|
Huts
The
central space in their habitat is the dancing ground. A hut is merely a thatch
about 1 metre (4 feet) long by slightly less than a metre (3 feet) wide sloping
from 20cm(8 inches) behind to 103cms (41/2 feet ) in
front, placed on four uprights and some crosspieces without walls. In
unsheltered spots and at the headquarters of septs large circular huts are built
with a good deal of ingenuity, having caves nearly touching the ground. These
may be as much as 4.5m (15 feet) high and 9.14m (30 feet) in diameter. For
hunting purposes mere thatched shelters are erected for protection from the wind
close to every hut is a very small platform for scruples food, about 18 inches
from the ground and within it at least one fire is carefully preserved. This is
the only thing that the Andamanese are really careful about for they do not know
how to produce fire though they show much skill in carrying smouldering logs by
land or sea so that they are not extinguished. Both men and women join hands in making huts.
In
the Little Andaman and among the Jarawas of the South Andaman, large permanent
huts for use in the wet season are built up of a solid materials to 9.14m (30
feet) in height and 18.28m (60 feet) in breadth, to hold the fires of seven to
eight hunting parties, with about eight persons to each breadth. The Jarawa
hunting camp is much the same as that of any other Andamanese and his great
communal hut is built on the same principle as the larger huts of the other
tribes.
Games
Andamanese
are childishly fond of games and have an indigenous blind-man's-buff, leapfrog
and hide-and-seek. Mock pig and turtle hunts, mock burials and ghost-hunts are
favourite sports-Matches in swinging, swimming, throwing, skimming (ducks and
drakes), shooting (archery) and wrestling are practised.
The
great amusement of the Andamanese is the formal evening or night dance which is
a curious monotonous performance accompanied by drumming the feet rhythmically
on a special rounding-board. The dance takes place every evening whenever there
are enough people for it and lasts for hours and even all night at special
meetings of the tribes or septs. Both sexes take allotted parts in it.
This and turtle hunting are the only things which will keep the Andamanese awake
all night long. There are five varieties of the dance among the tribes.
Tools
For hunting and fishing they use simple bows and
arrows, spears, harpoons and nets. They use dugout canoes for hunting and for transportation.
They Jarawas use rafts.
Food
The Andamanese are in the
food gathering stage and subsist on whatever nature provides them near their
environment. All their skills and culture are for optimum exploitation of the
naturally available food resources. Most of their time is spent in search of food.They have their own preferences about
eating. There is a semi-nomadic life and they move in bands within their
respective territories. Their food is of wild pig, honey, various roots, tubers,
turtle fish, molluses, seeds, roots, honey etc. The eating habits of the Great Andamanese have of late changed as a result of
close contact with the settlers. The Onge have now got used to tea and tobacco,
rice, flour etc. The people never starve, though they are habitually heavy
eaters. Food is always cooked and commonly eaten very hot. The Andamanese are
expert cooks and adepts at preparing delicacies from parts of animals and fish.
|
