Isolation for the win!

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
27,730
8
0
http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=2889002ad89d45ca21f50ba46&id=92b2caa4e8

The part of the Indian Ocean escapsulated by the eastern shore of India and the shores of Bangladesh and Myanmar (Burma) is called the Bay of Bengal (map). The eastern edge of the Bay of Bengal is defined as a set of islands called the Andaman Islands, an archipelago, most of which are under control of India. North Sentinel Island, a small dot of land, is part of the Andaman Islands. North Sentinel Island is set just west of the larger islands in the group, as seen as the red area in the map at the right. (For further context, the island is flagged on the map here -- be sure to zoom in.)

Between 50 and 400 people are estimated to live on North Sentinel Island. These people, known as the Sentinelese, are perhaps the most isolated people in the world and are believed to be pre-Neolithic -- literally, technologically in the Stone Age. By and large, the Sentinelese have gone uncontacted by outsiders for centuries if not millenia -- in part because the Sentinelese do not take kindly to visitors.

In 1967, Indian authorities began their first meaningful attempt to engage the Sentinelese by leaving coconuts as gifts on the island's shores. While some progress was made over the course of a few decades, the quality and quantity of contact was minimal at best. Seven years later, antrhropologist Trilokinath Pandit and a film crew attempted to woo the Sentinelese into friendly contact with gifts, such as fruit, a pig, some toys, and pots and pans. The result was not positive: a film director was shot in the thigh with an arrow. In the 1990s, India cut off its permission for these anthropological endeavors, citing risks seen in contacting other uncontacted tribes as well as the fear of introducing diseases from mainland India to the Sentinelese people, whose physiologies almost certainly would be ill prepared to recover from.

More recent events strongly buttresses that this decision to cut off hopes of contact is just fine with the Sentinelese. In 2006, a pair of fishermen were plying their trade, illegally, off North Sentinel Island's shore. Sentinelese archers killed the fishermen. When a helicopter came to recover the bodies, the helicopter too was met with a hail of arrows, and retreated before fulfilling its mission.

What do we know about the Sentinelese? Understandibly, very little. They live in huts and are hunter-gatherers, employing the use of javelins, bows and arrows, and harpoons. They speak a language unique to them (also called, by outsiders, "Sentinelese") which we have no way of translating. The Sentinelese appear to use pig skulls as ornaments of some sort, and have employed the use of red dye in both clothing and what is best guessed to be decoration.

And that, unfortunately, is all we may ever learn. As India has given up almost all hope of making further contact with the Sentinelese, these people are considered autonomous and, in a very real sense, the most isolated people on the planet. It seems like a matter of time before they and their culture die off, becoming a historical footnote. On the other hand, the Sentinelese are resilient -- some estimate that they have lived on North Sentinel Island for 60,000 years, and in any event, the Sentinelese somehow survived the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 (which probably hit the island).

Bonus fact: Just south of Newfoundland, Canada, are a group of eight small islands collectively known as Saint Pierre and Miquelon. Roughly 7,000 people live there, and no -- they're not aborigines. They're not Canadians, either. They're French citizens, inhabiting the only remaining part of New France (the North American colonies of France) which are still under French control. While the islands use the Canadian dollar informally, the official currency is the Euro.

Thought it was interesting. Show up with some guns, pop a few --> Godhood.
 

gevorg

Diamond Member
Nov 3, 2004
5,070
1
0
Is it really that hard to stealthy place a few cameras around the island to study them? With zoom microphones, wide angle lens, etc. Or the Indian military cannot find a way to go unnoticed around the almighty Sentinelese archers.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,864
31,359
146
They managed to survive a tsunami that probably put the entire island under water.

permanence is harder to escape than a temporary situation.


Though theories say they may have been around for 60k years? that's some serious fucking global climate change for a culture to have survived--though, I believe they are too far south to have been terribly affected by the last ice ages.

And it's always possible that they can attempt to migrate if things get really bad. But if truly neolithic, this means they probably can't build boats to cross even the shortest distance off that island?
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,864
31,359
146
Is it really that hard to stealthy place a few cameras around the island to study them? With zoom microphones, wide angle lens, etc. Or the Indian military cannot find a way to go unnoticed around the almighty Sentinelese archers.

as mentioned, no one wants to spread disease that would almost surely wipe them out. It doesn't take much presence for that to happen. Vectors, like small mammals birds or pigs (prolly no pigs on that island, though) could transfer from human to human.
 

khon

Golden Member
Jun 8, 2010
1,318
124
106
It's kinda amazing to me that they've managed to remain so isolated. They're only like 20 miles from modern civilization on the Andaman Islands.

I mean they can probably see it from where they are, and surely they can manage to build some sort of boat/flotation device that can transport them this short distance ?

They must have some sort of religion that deems all outsiders evil, otherwise I can't see how they'd remain so isolated.
 

Tsavo

Platinum Member
Sep 29, 2009
2,645
37
91
These folks are a threat to national security. It's clear we need to send over 37 carrier groups and invade them, then abduct them all and force them all to be TSA agents.
 

fire400

Diamond Member
Nov 21, 2005
5,204
21
81
When a helicopter came to recover the bodies, the helicopter too was met with a hail of arrows, and retreated before fulfilling its mission.

-they are making history...
 

96Firebird

Diamond Member
Nov 8, 2010
5,743
340
126
This is the first I've heard of the fishermen being killed. The photos from the helicopter were taken when the Indian government went to see if they were still alive after the tsunami in 2004. And the people in the northern part of the South Andaman Island have recently been contacted when the road going through the island was built.
 
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Saint Nick

Lifer
Jan 21, 2005
17,722
6
81
This shit just makes me sick. How can these people be such savages to kill some lowly fisherman out doing what was probably their way to make ends meet...what horrible people.

I say bomb the island and show them what America is all about. Explosives, violence, and sex.
 

Schadenfroh

Elite Member
Mar 8, 2003
38,416
4
0
It seems that anthropologists violated the prime directive...

I feel a strange need to introduce guns, distilled spirits, gambling and capitalism to this place.



What would happen if geologists determined that a massive oil reserve existed underneath tribal land?
 

SlitheryDee

Lifer
Feb 2, 2005
17,252
19
81
They're protecting their technological secrets. The bow wielding natives are just a cover for the advanced civilization buried under the island.
 

Schadenfroh

Elite Member
Mar 8, 2003
38,416
4
0
They're protecting their technological secrets. The bow wielding natives are just a cover for the advanced civilization buried under the island.

Think they are the last surviving members of the Reptoids (using a cloaking device / costumes)?
 

illusion88

Lifer
Oct 2, 2001
13,164
3
81
It seems that anthropologists violated the prime directive...

I feel a strange need to introduce guns, distilled spirits, gambling and capitalism to this place.



What would happen if geologists determined that a massive oil reserve existed underneath tribal land?

Avatar 2
 

Schadenfroh

Elite Member
Mar 8, 2003
38,416
4
0
Body armour + ar15 = god
I'm packing right now

Your only entertainment will likely be blood sports, sex (with women of unknown appearance) and songs (not sure if they have instruments).

No ATOT, no internet, no TV, no WoW D:
 

mmntech

Lifer
Sep 20, 2007
17,501
12
0
Why not just conquer them Spanish style. Nobody is ever up for a good conquest anymore. :p