Back Jarawas Afrikaans جاراوا Arabic جاراوا ARZ জাৰোৱা জাতি Assamese Джарава (народ) Byelorussian জারোয়া জাতিগোষ্ঠী Bengali/Bangla Poble jarawa Catalan Jarawa German Ĝarvoj Esperanto Jarawa Spanish
Aong | |
|---|---|
| Total population | |
| ≈ 380[1] (2011, census) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
Western side of South Andaman and Middle Andaman Islands,  India | |
| Languages | |
| Jarawa, one of the Ongan languages | |
| Religion | |
| Traditional religion | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Other indigenous Andamanese peoples, particularly Onge |
The Jarawas (Jarawa: Aong, pronounced [əŋ][2]) are an indigenous people of the Andaman Islands in India. They live in parts of South Andaman and Middle Andaman Islands, and their present numbers are estimated at between 250–400 individuals. They have largely shunned interaction with outsiders, and many particulars of their society, culture and traditions are poorly understood. Since the 1990s, contacts between Jarawa groups and outsiders grew increasingly frequent. By the 2000s, some Jarawas had become regular visitors at settlements, where they trade, interact with tourists, get medical aid, and even send their children to school.
The Jarawas are recognised as an Adivasi group in India. Along with other indigenous Andamanese peoples, they have inhabited the islands for several thousand years. The Andaman Islands have been known to outsiders since antiquity; however, until quite recent times they were infrequently visited, and such contacts were predominantly sporadic and temporary. For the greater portion of their history their only significant contact has been with other Andamanese groups. Through many decades, contact with the tribe has diminished quite significantly.
There is some indication that the Jarawa regarded the now-extinct Jangil tribe as a parent tribe from which they split centuries or millennia ago, even though the Jarawa outnumbered (and eventually out-survived) the Jangil.[3] The Jangil (also called the Rutland Island Aka Bea) were presumed extinct by 1931.[4]
The Jarawa are a designated Scheduled Tribe in India.[5]
- ^ "Table A-11 (Appendix) DISTRICT WISE SCHEDULED TRIBE POPULATION (FOR EACH TRIBE SEPARATELY)" (XLSX). Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Archived from the original (XLSX) on 12 January 2021.
- ^ Kumar, Pramod (2012). Descriptive and Typological study of Jarawa (PhD). Jawaharlal Nehru University.
- ^ Maurice Vidal Portman (1898), Notes on the Languages of the South Andaman Group of Tribes, Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, Government of India,
... 'Jangil' is here used for 'Ancestors.' I found that this word was used by the very ancient Aka-Bea-da for the name of the hostile inland tribe in the South Andaman, who are now known as Jarawas and who belong to the Onge group of tribes.
- ^ George van Driem (2001), Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region : Containing an Introduction to the Symbiotic Theory of Language, BRILL, ISBN 90-04-12062-9,
... The Aka-Kol tribe of Middle Andaman went extinct by 1921. The Oko-Juwoi of Middle Andaman and the Aka-Bea of South Andaman and Rutland Island were extinct by 1931. The Akar-Bale of Ritchie's Archipelago, the Aka-Kede of Middle Andaman and the A-Pucikwar of South Andaman Island soon followed. By 1951, the census counted a total of only 23 Greater Andamanese and 10 Sentinelese. That means that just ten men, twelve women and one child remained of the Aka-Kora, Aka-Cari and Aka-Jeru tribes of Greater Andaman and only ten natives of North Sentinel Island ...
- ^ "List of notified Scheduled Tribes" (PDF). Census India. p. 27. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 November 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.