Introduction

This chapter introduces the tribal society in India. It is divided into three sections. The first section describes Indian tribes, their regional classification in India and a synoptic view of tribal studies of the western region and some emerging structural realities. The second section discusses the concept of social structure and its theoretical orientation especially by the British and American School of Anthropology. It argues how and why this work follows the social anthropological rather than the cultural anthropological approach. The third section deals with methodological protocols followed in the study.