The Andamanese people are the various aboriginal inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, a district of India located in the southeastern part of the Bay of Bengal .
The Andamanese resemble other Negrito groups in Southeast Asia. They are pygmies, and are the only modern people outside of certain parts of Sub-Saharan Africa with steatopygia . They lead a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, and appear to have lived in substantial isolation for thousands of years.
The Andamanese are believed to be
descended from the migrations which, about 70,000 years ago, brought the first modern humans out of Africa to the Andaman Islands.
By the end of the eighteenth century, when they first came into sustained contact with outsiders, there were an estimated 7,000 Andamanese divided into five major groups, with distinct cultures, separate domains, and mutually unintelligible languages. In the next century they were largely wiped out by diseases, violence, and loss of territory.
Today, there remain only approximately 400–450 Andamanese. One group has long been extinct, and only two of the remaining groups still maintain a steadfast independence, refusing most attempts at contact by outsiders.
The Andamanese are a designated Scheduled Tribe .
TRIBES
The five major groups of Andamanese found
by the European colonists were:
• Great Andamanese, extinct 54 admixed Individuals.
• Jarawa now estimated 250 to 400 verified to exist in pure form.
• Jangil or Rutland Jarawa, extinct.
• Onge , now fewer than 100 verified to exist in pure form.
• Sentinelese, now estimated to be 100 to 200.
Jarawa and Onge are dominated by y-dna haplogroup D which is native to the Andamanese.
By the end of the eighteenth century, there were an estimated 5,000 Great Andamanese living on Great Andaman. Altogether they comprised ten distinct tribes with different languages. The population quickly dwindled until they went extinct in pure form, and had a low of 19 admixed individuals by 1961. It has increased slowly after that,following their move to a reservation on Strait Island. By January 2011, there were only 54 admixed individuals from three tribes, who spoke mostly Hindi.
By the end of the eighteenth century, there were an estimated 5,000 Great Andamanese living on Great Andaman. Altogether they comprised ten distinct tribes with different languages.
The Jarawa originally inhabited southeastern Jarawa Island and have migrated to the west coast of Great Andaman in the wake of the Great Andamanese. The Onge once lived throughout Little Andaman and now are confined to two reservations on the island.
The Jangil, who originally inhabited Rutland Island , were extinct by 1931; the last individual was sighted in 1907.
Only the Sentinelese are still living in their original homeland on North Sentinel Island, largely undisturbed, and have fiercely resisted all attempts at contact.
The tribe members of the Jarawa tribe focused on traditional knowledge.
Traditional knowledge was a huge part of their culture. This referred to those who learned through observations and experiences when it came to identifying the relationship between different organisms and environmental resource areas. Their way of life is interwoven with the traditional knowledge of a group.
ORIGIN
It is widely disputed whether the
Andamanese originated from Myanmar or mainland India. Geographically Myanmar makes sense as it is closest to the Andaman archipelago. There is however a lack in genetic evidence to support this theory.
Genetic evidence shows that the
Andamanese most likely originated in northeast India. Time estimations suggested that northeast Indians migrated over an ice land bridge connecting Andaman archipelago and Myanmar
It is assumed that those ancestors were part of the initial Great Coastal Migration that was the first expansion of humanity out of Africa, via the Arabian peninsula, along the coastal regions of the Indian mainland and toward Southeast Asia, Japan, and Oceania.
Some anthropologists postulate that
Southern India and Southeast Asia once were populated largely by Negritos similar to those of the Andamans, and that some tribal populations in the south of India, such as the Irulas are remnants of that period.
Until the late eighteenth century, the
Andamanese culture, language, and genetics were preserved from outside influences by their fierce reaction to visitors, which included killing any shipwrecked foreigners, and by the remoteness of the islands. The various tribes and their mutually unintelligible languages thus are believed to have evolved on their own over millennia.
Ancestry
What we know about the Andamanese is extremely limited due to their extreme isolation. They are considered by many to be a pristine example of a Negrito that existed throughout southeast Asia. With over a century of research shared ancestry with the Negrito have yet to be established.
Their commonalities could be the result of evolutionary convergence and/or a shared history. Because of long term isolation and a lack of sufficient genetic evidence it is not possible to establish a connection between the Negrito of southeast Asia and the Andamanese.
Population Decline
The Andamanese's protective isolation changed with the first British colonial presence and subsequent settlements, which proved disastrous for them. Lacking
immunity against common diseases of the Eurasian mainland, the large Jarawa habitats on the southeastern regions of South Andaman Island likely were depopulated by disease within four years (1789-1793) of the initial British colonial settlement in 1789
There is evidence that some sections of the British Indian administration were working deliberately to annihilate the tribes.
After the mid-19th century, British
established penal colonies on the islands and an increasing numbers of mainland Indian and Karen settlers arrived, encroaching on former territories of the Andamanese. This accelerated the decline of the tribes.
Many Andamanese succumbed to British expeditions to avenge the killing of shipwrecked sailors. In the 1867 Andaman Islands Expedition, dozens of Onge were killed by British naval personnel following the death of shipwrecked sailors, which resulted in four Victoria Crosses for the British soldiers. In the 1940s, the Jarawa were bombed by Japanese forces for their hostility.
Recent History
On 4 January 1991, Indian scholar
Triloknath Pandit made the first known friendly contact with the Sentinelese.
Until 1996, the Jarawa met most visitors with flying arrows. From time to time they attacked and killed poachers on the lands reserved to them by the Indian government.
They also killed some workers building the Andaman Trunk Road (ATR), which traverses Jarawa lands. One of the earliest peaceful contacts with the Jarawa occurred in 1996.
Settlers found a teenage Jarawa boy named Emmei near Kadamtala town. The boy was immobilized with a broken foot. They took Emmei to a hospital where he received good care. Over several weeks, Emmei learned a few words of Hindi before returning to his jungle home. The following year, Jarawa individuals and small groups began appearing along roadsides and occasionally venturing into settlements to steal food. The ATR may have interfered with traditional Jarawa food sources.
Culture
Until contact, the Andamanese were strict hunter-gatherers . They did not practice cultivation, and lived off hunting indigenous pigs, fishing, and gathering. Their only weapons were the bow, adzes, and wooden harpoons . Besides the aboriginal people of Tasmania, the Andamanese were the only people who in the nineteenth century knew no method of making fire[dubious ] . They instead carefully preserved embers in hollowed-out trees from fires caused by lightning strikes. They are known as Chadda.
The men wore girldes made of hibiscus fiber which carried useful tools and weapons for
when they went hunting.The women on the other hand wore a tribal dress containing
leaves that were held by a belt. Majority of them had painted bodies as well.
They usually slept on leaves as well, or mats and had either permanent or temporary habitation among the tribes. All habitations were man built. For hunting, different types of methods were used. They survived over thousands of years by hunting and gathering. They made spheres, bows, arrows...etc., specific to what they were hunting. The designing of the various weapons and tools show how their levels of excellence in skill, craftsmanship and creativity were.
Some of the tribe members were credited to having super natural powers. They were called oko-pai-ad, which meant dreamer.
They were thought to have an influence on the members of the tribe and would bring misfortune to those who did not believed in their abilities. Traditional knowledge practitioners were the ones who helped with healthcare. The medicine that was used to cure illnesses were herbal most of the time. Various types of medicinal plants were used by the islanders.77 total traditional knowledge practitioners were identified and 132 medicinal plants were used. the members of the tribes found various ways to use leaves in their everyday lives including clothing, medicine, and to sleep on.
Language
The Andamanese languages are considered to be the fifth language family of India, following the Indo-European, Dravidian, Austroasiatic, and Sino-Tibetan.
While some connections have been
tentatively proposed with other language families, the consensus view is currently that Andamanese languages form a separate language family — or rather, two unrelated linguistic families: Greater Andamanese on the one hand, and Ongan on the other hand.
0 comments:
Post a Comment