This group is mainly intended for premodern specialists. All can join, but professionals get priority in posting: amateurish posts will not be sent on to the List. Don't post before reading the rules at:

http://www.safarmer.com/Indo-Eurasian/rules.html

The List's outlook is secular, progressive, and global: we don't post notes that reflect nationalistic or fundamentalist viewpoints.

Areas covered include India, China, Iran, C. Asia, the Ancient N. East, SE Asia, Korea, Japan, and Europe. Discussion of other areas including Africa and Mesoamerica and cross-cultural studies is encouraged. Members include archaeologists, historians, linguists, anthropologists, art historians, specialists in premodern religion, comparativists, cognitive scientists, population geneticists, and researchers in many other fields. Core members are located in S. Asia, Iran, China, Russia, E. and W. Europe, Australia, Japan, and the US.

The List is run by M. Witzel, S. Farmer, L.M. Fosse, and B. Fleming, representing diverse areas in S. Asian studies, linguistics, comparative history, and comparative religion/mythology.

The List was designed to encourage discussion of major unresolved issues in premodern studies. To this end, no posts are allowed that claim anything on the "authority" of past researchers or that contain rude comments aimed at the List or other posters. All posts are subject to editing to clarify meaning or improve formatting; no changes are ever made to evidential claims.

Postings of pre-prints, queries, and announcements are welcome. On weekends discussion is encouraged of global politics and lighter issues (e.g., pseudo-archaeology) of interest in our fields.

The List is loosely modeled on the annual Harvard University Roundtables on the Ethnogenesis of S. and Central Asia, organized by M. Witzel. The 2005 Roundtable was in Kyoto, Japan. The 2006 meeting was in Beijing, China. The 2007 meeting was in Edinburgh, Scotland. The 2008 meeting was in the Netherlands.