first 2 pages of ch 7 history

Anthropologist

A scholar who studies human societies, their cultures, and customs.

Primary method used by tribal communities to pass down history

Oral traditions, belief systems, and spoken stories passed down through generations rather than written records.

Social structure of medieval tribal societies

Egalitarian communities with non-hereditary leadership, shared resources among members, strong kinship ties, and self-sufficient economic units.

Jhum cultivation

A practice of shifting agriculture where trees and crops are cleared and burned to make land fertile for farming, after which the tribe moves on once soil fertility drops.

Banjara tribe

A nomadic community originally from Rajasthan that served as transporters of grains, provisions, and arms for villages and armies, including the Mughal army.

Sarna

A sacred grove in Central India that serves as a place of worship in tribal religion.

Dokra figurines

Traditional metal art objects made out of bell metal by tribal communities across regions such as West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh.

Hethai Amma

The ancestral deity worshiped by the Badaga community of the Nilgiris, believed to be the wisdom-giver and progenitor of the tribe.

Gond tribe

The largest tribal group in medieval India, centered in Central India, which later established powerful states and kingdoms.

Ahom tribe

A tribal community in present-day Assam that built a prominent, established kingdom during the medieval period.