Andamanese

From Freepedia

The Andamanese is a collective term to describe the peoples who are the aboriginal inhabitants of the Andaman Islands and Nicobar Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal. Anthropologically they are often classified as Negritos, represented also by the Semang of Malaysia and the Pygmies 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.

However from the mid-1800s onwards, after the initial penal colonies were established by the British increasing numbers of Indian and Karen (Burmese) settlers arrived, encroaching on former territories of the Andamanese. 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 to kill all shipwrecked foreigners and the remoteness of their islands preserved them from any modification of their culture or language. Cultivation was unknown to them, and they lived off of hunting indigenous pigs, fishing, and gathering. Their only weapon was the bow, and used nets and harpoons for fishing. 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.