Tribes
The five major groups found by the European colonists were
- Great Andamanese - now about 54
- Jarawa now estimated 250 to 400
- Jangil, or Rutland Jarawa - extinct
- Onge - now less than 100
- Sentinelese now estimated to be 100 to 200.
By the end of the 18th century there were an estimated 5,000 Great Andamanese living on Great Andaman, comprising 10 distinct tribes with distinct languages. The population quickly dwindled, reaching a low of 19 by 1961. and has increased slowly after that, following their move to a reservation on Strait Island. By January 2011, there were still only 54 individual from three tribes, who spoke mostly Hindi.
The Jarawa originally inhabited southeastern Jarawa Island, and have migrated to the west coast of Great Andaman in the wake of the Great Andamanese. The Onge once lived throughout Little Andaman and are now confined to two reservations on the island. The Jangil, who origially inhabited Rutland Island, were extinct by 1931; the last individual was sighted in 1907. Only the Sentinelese are still living in their original homeland on North Sentinel Island, largely undisturbed, and have fiercely resisted all attempts at contact.
Read more about this topic: Andamanese People
Famous quotes containing the word tribes:
“A stranger came one night to Yussouf’s tent,
Saying, “Behold one outcast and in dread,
Against whose life the bow of power is bent,
Who flies, and hath not where to lay his head;
I come to thee for shelter and for food,
To Yussouf, called through all our tribes ‘he Good.’ “
“This tent is mine,” said Yussouf, “but no more
Than it is God’s; come in, and be at peace;”
—James Russell Lowell (1819–1891)
“That those tribes [the Sac and Fox Indians] cannot exist surrounded by our settlements and in continual contact with our citizens is certain. They have neither the intelligence, the industry, the moral habits, nor the desire of improvement which are essential to any favorable change in their condition.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came in contact with the more civilized.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)