Onge

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Spread of the Onge (in blue)

The Onge are a small ethnic group on the Andaman Islands belonging to India . In 1901 there were still 672 members, until the flood disaster in Southeast Asia in 2004 , the community had only 98 members who lived on the island of Little Andaman ; at least 73 Onge survived the flood. After the Onge settled the entire island around two hundred years ago, their current range is limited to the settlements of Dugong Creek on the northeast coast and South Bay in the south of Little Andaman. These settlements have been reserved for the Onge since 1957. They speak their own language, which is related to the languages ​​of the other indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands ( Sentinelese , Jarawa , Great Andamanese ). Of the four surviving tribes of the indigenous people of the Andaman Islands, the Onge have the most contact with the immigrants from the Indian mainland, which, however, endangers them rather than benefits them.

The Onge are small, very dark-skinned and curly-haired ( Negritos ). Traditionally they live as hunters and gatherers in the tropical rainforests . They hunt with bows and arrows on wild pigs , reptiles and birds . With nets catch fish , crabs and shrimp in the shallow waters of the rivers and coastal waters. In addition, they collect fruits and plants.

See also

literature

  • Heinrich Harrer : The last five hundred. Expedition to the dwarf peoples on the Andamans. Ullstein, Berlin a. a. 1977, ISBN 3-550-06574-4 .
  • Vishvajit Pandya: Above the Forest. A Study of Andamanese Ethnoanemology, Cosmology, and the Power of Ritual. Oxford University Press, Delhi a. a. 1993, ISBN 0-19-562971-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BBC World Service : अंडमान में जनजातियों को ख़तरा / Tribes endangered in the Andamans. In: bbc.co.uk/hindi. December 30, 2004, Retrieved May 10, 2014 ( Hindi ).
  2. ↑ Tapas Chakraborty: Poison drink kills vanishing tribals. In: The Telegraph. Calcutta, December 12, 2008, accessed May 10, 2014.