HISTORY
FIRST CONTACT
After the first recorded encounter, many anthropologists and researchers worldwide wished to know more about these mysterious people. This is when a film crew with anthropologist Triloknath Pandit attempted contact by leaving good on North Sentinel Island, an Andaman Island. This attempt at communication had high hopes of success. These hopes were abruptly cut short when the Islanders, later called the Andaman, reacted horribly. Pandit was shot through the thigh with a six foot long arrow with scrap metal on tied on the end. This didn't stop Pandit's need to understand and discover the strange Andaman people. He made a breakthrough on January 4th, 1991 when he first made friendly contact with the Andaman people. The people he did so with were called Sintinelese, based off of where they lived (North Sintinel Island) ("Andaman Tribes" 2017).
ORIGINS
Although contact had indeed been made, a long past would make it hard to understand the Andaman. They are located on the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal, India. They must have arrived around the last Glacial Maximum that ended twenty-six thousand years ago which was proved through liguistic and palaeoclimate studies. Since that time, no recorded contact was ever made. This means that they developed on their own for over a millennia! This was possible because of their harsh reactions to any visitors. Many shipwreck survivors who took refuge on this island were mutilated by the fierce Andaman. Dr. Erika Hagelberg* extracted DNA from Anadamen hair samples gathered a hundred years ago, she realized the Andaman islanders had changed very little biologically, and might be close to what our ancient ancestors looked like. Pioneering anthropologist Radcliffe Brown had brought back hair samples that she tested. The Andaman were theorised to be an important factor of the Great Coastal Migration of humans from Africa to Asia via the Arabian peninsula. They are said to have been one of the first groups out of Africa, migrated by crossing over a land bridge from Myanmar northeast India to the Andaman archipelago in existence around the Last Glacial Maximum (Berrigan 2013) (Chaki 2017).
*Video below explains Andaman Origins (1h 40m long)
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