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
pattern.
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.
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.
The
only distinct ethnic minority is found in Male among
the trading community of Indians,
who settled there in the 1800s. Several hundred
in number, they are also a religious minority, belonging
to the Shia branch of Islam. In addition, a small
number of Sri
Lankans have come to Maldives
in recent years to work in the tourist resorts because
Maldivians, as devout Muslims, refuse to work in
facilities serving alcoholic beverages. This situation
has created some resentment on the part of local
Maldivians facing unemployment.
The
language Maldivian
Dhivehi
belongs to the Indo-European
language family. Derived from Elu, an archaic
form of Sinhalese
(the language of Sri
Lanka), it has numerous loanwords from Arabic,
from Hindi--which is used in trade with
Indian merchants- -and from Tamil. It has contributed
one word, "atoll," to international usage.
In Dhivehi, the numbers from one to twelve are of
Sinhalese
origin, and after twelve, Hindi. The names of the
days are Sinhalese and Hindi. The names of persons
are Arabic.
Dhivehi
is spoken throughout the atolls.
Dialect differences are pronounced in the four southernmost
atolls, however. The traditional script, Thaana,
is written from right to left. This locally invented
script contains twenty-four letters, the first nine
of which are forms of the Arabic numerals. In 1977
a romanized script was introduced to be used along
with Thaana for official correspondence, but since
1979 the requirement is no longer mandatory.
