5. THE TRIBES
5.6 The Sentineli
We have already met the Sentineli in the very first chapter. They are the quintessential Andamanese: to this day they live their primitive but comfortable and unhurried lives in complete isolation on a small island, they are hostile to all outsiders and they do not wish to change this state of affairs. Violence is the traditional way to ensure the undisturbed enjoyment of their way of life: even today, give the chance, they would kill strangers outright and they still hide from landing parties that look too strong to fight.
Beyond what we have told about them in the introductory chapter, little more can be said about these most isolated people in today's world. A few additional specific details are scattered in the appropriate chapters of this book but not enough to hide the fact that we know very little about them.
We have no idea how long the Sentinels have been on their island. It has been observed that turtles have learnt to avoid the Sentinels who tried to catch them. Since turtles are not among the world's fastest learners this must be an argument of sorts for a long-lived human settlement on the island. Be that as it may, from the type of their body decorations and from what little is known of their behaviour and handicrafts, they undoubtedly are related to the Jarawa and the Onge and perhaps still more closely to the Jangil. However, Onges who have been brought to North Sentinel Island could not understand the Sentineli language so that a long time of separate development is likely. The Onge had a name for North Sentinel Island and knew of the island's existence; they also appear to have recognized some degree of relationship when brought into contact with Sentineli. The Jarawa and Jangil lived in their jungles and did not venture onto the open seas so a recent contact with them is most unlikely. A comparison of the languages could perhaps answer this question but with two of the four languages inaccessible, there is little to compare.
What can be said with a reasonable degree of certainty is that Sentinels came - in a deliberate migration or as the result of a group drifting off-course - from Little Andaman. There is also the story of a Sentineli who grew up among Onge. The story is best told in the unavoidable Postman's own words, not least because it nicely illustrates the degree of uncertainty surrounding things Andamanese even when the oldest authority in the field is involved. M.V. Portman wrote:
“The North Sentinel Island was visited on the 15th of February 1895, and I took some Onges over there from the Quince Islands, as I had learnt at their camp there that one of them was a Sentinels, who had, some years before, left the North Sentinel in a canoe and come across, via Rutland Island, to the Quince Islands and the Little Andamans”.
After a search on the 15th and 16th on the coast of the Island, some of the inhabitants were seen near the north-west point in a canoe; though called to be the Onges, and by their own countryman, whom we had brought with us, they showed the usual signs of fright and hostility, and as we did not wish to provoke an encounter, the search party returned without getting close to them.
From my very slight knowledge of the Onge language, it is quite likely that I misunderstood the supposed Sentinels, and he may either have been driven away from the Sentinel in a storm, possibly as a child, and have been adopted by the Onges when he reached them on the Quince Islands, (the adults with him being killed), or there may really be occasional intercourse either between the Sentinel Jarawa and those on Rutland Island, or between the former and the Onge.
It was interesting to note that, unlike their behaviour when in the jungles of the Great Andaman, the Onges on each occasion that they have been on the North Sentinel, have taken the lead in searching the forest for Jarawa [Sentineli], and seemed to have no fear of them.
Like the Onge but unlike the Jarawa, the Sentineli still make canoes. That they build them in a style reminiscent of but not identical to that of the Onge is another pointer at their origin. The Sentineli do not use their canoes much and none has ever been seen outside the protective coral reef surrounding their island.
The island and its inhabitants have enjoyed a peculiarly charmed existence. Apart from a few brief visits during their 90-year rule, the British took very little interest in the island and for decades at a time seemed to forget its existence altogether. The Japanese were not long enough in the Andamans to meddle, especially since the island had no strategic importance. The Indians, too, took some years before noticing their forgotten island. The first official census after independence 1949 in 1951 failed to mention the Sentineli altogether.
Today, North Sentinel Island is the most amazing human time capsule of our world - at least for the time being.
5.7 The Aryoto-Eremtaga Split
Apart from the tribal divisions described briefly above, there was a further and rather unusual, division among Andamanese and one that went right across tribal lines. It separated the shore-dwelling Aryotos from the forest-dwelling Eremtagas. There was also a third group, the creek-dwelling Adajigs who seem to have been somewhat specialized Eremtagas and about whom nothing further is known. The division was unique to the Andamanese and caused some ill-feeling among the tribes. It also still causes problems in scientific literature where the two groups are sometimes confused with tribes. While the real tribes were based on language, the Aryoto/Eremtaga dichotomy was based on a different economic environment and the resulting different ways of life. The Onge on Little Andaman had the same division (known in Onge as shore-dwelling Embelakwe and forest-welling Engeakwe, respectively) but in a much milder form with no specific hostilities between the two groups known. What follows, therefore, is relevant mostly to the tribes of Greater Andaman.
Among Great Andamanese the Aryoto looked down on the Eremtaga. Among the two groups there was competition and ill-feeling but also a considerable amount interaction, such as the exchange of gifts that went for trade among Andamanese. We do not know how, when or why the division between people living exclusively in the thick forests inland and those living along the shores arose within the tribes nor why most tribes should be split in this peculiar way. Archaeology may one day be able to trace this development since the different food resources of the two groups are reflected in the composition of their kitchen-midden but whether it will answer the "Why?" is another question. The Aryoto and Eremtaga groups within each tribe spoke dialectal variations of the same language. The little-known but predominantly Eremtaga tribe of Aka-Bo had territories that included a long stretch of coast and even off-shore islands but seem to have made little use of the additional resources. Living next to the sea, the Aka-Bo remained stubbornly Eremtaga.
The Aryoto are far better known than their elusive if more numerous forest brethren. The earliest researchers were not even aware of the existence of the Eremtaga, reporting the inland jungles as empty and unsuitable for human habitation. While most Aryoto local groups had been discovered before they died out or merged themselves out of existence, the same is certainly not true of the Eremtaga local groups. It is no coincidence that the last tribe discovered just before 1901, the Aka-Bo, was mostly Eremtaga. The territories held by many Aryoto local groups are known in some detail but the same information regarding the Eremtagas is vague at best. The information collected by the three great early researchers in matters Andamanese was collected primarily from Aryotos and may not always be valid for Eremtagas - a limitation rarely acknowledged in scientific literature.
The Aryotos were the more daring and adaptable of the two. They exploited not one or two but five environments: that of the sea, the beaches, the coastal forests as well as the mangrove swamps and creeks. Such flexibility gave them far more resources and consequently a larger margin of safety in times of drought and stress as well as a more healthily varied diet. This could explain why the Aryoto were physically stronger than the Eremtaga. Also, any contact with outsiders touched the Aryoto first; they were raided by slavers and they attacked vessels trying to land on the islands. The Aryotos could do anything that the Eremtagas could and more, but not always quite so well. The Eremtagas were more specialized: they were expert trackers and hunters in the forest. Their Aryoto competitors regarded them as stealthy, cunning, timid and sometimes accused them of cannibalism. When not actively quarrelling, the two groups had little contact with each other beyond a limited exchange of gifts.
An Eremtaga child could be adopted into an Aryoto local group but adoption in the other direction was not acceptable to the Aryoto. We may note here in passing that snobbery is an ancient human trait.
