Book excerpt: This volume, thus, will be highly useful not only to the planners and administrators engaged in the development of islands, but also to the cultural analysis interested in the study of island ecology and cultural perceptions. This book, for the first time, provides first-hand informations about the social structure, specially the matrilineal family organization, caste structure and hierarchy of the islanders, the history of colonization etc. which will be highly relevant to the students and teachers of anthropology