria and Russia; important in France, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary; outlined in detail in The Nordish Race)

17. F. Mediterranid racial group • 1. Orientalid or Arabidsubrace (predominant in Arabia, major element from Egypt to Syria, primary in northern Sudan, important in Iraq, predominant element among the Oriental Jews) • 2. South Mediterranean or Saharidsubrace (predominant in Algeria and Libya, important in Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt, primary element among the Sephardic Jews, common element [circa 20-25%] in Spain, Sicily and southern Italy, minor element [circa 5%] in Greece) • 3. East Mediterranean or Pontidsubrace (Black Sea coast of Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria; Aegean coasts of Greece and Turkey) • 4. DinaricizedMediterraneans (Residual mixed types resulting from the blending of Mediterranids with Dinarics, Alpines or Armenids; not a unified type, has much regional variation; predominant element [over 60%] in Sicily and southern Italy, principal element in Turkey [35%], important element in western Syria, Lebanon and central Italy, common in northern Italy. The ancient Cappadocian Mediterranean subrace of Anatolia was dinaricized perhaps as early as the Neolitihic and is a major contributor to this type in modern Turkey.) • 5. West Mediterranean or Iberidsubrace (Spain, Portugal, Corsica, Sardinia, and coastal areas of Morocco and Tunisia; the Atlanto-Mediterranean peoples who expanded over much of the Atlantic coastal regions of Europe during the Mesolithic period were a branch of this subrace)

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