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I've been reading a lot about the history of the Andaman Islands recently, and it's grim stuff. The Andaman Islanders are the oldest distinct ethnic group on Earth- they have inhabited the islands (in the Bay of Bengal) for around 60,000 years- but they're on the verge of extinction. The diseases of the developed world, exploitation, genocidal policies, ethnic cleansing and diseases have already wiped out one group, and the others are in desperate states.
However there is one exception- the Sentineli people. Unlike all the other groups in the Andamans, they appear to be completely unchanged- a genuine Stone Age people surviving in the modern age. The reason for their survival is very simple and very effective- their philosophy regarding absolutely everything not part of their life on North Sentinel Island can be accurately summed up as "**** off, or we'll kill you."
Attempts to make "friendly contact" with the Sentineli get met with obscene gestures and volleys of arrows. It was feared they'd been wiped out by the 2004 tsunami, but the helicopter checking the island was met by a large Sentineli man firing arrows at it. The last contact with them was in 2006 when two fishermen illegal fishing close to North Sentinel Island were promptly killed.
There's an excellent guide to the Andaman people, including the Sentineli, here- http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/chapter8....htm#sentineli
I'm quietly confident that thousands of years from now, after our own civilisation has collapsed and passed, the Sentineli will still be there. Friendly contact with the modern world is the ruin of primitive tribes.
So, is hostility the best response to encroachment from modern humanity? And, if it is, what does that tell us about us modern humans?
However there is one exception- the Sentineli people. Unlike all the other groups in the Andamans, they appear to be completely unchanged- a genuine Stone Age people surviving in the modern age. The reason for their survival is very simple and very effective- their philosophy regarding absolutely everything not part of their life on North Sentinel Island can be accurately summed up as "**** off, or we'll kill you."
Attempts to make "friendly contact" with the Sentineli get met with obscene gestures and volleys of arrows. It was feared they'd been wiped out by the 2004 tsunami, but the helicopter checking the island was met by a large Sentineli man firing arrows at it. The last contact with them was in 2006 when two fishermen illegal fishing close to North Sentinel Island were promptly killed.
There's an excellent guide to the Andaman people, including the Sentineli, here- http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/chapter8....htm#sentineli
I'm quietly confident that thousands of years from now, after our own civilisation has collapsed and passed, the Sentineli will still be there. Friendly contact with the modern world is the ruin of primitive tribes.
So, is hostility the best response to encroachment from modern humanity? And, if it is, what does that tell us about us modern humans?
If we had any reason to believe there was oil there, those folks would be gone in a heartbeat.
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