Chapter I: Preface

This book contains some part of the results of anthropological research carried out in the Andaman Islands in the years 1906 to 1908, under the terms of the Anthony Wilkin Studentship in Ethnology of the University of Cambridge. The funds supplied by the studentship were supplemented by grants from the Royal Society and from the government of India. In its original form the monograph was presented as a fellowship thesis at Trinity College. The work of rewriting it was interrupted by absence from England and was only completed in 1914. There has since been a long delay in publication as a result of the war.

The book deals with the social institutions of the tribes of the Great Andaman. These had previously been studied by Mr E. H. Man to whose work I have been obliged to make many references in order that my account may be as complete as possible. I should have preferred to devote my attention almost exclusively to the natives of the Little Andaman, about whom very little is known. I found, however, that it was not possible in the time at my disposal to do any satisfactory work amongst these people owing to the difficulty of language. The natives of the Little Andaman know no language but their own, and that is so little related to the languages of the Great Andaman that even a thorough knowledge of the latter is of almost no use in an attempt to learn the former. I spent nearly three months camped with natives of the Little Andaman, giving most of the time to learning their language. No one who has not actually made the attempt to learn the language of a savage people without the help of an interpreter, can form an adequate idea of the difficulties of the task. At the end of three months I found that at the same rate of progress it would take me two or three years to learn to speak the language sufficiently well to begin to question the natives about their customs and beliefs and understand their answers. I was therefore regretfully compelled to give up the idea of making a study of the people of the Little Andaman, and devoted the remainder of my time to the study of the tribes of the Great Andaman, particularly those of the North Andaman among whom Mr Man had not worked. I kept one boy from the Little Andaman with me for some months in the hope that he would learn sufficient Hindustani to act as an interpreter and so enable any future investigator to begin work with the great advantage that I had lacked.

In my work amongst the natives of the Great Andaman I at first made use of Hindustani, which the younger men and women all speak more or less imperfectly, and gradually acquired a knowledge of the dialects of the North Andaman. Towards the end of my stay in the islands I was able to obtain the services as interpreter of a man of the Akar-Bale tribe who spoke English well and was of considerable intelligence. He is shown in the photographs of Plates V and XIII. With his help I was able to do some work with the Akar-Bale and A-Pučikwar tribes, and I found that with such an interpreter I was able to obtain much fuller and more reliable results than I could by using my own knowledge of the native language supplemented by Hindustani. If I had had his services from the outset my work would have been much easier and more thorough.

The results of my researches on the physical anthropology of the Andaman Islanders have not been published. I hoped to be able to obtain the services of some one more competent in such matters than myself to assist or direct me in the measurement and study of the collection of skulls and skeletons that I brought to England and that is now in the Anthropological Museum at Cambridge. In this I was disappointed, and absence from England has prevented me from completing my work in this branch of research.

The languages of the Andaman Islands are chiefly of interest as affording material for the study of comparative grammar and the psychology of language. I had hoped to be able to make some use of the large mass of linguistic material collected by Mr E. H. Man and arranged by Sir Richard Temple, which the latter was so kind as to permit me to examine. Mr Man, however, expressed the intention of publishing that material himself. Therefore, rather than delay longer, I began the publication of my own linguistic studies in a series of papers in the journal Anthropos, of which, however, only the first had appeared when the outbreak of war interrupted them [1]. I cannot say when the publication of these notes will be resumed.

Chapters V and VI of the present work contain an attempt at an interpretation of the Andamanese customs and beliefs, which I regard as the most important and hope will be the most valuable part of the book. It is some years since they were written and although they have undergone some revision they now seem to me so inadequately to express my thought that I could wish to rewrite them entirely. At the time they were written (1910) they exhibited an attempt to develop a new method in the interpretation of the institutions of a primitive people. That method will not perhaps seem so novel now as it would have done then. However, I hope that the two chapters will still have value as an example of the method which I believe to be fundamental in the science that has lately come to be known as social anthropology [2].

Of the many imperfections of the book I am, I think, only too well aware. It is indeed an apprentice work, for it was through my work in the Andamans that I really learnt anthropology. However good may be his preliminary training (and mine under Drs Haddon, Rivers and Duckworth at Cambridge was, I think, as thorough as possible) it is only by actually living with and working amongst a primitive people that the social anthropologist can acquire his real training. Naturally work done while learning how to do it must necessarily be faulty.

It is very late now to place on record my obligations to the officers of the settlement of Port Blair, particularly to Colonel Herbert and Colonel Browning, the successive chief commissioners, for their kindness and help during my stay in the islands.

To Dr Haddon and Dr Rivers I am obliged for reading the proofs and for many helpful suggestions.

A. R. BROWN.

University of Cape Town, January 1922.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE
Introduction 1
I. The Social Organisation 22
II. Ceremonial Customs 88
III. Religious and Magical Beliefs 136
IV. Myths and Legends 186
V. The Interpretation of Andamanese Customs and Beliefs:
Ceremonial 229
VI. The Interpretation of Andamanese Customs and Beliefs:
Myths and Legends 330
Appendix A. The Technical Culture of the Andaman Islanders 407
Appendix B. The Spelling of Andamanese Words 495
Index 499

LIST OF PLATES AND MAPS

Frontispiece. An Andaman Islander shooting fish with bow and arrow on the reefs at Port Blair

PLATE I. A young man of the North Andaman To face p. 26 II. A young married woman ,, ,, ,, 27 III. A man of the North Andaman and his son. (The man’s height is 1438 mm., 4 feet 8 inches) ,, ,, ,, 28 IV. A married woman of the Great Andaman wearing belts of Pandanus leaf and ornaments of Dentalium shell ,, ,, ,, 29 V. A man of the Akar-Bale tribe with South Andaman bow and arrows, wearing belt and necklace of netting and Dentalium shell. (Height 1494 mm., 4 feet 9 inches) ,, ,, ,, 30 VI. Portion of the village of Moi-lepto, Akar-Bale tribe. On the right is an unfinished mat of palm leaves for the roof of a new hut ,, ,, ,, 32 VII. A hut in the village of Moi-lepto, showing ,, ,, ,, 34 the mode of construction VIII. A village of the Middle Andaman ,, ,, ,, 36 IX. Woman decorated with odu clay ,, ,, ,, 120 X. Woman decorated with odu clay ,, ,, ,, 121 XI. Three men and a young woman decorated with odu clay ,, ,, ,, 122 XII. A young man decorated with white clay in readiness for a dance ,, ,, ,, 124 XIII. A man with a pattern of white clay on his face ,, ,, ,, 125 XIV. A woman with her child ,, ,, ,, 126 XV. A young married woman, showing pattern scarified on body and arms ,, ,, ,, 127 XVI. A girl during the ceremony at puberty, decorated with strips of Pandanus leaf ,, ,, ,, 128 XVII. A woman wearing clay on her forehead as a sign of mourning ,, ,, ,, 129 XVIII. A girl wearing her sister’s skull ,, ,, ,, 132 XIX. The peace-making dance of the North Andaman ,, ,, ,, 134 Map 1. South-eastern Asia, showing the present distribution of the Negrito Race ,, ,, ,, 6 Map 2. The Andaman Islands, showing the distribution of tribes ,, ,, ,, 11

LIST OF FIGURES IN THE TEXT

PAGE
Plan of Andamanese Village 34

Fig. 1. Section of Little Andaman bow, in the middle and
near the end 420
,, 2. Shoulder of Little Andaman bow 420
,, 3. Bow-string of twisted fibre, Little Andaman 421
,, 4. Diagram showing the method of making the loop
in the end of the Little Andaman bow-string 421
,, 5. Section of bow from North Sentinel Island 422
,, 6. Section of Jarawa bow 422
,, 7. Upper end of South Andaman bow 423
,, 8. Section across the blade of a South Andaman bow 424
,, 9. Loop of bow-string, South Andaman 425
,, 10. Ornament on South Andaman bow 426
,, 11. Section across the blade of a North Andaman bow 427
,, 12. North Andaman bow seen from the front 429
,, 13. North Andaman bow; A, in the half-strung or
reversed position; B, in the fully strung
position 429
,, 14. Toy bow of the North Andaman 432
,, 15. Section across the middle of four Semang bows 434
,, 16. Fish-arrow of the Great Andaman 437
,, 17. Head of pig-arrow, Great Andaman 437
,, 18. Pig-arrow with detachable head, Great Andaman 437
,, 19. Method of making the cord of the Great Andaman
pig-arrow 437
,, 20. Pig-arrow, Little Andaman 440
,, 21. Head of Jarawa pig-arrow 440
,, 22. Arrow with head of Areca wood, Great Andaman 440
,, 23. Harpoon, Great Andaman 440
,, 24. Turtle net, South Andaman 442
,, 25. Knot used in making the North Andaman turtle net 443
,, 26. North Andaman fish-gig 444
,, 27. Boar’s tusk, used as a spokeshave 448
,, 28. Adze and knife 449
,, 29. Method of making bamboo mat, Little Andaman 456
,, 30. Diagram showing the technique used in making
mats of thatch 457
,, 31. Diagram showing the technique used in Great
Andaman mats 457
,, 32 a, 32 b. Pot, tied up for carrying, North
Andaman 459, 460
,, 33. Basket for carrying pot, South Andaman 461
,, 34. Portion of basket of Little Andaman 462
,, 35. Portion of basket of South Andaman 464
,, 36. Pig’s skull with basket-work, Jarawa 466
,, 37. Diagram showing netting needle, and method of
netting 471
,, 38. Shape of North Andaman pot 473
,, 39. Shape of South Andaman pot 474
,, 40. Necklaces of mangrove seed-tops, Great Andaman 480
,, 41. Diagram showing method of making ornamental cord,
Little Andaman 481
,, 42. Designs incised or painted on belts of Pandanus
leaf, Great Andaman 484
,, 43. Designs on bamboo necklace from the North Andaman 485
,, 44. Transverse section of canoe and outrigger 487
,, 45. Showing manner in which the boom is connected
with the float 488
,, 46. Paddle 489