Disease and Sickness among the Harappans
Some diseases leave a clear record in the skeletal biology. There are signs of some nutritional stress in some bones, but on the whole the Indus population was healthy. There is one paleopathological anomaly that occurs: thinning of the bones of the cranium, or porotic hyperostosis. It was observed by Kennedy on skeletons 6, 7, 8, 11, 14, 19, and M in the Marshall series from Mohenjo-daro. Kennedy considers it to be one of the pathologies that he “consistently” observes, occurring on about 25 percent of the specimens. This condition is related to anemia, and there is an intriguing story of why it is important:
When these data are applied to questions of the health profile of the ancient peoples of the Indus, we feel confident in associating the frequencies of porotic hyperostosis encountered in examination of Harappan skeletal materials with the types of hereditary abnormal haemoglobins described [earlier]. Furthermore, probability is high that these diagnostic markers of thalassaemia and sicklaemia are associated with endemic malaria as a balanced polymorphism in ancient times in Harappan settlements just as the situation exists today in the Indian subcontinent. A very strong argument that we may be able to document the antiquity of malaria in the South Asian land mass is afforded by our examination of the skeletons of pre-Harappan, i.e., Mesolithic, temporal or cultural context in this part of the world. With one exception known to the author, Mesolithic human skeletal remains in India and Sri Lanka do not exhibit porotic hyperostosis, thromboses of postcranial bones or marrow hyperplasia and osteomyelitis. Whatever the date of mutation of the genes for haemolytic disorders may be for the Mediterranean basin and Nilotic Africa, its manifestation in the Indian subcontinent would appear, on the basis of present biological evidence, to be somewhat later.63
The large-scale research recently undertaken at Harappa has brought more data to bear. While malaria is still seen as a health problem for the Indus peoples, Kennedy notes: “Only one case of porotic hyperostosis was encountered at Harappa in 1987, a situation that suggests that the disease stressers peculiar to the environment of Sind may have been quite different from those at Harappa in the Punjab during the same period of time.”64
THOUGHTS AND CONCLUSIONS CONCERNING HARAPPAN PEOPLE AND SOCIETY
The physical attributes of the Harappan peoples allow us some thoughts on Indus society.
Features Characteristic of Food Producers
The first, and perhaps most important, conclusion would be that the Indus peoples, as well as their immediate predecessors in the long preurban period of gestation, have features that physical anthropologists associate with food-producing peoples. This includes a general reduction in tooth size, a high incidence of dental caries, as well as the loss of significant prognathism.
Population Stability
A second conclusion that rises from the data sets at hand is that the Harappans and their predecessors represent a population, or populations, that are quite stable.
The important message for archaeologists . . . is that whatever the racial origins of the Harappans may have been, they were a relatively stable population inhabiting the northern and northwestern sectors of the Subcontinent for several millennia prior to their climactic moment of urbanization.65
Kennedy notes that this stability has continued to the present day: “One is on surer ground when one speaks of the Harappans themselves, for which there is in evidence a relatively large skeletal sample. One recognizes a biological continuum of many of their morphometric variables in the modern populations of Punjab and Sind.”66
Looking at the significant human remains from all Indus sites, other interesting observations on the biological affinities of the Mature Harappans and their predecessors include the following:
All Indus sites, except Mohenjo-daro and Lothal, were inhabited by people with relatively strong affinities to one another.
Individuals from Mohenjo-daro are somewhat different in their biology than individuals from other Indus sites.
There is an affinity between the individuals in Mature Harappan Cemetery R-37 and those in the lower interments of Posturban-Stage Cemetery H; however, both of these samples are different from those in the upper stratum of Cemetery H.
The individuals from Cemetery R-37 have their closest affinities with the individuals from Periods III through VII at Mehrgarh.
There may be some kind of biological discontinuity between the individuals from Periods I and II of Mehrgarh as compared to Periods III through VII.
The population of Periods I and II at Mehrgarh has rather close affinities with the Deccan Chalcolithic, as seen from data on skeletons from Inamgaon.
The skeletal series from Early Harappan Sarai Khola is closely affiliated to that from Iron Age Timargarha.
Nutritional and Health Indices of the Indus Peoples Are Similar
It is widely thought that in societies like the Indus Civilization, with social differentiation and class, there would be physical differences between individuals from different segments of this hierarchy.
But . . . observations from Harappan skeletal series from five major sites, which comprise about 350 individuals, have not revealed significant differences in patterns of growth and development as would be recognized by lines of arrested growth in long bones and hyperplasia or dental enamel. Osseous malformations suggestive of nutritional stress are absent as well. Nor are there any striking differences in incidents of dental attrition and common dental pathologies such as caries, abscess, malocclusion and ante-mortem tooth loss in Harappan skeletons.67
We should remember that this tells us that the people of the Indus Civilization who were “buried” have these characteristics. This may not be representative of the whole Indus population in terms of either its ethnic diversity or social hierarchy. Kennedy’s sample of 350 individuals seems to represent a relatively well-fed, well-cared-for segment of the Indus population, probably one of the upper classes. Individuals from other classes, including the possibility of other upper classes, may not be a part of this sample, and it should not be concluded that all Harappans were so well fed and “prosperous.” To be fair, an alternative to this should also remain open as a working hypothesis: “Social control may have been exercised by the Harappan elite in a way that did not invoke the usual dietary stresses so often imposed elsewhere upon an urban proletariat. The absence of royal tombs in Harappan centers may be significant in this connection.” 68 These data do not allow us to rule out the notions that the entire Indus population was generally well off, possibly relatively egalitarian.
NOTES
1 Kennedy 2000 is the up-to-date source on the ancient human populations of the Subcontinent.
2 Sewell and Guha 1931.
3 Kennedy 1977.
4 Wheeler 1968: 129—32.
5 Dales 1964; Kennedy 1984, 1995, 2000: 308—26.
6 Hargreaves 1931: 178.
7 Marshall 1931f: 82—84.
8 Marshall 1931f: 88.
9 Wheeler 1947: 83.
10 Marshall 1931f: 79—80; Hargreaves 1931: 184—86, pls. XLIIIa and XLVIa and b; Sewell and Guha 1931.
11 Wheeler 1959: 113—14.
12 Hargreaves 1931: 184.
13 Hargreaves 1931: 186.
14 Marshall 1931f: 81.
15 Hargreaves 1931: 186.
16 Sewell and Guha 1931: 617, 624.
17 Kennedy 1984: 429.
18 Kennedy 1984: 428.
19 Hargreaves 1931: 179; see also Marshall 1931f: 79; Hargreaves 1931: 179, pls. XLIIc and d; Sewell and Guha 1931: 605.
20 Marshall 1931f: 81.
21 Marshall 1931f: 79; Sahni 1931b: 222—23, pl. LIXc; Sewell and Guha 1931: 605—6.
22 Marshall 1931i: pl. LIXc.
23 Marshall 1931f: 81.
24 Mackay 1937—38: 116—18, 648, pls. XXXIIa and b, CX, no. 43, C, no. 15, CXI, 11, 72, CXXXIX, nos. 25, 45, 69, CXLII, no. 14; Guha and Basu 1938: 613—23, fig. 1.
25 Kennedy 1984: 429.
26 Mackay 1937—38: 94.
27 Guha and Basu 1938: 624.
28 Mackay 1937—38: 95.
29 Mackay 1937—38: 95.
30 For example, A. L. Basham 1967: 26—28.
31 Dales 1964; Kennedy 1984.
32 Mackay 1937—38: 647—48.
33 Rao 1979: 137—69; Sarkar 1985.
34 Kennedy and Caldwell 1984: table I; Kennedy et al. 1984.
35 Rao 1979: 139, 169.
36 Rao 1979: 137.
37 Sankalia 1974: 375.
38 Possehl and Kennedy 1979: 593; Kennedy 2000: 301.
39 Possehl and Kennedy 1979: 593.
40 Possehl 1980: 67—80.
41 Sastri 1965: 1.
42 Dales, Kenoyer, and staff 1991: 191—99, 206—13.
43 Hemphill, Lukacs, and Kennedy 1991: 139; Dutta 1983.
44 Dales et al. 1991.
45 Hemphill et al. 1991: 150—60, table 11.7.
46 Vats 1940: 251—74.
47 Vats 1940: 252, 254.
48 Vats 1940: 272—74.
49 Vats 1940: 221—35.
50 Vats 1940: 222, 224.
51 Vats 1940: 231.
52 Vats 1940: 242—45.
53 Vats 1940: 205—20; Wheeler 1947: 89—90.
54 Hemphill et al. 1991: 172—74.
55 Hemphill et al. 1991: 173.
56 Sharma 1999.
57 Sharma 1982: 297.
58 Sharma 1999: 17—90.
59 Sharma 1999: 91—98.
60 Ghosh 1952, 1962.
61 Lukacs 1982.
62 Lukacs 1985.
63 Kennedy 1984: 432.
64 Kennedy 1990: 71.
65 Kennedy 1982: 290; see Kennedy 2000: 302—7 on this topic and others.
66 Kennedy 1982: 291.
67 Kennedy 1982: 290.
68 Kennedy 1982: 291.
CHAPTER 10
Gender and the Indus Age
INTRODUCTION
The men and women of the Indus Age were part of an internally differentiated, structurally specialized social system. They participated in their sociocultural system in dif ferent ways; gender made a difference. Not a great deal is known about this aspect of the Indus Age, but some observations can be made. The most important data come from figurines and Cemetery R-37 at Harappa. The splendid corpus of figurines from Mehrgarh adds time depth to this investigation and allows us to move from the Indus Civilization to the Indus Age. Since the gender of the figurines there is often obvious, Mehrgarh is a good place to start.
MEHRGARH-NAUSHARO FIGURINES
Figurines appear at Mehrgarh from almost the very beginning of the settlement. Catherine Jarrige specializes in the study of these objects.1 Most of her data comes in the various preliminary reports on the site.2 The figurines from Periods I and II are very simple, without clear gender marking. Broad hips and large buttocks have been used to suggest a voluptuous woman. They are generally seated, have no arms, and the legs are joined. Adornment, in the form of necklaces and belts, is shown by strips of clay and small clay pellets applied to the body. Some of the figurines have been coated in red ocher, a pigment also used in some interments in the Mehrgarh cemeteries (figure 10.1).
Period III at Mehrgarh (Togau Phase) is an important time for craft innovation and some indication of new genes in the human population. There are no human figurines from this period, but there are a large number of bull figurines.
Figure 10.1 Figurines from Mehrgarh I (after Jarrige, Jarrige, Meadow, and Quivron 1995)
Figure 10.2 Figurines from Mehrgarh IV (after Jarrige, Jarrige, Meadow, and Quivron 1995)
Composite figurines appear in Period IV, just after 4000 B.C. (figure 10.2). They are generally female, have heads that are rodlike in shape and often quite elongated. There may be a small, pointy nose and hollowed eyes. The torso is rounded, with prominent hips, and the legs, manufactured separately, were attached to it. Typically, large breasts, some conical in shape, were appended to the torso. These women were equipped with somewhat elaborate necklaces represented by clay strips. The legs point to the front and are joined, a feature from Periods I and II that continues through time. Although joining the legs is a stylistic attribute, it may be that the individuals who made the figurines had bad luck with thin, independent legs breaking, so they joined them together for strength. The other feature that might be thought of as both stylistic and functional is the lack of arms.
Figure 10.3 Female figurine from Mehrgarh V (after Jarrige, Jarrige, Meadow, and Quivron 1995)
The figurines of Mehrgarh Period V are refinements of the figurines seen in Period IV. The manufacturers used very fine, well-prepared clay and fired the figurines at high temperatures in an oxidizing atmosphere, which produced a buff-colored finished product. The head and torso are a kind of rod, broadened at the shoulders in order to take large appended breasts and shoulders supporting necklaces. The hips continue to be a prominent feature in the representation of female anatomy (figure 10.3).
The Period V figurines also begin to have elaborate coiffures, large and fluffy. The way the face was completed also changes. A nose was appended and is often large in proportion to the face. The eyes are represented by a small pellet of applied clay, which was then pierced. Jarrige calls them “mask faces.”3 The holes for the eyes become larger and larger over time. The women are still seated, with joined legs to the front.
Figurines become more popular in Period VI, with some very interesting, elaborate, individual coiffures. They also have prominent breasts with nipples and an abundance of jewelry. The necklaces now have some individuality, with small incisions marking individual elements. Arms are shown, sometimes tucked neatly under the breasts, which completes the anatomy. By Period VIB, these female representations are widespread at the site (figure 10.4).
Some simplification of hairstyles is found in Period VII (c. 2900—2600 B.C.). Locks are tied at the back of the neck, flowing in ringlets down the sides of their heads. There is even a sense that some of the figurines represent women with wigs. Some of the figurines are standing, with modeled knees and feet, and have arms in more or less natural postures. Some females hold small infants modeled in clay. The prominent pinched nose and eye with the pellet pierced by a sharp tool is also seen (figure 10.5).
The jewelry is also shown in a more sophisticated way, with greater individuality. There is an increase in the variety of adornment, with more necklace types, bangles, diadems, and pendants.
Some of the Period VII figurines were painted. Black was used for the hair and eyes. Some ornaments were picked out in yellow. The figures are sometimes completely slipped in a brown ocher pigment. There are also male figurines in Period VII. One is a standing representation, with a turban-like headdress (figure 10.6).
Figure 10.4 Mehrgarh figurine Period VI (after Jarrige, Jarrige, Meadow, and Quivron 1995)
Figure 10.5 Mehrgarh female figurines Period VII (after Jarrige, Jarrige, Meadow, and Quivron 1995)
At the beginning of the period the male hairstyles were braids or knots. They were replaced in VIIB by a pair of strands flowing over the shoulders to the front, covering parts of their necklaces. The males can be identified by the presence of male genitalia, breasts barely marked, and their own style of jewelry, some of which might be seen as phallic in nature.4 Some of the males wear loincloths made of broad strips of clay, a feature of later Indus figurines, especially those from Mohenjo-daro. Jarrige feels that the male representations are stiffer in carriage than the relaxed women.
Extreme simplification predominates in Period VIIC. . . . The traditional figurine types are now being mass-produced: whole series of ornamented female figurines, of mothers with babies and of turbaned male figurines are turned out, monotonously uniform, totally lacking in artistic inspiration and roughly modeled. . . .
This simplified uniformity is soon enlivened by a new development . . . the rise of a composite type of figurine of high quality towards the end of Mehrgarh Period VII. . . . This new composite type is finely modeled, with a small
hole in the centre of each of the applied oval eyes. The male type, with two strands of hair hanging down and turban head-dress, predominates to the extent that, by the end of the period, it is practically the only human type represented. The loin-cloth, still the exception at the start of Period VII, now becomes more common in the form of a band of clay wrapped round the hips. Curiously, the male type becomes so dominant that the only figurine found holding a baby in a late Period VIID deposit is actually that of a male, whereas the only female representation in this deposit is shown with features hitherto reserved for males. Only her breasts are fuller than those of the male figurines, not the voluptuous spheres of the familiar Mehrgarh tradition.5
The Indus Civilization Page 32