The Tamil people are a Dravidian ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu in southern India and northern and eastern Sri Lanka, with a substantial global diaspora across Southeast Asia, the Gulf states, Europe and North America built up through centuries of trade and, later, indentured and skilled labor migration. Tamil is one of the world's longest continuously attested classical languages, with a literary tradition, including the Sangam poetry corpus, dating back over two thousand years, and Tamil identity is often expressed through pride in this linguistic and literary continuity. In Sri Lanka, tension between the Sinhalese-majority state and the Tamil minority, concentrated in the north and east of the island, escalated into a prolonged civil war between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam that lasted from 1983 to 2009.
Facts
Typical RegionTamil Nadu and Puducherry in South India, and Sri Lanka, with diaspora communities in Malaysia, Singapore and elsewhere 1 Population Estimateat least 69,026,881 in India (2011 census) and 3,108,770 in Sri Lanka (2012 census), plus a worldwide diaspora 1 Primary LanguageTamil, a Dravidian language 1 Subsistence ModeHistorically agrarian Sangam-era society; coastal urbanization and maritime trade developed in the later Sangam period 1 Group Type
Group Type (category) Subsistence Mode
Subsistence Mode (category) Population Band
Population Band (category) Connections
Associated With
Cross-cousin marriage is a normative, widely documented marriage preference within Tamil and other Dravidian-speaking kinship systems of South India and Sri Lanka.
Source Wikipedia: Cross-Cousin Marriage
Dravidian kinship terminology is documented among Dravidian-language-speaking peoples of South Asia, the Tamil among the most extensively studied.
Source Wikipedia: Dravidian Kinship Terminology
In Rule Category
Source Countries and Their Cultures (Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Gale): Tamil - Kinship
Source Countries and Their Cultures (Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Gale): Tamil - Kinship
In the Other Atlases
Used In
Also in Language Atlas: which uses this subject.
Source Tamils (Wikipedia)Lead sentence 1Quote, Lead sentence 1
The Tamils ( TAM-ilz, TAH-milz), also known by their demonym Tamilar, are a Dravidian ethnic group who natively speak the Tamil language and trace their ancestry mainly to the southern part of the Indian subcontinent.
Originated In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.
Source Tamils (Wikipedia)Tamils (Wikipedia), lead paragraph, classificationQuote, Tamils (Wikipedia), lead paragraph, classification
are a Dravidian ethnic group who natively speak the Tamil language and trace their ancestry mainly to the southern part of the Indian subcontinent.
Sources
1. Tamils (Wikipedia)
WikipediaTamils (Wikipedia), lead paragraph, classification
are a Dravidian ethnic group who natively speak the Tamil language and trace their ancestry mainly to the southern part of the Indian subcontinent.
Tamils (Wikipedia), lead paragraph, distribution
Tamils constitute about 5.7% of the Indian population and form the majority in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry.
Tamils (Wikipedia), infobox, India population field
69,026,881 (2011)
Tamils (Wikipedia), lead paragraph, self-designation
also known by their demonym Tamilar, are a Dravidian ethnic group who natively speak the Tamil language
Tamils (Wikipedia), Sangam period paragraph
Urbanisation and mercantile activity developed along the coasts during the later Sangam period with the Tamils influencing the regional trade in the Indian Ocean region.
Tamils (Wikipedia), lead paragraph, demonym
also known by their demonym Tamilar
- Infobox: 69026881 in India at the 2011 census alone
View the Source Countries and Their Cultures (Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Gale): Tamil - Kinship
Countries and Their Cultures (Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Gale)In Rule Category: Patrilineal Descent, Kin Groups and Descent
Most Indian Tamils are patrilineal and patrilocal, though the Dravidian system equally accommodates matrilineal descent as among some Sri Lanka Tamils, including Muslims, and some castes in Kerala.
In Rule Category: Matrilineal Descent, Kin Groups and Descent
Most Indian Tamils are patrilineal and patrilocal, though the Dravidian system equally accommodates matrilineal descent as among some Sri Lanka Tamils, including Muslims, and some castes in Kerala.
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