There is a longstanding history in South Asia of relations of exchange and interdependence between agriculturalists and peoples involved in the hunting of wild animals and the gathering of wild plants. These relationships, far from being historically fixed and immutable, were instead marked by a high degree of variability and flexibility with specific groups of people altering their strategies in relation to ecological, demographic, and political imperatives. These points are not controversial – many scholars have described such relationships and have contributed significantly to our understanding of the tremendous diversity of South Asian prehistoric and historic subsistence strategies.

I would like to build from this literature in two ways. First of all, I would suggest that the strategies of contemporary forager-trader groups in South Asia are best viewed as the outcome of historically contingent processes, not merely as cultural-evolutionary throwbacks. Second, and more specifically, I will be concerned here to trace some of the changes and possible changes in the organization of foraging/trading groups in southwestern India coincident with the expansion of the coastal spice trade and the increasing integration of this region into a world economy in the immediate precolonial and early colonial periods, that is, between about AD 1400 and 1700. Although the participation of South Indian “hill tribes” in regional and even international economies began much earlier than this (see chapter 1), I focus here on the early colonial and precolonial organization of foraging and trading and some of the relationships of foragers with larger-scale political entities.