The clip is absolutely fascinating. It's sad that the person who uploaded it also threw up a bunch of BS about garden of eden and Abrahamic religions. Come on, this contact with people unlike us. One of the downsides of greater contact and communication is the homogenization (somewhat) of civilizations around the world. These are people who have escaped much of that except a few contacts.
We really do need to fight the urge to put nike's on them, although I must admit to being interested the number of things we might learn about ourselves from studying these people. But then again, I understand the Schrodinger's "People" analogy.
except a lot of the tribes were further reduced to paltry sizes after the tsunami. If I remember correctly from my last visit in 1996/97, the census numbers for some of the tribes were already around ~100. Since Port Blair is on the middle island of the Andaman land mass, it has affected all the other tribes on that island. Especially the Jarwa.
North andaman (Jarwa) tribes at the time were hostile, which I believe since the construction of the Andaman grand trunk road have become more subdued.
Compared to Jarwa, the sentilese have it better, they dont share their island.
if they can survive 65000 years on the island I'm sure they have witnessed a few natural disasters and managed to survive as a culture.
Yes, you're right. The Jarwas can be seen up close with a few Government officials from India in this post Tsunami effort [1].
1. These tribes have not developed medical immunity against the kind of diseases we're host to.
2. They're truly wild and curious like us too. Protecting the former quality needs a restraint from our side.
I've been to Andaman & Nicobar in 2004 and did feel a sense of excitement and curiosity when at the edge of our side of world. Check out this fifteen year old video on these tribesmen, their walking manners and the gap that we're talking about here [1].
Andamans have a tremendous diversity with its colonial history, modern day torture equipment at Cellular jail that the Brits used during their rule of the region, and exotic tribes like these. Apart from blue beaches and coral life that most tourists love to see.
[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaPYwlXOTzQ