This group is mainly intended for premodern specialists. All can join, but professionals get priority in posting: amateurish posts won't be sent on to the List. Posting guidelines 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 views.

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 are encouraged. Members include archaeologists, historians, linguists, anthropologists, art historians, specialists in premodern religion, comparativists, cultural neurobiologists, 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/religion/mythology, and cultural neurobiology.

The List was designed to encourage discussion of 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 regarding evidence.

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 held in Kyoto. The 2006 meeting was held in Beijing, the 2007 meeting in Edinburgh, the 2008 meeting in the Netherlands, and the 2009 meeting again in Kyoto.