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[[File:Group of Andaman Men and Women in Costume, Some Wearing Body Paint And with Bows and Arrows, Catching Turtles from Boat on Water.jpg|left|200px|Group of Andamanese [[turtle hunting|hunting turtles]] with bows and arrows.]]
[[File:Group of Andaman Men and Women in Costume, Some Wearing Body Paint And with Bows and Arrows, Catching Turtles from Boat on Water.jpg|left|200px|Group of Andamanese [[turtle hunting|hunting turtles]] with bows and arrows.]]
[[Image:Great Andamanese - two men - 1875.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Two Great Andamanese men, in an 1875 photograph]]
[[Image:Great Andamanese - two men - 1875.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Two Great Andamanese men, in an 1875 photograph]]
The Andamanese's protective isolation changed with the first British colonial presence (in 1789) 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 were likely depopulated by disease within four years (1789-1793AD) of the initial British colonial settlement in 1789.<ref name="venkateswar2004">{{Citation | title=Development and Ethnocide: Colonial Practices in the Andaman Islands | author=Sita Venkateswar | publisher=IWGIA | year=2004 | isbn=8791563046 | url=http://books.google.com/?id=XFETVExNUYgC | quote=''... As I have suggested previously, it is probable that some disease was introduced among the coastal groups by Lieutenant Colebrooke and Blair's first settlement in 1789, resulting in a marked reduction of their population. The four years that the British occupied their initial site on the south-east of South Andaman were sufficient to have decimated the coastal populations of the groups referred to as Jarawa by the Aka-bea-da ...''}}</ref> Epidemics of pneumonia, measles and influenza spread rapidly and extracted heavy tolls, as did alcoholism.<ref name="venkateswar2004" /> By 1875, the Andamanese were already "perilously close to extinction," yet attempts to contact, subdue and co-opt them continued unrelentingly and, in 1888, the British government set in place a policy of "organized gift giving" that has continued in varying forms ever since.<ref name="lee1999">{{Citation | title=The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers | author=Richard B. Lee, Richard Heywood Daly | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=1999 | isbn=052157109X | url=http://books.google.com/?id=5eEASHGLg3MC | quote=''... By 1875, when these peoples were perilously close to extinction, the Andaman cultures came under scientific scrutiny ... In 1888, "friendly relations" were established with Ongees through organized gift giving contacts ... As recently as 1985—92, government contacts have been initiated with Jarawas and Sentinelese through gift-giving, a contact procedure much like that carried out during British rule. ...''}}</ref>
The Andamanese's protective isolation changed with the first British colonial presence (in 1789) 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 were likely depopulated by disease within four years (1789-1793AD) of the initial British colonial settlement in 1789.<ref name="venkateswar2004">{{Citation | title=Development and Ethnocide: Colonial Practices in the Andaman Islands | author=Sita Vedf5gdsrcer4dqwsdw3qag54nkateswar | publisher=IWGIA | year=2004 | isbn=8791563046 | url=http://books.google.com/?id=XFETVExNUYgC | quote=''... As I have suggested previously, it is probable that some disease was introduced among the coastal groups by Lieutenant Colebrooke and Blair's first settlement in 1789, resulting in a marked reduction of their population. The four years that the British occupied their initial site on the south-east of South Andaman were sufficient to have decimated the coastal populations of the groups referred to as Jarawa by the Aka-bea-da ...''}}</ref> Epidemics of pneumonia, measles and influenza spread rapidly and extracted heavy tolls, as did alcoholism.<ref name="venkateswar2004" /> By 1875, the Andamanese were already "perilously close to extinction," yet attempts to contact, subdue and co-opt them continued unrelentingly and, in 1888, the British government set in place a policy of "organized gift giving" that has continued in varying forms ever since.<ref name="lee1999">{{Citation | title=The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers | author=Richard B. Lee, Richard Heywood Daly | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=1999 | isbn=052157109X | url=http://books.google.com/?id=5eEASHGLg3MC | quote=''... By 1875, when these peoples were perilously close to extinction, the Andaman cultures came under scientific scrutiny ... In 1888, "friendly relations" were established with Ongees through organized gift giving contacts ... As recently as 1985—92, government contacts have been initiated with Jarawas and Sentinelese through gift-giving, a contact procedure much like that carried out during British rule. ...''}}</ref>


[[Image:Govt of India - Assam Valley Incident Report.png|left|thumb|200px|An official 1867 British government communication about organizing a punitive expedition against Andamanese tribespeople on [[Little Andaman Island]]]]
[[Image:Govt of India - Assam Valley Incident Report.png|left|thumb|200px|An official 1867 British government communication about organizing a punitive expedition against Andamanese tribespeople on [[Little Andaman Island]]]]

Revision as of 14:52, 18 November 2011

This article is about the Andamanese people. For the languages, see Andamanese languages.
Comparative map showing distributions of various Andamanese tribes in the Andaman Islands - early 1800s versus present-day (2004). Notables:
(a) Rapid depopulation of the original southeastern Jarawa homeland in the 1789-1793 period
(b) Onge and Great Andamanese shrinkage to isolated settlements
(c) Complete Jangil extinction by 1931
(d) Jarawa move to occupy depopulated former west coast homeland of the Great Andamanese
(e) Only the Sentinelese zone is somewhat intact

The Andamanese people are the various aboriginal inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, which is the northern district of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands union territory of India, located in the southeastern part of the Bay of Bengal. They include the Great Andamanese, Jarawa, Onge, Sentinelese, and the extinct Jangil. Anthropologically, they are usually classified as Negritos (sometimes also called Proto-Australoids), represented also by the Semang of Malaysia and the Aeta of the Philippines. Their ancestors are thought to have arrived in the islands 60,000 years ago from coastal India (or crossed over a land bridge from Burma during a glacial period) as part of the first human peopling of India and Southeast Asia, in the initial Great Coastal Migration on what is now the Continental shelf of the northern Indian Ocean that was the first expansion of humanity out of Africa that began 60,000 years ago.[1][2] With very little contact with external societies or each other for nearly all this period the tribes have mutually unintelligible languages. This comparatively long-lasting isolation and separation from external influences is unequaled, except perhaps by the aboriginal inhabitants of Tasmania.

Decline of the populations

Group of Andamanese hunting turtles with bows and arrows.
Group of Andamanese hunting turtles with bows and arrows.
Two Great Andamanese men, in an 1875 photograph

The Andamanese's protective isolation changed with the first British colonial presence (in 1789) 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 were likely depopulated by disease within four years (1789-1793AD) of the initial British colonial settlement in 1789.[3] Epidemics of pneumonia, measles and influenza spread rapidly and extracted heavy tolls, as did alcoholism.[3] By 1875, the Andamanese were already "perilously close to extinction," yet attempts to contact, subdue and co-opt them continued unrelentingly and, in 1888, the British government set in place a policy of "organized gift giving" that has continued in varying forms ever since.[4]

An official 1867 British government communication about organizing a punitive expedition against Andamanese tribespeople on Little Andaman Island

There is evidence that some sections of the British Indian administration were deliberately working to annihilate the tribes.[5] After the mid-19th century, British also 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. At the time of first contact with the British there were an estimated 5,000 Great Andamanese. By 1901, 600 were left.[6] By 1927 (about 20 years prior to Indian independence), only 100 survivors remained.[7] Around independence, the number had shrunk to 25.[8] Fourteen years after independence, in 1961, only 19 remained. The numbers have rebounded somewhat and today about 50 remain,[2] which is still far too small for a self-sustaining society. The Aka-Kol of Middle Andaman were extinct by 1921.[8] The last Jangil (also known as the Rutland Jarawa) were sighted in 1907, and were assumed extinct by 1931, as were the Oko-Juwoi.[8] Today only the Sentinelese, who live exclusively on North Sentinel Island, have been able to completely maintain their status as an independent, self-sufficient population, resisting attempts to contact them.

Until the late 18th century, their habit of killing all shipwrecked foreigners and the remoteness of their islands prevented modification of their culture or language. With the arrival of the British, this began to result in severe reprisals: in the 1867 Andaman Islands Expedition, dozens of Onge were killed by British naval personnel, which resulted in four Victoria Crosses for the British soldiers.[7][9][10] In the 1940s, the Jarawa were bombed by Japanese forces for their hostility.[8]

Cultivation was unknown to the Andamanese, and they 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 19th century knew no method of making fire, carefully preserving embers in hollowed-out trees from fires caused by lightning strikes.

Genetic legacy

Human migration map based on mitochondrial DNA. Note the route of the mtDNA haplogroup M through the Indian mainland and the Andaman Islands, possibly on to Southeast Asia.

The Andamans are theorized to be a part of the great coastal migration of humans from Africa along the coastal regions of the Indian mainland and towards Southeast Asia, Japan and Oceania.[1] Genetic analysis of the Andamans has included nuclear DNA[11] and haplotype DNA, both that inherited through the female line (mitochondrial DNA)[12] and the male line (Y chromosomes).[1]

The Andamanese belong to the broad Y-chromosome lineage designated as M130 (haplogroup C) by Spencer Wells,[1] who leads the Genographic Project. This is the lineage that seems to have emigrated from East Africa at least 50,000 years ago along the south coast of Asia eastwards to Australia. Within this lineage, the Andamanese (Onges and Jarawas) belong almost exclusively to the subtype designated Haplotype D, which is also common in Tibet and Japan, but rare on the Indian mainland.[13] However, this is a subclade of the D haplogroup which has not been seen outside of the Andamans, marking the insularity of these tribes.[14] The only other group that is known to predominantly belong to haplogroup D are the Ainu aboriginal people of Japan.[15] Male Great Andamanese, on the other hand, have a mixed presence of Y-chromosome haplogroups O, L, K and P, which places them between mainland Indian and Asian populations.[14]

The mitochondrial DNA haplogroup distribution, which indicates maternal descent, confirms these results. All Andamanese belong to the subgroup M[12] which is widely distributed in the Indian subcontinent, but uncommon in Africa and other areas west of India.[16] Furthermore, they belong to subgroups M2 and M4, which both occur frequently throughout India.[14][17] On the Andamans, M4 occurs as a subtype also seen on the Indian mainland, whereas M2 occurs in two subgroups (M2 haplotypes 16344T and 16357C) that have not been observed on the mainland and are presumed unique to the Andamanese.[12] This implies a long history of the Andamanese on the islands, which would allow the time for insulated local genetic development. Since the M2 and M4 lineages diverged 60,000-30,000 years before present and both occur outside the Andamans, it is likely that the Andaman islands were originally colonized by two different groups, which have kept separate for tens of thousands of years.[12]

The results concerning nuclear DNA stress the uniqueness of the Andamanese people.[11] First, they show a very small genetic variation, which is indicative of populations that have experienced a population bottleneck and then developed in isolation for a long period. Second, an allele has been discovered among the Jarawas which is found nowhere else in the world. Third, they present no specific affinity to any other population in the world. This has led some geneticists to conclude that the Andamanese "seem to have remained in isolation for a much longer period than any known ancient population of the world." A likely causal explanation for their uniqueness is that the Andamanese are the surviving descendants of early human migrants from Africa who remained genetically isolated in their habitat in the Andaman Islands since their arrival.[11] This is in contrast to the neighboring Nicobarese, who are believed to mostly descend from more recent immigrants from mainland Asia.[12]

Some anthropologists postulate that Southern India and Southeast Asia was once populated largely by Negritos similar to those of the Andamans,[1][18] and that some tribal populations in the south of India, such as the Irulas are remnants of that period.[19][20] A 2009 genetic study of Indian populations that traced most South Asian ethnicities to genomic contributions from two original founding populations also found that, of all modern-day Indians, only the Andamanese possess Ancestral South Indian lineage without admixture of any Ancestral North Indian genetic heritage.[21][22]

Unlike some Negrito populations of Southeast Asia, Andaman Islanders have been found to have no Denisovan ancestry.[23]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Spencer Wells (2002), The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey, Princeton University Press, ISBN 069111532X, ... the population of south-east Asia prior to 6000 years ago was composed largely of groups of hunter-gatherers very similar to modern Negritos ... So, both the Y-chromosome and the mtDNA paint a clear picture of a coastal leap from Africa to south-east Asia, and onward to Australia ... DNA has given us a glimpse of the voyage, which almost certainly followed a coastal route va India ...
  2. ^ a b Anvita Abbi (2006), Endangered Languages of the Andaman Islands, Lincom Europa, ... to Myanmar by a land bridge during the ice ages, and it is possible that the ancestors of the Andamanese reached the islands without crossing the sea ... The latest figure in 2005 is 50 in all ...
  3. ^ a b Sita Vedf5gdsrcer4dqwsdw3qag54nkateswar (2004), Development and Ethnocide: Colonial Practices in the Andaman Islands, IWGIA, ISBN 8791563046, ... As I have suggested previously, it is probable that some disease was introduced among the coastal groups by Lieutenant Colebrooke and Blair's first settlement in 1789, resulting in a marked reduction of their population. The four years that the British occupied their initial site on the south-east of South Andaman were sufficient to have decimated the coastal populations of the groups referred to as Jarawa by the Aka-bea-da ...{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ Richard B. Lee, Richard Heywood Daly (1999), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 052157109X, ... By 1875, when these peoples were perilously close to extinction, the Andaman cultures came under scientific scrutiny ... In 1888, "friendly relations" were established with Ongees through organized gift giving contacts ... As recently as 1985—92, government contacts have been initiated with Jarawas and Sentinelese through gift-giving, a contact procedure much like that carried out during British rule. ...
  5. ^ Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Francesco Cavalli-Sforza (1995), The Great Human Diasporas: The History of Diversity and Evolution, Basic Books, ISBN 0201442310, ... Contact with whites, and the British in particular, has virtually destroyed them. Illness, alcohol, and the will of the colonials all played their part; the British governor of the time mentions in his diary that he received instructions to destroy them with alcohol and opium. He succeeded completely with one group. The others reacted violently ...
  6. ^ Jayanta Sarkar (1990), The Jarawa, Anthropological Survey of India, ISBN 8170460808, ... The Great Andamanese population was large till 1858 when it started declining ... In 1901, their number was reduced to only 600 and in 1961 to a mere 19 ...
  7. ^ a b Madhusree Mukerjee (2003), The Land of Naked People, Houghton Mifflin Books, ISBN 0618197362, ... In 1927 Egon Freiherr von Eickstedt, a German anthropologist, found that around one hundred Great Andamanese survived, "in dirty, half-closed huts, which primarily contain cheap European household effects." ...
  8. ^ a b c d George van Driem (2001), Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region : Containing an Introduction to the Symbiotic Theory of Language, BRILL, ISBN 9004120629, ... The Aka-Kol tribe of Middle Andaman went extinct by 1921. The Oko-Juwoi of Middle Andaman and the Aka-Bea of South Andaman and Rutland Island were extinct by 1931. The Akar-Bale of Ritchie's Archipelago, the Aka-Kede of Middle Andaman and the A-Pucikwar of South Andaman Island soon followed. By 1951, the census counted a total of only 23 Greater Andamanese and 10 Sentinelese. That means that just ten men, twelve women and one child remained of the Aka-Kora, Aka-Cari and Aka-Jeru tribes of Greater Andaman and only ten natives of North Sentinel Island ...
  9. ^ "No. 23333". The London Gazette. 1867-12-17.
  10. ^ Laxman Prasad Mathur (2003), Kala Pani: History of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, with a Study of Indiaʼs Freedom Struggle, Eastern Book Corporation, Snippet: ... Immediately afterwards in another visit to Little Andaman to trace the sailors of a ship named 'Assam Valley' wrecked on its coast, Homfray's party was attacked by a large group of Onges ...
  11. ^ a b c V. K. Kashyap, Sitalaximi T., B. N. Sarkar, R. Trivedi1 (2003), "Molecular Relatedness of The Aboriginal Groups of Andaman and Nicobar Islands with Similar Ethnic Populations" (PDF), International Journal of Human Genetics, 3(1): 5-11 (2003), retrieved 2009-06-08, ... the Negrito populations of Andaman Islands have remained in isolation ... the Andamanese are more closely related to other Asians than to modern day Africans ... the Nicobarese exhibiting a close affinity with geographically proximate Indo-Mongoloid populations of Northeast India ...{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ a b c d e M. Phillip Endicott, Thomas P. Gilbert, Chris Stringer, Carles Lalueza-Fox, Eske Willerslev, Anders J. Hansen, Alan Cooper (2003), "The Genetic Origins of the Andaman Islanders" (PDF), American Journal of Human Genetics, 72 (1): 178–184, doi:10.1086/345487, PMC 378623, PMID 12478481, retrieved 2009-04-21, ... The HVR-1 data separate them into two lineages, identified on the Indian mainland (Bamshad et al. 2001) as M4 and M2 ... The Andamanese M2 contains two haplotypes ... developed in situ, after an early colonization ... Alternatively, it is possible that the haplotypes have become extinct in India or are present at a low frequency and have not yet been sampled, but, in each case, an early settlement of the Andaman Islands by an M2-bearing population is implied ... The Andaman M4 haplotype ... is still present among populations in India, suggesting it was subject to the late Pleistocene population expansions ...{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ Y-DNA Haplogroup D and its Subclades - 2008
  14. ^ a b c Kumarasamy Thangaraj, Lalji Singh, Alla G. Reddy, V. Raghavendra Rao, Subhash C. Sehgal, Peter A. Underhill, Melanie Pierson, Ian G. Frame, and Erika Hagelberg (2002), Genetic Affinities of the Andaman Islanders, a Vanishing Human Population (PDF), retrieved 2008-11-16, ... Our data indicate that the Andamanese have closer affinities to Asian than to African populations and suggest that they are the descendants of the early Palaeolithic colonizers of Southeast Asia ... All Onge and Jarawa had the same binary haplotype D ... Great Andaman males had five different binary haplotypes, found previously in Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and Melanesia ...{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ Tajima, Atsushi (2004), "Genetic origins of the Ainu inferred from combined DNA analyses of maternal and paternal lineages", Journal of Human Genetics, 49 (4): 187–193, doi:10.1007/s10038-004-0131-x, PMID 14997363. {{citation}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  16. ^ Michael D. Petraglia, Bridget Allchin (2007), The evolution and history of human populations in South Asia, Springer, ISBN 1402055617, ... As haplogroup M, except for the African sub-clade M1, is not notably present in regions west of the Indian subcontinent, while it covers the majority of Indian mtDNA variation ...
  17. ^ Revathi Rajkumar et al., Phylogeny and antiquity of M macrohaplogroup inferred from complete mt DNA sequence of Indian specific lineages, BMC Evolutionary Biology 2005, 5:26 doi:10.1186/1471-2148-5-26
  18. ^ Jim Mason (2005), An Unnatural Order: The Roots of Our Destruction of Nature, Lantern Books, ISBN 1590560817, ... Australia's "aboriginal" peoples are another case in point. At the end of the Ice Age, their homeland stretched from the middle of India eastward into southeast Asia and as far south as Indonesia and nearby islands. As agriculture spread from its centers in southeast Asia, these pre-Australoid forager people moved farther southward to New Guinea and Australia. ...
  19. ^ K.V. Zvelebil (1982), The Irula language, O. Harrassowitz, ISBN 3447022477, ... into the low jungles of the Nilgiris (such movement might have been instigated eg by the advancing Australoids pushing out an earlier pre-Australoid ...
  20. ^ Stephen Fuchs (1974), The Aboriginal Tribes of India, Macmillan India, ... Guha thinks that the Negritos were the earliest racial element in India. He believes that the Kadar, Irulas and Panyans of south India have a Negrito strain, even though he admits that they are not pure Negritos ...
  21. ^ David Reich, Kumarasamy Thangaraj, Nick Patterson, Alkes Price, Lalji Singh (Vol 461, 24 September 2009), "Reconstructing Indian population history" (PDF), Nature, ... two ancient populations, genetically divergent, that are ancestral to most Indians today. One, the 'Ancestral North Indians' (ANI), is genetically close to Middle Easterners, Central Asians, and Europeans, whereas the other, the 'Ancestral South Indians' (ASI), is as distinct from ANI and East Asians as they are from each other ... {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  22. ^ Richard F. Nyrop (Oct 2, 2009), "Genetics Weaves Tapestry of Indian Heritage", Focus: News from Harvard Medical, Dental and Public Health Schools, ... nearly all Indians alive today carry various mixtures of genomic contribution from the two ancient populations. One group the authors call "Ancestral North Indians" is genetically most similar to western Eurasians (including Europeans) and accounts for 40 to 80 percent of the ancestry found in the Indian genomes. The rest comes from the "Ancestral South Indians," a distinct population not closely related to populations anywhere else in the world. ... The only exception to the mixed ancestries of all Indians came from the Andaman Islanders, who have exclusive descent from the Ancestral South Indian lineage ...
  23. ^ Choi, Charles (September 22, 2011), Now-Extinct Relative Had Sex with Humans Far and Wide, LiveScience
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