The Wind in the Bamboo

Edith Mirante

Orchid Press, 308 pages,RS.600

Historically defined as “Negrito” because of a perceived physical resemblance to small Africans, these hunter-gatherers may have the most ancient ancestry in Asia. Nearly exterminated by disease and a cataclysmic volcanic eruption, they now survive only in India’s Andaman Islands, the forests of Malaysia, and in the Philippines. Some are armed with spears and blowpipes, a few with mobile phones and graduate degrees. Edith Mirante reveals the story of the “Negrito” peoples through a compelling Chatwinesque narrative of journeys into their remaining lands.