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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(bào)紙頭條驚呼：加洛瓦人充滿敵意。
印度當(dāng)?shù)貓?bào)紙憤憤不平地報(bào)道：一伙原始部落的人沖出叢林，手持弓箭和長(zhǎng)矛，襲擊了位于印度中安達(dá)曼島上的一個(gè)村莊，將工具、食物、衣服、現(xiàn)金和珠寶首飾洗劫一空之后揚(yáng)長(zhǎng)而去。這是七年來(lái)在當(dāng)?shù)厥状伟l(fā)生這樣的襲擊事件。
這是加洛瓦狩獵采集者們?nèi)陨钤谖撮_(kāi)化的原始狀態(tài)的一個(gè)跡象？還是來(lái)自人類遠(yuǎn)祖的呼救聲，因?yàn)樗麄冑囈陨娴纳帧⑺麄兊纳罘绞缴踔辽鏍顟B(tài)目前都面臨著前所未有的威脅？
“偷獵者經(jīng)常會(huì)為獵取野生動(dòng)物闖進(jìn)加洛瓦保護(hù)區(qū)。”在路透社得到的一份關(guān)于四月份襲擊事件的內(nèi)部調(diào)查報(bào)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(chǔ)藏起來(lái)的蜂蜜，并搗毀了儲(chǔ)存蜂蜜用的雕刻容器。
蜂蜜是加洛瓦人所儲(chǔ)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(kāi)了報(bào)復(fù)行動(dòng)。
“這可真讓人不寒而栗，”作家、行動(dòng)主義者麥德胡斯利·姆科赫爾基說(shuō)，“滅絕這些狩獵采集者們最穩(wěn)妥的辦法就是奪取他們的領(lǐng)地。”
加洛瓦人是至今依然勉強(qiáng)生存在安達(dá)曼群島上的四個(gè)古老黑人部落中的一個(gè)。上個(gè)月，印度科學(xué)家們聲稱，DNA證據(jù)顯示加洛瓦人是人類遠(yuǎn)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(tài)，在他們的伊甸園里保持著簡(jiǎn)樸的生活方式。后來(lái)，政府修建了一條公路，正好穿過(guò)他們所居住的森林。
長(zhǎng)約343公里（213英里）的安達(dá)曼干道于1989年竣工。它被設(shè)計(jì)成連接安達(dá)曼列島的經(jīng)濟(jì)交通線。然而，人類學(xué)家們認(rèn)為這條公路已經(jīng)帶來(lái)了相當(dāng)惡劣的影響。
“這條公路就像是從森林中分割出來(lái)的一小片地帶，但是這條通道不僅使加洛瓦人受到各種細(xì)菌的威脅，也把他們置于外界影響之下，”姆科赫爾基說(shuō)，“外面的人帶來(lái)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(lái)，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(dá)曼和尼克巴地方政府關(guān)閉安達(dá)曼干道中穿過(guò)加洛瓦保護(hù)區(qū)的一段長(zhǎng)129公里（約80英里）的公路。但目前這條路仍處于開(kāi)放狀態(tài)。
上個(gè)月，路透社記者曾沿路來(lái)到加洛瓦保護(hù)區(qū)的邊緣地帶。等待時(shí)，一輛滿載竹子的大貨車駛出了保護(hù)區(qū)，而當(dāng)?shù)胤ㄔ涸缇徒乖诒Ｗo(hù)區(qū)內(nèi)砍伐樹(shù)木。
過(guò)去，加洛瓦人手持弓箭將外來(lái)人驅(qū)逐出保護(hù)區(qū)。但是，自這條公路開(kāi)通以來(lái)的幾年時(shí)間里，他們中的不少人不但學(xué)會(huì)了基本的印地語(yǔ)，而且也沾染上了當(dāng)代社會(huì)的惡習(xí)。
“他們以前來(lái)這里是為了獲取食物、椰子和香蕉，但是現(xiàn)在他們的目標(biāo)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(shuō)。他在保護(hù)區(qū)的邊上經(jīng)營(yíng)著一家路邊茶館。
（中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)站譯） |
Updated: 2005-06-24 09:51