Study of the Ethnonyms of Indian Tribes: An Investigation into Ecological and Economic Dimensions

Abstract

Ethnonym means the name of an ethnic group. The names of the group may be derived from various sources. Often these names or ethnonyms denote the ecological context to which a particular group belongs. The names are primarily studied with regard to socio-historical issues and social changes, identihJ questions or something of magico-religious significance. The present study however attempts to study the names of the ethnic groups (ethnonyms) in order to understand the delineation of tribe with regard to ecological and economic references. In this connection it brings in neologism by proposing two terms, one econym (naming a tribe after the ecological context) and econonym (naming the tribe indicating its subsistence pattern). The econonym in a sense broadly indicates the deep ecological background of the tribal groups. Thus the study comes with the observation that the tribes are also ecologically defined categories as the ethnonyms of the tribes suggest. The ethonyms also indicate two different modes of tribal formation across self-identity parameter.