Andaman Tribes – Culture and Tradition

Andaman Tribes

Andaman Tribes are very famous indigenous people in the world. Still, they are living by following their ancestor’s guidelines. These Andaman Tribes are grouped according to their culture, tradition, and languages. They have been using very different vocal-based languages, which are very ancient. Even though the whole Andaman Tribes are classified into two main categories, they are ‘The Great Andamanese group’ and ‘The Onge, Jarawa and Sentinelese Group’. Anthropologists have classified these tribes as Negrito people.

The Territory of Andaman tribes

The territory of Andaman has covered by various islands. Significantly, the Great Andamanese people have to inhabit significant islands. The Strait island is the mainland for the inhabitation of major tribes of the Andaman Islands. After India gained Independence, the government of India brought the Port Blair Settlement. This settlement caused to decrease in the number of tribal people, and now only in hundreds population of around 52 inhabitants.

Names of Andaman Tribes and lifestyle

Here the powerful tribes’ Onge’ and ‘Jarawa’ are living by understanding each other. Mainly the Onge tribe inhabit the island of Little Andaman, and the Jarawa live in the interior parts of South Andaman forests. The third and rare tribe Sentinelese tribe live on North Sentinel Island. One tribe has been understanding civilisation’s developments and adopting a few things. On the way, they are changing some lifestyles and enjoying a prosperous existence. But Jarawa tribal people are still unaware of the modern world. They are not ready to adopt any sophisticated lifestyle of outer society.

Still, they live in dense forests and are not interested in developing relationships with the outer people or government programmes for their development. They have been living here for thousands of years, and their lifestyle is the best example of how their ancestors lived during the iron age.

Andaman Tribe Onge People’s Lifestyle

The Onge people are concise, and their muscles are well-developed. They are very active; the head is round. Their face is short and broad, their nose is flat, and their lips are very thick. The hair of the head is very dark in colour and shaped in curling. Same the skin is also very dark. The Onge tribal people give preference to decorating their faces and body. Sometimes they mix the clay with red ochre, saliva, and turtle fat and apply the mixture to the whole body. During these occasions, they prefer the decoration of the body.

Onge people worship nature. They depended on the sea and forest for their food. The Onge only eat natural products from the sea and food from the sea. Hunting is their main activity for them. The hunters always hold the bow and arrows. They used two varieties of hands one was to kill the pigs, and another was shooting fish.

They followed the cultural activities. They celebrate the festivals with great enthusiasm. The tribal people dance rhythmically and use their hands to clap in a rhythmical way, which produces beautiful sounds and makes appease.

Jarawa Tribe Culture:

Their language is complicated for others to understand or learn. The speech follows a nine-vowel character system and twenty-six consonants at the phonemic level. Before the 19th century, the homelands were part of the South Andaman Islands. Jarawa Tribe’s physical appearance is solid. However, they had bad habits of taking more Opium, and more quantity of Alcohol—diseases are caused by their surroundings. So most fell ill and died. The subsequent made them migrate to the western Andaman Islands and made those places their homelands.

Andaman Tribes people are very isolated and do not easily mingle with others. Some development has been increasing gradually in their social life due to the efforts of the Government and Social welfare Societies. Due to these efforts, they maintain regular contact with the outside world.

Anyway,ir life is very different compared to modern society. However, they are enjoying their life on their way from the far of the concrete jungle.