The
Divehi people are also known as Maldivians
or Maldive Islanders. The Maldivians call their own
country ‘Divehi rajje’, meaning ‘The
Island Kingdom’. The word ‘Divehi’
is derived from ‘dvip’, the Sanskrit
word for ‘island’. This ancient word for
‘island’ is also present in the word ‘dives’
of ‘Maldives’, the official name of the
country in the English
language. Many geographical names of islands in Maldives
include that word for island in the form of ‘du’
at the end, like Hitadu or Fokaidu. The Divehi people
live mainly in the Maldive Islands and they presently
number about 300,000; although exact demographic data
are not available.
| For
ethnographic and linguistic purposes the Divehi
people can be divided into three groups:
The
main group of Maldivians,
numbering about 230,000, inhabits the numerous
atolls stretching from Ihavandippu!u (Haa Alif)
to Haddummati (Laamu). They constitute over
70% of the total population.
The southern group of Maldivians, living in
the three southernmost atolls of the equatorial
zone, number approximately 60,000 and constitute
about 20% of the total population.
The
people of Minicoy, numbering about 10,000, inhabit
a 10km long island under Indian administration,
at the northern end of the atoll chain and are
only about 4% of the total amount of Divehi
people.
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The
language spoken in the Maldives is Divehi, belonging
to the group of Indo-Aryan languages, but having many
affinities with the Dravidian languages of the geographical
area in which the country lies. Present-day Divehi
has borrowed many words from Arabic. Besides the main
form of Divehi, known as Malé Bas, this language
has three markedly different variants which are located
in the second group, in the South. The people of the
third group live in great isolation, for Minicoy is
totally off-limits for Maldivians since 1957. Only
Indians are allowed to travel to Minicoy. Thus, Minicoians
are steadily undergoing a process of acculturation
owing to lack of contact with the remaining Divehi
people and pressure to use other languages (Malayalam,
English and Hindi).
Economical
Activities
The major occupation of Maldivians
is fishing. Most of the people live in small villages
in islands where water is available. Villages consist
of clusters of compounds containing dwellings, small
vegetable gardens, and some trees (usually coconut
and breadfruit). The soil is sandy and not very fertile.
The only form of agriculture practiced is subsistence
agriculture. Some of the largest islands produce taro,
cassava, millet and sorghum. Other small crops are
bananas, papayas, drumstick, and a few other fruit
and vegetable varieties.
Social
Hierarchies
Formerly there was a caste division in Maldives, the
lowest caste in the hierarchy being the raveri or
palm-sap tappers. But caste divisions in Maldives
were never as prevalent as in the neighboring countries.
Instead of a complex caste system, like the Vedic
one, in Maldives greater importance was attached to
mark the division between the nobles (beìfu?un)
and the common people in society. Presently all traditional
distinctions have disappeared and there are no marriage
barriers in the Maldive sociological patter, read
more..........
The contemporary homogeneous mixture of Sinhalese,
Dravidian,
Arab, Australasian,
and African
ethnicity in Maldives results from historical changes
in regional hegemony over marine trade routes. Clarence
Maloney, an anthropologist who conducted fieldwork
in Maldives in the 1970s, determined that an early
Dravidian-speaking substratum of population from Kerala
in India
had settled in the islands, leaving its legacy
in the language and place-names. This group was subsequently
displaced by Dhivehi-speakers who arrived from Sri
Lanka and whose language became the official one.
Arabs compose the last main group to arrive beginning
in the ninth century. However, a rapidly disappearing
endogamous subgroup of persons of African origin called
the Ravare or Giraavaru also existed. In 1970, facing
the loss of their home island in Male Atoll because
of erosion, the Ravare moved to Hulele. But a few
years later, the community of 200 people were transferred
to Male to permit the expansion of the airport on
Hulele
