Human evolution and culture change in the Indian subcontinent

Abstract

Given the extraordinary discoveries of human fossils in Africa, the fascinating finds of cave art in Western Europe, and the antiquity of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent, one may wonder, why study the South Asian record at all? The simple answer is that South Asia has its own remarkable finds, and an archaeological record that rivals in richness those in better known regions of the world. The more complicated and important reply, however, is that South Asia in addition has a distinctive archaeological record that challenges many of the models and theoretical frameworks that have emerged on the basis of findings made in these other regions. South Asia provides the opportunity to re-evaluate, refine and in some cases revise a number of major conclusions concerning our evolutionary history, including the evolution of human behavior, ‘Out of Africa’ models, the origins of sedentism and domestication, and the emergence of social complexity and urbanization. South Asia is of course not just of interest to archaeologists. It is a land of incredible cultural, linguistic and ethnic diversity, and its contemporary populations have constituted the focus of a wide range of disciplines, including anthropology, linguistics, history, and genetics. In these disciplines too, South Asia has much to offer general theoretical