14. POTTERY, TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY

​​​​​​​There was no great variety in types of weaponry and no distinction was made between hunting and fighting gear (Ausrüstung). Like all Negrito groups, the Andamanese main weapon was and still is the bow-and-arrow. The bows of the other two Negrito groups still show many similarities to those of the Andamanese even though their separation must date back tens of thousands of years. Through close contact with neighboring groups, the Semang and Aeta have acquired additional types of weapons such as blow pipes and arrow poisons, weapons that are unknown in the Andamans.

Hunting and fighting was men's work and so it was only natural that bows were a major interest of all Andamanese males. None of them went anywhere without their bow and a good supply of arrows. Each made his own weapons and spent a good deal of time and effort making and maintaining them. With so much effort and attention lavished on bow construction and design, the isolated groups over the centuries developed many different styles which can be brought into some sort of evolutionary sequence based on form alone. It is unfortunate that bows have to be made of perishable wood. It would be a near-miracle to find an ancient bow in an archaeological excavation. If stone arrow heads had been used, at least the presence of the bow-and-arrow combination at some time in the past could be confirmed - but the Andamanese never seem to have used stone points.

The Onge cut their bows with an adze from straight wood and planed them but did not polish or ornament them. The ends of their bows had notches at both ends for the bow-string with the ends identical so that the bows did not have identifiable up or down sides. Size varied between 130 cm (51 in) to 190 cm (75 in) with an average around 160 cm (63 in). This makes for large bows in a people with an average body height of under 150 cm (59 in). Toy bows made for young boys were simply scaled down versions of the adult bows with an average length of around 100 cm (40 in). From the few examples of Sentineli bows that have been acquired over the past century by museums, it seems that theirs is similar to the Onge bow but somewhat wider in the middle and rather flatter in cross-section. Both Onge and Sentineli bows in cross-section are somewhat convex inside, towards the marksman, and much more convex away from him with both ends ending in a notch on which the bow-string could be fastened. Sentineli bows were rather smaller, ranging in size from 140 cm (55 in) to 156 cm (61.5 in). While Onge bows are never decorated, some Sentineli bows have been found with simple parallel lines.

The Jarawa had and maybe still have two types of bow in use. The first is identical to the Onge bow. The other, known as the Jarawa bow or modified Jarawa bow, is of a different type and apparently developed from the Onge bow under the influence of the southern Great Andamanese bow. The Jarawa bow is large: it averages 185 cm (73 in) length and 5 cm (2 in) width in the middle. The cross-section over most of its length is either plano or concave on the inside with a central rib running down its length.

The Great Andamanese bows came in two different but related forms: the southern and the northern bow.

The southern bow (karama), unlike the Onge bows, was not cut from a straight piece of wood but from a branch that had actually grown in a curve. Once a suitable branch had been selected, it was cut and shaped with an adze and then planed with a boar's tusk. Some southern bows were made so large that they cannot possibly have been intended for use: specimens vary from 180 cm (71 in) to an enormous 220 cm (87 in) with the most usual size around 190 cm (75 in). The inner side was kept slightly concave with sometimes a raised keel running down the middle. The bow reached its maximum width of 5.5 (2 in) before the middle where it narrowed sharply but increased in thickness to form a handle. The ends were not identical in length so that there was a clear upper and lower part. Both ends tapered off in a round cross-section over which the loop of the bow-string could be pulled. Southern bows were always decorated with permanently incised pattern. More short-lived were pattern painted in red and white clay which were not renewed when they had worn off. The southern Great Andamanese also knew a toy bow for boys that seem to have had a slightly different lineage from the main bow. With around 120 cm (47 in) these miniature bows were still rather large in relation to their tiny owners.

The bow of the northern Great Andamanese (chokio) probably derived from the southern bow but was not identical to it. Northern bows were smaller, ranging in size between 153 cm (60 in) and 182 cm (72 in) with an average size of around 160 cm (63 in) and a width at the widest part of between 6.5 cm (2.5 in) and 7.5 cm (3 in). Northern bows were never decorated; they were much lighter and more elastic, easier to handle and an altogether more efficient weapon than their southern cousins. On the other hand, the northern bow did not last as long and broke more easily. There was also a northern toy boy with a length between 90 cm (35.5 in) and 120 cm (47 in) made from bamboo and rather different from the adult bow. This toy bow was the only Andamanese bow to be more convex on the inner than on the outer side, the exact opposite of the conventional cross-section.

The best bow is useless without arrows and these, in the Andamans, came in two main types: as fish and as pig arrows. Common to all Andamanese arrows was the absence of feathering; in this they differ from the arrows of the other two Negrito groups. Common to all three Negrito groups are the detachable arrow-heads. It is likely that this refinement goes back to common roots. The attached illustration shows the various types so that we need not waste time in describing them in detail, especially since the arrows did not differ much between the various Andamanese groups.

Multi-pronged fishing arrows with between two and four heads were used in the Onge-Jarawa group, including the Sentineli but such arrows are also known from the Great Andamanese where they seem to have been less common. The preferred material for fishing arrows among all groups was bamboo. Pig arrows with their often detachable heads had to be stronger and more sturdy (stabil) so that wood was usually used for their shafts and heads. While the arrow point was never made of stone and only sometimes of hard wood, points of cut shells, fish grates and the serrated tails of sting rays were common. Whenever iron was available it was the material of choice for both fishing and pig arrow points.

The length and thickness of arrows varied considerably. Among Great Andamanese they tended to vary between 70 and 110 cm (27.5 and 43 in) with those of the Onge somewhat longer but arrows as much as 150 cm (60 in) length were also reported among Greater Andamanese. Single-pronged fish-arrows, being light and well-balanced, could be shot with sufficient accuracy over about 45 m (150 ft) and could still inflict serious wounds at 90 m (300 ft). Fish-hunters also shot such arrows under water when the deadly distance was, of course, reduced to a few meters. Pig arrows, on the other hand, were heavier and with their detachable head much less well-balanced. They were accurate to a maximum of 14 m (45 ft) only but this clearly was not a significant drawback in the thick underbrush.

The Andamanese with their bow-and-arrow combinations were far from devilishly accurate marksmen. We do not know how often they shot at pigs or fish and missed but we have accounts of hostile skirmishes in which almost all of their shots missed. Still, their hunters managed to shoot enough game to feed their group. From boy to experienced adult hunter, all Andamanese males practiced continuously with their bows and arrows. Even when just walking they would shoot at anything that took their fancy, whether it moved or not, just as long as they were sure to get their arrows back.

Throwing spears were unknown among Andamanese but some arrows were so long that they could occasionally be used as thrusting spears. Rather more widespread was the use of harpoons for fishing, many of them with multiple heads. Large harpoons attached to long ropes were employed to spear big fish, turtles and dugong (Seekuh) but these were introduced only after 1858 and may have been copied from outside fishermen. The hunter waited, standing on the large platform of his canoe with his weapon at the ready. Smaller harpoon types with up to 8 points were used like thrusting spears in shallow water on smaller prey. The small harpoons were known to all Andamanese groups, including the eremtaga (jungle dwellers) who had no canoes and who could fish only in creeks and rivers.