Vedda

see also: Etymology of Vedda

The Vedda or Wanniyala-Aetto are people Indigène Sri Lanka, ethniquement and linguistically connected to the Singhalais.

The culture of these hunters-gatherers is in the process of disappearance because of their Cultural assimilation and the destruction of their natural environment. Their population is estimated of a few hundreds at a few thousands of individuals. They practice a religion mixing the Animisme and the Bouddhisme.

Until recently, Wanniyala-Aetto lived in their forest, where they drove out the stag, wild boar and other animals as well as birds, and where they collected honey, fruits and nuts. They practiced also a form of Agriculture on denshering, clearing in the forest of small small holdings called “chenas” to plant there cereals, vegetables and tubers. The families moved from one piece to another each year, turning over to the same place all the seven or eight years. Today, Wanniyala-Aetto live in villages outside the forest. They cannot practice the “chena any more” and do not have any more but small small holdings where to cultivate rice and vegetables and to raise cattle and goats. Those which still drive out and collect in the forest risk arrest and violences, but however much continue to do it. Others are employed on the grounds of the colonists cingalais or carry out dances and sell babioles to the tourists. Certain women work as servants in the Middle East.

In the years 1950, the government of Sri Lanka opened the territory of Wannyala-Aetto to the colonists cingalais. The forests were shaven with the bulldozer, the flooded hunting grounds and from the thousands of colonists came to settle. In 1983, the last forest refuge of Wanniyala-Aetto became the national park of Maduru Oya and its inhabitants were moved in governmental villages, with prohibition to turn over in the forest without authorization. One also prohibited hunting and the gathering to them. The transition towards this novel mode from life did not go without difficulty and of many families just manage to produce enough food on the small pieces granted by the government. The children are educated in the language and the religion of the dominant population cingalaise. Alcoholism and mental diseases are currency in these new communities. From 1998, some men obtained gathering and hunting permits on a small portion of their forest, but those which do not have a license continue to risk fines and imprisonment if they are discovered. These last years, three Wanniyala-Aetto, all holders of a license, were cut down by guards of the park. Many Wanniyala-Aetto wish to turn over on their ground of Maduru Oya.

Anthropology

The " term; veddoïde" is used to indicate a whole of groups of Southeast Asia which seems to be the populations Indigène S of the area, before the arrival, quite posterior, of the people of austroasiatic Langues and austronésiennes.

One arranges in particular in this unit the populations called Négritos.

External bond

Vedda.org

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