All India Anthropometric Survey South Zone Tamil Nadu: Analysis of Data (An old and Rare Book and Pin Holed)

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The present work is the third in the series of the volumes brought out by Anthropological Survey of India, based on anthropometric survey conducted in the four southern states (1961-63) Anthropometric data on 13 measurements were collected from 23 communities from all parts of Tamil Nadu. Various statistical techniques were applied to generate the morphometric profile of the state's populations, and the pattern of their spatial and social variations in physical features across the state. This study indicates that the people of Tamil Nadu, on an average, are bela medium statured mesocephalic individuals of higher head height, and show a broader upper face, a high forehead and often have a short and moderately broad nasal profile A comparative assessment of the average morphometric features of Tamil Nadu with that of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka suggests similar levels of stature in all three areas, In head shape characteristics, Tamil Nadu resemble Kamataka, in having a relatively higher proportion of meso and brachy cephalic individuals than An- dhra Pradesh Tamil Nadu groups however present a distinctly shorter upper face and thus exhibit a characteristically long chin and short nose and differ from both Andhra and Karnataka in this respect. Similar to the anthropometric studies conducted by Malhotra et al. (1981) on the Tamil Nadu communities, the present study also examplifies the clustering of highranking non-brahmins on one side and the "low" caste groups on the other hand. The two Muslim communities are found to be closer to the former segment but not so close as was found in Andhra Pradesh study. This suggests that they might be later immigrants to Tamil Nadu. Most of the groups, including the Muslim groups, record their average physical features within a compact range. Two tribal groups Bagada and Irula In the Nilgiris and Karunigar living on borders with Andhra Pradesh seem to form discrete groups with greater biological distances from the rest of the Tamil Nadu communities. They appear to be somewhat ethnically distinct. The Brahmin also show these characterstics but are closet morphologically to Andhra populations seen in the context of broader physical types in this region as a whole.

The Anthropological Survey of India since its inception in December 1945, was recognized as a specialized organisation of the Government of India for advanced scientific research in the field of anthropology. With a very small beginning the survey has grown over time specially after independence through various place periods starting from the First to Seven Year Plans The Survey has been engaged initially towards the studies of populations from both biological as well as cultural point of view. Earlier the emphasis was on tribal and other smaller groups of anthropological importance but gradually the activities of sur vey covered many other aspects among different castes, communities and tribal populations of the country The period 1959 and cowards was marked by a new orientation of the re- search activities of the organization where the 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 the research programmes and the emphasis was laid to carry out comparative studies on all India level which may be useful for the researchers planners and administrators,
la June 1961 summer school in anthropology was held at Kodoikanal, a hill station in Madural district of Tamil Nadu (then Madras State). This school was sponsored by anthropological Survey of India and organised by the southem regional Office, then located at Gotacamund, the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu, Many well known anthropologists from all over the country took part in the deliberations. In the course of discussions the topic 'Ethnic composition of Indian People' drew the attention of the prticipants. The scholars exchanged their views which helped in drawing useful conclusions. It was suggested that since there were controversies on the out come of the earlier studies based on large scale anthropometric surveys on all India basis carried out by Risly (1915) and Guha (1935), another more intensive anthropometric survey may be conducted on all India basis to find out the morphological variation among the people of India, which would help ultimately in classifying the Indian population into different physical types. Taking the cue from here Prof. N. K. Bose, F. N.L (1961) the then Director, Anthropological Survey of India chalked out a plan to conduct an "All India Anthropometric Survey" covering all the states and measuring representative samples of most of the castes, communities and tribes of India.

Anthropometry is concerned with the measurements of the human body. It is a known fact that no two persons are ever alike in all their measurable characters and they undergo changes in varying degrees from birth to death. It has also been observed that members of different ethnic groups and the off springs of unions between them, frequently present differences in bodily form and proportions. It was thus thought desirable to have some means of quantitative expression to the variations which such traits exhibit The need for exact measurements of the body to supplement the literal description of body size and shape was felt in the early nineteenth century. Physical anthropologists concentrated in the study of human being with an aim of accurate and systematic description of human types. They were interested also 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 utilised these tools to understand the nature and course of human evolution with an inter-disciplinary approach. The rise and growth of knowledge in pre-historic archaeology ethnology and biometrics gave a great Impetus to physical anthropologists to draw meaningful substantial data 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 the 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 re- present a large part of genome and show slow rate of evolutionary charges, 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 and Lalouel 1973). However, few scholars have stated that these two classes of traits are affected in a different way by evolutionary process (Workman and Niswander 1970, Spielman 1973, Rothammer 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 a demarcated area.