Andamanese
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
The Andamanese are a group of peoples, aboriginal inhabitants of the Andaman Islands and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal. They belong to Negrito stock, represented also by the Semang of Malaysia and the Pygmies of the Philippines.They have lived on Andaman and Nicobar Islands for at least 14 000 years and had no contacts with other people during nearly all this period. No other living human population has experienced such long-lasting isolation from contact with other groups. Today only the inhabitants of North Sentinel Island remain isolated, with no contact with outsiders.
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 only from hunting (for indigenous pigs), fishing and collecting. Their only weapon was the bow, they used nets and harpoons for fishing. They were the only people that in the 19th century knew no method of making fire, carefully preserving embers in hollowed-out trees from fires caused by lightning strikes.
