Great Andamanese (
HindiStandard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a standardised register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 languages with official status in India, and is used, along with English, for administration of the central government.Standard Hindi is a sanskritised register derived...
: अण्डमानी) is a collective term used to refer to related groups or
tribeA tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states.Many anthropologists use the term to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially corporate descent groups .Some theorists hold that...
s of
indigenous peoplesThe term indigenous peoples can be used to describe any ethnic group of people who inhabit a geographic region with which they have the earliest known historical connection, alongside more recent immigrants who have populated the region and may be greater in number...
who lived throughout most of the
Great AndamanGreat Andaman is the main archipelago of the Andaman Islands of India. It comprises five major islands. From north to south, these are North Andaman, Middle Andaman, South Andaman, Baratang and Rutland Island...
archipelagoAn archipelago is a chain or cluster of islands that are formed tectonically. The word archipelago is directly derived from the Greek arkhon and pelagos...
, the main and closely-situated group of
islandAn island or isle is any piece of land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls are called islets. A key or cay is another name for a small island or islet. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot, .There are two main types of islands:...
s in the
Andaman IslandsThe Andaman Islands are a group of archipelagic islands in the Bay of Bengal, and are part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Union Territory of India. The Andaman Archipelago is an oceanic continuation of the Burmese Arakan Yoma range in the North and of the Indonesian Archipelago in the South...
. Their collective identity is put forward mainly on the basis of their cultural similarity and of
linguisticLinguistics is the scientific study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of meaning...
analysis; the
languageA language is a system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using...
s spoken by the different groups were (from what is known) clearly related, and formed one of the two identified
familiesA language family is a group of languages related by descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family.As with biological families, the evidence of relationship is observable shared characteristics...
or subgroups of indigenous
Andamanese languagesThe Andamanese languages form a proposed language family spoken by the Andamanese peoples of the Andaman Islands, a union territory of India. There are two clusters of Andamanese languages, Great Andamanese and Ongan, plus Sentinelese, which is unknown and therefore unclassifiable.- History :The...
(the
Great AndamaneseThe Great Andamanese languages are a nearly extinct language family spoken by the Great Andamanese peoples of the Andaman Islands, a union territory of India.- History :...
family).
Great Andamanese (
HindiStandard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a standardised register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 languages with official status in India, and is used, along with English, for administration of the central government.Standard Hindi is a sanskritised register derived...
: अण्डमानी) is a collective term used to refer to related groups or
tribeA tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states.Many anthropologists use the term to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially corporate descent groups .Some theorists hold that...
s of
indigenous peoplesThe term indigenous peoples can be used to describe any ethnic group of people who inhabit a geographic region with which they have the earliest known historical connection, alongside more recent immigrants who have populated the region and may be greater in number...
who lived throughout most of the
Great AndamanGreat Andaman is the main archipelago of the Andaman Islands of India. It comprises five major islands. From north to south, these are North Andaman, Middle Andaman, South Andaman, Baratang and Rutland Island...
archipelagoAn archipelago is a chain or cluster of islands that are formed tectonically. The word archipelago is directly derived from the Greek arkhon and pelagos...
, the main and closely-situated group of
islandAn island or isle is any piece of land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls are called islets. A key or cay is another name for a small island or islet. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot, .There are two main types of islands:...
s in the
Andaman IslandsThe Andaman Islands are a group of archipelagic islands in the Bay of Bengal, and are part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Union Territory of India. The Andaman Archipelago is an oceanic continuation of the Burmese Arakan Yoma range in the North and of the Indonesian Archipelago in the South...
. Their collective identity is put forward mainly on the basis of their cultural similarity and of
linguisticLinguistics is the scientific study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of meaning...
analysis; the
languageA language is a system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using...
s spoken by the different groups were (from what is known) clearly related, and formed one of the two identified
familiesA language family is a group of languages related by descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family.As with biological families, the evidence of relationship is observable shared characteristics...
or subgroups of indigenous
Andamanese languagesThe Andamanese languages form a proposed language family spoken by the Andamanese peoples of the Andaman Islands, a union territory of India. There are two clusters of Andamanese languages, Great Andamanese and Ongan, plus Sentinelese, which is unknown and therefore unclassifiable.- History :The...
(the
Great AndamaneseThe Great Andamanese languages are a nearly extinct language family spoken by the Great Andamanese peoples of the Andaman Islands, a union territory of India.- History :...
family). The Andaman Islands are located off the coast of India.
Population decimation
By the time the
BritishThe British Raj was the British colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; it can also refer to the period of dominion, and even the region under the rule...
established a permanent settlement and
penal colonyA penal colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general populace by locating them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory...
in the Andaman Islands (the 1860s), there were 10 distinct linguistic/territorial groups of Great Andamanese, who had persisted on these islands for thousands of years largely untouched by external influences. They numbered an estimated 5,000 individuals. However, the British government made proactive attempts to pacify and coopt the tribes, recruiting them to capture escaped mainlander convicts and, even as tribal population went into sharp decline, contact was intensified. They were rapidly introduced to the outside world and, in a short timespan, moved from a stone-age existence to extensive exposure to the industrial era. The migration of mainland settlers to the islands accelerated this decline. By 1901, 600 were left. By 1927 (about 20 years prior to Indian independence), only 100 survivors remained. Around independence, the number had shrunk to 25. Fourteen years after independence, in 1961, only 19 remained. The numbers have rebounded somewhat and today about 50 remain, which is still far too small for a self-sustaining society. They now live on the small
Strait islandStrait Island is a tribal reservation in a Union territory of India.-Description:Strait Island is a small island of 2 km2 located in South Andaman, Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Strait is a small, comma-shaped, and forested island, known for its caves of birds' nests and plentiful deer...
, and the cultural and linguistic identities of the individual groups have largely been lost.
Tribal divisions
The Great Andamanese peoples are collectively distinguished from other indigenous Andamanese groups by culture, geography and language. The peoples that originally lived in the southern part of Great Andaman - some areas of
South Andaman IslandSouth Andaman Island is the southernmost island of the Great Andaman and is home to the majority of the population of the Andaman Islands. Port Blair, the capital of the islands, is located on the southern part of this island. Some areas of the island are restricted areas for non-Indians; however,...
and
Rutland IslandRutland Island is an island located across the Macpherson Strait from South Andaman Island. As one of the Andaman Islands, Rutland I forms the southernmost main island of the closely-situated Great Andaman archipelago. It is separated from Little Andaman by the Duncan Passage...
- as well as Little Andaman Island and
North Sentinel IslandNorth Sentinel Island is one of the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. It lies to the west of the southern part of South Andaman Island, and has an area of 72 km²...
, speak languages which are classified in a separate family of Andamanese languages,
OnganOngan, or South Andamanese, is a small family of two languages, Önge and Jarawa, spoken in the southern Andaman Islands:*Ongan**Önge or Onge; 96 speakers in 1997, mostly monolingual...
.
The 10 distinct Great Andamanese groups were generally distributed in territories which "partitioned off" segments ranging along the narrow archipelago of Great Andaman, which runs essentially in a north-south line for approximately 350 km, but is only some 50 km at its widest extent. This peculiar geography meant that groups typically had at most three sets of neighbouring tribes. Roughly arranged from north to south, the different Great Andamanese peoples were:
- Aka-Cari
- Aka-Kora
- Aka-Bo
- Aka-Jeru
- Aka-Kede
- Aka-Kol
- Oko-Juwoi
- A-Pucikwar
The A-Pucikwar were one of the indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal, and which form part of the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India....
- Akar-Bale
- Aka-Bea