The various indigenous Andamanese peoples subsisted mostly as hunter-gatherer communities, supplemented by fishing and limited agricultural practices. The Sentinelese, Önge, and Jarawa peoples continue in this way of life in the southern part of the archipelago.

The indigenous Andamanese are slightly built, dark-skinned, with tightly-curled hair, and physically resemble the Semang of the Malay Peninsula and the Aeta of the Philippines. The Andamanese, Semang, and Aeta are probably descendants of a people who were more widespread in Southeast Asia before they were displaced or assimilated by the ancestors of today’s Austronesian-speakers.

Their antiquity is attested by the remains found in their kitchen-middens. These are of great age, and rise sometimes to a height exceeding 5 metres. The fossil shells, pottery and primitive stone implements, found alike at the base and at the surface of these middens, show that the habits of the islanders have varied little since the remote past, and lead to the belief that the Andamans were settled by their present inhabitants some time during the Pleistocene period, and certainly no later than the Neolithic age. The oldest archaeological evidence for occupation yet obtained is dated to 2,200 years ago; however, the investigations which have been made are not extensive, and it is most likely that much earlier dates will be attested.

The Andamans may have been linked to Myanmar by a land bridge during the ice ages, and it is possible that the ancestors of the Andamanese reached the islands without crossing the sea. Whether an original sea-crossing was required or not, linguistic and genetic studies indicate that the Andamanese peoples have lived in almost complete isolation for 30,000 to 70,000 years. For example, a report in the journal “Science” [Vol 308, Issue 5724, 996, 13 May 2005] by Thangaraj et al. identifies M31 and M32 mtDNA types among indigenous Andamanese, which show that these populations became genetically isolated about 50,000 to 70,000 years ago, apparently after their initial migration from Africa.

The indigenous Andamanese spoke several related languages, the Andamanese languages, a distinct language family unrelated to languages found outside the islands. Of the 13 languages spoken at the beginning of the century, nine are now extinct. The extinct languages were spoken on Great Andaman, and the Great Andamanese now mostly speak Hindi. The Jarawa, Önge, and Sentinelese mostly speak their own languages, and limit their contact with outsiders.

The earliest European notice of the Andamanese is in a remarkable collection of early Arab notes on India and China from the year 851 which influenced the view of this people until modern times. The traditional charge of cannibalism has been very persistent; but it is entirely denied by the islanders themselves, and is now and probably always has been untrue. Of their massacres of shipwrecked crews, there is no doubt, but that the policy of conciliation has secured a friendly reception for shipwrecked crews at any port of the islands.

The historic population of the islands is difficult to estimate, but it has probably always been small. The estimated total at a census taken in 1901 was only 2,000. Though all descended from one stock, there are twelve distinct tribes of the Andamanese, each with its own clearly-defined locality, its own distinct variety of the one fundamental language and to a certain extent its own separate habits. Every tribe is divided into fairly well defined septs. The tribal feeling may be expressed as friendly within the tribe, courteous to other Andamanese if known, hostile to every stranger, Andamanese or other.