Aboriginal tribes saved by distance (fwd)

[jess tauber]

The government of India, which has been desirous to greatly expand tourism in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, was very quick in making these claims, even before more rigorous surveys were carried out. Various scholars IN India have reacted quite negatively to the assertions. Reporters and aid workers have been kept away from the areas in question, so there is no way of verifying them.

Some reports by government and military personnel have made the interesting claim that the tribal peoples of the islands survived because they "instinctually" knew to get out of the way of the tsunami (much as have animals in Sri Lanka, which has been the buzz in science newsfeeds for the past couple of days)- one even claims that the Andamanese sleep in the tree tops (in the same manner as apes perhaps?). The Indian minister in charge of tribal affairs had prior to the quake/tsunami shrugged off charges that the proposed opening up of lands, up to now off limits, to tourism and settlement, would have any adverse effect on the native peoples, and statements of a just a day or two ago by the Prime Minister indicated that development plans would go ahead in spite of everything that has just happened.

The scholarly community, particularly the linguists and anthropologists of Indian origin permitted by the government to work with these peoples, has not been heard from, though there will be reports on the languages of the islands at the upcoming meeting of the Association for Linguistic Typology in Padang, West Sumatra in July. Given the tight controls on access to the native peoples of the Andaman and Nicobar islands, it will be interesting to see whether workers are able to say particularly how things really are on the ground. A fine line to tread indeed.

It is wonderful that the Indian government has allowed the native peoples to live in relative peace, but the plans for tourism expansion and settlement leave me wondering just how altruistic this all is. Are they animals? Children? Don't they have the right to know what is going on around them, and maybe the right to some empowerment over what becomes of them? They aren't zoo or museum specimens, after all. Or are they, considering their oft cited "primitiveness", genetic uniqueness (at least for the Andamanese, and both linguistically and DNA-wise), etc. Eco-tourism veers awfully close to systemic exploitation of marginalized peoples as side-shows. Perhaps the scholarly community isn't doing enough to distance itself from this sort of thing, and prevent themselves from becoming the elite equivalent of carnival barkers. In any case we all know who is going to get the short end of the stick.

My own concern is for endangered peoples and their cultures and languages as knowledge systems of inherent worth, not as "specimens". We all know what collectors are like.

Anyway, that's my say, for the moment. Some I've corresponded feel I should be focussing on the needs of the many more victims of the tsunami who belong to majority cultures. As a human being my gut sank when I first read about the quake and tsunami, just an hour after it happened. At the magnitude then being reported (which has since been upgraded twice), all I could think was "Krakatau", and I knew it was going to be really, really bad, much worse than the casualty figures which initially came in, and the week has borne out my worst fears (geotectonics has been a hobby since the early '70's). The situation is more than heart-wrenching, and I'm doing what I can from my end to lend a hand.

But the "hey, there's lots more of us than there are of them" argument, which may be great for democratic politics, falls flat when the absolute survival, both in the short and long terms, of minority peoples is at stake, as it is here. The tsunami wiped out entire native villages in the Nicobars. Islands are GONE. Reports that the tribal peoples have not lost a single soul (which are now circulating), are just a little too good to be true (unless of course one goes the animal/"sixth sense" route), don't you think? But maybe the issue here isn't on numbers, but on levels of human-ness in the belief systems of the figures in authority, and the peoples they represent? Heck, "real (hard working, civilized, pious, even educated) people, like us" are in mortal danger. One needn't worry about the natives- they can fend for themselves in any case (with their wonderful instinctual powers).

So expect a free-for-all to redirect attention and resources, which I suppose is just human nature, just as the governments of the world are one-upping each other with aid announcements. I keep hoping in my heart of hearts that this crisis might in the end result in a more equitable resolution for the situation that existed before, but don't expect me to bet the farm on it.

In the meantime I'll update the list with anything more detailed that I can find.

Jess Tauber
phonosemantics at earthlink.net