In a world of rapid urbanization, we often assume there are no tribes left isolated without external contact on Earth. But the Sentinelese people who inhabit the tiny island of North Sentinel that is part of the Andaman group of islands in the Bay of Bengal are living proof to the contrary.In a world of rapid urbanization, we often assume there are no tribes left isolated without external contact on Earth. But the Sentinelese people who inhabit the tiny island of North Sentinel that is part of the Andaman group of islands in the Bay of Bengal are living proof to the contrary.
According to an article from Atlas Obscura the Sentinelese tribe is considered to be one of the oldest tribes in the world.
Where is the Tribe’s Orgain
Perhaps no people on Earth remain more genuinely isolated than the Sentinelese. They are thought to be directly descended from the first human populations to emerge from Africa, and have probably lived in the Andaman Islands for up to 60,000 years. The fact that their language is so different even from other Andaman islanders suggests that they have had little contact with other people for thousands of years. This does not mean, however, that they live just as they did 60,000 years ago. Commonly described, for instance, as belonging to the ‘Stone Age’, they do in fact make tools and weapons from metal, which they recover from ships wrecked on the island’s reefs.
How Many People From the Tribe are Still Alive Today
Believed to number anywhere from 50 to 400, the Sentinelese have lived in isolation on the island for 60,000 years, resisting attempts by authorities and anthropologists to study their culture and integrate them into the modern world. And when someone wanders to their island, like it happened for two fishermen on January 26, 2006, they relentlessly murder them. So protective are the Sentinelese of their territory that an Indian coastguard helicopter that attempted to retrieve the fishermen’s bodies (they had been tossed into shallow beach graves after their killing) was greeted by a volley of arrows from the tribesmen that prevented the craft from landing.
What Do the People Eat
Their diet consists mainly of coconuts and fish that can be found in the shallow waters around their shores. Based on observational data, they are hunter-gatherers, as agriculture is not known to them. Their meat consists of turtles and small birds found on the North Sentinel Island.
Is the Tribe Healthy
The islanders are clearly extremely healthy, alert and thriving, in marked contrast to the two Andaman tribes who have ‘benefited’ from Western civilization, the Onge and the Great Andamanese, whose numbers have crashed and who are now largely dependent on state handouts just to survive. Pressure from Survival and other organisations has led the Indian government to alter its policy towards the Sentinelese, from attempting to make contact, to recognising that similar policies have proved disastrous for other Andaman tribes, and accepting that they have the right to decide for themselves how they wish to live. Underpinning this shift is the simple acknowledgment that the people themselves are best placed to decide what is in their own interests.
Why Is the Tribe Considered to be “Stone Age People”
If not for their metal-tipped arrows carved from hulls of wrecked ships, the Sentinelese would be described as Stone Age people. For instance, Sentinel canoes are constructed to fish in only shallow water. New Delhi has deliberately carried out little development in much of the tribal area, intending to preserve the culture of the tribes people and for fear that bacterial contamination may cause their extinction. As of now, the Sentinelese will be left to the isolation they had so vigorously defended over many centuries.
Question: What makes this tribe so different from everyone else?
