Who’s your daddy?

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Apparently these guys are –

Two tribes living on India’s Andaman islands may be direct descendents of the earliest modern humans who moved out of Africa 70,000 years ago, scientists reported last week. …The Great Andamanese and Onge tribes have remained isolated in the Andaman and Nicobar islands for tens of thousands of years. This helped the scientists to search for signs of origin that erase quickly when populations intermix. …They found the Onge and Great Andamanese — both Negrito tribes — resembled the African population more closely than east Asians or the mainland Indian population of today…These tribes still survive as hunter-gatherer communities using primitive tools and living in the jungle.

And, of course, an obligatory “blame it on the Brits” angle –

Their populations have also decreased steadily with about 20 Great Andamanese and 98 Onge surviving today. It is believed that before British colonizers reached the islands in the mid-18th century, the Great Andamanese population numbered over 5,000.

9 thoughts on “Who’s your daddy?”

  1. “And, of course, an obligatory “blame it on the Brits” angle -“

    That sounds like asking for a controversy where none exists – as if you are oblivious to the elimination of people caused by colonial expansion.

  3. Technically, none of these people are our daddies, (or our relatives for that matter). The people of the Andaman and Nicobar islands are very distinct from the Aryan and Dravidian caucasians of India. Genetically, they don’t even fall into any of the three major subcategories of humans (Mongoloid, Caucasoid, and Negroid), and are given a seperate classification: Negrito. They can also be found in Southeast Asia, the Philippines, and New Guinea.

  4. Speaking of colonizers, it was on these islands that the Brits forced Indian political prisoners to do hard labor after the Sepoy Mutiny. And it was on these islands that Subhash Chandra Bose first raised the flag of independent India.

  5. “And, of course, an obligatory “blame it on the Brits” angle -” That sounds like asking for a controversy where none exists – as if you are oblivious to the elimination of people caused by colonial expansion.

    Don’t be silly, the British were the best thing to happen to India since sliced naan. Go Whitey!

  6. “And, of course, an obligatory “blame it on the Brits” angle -“

    Yeah, of course. I mean, after all, the Brits managed to kill about 30-40 million Indians after 1857 with the massacres and famines (even before we get to Bengal), plus the British slaughtered almost the entire native population of Australia and NZ. With all this genocide, rape, pillage and plunder elsewhere in the empire, how could the British have had time to slaughter the Andamanese too?

    [sarcasm off] The Victorians were experts at killing unbelievably large numbers of pesky brown people in the British colonies, so I wouldn’t put this reprehensible almost genocide of an ancient people past them. I got the chance recently to read a bit about the British reprisals in U.P. and other foci of the Sepoy Mutiny, and some of the things the Brits did then would put Stalin’s Cheka, Hitler’s SS and the Croatian Stasi to shame. The travesty is that every self-respecting history text talks in detail about the brutality of the SS, but somehow we don’t hear much (in US at least) about the British atrocities after 1857. I guess “primitive, uncivilized” brown people in India don’t count when those super-civilized Brits are the ones doing the atrocities. After all, Winston Churchill himself said we were inferior (untermensch, anyone?) and incapable of governing ourselves, so we must have had it coming, don’t you think?

  7. lets spit in the curry before we serve it to any of the brits..or maybe give them dirty looks..that will be our little revenge.. NON-VIOLENCE all the way… it would make Gandhi proud..

    and to heck with Chruchill he would be german if it wasn’t for the USA..well he was still alive..

  9. From the link above (given by Hank):

    On 12th June 1857, at Pashawar, forty men were tried, convicted, and sentenced to be blown from the guns. …a prisoner was bound to each gun-his back placed against the muzzle, and his arms fastened firmly to the wheels. The signal is now given, and the salvo fired. The discharge, of course, cuts the body in two; and human trunks, heads, legs, and arms may be seen for an instant flying about in all directions. As there were only ten guns used on this occasion, the mutilated remains had to be removed four times.

    I have never heard of this. From what I recall Mangal Pandey and the rest of the mutineers were sentenced to the noose. Has anyone else heard of this version of the story? (With all the doctoring of history textbooks going on back home this may be the true story)