Note 32 — Chapter I · THE SOCIAL ORGANISATION (continued 2)

1 Notes on the Languages of the South Andaman Group of Tribes, p. 27. ↑

2 Page 18 above. ↑

3 A few small areas were not occupied at all, for example the greater part of Saddle Peak in the North Andaman, which is covered with dense jungle and is supposed by the natives to be the haunt of large and deadly snakes and of evil spirits. ↑

4 Mouat, F. J., Adventures and Researches among the Andaman Islanders, London, 1863, p. 313. ↑

5 Loc. cit. p. 300. ↑

6 Journ. Anthrop. Inst. Vol. XII, pp. 107 and 108. ↑

7 Portman, Notes on the Languages of the South Andaman Group of Tribes, p. 23. ↑

8 The photograph is reproduced in Le Tour du Monde, 1895, p. 447. ↑

9 See Journ. Anthrop. Inst. Vol. XII, p. 71. ↑

10 Man, op. cit. p. 108. ↑

11 In the North Andaman the times before the Settlement are spoken of as the time when there were no dogs, Bibi poiye = “Dog not.” ↑

12 They are only eaten in the rainy season. ↑

13 There are two kinds of wild bee in the Andamans. A small species makes black honeycombs in hollow trees, and these may be found at any time of the year. A larger species of bee builds white combs suspended from the underside of branches in tall trees. Such combs are found in abundance only in the hot season, and not at all in the middle of the rainy season. ↑

14 Man, in Journ. Anthrop. Inst. Vol. XII, p. 108. ↑

15 The natives of the North Andaman were able to tell me of a few cases of murder which had occurred within the memory of those still living.

Mr Portman in his History of Our Relations with the Andamanese records a certain number of murders which occurred while he was in charge of the Andamanese. One man, who had been imprisoned at Port Blair for murder, committed another soon after his release and was hanged. Since that date there has been no case of murder among the Great Andaman tribes. This is perhaps in part due to the punishment with which they are now threatened by the Government, but another cause is probably the breakdown of the old social organisation which has in this respect rather improved their morals than the opposite. ↑

16 The nickname is applied, however, not only to those who deserve it by their character, but also to others; for instance, one man was called Tarenǰek because his maternal uncle was a man of violent temper. ↑

17 See below, Chap. IV. ↑

18 The classificatory system of relationship was first studied and named by Lewis H. Morgan, in Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family, Washington, Smithsonian Institution, 1871. The subject is also discussed in the same author’s Ancient Society. Although there has been a good deal of attention paid to the systems of relationship of savage tribes since the time of Morgan, there is no general work on the subject that supersedes these two books. ↑

19 The terms used in any society to denote relationships are of interest to the ethnologist as an important means to the discovery of the relationship system (i.e. the system of juridical and moral institutions) existing in the same society. Without a thorough knowledge of the terms in use and their exact meanings it is impossible to discover the rights and duties of relatives one to another. It is, however, sometimes forgotten that the study of terms of relationship is not an end in itself but a means to a more important study. ↑

20 In the Andamanese languages a large number of words are formed from a stem and a prefix. E-, ot-, aka-, ara-, ab- etc. are prefixes of this kind. The function of the prefixes is (1) to show that the object denoted by the word is in a dependent relation to some other object understood, as for instance that it is part of that other object, and (2) to modify the reference of the stem, as for instance while e-tire means the offspring of an animal or an human being, era-tire means the offspring of a tree or plant (the young shoots). For a description of these prefixes the reader may be referred to the work of Mr Portman, Notes on the Languages of the South Andaman Group of Tribes. ↑

21 Dege bula and dege pal mean “my husband” and “my wife” respectively. ↑

22 Notes on the Languages of the South Andaman Group of Tribes. ↑

23 Man, op. cit. p. 421. The dia, or the d’ before a prefix, in the words of this list is the pronoun “my.” ↑

24 Portman, Notes on the Languages of the South Andaman Group of Tribes, p. 255. ↑

25 Op. cit. p. 100. ↑

26 The natives commonly applied the term to me, in the form Mam-jula. ↑

27 The systems of relationship of savage peoples are often very difficult to study, even with a thorough mastery of the native language. My account of the Andamanese system is not perhaps complete and is therefore open to error. Since the above account was written I have had the opportunity of studying in Australia several examples of “classificatory” systems of relationship, and can now say very definitely that such a system presents an extreme contrast to the system of the Andamans. My failure fully to comprehend the Andamanese system was partly due to the difficulties of the language, in which I did not have time to become expert, and partly to the nature of the Andamanese terms, of which it is by no means easy to discover the meaning, even with careful observation. ↑

28 Man, op. cit. p. 135. He speaks of the wives as “models of constancy.” ↑

29 I collected a number of genealogies from the natives, but unfortunately my own inexperience in the use of the genealogical method, and my consequent inability to surmount the difficulties with which I met, made this branch of my investigations a failure. ↑

30 When a husband and wife greet one another the man sits on the lap of the wife. ↑

31 Man, op. cit. p. 139. ↑

32 Ibid. ↑

33 Man, op. cit. p. 139. ↑

34 Man, op. cit. p. 125. ↑

35 It would not be safe, however, to base any arguments of importance to sociology on the above description of the Andamanese system of relationship alone. Although I tried to learn all that I could on the subject, it is quite certain that I did not learn all that was to be learnt, and it is possible that further enquiry might have shown that I was mistaken in some of my observations. The difficulty of being really sure on these matters is due (1) to the fact that the breaking-up of the old local organisation has produced many changes in their customs, and (2) to the difficulty of questioning the natives on matters connected with relationships when they have no words in their language to denote any but the simplest relationships. ↑

36 The dance is described in the next chapter. ↑

37 In the years 1872 to 1902 inclusive the Jarawa made eight attacks on camps of the friendly Andamanese in different places, in which two of the friendly Andamanese men and one girl were killed and three men and one boy were wounded. There were also one or two casual meetings between Jarawa and friendly Andamanese. One of the friendlies was surprised and killed while turtle hunting in 1894. During the same years the Jarawa made on different occasions about twenty attacks on parties of convicts or on separate individuals, killing altogether 27 convicts and two police constables, and wounding six other convicts. In these skirmishes and in the expeditions to which they gave rise three Jarawa were killed and seven wounded on various occasions, and several times Jarawa men, women or children were captured and afterwards released. A number of convicts have at different times run away from the Settlement and as some of those were never after heard of they may be supposed to have been killed by the Jarawa. For an official record of dealings with the Jarawa see the “Census Report” 1901, pp. 68–90. ↑