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Conley
07-06-2011, 02:19 PM
"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).

http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=2889002ad89d45ca21f50ba46&id=92b2caa4e8

Pretty wild, literally!

Mister D
07-06-2011, 02:26 PM
Interesting stuff. yeahy, India has some remote populations. Sri Lanka I believe has a few.

Conley
07-06-2011, 02:31 PM
i have no idea how they could have survived that tsunami...they must have been largely devastated

Mister D
07-06-2011, 02:32 PM
i have no idea how they could have survived that tsunami...they must have been largely devastated


But they've got nothing relatively speaking. I guess that might help.

Conley
07-06-2011, 02:39 PM
i have no idea how they could have survived that tsunami...they must have been largely devastated


But they've got nothing relatively speaking. I guess that might help.


I mean I would think they would all get swept out to sea; couldn't see their huts surviving. I don't know how the ecosystem works, but if all the fish are killed and flora like coconuts swept out to sea, those that didn't drown would also be facing starvation. I guess if they've been there for 60k years they might have some traditions for this sort of thing in case of emergency, such as food storage / hoards. there's no way they could have known what was coming.

Mister D
07-06-2011, 02:50 PM
i have no idea how they could have survived that tsunami...they must have been largely devastated


But they've got nothing relatively speaking. I guess that might help.


I mean I would think they would all get swept out to sea; couldn't see their huts surviving. I don't know how the ecosystem works, but if all the fish are killed and flora like coconuts swept out to sea, those that didn't drown would also be facing starvation. I guess if they've been there for 60k years they might have some traditions for this sort of thing in case of emergency, such as food storage / hoards. there's no way they could have known what was coming.


Could be a big island. Sri Lanka is huge.

As per Wiki it's 72 square km. Maybe it's geographical position helped it out as well.

MMC
07-06-2011, 05:14 PM
Also many could have left and sailed away from the storm too.....just like the Polynesians.