7. FAMILY, CHILDREN, NAMES

The dispersal of children among friendly septs took place without an element of coercion and with the utmost friendliness among the couples concerned. Everybody, including the children, simply took the system for granted. In view of the limited fertility, it may well be that this unusual system was of considerable antiquity. It certainly helped strengthen cohesion among groups and reduced the danger of in-breeding.

A baby would receive its first name as soon as the mother was known to be pregnant. The pre-natal name, obviously, did not differentiate between boy and girls. The name that the unborn baby was to receive had to be agreed on by both parents. A child could be named after a living person who would then become something of a godfather or godmother to the baby. There were a number of names in use but the frequency of names varied with fashion from time to time and from place to place. As soon as the growing foetus had received a name, its parents would no longer be addressed by their own names but were known as "baby X's belly" or "baby X's father." This roundabout way of addressing the parents would be used for several months after birth by seniors. Juniors returned to the old standard forms of address at once. What comes through clearly in this system is that to the Andamanese, the baby was more important than the parents.

If the baby died - an all too frequent occurrence - the mother's next pregnancy received the same name. It was thought that the new pregnancy was the previous baby trying a second time to come into this world. Only babies who died in infancy were thought to be reincarnated in this way. There is no trace of a belief of transmigration of adult souls.

A few examples of pre-natal names from northern Great Andaman with their meanings are: Buio (a plant with edible beans), Bol (the hibiscus plant), Tsop (a tree with edible nuts), Tsokbi (a turtle), Maro (honey), Meo (a stone), Tseo (a knife), Bani (a bird), Kea (one who turns in his sleep), Boitso (one who wrestles), Elpe (one who comes and goes), Kidseri (one who walks backwards and forwards) and Nimi (one who catches hold). Some of the names in use for Aka-Bea babies were Balea, Bora, Birola, Chormila, Dora, Golat, Jaro, Kala, Lipa, Nggongala, Potya, Punga and Yega.

Once the baby was born and its sex known, an Aka-Bea baby named Dora would then be known as Dora-ota if it male and Dora-kata if female until age three. After that age a boy would be called Dora-dala for life while a girl would be called Dora-pilola but only until she was given her flower name.

The number of accepted pre-natal names was insufficient and there were always a few people in any local group with the same name. The problem was solved by the widespread use of nicknames. Sometimes a baby was given a nickname based on an incident or situation during birth or referring to a personal peculiarity. Nicknames could, however, be given at any time during a person's life and some people acquired several in a lifetime. There were some recognized stock nick-names but new ones were invented from time to time. Here are a few examples from northern Andaman: Ra-t'ot-betts (pig's hair), Renya-tsope (much baggage, or many possessions), Lau-tei (spirit blood), Luremo (rope), Remu-toi (a piece of iron), Tsokbi-tsiro (turtle liver).

Young women on their first menstruation received a flower name in a - for Andamanese elaborate - ceremony. The name was determined by a tree or bush in flower at the time of the ceremony. The plants used for flower names were all visited by honey bees and each had a distinctive scent that the Andamanese thought characteristic for its time of the year. Flower names differ somewhat from the names of the plants, which fact is thought to reflect older forms of the plant names.

Once a flower name had been given, it replaced all other names in daily use until the girl had become a mother. On the birth of her first baby she would revert to her old name or to the new honorific chana ("Mother" or "Madam"). If the marriage remained childless, the woman would revert quietly to her own birth- or nickname. Boys did not receive a new name on reaching puberty but were known by their birth- or nicknames for life. They did, however, go through the turtle-eating ceremony when they received a ceremonial name. Girls went through the same ceremony but did not receive a new name. The ceremonial name was never used to address a person although the name itself was not secret.

A younger brother's wife (sister-in-law), a husband's younger brother's wife and a son's wife were in Onge collectively called m-ulitange. Among Onge, there was an odd relationship between a person and his or her m-ulitange. The m-ulitange had to be avoided, could not be touched or talked to nor could their personal names even be mentioned. Among the Greater Andamanese there was a similar custom but it concerned the relationship between the husband's parents with their son's mother-in-law, the aka-yat. A direct relationship with one's aka-yat was unthinkable and the two sides were said to be aka-yat to each other. Yet the man had to send a constant stream of little presents to his aka-yat through intermediaries. There is only one word in the Andamanese languages for "shy" and "ashamed" (in Aka-Jeru ot-jete) and this is what the Andamanese thought the two aka-yat parties were of each other. This strange relationship commenced with the marriage of the two children and lasted until death. A similar "shyness" also existed between two men who had been through the turtle-eating ceremony together. The Andamanese themselves had no explanation for this custom; it may be the last surviving remnant of a very old ritual prohibition. Such taboos among certain groups of relations are common in technologically primitive societies.

It was absolutely de rigueur for younger people to address older ones with the appropriate honorifics. When addressing an Aka-Jeru lady X, she expected to be called Mimi X by anyone younger than herself. As we have seen, even children did not address their parents by name but by their honorifics. Any youth would be expected to do the same with all elders.

Names are considered in all societies to hold a certain power, this belief is a universal human constant. Even most rational of modern scientists have been known to complain that naming a phenomenon takes the mystery out of it. The Andamanese were very careful in how they used names. If asked his or her name, an Andamanese person would not answer directly but would get some bystander to tell it. A woman would do the same. There were also occasions when the use of a name was to be avoided the parents' names could not be used after the birth of a baby, nor could the bride and groom be named directly for a short time after their wedding. Personal names were also avoided during and after certain ceremonies. After a death and during mourning, the mourner's name could not be used when speaking to or about him or her, nor was the dead person mentioned among Greater Andamanese during that time. The Onge had a much stricter taboo regarding the dead person's name which lasted until the dead had been forgotten. If the banned name had been a word of common usage, a replacement would have to be found for it. These rules surrounding names must once have had an underlying system, one that had been forgotten long before 1858.

Finally and outside traditional society, Andamanese known at Port Blair during the 19th century were given nicknames such as Snowball, Jumbo, Moriarty or Queen Victoria by the British, names that they considered "humorous." Genuine native names were not difficult to pronounce, nor were they long or hard to remember. The British nicknames were not vicious and were freely accepted by the Andamanese who probably did not understand their meaning. But they do indicate a certain lack of respect for the Andamanese, the entertaining "black monkeys."