Established inside the Geological Survey, then an institution of its own: the Anthropological Survey of India

Background

The Anthropological Survey of India, or AnSI, is the country's leading research body for anthropology and works under the Ministry of Culture. Its line of descent begins as a Zoological and Anthropological Section inside the Geological Survey of India, and the anthropology work then moved into the Zoological Survey of India as a section of its own. It was then given the standing of an independent organisation, and its foundation day falls on the first of December, at Kolkata. Kolkata remains its headquarters, with regional centres in other parts of the country. The field research covers the bio-cultural, social-cultural and linguistic life of India's communities, including the documentation of communities and cultures that are endangered. The brief covers physical anthropology, socio-cultural anthropology and linguistic anthropology. It also runs anthropological museums and laboratories for DNA and palaeoanthropology, and publishes what its researchers find.