Andaman Islanders of India

Below are resources related to Anvita Abbi's "Andaman Islanders of India” chapter of Native Nations: The Survival of Indigenous Peoples, 4th Edition, edited by Sharlotte Neely and Douglas W. Hume.

Agencies & Organizations

Discussion Questions

  • What is the current situation in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands?
  • Why is the preservation of language a key aspect of the Andaman Islanders' cultural survival?
  • What aspects of the Andaman Islanders' view of nature is similar or different those in your culture?

Documentary Films

Further Reading

  • Abbi, Anvita. 2006. "Vanishing Voices: A Typological Sketch of Great Andamanese." Trends in Linguistics Studies and Monographs 175: 107.
  • Radcliffe-Brown, Alfred Reginald. 2013. The Andaman Islanders. Cambridge University Press.
  • Vidyarthi, L. P. 1971. "Cultural Diversities in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands: A Preliminary Report." Indian Anthropologist 1 (1): 80-92.

Contemporary Andaman Islanders

Andamanese Onge
Great Andamanese (BrandonF2 [CC BY-SA])

Andaman Islanders Location

Andaman Islands
Andaman Islands (M.Minderhoud [Public Domain])

Andaman Islanders Ethno-historical Photograph

Two men of an unidentified northern tribe of Great Andamanese.
"One of the earliest existing photographs of Great Andamanese known: two men of an unidentified northern tribe. The man on the left is wearing a traditional cincture decorated with shells . The other on the right is wearing a piece of imported cloth along with more traditional strings - and this only 7 years after the British had set up shop in the Andamans at a time when only very few northern Great Andamanese had had any direct contact with the outsiders yet." Citation from Clothes, Clay and Beautycare (of Great Andamanese people), by George Weber (unknown [Public domain])

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