There are very few truly uncontacted peoples left in the world — that is, people who have never been colonized or settled or had their mineral rights exploited, who know virtually nothing of the outside world, and about whom the outside world knows virtually nothing. One of these communities live on North Sentinel island, at the tip of the Andaman archipelago between India and Malaysia to the east. Protected by jagged reefs, rough seas and a reputation for shooting outsiders with arrows, there have been relatively few serious attempts to contact the Sentinalese. Those that have been made have failed; even gifts and peaceful offerings left onshore by anthropologists and Indian government officials have been answered with a hail of arrows. When one such landing party actually made it to shore, the islanders simply vanished, seeming to melt into the jungle.
Since the late 90s, the official policy of the Indian government has been to leave the Sentinalese alone. Still, that hasn’t stopped accidental run-ins from occurring; back in 2006, a boat carrying two fisherman accidentally drifted into the shallows of North Sentinel, and the fishermen were killed. When a helicopter was dispatched to retrieve the bodies from the beach, the islanders chased it away with arrows.
Here’s what we know:
There are between 50 and 200 of them.
They don’t have writing.
They don’t know how to make fire; observations made by landing parties in deserted villages have concluded that the Sentinelese wait for lightning strikes, then keep the resulting embers burning as long as they can.
We know nothing of their language.
Videos exist of the Sentinelese, taken by anthropologists from distant vantages. This one consists mostly of footage from the 70s, and features a gift of coconuts being made to the islanders, and the islanders’ response — arrows fired at the anthropologists’ boat, and a great deal of rude dancing and genital-waggling aimed in their direction.
Another isolated Andamanese tribe, the Jarawa, have somewhat recently decided to stop murdering those who attempt to contact them, and in a startling about-face, now seem to love frolicking with the outsiders who come to their beaches to study them.
I, for one, hope the North Sentinelese remain “uncontacted” and more or less unknown for as long as possible.
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Look! A solution for all the people who get severely depressed because they want to live on Pandora after watching Avatar…apparently an epidemic according to CNN. Somehow I doubt they’d really be willing to live like these people after living like us Westerners for so long…
BUT, that’s more commenting on us than the people in the article, so: What fascinating people groups! Thanks for sharing.
posted by Nicole on 2-16-2010 at 9:34 am
FAIL
‘I, for one, hope the North Sentinelese remain “uncontacted†and more or less unknown for as long as possible.’
Too bad you just blogged about it!
posted by ygtbkm on 2-16-2010 at 9:45 am
FAIL???
ygtbkm – Are you worried that because of a blog entry someone will try to contact them, or do you think the North Sentinelese have Internet and will read about it and post a reply?
posted by Mag on 2-16-2010 at 10:06 am
There nothing like a bunch of savages to make me appreciate all the good parts of western civilization.
posted by Dan on 2-16-2010 at 10:25 am
Maybe they really hate coconuts?
Leave them alone. Their culture is far older than ours, and maybe in the great scheme of things the most true civilization in existence.
posted by dbus on 2-16-2010 at 10:31 am
ugh!
ugh ugh!
*genitalia waggling*
posted by Ugh on 2-16-2010 at 10:45 am
Makes me think of the Indiana Jones scene where the fool waves his sword around, and Indiana’s response is to just shoot the fool. All it takes is one on-target shot to teach a bunch of savages who’s on top of the food chain.
posted by Bubba on 2-16-2010 at 12:11 pm
This is fascinating. Makes me wonder, how do we know they don’t have writing if the closest we can get is the shoreline?
In any case, very interesting. Says something about our true nature as humans- is it fear that makes them react like that to outsiders?
posted by Atticus on 2-16-2010 at 1:46 pm
Wow…people in western civilizations still use the word “savages”? I hope Bubba and Dan are just trying to make some kind of stupid joke and aren’t really THAT ignorant and insensitive.
posted by Fruppi on 2-16-2010 at 2:16 pm
“in the great scheme of things the most true civilization in existence.”
That doesn’t make any sense at all… An interesting study in what happens to groups of humans that are separated from any other groups for long periods of time, yes, but the interactions between cultures is one of the big things that makes us human. They aren’t noble because they kill anyone that comes near them, they are savage and a walking talking hyperbole of racism if you think about it.
I’m not saying that they need to be forcefully colonized or anything like that, but there isn’t anything inherently noble about a group that has been left alone because they kill anyone that gets close to their island.
Never mind that if there are 50-200 of them they have to be heavily inbred. That could have something to do with their aggressiveness.
posted by Troy H. on 2-16-2010 at 2:40 pm
I think anyone who uses the word “fail” to describe something they don’t happen to agree with fails…
posted by Wayne on 2-16-2010 at 2:48 pm
They better just pray to whatever god they worship that oil is never discovered on their island!
posted by RJ on 2-16-2010 at 2:49 pm
My favorite quote from Bill Watterson (of Calvin and Hobbs fame) goes like this: “The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us.”
I think we can apply that right here. Turning away western civilization consumerism may be an indication that these are the smartest folks on the face of the Earth.
posted by Emma on 2-16-2010 at 2:53 pm
Maybe they’re just afraid outsiders will make the smoke monster mad. ;-)
posted by Kay on 2-16-2010 at 2:56 pm
i admire their agreesive resistance to outside intereference and share the writer’s feelings about them remaining untouched. they also seem to shatter the silly myth of the “noble savage” we’ve been force fed for so many years…
posted by brian on 2-16-2010 at 3:15 pm
They can’t exactly be the smartest people on the planet if they can’t create their own fire.
Who are “folks” is that us? You, me???
It’s such a folksy word…
posted by Todd on 2-16-2010 at 3:16 pm
@Fruppi
Wait it’s insensitive for me to be ashamed of a group of people that are a disgrace to humanity? They are savages, fearing the unknown, and any of the wonders both good and bad that it holds. They have no interest in understanding or exploration. Not that Western civilization was much better until the Enlightenment but the idea that these people are living a more pure existence makes me sick. I’ll take John Locke (not from Lost) over sticks and malaria any day.
posted by Dan on 2-16-2010 at 3:29 pm
But did they take the coconuts?
posted by Jina on 2-16-2010 at 4:09 pm
If no one has ever successfully made contact, how do we know so much about them? How do we know that they can’t make fire? Seriously.
posted by LR on 2-16-2010 at 8:14 pm
“When one such landing party actually made it to shore, the islanders simply vanished, seeming to melt into the jungle.”
I should’ve mentioned that that same landing party stuck around for awhile, several days, and checked out their villages — this was like 100 years ago — but the natives avoided them the whole time and they saw no one. Every village deserted. So that’s how we know what little we know about how they live.
posted by Ransom Riggs on 2-16-2010 at 9:18 pm
“All it takes is one on-target shot to teach a bunch of savages who’s on top of the food chain.”
WOW. How’s life as a cannibal? You gettin’ enough exercise? Go easy or you might get Kuru.
posted by bigfatmeanie on 2-17-2010 at 12:27 am
Dan, you’re disgusting. This is exactly what’s wrong with the Western World. I am ashamed to be a part of it.
posted by Bakedpotatoes on 2-19-2010 at 12:53 am
“Wait it’s insensitive for me to be ashamed of a group of people that are a disgrace to humanity?”
Not really, but what on earth do Republicans have to do with this post?
posted by Jane Of The Jungle on 2-21-2010 at 5:14 am
Did you know that if you go on google maps and zoom in on the North West corner of North Sentinel Island you can see a shipwrecked boat? Maybe of the two murdered fishermen…
posted by StarlightJuliet on 2-27-2010 at 1:28 pm
@StarlightJuliet:
The shipwreck in the northwest reef of North Sentinel Island is that of the Primrose, which ran aground on August 2, 1981. More details can be found here: http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/reprints/goodheart/rep-goodheart.htm
photos: http://www.eternalidol.com/?p=8593
posted by interested?interested? on 3-20-2011 at 1:46 am