One of the few images in existence of Sentinelese tribespeople
Two groups of indigenous bands – the Moken and the Andaman Islanders – reside in different countries with different policies, but have had very similar experiences with regard to the recovery effort from the tsunami and pressures from the outside world. Both groups have seen a huge increase in the interest of outside journalists, non-government organizations, and even the governments in whose territory they reside. Even so, the governing strategies of the countries in which they reside are very different. This difference extends to their policies regarding the indigenous people living in their territories. Despite experiencing different policies between the Indian government, which controls the Andaman Islands (Arya, Anand S, G.S. Mandal, and E.V. Muley 53), and the governments of Thailand and Myanmar, where the Moken reside (Bauerlein 58), both the Moken and the Andaman Islanders are feeling the pressures of a globalizing world. The forces of expansion and modern development in India, Thailand, and Myanmar are jeopardizing the cultures, beliefs, and very existence of the Andaman Islanders and the Moken.
The Moken live in several island groups off the coasts of Thailand and Myanmar (Bauerlein 58). They are a semi-nomadic, hunter-gatherer culture, and they tend to spend much of the year living on small boats, fishing to procure subsistence (Arthorne, par 1). During the monsoon season the Moken build huts on land, but throughout the rest of the year they subside by fishing and trading on the coastal waters (Budjeryn, par 27). They claim to learn to “swim before they can walk” (Arthorne, par 1). Adult Moken are able to dive to over 200 feet in depth; they use this ability to scour the sea floor for shells and catch fish that are out of most humans’ reach. The Moken have learned to control the reflex in their eyes that occurs when exposed to water, allowing them to constrict their pupils while swimming. This practice allows them to see clearly in the ocean, without the need of goggles or other tools (Bauerlein 58).
The Moken live in several island groups off the coasts of Thailand and Myanmar (Bauerlein 58). They are a semi-nomadic, hunter-gatherer culture, and they tend to spend much of the year living on small boats, fishing to procure subsistence (Arthorne, par 1). During the monsoon season the Moken build huts on land, but throughout the rest of the year they subside by fishing and trading on the coastal waters (Budjeryn, par 27). They claim to learn to “swim before they can walk” (Arthorne, par 1). Adult Moken are able to dive to over 200 feet in depth; they use this ability to scour the sea floor for shells and catch fish that are out of most humans’ reach. The Moken have learned to control the reflex in their eyes that occurs when exposed to water, allowing them to constrict their pupils while swimming. This practice allows them to see clearly in the ocean, without the need of goggles or other tools (Bauerlein 58).
The Moken are direct descendants of the Austronesians, the first humans to arrive in Southeast Asia, tens of thousands of years ago (Misra, par 9). The Austronesians migrated to the Moken’s current location about four thousand years ago (Budjeryn, par 26). The Moken are animists and spiritualists who have many myths, most of which are centered on their close relationship to the ocean (Athorne, par 3). The Moken have a creation myth that explains their life as sea-nomads, which is passed down orally to each generation. According to Jacques Ivanoff, one of the few anthropologists to compile an ethnography about the Moken, the myth is a symbolic description of the Moken’s lifestyle, which is often very hard and rife with poverty (14-15). In his ethnography, Ivanoff describes the creation myth:
“Gaman, a Muslim Malay, was the consort of Queen Sibian but was enamored of his young sister-in-law Kèn and became her lover. By this act Kèn transgressed society’s taboo against “mounting,” i.e. taking the place of, one’s elder. Outraged, Queen Sibian decreed that thereafter it would be forbidden to dwell on land, a ban symbolized by her ordering Kèn to be cast into the sea (lemo Kèn—the “immersion of Kèn”) and that thereafter boats must be dugouts hewn from a single balk of timber, with indentations fore and aft (“a mouth that eats and a rear that defecates”), symbolizing the unending cycle of ingestion, digestion and evacuation.” (15)The myth of Gaman and Kèn is a seemingly ubiquitous motif shared between all human cultures – forbidden love. However, unlike many similar stories in the Western tradition, this story has a different message. The myth conveys the taboo of disobeying one’s elders (Ivanoff 15), whereas myths that are more familiar in the West tend to support the idea that “love knows no boundaries” and that people should be free to choose with whom they fall in love. Amongst the Moken, it seems to be more important to obey one’s elder than to fall in love with whomever one pleases.
The myth of Gaman and Kèn is not, of course, the only myth amongst the Moken. All of their myths convey lessons and knowledge that needs to be passed down from each generation. One such myth, the myth of the “laboon,” saved the Moken from the 2004 tsunami. According to the myth, spirits of their dead ancestors who are angry send the laboon, which washes over the world. Before the laboon arrives, the ocean recedes much more than the lowest tide. When the Moken elders saw the ocean do this before the tsunami, they warned their kin and ran inland to higher ground (Athorne, par 3). No exact tally of Moken deaths due to the tsunami is possible, because of their nomadic lifestyle, but only one fatality was ever reported to the government authorities in either Thailand or Myanmar – a handicapped boy who was left near the beach in the rush to get to higher ground (Budjeryn, par 29).
Water receding from the beach just before the tsunami hit
The Andaman Islanders are actually a group of independent tribes, each with their own separate cultures and languages, but with the same ancestors (Mukerjee 236). The four separate tribes are the Great Andamanese, the Jarawa, the Onge, and the Sentinelese (Mukerjee xvi). They are semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers (Budjeryn, pars 3-10), just like the Moken. The Andamanese seem to have forgotten how to kindle fire – instead, they keep fires burning constantly in special hearths (Mukerjee 234). Like the Yanomami, they cannot reckon numerals greater than two (Mukerjee xiv). Many anthropologists believe these four tribes of humans to be some of the most isolated peoples on the planet, especially the Sentinelese, who live on a tiny island west of the main Andaman archipelago (Mukerjee xiii).
The Sentinelese have never been formally studied by anyone (Goodheart, par 2). In fact, most attempts to contact them have been met with hostility. Since Marco Polo’s expedition to the Orient in 1290, there have been rumors of the ferocity of the Sentinelese (Mukerjee xi). There have been a few instances of brief contact with the Sentinelese, the most notable of which occurred in January 1991, when a Sentinel tribesman approached a boat containing representatives from the Anthropological Survey of India and took a gift that was offered to him (Mukerjee 229). Naturally, little is known about these tribespeople. It was estimated that between forty and 250 Sentinelese were alive before the 2004 tsunami, but no definitive tally was possible (Budjeryn, par 10). The Sentinelese speak their own unique language, however there is some evidence that the Onge and Sentinelese languages are mutually intelligible (Mukerjee 228).
The Great Andamanese, Jarawa, and the Onge all have had much more contact with the outside world. These three distinct tribes all have their own languages (Glass, par 2), but they also have a great deal of interaction with each other (Cooper 96). Generalized exchange between the three major groups is very common, and there appears to be a good deal of movement between groups of Andaman Islanders (Cooper 96). Although all four tribes of Andamanese reside in a very small area, protein scarcity is not a problem. Unlike the Yanomami, the Andamanese have a nearly infinite resource of protein from the ocean. Therefore, negative exchange is very uncommon (Cooper 96). Furthermore, the Sentinelese have removed themselves from the proper Andaman archipelago and now reside on their own tiny island a few miles away from the primary island group. Perhaps most interestingly, all of the Andamanese tribes have very low birthrates. Anthropologists believe that a complicated system of physical adaptations and cultural beliefs kept their population in equilibrium with their small habitat for thousands of years. Unfortunately, increased contact with outsiders and pressure from settlers has caused the population of the Andamanese to decline enormously (Mukerjee 130).
Genetic evidence and the anthropological record suggest that the Andamanese settled on the archipelago some time between 30 000 and 60 000 years ago (Mukerjee 237-238 & Goodheart, par 9). They are the direct ancestors of the first Paleolithic settlers of Asia from Africa (Mukerjee 240 & Goodheart, par 9). Zarine Cooper, an archaeologist who published a study of the Andaman Islands, theorized that the reason the Andaman Islanders formed separate tribes with different languages has to do with the distribution of resources. Citing Radcliffe-Brown’s study of the Andamanese, Cooper postulates that the Andaman Islanders long ago organized into groups dwelling either inland or on the coast. This distinction gave rise to different cultures and languages (Cooper 96). This theory is supported by physical evidence that suggests that the ancestors of the Andamanese immigrated to the archipelago during the Ice Ages. When they arrived, the settlers all shared a common culture and language. However, as the ice caps and glaciers melted, the islands became flooded, and the settlers separated into groups (Mukerjee 236).
Just as the Moken have the myth of the laboon, the Andaman Islanders have their own myths about giant waves. The knowledge of these myths helped them recognize the warning signs that a tsunami was about to hit on December 26 (Budjeryn, par 8). After the tsunami, the Indian government sent aid teams to the Andaman Islands. All of the Great Andamanese and Jarawa survived the tsunami, and most of the Onge survived, as well (Glass, par 6). The Indian government also reported that all of the Sentinelese appeared to have survived, after a government helicopter flew over their island. The helicopter’s appearance prompted a Sentinelese tribesman to fire an arrow in its direction (Glass, par 8).
The Indian and Thai governments responded differently to the plights of the Andamanese and Moken, respectively. The governmental responses were tempered by their previous policies toward the tribespeople. About 1000 Moken live in islands off the coast of Myanmar, where they continue to practice their traditional nomadic lifestyle. It is believed that most, if not all, Burmese Moken survived the tsunami (Bauerlein 58). Unfortunately, little more is known about the Moken living in Myanmar because of the government’s insular policies (Bauerlein 61). Only around 200 Moken remained in Thailand at the time of the tsunami (Budjeryn, par 26), however, much more is known about their relationship with the government.
Before the tsunami, the Thai Moken had been forced to live in a national park in the Surin Islands. Because the border between Myanmar and Thailand is closed to civilian traffic, Moken cannot visit their affines and kin from neighboring bands. The Thai government forbade them from cutting down trees under any circumstances, which prevented the construction of new boats, ending their nomadic lifestyle on the sea (Bauerlein 61). The government began marketing the Moken as an attraction for tourists; some Moken even began to make a small livelihood selling crafts and giving tours of their village to curious sightseers (Griswold, par 1). Many Moken had begun to venture to the mainland for work, although they would usually return. Unfortunately, they also returned with the diseases of the mainland. Alcoholism has begun to plague Moken men. In November 2005, at least ten of the 200 Thai Moken had contracted AIDS, and five others had already died from the syndrome (Athorne, par 10).
Although the Thai Moken escaped the tsunami, their entire village had been destroyed, including the modern amenities they had come to rely on – such as stoves, battery-powered televisions, and modern boats. The government transported them to a temporary shelter in mainland Thailand. There they were given food and a small amount of money. However, after only a couple weeks, the Moken decided to return to the Surin Islands. The government donated material for them to rebuild their huts, and they began to prepare for the inevitable return of the tourists (Griswold, pars 1-9). Recently, there have been reports that land speculators, wealthy investors, and a few Thai government officials have begun to develop the coastal areas where the Moken had lived before the tsunami, forcing many of them to relocate to different areas further inland (Kazmin and Panwadeee, pars 1-6).
The Moken are experiencing the dilution and absorption of their culture into the modern Thai society. The Andamanese are experiencing a similar plight, but they are receiving better protection from the Indian government. Unfortunately, this protection may be too little, too late. In the 19th century, when the British first settled the Andaman Islands as part of their colonization of Asia Minor, the Andaman Islanders had a population of about 10 000 (Budjeryn, par 6). The Andamanese, isolated for tens of thousands of years, had no resistance to the foreign diseases that the British carried. By the end of the 19th century, syphilis, measles, and influenza had decimated their population (Mukerjee xvii). When the British ceded control of India in 1947 and the country received its sovereignty, settlers began to arrive from the mainland, causing the population of the Andaman Islands to increase exponentially. Currently, the population of the Andaman Islands stands at about 350 000 (India Says Reclusive Aborigines Safe, par 19), of which only about 500 are Andamanese (Mukerjee xx).
Before the tsunami, the Indian government had a policy limiting access to the Andaman Islanders, especially the Sentinelese (Mukerjee 223). Although India allowed extensive development in the Andaman Islands, the native settlements were deemed strictly off-limits (Goodheart, par 7). This policy limited the amount of information that was available about the Great Andamanese, Jarawa, Onge, and the Sentinelese. It also protected their culture, to some degree. Nevertheless, all of the Andaman Islanders had some contact with the Indian settlers and all but the Sentinelese had become very familiar with the modern world by December 26, 2004. Many of the Andaman Islanders had become alcoholics, just like the Moken, and their population has begun to decline again, after beginning to recover slightly (When the Spirits Threw a Boulder in the Sea, pars 16-20).
Of the approximately 1700 Moken and Andaman Islanders living in the Pacific Ocean, less than twenty-five perished as a direct result of the tsunami. Afterwards, the Indian and Thai governments exerted a considerable amount of effort to ensure the safety and survival of the ancient tribes. The Indian government temporarily abandoned its policy limiting contact with the Andamanese to provide them with the material to reconstruct the huts that were destroyed in the tsunami (Arya, Anand S, Gz.S. Mandal, and E.V. Muley 62-63). The Indian government even attempted to aid the Sentinelese, although the arrow they shot at the helicopter sent to investigate their situation seems to have convinced them otherwise. Even without the assistance of the Indian and Thai governments, there was little risk that the Moken or Andamanese would have been destroyed by the tsunami. The Andaman Islanders have been living on the archipelago for tens of thousands of years, and the Moken have been sea-faring nomads off the coast of Myanmar and Thailand for several thousand years; it is very likely that both cultures have endured cataclysmic natural disasters in the past, and the 2004 tsunami was no different. The impending destruction of the Moken and the Andaman Islanders because of acts of nature, it is because of their fellow human beings.
The tsunami made the plight of the Moken and the Andamanese ever more obvious, but their culture and lifestyle has been slowly degraded since the arrival of the British in the 19th century. Evidence of their enculturation is everywhere – Moken have begun to wear modern clothes, participate in the modern capitalist economy by giving tours and selling trinkets to visitors, and fall prey to modern diseases, such as alcoholism and AIDS. The Andamanese were victims of the same fate as the American Indians: their population was decimated by exposure to pathogens to which they had no resistance. After nearly becoming extinct, their population levels began to rise a little, and they began to venture out of their enclaves on the Andaman Islands to trade and learn about the new settlers who had become their neighbors. Unfortunately, the Andaman’s population levels are again facing decline as they encounter new problems, such as the loss of their old traditions. Many young Andamanese are leaving their elders to work in modern society. Unfortunately, most Andamanese lack the skills necessary to be successful and they end up becoming beggars and vagrants (When the Spirits Threw a Boulder in the Sea, par 42). The Moken are experiencing the same problem, as well.
The Sentinelese have never been formally studied by anyone (Goodheart, par 2). In fact, most attempts to contact them have been met with hostility. Since Marco Polo’s expedition to the Orient in 1290, there have been rumors of the ferocity of the Sentinelese (Mukerjee xi). There have been a few instances of brief contact with the Sentinelese, the most notable of which occurred in January 1991, when a Sentinel tribesman approached a boat containing representatives from the Anthropological Survey of India and took a gift that was offered to him (Mukerjee 229). Naturally, little is known about these tribespeople. It was estimated that between forty and 250 Sentinelese were alive before the 2004 tsunami, but no definitive tally was possible (Budjeryn, par 10). The Sentinelese speak their own unique language, however there is some evidence that the Onge and Sentinelese languages are mutually intelligible (Mukerjee 228).
The Great Andamanese, Jarawa, and the Onge all have had much more contact with the outside world. These three distinct tribes all have their own languages (Glass, par 2), but they also have a great deal of interaction with each other (Cooper 96). Generalized exchange between the three major groups is very common, and there appears to be a good deal of movement between groups of Andaman Islanders (Cooper 96). Although all four tribes of Andamanese reside in a very small area, protein scarcity is not a problem. Unlike the Yanomami, the Andamanese have a nearly infinite resource of protein from the ocean. Therefore, negative exchange is very uncommon (Cooper 96). Furthermore, the Sentinelese have removed themselves from the proper Andaman archipelago and now reside on their own tiny island a few miles away from the primary island group. Perhaps most interestingly, all of the Andamanese tribes have very low birthrates. Anthropologists believe that a complicated system of physical adaptations and cultural beliefs kept their population in equilibrium with their small habitat for thousands of years. Unfortunately, increased contact with outsiders and pressure from settlers has caused the population of the Andamanese to decline enormously (Mukerjee 130).
Genetic evidence and the anthropological record suggest that the Andamanese settled on the archipelago some time between 30 000 and 60 000 years ago (Mukerjee 237-238 & Goodheart, par 9). They are the direct ancestors of the first Paleolithic settlers of Asia from Africa (Mukerjee 240 & Goodheart, par 9). Zarine Cooper, an archaeologist who published a study of the Andaman Islands, theorized that the reason the Andaman Islanders formed separate tribes with different languages has to do with the distribution of resources. Citing Radcliffe-Brown’s study of the Andamanese, Cooper postulates that the Andaman Islanders long ago organized into groups dwelling either inland or on the coast. This distinction gave rise to different cultures and languages (Cooper 96). This theory is supported by physical evidence that suggests that the ancestors of the Andamanese immigrated to the archipelago during the Ice Ages. When they arrived, the settlers all shared a common culture and language. However, as the ice caps and glaciers melted, the islands became flooded, and the settlers separated into groups (Mukerjee 236).
Just as the Moken have the myth of the laboon, the Andaman Islanders have their own myths about giant waves. The knowledge of these myths helped them recognize the warning signs that a tsunami was about to hit on December 26 (Budjeryn, par 8). After the tsunami, the Indian government sent aid teams to the Andaman Islands. All of the Great Andamanese and Jarawa survived the tsunami, and most of the Onge survived, as well (Glass, par 6). The Indian government also reported that all of the Sentinelese appeared to have survived, after a government helicopter flew over their island. The helicopter’s appearance prompted a Sentinelese tribesman to fire an arrow in its direction (Glass, par 8).
The Indian and Thai governments responded differently to the plights of the Andamanese and Moken, respectively. The governmental responses were tempered by their previous policies toward the tribespeople. About 1000 Moken live in islands off the coast of Myanmar, where they continue to practice their traditional nomadic lifestyle. It is believed that most, if not all, Burmese Moken survived the tsunami (Bauerlein 58). Unfortunately, little more is known about the Moken living in Myanmar because of the government’s insular policies (Bauerlein 61). Only around 200 Moken remained in Thailand at the time of the tsunami (Budjeryn, par 26), however, much more is known about their relationship with the government.
Before the tsunami, the Thai Moken had been forced to live in a national park in the Surin Islands. Because the border between Myanmar and Thailand is closed to civilian traffic, Moken cannot visit their affines and kin from neighboring bands. The Thai government forbade them from cutting down trees under any circumstances, which prevented the construction of new boats, ending their nomadic lifestyle on the sea (Bauerlein 61). The government began marketing the Moken as an attraction for tourists; some Moken even began to make a small livelihood selling crafts and giving tours of their village to curious sightseers (Griswold, par 1). Many Moken had begun to venture to the mainland for work, although they would usually return. Unfortunately, they also returned with the diseases of the mainland. Alcoholism has begun to plague Moken men. In November 2005, at least ten of the 200 Thai Moken had contracted AIDS, and five others had already died from the syndrome (Athorne, par 10).
Although the Thai Moken escaped the tsunami, their entire village had been destroyed, including the modern amenities they had come to rely on – such as stoves, battery-powered televisions, and modern boats. The government transported them to a temporary shelter in mainland Thailand. There they were given food and a small amount of money. However, after only a couple weeks, the Moken decided to return to the Surin Islands. The government donated material for them to rebuild their huts, and they began to prepare for the inevitable return of the tourists (Griswold, pars 1-9). Recently, there have been reports that land speculators, wealthy investors, and a few Thai government officials have begun to develop the coastal areas where the Moken had lived before the tsunami, forcing many of them to relocate to different areas further inland (Kazmin and Panwadeee, pars 1-6).
The Moken are experiencing the dilution and absorption of their culture into the modern Thai society. The Andamanese are experiencing a similar plight, but they are receiving better protection from the Indian government. Unfortunately, this protection may be too little, too late. In the 19th century, when the British first settled the Andaman Islands as part of their colonization of Asia Minor, the Andaman Islanders had a population of about 10 000 (Budjeryn, par 6). The Andamanese, isolated for tens of thousands of years, had no resistance to the foreign diseases that the British carried. By the end of the 19th century, syphilis, measles, and influenza had decimated their population (Mukerjee xvii). When the British ceded control of India in 1947 and the country received its sovereignty, settlers began to arrive from the mainland, causing the population of the Andaman Islands to increase exponentially. Currently, the population of the Andaman Islands stands at about 350 000 (India Says Reclusive Aborigines Safe, par 19), of which only about 500 are Andamanese (Mukerjee xx).
Before the tsunami, the Indian government had a policy limiting access to the Andaman Islanders, especially the Sentinelese (Mukerjee 223). Although India allowed extensive development in the Andaman Islands, the native settlements were deemed strictly off-limits (Goodheart, par 7). This policy limited the amount of information that was available about the Great Andamanese, Jarawa, Onge, and the Sentinelese. It also protected their culture, to some degree. Nevertheless, all of the Andaman Islanders had some contact with the Indian settlers and all but the Sentinelese had become very familiar with the modern world by December 26, 2004. Many of the Andaman Islanders had become alcoholics, just like the Moken, and their population has begun to decline again, after beginning to recover slightly (When the Spirits Threw a Boulder in the Sea, pars 16-20).
Of the approximately 1700 Moken and Andaman Islanders living in the Pacific Ocean, less than twenty-five perished as a direct result of the tsunami. Afterwards, the Indian and Thai governments exerted a considerable amount of effort to ensure the safety and survival of the ancient tribes. The Indian government temporarily abandoned its policy limiting contact with the Andamanese to provide them with the material to reconstruct the huts that were destroyed in the tsunami (Arya, Anand S, Gz.S. Mandal, and E.V. Muley 62-63). The Indian government even attempted to aid the Sentinelese, although the arrow they shot at the helicopter sent to investigate their situation seems to have convinced them otherwise. Even without the assistance of the Indian and Thai governments, there was little risk that the Moken or Andamanese would have been destroyed by the tsunami. The Andaman Islanders have been living on the archipelago for tens of thousands of years, and the Moken have been sea-faring nomads off the coast of Myanmar and Thailand for several thousand years; it is very likely that both cultures have endured cataclysmic natural disasters in the past, and the 2004 tsunami was no different. The impending destruction of the Moken and the Andaman Islanders because of acts of nature, it is because of their fellow human beings.
The tsunami made the plight of the Moken and the Andamanese ever more obvious, but their culture and lifestyle has been slowly degraded since the arrival of the British in the 19th century. Evidence of their enculturation is everywhere – Moken have begun to wear modern clothes, participate in the modern capitalist economy by giving tours and selling trinkets to visitors, and fall prey to modern diseases, such as alcoholism and AIDS. The Andamanese were victims of the same fate as the American Indians: their population was decimated by exposure to pathogens to which they had no resistance. After nearly becoming extinct, their population levels began to rise a little, and they began to venture out of their enclaves on the Andaman Islands to trade and learn about the new settlers who had become their neighbors. Unfortunately, the Andaman’s population levels are again facing decline as they encounter new problems, such as the loss of their old traditions. Many young Andamanese are leaving their elders to work in modern society. Unfortunately, most Andamanese lack the skills necessary to be successful and they end up becoming beggars and vagrants (When the Spirits Threw a Boulder in the Sea, par 42). The Moken are experiencing the same problem, as well.
Enculturation of immigrants can be very beneficial to the immigrant culture as well as the society into which they are assimilating. For example, the enculturation of Chinese immigrants into American society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries has been very advantageous to both American society and Chinese society in the United States and China. However, more often than not, the process of enculturation is incomplete. Groups of people are assimilated into another culture, but they are not educated or respected. This happened to the American Indian throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. The same appears to be happening to the Andamanese and the Moken. They are slowly being assimilated by modern society, but they are not being educated or respected. The Moken have been unable to retain their customs because of the ignorance of the Thai government, and the Andamanese are retaining their cultural identity, but when they attempt to assimilate into modern society they are rebuffed for a lack of skills. The stage has been set for the Moken and the Andamanese to become a poor, second-class group of people in the modern globalized society, without skills or much opportunity to improve their position. The Onge are perhaps the tribe of Andamanese who are most aware that their way of life is ending. They say that their “god has died” (Mukerjee 118). They believe that they do not have a future.
Works Cited
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Athorne, Scott. “The Life Aquatic.” Sunday Times Magazine 20 November 2005. 48.
Bauerlein, Monika. “Sea Change.” Mother Jones 30.6 (Nov 2005): 56-61.
Budjeryn, Mariana. “Survivors of the Tsunami.” Cultural Survival Voices 14.1 (2005): 14.
Coooper, Zarine. Early Settlements in the Andaman Islands. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2002.
Glass, Nick. “Tsunami Disaster: Stone Age Life of Island Tribespeople Helped Them Survive Black Sunday.” Independent on Sunday 16 January 2005. 21.
Goodheart, Adam. “On the Remote Andaman Islands, the Tsunami May Have Washed Away the Earth’s Last Mysterious Strangers.” The Boston Globe 2 January 2005. C1.
Griswold, Eliza. “Sea Gypsies.” The New Yorker 24 January 2005. 36.
“India Says Reclusive Aborigines Safe on Remote Islands.” Agence France Presse – English ed 30 December 2004.
Ivanoff, Jacques. “The Myth of the Moken: Twixt Land and Sea.” UNESCO Courier November 1994. 14-16.
Kazmin, Amy and Uraisin Panwadeee. “After Tsunamis Come Speculators With Eyes on Thai Coastal Land: Villagers Trying to Rebuild Face Rival Claims to the Plots They Lived On.” Financial Times 19 February 2005. 2.
Leroi, Armand Marie. “A Family Tree in Every Gene.” The New York Times on the Web 14 March 2005.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/14/opinion/14leroi.html
Misra, Neelesh. “Reading Winds, Waves May Have Saved Ancient Tribes on Remote Indian Islands.” Associated Press 4 January 2005. International News Section.
Mukerjee, Madhusree. The Land of Naked People: Encounters With Stone Age Islanders. Houghton Mifflin Company: New York, 2003.
Tang, Alisa. “Mourners Remember 216,000 Tsunami Victims.” Associated Press 24 December 2004. International News Section.
“When the Spirits Threw a Boulder in the Sea; the Tsunami and the Tribes of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.” India Currents 19.3 (Jun 2005): 18.
Misra, Neelesh. “Reading Winds, Waves May Have Saved Ancient Tribes on Remote Indian Islands.” Associated Press 4 January 2005. International News Section.
Mukerjee, Madhusree. The Land of Naked People: Encounters With Stone Age Islanders. Houghton Mifflin Company: New York, 2003.
Tang, Alisa. “Mourners Remember 216,000 Tsunami Victims.” Associated Press 24 December 2004. International News Section.
“When the Spirits Threw a Boulder in the Sea; the Tsunami and the Tribes of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.” India Currents 19.3 (Jun 2005): 18.
