Non-human genetics, agricultural origins and historical linguistics in South Asia

Fuller, Dorian Q.

essay

Non-human genetics, agricultural origins and historical linguistics in South Asia

evolution and history of human populations in south asia: inter-disciplinary studies in archaeology, biological anthropology, linguistics and genetics • Dordrecht • Published In 2007 • Pages: 393-443

By: Fuller, Dorian Q..

Abstract
The author explores the origins of domestication—including the distributions of wild species of plants and animals found throughout South Asia, but mainly in India and Pakistan—as a means of examining agricultural dispersals, human migrations, and language shifts. It is possible that particular varieties of indigenous flora and fauna were more-or-less independently domesticated in a number of regions of the subcontinent. Word lists for many species of plants and some species of animals in Proto-Dravidian, Proto-Munda, Para-Munda, Indo-Aryan, and Language X are provided. For the purposes of this collection, materials from this wide-ranging study pertaining to the Early Indus through Vedic traditions are considered relevant, with content outside these traditions treated as "Comparative Evidence" and/or "Historical Reconstruction."

Theoretical orientation in research and its results

Vocabulary

Historical reconstruction

Acculturation and culture contact