All India Anthropometric Survey South Zone Karnataka State: Analysis of Data (An Old and Rare Book)

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Shri S. H. Ahmad and his colleagues have already published the All India Anthropometric Survey: South Zone: Basic Data (1988) and All India Anthropometric Survey: South Zone: Andhra Pradesh: Analysis of Data (1989). I am once again happy to write the Foreword to the companion volume on the analysis of data from Karnataka State in the comparative perspective of the four southern states.
The All India Anthropometric Survey: South Zone was undertaken with the objective of generating comparable anthropometric data from the four southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu on the biological structure and ethnic composition of the populations in each state. Efforts were made to study the inter-relationship of all major groups.
The present study is based on 13 anthropometric measurements of 3653 individuals belonging to 31 groups comprising 9 scheduled tribes, 4 scheduled castes, a Muslim community and the remaining 17 caste groups. The data were systematically collected from 19 districts of Karnataka State (1961 Census) which was divided into 5 cultural zones (sectors) for an understanding of intra-group variability.
This volume is the second in the series of state volumes (Andhra Pradesh volume being the first among the series). The description is based on the analysis of morphometric affinities among the people of five cultural zones of Karnataka State, and the degree and pattern of morphological differences among various ethnic groups. No attempt is made to resolve the physical types into racial typologies identified by earlier anthropologists on the basis of ethnic strains in the populations.
The detailed analysis of the data suggests that in terms of classical morphological categorisation the populations of Karnataka are not radically different from one another. On an average they are short to medium in stature. The occupational and agricultural castes are below medium and the high ranking groups have medium stature. The Kodaga and the Bunt have the distinction of being the tallest, not only in the State but also in the whole of peninsular India.

The Anthropological Survey of India which was formally started in 1945 has grown over time specially after independence through various plan periods starting from the 1st to 7th Five-Year Plans. With a very small beginning, the Survey has grown into the largest institution for anthropological researches in the world. The main thrust of the survey established by the Government of India is to act as a specialised organisation for advanced scientific research in anthropology. Initially the emphasis was laid on the collection of complete scientific information about the people of India for the use of researchers, planners and administrators. More attention was paid towards the study of and other smaller groups which had anthropological significance. In the course of time the pattern of field research generally shifted from composite inter-disciplinary teams to specialised intensive research in tribal ethnography and on problems of culture change. The activities of the survey covered many other aspects among different castes and communities. The period 1959 and onwards was marked by a new orientation of the research activities of the organisation where emphasis was given towards the collection of complete scientific information as well as its applied aspects which have contemporary relevance and national significance. Under the impact of these developments the Survey rescheduled its research programmes and the emphasis was laid to carry out comparative studies on an all India level.

The need for exact measurements of the body to supplement the literal description of bodily size and shape was felt in the early nineteenth century. Physical anthropologists concentrated on the study of man with an aim of accurate and systematic description of human types. They were interested in the description, classification and comparison of human populations all over the world. Physical anthropology as a sub-discipline became synonymous with anthropometry and anthroposcopy and scientists utilized these tools to understand the nature and course of human evolution with an inter-disciplinary approach. The rise and growth of knowledge in prehistoric archaeology, ethnology and biometrics gave a great impetus to physical anthropologists to draw meaningful substantial data and for its proper analysis and interpretation with corroborative analogy and evidence from other disciplines.
The science of anthropometry which has developed into its present form is being used by scholars for the body measurements and the description of various external physical characters of the body. Large number of such studies revealed that the quantitative characters such as anthropometrics are sometimes more useful in the study of populations since they represent a large part of genome and show slow rate of evolutionary changes; while some have argued that polygenic traits, such as anthropometrics and single locus traits respond to drift and gene flow in essentially the same way (Howells 1973, Morton ann Lalouel 1973). However, few scholars have stated that these two classes of traits are affected in a different way by evolutionary forces (Workman and Niswander 1970, Spielman 1973, Rothhammer et al 1977, Froelich and Giles 1981). Hanna (1981) advocated that metric traits respond to gene flow more slowly and are advantageous when studying long term migration patterns. However, model bound studies based on the quantitative data to account and predict for the variation in the population structure and gene-genotype distribution is not accurately possible. Measures of biological similarity can be used to assess phenotypic similarity keeping a reserve about the possible causes (Howells 1973). The assessment of affinities among the populations in terms of their morphological similarities can be viewed from ethno-historical angles to derive meaningful representation of bio-dynamic activities in the region.