The Great Andamanese Body Features

They are dark of skin, so dark as to be almost black, and smooth; woolly haired, with hair so crinkly that it appears to grow in tufts; and short. The average Andaman tribal male of pure descent is recorded as being on the average about 4 feet, 10. inches tall, with a weight of !"lb., and the female 4 feet " inches, and #$lb. A remarkable characteristic is high body temperature, generally near 100 degree %, higher in younger man and in women. Another feature, one which they share with the autochthons of Africa, is steatopygia, the more visible because they remain naked. &nly the women among great Andamanese wearing a girdle of pandanus leaves and among the &nges a tassle of split cane leaves in front. The main adornment is with clay, white clay or red ochre mi'ed with pig or turtle fat, applied to the body in numerous and sometimes intricate geometrical designs that appealed to vanity, and for multifarious reasons, sometime to celebrate a victorious hunt, an event or a feast, sometimes to ward off the ill(effects of overeating.

Origin of The Great Andamanese

)reat Andamanese are most enigmatic of human races. A recent analyses of the Andamanese mitochondrial *+A has confronted their long standing isolation and has corroborated the fact that they are more closely related to the south African ,hoisan-formerly known as .ushman and hottentot/ than to their Asian neighbors, making them a ma0or new argument for the 1&2T &% A%345A1 theory of common human origin. The Andamanese were the first people to fight against the outsiders -.ritishers/ on the island and also the first to come in friendly relation with the outsiders -.ritishers/. 4n 1!"! the Andaman and +icobar Administration settled the wandering Andamanese in a small island called 16trait 4sland1.

The Great Andamanese Territory

4ndigenously the Andamanese aborigines had limited territory. 7embers of one group were almost unaware of details of the neighboring group. 4f a member of one tribe found himself accidentally adrift in his canoe, reaching the beach of another tribe he would be killed. 7ost borders between the territories were fi'ed and one tribe need permission to enter the other region. All the territorial bands can broadly be divided into two vi8. Aryoto-6hore dwellers/ and 9remtaga-%orest dwellers/. The Andamanese tribal groups inhabited the Andaman 4slands from north to south are ,ari, ,ora, .o or Tabo, Teru, ,ede, :uwai, ,ol, ;uckiwar, .alawa and .ea. The Andamanese do not build huts of a permanent nature. The communal hut of )reat Andamanese is almost round. The roof is thatched with varieties of cane leaves, dry leaves and comes down to the ground which becomes also the wall of hut. The hut is supported by the wooden or bamboo piles from inside. The communal hut is simply consisted of a large number of sleeping platforms and fire places. The temporary or semi permanent shelter consists of a sloping thatched roof under which there is a fire place and small sleeping platform.

Food of The Great Andamanese

The )reat Andamanese are indigenously non(<egetarian. Their staple food consists of fish, pig, crab, dugong, shellfish, turtle egg, and tubers etc. ;resently, deer is not found easily in the island. The tribal1s as observed wait for a deer in appropriate season to hunt who often come to the island by swimming from opposite islands. The eggs of birds are also collected to consume. Table 6taple %ood of Andamanese to be created in code

Dress of The Great Andamanese

The )reat Andamanese are presently do not stay naked. +ow women generally wear lungies and blouses but they are sometime seen in either sarees with brassier and blouse or 6alwar(,ami8. 7en wear shorts or lungies with vests and shirts but the young people full trousers with belt and shirts. The men wear belts of bark fiber decorated with small shells while the women wear belts of pandanus leaves with some bark or leaves attached to it with the purpose to cover their breast. ;ainting the face was common in ancient period among the )reat Andamanese. They decorate their bodies with =ig(=ag or other designs with clay paint specially tol( odu, a kind of white clay. 4n the turtle hunting festival young girls decorate their faces with clay. The tribes of 6outh Andaman cut their bodies with small flakes of >uart8 or glass in pattern of =ig(=ag or straight lines running up and down the body or limb. 4n the =ig(=ag design only two lines are made, the cut being incised at obstuse angels to each other1s and thus forming something like our ?dog(tooth? pattern. The making of the pattern depends on the individual test of women cutting them, but the face and ears, genitals, arms, and knee pits are not cut@AB. Comen are ?Tattooed? in the same way as men. The non Andaman groups of tribes have a different system of tattooing. The cut with them made by the men with the head of a pig arrow and are severe and deep. .ut the tradition of making incision on body has been given up by the )reat Andamanese and clay painting could be seen very rarely among them.

Marriage ceremony of The Great Andamanese

The marriage ceremony is simple and has nothing religious about it. As soon as the older of a tribe gets to know that a young couple interested in each others would like to get married, the bride(to(be is taken to a newly built hut. And there she sits while the bridegroom runs away into a 0ungle. After some seeming struggle and feigned hesitation he is persuaded to come back and made to sit in the bride1s lap and that is it. They are now married. The marriage is strictly binding but, after death of either party other can remarry. 5lose consanguineous marriage is forbidden among the )reat Andamanese but marriage with a distant cousin is allowed. 7ost importantly consent of elders is essential for marriage negotiations, though the girl1s and boys opinions are also considered important. The )reat Andamanese do not wear any marriage symbol indigenously. 7arriage is permitted for widows, widowers and divorcees. The practice of child adoption was once common among them but this is rare now for the reason of depopulation.

Rituals /Customs of The Great Andamanese

The )reat Andamanese have retained some traditional customs in life rituals. *uring the advances stage of her pregnancy a women is advised to sleep besides the hearth or open fire in the room. .efore the delivery, a temporary hut is constructed beside the main hut. A fire is kept inside the hut to keep it warm. All the time of the delivery, only elderly females attend on the women. After delivery, the mother is not allowed to do any work for about a fortnight, the child is given a name even before birth; as the nearest male relatives or a friend of the family might re>uest the couple to name their future child after him. 4n this way the )reat Andamanese try to perpetuate their names. &n reaching adolescence, a youth is banned for some time for eating fish of particularly variety of turtle and some other foods. The ban is enforced only for a specific period and ends with ceremony. Adolescent boys are called ,hilmil. An adolescent girl is given a new name, usually that of a flower of a season.

Burial systems of The Great Andamanese

Their burial systems were somewhat >uaint. A dead child is buried under the floor of the parental hut. The period of mourning after a death is three months. 4ndigenously the dead body of an elder generally tied in the tree was marked and festonned with cane leaves and for about three months no one visited the area. *uring the period of mourning which lasted about three months there was no dancing are any other festivity. At the end of it the remains of the corpse was taken down from the tree, the bones were washed, broken into si8eable pieces and used as ornaments. They were supposed to have therapeutic value also, as their mere touch could stop pain and cure disease. .ut now they generally do not shift out of their huts as they are constructed by the local administration with galvani8ed iron sheets and commented floors. %amily is the only unit of social organi8ation among the present day )reat Andamanese. 9arlier a group of families, consisting of 40 to 0 persons used to form a social division which 3edcliff .rown called the ?Docal )roup?.

Livelihood of The Great Andamanese

4n the past hunting, fishing and gathering were the economic activities among the )reat Andamanese. The leader of the hunting and gathering group used to be addressed as er0um. The er0um is not a hereditary positions but it was only the eldest man among the elders who was chosen for the position. ?5anoes are made generally in the month of August and 6eptember and it takes about eight men nearly a fortnight to hallow out a canoe and form the prow. -The prow is for spearing fish and turtle/. They generally select a tree trunk of anything between ten to thirty in length. %irst they remove the bark and then with an edge they shape the e'terior of the canoe as also its prow. After that the interior is scooped out also with an ad8e. At the bottom level the canoes are about one and a half to three inches thick. They always use an outrigger, which helps maintain the balance. The outrigger is attached to a canoe by three or four pieces of wood, which pass through its interior. Chen alongside are shores the canoes are propelled by means of the haft of the harpoon spear which is used for catching fish when in deep water, paddles are used?.

Religion of The Great Andamanese

The religion of the Andmanese is still partial animistic. The )reat Andamanese believe in mythical beings like .iliku, Tarai, ;uluga and *aria, the related legends and mythical powers controlling the natural forces and the Andamanese ?Dau? is the name of an evil spirit. The )reat Andamanese believe that their anger causes storm and rain. ?bilikuE lives in a rock cave located in the 9nglish 4sland. 4n the past they would start collecting roots and fruits only offering the first product of the year to .iliku, a practice that does not e'ist now. There is another spirit called 1Tharaye? by the )reat Andamanese. As per the )reat Andamanese belief, at the beginning, the earth was created and then the plants and the animals. ;uluga -)od/ then created a man named Tomo. As instructed by )od to Adam and 9ve, similarly ;uluga showed a particular garden to Tomo, the first man and told him not to eat the fruit of that garden which owned by Totachemi. ;uluga also guided Tomo how to light fire by rubbing two pieces of 5hom and .el against each other. .efore lighting fire ;uluga asked Tomo to invoke 5hana(.i(.hi -mother of son/. As long as the fire burns, she stays there. ;uluga sent his followers Da(chi and ;unga(au( bhola to Tomo to teach him the process of lighting fire and cooking pig1s meat. ;uluga created a woman to accompany 1Tomo1 whose name was 5han(Aa(9i(Dabadie. 6ome present )reat Andamanese old members say that she came to .id 4sland and there she gave birth to several children. Tomo had two sons and two daughters. The sons were 3iola and 3omila. 4t is ;uluga who taught the )reat Andamanese the art of making bow, arrow and canoe etc. &ne band believes that ;uluga lives with his wife in a big stone house in the sky. Fe is immortal. 4t is also believed that when the )reat Andamanese were learning the things ;uluga lived on 6addle ;eak 7ountain. Fe gave the Adamanese their language the ;uckiwar. The name of this tribe means ?those who talk the original language? or they who speak the Andamanese language. 4t has been believed that -may be >uite correct/ that ;uckiwar was closest to the native tongue. This legend reveals that the )reat Andamanese are aware that they were once have a single language. There is another evil spirit which is called 1:irmu1 by them. 4nstead of worshipping the spirit that )reat Andamanese had practiced some protective measures. They used to pray to their ancestors to do the needful to control the spirit and to protect them from any harm. Among the spirits, the .iliku is the main one. 6trength of such belief is no more prevalent among the tribal youths presently.

)reat Andamanese

)reat Andamanese couple, in an 1#$" photograph.