Abstract
THE author of this monograph, a recruit to anthropological research, to whom Sarat Chandra Roy extends a cordial welcome in a commendatory preface, has now spent some years in the investigation of the Malers of the Rajmahal Hills, and has already contributed a number of papers on specific points to scientific literature. In this work, which is of a more generally descriptive character, he is especially interested in the problem of their relation to the Oraons. He is unable to accept the view that they are a branch of the Oraons, a relic from the time of the migration of that people, presumably as a result of Moslem pressure. In support of his contention he points, inter alia, to the absence of totemism and exogamic clans among the Malers; while he stresses the fact that as a hill people, they never have occupied the plains, nor could they be persuaded by the Government to do so.
The Malérs of the Rajmahal Hills
By Sasanka Sekher Sarkar. Pp. xiv + 135 + 11 plates. (Calcutta: The Book Co., Ltd., 1938.) 4 rupees; 6s.
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The Malérs of the Rajmahal Hills. Nature 143, 920 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143920b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/143920b0