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Serious anthropological exploration in respect of unique customs, institutions and other ways of Indian tribes has been a long pending felt need in academic circle. Except some light surface reflexes the exercise on this front has, by and large, remained far short of analytical and structural analysis. This book meets the requirement of not only in-depth substantivism but also of formal analysis in respect of polyandry, matriliny, chieftainship, serfdom, dormitory system, shifting cultivation etc. The two mountingly emerging concerns of ethnicity and cultural ecology also find a detailed mapping with peoples cognition. In addition to dimensions of change and integration the fixity to and persistence of cultural traditions form yet another area in this presentation. This account of Indian social-cultural anthropology is rich at the level of interpretation and forms a valuable reading to all scholars interested in essence of tribal life and culture still forming a district world. About the Author Dr. R.S. MANN, Ph. D. (Delhi) has about twenty years of research experience working among various tribal as well as the non tribal communities of India. He has published extensively in the fields of ethnology, social and cultural change and anthropology, both theoretical and applied. In him one finds a rare combination of theoretician and empiricist as is reflected in his books entitled Anthropological and Sociological Theory, The Ladakhi: A Study in Ethnography and Change and Nature Man Spirit Complex in Tribal India (Concept, 1981). Besides his association with various professional organisations, Dr. Mann has been involved in various regional and national research projects. Currently, Dr. Mann in Joint Director in Anthropological Survey of India, Dehradun.