Todas today believe that they had always been on the Nilgiri hills. Todas have received much attention mainly from their pastoral occupation of tending herds of buffaloes, living in half-barrel shaped huts, lacto-vegetarianism, fraternal polyandry, colour of the skin and unique physical features. From 1602 up to 1812 of the English occupation, we do not have the culture history of the Todas. The manuscript written by a Portuguese priest named Finicio in the year 1602, after his two day’s stay in the Nilgiri hills, is the earliest record on the Todas.

Learn more about the Toda community, their cultural traditions and the Nilgiri biosphere > The cultural relativism of the Todas with the hill habitat raised curious academic inquiry about ‘Who are the Todas?, How do they come to be living on the Nilgiri Hills? Toda shrine Photo © Tribal Cultural Heritage in India Foundation It has been inferred that the Toda people are not aborigines, but came probably as conquerors or immigrants from the sea. The total Toda population as per 2001 census is 1560. at the junction of the Eastern and the Western Ghats in Tamil Nadu State of India. The Toda people are living only on the upper plateau of the Nilgiri hills with an average elevation of 2300 ft. The paper seeks to examine the culture history and increasing rationality in the contemporary world among the Toda, a primitive tribal group inhabiting the Nilgiri District of Tamil Nadu State. In India, the ethnographic world is in fact made up of communities and cultures in constant contact and change.

Culture history continues to be an influential force in anthropology.Įach culture or each society in tribal communities possessed its own rationality and coherence in terms of which its customs and beliefs are to be interpreted. Key Words: Cultural relativism, Tamil Language, Acculturation, Culture CoreĬulture history is a perspective developed by anthropologists whose common concern is the inference of historical relationships from the observed spatial distribution of culture traits. THE TODA AND CULTURE HISTORY: SOME REFLECTIONS FROM A DRAVIDIAN TRIBE OF NILGIRI HILLS

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