3 Review(s)

-The Island of Chowra, very small in size ( 2.8km), has a population of 1400 people which works out to 500 persons per square mile, the highest both in Andaman and Nicobar groups of islands. Despite these two factors the Chowra Island has an important position in the Nicobar Archipelago. It controls the entire inter island trade in the Nicobar group of islands. The author examines how with very limited resources and high density of population the Island carries on a lucrative traffic and the thus able to sustain its population which is not small considering the size of the island. Rejecting the unscientific explanation that the Chowra Island lorded over the islands of the Nicobar Archipelago by their skill in witchcraft and sorcery, the author attempts to find the correct answer by undertaking a scientific inquiry into the cultural ecology of the islanders. To do so he examines, first of all, the patten of community life. The author's induiry reveals that the social structure of the Chowra Island is flexible enough to to allow the islanders to be highly adaptive, and the two constrains scarsity and high density of population do not act as a drag on their economic activity.