Andamanese

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This article is about the Andamanese people. For the languages, see Andamanese languages.

Comparative map showing the distributions of the various Andamanese peoples in the Andaman Islands- early 1800s versus present-day (2004). To be noted is the movement of the Jarawa from their original siting to the western coastlines; the confinement of the Onge and Great Andamanese to isolated settlements, and the complete extinction of the Jangil. Only the Sentinelese territory remains intact.

The Andamanese is a collective term to describe the peoples who are the aboriginal inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal. The term includes the Great Andamanese, Jarawa, Onge, Sentinelese and the extinct Jangil. Anthropologically they are usually classified as Negritos, represented also by the Semang of Malaysia and the Aeta of the Philippines. They have lived on the Andaman Islands for at least 14,000 years and had very little contact with external societies for nearly all this period. This comparatively long-lasting isolation and separation from external influences is perhaps unequalled, except perhaps by the aboriginal inhabitants of Tasmania.

However, this changed in the mid-1800s after the British established penal colonies. Increasing numbers of Indian and Karen settlers arrived, encroaching on former territories of the Andamanese. This proved disastrous for many of the tribes - with no resistance to common diseases, they quickly succumbed to epidemics of pneumonia, measles and influenza. At the time of first contact with the British there were an estimated 5,000 Great Andamanese; today only 41 remain.

Today only the Sentinelese, who live exclusively on North Sentinel Island, have been able to completely maintain their independent state, resisting attempts to contact them. The Jarawa have also managed to remain substantially apart from the later colonisers and settlers; other Andamanese groups have had more extensive contacts, resulting in drastic reductions in territory and numbers, with several peoples becoming extinct altogether.

Until the 19th century, their habit of killing all shipwrecked foreigners and the remoteness of their islands prevented modification of their culture or language. Cultivation was unknown to them, and they lived off of hunting indigenous pigs, fishing, and gathering. Their only weapons were the bow, fishing nets and harpoons. Besides the aboriginal people of Tasmania [1], the Andamanese were the only people who in the 19th century knew no method of making fire, carefully preserving embers in hollowed-out trees from fires caused by lightning strikes.

[edit] See also

• Andamanese languages

[edit] External links

• The Andamanese by George Weber