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Hunter-gatherers face
extinction on India island
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"Jarawa turn hostile" screamed the headline from
the local paper.
Indignantly, it reported how primitive tribesmen came out of the jungle
armed with bows, arrows and spears,
raided a village in India's Middle Andaman island and
looted tools, food, clothes,
cash and jewelry. It was the first such attack in seven years.
An indication that the Jarawa hunter-gatherers remain untamed
primitives -- or a cry for help from man's earliest ancestors, their
forests and their lifestyle, their existence under threat as never before?
"It is usual that poachers enter into Jarawa reserve areas to hunt wild
animals," a tribal welfare officer blithely notes in an internal report on
April's attack, obtained by Reuters.
Some of the poachers, he said, had stolen honey buried by the Jarawa
and destroyed the carved containers used to store it.
Honey is the only food the Jarawa store, one of the most precious
things they have. Enraged, they had
retaliated.
"It is really frightening," said author and activist Madhusree
Mukherjee. "The surest way to kill hunter-gatherers is to take away their
territory."
The Jarawa are one of four ancient Negroid tribes barely surviving on
the Andamans. Last month, Indian scientists said DNA evidence suggested
they were direct descendents of man's earliest ancestors, who migrated
from Africa 65,000 to 70,000 years ago, only to be stranded on the islands
by rising seawater.
Until just a few years ago, the Jarawa lived in isolation, preserving a
simple lifestyle in their own Garden of Eden. Then the government built a
road through their forest.
The 343-km (213-mile) Andaman Trunk Road (ATR), completed in 1989, was
designed as an economic lifeline to link the island chain. Anthropologists
say it has had a more sinister
impact.
"The road may look like a little strip of land cutting through the
forest, but it is a conduit opening the Jarawa up not just to germs but to
all kinds of outside influence," said Mukherjee. "Outsiders induce
addictions. They supply them with tobacco or alcohol, so the Jarawa keep
coming back, and have to bring their forest resources out to feed their
addictions."
In 2002 the Supreme Court ordered the Andaman and Nicobar government to
close the 129-km (80-mile) stretch of the ATR passing through the Jarawa
reserve. But the road remains open.
Reuters took the road to the edge of the Jarawa reserve last month. As
we waited, a truck came out of the reserve piled high with bamboo, in
contravention of a court ban on logging.
In the old days, the Jarawa used to chase outsiders away with their
bows and arrows. In just a few years since the road was opened, many have
learned basic Hindi, as well as modern vices.
"They used to come for food, coconuts and bananas," said M. Rajendran,
who runs a roadside tea shop on the edge of the reserve. "Now, they
come for tobacco and paan (an addictive mixture of betel
leaves and areca nut)."
(Agencies) |
印度報紙頭條驚呼：加洛瓦人充滿敵意。
印度當地報紙憤憤不平地報道：一伙原始部落的人沖出叢林，手持弓箭和長矛，襲擊了位于印度中安達曼島上的一個村莊，將工具、食物、衣服、現金和珠寶首飾洗劫一空之后揚長而去。這是七年來在當地首次發生這樣的襲擊事件。
這是加洛瓦狩獵采集者們仍生活在未開化的原始狀態的一個跡象？還是來自人類遠祖的呼救聲，因為他們賴以生存的森林、他們的生活方式甚至生存狀態目前都面臨著前所未有的威脅？
“偷獵者經常會為獵取野生動物闖進加洛瓦保護區。”在路透社得到的一份關于四月份襲擊事件的內部調查報告中，一位部落福利官員坦率地指出。
他透露，一些偷獵者盜取了加洛瓦人儲藏起來的蜂蜜，并搗毀了儲存蜂蜜用的雕刻容器。
蜂蜜是加洛瓦人所儲存的唯一食物，也是他們所擁有的最珍貴的物品之一。顯然蜂蜜被盜激怒了他們，于是他們就展開了報復行動。
“這可真讓人不寒而栗，”作家、行動主義者麥德胡斯利·姆科赫爾基說，“滅絕這些狩獵采集者們最穩妥的辦法就是奪取他們的領地。”
加洛瓦人是至今依然勉強生存在安達曼群島上的四個古老黑人部落中的一個。上個月，印度科學家們聲稱，DNA證據顯示加洛瓦人是人類遠祖的直系后裔，在大約65,000至70,000年前從非洲遷移至此地，后因海水上漲而被困在這些島嶼上.
而僅僅在幾年之前, 加洛瓦人還生活在與世隔絕的狀態，在他們的伊甸園里保持著簡樸的生活方式。后來，政府修建了一條公路，正好穿過他們所居住的森林。
長約343公里（213英里）的安達曼干道于1989年竣工。它被設計成連接安達曼列島的經濟交通線。然而，人類學家們認為這條公路已經帶來了相當惡劣的影響。
“這條公路就像是從森林中分割出來的一小片地帶，但是這條通道不僅使加洛瓦人受到各種細菌的威脅，也把他們置于外界影響之下，”姆科赫爾基說，“外面的人帶來了許多容易讓人上癮的東西。他們供給加洛瓦人香煙和酒類，這樣加洛瓦人就不停地回來，把他們的森林資源拿出去賣，以滿足他們的煙癮或酒癮。”
早在2002年，印度最高法院就命令安達曼和尼克巴地方政府關閉安達曼干道中穿過加洛瓦保護區的一段長129公里（約80英里）的公路。但目前這條路仍處于開放狀態。
上個月，路透社記者曾沿路來到加洛瓦保護區的邊緣地帶。等待時，一輛滿載竹子的大貨車駛出了保護區，而當地法院早就禁止在保護區內砍伐樹木。
過去，加洛瓦人手持弓箭將外來人驅逐出保護區。但是，自這條公路開通以來的幾年時間里，他們中的不少人不但學會了基本的印地語，而且也沾染上了當代社會的惡習。
“他們以前來這里是為了獲取食物、椰子和香蕉，但是現在他們的目標變成了香煙和哌安（一種由萎葉和檳榔果制成的混合物，食用容易使人上癮）。”姆·拉金德蘭說。他在保護區的邊上經營著一家路邊茶館。
（中國日報網站譯） |
Updated: 2005-06-24 09:51