About the Book : This illuminating Festschrift is a collection of thirteen essays on tribes, written by a group of highly committed specialists in Anthropology, Sociology, Economics, Philosophy and Psychology. The four sections of the book are: implicit philosophy and world view; tribal aesthetics and science; biological, psychological interpretations; and the changing, the unchanging tribes. There is also a critical and appreciative evaluation of Surajit Sinha views on tribes and Indian civilization. Reflecting upon these essays the Editor explores new grounds of thought: tribe a perfect form of culture; tribal epistemology considering neither man nor god unique; tribal practice taking primacy over thought; no gap between tribal knowledge and existence; tribal cultures changing within limits of unalterable form; cosmological conflict in the changing tribes; and many other fascinating ideas and concepts that make the unconventional conclusion: tribe not the other. First of its kind, this book on philosophical anthropology of tribes makes the reader think of the strength and pervasiveness of a great category of people which has for long time been misinterpreted and misrepresented as prelogical and precultural. Tribal Thought and Culture is a book for wide ranging specialists and students interested in cosmology and changing world view, myths and traditions, music, medicine, survival crisis, value pattern, ad dynamics of social, religious and economic transformation of the timeless people. About Author : Bidyanath Saraswati (b. 1932) is Research Professor in Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi; former Professor of Anthropology in North Eastern Hill University, Shillong. Professor Saraswati's major publications include: Contributions to the understanding of Indian civilization; Pottery making cultures and Indian classical cultural tradition; Brahmanic ritual traditions; The spectrum of the sacred; and Ascetics of Kashi: an anthropological exploration (with Surajit Sinha.