Santali People

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Santal (also spelled as Santhal (formerly also spelt as Sontal or Sonthal)), are the largest tribal community in India, who live mainly in the states of Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, and Assam. There is also a significant Santal minority in neighboring Bangladesh, and a small population in Nepal. The santals belong to the Proto-Australoid group, and may have arrived in India soon after the Negritos. The name is given because of the similarity of racial type with Australian tribes. There is no precise information as to when this race first came into India. It is found among the prehistoric skulls in the Tinnevelly district, and from references in early Sanskrit literature to \'Nishads\', where they are described as noseless (anash) with dark skin colour and peculiar speech and habits, there can be no doubt that the Proto-Australoid tribes were meant. The Santals are short in stature, and among them the broad flat nose with a sunken nose ridge is fairly common. They frequently have wavy hair;sometimes it is curly, though it is never frizzy. They share all these characteristics with other primitive tribes in the same group. To the Proto-Australoid races may perhaps be attributed a largest share of totemistic rites, exorcism, food taboos, and magical belief still obtaining in Indian life. The ban on commensality and intermarriage which forms the basis of the caste system must also owe its origin to them. It is impossible to dogmatize on these subjects when one remembers how widespread each of the above factors is among primitive cultures in various parts of the world. The tribal structure of the Santals is totemistic and the clans are patrilinear, as among the other tribes of Central India. Many of the taboos and customs which have grown up round life\'s crises, many features in the tribal ritual, their attitude towards disease and towards the supranatural world, are fundamentally similar throughout these tribes. Dannoe izdanie predstavlyaet soboj kompilyatsiyu svedenij, nahodyaschihsya v svobodnom dostupe v srede Internet v tselom, i v informatsionnom setevom resurse "Vikipediya" v chastnosti. Sobrannaya po chastotnym zaprosam ukazannoj tematiki, dannaya kompilyatsiya postroena po printsipu podbora blizkih informatsionnyh ssylok, ne imeet samostoyatelnogo syuzheta, ne soderzhit nikakih analiticheskih materialov, vyvodov, otsenok moralnogo, eticheskogo, politicheskogo, religioznogo i mirovozzrencheskogo haraktera v otnoshenii glavnoj tematiki, predstavlyaya soboj isklyuchitelno faktologicheskij material. This book was created using print-on-demand technology.