Andamanese - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Andamanese people are the various aboriginal inhabitants

Indigenous peoples

Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....

of the Andaman Islands

Andaman Islands

The Andaman Islands are a group of Indian Ocean archipelagic islands in the Bay of Bengal between India to the west, and Burma , to the north and east...

, which is the northern district of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands union territory

Union Territory

A Union Territory is a sub-national administrative division of India, in the federal framework of governance. Unlike the states of India, which have their own elected governments, union territories are ruled directly by the federal government; the President of India appoints an Administrator or...

of India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, located in the southeastern part of the Bay of Bengal

Bay of Bengal

The Bay of Bengal , the largest bay in the world, forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. It resembles a triangle in shape, and is bordered mostly by the Eastern Coast of India, southern coast of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to the west and Burma and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the...

. They include the Great Andamanese

Great Andamanese

Great Andamanese is a collective term used to refer to related indigenous peoples who lived throughout most of the Great Andaman archipelago, the main and closely situated group of islands in the Andaman Islands. Numbering between 200 and 700, each of the Great Andamanese peoples maintained a...

, Jarawa

Jarawa (Andaman Islands)

The Jarawa are one of the adivasi indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands. Their present numbers are estimated at between 250-350 individuals. Since they have largely shunned interactions with outsiders, many particulars of their society, culture and traditions are poorly understood...

, Onge

Onge

The Onge , also Önge or Ongee, are one of the Andamanese adivasi indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal. They are sometimes classified as "Negritos". They were formerly distributed across Little Andaman Island and the nearby islets, with some territory and camps...

, Sentinelese, and the extinct Jangil

Jangil

The Jangil were one of the Andamanese indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal. They were formerly distributed through the interior of Rutland Island, and were given the name Rutland Jarawa because it was supposed that they were related to the neighbouring Jarawa...

. Anthropologically

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

, they are usually classified as Negrito

Negrito

The Negrito are a class of several ethnic groups who inhabit isolated parts of Southeast Asia.Their current populations include 12 Andamanese peoples of the Andaman Islands, six Semang peoples of Malaysia, the Mani of Thailand, and the Aeta, Agta, Ati, and 30 other peoples of the Philippines....

s (sometimes also called Proto-Australoid

Proto-Australoid

The Proto-Australoids are a hypothesized group of ancient hunter-gather people descended from the first major wave of modern humans to leave sub-Saharan Africa ~100,000 years ago...

s), represented also by the Semang

Semang

The Semang are a Negrito ethnic group of the Malay Peninsula. Lowland Semang tribes are also known as Sakai, although this term is considered to be derogatory by the Semang people. They are probably the indigenous peoples of this area. They have been recorded to have lived here since before the...

of Malaysia and the Aeta

Aeta

The Aeta , Agta or Ayta are an indigenous people who live in scattered, isolated mountainous parts of Luzon, Philippines. They are considered to be Negritos, who are dark to very dark brown-skinned and tend to have features such as a small stature, small frame, curly to kinky afro-like textured...

of the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

. Their ancestors are thought to have arrived in the island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

s 60,000 years ago from coastal India

Coastal India

Coastal India is a geo-cultural region in the Indian Subcontinent that spans entire Coastline of India.-Region:Coastal India spans from the south west Indian coastline along the Arabian sea from the coastline of the Gulf of Kutch in its western most corner and stretches across the Gulf of Khambhat,...

(or crossed over a land bridge

Land bridge

A land bridge, in biogeography, is an isthmus or wider land connection between otherwise separate areas, over which animals and plants are able to cross and colonise new lands...

from Burma during a glacial period

Glacial period

A glacial period is an interval of time within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate within an ice age...

) as part of the first human peopling of India and Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...

, in the initial Great Coastal Migration on what is now the Continental shelf

Continental shelf

The continental shelf is the extended perimeter of each continent and associated coastal plain. Much of the shelf was exposed during glacial periods, but is now submerged under relatively shallow seas and gulfs, and was similarly submerged during other interglacial periods. The continental margin,...

of the northern Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...

that was the first expansion of humanity out of Africa that began 60,000 years ago. 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

Tasmanian Aborigines

The Tasmanian Aborigines were the indigenous people of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Before British colonisation in 1803, there were an estimated 3,000–15,000 Parlevar. A number of historians point to introduced disease as the major cause of the destruction of the full-blooded...

Decline of the populations

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. Epidemics of pneumonia, measles and influenza spread rapidly and extracted heavy tolls, as did alcoholism. 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.

There is evidence that some sections of the British Indian administration were deliberately working to annihilate the tribes. After the mid-19th century, British

British Raj

British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

also established penal colonies

Penal colony

A penal colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general populace by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory...

on the islands, and an increasing numbers of mainland India

India

n and Karen

Karen people

The Karen or Kayin people , are a Sino-Tibetan language speaking ethnic group which resides primarily in southern and southeastern Burma . The Karen make up approximately 7 percent of the total Burmese population of approximately 50 million people...

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. 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. The Aka-Kol of Middle Andaman were extinct by 1921. The last Jangil (also known as the Rutland Jarawa) were sighted in 1907, and were assumed extinct by 1931, as were the Oko-Juwoi. Today only the Sentinelese, who live exclusively on North Sentinel Island

North Sentinel Island

North 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. Most of the island is forested...

, 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

Andaman Islands Expedition

The Andaman Islands Expedition was a British expedition to the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal, India. For actions during the expedition, five soldiers of the 24th Regiment of Foot were awarded Victoria Crosses...

, dozens of Onge were killed by British naval personnel, which resulted in four Victoria Cross

Victoria Cross

The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....

es for the British soldiers. In the 1940s, the Jarawa were bombed by Japanese forces for their hostility.

Cultivation

Tillage

Tillage is the agricultural preparation of the soil by mechanical agitation of various types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning. Examples of human-powered tilling methods using hand tools include shovelling, picking, mattock work, hoeing, and raking...

was unknown to the Andamanese, and they lived off hunting indigenous pigs, fishing, and gathering. Their only weapons were the bow

Bow (weapon)

The bow and arrow is a projectile weapon system that predates recorded history and is common to most cultures.-Description:A bow is a flexible arc that shoots aerodynamic projectiles by means of elastic energy. Essentially, the bow is a form of spring powered by a string or cord...

, adze

Adze

An adze is a tool used for smoothing or carving rough-cut wood in hand woodworking. Generally, the user stands astride a board or log and swings the adze downwards towards his feet, chipping off pieces of wood, moving backwards as they go and leaving a relatively smooth surface behind...

s and wooden harpoon

Harpoon

A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument used in fishing to catch fish or large marine mammals such as whales. It accomplishes this task by impaling the target animal, allowing the fishermen to use a rope or chain attached to the butt of the projectile to catch the animal...

s. 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

The Andamans are theorized to be a part of the great coastal migration

Coastal Migration

Coastal Migration is a term sometimes used in modern anthropology and genetics for the concept that, from a single origin in Africa 100-200 thousand years before present, early human migrations first spread eastwards to areas outside Africa along routes that were predominantly located around...

of humans from Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

along the coastal regions of the Indian mainland and towards Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

and Oceania

Oceania

Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...

.
Genetic analysis of the Andamans has included nuclear DNA and haplotype DNA, both that inherited through the female line (mitochondrial DNA

Mitochondrial DNA

Mitochondrial DNA is the DNA located in organelles called mitochondria, structures within eukaryotic cells that convert the chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, adenosine triphosphate...

) and the male line (Y chromosomes).

The Andamanese belong to the broad Y-chromosome lineage designated as M130 (haplogroup C

Haplogroup C (Y-DNA)

In human genetics, Haplogroup C is a Y-chromosome haplogroup, defined by UEPs M130/RPS4Y711, M216, P184, P255, and P260, which are all SNP mutations. It is a sibling clade of Haplogroup F, within the more ancient grouping of Haplogroup CF...

) by Spencer Wells

Spencer Wells

Spencer Wells is a geneticist and anthropologist, an at the National Geographic Society, and Frank H.T. Rhodes Class of '56 Professor at Cornell University. He leads The Genographic Project.-Education:...

, who leads the Genographic Project. This is the lineage that seems to have emigrated from East Africa

East Africa

East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...

at least 50,000 years ago along the south coast of Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

eastwards to Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. Within this lineage, the Andamanese (Onges and Jarawas) belong almost exclusively to the subtype designated Haplotype D

Haplogroup D (Y-DNA)

In human genetics, Haplogroup D is a Y-chromosome haplogroup. Both D and E lineages also exhibit the single-nucleotide polymorphism M168 which is present in all Y-chromosome haplogroups except A and B, as well as the YAP unique-event polymorphism, which is unique to Haplogroup...

, which is also common in Tibet

Tibet

Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...

and Japan

Japan

, but rare on the Indian mainland. However, this is a subclade of the D haplogroup which has not been seen outside of the Andamans, marking the insularity of these tribes. The only other group that is known to predominantly belong to haplogroup D are the Ainu aboriginal people

Ainu people

The , also called Aynu, Aino , and in historical texts Ezo , are indigenous people or groups in Japan and Russia. Historically they spoke the Ainu language and related varieties and lived in Hokkaidō, the Kuril Islands, and much of Sakhalin...

of Japan. Male Great Andamanese, on the other hand, have a mixed presence of Y-chromosome haplogroups O

Haplogroup O (Y-DNA)

In human genetics, Haplogroup O is a Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup. Haplogroup O is a close cladistic brother group with Haplogroup N, and is one of several descendants of Haplogroup K ....

, L

Haplogroup L (Y-DNA)

In human genetics, Haplogroup L is a Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup.-Origins:Haplogroup L is associated with South Asia. It has also been found at low frequencies among populations of Central Asia, Southwest Asia, and Southern Europe along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea...

, K

Haplogroup K (Y-DNA)

In human genetics, Haplogroup K is a Human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup. This haplogroup is a descendant of Haplogroup IJK. Its major descendant haplogroups are Haplogroup LT and Haplogroup K...

and P

Haplogroup P (Y-DNA)

In human genetics, Haplogroup P is a Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup.This haplogroup contains the patrilineal ancestors of most Europeans and almost all of the indigenous peoples of the Americas...

, which places them between mainland Indian and Asian populations.

The mitochondrial DNA

Mitochondrial DNA

haplogroup distribution, which indicates maternal descent, confirms these results. All Andamanese belong to the subgroup M

Haplogroup M (mtDNA)

In human mitochondrial genetics, Haplogroup M is a human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup. An enormous haplogroup spanning all the continents, the macro-haplogroup M, like its sibling N, is a descendant of haplogroup L3....

which is widely distributed in the Indian subcontinent

Indian subcontinent

The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...

, but uncommon in Africa and other areas west of India. Furthermore, they belong to subgroups M2 and M4, which both occur frequently throughout India. 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. 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.

The results concerning nuclear DNA stress the uniqueness of the Andamanese people. First, they show a very small genetic variation, which is indicative of populations that have experienced a population bottleneck

Population bottleneck

A population bottleneck is an evolutionary event in which a significant percentage of a population or species is killed or otherwise prevented from reproducing....

and then developed in isolation for a long period. Second, an allele

Allele

An allele is one of two or more forms of a gene or a genetic locus . "Allel" is an abbreviation of allelomorph. Sometimes, different alleles can result in different observable phenotypic traits, such as different pigmentation...

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. This is in contrast to the neighboring Nicobarese, who are believed to mostly descend from more recent immigrants from mainland Asia.

Some anthropologists postulate that Southern India and Southeast Asia was once populated largely by Negritos similar to those of the Andamans, and that some tribal populations in the south of India, such as the Irulas

Irulas

Irulas are a scheduled tribe of India. Irulas are present in various parts of India, but are mainly located in the Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu...

are remnants of that period. 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.

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

External links

The Andamanese by George Weber
News by Survival International
Videos by Survival International
Survival International
Survival International is a human rights organisation formed in 1969 that campaigns for the rights of indigenous tribal peoples and uncontacted peoples, seeking to help them to determine their own future. Their campaigns generally focus on tribal peoples' fight to keep their ancestral lands,...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Decline of the populations

Genetic legacy

See also

External links