The Times: The ancient tribes of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, who were considered dead, were saved. Onji - the last Andaman natives

ALL PHOTOS

The last tribes of the Paleolithic, as it turned out last night, escaped from the earthquake in Asia - fears that they were completely exterminated by the raging tsunami have subsided.

Officials in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands announced that all five primitive tribes had been discovered. Some of them migrated to higher parts of the archipelagos, writes The Times of London (translation on the site Inopressa.ru).

"The great Andamanese tribes are in perfect order," Lieutenant Governor Ram Kapse said, "there are no casualties."

It is believed that less than a thousand representatives of various tribes live in forests with lush tropical vegetation and on the coral coast of the islands, among which are 100 people from the Onge tribe, 250 people from the hostile Sentinel tribe, 48 people from the almost extinct "great Andaman" tribe, 350 representatives of the tribe jarawa and 250 shompen hunter-gatherers.

Indian coast guard ships delivered food to the tribes on the islands affected by the tsunami. At the same time, from the helicopters, other groups of aborigines were noticed hiding in the depths of the forests. The worst fears, fortunately, turned out to be groundless.

Late on Thursday evening, three Navy patrol boats combed the area for signs of life in the Nicobar Islands, home to shompenis. Semi-nomadic hunting, fishing and gathering tribes live in a fearful neighborhood with Indian settlers, 1600 km from the largest island of the archipelago inhabited by Indians. Now some members of the Shompen tribe have established relationships with the Indian authorities and supply the beads, honey, coconuts and betels that they collect, and the Indian government sells all this on their behalf.

Eyewitnesses were shocked by the destruction of the islanders' zone, which begins at the 35th kilometer, where the demarcation line is located between the mangrove forests inhabited by the natives and the territory occupied by Indian settlers.

"Beyond the 35th kilometer, bridges and dams were washed away, houses were razed to the ground. We saw bodies scattered along the streets," says Rajendra Zhamwal, head of the Navy in Camppell Bay.

Some members of the Shompen tribe, who resemble in Mongoloid features members of the larger Nicobar tribes living to the north, have been completely cut off from the outside world since their ancestors first arrived here about 60 thousand years ago.

A Coast Guard helicopter pilot spotted Sentinel tribes from the air on northern Sentinel Island. When the pilot tried to drop food bags on them, the islanders, he says, started throwing rocks at the helicopter.

"There is debate about whether to leave them to their own devices or try to assimilate them," Vasudeva Rao, deputy chief of police in Port Blair, told The Times, "but they are considered to be very aggressive."

Members of the Great Andaman Tribe - the first islanders to fight the British when they arrived in the Andaman Islands in the 19th century to build a prison - are also safe.

Wayne Harrigan, a 46-year-old traveler from Australia, returned from the small Andaman Islands and raised optimism about the fate of the Onge tribe, who were isolated on the island's high ground until Indian Navy and Coast Guard vessels arrived to rescue them.

Dr. Pronob Sarkar, an Aboriginal tribal expert based in Port Blair who works for the island's indigenous relief organization, says Indian authorities care little about Aboriginal people, whose primitive tribal identity places them at the bottom of the caste system.

According to the Dean of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Delhi Kalla, among the tribes settled on Andaman Islands, there are Negrito people who are considered the most ancient inhabitants of the planet. Negrito is a generalized designation for people of the Negrito type of the Melanesian race, Asian and Australian pygmies, their average height is less than 150 cm. Negritos, which means "little blacks", were called by the Spaniards.

It is believed that blacks have a unique innate ability to dowsing - they can, at a considerable distance, like a radar, accurately determine where an animal is located. Perhaps this innate ability helped them to feel the panic among the animals, which, at the approach of the tsunami, rushed away from the coast, and escape themselves.

Andamans are the indigenous population of the Andaman Islands (India), a living relic of the Stone Age that has survived to the present. By now, there are only a few hundred left. The Andamanese are believed to be the descendants of the first African migrants who left their home continent 60,000 years ago. Like some other tribes South-East Asia belong to the so-called negritos type of the Australoid race, the hallmark of which is the extremely low growth of its representatives - no more than 150 cm in adult men; also, the Andamanese are the only group outside of Africa that has female steatopygia.

Some Andamanese tribes have already disappeared (as it is believed due to diseases that came to them from outside), and two of the surviving tribes - the Jarawa and the Sentinelese - were isolated from the outside world until the end of the 20th century.

The Jarawa tribe for a long time rejected contact with researchers and the Indian population of the South Andaman Island, until the 1970s, only a few photos were taken with representatives of this tribe.


But the researchers were able to find the "key to the heart" of this tribe - free coconuts became the key: explorers' boats sailed from the sea to the Jarawa settlement and immediately threw coconuts into the water. which the Jaravians, of course, picked up.


In such a simple way, the Jarawa, convinced of the safety of their communication with other people, made contact with civilization and soon, without any fear and aggression, they allowed researchers to visit them - here are photo and video evidence of those meetings:

Now the Jarawa have finally abandoned their isolated existence and, without any fear, began to come to the villages of Indian peasants - to beg, and without knowing it, they gradually began to turn into an object of interest for travel companies.

But the inhabitants of the island of North Sentinel turned out to be a tougher nut to crack. It should be noted that the Sentinelese completely control their island with an area of ​​72 sq. km, and do not allow any of the strangers to enter it - to protect their territory, the tribe uses such weapons as a bow and poisoned arrows; so, in the 2000s, they killed several fishermen who landed on their island.

In the past, researchers have repeatedly made attempts to make contact with the Sentinelese - like the Jarawa, they tried to tame them by dropping coconuts from boats.

The Sentinelese picked up coconuts, but did not make further contact, and later reacted rather aggressively to an attempt to descend on their island - in 2001 they even tried to shoot a helicopter from the bow of the Indian Coast Guard, which conducted a census of the island's population.

After some time, the researchers stopped disturbing the Sentinelese and they still live quietly on their own. own island area 72 square kilometers, and the outside world had to come to terms with such amazing island sovereignty.

North Sentinel Island.

Today, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands belong to India, from which one can easily conclude that almost the entire population of the islands are Indians, or Hindus, as you like. Many moved here from the mainland, the British, during their rule, overpowered someone by force, the point is that the way of life of the local population is no different from the life of the inhabitants of India on the mainland.

In 2011, the general population census stopped at 343,125 people. Amazing accuracy. It is worth noting that the general population census in India has suffered a crushing fiasco, too many people do not have a permanent place of residence and generally no documents. They just wander around, work where they can and sleep where they can. Obviously, on the Andamans, this is stricter. The Indian government jealously guards this untouched corner virgin nature and does not let anyone in here. This is also evidenced by the fact that to visit the Andaman Islands one Indian visa is not enough, you still need to obtain a special permit.

The largest city and capital of the Andaman Islands Port Blair. More than 100,000 people live here. Obviously, the city owes its name to Lieutenant Archibald Blair, who heroically killed part of the local population and founded the stronghold of the East India Company on the largest of the islands. As you might have guessed, in honor of its founder, this stronghold now bears the proud name of Port Blair. The city's population is primarily engaged in fishing and shipbuilding. There are no large shipyards in the city, and industrial fishing near the islands is prohibited by the government so as not to harm the fragile ecosystem. Therefore, most of the population is also involved in the tourism business: making and selling crafts and souvenirs, excursions to the islands, diving, etc. Almost everyone speaks English. Recall that it is the second official language in India.

It is worth noting another feature of the local population, most of the Indians living here are the descendants of revolutionaries and political prisoners. From the end of the 19th century until 1952, the Andaman Islands were used by Britain as a remote place of exile, in other words, a convict camp. Such an analogue of Magadan, only with snow-white beaches and azure sea. Read more about this in the dedicated article. It is clear that the prisoners did not have to enjoy the natural splendor of the islands, the conditions of detention were monstrous and rarely did anyone live to see the end of the term of imprisonment, which usually consisted of 20 years of hard labor for cutting and logging. Today, tourists have the opportunity to visit the Andaman Islands prison. The building has long been re-qualified as an ominous attraction. Despite the hard labor past, the crime rate in the Andaman Islands is very low, robbery attacks are simply unthinkable. However, thefts happen, leaving things unattended is still not worth it.

In addition to the Indians who arrived from the mainland, the Andaman Islands are inhabited by unique tribes of indigenous people. Their uniqueness lies in the fact that, according to scientists, they are direct descendants of the first homo sapiens. In other words, at the moment, representatives of these tribes are considered the most ancient inhabitants of our planet. These are representatives of the Negrito group - small, swarthy, warlike guys who managed to sleep through evolution on their paradise island and for 70,000 years of living in the Andamans have not changed much. The number of indigenous tribes at the beginning of the last century was estimated at 5,000 people. Unfortunately, the barbaric colonization of the islands by Britain, and the organization of a hard labor camp here, led to a sharp reduction in the indigenous population and today their number fluctuates between 500-800 people. It is not possible to conduct an accurate census of the population among the natives, since visiting the islands inhabited by them is strictly prohibited. There are several reasons for this: firstly, a clash with civilization can irrevocably change the unique way of life of the most ancient people on the planet, and secondly, it is highly likely that the natives simply pierce uninvited guests with arrows and spears.

The indigenous inhabitants of the Andaman Islands are credited with amazing abilities. For example, they can determine the location of the animal they are interested in at a great distance, through the thickets of the jungle. Roughly speaking, the Negrito hunter knows exactly in which direction to move in order to overtake the prey of interest to him. Also, modern scientists are baffled by the ability of the natives to accurately determine the upcoming weather. So in 2004, the tsunami that hit the Andaman and Nicobar Islands washed away more than 5,000 local residents. Later it turned out that there were no victims among the indigenous people, as they left their villages in advance and left the coast further and higher. Indians living on the islands should have kept a closer eye on their neighbors. If suddenly the Negrito once again gather in the mountains, I would follow their example if I were the Indians.

Today, the Andaman Islands are divided by six tribes of indigenous people. Of these, only one tribe succumbed to the influence of civilization and, under pressure from British missionaries, even adopted Christianity. This tribe Nicobarese based mainly on the island carNicobar. The rest of the tribes lead a primitive way of life, engaged exclusively in hunting, gathering and fishing.

1. Tribe Andamanese is currently on the verge of extinction and threatens to disappear as early as this century. Now the tribe has about 40 members and lives on the island of Strait Island.
2. TribeSentinelese one of the most reserved and hostile to outsiders. Obviously they have every reason to. They are based on the island of North Sentinel, they do not leave the island and threaten to shoot with arrows anyone who decides to look for a visit. In this regard, little is known about the tribe, their number is estimated at about 200 people, but how many of them are actually hiding in the jungle is unclear.
3. Tribe Onges. The once large tribe occupying several islands today has no more than 95 people and lives on an island with the cute name Little Andaman.
4. Tribe Jarawas inhabits the western coast of the South & Middle Andaman islands. They are also characterized by scientists as closed and hostile guys. An attempt to establish contact and make friends with the tribe was unsuccessful: gifts and humanitarian aid were often sent to the sea, and dangerous arrows whistled over the heads of the guests. Today, the tribe has more than 300 people, and the territory of their habitat is closed to the public.
5. Tribe Shompens formally, it is not an inhabitant of the Andaman, but of the Nicobar Islands. It lives on the island of Great Nicobar. Today the tribe has no more than 150 people.

Tribes in India Maretina Sofia Aleksandrovna

Chapter 1

We begin our story with the earliest tribes, the Andamanese, the indigenous people of the Andaman Islands, who are usually regarded as the remnants of one of the oldest human communities. They were able to convey to our time (naturally, not completely in its original form) the earliest forms social organization and cultures recorded by the sources. Andamans were opened to the eyes of amazed observers and scientists, in fact, only in the middle of the 19th century, when, after the Sepoy uprising, the English masters of India turned to these no man's islands in search of a place to organize hard labor.

The Andaman archipelago includes a number of islands, which are combined into two large inhabited complexes - the Big and Small Andamans. The islands turned out to be inhabited - about 5 thousand islanders, among whom scientists identified the boundaries of twelve tribes, were found in the forests of the two main islands. "Great Andamanese" - under this name the tribes of the Great Andaman were known (these are about ten tribes). Alas, they were, because at present they have already ceased to exist. On Little Andaman, except onge, the natives of this island, whose representatives are still preserved, live jarawa And Sentinelese. Andaman natives - Onge - Negritos, the remnant of the ancient Negritos race, which in ancient times, before the separation of the island world from the Asian mainland, was distributed over the vast territory of Southeast Asia, and in modern times was represented only by small groups - Malay semangs and Filipino and this.

It is clear what a sensation it was to discover on the Andamans another group of the once great race, moreover, the least exposed to extraneous influences due not only to the geographical isolation of their islands from the rest of the world, but also to the complex of fear that generations of sailors had in relation to the natives, as well as non-entry islands into the political framework of any country. Andamanese are very dark in skin color, curly-haired, extremely undersized (men - 145 cm, women - 138 cm), with infantile, as anthropologists note, facial features, with steatopygia clearly manifested in women. The purely Asian character of their anthropological appearance is emphasized. The researchers are of particular interest in the fact that no mixtures almost violated the purity of their appearance - this is a truly unique case.

In addition, it is necessary (primarily for the ecologist) to note their organic incorporation into their natural environment - for thousands of years they lived exclusively on what nature itself “prepared” for them, without disturbing the balance with this environment and bringing the same methods to our time. ensuring its existence. This is an amazing example of a long and complete preservation of the balance between nature and man, which is explained by the vastness and richness of the forest expanses of the islands with a small number and small population growth.

Ultimate adaptation to their environment is the main condition for the survival of aborigines in difficult conditions of separation from the civilized world. This adaptation is physiological (skin elasticity, immunity to malaria, amazing visual acuity), psychological (complete accommodation to the gloomy forest wilds that inspire fear in all aliens) and, most importantly, economic. The depth of the latter is indicated, in particular, by the presence of two main groups - forest ( eremtag) and coastal ( ariotto) Andamanese. The knowledge of the sea Andamanese in the field of sea hunting, fish species, their ability to swim and dive, make boats and various fishing gear are amazing. The forest inhabitants are just as remarkable for their excellent knowledge of zoology and botany, the ability to understand the habits of animals and the properties of plants. All Andamanese are well aware of what time of the year to hunt for giant tortoises or wild boars, when which plant blooms and what medicinal properties it has, which gives the most juicy and tasty fruits. Yes, these forest isolates, standing at the level of development of people of the Stone Age, live in their own special natural world in which they feel confident and which for millennia has been their only ecological environment, since they have other types of ecological environment (such as social, ethnic) were absent until their encounter with the new settlers, who destroyed their established world.

So, the main occupations of the Andamanese are the gathering of finished forest products, hunting, catching fish and marine animals - what is usually defined as a "non-producing economy". The fact that the Andamanese never made the transition to a settled productive economy - forestry farming, is due in no small part to the exceptional natural generosity of the islands, which did not create incentives for technological development. I would like to note one more important point: the Andamanese did not go beyond their local geography, collecting everything necessary for life exclusively on their tribal territory. By the way, it was this very moment, after a collision with the outside world, that did them a disservice, preventing them from settling down in new areas of the same forest where they were pushed back by the settlers.

The Andaman year is painted literally by the day. The main task of life is getting food, which takes the whole day, although, despite hard work, there is always time for general dancing and entertainment. Time passes in constant daily trips for root crops and edible roots, wild fruits, in search of forest game. The whole economic cycle goes on as usual, but its peculiar climax for the forest inhabitants is the collection of honey from wild bees. tree blossoms rar, which means preparing for the honey season, then other honey plants join it. The moon is decreasing - and then they are preparing for a campaign for honey. Pre-harvest the plant Gini, the juice of which has a smell that repels bees. Usually the whole group is involved in the collection of honey - a lot of honey is needed, it compensates the body for the lack of sugar, which is scarce in wild fruits. Onge harvest cicada larvae and horned grasshoppers, which are regarded as delicacies. The main tool of the gatherers is a digging stake (digging stick) made of hard wood with a pointed end or a hooked pole for collecting fruits from trees. The Andamanese did not know metal, but iron objects from wrecked ships could fall into their hands, and they were sometimes used to replace certain parts of traditional tools (without inventing new forms). Onge catch everything that lives in the sea.

And, of course, hunting is the main and favorite pastime of the Andamanese. This is not just work, the extraction of livelihood, but also entertainment, sports, celebration, exciting collective action. Wild boars are hunted with dogs that were brought to the islands and bred there, hunted with a bow and arrow, which is also the main fishing tool. After a successful hunt, general dances are arranged, which are an organic part of the life of the natives. Andamans did not use sumpitan- blowgun. We specifically note this fact, because in Arthur Conan Doyle's well-known story The Sign of Four, the hero, an Andaman Islander, commits murders with the help of a deadly arrow fired from a blowgun. Such weapons are distributed not in the Andamans, but in Kalimantan, among the Dayaks of Indonesia. Other types of occupations include pottery, the high level of development of which interested researchers.

Generally general development Andamanese are so low that they - almost the only ones in the world - did not know how and, in fact, never learned how to make fire, but only kept it, transferring in their migrations a smoldering piece of wood that caught fire after frequent thunderstorms in these latitudes. In the primitive society of the Andamanese, there was no potential for the development of even barter exchange (I remind you that we are talking about the pre-colonization period in the life of the natives). True, the Andamanese, like many primitive peoples, had a custom of exchanging some items that were valuable to them: weapons, utensils, jewelry. However, this should be considered precisely as gifts that do not have a commodity value, but are presented with the expectation of a reciprocal gift. The main purpose of such an exchange was the establishment of friendly relations, the maintenance of peace between the tribes.

Can the Andamanese be regarded as a non-settled people, always on the road? Rather, they can be called a semi-nomadic people, because for all the mobility of their lifestyle, they also had permanent camps, to which they regularly returned. There are three main types of Andamanese sites. The first type is a permanent camp, which is considered as such with a certain degree of conventionality, they returned to it in certain seasons and spent a significant part of the year in it. Such parking could be used from generation to generation. The second type - temporary - the group spent no more than 2–3 months there, this site always looked like a village, while the permanent one could also look like a single communal hut. The third type is a hunting camp, a primitive barrier from bad weather, the most archaic type, designed for several days.

A few words must be said about these types of sites. As noted, a permanent camp may look like a group of buildings located according to an accepted plan, or it may be one communal hut that replaces an entire village. A place for permanent parking is chosen very carefully - it must be protected from severe tropical storms, located close to a source of drinking water and developed agricultural land.

The community hut is the most ancient type of dwelling, designed for many years of use. This is a unique structure (Fig. 1), which has almost disappeared from life, but the descriptions and photographs of which testify to the recent spread of this type of dwellings. The first thing that catches your eye is the high umbrella roof, the core of which consists of two or three rows of concentrically arranged pillars. This is a round, rather monumental building, capable of protecting its inhabitants from bad weather, but very cramped, since it can accommodate the population of an entire village. Inside there are no family cells and a special room for the leader - its design reflects the communal, egalitarian nature of society. It was in such ancient communal huts that the whole traditional way of life developed. Here they butchered prey, escaped from the weather, on the lawn men danced to the accompaniment of women's singing. A place for dancing is an indispensable element of a traditional Andamanese building, no matter what type it belongs to. Separate sleeping places are located mainly along the radius, along a large inner circle, people sleep facing the central pillar and feet to the outer circle. in the center, under highest point roof, there is a communal hearth, where a fire is constantly burning. Along with it, there are also separate family centers.

rice. 1

In another type of permanent site - a settlement in the form of a village - the structure of a communal hut is repeated in a dispersed form. Family huts (from 10 to 15) line up around an open central space - a place for dancing. An indispensable accessory of the village is, as in a communal hut, a common hearth - a symbol of the unity of the whole group, which is used quite often - as soon as there is a reason for celebration (successful hunting, lucky day according to the local calendar, etc.). Then the day ends with common dances and collective refreshments. The hearth is usually located near the hut for young men (the prototype of the future men's house), according to some information, girls' houses were also built in the past.

The sites of the second type, which were used for a shorter time, always have the form of a village settlement and differ from the first ones in less reliability and care in manufacturing. The sloping roof, rising high in front and hanging low in the back, is covered with leaves or grass and, according to researchers, is typical of typical negritos dwellings (in particular, the huts of the Malay Semangs).

The forest not only feeds the Andamanese and provides him with building material, but also helps to satisfy all his vital needs. Scanty clothing - a belt and a loincloth, an apron, a small set of jewelry - all this is made from plant fibers, leaves, tree bark. Many tribes do not use clothes at all, limiting themselves to a belt, behind which necessary items (arrows, axes, etc.) are plugged.

Simple ropes made of vegetable fibers are used as decorations, which are worn in the form of necklaces and leggings. Shells and bones (human and animal) can also serve as material. It is surprising that natives rarely use such enviable ornaments as bird feathers, especially since the bird world in the Andamans is very diverse and has bright plumage. Apparently, the absence of bird feather headdresses in the Andamanese costume is a characteristic feature of the Negritos culture, since, as the materials show, they were not used by other representatives of this race either (unlike the Oceanian tradition).

The appearance of the Andamanese is completed by a hairstyle. Shaving the head has long been practiced, sometimes bald, sometimes a small hedgehog is left in the middle - something like a skullcap made of hair. As for the food of the Andamanese, in essence it has already been said in the description of their economy. I would only like to emphasize that, although the natives did not make fire, they always cooked the meat and seafood they got. We will return to the discussion of food in connection with the importance of the role that it plays in many Andamanese rituals.

Concluding the above brief information on the material culture of the Andamanese, I would like to note the following: firstly, the forest (and partly the sea), which gives them everything they need, can rightfully be considered not only their natural, but also their cultural environment. Secondly, with all the stagnation and backwardness of the material culture and technology of the economy of the Andamanese, certain progressive changes took place there (not associated with any external influences), which are not immediately evident, because they were stretched out over a long period of time. And yet, the lack of incentives for development in a generous natural environment led to a long homeostasis, resulting in the position of the islanders at the lowest rung of social development.

It is very difficult to restore the traditional social structure of the Andamanese, but it can be stated that we are talking about a society that is extremely undeveloped socially, about an egalitarian society, with a very limited set of social divisions. Many elements of this society (which we dare not call institutions) are in a rudimentary, unstabilized state. In addition, after the disclosure of aboriginal society to the outside world, the processes of depopulation and degradation occurred very rapidly, so that not all features of this society could be taken into account. Despite the vagueness of social realities among the Andamanese (and our knowledge about them), we can say that their tribe is a social category. After all, the most important indicators of the collapse of the social system of the Andamanese are precisely the violation of endogamy and isolation of the tribes, their mixing in an attempt to move to a common territory.

However, as with most tribes, the local group and family should be considered as really functioning social communities. It was the local groups, connected by ties of kinship and common economic interests, that the first Andaman researchers noted when they wrote that the Andamanese live in small wandering groups. Each group was completely autonomous, took care of its own household and performed all social functions, regardless of other parts of the tribe. True, general meetings of several tribes were held annually, usually those whose migration territories were in the neighborhood. This contributed to the rapprochement of the tribes and the establishment of friendly contacts. During the general meetings, there was usually an exchange of gifts, which was mentioned above. As a result, the size of such a local group was not stable - during the period of meetings it grew, and at other times it was reduced to two or three families involved in the solution of one or another target task.

A local group includes several families. Families among the Andamanese have never been large; in addition to the husband and wife, they include 1-2 children and sometimes one of the lonely elderly relatives. Families of the same group are usually connected by family ties - growing children, forming their own family unit, usually remain in the group of parents. Migration from one group to another is possible - such transitions are usually difficult in societies with an established tribal structure, but the Andamanese society did not reach the development of tribal ties and the creation of long genealogies. Recall that we are talking about a dead-end version of development, different from the general line of evolution. If in scientific literature sometimes there are terms adopted to define tribal institutions, then upon closer examination it turns out that under them lies the same local group - the main social unit of the Andamanese. It was this local group that made up the population of the communal hut and village-type settlement described above. Each person uses his personal tools and other necessary items, has the right to his share of the prey in hunting or fishing, cooks on his family hearth (except for the collective treats noted above, when they use a common hearth). The only collective property is the land of the local group. At the same time, objects are constantly given and received as a gift, natural alienation easily occurs and the acquisition of any objects is just as simple, so that no thing belongs to one person for a long time. So the problem of property practically does not arise before the Andamanese.

In the egalitarian Andamanese society, there is only one privilege - the privilege of age. When dividing the prey, the best pieces are received by the elders, who did not even participate in the hunt, most often one of the older members of the group turns out to be the owner of the boat, and the young ones serve it. It is the authority of the elders that replaces the undeveloped potestar system and helps to maintain peace and order in the group. In the light of what has been said, it seems that the local group, for all the imbalance of its social ties, the amorphous composition, can be considered a community of the earliest type characteristic of pre-agricultural peoples: after all, it is this community that acts as the main subject of the entire social structure of the islanders, that is, it performs the functions of a community.

A few additional considerations about the Andamanese family. The family of the Andamanese is by type, as already mentioned, a small, steam room, that is, an unstable, economically dependent cell. At the same time, the family is internally soldered, it is characterized by sufficient strength of family ties. As in most early societies, premarital freedom is practiced among the Andamanese, but after marriage, extramarital affairs are considered unacceptable. Of course, the family, as well as other spheres of public life (and, probably, to an even greater extent), had a devastating effect on the appearance of hard labor on the islands, which led to the breaking of moral principles that were not very strong before. The endogamy of tribes should be considered the most tangible regulator of marriage ties, but with the advent of new administrators who tried to settle the remnants of the tribes in common houses - homems, mixing of tribes began to occur and illegibility in marriage rules was noted. As for the exogamy of local groups, it is very problematic, just as there is no consistency in the linearity and locality of marriages. A distinctive feature of Andamanese family life is the extremely common practice of adoption (otherwise adoption, that is, adoptions, adoptions) of children. According to informants, in the traditional Andamanese society, it was rare for a child older than 7 years old to live with his parents. It was allowed to adopt as many children as a person wishes, and more often children are adopted from someone else's group, and not from their own group. This custom clearly shows the inherent primitive order collectivism and community. Adoption contributed to the establishment of close, friendly ties between different communities, did not allow alienation and enmity to develop (recall the annual meetings of different tribes that played a similar role).

Family rituals among the Andamanese are extremely poor and undeveloped. Let us dwell on one of the rites of the life cycle, which occupies a more important place in the life of the Andamanese than others. We are referring to the initiation ceremonies, which reflect the different views of the Andamanese regarding their way of life and psychology. Both boys and girls go through initiation, although only boys, upon reaching maturity, go to live in a separate hut. As in all early societies, in the process of ascending not only to sexual maturity, but also to social maturity, they go through a series of trials, clothed in the form of initiation ceremonies, each of which has (or had) a special meaning. Already from an early age, all children begin to be tattooed (namely, because it is a rather painful operation), the application of which continues in subsequent years, taking the form of a rite stretched over time. We will focus on the initiation of young men, since this ritual is more developed among them. The young man "enters maturity", and this should be noted not only by the family, but by the whole group. With the tip of an arrow, one of the old men draws horizontal lines on the subject's back, and he must endure the pain without making a sound. When the scars on the back heal, do the same on the chest. In girls, it all looks less painful.

But the main content of the initiation rites is connected with food, abstinence from certain foodstuffs. The general meaning is that the subject must temporarily give up the main, familiar types of food, but since it is impossible to do this at the same time, they refuse various dishes in turn. The ceremony is led by elders - experts in traditions. One of the most important is to abstain from turtle meat, the favorite delicacy of the Andamanese. At the end of the fast (the term is determined by the same old people), they arrange a “tortoise rite”. Roast turtles are prepared, the young man is put on a mat with outstretched legs and folded arms (in this position he must sit for 48 hours), his body is rubbed with animal fat and allowed to eat a small amount of meat. Next - ablution, dancing, common holiday, the young man receives a new name - a secret, unknown to anyone.

Another stage of initiation is the "rite of the boar". It marks the end of the ban on eating another delicacy - pork. On the shoulders of the young man, who must again sit in the described position, they put on the skeleton of a wild boar, rub the body with lard and paint it with ocher. According to some reports, between these two most important stages of initiation, there is another - a honey holiday, allowing the use of honey after a temporary abstinence. Thus we see that by means of the ceremonies described, society deliberately imbues the young with the social significance of food. The social status of the boy changes - he becomes an adult, and since the main thing in the life of the Andamanese is getting food, he comprehends not only the material, but also the social and moral significance of food - through returning to it after severe abstinence.

The whole community and even guests from other groups also take part in the wedding ceremony. The main ritual action is the sitting of the groom on the lap of the bride in the presence of all those invited. Social union is expressed symbolically - through physical union. As in the initiation ceremony, during the wedding, the couple enters into a new state, which entails new rights and concerns. An obligatory element of a wedding, as in the whole world, is crying - after all, former attachments, former relationships, although they do not disappear, change, and each participant has something to mourn. It is also interesting to note that during each rite, which marks the entry into a new life stage, the name changes (or for some time it is not mentioned). It is believed that the personality, as it were, acquires a new quality, and therefore a person receives an additional name, often a secret one.

Andamans believe that when dying, a person is not completely annihilated, but simply changes his physical features, his personality. Therefore, the name of a recently deceased person is avoided. During the transitional period, when the human personality has not yet acquired its new form, the name is not used - until the end of mourning. The funeral ceremonies of the Andamanese (the body is usually buried in the forest) is not only an expression of personal sadness, but also a ritual manifestation of the feelings of the whole team - after all, death violates its solidarity. They try to get rid of the body as soon as possible, change the place of parking. Of course, the deceased is mourned, for some time everyone is in an indefinite state, when the deceased is no longer a member of the society of the living, but has not yet entered the world of spirits. The transition comes with the end of the mourning, marked by a common solemn ceremony, where tears and vital dances alternate for the Andamanese. Thus, world order is restored, peace in society: the deceased has taken his place in another world.

It should be noted that the entire structure of the traditional Andamanese society has not been restored with sufficient persuasiveness. It is obvious that the society described by early researchers (when the Andamanese were already degraded, but still existed) looks like an extremely primitive structure (“prelithic”, according to the researcher Cipriani). Wandering groups with a fluid composition that does not fit into the existing classifications (patrilineal, exogamous and other groups), with undeveloped tribal categories, an undeveloped system of power, and marriage norms that are difficult to define. At the same time, there is another society, the contours of which appear rather vaguely as we study and compare the available fragmentary materials. It is also extremely primitive, standing at the lowest stage of development. But it is subject to traditions and rules of behavior and mutual communication, it is a society with its own morality, with its own, albeit extremely undeveloped, social ethics. And this society, unfortunately, already practically inaccessible for further research, can be put on a par with other hunting-gathering cultures, the development of which has gone down a dead end.

Speaking about the Andamanese, one cannot but say a few words about the peculiarities of their religious views (we will not dare to say - religion, since one has not yet been formed). It is hardly possible to speak of any religious system, but at the same time it is surprising that this primitive human community, now on the verge of extinction, managed to develop rather complex concepts, created a vast (at least in comparison with the social sphere) circle of legends. and myths. These small groups, lost in the forests, constantly engaged in the labor of obtaining food, for generations indulged in reflections on the origin of people and animals, the meaning of various natural phenomena, the fate of a person after death, the soul and other issues that would seem so far from the daily concerns of the natives.

The Andamanese do not have the usual established forms of worship, established forms of ritual. But they have their own ideas about good and evil, about those actions that can cause the wrath of higher powers. There are also legends about the origin of life and people - and about their death, and about the first man - not yet about the creator, but about a certain prototype of a cultural hero ... As is usually the case in the rudimentary period of the formation of religion, spirits and gods have not yet acquired a clear anthropomorphic appearance, mythological traditions and legends exist in many versions. By nature, these beliefs, of course, are animistic in nature, there is a personification of various natural phenomena, but the character of individual spirits is still very unstable. Even the sex of individual phenomena is unstable (sometimes the Sun turns out to be the husband of the Moon, sometimes vice versa) and the very essence of the images: for example, lightning is perceived either as a person, or as a torch, birds - either in bird form, or in female form, etc. The diversity of folklore is striking, when similar events are always transmitted in a slightly different form, with various additional details (this also applies to songs).

But what a bright world appears in the ingenuous tales of the islanders! Their pantheon and all their religious ideas are the flesh of the flesh of the natural environment in which they have existed for hundreds of generations. The two chief spirits among myriads of invisible supernatural beings are the personification of the two chief monsoons (and their gender is undetermined). The best way appease them - do not harm the forest. A terrible sin is the burning of bee honey, the inappropriate use of forest fruits, and - a particularly serious offense - breaking the silence during the evening singing of the cicada - the holy hour when everything should be silent. This offense causes the wrath of the gods, which manifests itself in crushing thunderstorms and hurricanes, so characteristic of the nature of Andaman. And the animals are also purely Andaman: giant lizards, civet birds, a kingfisher and a bronze dove, and even ... an ant heap (anthill), which often acts as a marriage partner of a living creature. In this wonderful world, religious ideas and fantasies of the Andamanese were born, their worldview was formed.

Andaman folklore is transmitted through recognized experts in folk wisdom - oko-jumu. These people (most often men, sometimes women) are credited with special knowledge and connection with spirits, from which they receive witchcraft power and healer abilities. Perfume - lau- surround people, can do both good and evil. They are invisible, but there is a description of them as light-skinned creatures, often with long hair and a beard, i.e. they are given features of an unusual appearance for the natives. Spirits are always dangerous. Various magical actions (they are known to okojumu) and some objects also protect from their harmful effects: a human bone, an arrow, fire, red paint, which is used to paint the body.

After death, a person becomes a spirit, and for the Andamanese there is a noticeable difference between the recently deceased and distant ancestors, who became the subject of special reverence. Ancestors are treated as a kind of bosses - big men- and constantly appear in local legends.

In the host of forest and sea spirits there are also personalized (although not clearly enough) gods, to whom various essential functions are attributed, even the function of the Creator. Puluga stands out in particular - the supreme being, he was never born, he is invisible, immortal and eternal. He has a wife, many daughters and one son. These are no longer incorporeal spirits, they have a certain appearance (although there may be options here): the wife has green skin, the daughters - black. Its connection with the monsoons is very interesting. “Gods creating monsoons” - this is how the Indian researcher D. Biswas called Pulugu and another god - Tarai (all names have discrepancies), inferior to Puluga in popularity, but occupying an equal place with him as a “monsoon god”.

Such a high position of the "monsoon gods" is not accidental. The role of monsoons in the Andamans is so great that the worldview of the Andamans is characterized by the division of space not only according to the cardinal points, but also according to monsoons. The whole life of these children of nature depends on the monsoon, its strength, the time of arrival. But even these most popular gods are distinguished by highly contradictory characteristics: their sex is indeterminate, their family ties are indeterminate, and their actions are described in different ways. The connection with the monsoons is another evidence of the closest merging of the Andamanese with natural world, which not only feeds them in the literal sense of the word, but also provides food for religious and mythological ideas. The sun that gives warmth, the moon with its soft radiance, thunder and lightning, manifested in the setting of violent tropical storms, the rainbow - a multi-colored path to heaven - all these phenomena amaze the Andamanese (as well as other inhabitants of different latitudes) and give rise to many legends, superstitions, fear and excitement...

The Andamanese also have the concept of the soul. According to their beliefs, she is born from a mirror image in the water. There are rather vague ideas that the spirit and the soul coexist in the body of the Andamanese, after death the soul leaves the body, and the person becomes a spirit. The mythology of the Andamanese is quite diverse, but, we emphasize once again, in the presentation of each Andamanese, any story exists independently, individual options are not combined into a common picture. Most of the folklore is turned to the past - these are stories about the origin of the world and various phenomena, about mythical ancestors, gods and animals.

There is a widespread story about the first man, to whom the god Pulugu gave various knowledge and who then himself created other people. In this case, a person (humanity) can be born from the marriage of a giant lizard and a civet. One can trace the motifs of the flood in the story of a long downpour (during which people could turn into animals and birds) sent by the gods to earth for the sins of people, for example, for breaking the silence during the evening singing of the cicada; about stealing fire from the gods, often done by birds (or women with bird names), sometimes by a viverra or a lizard.

We see that these world stories (more precisely, even motifs) are inscribed in the local color, there are no barriers between humans and animals, which can freely turn into each other or act in one or another incarnation. This kind of “inscription” not only of a person, but also of his religious and mythological ideas in his usual world is a distinctive feature of almost all “natural peoples”. Abstract thinking has not yet been developed, all images and ideas are embodied quite concretely in the realities familiar to Andaman.

The turning point in the fate of all peoples who spent millennia in a state of isolation was the access to broad contacts with the outside world. For different regions, this time does not completely coincide, but in general it is determined by the processes of capitalization, which, although in a belated, colonial form, began to develop in India as well. This process affected the tribal population in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the growing need for mineral resources, in particular for cheap fuel for developing factory enterprises, led to the destruction of the barriers that separated closed forest areas and their inhabitants from the big world. The consequences of the contact between the peoples of the primitive periphery and the alien population of the era of the industrial age are quite dramatic and, for the most part, destructive. At the same time, the greater the gap in the level of development of the interacting peoples, the more difficult it is for the recent isolate, which always turns out to be a weak side, to resist. In this sense, the position of the Andamanese aborigines turned out to be the most tragic. The primitive economy, the unformed social structure, the mentality of the people of the Stone Age turned out to be so fragile and unprotected at the first collision with the so-called civilized world that there could be no question of any integration into the mainstream of the common life proclaimed by Indian political scientists (and even of assimilation). . And the most terrible thing was that there was a rupture of those ancient ties that connected the Andamanese with their natural environment, the ties that determined all the features of their traditional society, i.e. there was a loss of aborigines from their ecological environment.

Since, as noted above, in the traditional Aboriginal society there were no incentives that would contribute to its progressive development from the inside, the influence turned out to be decisive. external forces. The appearance in the life of the Andamanese of a hard labor settlement, a new administration, and later a stream of colonists, disrupted the order of life of the aborigines that had been established over the centuries and led to changes for which the islanders were not prepared either physically or morally. First of all, that natural environment suffered, with which, as was shown above, the Andamanese formed a single whole. The clearing of the forest immediately began, which led to the displacement of part of the tribes from the places of their traditional migrations, from their usual "small ecology". In addition, the first steps of the colonialists were accompanied by bloody clashes that claimed the lives of many of the already few islanders. With an increase in the number of immigrants (very different in ethnic composition) Andamanese aborigines soon find themselves in the position of an ethnic minority on their home islands. The first failures of the colonial administration had the unfortunate consequence of many years of hostility and distrust on the part of the tribes, whose unstable way of life was dealt a heavy blow.

Further, the situation became more complicated. Seeing the disastrous consequences of punitive actions against the natives, the British administration changed its policy and decided to follow the path of taming them. For this purpose, in 1883, special dwellings were built (they are usually called "homes"), where they began to resettle the natives with, it would seem, the best intentions - to provide assistance, guardianship, excommunicate them from "barbarian customs". At the same time, one should take into account the important words uttered by E. Maine, one of the first researchers of the Andamanese, who held the high position of Deputy Superintendent of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands: he expressed doubt that these attempts by the administration could give only positive results, because it was discovered that “ as far as they win in intelligence and contact, they become fat and lazy to the same extent. This expression, although it sounds somewhat shocking, unfortunately, turned out to be extremely insightful. Indeed, when receiving imported food, the Andamanese quickly lose the initiative in obtaining traditional livelihoods, abandon their favorite hunt, and begin to spend more and more time drearily waiting for the arrival of a ship with food and other things. Dependence on nature has been replaced by dependence on outsiders who are able to feed and give them gifts.

The Houms played a tragic role in the sense that it was from them that the spread of epidemics and pathologies began, against which the Andamanese had no immunity. Houms had no less important consequences for the entire internal social structure of the aborigines. They had a devastating effect on the foundations of tribal society, as they gathered people belonging to different tribes under one roof, which resulted in the violation of tribal endogamy - one of the main factors in the social structure of the Andamanese. If earlier each local group was associated with its own landscape zone, which was recognized by all tribes, then with the advent of khoums, “peaceful Andamanese” began to roam freely throughout all areas of the islands, ignoring traditional borders. We used the phrase “peaceful Andamanese” because a peculiar situation arose: it was those Andamanese who agreed to friendly relations with the administration and gave their children to khoums who first of all began to disappear as an ethnic group (“great Andamanese”). Survived were those who took an openly hostile position and went into the forests, not responding to attempts to establish contact with them (Jarawa - it is still not completely clear how many of their members are in the thick of the Andaman jungle), as well as partly those who met the settlers from the mainland later (onge). Although individual tribes (more precisely, the remnants of individual tribes) have a different fate, however, the general conclusions apply to everyone: it was the loss of their environment - both natural and social - that led to the loss of the "nerve of life", as the researchers write, hence the loss of interest in life and a decrease in vitality - the qualities necessary for the existence of the people. Yes, after gaining independence, the Indian government is taking measures to preserve the unique Andaman ethnic group, but the consequences of the collapse of the traditional structure and especially the psychological strain are hardly surmountable.

Andamans are tribes that are at the initial level of development. Another group of tribes, also in the course of their development not reaching the level of productive labor, - gatherers and hunters - inhabit the mountains of South India. They also belong to the Negro-Australoid race, but not to the Negritos, but to the so-called Veddoids. They are distinguished by short stature ("pygmeoid"), but somewhat taller than the Andamanese. Anthropologists note their thick body hair, they are dark-skinned and muscular - typical highlanders, accustomed to long transitions along mountain spurs and through dense jungle. These are Kadars, Chenchu ​​and a number of other tribes - it is in the mountains of South India that the center of the most underdeveloped Adivasis is located. They speak Dravidian languages ​​and dialects. The lack of writing among many small groups makes definitive classification difficult. The usual dwellings of these gatherers are already stable settlements, only during long forest transitions temporary barriers are built from branches and leaves. The southern Adivasis, like all peoples at a low level of social development, had a close relationship with the ecological environment. The rich nature of the southern forests practically provided for all the everyday needs of the people - building materials, and unpretentious elements of costume and jewelry, and food, in general, more high-calorie than that of developed flat neighbors.

Compared with the Andamanese, the South Indian tribes were still not so insurmountably separated from the main road of the country's development, episodic contacts (raids, exchanges) took place among many of them, although they were conducted irregularly and did not have a decisive influence on their lives. As a result, the consequences of their release from isolation were not as tragic as in the Andaman case. Only an insignificant part of them switched to agriculture, although the government tried to create favorable conditions for them. Some of them made up the lumpen layers of the nearest towns. In general, here you can observe an interesting process that is not limited to India. As before, their main occupation is gathering (plus hunting and fishing), but the collected products are no longer consumed locally, but exchanged. The traders from the plains are interested in the forest resources, which are also in demand in the all-India market, but they themselves do not have the skills to extract them. Forest dwellers became suppliers of forest wealth and thus were drawn into the circle of exchange. They remain gatherers, but the tasks of gathering have changed and are dictated by the demands of exchange. Now, for internal consumption, the tribes use imported goods and products to a large extent, in exchange for which they supply what is in demand to the external market.

If earlier isolates completely satisfied their needs at the expense of their native nature, now they could not exist if they were deprived of the possibility of exchange. In the words of Fuchs, a scholar of Adivasi life, they became "highly specialized exploiters of the marginal lands, whose products they supply to ... larger peoples." Societies of this type, located on the verge of civilized and primitive systems (not only in India), have recently attracted the attention of many ethnographers, who offer different names for it - subnuclear, consumer, etc. This position of the South Indian Adivasis has both positive and negative characteristics. On the one hand, in the difficult conditions of the multifaceted Indian economy, they find their niche, which provides them with a permanent livelihood. But, on the other hand, being tied through exchange to the economy of other peoples, they have no prospects for independent development based on the needs of the small peoples themselves.

In addition to gatherers and hunters, early hoe farmers live in the forests of South India, also dark-skinned Veddoids, in whose life the features of recent gatherers are still traced. In general, the level of economic development of the tribes of the South Indian mountains is extremely low, and the most realistic prospect for them is the dissolution in the environment of plantation workers and other enterprises, the owners of which widely use the cheap, almost slave labor of landless unskilled laborers.

The book of the American scientist R. Furle "Erectus wanders between us" is devoted to a discussion of the most controversial and complex issues of modern evolutionary anthropology. Acting as a critic of the position of egalitarianism, R. Förle systematizes and cites in his book numerous scientific data on genetic, anatomical, physiological, psychological, behavioral, and cultural differences between the main races. Being a staunch opponent of the theory of the origin of man from Africa, the author, based on the data he cites from various scientific fields (including physical anthropology, population genetics, psychology, medicine, sociology, criminology), develops the concept of the origin of modern man from Eurasia.

Book:

Sections on this page:

“Ancient times in the Congo are almost a completely blank slate, so that we cannot come close to understanding the condition of the Negroes in the past. At the same time, we are unable to find their ancient traces anywhere else. We don't know anything about the Negroes…”

(Howells, 1948, pp. 279, 295, 297).

"In the territory of the Negroes - the main genetic base of peoples completely different from whites and Mongoloids - we find practically no history at all." (Howells, 1959, p. 303)

According to the I-and-A theory, the current Africans evolved to the modern human anthropological type (Hss) in Africa, left Africa 65,000 years ago, migrated to Asia, replacing all then its inhabitants without mixing with them, and then lost their African alleles and acquired completely new Asian alleles. According to I-and-E theories, Mongoloids and Caucasoids evolved separately for more than 2 million years, but from time to time interbreeding occurred between their lines, but the African line did not evolve so much as acquire signs.

All mankind evolved "up, up and further" from an ape-like ancestor, but Africans did not evolve that far for the simple reason that they remained in the same habitat in which this ape-like ancestor lived (that is, they were close to equilibrium, see . Chapter 4, Rule 10) and were not subjected to rigorous selection under the influence of the northern climate. Moreover, only a small fraction of the evolutionary change in Africans is due to the selection of traits encoded by mutations that originated in Africa. In contrast, Africans predominantly received Eurasian-originated mutations when Eurasian hominids migrated to Africa and interbred with them (Luis, 2004; Garrigan, 2007). If Eurasian hominids had never entered Africa, there would be no members of the genus Homo today.

Primate migrations from Eurasia to Africa may have begun as early as the time of the prosiminae, followed by quadrupedal apes, upright apes, australopithecines, erectus, northern Hs, and finally Hss. Over time, migrations occurred from one part of Eurasia, then from another, then, probably, in the opposite direction, this time more evolutionarily developed hominids migrated. And so on back and forth for millions of years.

Since the intervals between migrations to Africa were not so long that new and old migrants evolved into different species, interbreeding between them, producing viable offspring, was possible and common. As usual, only the hybrids best adapted to African conditions survived. The number of more evolutionarily advanced migrants entering Africa was at all times much smaller than the number of evolutionarily less advanced early migrants with whom they could interbreed. Therefore, new migrants were absorbed and left behind very few fossils; the only evidence for their existence was the presence of their alleles in their hybrid offspring. Thus, for more than a million years, a huge number of alleles of the evolutionarily more advanced inhabitants of Eurasia fell into the genome of African primates, which is why Africans have the greatest genetic diversity (Fig. 19-2) and have no ancestors.

Upon arrival in Africa, the evolutionarily advanced hominids and their hybrid offspring displaced the less advanced hominids from their territories in Northeast Africa. The early more primitive migrants did not die out immediately, but retreated to inferior territories, their numbers dwindling, but they survived for many, many years before disappearing entirely.

In the meantime, let's return to Eurasia, where the alleles formed that allowed hominids to turn into modern humans. There, too, similar processes took place, but hundreds of thousands of years earlier than in Africa. Namely, when a new allele spread in Eurasia, it was adaptive in Eurasian conditions and probably provided better resistance to cold or increased intelligence, which helped to survive more successfully. harsh winters. In Eurasia, moreover, interbreeding took place between hominids with and without new alleles, producing hybrid offspring, and just as in Africa, only the fittest survived. The difference, however, is that this process took hundreds, if not millions, of years to spread new alleles among the individuals who might have brought them to Africa. Thus, on the path of the formation of modern man, Africa has always been hundreds of thousands of years behind Eurasia.

Now the legitimate question is, "Why didn't these new alleles also arise in Africa?" No doubt some of the African-specific alleles arose there, and others may have arisen over time. But when new alleles emerged in Africa, they spread as single alleles, so that individuals who had them either succeeded or failed because they had only one allele. When alleles were brought to Africa by migrants from Eurasia, they were brought not as single alleles, one for each individual, but as sets of compatible alleles. Those with the entire set of alleles did or did not do well on the basis of the whole set being generally more favorable than a single allele. In addition, the negative effect of a small number of alleles maladaptive in Africa could be offset by the positive effects of the remaining adaptive alleles in the set. Gradually, the maladaptive alleles were to disappear. As discussed above (Chapter 14), the alleles for high intelligence were probably maladaptive in Africa and have been lost since even Africans in Northeast Africa now have very low IQs (Lynn, 2006a).

The migrants brought with them not only their genes, they also brought their culture, and because their culture was more developed, this provided them with a significant advantage. An allele with an African culture could be maladaptive, but an allele with a Eurasian culture could be adaptive even in Africa. For example, a milk-digesting allele does not confer an advantage on non-herding peoples. herbivorous mammals, that is, in Africa, but it is favorable in Eurasia, where the herds are kept.

Early primates migrated to Africa from the Eurasian tropics and could easily adapt to African conditions. The hominids that came later migrated from a colder climatic zone, as a result of which they were not adapted to the conditions of the tropics, that is, they were not resistant to tropical diseases, and most of them did not survive for a long time, so very few fossil remains remained from them. Chapter 23 describes some of the early hominids up to the Australopithecus that may have migrated to Africa. The first migrants of the genus Homo may have been the early H. habilis, better adapted to Eurasia than to Africa, but with some advantages, such as better tools and weapons, giving an advantage also in Africa. The remains of Homo georgicus are very similar to the remains of the African H. habilis, H. ergaster and H. erectus, as well as the remains of the Heidelberg man found in Africa.

Eurasian hominids hybridized with tropical disease-resistant native hominids before becoming extinct, producing offspring with various combinations of traits from parental populations. Hybrids, possessing both resistance to tropical diseases and some progressive traits of Eurasian hominins, overcame selection and survived, gradually spreading across Africa, although evolutionarily always remaining hundreds of thousands of years behind the natives of Eurasia. The only trace of all the diverse migrants that came to Africa for more than 2 million years is the wide variety of alleles and the traits they encode, found in today's Africans (Fig. 19-2). The family tree shown in Figure 26-1 shows how, starting with the four-legged great apes, Africans moved forward under the influence of waves of Eurasian hominids migrating there, introducing alleles of more progressive traits into the African gene pool.

Figure 26-1

Figure 26-2

Figure 26-2 shows the settlement areas of some African tribes (Howells, 1948, p. 271). The arrows show three migration routes to Africa (the Isthmus of Suez and the Horn of Africa) and out of Africa (the Strait of Gibraltar). Note that below the "African whites" zone lies the "Zone of mixture", stretching across the entire continent, including the Horn of Africa and most South Africa. The Hottentots and Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert are right in the middle of the "Mixing Zone". "Forest negros" (Forest negro) are Kongoids living in and around the Congo and Niger river basins, from where African Americans originate.

The Sahara desert was "an almost insurmountable barrier to the movement of man from North to South", except during the ice ages, when there was a "temperate humid climate" (Howells, 1948, p. 270). Thus, the Sahara desert was inhabited and easily overcome only during the ice ages, which drove the inhabitants of Eurasia to the South, to Africa.

Note that North Africa and what is now Egypt were inhabited by whites, and that whites must have migrated from Africa through the Straits of Gibraltar. If Africans migrated outside of Africa, as declared I-and-A theory, it is difficult to explain how so many North Africans could be white. Indeed, the migrating Africans were not supposed to turn white by staying in Ethiopia and Egypt. It can be assumed that all Africans were black, especially in northern Africa, through which they supposedly moved on their way to Eurasia. In fact, the population of North Africa was white, and this "whiteness" decreases as one moves south and west into the Congo, which suggests that all migrations were made by whites to Africa, but not by blacks from Africa.

Barring periods of unpredictable droughts, African hominids have been in stable conditions tropical climate that existed in Africa for millions of years. The more stable the environment, the less the living creatures that live in it evolve (Chapter 4, Rule 6). That is, any new and unusual traits that emerged in Africa were probably not as favorable as the traits that African hominids already had and worked well in Africa for millions of years.

Figure 26-3

Figure 26-3 ("World Book Encyclopedia") shows climatic zones Africa. The white population of the Mediterranean coast of Africa (Fig. 26-2) could penetrate into Africa through the Strait of Gibraltar or through the Isthmus of Suez, but moving further south was feasible only when the Sahara was not a desert. But for the settlers who penetrated into Africa in the Horn of Africa and in Ethiopia, the movement to the South was possible at any time. Starting in Ethiopia, the settlement of Africa could have gone south along the East Coast to the southern tip of the continent, and then again north along the West Coast.

There are many diverse peoples in Africa, but we will consider only a few of the most diverse from the most diverse countries.

Since the Congoids are the most Simian-like Africans and live in one of the most inaccessible regions of Africa for migrants from Eurasia, they are probably the descendants of the oldest hominids that migrated to Africa. Tropically adaptive Congoid traits, such as dark, hairless skin and short, black curly hair on the head, were most likely brought to Africa by tropically adapted upright apes, possibly a species of Australopithecus. Although the Hs and Hss that migrated south in both Southeast Asia and Africa displaced the more primitive hominids, in Southeast Asia the primitive hominids were driven to the islands and mixed with the newcomers to a lesser extent. In Africa, however, these Hs and Hss did not survive. As a result, a smaller number of alleles of these Hs and Hss got into the African genome, especially in isolated Congoids, which thus retained more features of their ape-like ancestors.

Nigerians are the African tribe most genetically related to chimpanzees (Deka, 1995). Nigeria is located on the West Coast of Africa (Fig. 17-6), which makes it difficult to reach from the Middle East, from where migrants from Eurasia could reach it, either moving through the middle of Africa or south along the coast to the tip of Africa and then back to the North along the East Coast across the equator with South American Indians than with Africans West Africa» (Haywood, 2000, p. 44). Note also (Fig. 7-3) that the Mbuti Pygmies in the Congo are at the greatest genetic distance from the peoples of Eurasia.]. Thus, in comparison with all Africans, Nigerians either received fewer infusions of Homo genes from the natives of Eurasia, or they turned out to be better adapted in this territory and only hybrids that retained more primitive traits could survive. The area where Nigerians live is the "Congo Jungle and the Slave Coast West Coast Africa" ​​(Howells, 1948, p. 270), the birthplace of chimpanzees and gorillas. This suggests that interbreeding between human and chimpanzee lineages described in the literature (Patterson, 2006; Arnold, 2006) occurred in the Congo in the West African lineage. This explains the presence of simian-like features in African Americans, originating from West Africa.

In order to understand the origin of the San and Hottentot peoples, it is necessary to briefly consider some of the inhabitants of Asia. As the number of Asian hominids increased, they spread along the coast of Asia to the West and then to Africa (Olivieri, 2006). One of these populations descended from tropical-adapted australopithecines that lived in India. Today, a small remnant of these people still live in the Andaman Islands (Fig. 26-4; Coon, 1962, p. XVIII), chains small islands in the Bay of Bengal, east of India. About 60,000 years ago, during the first ice age, the Andaman Islands were accessible from the coast of mainland India, and these people probably also lived there. They either increased their numbers and migrated to Africa, or they were forced out there by more advanced northern hominids moving south to escape the glaciation.

Figure 26-4

Although the buttocks of the woman in figure 26-4 are partially hidden, it is obvious that they are huge. Steatopygia (lit. "fat ass") is a very unusual and very primitive sign associated with the buttocks of female great apes and marmosets, swelling and turning bright red, signaling the onset of ovulation to males. Although in our case these are fat reserves, probably to help survive periods of famine, enlarged buttocks could be attractive to males, just as the swollen buttocks of females are to males of other primates. A similar influence on men was the bustle dress worn by English ladies in the Victorian era in the late 1800s. Since enlarged buttocks are associated with great apes, the presence of steatopygia in living humans suggests that the earliest migrants to Africa were apparently tropical-adapted Australopithecus from India.

If the ancestors of the Andaman Islanders came to Africa, then it should be possible to find traces of this population there. The Hottentots (aka the Coy) are a tribe closely related to the Bushmen. Both of them speak a monosyllabic "click" language. Their Y-chromosome haplogroup A is the oldest in the human lineage (Knight, 2003). The Hottentots lived in South Africa near the Cape of Good Hope. Purebred Hottentots no longer exist, some of them died out as a result of a smallpox epidemic, and the rest mixed with other Africans. But at the beginning of the 19th century, descriptions and drawings of the Hottentots were made, and we have not only their bones, as in the case of other extinct populations. Hottentot women looked more unusual than their men. Figure 26-5 shows the most famous Hottentot woman known as the Hottentot Venus.

Figure 26-5

This woman, like the native Andaman Islander (Fig. 26-4), has extremely large buttocks. In addition, this woman had extremely developed labia minora and large areolas with depressed nipples. Her face was flat, similar to a Mongoloid, except for protruding teeth and angled incisors, as in other Africans (Coon, 1962, p. 646). The brain of the Hottentots was small and had a simplified structure.

The Bushmen (or San), a pygmy tribe of hunter-gatherers living in the Kalahari Desert in South Africa, are the most primitive people on earth. Figure 26-6 is a photograph of a Bushman man. As you can see, even their men have steatopygia. It is steatopygia that binds together the Andaman Islanders, Hottentots and Bushmen as descendants of one population.

Figure 26-6

Figure 26-7

Now let's look at another bushman (woman) in Figure 26-7 (Coon, 1962, Plate V). Although the Bushmen have some African features (large lips, flat nose, small ears, and curly hair), they also have some neotenic Mongoloid features (Cruciani, 2002), including light, yellowish skin and a flat face; these traits are adaptations to the cold and are common among the neotenic natives of East Asia. Unlike other Africans, Bushmen are monogamous, which is typical for the cold North. Bushmen also have spatulate incisors, and many newborn Bushmen have "Mongolian spots" at the base of the spine. Along with Mongoloid traits, Bushmen's DNA is 56% Middle Eastern. That is, interbreeding probably took place between the steatopygic Andaman Islander lineage with the neotenic East Asian lineage. Interbreeding took place in Asia rather than Africa, since the Bushmen originally lived in North Africa (where the Eurasian natives penetrated into Africa), before being pushed south by newly arrived migrants. Because the Bushmen were less able to fight back against other tribes, they now occupy less habitable territories in the Kalahari Desert. The desert, however, may have helped them escape malaria-carrying mosquitoes and avoid being completely destroyed by later, more advanced migrants.

Bushmen's small size may be because their tropical-adapted Australopithecus ancestors were also small, or long-term calorie restriction, a condition that makes large, energy-hungry brains burdensome. When there is not enough food, then individuals whose bodies require the least amount of energy are more likely to survive, and individuals with smaller brains consume relatively less energy. As a result, the brain size has decreased, which gives the Bushmen the lowest IQ (54) of all the populations tested and the lowest brain-to-body-weight ratio (even lower than that of the South Pacific Aborigines).

As the example of the Bushmen shows, it is quite possible to be neotenous (which is not a primitive trait in humans), but to have a small brain. On the contrary, the example of the Neanderthals shows that it is equally possible to have primitive features (powerful brow ridges, sloping forehead) but still have a large brain.

“But originally they [the natives of East Africa] must have belonged to the Upper Paleolithic variety of white people with a large skull. ... People like them lived in the South of Russia in the Mesolithic and, probably, in the Middle East ”(Howells, 1959, p. 313). “To put it simply, if the skull means anything, it is the whites, and not any other aliens, who have been firmly rooted in East Africa since the late Pleistocene” (Ibid., p. 311). Thus, this is consistent with southward migrations of Caucasians to Africa.

Figure 26-8

Cro-Magnons, retreating under the onslaught of ice to the South during the Ice Ages, migrated to Africa and hybridized with the population already living there. Figure 26-8 shows a Somali (who emigrated to Russia) who has a Caucasoid appearance. Although there are Caucasoid traits, the behavior of Northeast Africans remains African, as is their IQ (Ethiopia = 63, Somalia = 68, Kenya = 72; Lynn, 2002a). The existence of Bushmen and Somalis in Africa at the present time proves that Europeans migrated to Africa in antiquity.

Thus, Africans are the descendants of at least three types of tropically adapted australopithecines: (1) Indian australopithecines with steatopygia, for example, the ancestors of the Andaman Islanders, (2) Asiatic australopithecines with neoteny and cold adapted, for example, like the negritos of the islands Pacific Ocean, and (3) more universalized australopithecines, which did not have the specializations of the first two species, but were adapted to the tropics. Some of the lines of the more universalized Africans, which did not undergo significant mixing with Europeans, retained their inherent features of the Simians (Kongoids), while others mixed much more significantly and lost their Simian features (Natives of Northeast Africa) to a greater extent. The last common ancestor (LCA) of these three Australopithecus species, probably most similar to species 3, was also adapted to warm climates, but to a lesser extent to the tropics. Living in the tropics for millions of years, Australopithecus species 3 must have retained Simian prognathism (Figs. 25–10) plus the tropical specializations of their ape-like bipedal ancestors, such as advanced sweat glands, dark hairless skin, and short, curly black head hair. Boskop

Sometimes there are "anomalies" that do not seem to fit into the theory or cannot be explained within its framework. You can view the anomaly as an annoying nuisance that you can sweep under the carpet, hoping that no one will notice, or, on the contrary, as a guiding thread to a deeper understanding of the issue. The boskop is an anomaly that any theory of human origins must decide, although it is not easy to determine which boskop theory is correct.

Figure 26-9

There is little information about the Boskop (otherwise Homo capensis), just a few skull fragments found in the Transvaal, in the northwestern part of South Africa. Figure 26-9 shows a reconstruction of the skull, where the preserved fragments are shown in darker color. Although the skull has been dated to only 30,000 to 10,000 years old, the skull bones are thick and the lower jaw is massive and protruding. It is described as "modern looking" (neotenian) because it has a high forehead and large intracranial volume and looks like a Caucasoid, but the protruding lower jaw makes it similar to African skulls (see Fig. 9-4). Its cranial index (skull width divided by length times 100) is 75.1 according to some sources and 76.19 according to others, slightly higher than the value of modern Africans (< 75, см. таблицу 9–1). Это предполагает некоторую долю европеоидной родословной. Тем не менее его внутричерепной объем определен в 1860 см, что больше значения европейцев (1441 см), намного больше значения африканцев (1338 см) и даже больше значения неандертальцев (1450 см) и люцзяньского человека (1480 см). Более того, Боскоп считается родственным готтентотам и бушменам, имеющим очень небольшой внутричерепной объем. Каким же образом обитавший в Южной Африке Боскоп приобрел такие признаки?

Taking into account some Hottentot-Bushman and some Caucasoid signs of Boskop, it can be assumed that the Cro-Magnons who reached the Horn of Africa and migrated further to the South hybridized along the way with the local population, although this does not explain the large intracranial volume.

We only know that today there are no Africans with big brains. The disappearance of large-brained Africans such as Boskop and Eurasians who contributed their alleles to Bushmen (IQ = 54, Lynn, 2006a, p. 169) and Somalis (IQ = 68, Lynn, 2002a) is evidence that the optimal the level of intelligence in Africa is much lower than in Eurasia (see Chapter 14, section “Intelligence as a Burden”). In North Africa, the lighter-skinned and somewhat more intelligent hybrids adapted best (mean IQ = 84; Lynn, 2006a, p. 80), but south of the Sahara it turned out to be darker-skinned, less intelligent individuals (mean IQ = 67; Lynn , 2006a, p. 225) and retaining more features of erectus. Thus, for all large-brained Caucasians who migrated to Africa, the excess of their brain tissue became an unbearable burden, and they had to disappear, like Boskop.

It is colder today in southern Africa, where Boskop was discovered, but not as cold as in Eurasia. The big brain was not so useful there in view of the absence of such a cold winter, when snow covers the ground for several months. Figure 26-10 shows average monthly temperatures in Bloemfontein, South Africa's coldest city (due to its elevated position), but even there temperatures rarely reach the freezing point of water.

Figure 26-10

However, there were times in the past when the temperature in Africa, at least in the highlands, was lower, and a large brain and high intelligence should have given their owners an advantage. Under such conditions, the optimal brain size in Africa should have been larger, and the large-brained northerners who migrated to Africa from cold Europe could maintain their previous brain size or even increase it. When the climate in Africa warmed up again, large-capacity brains again became a burden, and the individuals who had them died out.

Two skeletons discovered in Italy, in the Grimaldi cave near Menton on the Côte d'Azur, are another anomaly. They date back to 30,000 BC. e. and look like a Caucasoid-Negroid hybrid, but closer to Caucasoid than Boskop. One of the skeletons belonged to a woman 1.58 m tall, and the other to a teenage boy 1.55 m tall (Fig. 26–11). Negroid features of these skeletons are wide nasal passages, large teeth, forward-tilted incisors, a protruding lower jaw, a small chin and long forearms and legs, while Caucasoid features are a high forehead, features of fusion of the frontal bones, a large intracranial volume (1375 cm in a woman and 1580 cm in a boy) and protruding nasal bones.

Figure 26-11

Above the remains of Grimaldi, a Cro-Magnon skull was buried, and below them were the remains of a Neanderthal, which suggests that Neanderthals previously lived there, then hybrid Grimaldi appeared, and finally Cro-Magnons occupied this territory. A possible explanation is that the Ice Ages pushed the Cro-Magnons to Africa, where they mixed with the Africans to form the Grimaldi hybrid. When the ice receded, the hybrids spread north along the Mediterranean coast. They were later replaced by non-hybridised Cro-Magnons.