Anthropological Background of

Bangladesh
 What is Anthropology?
• Anthropology is the study of humans, past and
present. To understand the full sweep and
complexity of cultures across all of human
history, anthropology draws and builds upon
knowledge from the social and biological sciences
as well as the humanities and physical sciences.
• The study of anthropology is the study of human
beings: their culture, their behavior, their beliefs,
their ways of surviving.
 Race

• Race, as a social concept, is a group of people

who share similar and distinct physical
characteristics.
• Sociologists define race as a concept that is
used to signify different types of human
bodies.
 Outline of Human Racial Classification:
•SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA GROUP
•I. Capoid or Khoisanid Subspecies of southern Africa
•A. Khoid (Hottentot) race
•B. Sanid (Bushmen) race
•II. Congoid Subspecies of sub-Saharan Africa
•A. Central Congoid race (Geographic center and origin in the Congo river
basin)
•1. Palaecongoid subrace (the Congo river basin: Ivory Coast, Ghana,
Nigeria, Cameroon, Congo, Angola)
•2. Sudanid subrace (western Africa: Niger, Mali, Senegal, Guinea)
•3. Nilotid subrace (southern Sudan; the ancient Nubians were of this
subrace)
•4. Kafrid or Bantid subrace (east and south Africa: Kenya, Tanzania,
Mozambique, Natal)
•B. Bambutid race (African Pygmies)
•C. Aethiopid race (Ethiopia, Somalia; hybridized with Caucasoids)
•  
"OUT-OF-AFRICA" GROUP
I. Australoid Subspecies
A. Veddoid race (remnant Australoid population in central and southern India)
B. Negritos (remnants in Malaysia and the Philippines)
C. Melanesian race (New Guinea, Papua, Solomon Islands)
D. Australian-Tasmanian race (Australian Aborigines)
II. Mongoloid Subspecies
A. Northern Mongoloid racial group
1. Northeast Asian race (various subraces in northern China, Manchuria, Korea
and Japan)
2. Ainuid race (remnants of aboriginal population in northern Japan)
3. Tungid race (Mongolia and Siberia, Eskimos)
4. Amerindian race (American Indians; various subraces)
B. Southern Mongoloid racial group
1. Southeast Asian race (various subraces in southern China, Indochina,
Thailand, Myanmar [Burma], Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, the last
four partly hybridized with Australoids)
2. Micronesian-Polynesian race (predominantly Southern Mongoloid partly
hybridized with Australoids)
III. Caucasoid or Europid Subspecies
A. Dravidic race (India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka [Ceylon]; ancient stabilized Indic-Veddoid
[Australoid] blend)
B. Turanid race (partially hybridized with Mongoloids; predominant element in Kazakhstan,
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan; common in Hungary and Turkey)
C. Indic or Nordindid race (Pakistan and northern India)
D. Irano-Afghan race (predominant in Iran and Afghanistan, primary element in Iraq, common
[25%] in Turkey)
E. Armenid race (predominant element in Armenia and Azerbaijan, common in Syria, Lebanon
and northern Iraq, primary element among the Ashkenazic Jews)
F. Mediterranid racial group :
G. Ladogan race (named after Lake Ladoga; indigenous to Russia; includes Lappish subrace of
arctic Europe)
H. Dinaric race (predominant in western Balkans [Dinaric Mountains] and northern Italy,
important in the Czech Republic, eastern and southern Switzerland, western Austria and
eastern Ukraine. Its distribution in Europe, and that of its derived Dinaricized Mediterranean
type, may be associated with the expansion of the Neolithic Anatolian farmers beginning
circa 6,500 B.C.)
I. Alpine race (predominant element in Luxembourg, primary in Bavaria and the Czech Republic
[Bohemia], important in France, Hungary, eastern and southern Switzerland)
J. Nordish or Northern European racial group (various subraces in the British Isles, Scandinavia,
the Netherlands and Belgium; predominant element in Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Finland
and the Baltic States; majority in Austria and Russia; important in France, the Czech Republic,
Slovakia and Hungary; outlined in detail in The Nordish Race)
F. Mediterranid racial group
• 1. Orientalid or Arabid subrace (predominant in Arabia, major element from Egypt
to Syria, primary in northern Sudan, important in Iraq, predominant element
among the Oriental Jews)
• 2. South Mediterranean or Saharid subrace (predominant in Algeria and Libya,
important in Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt, primary element among the Sephardic
Jews, common element [circa 20-25%] in Spain, Sicily and southern Italy, minor
element [circa 5%] in Greece)
• 3. East Mediterranean or Pontid subrace (Black Sea coast of Ukraine, Romania and
Bulgaria; Aegean coasts of Greece and Turkey)
• 4. Dinaricized Mediterraneans (Residual mixed types resulting from the blending of
Mediterranids with Dinarics, Alpines or Armenids; not a unified type, has much
regional variation; predominant element [over 60%] in Sicily and southern Italy,
principal element in Turkey [35%], important element in western Syria, Lebanon
and central Italy, common in northern Italy. The ancient Cappadocian
Mediterranean subrace of Anatolia was dinaricized perhaps as early as the
Neolitihic and is a major contributor to this type in modern Turkey.)
• 5. West Mediterranean or Iberid subrace (Spain, Portugal, Corsica, Sardinia, and
coastal areas of Morocco and Tunisia; the Atlanto-Mediterranean peoples who
expanded over much of the Atlantic coastal regions of Europe during the Mesolithic
period were a branch of this subrace)
 Major races of Bangladesh
• Negrito
• Proto - Australoids or Austrics
• Mongoloids
• Mediterranean or Dravidian
• Western Brachycephals
• Nordic Aryans
 Negrito
• The Negritos or the Brachycephalic
(broad headed) from Africa were the
earliest people to have come to this
subcontinent. They have survived in their
original habitat in Andaman and Nicobar
Islands. The Jarawas, Onges, Sentinelese
and the Great Andamanese are some of
the examples.
 Characteristics
• Skin colour: chocolate to jet black
• Hair: woolly or frizzy
• Nose: Fleshy, flat and wide
• Ears: Small
• Lips: Bulbous
• Jaw: Heavy
 Proto - Australoids or Austrics

These groups were the next to come to this subcontinent

after the Negritos. They are believed to have arrived in
India some 5000 years ago .
They are people with wavy hair lavishly distributed all over
their brown bodies, long headed with low foreheads and
prominent eye ridges, noses with low and broad roots,
thick jaws, large palates and teeth and small chins. The
Austrics of India represent a race of medium height, dark
complexion with long heads and rather flat noses but
otherwise of regular features.  
• The Austrics laid the foundation of Indian
civilization. They cultivated rice and vegetables
and made sugar from sugarcane. Now these
people are found in some parts of India,
Myanmar and the islands of South East Asia.
Their languages have survived in the Central and
Eastern India.
Characteristics
• Skin colour: Black
• Hair: wavy hair
• long head
• Arms & legs: long and spindly
 Mediterranean or Dravidian
• They have been believed to come before the
Aryans. They have different sub-groups like the
Paleo-Mediterranean, the true Mediterranean, and
the Oriental Mediterranean.  They appear to be
people of  the same stock as the peoples of Asia
Minor and Crete and pre- Hellenic Aegean's of
Greece. They are reputed to have built up the city
civilization of the Indus valley, whose remains  have
been found at Mohenjo- daro and Harappa and
other Indus  cities.  
 Western Brachycephals
These include the Alpinoids, Dinarics and
Armenoids. The Parsis and Kodavas also fall in
this category. They are the broad headed
people living mainly on the western side of
the country such as the Ganga Valley and the
delta, parts of Kashmir, Kathiawar, Gujarat,
Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. 
 Nordics or the Indo-Aryans
This group were the last one to immigrate to
India. They came to India somewhere
between 2000 and 1500 B.C. They are now
mainly found in the northern and central part
of India.
 Mongoloid
Skin colour: Brownish to yellow
Hair: Black and straight
Nose: Flat
These people are found in the North eastern part of India in
the states of Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya,
Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Tripura. They are also
found in Northern parts of West Bengal, Sikkim, and
Ladakh. Generally they are people with yellow complexion,
oblique eyes, high cheekbones, sparse hair andmedium
height. 
 Who were the original inhabitants of
Bangladesh?
• The anthropological identity of Bangalis is very complicated. There
has been no comprehensive research into this subject. No certain
conclusion, therefore, can be drawn. Yet, it can be said that there
has been too much commingling of bloodlines in this region. This is
why even an anthropological research cannot produce accurate
information about our ancestors.
• Anthropologists agree that Bangladesh has historically been a land
of many races. Long before the arrival of the Aryans in the 5th and
6th centuries BC, the Bengalees were already racially mixed; on
that count, the Aryans described them as “sankaras” or “hybrid
people”.
The ancestors of present day inhabitants of Bangladesh have
therefore emerged from the fusion of such diverse races as the
Austric, Dravidian, Mongoloid, Homo-Alpine, Mediterranean
Brown, Aryans and so on.
• It could still roughly be said that our ancestors
consisted mostly of Negrito, Australoid
(Veddoid) and Mongoloid peoples. In fact, it
would not be illogical to assume that 60%
Australoids, 20% Mongoloids and 15%
Negritos, and five percent of other racial
groups mingled with one another to form our
mixed bloodlines.
Physical characteristics of the Bengali people

• According to Risley, the Bengali people have

the following physical characteristics
• Skull: round, long
• Nose: wide
• Stature: middle or short
• Skin: black, brownish