Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
conjunction of the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka. We encoun-
tered this plateau, which lies to the east of Mudumalai National Park, in the
introduction to this topic. The top of the plateau is a refuge for ancient tribes
such as the Bagada, Toda, Kuruba, and others, who have retreated there from
the coasts.
At Mudumalai's research station I met some of the rangers who watch
over the plot and who belong to the Kuruba aboriginal tribal group. These
intelligent and enthusiastic workers are excited about being given the respon-
sibility of overseeing a large scientifi c project.
The Kuruba are known across southern India for their cross-dressing fes-
tivals in which men dress up as women and make raucous fun of any upper
caste people who pass by. They are more acculturated than the shy Toda,
who live higher in the hills and have been reduced in numbers to only about
1,400. The cattle-herding Toda live in tiny thatched houses that look like
miniature Quonset huts. The women, unlike the women of any other tribal
group in the area, take several husbands.
So much cultural mixing has taken place in this part of India that it is
impossible to discern which traditions go back the furthest. Luckily for our
understanding of their history, these tribes and other South Indian groups
still carry a few copies of some of the non-African world's most ancient
types of mitochondrial DNA. Some branches of their mitochondrial family
tree stretch back to the time of the Great Migration. 8
Equally ancient DNA lineages are found elsewhere in India and at other
points along the route of the Great Migration. One of these is the Andaman
and Nicobar Islands, part of a chain of islands that extends south from the
coast of Myanmar into the Indian Ocean. These islands were thrust up by the
great collision between the Indo-Australian and Southeast Asian tectonic
plates.
The Negrito people who inhabit the Andamans and Nicobars have phys-
ical characteristics that resemble those of some African populations. They
are as short as African pygmies. The inhabitants of the more acculturated
islands to the south have been driven to near-extinction by a combination of
introduced diseases and careless colonial administration, fi rst by the British
and later by the Indian government after independence. But the tribes on the
 
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