Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Tribes in News; PVTGs in AandN Islands, Shompen, Jarawas, Onge, Sentinelese
Mains level: NA
Why in the news?
For the first time in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 7 members of the Shompen tribe, a particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs) of Great Nicobar Islands exercised their voting rights for the lone Lok Sabha seat in the union territory.
Other two primitive tribes like Onge and Great Andamanese (both PVTGs) too exercised their voting rights like in 2019 Lok Sabha election but seven Shompen did it for the first time out of 98 Shompen voters. |
About Shompen Tribe:
- The Shompen tribe primarily inhabits the remote interior regions of Great Nicobar Island, the southernmost island in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago.
- Their estimated population was 229 as per the 2011 Census data.
- Their cultural practices include traditional hunting, fishing, and gathering forest resources.
- Pandanus (a tropical plant found in the islands), whose fruits resemble the woody pineapple, is the staple food of the Shompens.
- What makes the Shompens distinct from the four other PVTGs of Andaman and Nicobar Islands — Jarawas, Great Andamanese, Onges and Sentinelese — is that they are the only tribe in the region with Mongoloid features. The other PVTGs have Negroid features.
Society and Culture
- The Shompen people have their own distinct culture and language, which belongs to the Austroasiatic language family.
- Marriage by capturing women from different groups and sub-groups is one of the customs of the Shompen society (as per the Anthropological Survey of India).
- They practice a hunter-gatherer subsistence economy.
Who are the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs)?
Origin of the concept
Features of PVTGs
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PYQ:[2019] Consider the following statements about Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in India:
Which of the statements given above are correct? (a) 1, 2 and 3 (b) 2, 3 and 4 (c) 1, 2 and 4 (d) 1, 3 and 4 |
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