Note 1 — Chapter VI · THE INTERPRETATION OF ANDAMANESE CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS: MYTHS AND LEGENDS (continued 2)

From the point of view of technical culture the natives of the Andamans must be separated into two main divisions, which will be spoken of as the Great Andaman Division and the Little Andaman Division respectively1. The most plausible explanation of the differences of culture and language between these two divisions has been mentioned already. We must assume that when the islands were first peopled, or at some later time, the inhabitants of the Little Andaman became isolated from those of the Great Andaman. The language and the technical culture of each of the two groups underwent a number of changes during the many centuries that followed. At a much later date, after the differences between the two divisions had been developed, and probably not many centuries ago, a party or several parties of natives must have made their way from the Little Andaman as far as Rutland Island. Here they came in conflict with the natives of the Great Andaman Division, and in this way arose the antagonism between the Jarawa (the immigrants from the Little Andaman) and the other natives of the South Andaman (who formed in 1858 the Aka-Bea tribe), which has lasted down to the present day. We shall find that the technical culture of the Jarawa has been only very slightly influenced by contact with the natives of the Great Andaman Division, and therefore differs very little from that of the Little Andaman at the present day.