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Onges: People of Little Andaman
| Article
# : |
14392 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
6 / 1988 |
5,491 Words |
| Author
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S.B. Mani
S.B. Mani is professor of anthropology at Slippery Rock
University. He has made two trips to Little Andaman, in 1975
and 1987, to study the impact of modernizing forces on the
Onges' traditional life-style. The author wishes to thank
Prof. V. Sudarsen and Mr. Venkatesan of Madras University and
Dr. Ashok Pandey, the senior social executive in Dugong Creek,
for their support in his research among the Onges. |
Washed by incessant monsoon rains for almost five months in a year, then bathed by warm tropical sunlight, the Andaman and Nicobar archipelagoes lie about seven hundred miles east of mainland India in the Bay of Bengal. Although there are more than three hundred islands in these groups, some of them mere protuberances, less than forty islands have permanent human habitation. The Andamans are the abode of the Jarawas of Middle Andaman, the Sentinelese of North Sentinel Island, the Great Andamanese of Straight Island and the Onges of Little Andaman Island. These tribal populations belong to a rapidly disappearing racial group, the Negritos, which is not found anywhere on the Indian mainland. The islands' insular nature and nearly equatorial location (with its accompanying turbulent weather conditions) not only allowed them to retain their pristine beauty but also protected the aboriginals and their primeval culture from contact with the outside world for thousands of years.
Shaped like a flying fish or a butterfly, the island of Little Andaman rises abruptly from the sea. The blue waters of the Andaman Sea on the east and the Bay of Bengal on the west gently lap its white, sandy beaches. Covering the small stretch of beach that surrounds the island, morning-glory vines stand out like beautiful green lace against a white background. The beach is littered with branches of white coral, chambered spirulas, and bivalves--along with glass bottles, plastic materials, and pieces of nylon string that have washed ashore. Stretching over an area of about 280 square miles, this island shelters one of the important endangered anthropological treasures of India--the Onges.
The Onges are perhaps the most numerous and certainly the friendliest of
... (1997 of 32282 Characters)
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