Yesterday , the world was astound to hear about thedeath of John Chau , the young American missionary whose misguided effort resulted in him being killed by one of the populace ’s most stranded tribal groups , the Sentinelese .
In continue with their wishes to be leave alone , very few people have ever occur into contact with these multitude and much of their civilisation remains a mystery . Nevertheless , thanks to the valorous work of indigenous human rights groups , such asSurvival International , we have some penetration into what this biotic community is about .
The Sentinelese live on North Sentinel Island , a Manhattan - sized chunk of land found in the Bay of Bengal between India and Myanmar , not far from the Amerindic union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands . It ’s illegal to go within five nautical miles of the island under Indian law , primarily to respect their traditional way of life and protect them from outsider disease to which they have no immunity . In hypothesis , a relatively harmless illness from the urbanized earth could unleash a ruinous epidemic on the whole island as their immune systems have never come into contact with the pathogen .
As people living in the industrialized mankind , we would call their culture a “ hunter - gatherer lifestyle , ” although that definition comes with some assumptions from Western culture . It ’s thought this community has lived here for around 55,000 to 60,000 twelvemonth .
Their terminology is astonishingly dissimilar from other grouping live on nearby island , like the Andaman Islands , suggest they have lived in closing off for hundreds , if not thousands , of years . A genetical studyof the Andaman Islanders suggested that they are most likely direct posterity of the first hoi polloi who settled in Southeast Asia during the early Palaeolithic .
TheCensus of India 2011estimated that just 15 the great unwashed hold out on the North Sentinel Island . However , that image could be anywhere from 15 to 200 citizenry . Using reports from the great unwashed who have observed the island from afar in a gravy boat , investigator conceive that the islander experience in three small bands . Their settlement are made up of two dissimilar case of business firm : big communal huts and more temporary shelters with no walls .
Aside from the scourge of disease and esteem for their culture , there is another very good intellect the Sentinelese ostracize any outers – the industrialized world has shown them nothing but heartache so far .
Towards the end of the 19th century , colonialist naval officer Maurice Vidal Portman made contact with a smattering of several Andamanese folk in the Bay of Bengal . According toSurvival International , his party abduct an elderly mates and some tyke from North Sentinel Island in the “ interest of science . ” He brought them back to Port Blair , the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands , where many of them promptly fell sick and die from infective diseases . Some Sentinelese tike were return to the island , most potential themselves harboring infectious diseases they picked up from their brief stay in the remote world .
From the 1970s until 1996 , Indian authorities made a number of trip to the island in a peaceful , if not uninstructed , set about to establish contact with the Sentinelese . After protests by indigenous rights groups and local supporters , these contact trips have officially stop .
The fate of other indigenous tribal groups in the nearby Andaman Islands also dish up as a horrific example as to why the Sentinelese resist any contact with the outside domain . Over the past X , indigenous rights groupsdocumented go operator selling “ human safaris ” to the taciturnity of the recently - contacted Jarawa clan . The roads of the island became pack full of car and go buses , meanwhile , inside the reserve , tourists were realize throw food at the indigenous people and force female child to dance while filming on camcorders . This practice is illegal , but the laws were evidently not being enforced .
