SESSION 24

Living Cultures: Continuity of Cultural Traits From Prehistoric Past to Present

Anjana Sarmah1, Rhayan Gatbonton Melendres2, Debasis Kumar Mondal3 

1Nandalal Borgohain City College

2University of the Philippines

3Department of Anthropology, University of Calcutta

Anthropology is the study of humanity from prehistoric past to the present. The sub-discipline of archaeological anthropology attempts to reconstruct prehistoric lifeways through the interpretation of material cultural and biological remains that survive the tests of time on archaeological sites. Similarities are often observed in the material culture recovered from the prehistoric past and those studied in the ethnographic present. For example, technological and/or functional resemblances can be found in stone implements recorded in both the past and present, and similarities are exhibited in the modes of production of the oldest Neolithic ceramics and those being manufactured in traditional ways today. There is often a potential correlation between what is identified in the archaeological record, and the social and ideological behaviours observed in living communities, and well-informed analogous interpretive frameworks may aid in developing a more nuanced understanding of the lifeways of prehistoric populations. Nevertheless, more well-designed diachronic approaches to these lines of research are needed to understand the temporal continuity that we observe contemporaneous societies. This session seeks ethnographic studies of contemporary societies with the aim of developing new and exciting insights into the human past such as the origins and development of technologies, behaviour, and ideologies.

BLOCK 1

BLOCK 2

BLOCK 3

S24-14

Continuation of the Potter’s Craft in Chandraketugarh, North 24 Parganas District of West Bengal

Debjani Mahato & Debasis Kumar Mondal

Questions and Discussion