6. A TRADITIONAL SOCIETY

6.5 Greeting ceremonies

The remarkable ceremonial of greeting and the copious tears shed has attracted attention and comment from many observers. The Andamanese did not and still do not lightly show their social emotions. There were no special words for ordinary greetings like the English "hello" or "how-do-you-do." When two Andamanese met who had not seen each other for a while, they first stared wordlessly at each other for minutes. So long could this initial silent staring last that some outside observers who saw the beginning of the ceremony but not its continuation came away with the impression that the Andamanese had no speech. The deadlock was broken when the younger of the two made a casual remark. This opened the doors to an excited exchange of news and gossip. If the two were related, the older would sit down and the younger sit on his lap (Schoss), then the two would cuddle and huddle while weeping profusely. If they had not seen each other for a long time, the weeping could go on for hours. In the eyes of outside observers, the embracing and caressing could seem amorous but in fact the ceremony had no erotic significance whatsoever. Kisses were not part of the repertoire of caresses; only children received kisses as a sign of affection. Greater Andamanese greeting ceremonies were loudly demonstrative, their weeping often turning into howls (Schreie) that could be heard, as was intended, far and wide. The Onge were less exuberant and were satisfied with a few quiet tears and with caressing each other. If there were many people, greeting returning hunters that had been absent longer than expected or meeting unusual visitors, etiquette required that the large mass of people should not cry until several hours after the arrival. When the howling started, it could go on all night. When more than a few people met, the initial staring was dispensed with. The following description of a larger ceremony dates to 1870:

Crying signifies with them reconciliation with enemies, or joy at meeting an old friend or acquaintance from whom they have been parted. Should two tribes [septs or local groups] meet, the new comers have to commence, and the women have the priority in weeping; subsequently the men take it up, whilst it becomes the duty of the hosts to reciprocate in the same manner; first the females weeping and afterwards the males, occasionally the performance cannot be completed in one night, especially should the parties have been long separated, it may even be continued through several successive days. After the crying has been completed, dancing begins.

Crying for grief or for joy was known in traditional Andamanese society as in any other human society. The peculiar Andamanese greeting ceremony, beside its ritual and social significance, was the expression of a sudden overwhelming feeling of affection. The ceremony itself had the function of affirming and strengthening the social bond of friendship between individuals and groups.

6.6 Almost no private property

The economic life of the traditional local group has been called a sort of communism and yet it was based on the notion of private property. With so few possessions to go round, the concept of private property did not acquire the overwhelming importance that it has in wealthier societies. There was no accumulation of property and practically no difference in wealth between individuals. In such circumstances theft was naturally rare but when one had been committed, it was a serious matter. Private property in traditional Andamanese society was limited to the portable items that each person had made for himself or herself, i.e. bow and arrows, harpoons, pots, nets, ropes and the like. A canoe was made in cooperation by several men under the direction of the owner who would later be obliged in return to help his helpers make their own canoes. In a village, each family erected and kept in repair their own hut. Communal huts were built in cooperation by several families while each family would then live in and be responsible for the upkeep of its own section.

During a successful hunt, the man whose arrow or harpoon had struck the quarry (Beute) first was its owner. The person who found a beehive (Bienenstock) only became the owner if he or she climbed up the tree and brought the honeycombs down. The same principle applied to whatever a person could kill, catch, dig up or gather within the tribe's hunting grounds. The lucky owner of any foodstuff was expected to share with those who had little or nothing. While a married man could keep the best parts of his catch for himself and his family, bachelors (Junggeselle) were expected to distribute most of theirs to the older people. The result was a relatively even spread (Verteilung) of the available food through the local group. Generosity towards the members of one's own local group and to friends outside was highly valued. Private property was also respected within the family, neither husband nor wife being free to dispose of the partner's private property.

A more abstract ownership and even something like copyright was also known. Any member of the local group could notify the others that a tree within the group's territory was to be reserved for him because he wished to make a canoe out of its trunk; such claims were respected by the others for years if the owner did not get round to his project immediately. Some men were also reported to have possession of certain fruit trees from which nobody could take fruit without permission and from which the owner expected his share of the picking. Such rights seem somehow alien in the context of traditional Andamanese culture. We do not know whether women could own trees nor do we know how and when the men's rights originated.

The Andamanese copyright was remarkable: songs were specially composed for large gatherings and those that had been successful with the fickle public would on request be repeated at later gatherings. All rights to such stone-age hit songs were reserved by the composer and no one except him (rarely her) was allowed to sing it. If anyone else tried without permission, it would have been regarded as theft. Andamanese songs were highly monotonous and very similar to each other musically. The creative work was in the words.

6.7 Gift giving instead of trade

There was no concept of trade in our sense. In everyday life, a system of gift giving took the place of trade, leading to the mutual obligations that were a mainstay (Hauptstütze) of traditional Andamanese society. Not only on special occasions but even during the daily life of a local group, presents were constantly exchanged. All moveable goods, including canoes and even the skulls of ancestors, could be given away. No one was free to refuse a gift offered. It would also have been the height of bad manners to have refused someone an article that had been requested. However, for every gift received something of roughly equal usefulness or value had to be given in return. Items could pass quite rapidly from person to person and, at least after 1858, could cross tribal borders. A person carrying an ancestral skull around the neck need not necessarily have any idea who the original owner of the skull had been or where the object had come from. The Andamanese saw the exchange of gifts as a moral obligation, as a means to spread friendly feelings and to keep friendships and alliances in good working order. That they could also have a practical value was of secondary importance to them. Eremtaga groups without access to the sea could acquire turtle shells or turtle fat while iron looted from shipwrecks was spread far and wide over the archipelago.

Gift giving was not always a simple matter, however, and since Murphy's Law worked in Andamanese as well as in any other human society, things that could go wrong did go wrong. When the return gift did not come up to the sometimes inflated expectations of the original giver, quarrels and feuds could arise.

It was not until the 1880s that the Greater Andamanese had learnt to sell items such as bows and arrows to outsiders in return for money with which they could buy the items they craved but could not make themselves, such as sugar, tobacco or tea. At the same time some also began to perform traditional dances or sold locks of their hair for money. Nevertheless, the Greater Andamanese never really understood the concept of money and trade. All too often their commercial naiveté was shamelessly taken advantage of but this did not seem to upset them. In 1867 the authorities tried to stop the exploitation by forbidding trade between outsiders and Andamanese. Prohibition did not work and business was back to normal soon. The Onge of the 1950s were playing the commercial game more astutely: one scientist who was trying to acquire two canoes for museum collections complained bitterly about the ruthless bargaining he was subjected to. There is a strong suspicion that the Onge may have traded, perhaps for centuries, with Chinese and others, diving for valuable sea shells in return for alcohol and opium. The outsiders would have regarded this as payment for the Onge's work while the Onge themselves would have regarded it as an exchange of gifts. Compared to the other Andamanese groups, a long tradition of contact and trade with the outside world would go some way to explain the Onge's adaptability towards British and later Indian outsiders, their greater commercial sense, their consistent peaceful attitude after the initial period of hostility as well as their more adventurous attitude towards the sea.

The possibility that at least some Great Andamanese groups practiced what is known as "silent trade" has been mooted and there is indeed some indirect evidence but no definitive proof. It should be noted that a society of complete hunter-gatherers is largely self-sufficient and is not under any great pressure to trade with the outside world. Traditional Andamanese are known to have been greedy for iron for a long time but their survival did not depend on the metal. If they could not get it, they had alternative traditional technologies to fall back on.