Morrison, Kathleen D.

English

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BOOK REVIEWS 489Prehistory and Archaeology of Northeast India: Multidisciplinary Investigation in anArchaeological Terra Incognita. Manjil Hazarika. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2017.378 pp., 2 maps, 17 figures. Hardcover US $35, ISBN 9780199474660.Reviewed by Kathleen D. MORRISON, Department of Anthropology,Penn Museum, University of PennsylvaniaThe subtitle of Prehistory and Archaeology ofNortheast India refers to northeast India as anarchaeological terra incognita; this is certainlyno exaggeration. This volume is thus animportant contribution to the history andarchaeology of this fascinating yet under-studied region. The northeast is here definedas including the Indian states of ArunachalPradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya,Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura, a vast areabordered by Bangladesh, Bhutan, China,Nepal, and Myanmar. Almost completelyoverlooked by archaeologists, this region is acritical border zone between what is tradi-tionally defined as South Asia and SoutheastAsia. Its complex history reflects this inter-stitial location; one hopes that this volume isjust the first of many archaeological studies ofthis key region.The book covers a lot of ground in its effortto compile existing information about thearchaeology and historical linguistics of thenortheast and present new archaeologicalsurvey data from the Garbhanga ReserveForest in the state of Assam, along withethnographic observations of the Karbi, localswidden agriculturalists. In its wide range oftopics, the volume reminds one of gazetteers,regionally-specific summaries covering topicsfrom history to household composition.Produced throughout the colonial periodand even beyond, gazetteers provided author-itative summaries of official knowledge forgeneral use. Hazarika’s work, a revision of hisBern University PhD thesis, has something ofthis feel—a wide-ranging guide to theethnography, historical linguistics, andarchaeology of the northeast.Of necessity, the goal of the work isprimarily descriptive, asking questions aboutprehistoric cultural identity, territories, andchange through time. Hazarika adopts amultifaceted approach, combining evidencefrom linguistics, archaeology, and ethnogra-phy to try and fill out a picture of localprehistory. Natural conditions have madearchaeological fieldwork difficult in this area,with frequent floods, alluvial deposition by theBrahmaputra river, rain, and heavy vegetationcover posing logistical challenges. Chapters 1and 2 introduce the work and present generalbackground. Chapter 3 is entirely devoted to areviewof the linguistic groups of the region andtheir probable patterns of change through time.While linguistic patterns doubtless hold muchhistorical information, the author is not in aposition to draw firm connections between thismaterial and the archaeological data, leavingthis chapter hanging somewhat awkwardly.Chapter 4 is a very useful synthesis ofprevious archaeological research in the north-east. There is, as noted, not a great deal ofprior work, but this chapter does a good job ofbringing what does exist together. In thischapter, the tables with lists of sites, their timeperiods, and basic artifact inventories areespecially helpful, though it would have beeneven better if locational information had alsobeen included. In many ways, this chapter isthe heart of the volume. Not only does itprovide a summary of existing work, butthe tables also highlight similarities anddifferences between sites in terms of theirrecovered botanical material and artifactinventories.Chapter 5 presents new data fromHazarika’s archaeological reconnaissance ofthe Garbhanga Reserve Forest in the state ofAssam. He describes four sites, although onlythe site of Bargaon gets more than a paragraphof text. Bargaon contains redware ceramics,chipped and groundstone tools (includingcelts), iron artifacts, and megaliths. Althoughthe surface was cleared, the site does not seemto have been excavated and so does not have asecure date. Many of the recovered remains,including a large number of bovine teeth,were collected by the local Karbi villagers,who the author views as an importantanalogue for past residents. Indeed, most of490 ASIAN PERSPECTIVES • 2020 • 59(2)chapter 5 is devoted to a description of Karbifarming and life ways. This material, alsogathered by the author, is in many ways theprimary novel contribution of the work.In chapter 6, Hazarika makes a case for thein situ domestication of rice and other plantand animal domesticates in northeast India,based primarily on northeast India’s inclusionwithin a Vavilovian center of diversity.Unfortunately, there are no archaeologicaldata to support this, no surprise given thenascent state of research in the region. Still,this chapter provides some interesting ethno-graphic information and one hopes that amore thorough evaluation of botanical historywill someday be possible. Although the threelines of evidence—linguistic, archaeological,and ethnographic—do not really align theway Hazarika might have hoped, this volumeis still a valuable contribution to what onehopes will soon be a growing literature on theprehistory of northeast India.Stone Beads of South and Southeast Asia: Archaeology, Ethnography, and Global Connections.Edited by Alok Kumar Kanungo. New Delhi: Aryan Books International, 2017. 459pp., 250 color and 16 b&w illustrations. Hardbound US $90, ISBN-13 978-8173055850.Reviewed by Heidi MUNAN, Hon. Curator of Beads, Sarawak MuseumThe volume entitled Stone Beads of South andSoutheast Asia is a compendium of paperspresented at a workshop on the history,science, and technology of stone beads at theUniversity of Gandhinagar in August 2015.The event drew together scholars and expertsfrom all over India and other countries andprovided a unique learning experience for thestudents who were invited to attend.Now that the results and findings of thisworkshop are available in one printed volume,scholars and researchers all over the world canalso access the information. As the editor,Alok Kanungo, puts it in the Preface, “mostestablished scholars prefer to write about theresult of their research in highly specializedJournals which reach only a few libraries,whereas this subject has an unwritten mandateto create awareness among the people abouttheir rich cultural heritage thus requiring ourpublications to reach as many enthusiasts aspossible” (pp. ix–x). This is a most importantpoint. Information should not only becollected, but made available in permanentform to the widest possible audience. Sucharchaeological, ethnographic, and scientificresearch as has been done on the topic of stonebeads (or any beads!) has been scattered indiverse publications, manyof them long out ofprint and almost impossible to find.Stone Beads of South and Southeast Asia isdivided into four thematic sections, the first ofwhich concerns the “Importance and Litera-ture” of beads. One of the great merits of thisbook is that it collects old and ancient sources,which are digested and used as a basis forpresenting modern discoveries. Some of thesesources are not just hard to find, they are onlyaccessible to scholars such as Kishor K. Basa,R. S. Bisht, and V. Selvakumar, each of whomis an expert in his field and has deepknowledge of the scripts and symbols of pastcultures.The second section on “History, Metho-dology and Ethnoarchaeology” opens with apaper by Ravi Prasad, V. N. Prabhakar, andVikrant Jain. Somemajor contributions in thissection are by M. J. Kennoyer, the eminentarchaeologist who has devoted over fourdecades to investigating the ancient technol-ogy of India, particularly that of the Harappancivilization. Kennoyer also contributed to apaper by Kuldeep K. Bhan and MassimoVidale in this volume. Alok Kanungo docu-ments an ethnohistorical research project inthe Gujarat region. The paper by Manabu

Prehistory and Archaeology of Northeast India: Multidisciplinary Investigation in an
Archaeological Terra Incognita. Manjil Hazarika. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2017.
378 pp., 2 maps, 17 figures. Hardcover US $35, ISBN 9780199474660.

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Prehistory and Archaeology of Northeast India: Multidisciplinary Investigation in an Archaeological Terra Incognita. Manjil Hazarika. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2017. 378 pp., 2 maps, 17 figures. Hardcover US $35, ISBN 9780199474660.

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