Survival Of Megalithic Tradition: A Panoramic View of Primitive Tribal Burial Practices in Northern Kerala

Abstract

Kerala is a homeland of 36 (Census of India, 2021) diverse tribal communities better to call as ethnic communities inhabited chiefly on the foothills of the Western Ghats, and their material cultures vary from community to community, among these 36 communities 18 tribal Communities inhabited the Northern portions of Kerala. Though each ethnic community had its own life and culture, they followed the ways of their ancestors in their burial practices. Among this ethnic group, a few communities have been classified as primitive tribal due to their isolation from the rest of the communities and their old way of living especially in interment ritual observances and progenitor veneration. Here the evolution of the burial practices and ancestor–worship of the ‘primitive tribal group’ were analyzed against the backdrop of the early literary, oral tradition, and archaeological exploration conducted among these ethnic communities.