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{{Short description|Indigenous people in the Andaman Islands}}
{{redirect|Great Andamanese|the language group|Great Andamanese languages}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
|group=Great Andamanese
|image = Great Andamanese RIALA 1890.jpg
|caption = Riala, an interpreter for the British from the [[Aka-Kede|Aka-Kede Tribe]] of Great Andamanese from [[Middle Andaman]], in 1890
|population = 59 (2020)<ref name="covid">{{cite news|url=https://theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/27/tribespeople-of-andaman-islands-in-bay-of-bengal-test-positive-for-covid-19|title=Ten in remote Indian tribe of 59 test positive for Covid-19|work=The Guardian|first=Hannah|last=Ellis-Petersen|date=27 August 2020|access-date=28 August 2020}}</ref>
|popplace=
| region1 = {{flag|India}} [[Andaman and Nicobar Islands]] ([[Strait Island]])
| pop1 = 59
|langs=originally [[Great Andamanese languages]], today mainly [[Hindi language|Hindi]] and other [[Languages of India|Indian languages]], Census of India 2001
|related=[[Onge language|Onge]], [[Jarawa language (Andaman Islands)|Jarawa]], [[Jangil]], [[Sentinelese]]
}}
The '''Great Andamanese''' are an [[indigenous people]] of the [[Great Andaman]] [[archipelago]] in the [[Andaman Islands]]. Historically, the Great Andamanese lived throughout the archipelago, and were divided into ten major tribes. Their distinct but closely related languages comprised the [[Great Andamanese languages]], one of the two identified [[Andamanese languages|Andamanese language families]].<ref name="jarawa">{{cite web |url=http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/jarawa/greatandamanese |title=Jarawa: The Great Andamanese |work=[[Survival International]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141012063111/https://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/jarawa/greatandamanese |archive-date=12 October 2014 |quote=The Great Andamanese were originally ten distinct tribes, including the Jeru, Bea, Bo, Khora and Pucikwar. Each had its own distinct language, and numbered between about 200 and 700 people. They are now collectively known as the Great Andamanese.}}</ref>

The Great Andamanese were clearly related to the other [[Andamanese peoples]], but were well separated from them by culture, language and geography. The languages of those other four groups were only distantly related to those of the Great Andamanese and mutually unintelligible; they are classified in a separate family, the [[Ongan languages]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

They were once the most numerous of the five major groups in the Andaman Islands with an estimated population between 2,000 and 6,600, before they were killed or died out due to diseases, [[Alcoholic drink|alcohol]], colonial warfare and loss of hunting territory. Only 52 remained as of February 2010;<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/7161422/Language-lost-as-last-member-of-Andaman-tribe-dies.html |title=Language lost as last member of Andaman tribe dies |author= |date=5 February 2010 |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |access-date=3 January 2017}}</ref> by August 2020 there were 59. The tribal and linguistic distinctions have largely disappeared, so they may now be considered a single Great Andamanese ethnic group with mixed [[Bamar people|Burmese]], Hindi and aboriginal descent.<ref name="weber7"/><ref name="abbiweb">{{cite web |url=http://www.andamanese.net/generalia.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101023084412/http://www.andamanese.net/generalia.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=23 October 2010 |title=Great Andamanese Community |first=Anvita |last=Abbi |date=2006 |website=Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese |access-date=2012-07-12}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.andamanese.net/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071017094120/http://andamanese.net/index.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=17 October 2007 |title=VOGA |website=Vanishing Voices of the Great Andamanese}}</ref>

==Origin ==
The Great Andamanese are classified by [[anthropology|anthropologists]] as one of the [[Negrito|Negrito peoples]], which also include the other four [[Andamanese people|aboriginal groups of the Andaman islands]] ([[Onge people|Onge]], [[Jarawa people (Andaman Islands)|Jarawa]], [[Jangil]] and [[Sentinelese people|Sentinelese]]) and five other isolated populations of [[Southeast Asia]]. The Andaman Negritos are thought to be the first inhabitants of the islands, having emigrated from the mainland tens of thousands of years ago.<ref name="andaman">{{Cite web |title=Members of Ancient Tribe Escape |url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/01/14/world/main667171.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050210095147/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/01/14/world/main667171.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-date=10 February 2005 |quote=Anthropologists believe five tribes of the southern Indian archipelago—including the Jarawas, Shompens, Onges and Sentinelese—date back 70,000 years. |work=CBS News |date=2005-01-14}}</ref>

Until the late 18th century, the Andamanese peoples were preserved from outside influences by their fierce rejection of contacts (which included killing any shipwrecked foreigners) and by the remoteness of the islands. Thus, the ten Great Andamanese tribes and the other four indigenous groups are thought to have diverged on their own over the course of millennia.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

==Demographics==
[[File:Languages and dialects of the Andaman Islands at British contact.png|thumb|Territories of the Great Andamanese tribes, languages, and dialects and other Andamanese peoples at the time of British contact]]
In 1789, when the [[British Empire|British]] established a colonial presence on [[Great Andaman]], the Great Andamanese were divided into 10 main tribes with each having a distinct language, each counting between 200 and 700 individuals.<ref name="weber8"/> Their territories spanned most of the Great Andaman islands, including [[Ritchie's Archipelago]] and [[Rutland Island]] but excluding [[Little Andaman]] (inhabited by the Onge) and the [[North Sentinel Island|North]] and [[South Sentinel Island]]s (of the [[Sentinelese]]). On [[South Andaman Island|South Andaman]] the Great Andamanese coexisted with the [[Jarawas (Andaman Islands)|Jarawa]], and on Rutland Island with the [[Jangil]]. Arranged by territory, roughly from north to south, the original tribes were:<ref name="jarawa"/>
* Northern subgroup (Yerewa):
** [[Cari people|(Aka-)Kari]] or Cari – N of [[North Andaman Island|North Andaman]] – 2 individuals in 1994<ref name="gob"/>
** [[Kora people|(Aka-)Kora]], Khora or Cora – E of North Andaman – extinct by 1994<ref name="gob"/>
** [[Bo people (Andaman)|(Aka-)Bo]] – W of North Andaman – 15 individuals in 1994<ref name="gob"/>
** [[Jeru people|(Aka-)Jeru]] – S and central North Andaman – 19 individuals in 1994<ref name="gob">{{cite book |last=Sharma |first=A. N. |title=Tribal Development in Andaman Islands |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WEztW7c0CqQC&pg=PA75 |date=2003 |location=New Delhi |publisher=Sarup & Sons |isbn=978-81-7625-347-5 |page=75}}</ref>
* Southern subgroup (Bojigyab):
** [[Kede people|(Aka-)Kede]] – N of [[Middle Andaman Island|Middle Andaman]] – extinct soon after 1931.<ref name="vanDriem2001" />
** [[Kol people (Andaman)|(Aka-)Kol]] – SE of Middle Andaman – extinct by 1921.<ref name="vanDriem2001" />
** [[Juwoi people|(Oko-)Juwoi]] – SW of Middle Andaman – extinct by 1931<ref name="vanDriem2001" />
** [[Pucikwar people|(A-)Pucikwar]] – NE of South Andaman and [[Baratang Island|Baratang]] – extinct soon after 1931.<ref name="vanDriem2001" />
** [[Bale people|(Akar-)Bale]] – Ritchie's Archipelago – extinct soon after 1931.<ref name="vanDriem2001" />
** [[Bea people|(Aka-)Bea]] – coast of South Andaman and Rutland Island – extinct by 1931.<ref name="vanDriem2001" />

(The prefixed forms of the names actually refer to the respective languages, but they are often used for the tribes themselves.) By 1994 there were also four Great Andamanese individuals with no tribal affiliation.<ref name="gob"/>

The Great Andaman islands run in a north–south line for some 350 km but are only some 50 km wide at their widest extent. This peculiar geography meant that each tribe typically had only two or three neighbours. Indeed, until colonial times, the northern and southern tribes seemed unaware of each other's existence.<ref name="weber8"/> Except for the Bea and Bale, who had intense and friendly relations and whose languages were mutually intelligible to some extent, there was little interaction between the tribes at the time of first European contacts.<ref name="weber8"/> The tribes were further split into smaller units—"septs", "local groups", and families—and also between shore-dwellers (''aryoto'') and forest-dwellers (''eremtaga'').<ref name="weber8"/>
[[File:Distribution of different Andamanese peoples, languages, and dialects at the time of British contact compared to the present day.png|left|thumb|240x240px|The distributions of different Andamanese peoples, languages, and dialects at the time of British contact compared to the present-day.]]

===Population decline===
Estimates of the Great Andamanese population by the time of the establishment of a British colonial presence (1789–1796) vary between 2000 and 6600 individuals.<ref name="weber7">{{cite book |chapter-url=http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/chapter7/text7.htm |chapter=7. Numbers |first=George |last=Weber |date=2009 |title=The Andamanese |access-date=2012-07-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120531230544/http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/chapter7/text7.htm |archive-date=31 May 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/text-group-BodyChapters.htm |first=George |last=Weber |date=2009 |title=The Andamanese |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130724070402/http://andaman.org/BOOK/text-group-BodyChapters.htm |archive-date=24 July 2013}}</ref> When the [[British Raj|British]] established a permanent settlement and [[penal colony]] on Great Andaman in the 1860s, the population was estimated at 3500.<ref name="weber7"/> At that time their isolated culture was suddenly confronted with the industrial and colonial culture of 19th century Europe.<ref name="cooper2002">{{Cite book |title=Archaeology and History: Early Settlements in the Andaman Islands |first=Zarine |last=Cooper |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2002 |isbn=0-19-565792-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bg5uAAAAMAAJ |quote=... iron implements, glass bottles, beads, and other objects were freely distributed by the British among the Great Andamanese...}}</ref><ref name="mukerjee2003" /> The colonial administrators proactively tried to pacify and co-opt the tribes, recruiting them to capture escaped convicts. Populations went into sharp decline due to outside diseases.<ref name="lee1999">{{Cite book |title=The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers |first1=Richard B. |last1=Lee |first2=Richard Heywood |last2=Daly |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1999 |isbn=0-521-57109-X |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5eEASHGLg3MC |quote=... Over time, the Great Andamanese, who occupied the forests around Port Blair, were pacified. Beginning to cooperate with British authorities, they helped recapture escaped convicts. By 1875, when these peoples were perilously close to extinction, the Andaman cultures came under scientific scrutiny...}}</ref> Outside [[infectious diseases]], to which the islanders had no immunity, decimated the tribes at the end of the 19th century; In some cases, people who became sick were killed by other tribe members in an attempt to stop contagion.<ref name="weber7"/> The migration of Indian settlers to the islands accelerated this decline.{{fact|date=June 2021}}

By 1901, only 625 Great Andamanese were left,<ref name="weber7"/><ref name="asi1990">{{Cite book |title=The Jarawa |first=Jayanta |last=Sarkar |publisher=Anthropological Survey of India |year=1990 |isbn=81-7046-080-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HxBuAAAAMAAJ |quote=... The Great Andamanese population was large till 1858 when it started declining ... In 1901, their number was reduced to only 600 and in 1961 to a mere 19 ...}}</ref> and following censuses reported steadily declining numbers: 455 in 1911, 207 in 1921, 90 in 1931.<ref name="weber7"/> [[Egon Freiherr von Eickstedt|Von Eickstedt]] counted "around one hundred" in 1927.<ref name="mukerjee2003">{{Cite book |title=The Land of Naked People |first=Madhusree |last=Mukerjee |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Books |year=2003 |isbn=0-618-19736-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u6373dOvGFgC |quote=... In 1927 Egon Freiherr von Eickstedt, a German anthropologist, found that around one hundred Great Andamanese survived, 'in dirty, half-closed huts, which primarily contain cheap European household effects.'}}</ref>

In 1949, the surviving Great Andamanese were relocated to a reservation on [[Bluff Island (Andaman)|Bluff Island]] (1.14 [[square kilometre|km2]]) in an attempt to protect them from diseases and other threats.<ref name="mann">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FPX6wiuZ3ikC&pg=PA149 |title=Andaman and Nicobar Tribes Restudied: Encounters and Concerns |first=Rann Singh |last=Mann |date=2005 |page=149 |publisher=Mittal Publications |isbn=81-8324-010-0}}</ref> In 1951, after [[Independence of India|Indian independence]], their numbers had shrunk to about 25,<ref name="vanDriem2001">{{Cite book |title=Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region : Containing an Introduction to the Symbiotic Theory of Language |first=George |last=van Driem |year=2001 |publisher=Brill |isbn=90-04-12062-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fiavPYCz4dYC |quote=... The Aka-Kol tribe of Middle Andaman became extinct by 1921. The Oko-Juwoi of Middle Andaman and the Aka-Bea of South Andaman and Rutland Island were extinct by 1931. The Akar-Bale of Ritchie's Archipelago, the Aka-Kede of Middle Andaman and the A-Pucikwar of South Andaman Island soon followed. By 1951, the census counted a total of only 23 Greater Andamanese and 10 Sentinelese. That means that just ten men, twelve women and one child remained of the Aka-Kora, Aka-Cari and Aka-Jeru tribes of Greater Andaman and only ten natives of North Sentinel Island ...}}</ref> mostly from the northern tribes.<ref name="weber8"/> They became extinct in the mid 20th century, but had a few admixed individuals which went to an all-time low of only 19 in 1961.<ref name="asi1990"/><ref name="cen5101">{{cite web |url=http://www.and.nic.in/stats/BasicStatistics/basicstat%20PDF/03%20Demography.pdf |title=Basic Statistics – 1 – Demographics, table 1.16 'Tribal Population' |date=2011 |website=A & N Islands Administration, Directorate of Economics and Statistics |access-date=2012-07-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903131330/http://www.and.nic.in/stats/BasicStatistics/basicstat%20PDF/03%20Demography.pdf |archive-date=3 September 2014}}</ref>

In 1969, the 23 surviving Great Andamanese were again relocated, to [[Strait Island]] (about 5 km2).<ref name="mann"/> Their numbers have slowly increased since then, to 24 (1971 census), 26 (1981), 45 (1991), and 43 (2001). There were about 50 individuals living on Strait Island in 2006<ref name="abbi2006">{{Cite book |title=Endangered Languages of the Andaman Islands |first=Anvita |last=Abbi |author-link=Anvita Abbi |year=2006 |publisher=Lincom Europa |isbn=9783895868665 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VWVkAAAAMAAJ |quote=... The latest figure in 2005 is 50 in all ...}}</ref> and 52 individuals in January 2010.<ref name=telegraph>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/7161422/Language-lost-as-last-member-of-Andaman-tribe-dies.html |title=Language lost as last member of Andaman tribe dies |author= |date=5 February 2010 |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |access-date=3 January 2017}}</ref><ref name=telegraph2/> However, by 1995 the people identified as Great Andamanese already included many people with partly Burmese or Hindi descent.<ref name="weber7"/>

As the Great Andamanese retreated, the Jarawa occupied part of their former territory on the west coast of Great Andaman, which they were still inhabiting as of 2011. Also, by 1911, some 80 Onge had moved into the former territory of the Bea and the Jangil, in Rutland Island and South Andaman; however by 1921 they had dwindled to 61, and were gone by 1931.<ref name="weber7"/>

===Current status===
Today only two tribes (Jeru and Bo) remain in significant number; the Cari tribe is on its way to extinction.<ref name="mann"/><ref name="lansuv">{{cite web |url=http://infochangeindia.org/Media/Languages-of-India/The-case-for-a-linguistic-survey.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100424231241/http://infochangeindia.org/Media/Languages-of-India/The-case-for-a-linguistic-survey.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=24 April 2010 |first=Anosh |last=Malekar |title=The case for a linguistic survey |publisher=Infochange Media |access-date=1 August 2011}}</ref> There are still a few people (all elderly) with partial Kora and Pucikwar descent, but they identify themselves as either Jeru or Bo.<ref name="abbiweb" /> However, the cultural and linguistic identities of the individual tribes have largely been lost; their members now speak mostly [[Hindi]]<ref name=telegraph/><ref name=telegraph2>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/7207731/Lives-Remembered.html |title=Lives Remembered: Boa Sr |date=10 February 2010 |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |access-date=2010-02-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100213125406/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/7207731/Lives-Remembered.html |archive-date=2010-02-13}}</ref> or a mixed language, a [[Great Andamanese creole]].<ref name="abbi2006"/>

Although the Great Andamanese on Strait Island still obtain some of their diet from hunting, fishing and gathering, they now consume rice and other Indian food, and are dependent on support by the Indian government for survival.<ref name="weber8">{{cite book |chapter-url=http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/chapter8/text8.htm |chapter=8. The Tribes |first=George |last=Weber |date=2009 |title=The Andamanese |access-date=2012-07-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130507061710/http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/chapter8/text8.htm |archive-date=7 May 2013}}</ref> They now practice some agriculture, and have established some poultry farms.<ref name="vultrib">{{cite web |url=http://www.and.nic.in/andaman/tribes.php |title=A Brief Note on Vulnerable Tribal Groups |website=Andaman and Nicobar Administration |access-date=2012-07-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150218205553/http://www.and.nic.in/andaman/tribes.php |archive-date=18 February 2015 }}</ref>[[File:Andamanese Onge.png|thumb|An Andamanese family on the [[Great Andaman]] island in 2006.]]

=== Census figures ===
Names and spellings, with populations, from the 1901 and 1994 censuses were as follows:<ref>A. N. Sharma (2003), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=WEztW7c0CqQC&pg=PA62 Tribal Development in the Andaman Islands]'', page 62. Sarup & Sons, New Delhi.</ref>

; 1901 census
: Aka-Cari: 39
: Aka-Cora: 96
: Aka-Bo: 48
: Aka-Jeru: 218
: Aka-Kede: 59
: Aka-Kol: 11
: Oka-Juwoi: 48
: Aka-Pucikwar: 50
: Aka-Bale: 19
: Aka-Bea: 37

; 1994 census
: Aka-Jeru: 19
: Aka-Bo: 15
: Aka-Kari {{sic}}: 2
: ('local': 4)

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{Negritos}}

{{authority control}}

[[Category:Indigenous peoples of South Asia]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands]]
[[Category:Scheduled Tribes of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands]]

Great Andamanese peoples - Revision history

Vikiknl: article