Sentinelese

Last updated

Sentinelese
Total population
35–500
Regions with significant populations
North Sentinel Island, India
Languages
Sentinelese (presumed)
Religion
Animism [1]
Related ethnic groups
Possibly Jarawa or Onge
India relief location map.jpg
Red pog.svg
North Sentinel Island
North Sentinel Island (India)
India Andaman and Nicobar Islands relief map.png
Red pog.svg
North Sentinel Island
North Sentinel Island (Andaman and Nicobar Islands)
Aerial photograph of North Sentinel Island Gallery-1491391768-north-sentinel-island.jpg
Aerial photograph of North Sentinel Island

The Sentinelese, also known as the Sentineli and the North Sentinel Islanders, are an indigenous people who inhabit North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal in the northeastern Indian Ocean. Designated a particularly vulnerable tribal group and a Scheduled Tribe, they belong to the broader class of Andamanese peoples.

Contents

Along with the Great Andamanese, the Jarawas, the Onge, the Shompen, and the Nicobarese, the Sentinelese are one of the six native and often reclusive peoples of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The tribe has had minimal contact with outsiders and has usually been hostile to those who approach or land on the island. [2] While friendly contact was reported in the early 1990s, such instances are rare. [3]

In 1956, the government of India declared North Sentinel Island a tribal reserve and prohibited travel within 3 nautical miles (5.6 kilometres) of it. It further maintains a constant armed patrol in the surrounding waters to prevent intrusions by outsiders. [4] Photography is prohibited. There is significant uncertainty as to the group's size, with estimates ranging between 35 and 500 individuals, but mostly between 50 and 200.

Overview

Geography

The Sentinelese live on North Sentinel Island, [a] in the Andaman Islands, an Indian archipelago in the Bay of Bengal. [6] [7] The island lies about 64 km (35 nmi) west of Andaman capital Port Blair. [8] It has an area of about 59.67 km2 (14,740 acres) and a roughly square outline. [9] [8] The seashore is about 45 m (50 yd) wide, bordered by a littoral forest that gives way to a dense tropical evergreen forest. [8] The island is surrounded by coral reefs and has a tropical climate. [8]

Appearance

Comparative distributions of Andamanese indigenous peoples, early 1800s vs. 2004 Andamanese comparative distribution.png
Comparative distributions of Andamanese indigenous peoples, early 1800s vs. 2004

A 1977 report by Heinrich Harrer described a man as 1.60 metres (5 ft 3 in) tall, possibly because of insular dwarfism (the so-called "Island Effect"), nutrition, or simply genetic heritage. [10] During a 2014 circumnavigation of their island, researchers put their height between 1.60 and 1.65 m (5 ft 3 in and 5 ft 5 in) and recorded their skin colour as "dark, shining black" with well-aligned teeth. They showed no signs of obesity and had very prominent muscles. [11]

Population

No rigorous census has been conducted [8] and the population has been variously estimated to be as low as 15[ dubious – discuss ] or as high as 500. Most estimates lie between 50 and 200. [7] [12] [13] [14]

The 1971 census estimated the population at around 82, and the 1981 census at 100. [8] A 1986 expedition recorded the highest count, 98. [8] In 2001, the census of India officially recorded 21 men and 18 women. [15] This survey was conducted from a distance and may not have been accurate. [16] 2004 post-tsunami expeditions recorded counts of 32 and 13 individuals in 2004 and 2005, respectively. [8] The 2011 census of India recorded 12 males and three females. [17] [18] During a 2014 circumnavigation, researchers recorded six females, seven males (all apparently under 40 years old) and three children younger than four. [19] A handbook released in 2016 by the Anthropological Survey of India on "Vulnerable Tribe Groups" estimates the population at between 100 and 150. [8]

Practices

The Sentinelese are hunter-gatherers. They use spears with bows and arrows to hunt terrestrial wildlife and more rudimentary methods to catch local seafood, such as mud crabs and molluscan shells. They are believed to eat many molluscs, given the abundance of roasted shells found in their settlements. [8] They are not known to engage in agriculture. [20] [21] [22] Both sexes wear bark strings[ definition needed ]; the men tuck daggers into their waist belts. [8] They also wear some ornaments such as necklaces and headbands, but are essentially nude. [23] [24] [25] Usual habitations include small temporary huts erected on four poles with slanted leaf-covered roofs. [26]

Sentinelese appreciate the value of metal, having scavenged it to create tools and weapons, and accepted aluminum cookware left by the National Geographic Society in 1974. [12] There is no evidence of them having knowledge of metallurgy outside of cold forging to make tools such as arrow heads, [27] though the Andamanese scholar Vishvajit Pandya notes that Onge narratives often recall voyages by their ancestors to North Sentinel to procure metal. [28] Canoes are used for lagoon-fishing, but long poles rather than paddles or oars propel them. [8] [29] They seldom use the canoes for cross-island navigation. [29] Artistic engravings of simple geometric designs and shade contrasts have been seen on their weapons. [8] The women have been seen to dance by slapping both palms on the thighs whilst simultaneously tapping the feet rhythmically in a bent-knee stance. [8]

Members of an unspecified Andaman tribe fishing c. 1870 Andaman tribals fishing (c. 1870).jpg
Members of an unspecified Andaman tribe fishing c. 1870

Similarities and dissimilarities to the Onge people have been noted. They prepare their food similarly. [30] They share common traits in body decoration and material culture. [5] There are also similarities in the design of their canoes; of all the Andamanese tribes, only the Sentinelese and Onge make canoes. [5] [b] Similarities with the Jarawas have been also noted: their bows have similar patterns. No such marks are found on Onge bows, and both tribes sleep on the ground, while the Onge sleep on raised platforms. [31] The metal arrowheads and adze blades are quite large and heavier than those of other Andamanese tribes. [32] [ clarification needed ]

Language

Because of their complete isolation, nearly nothing is known about the Sentinelese language, which is therefore unclassified. [33] [34] [35] It has been recorded that the Jarawa language is mutually unintelligible with the Sentinelese language. [15] [33] The range of overlap with the Onge language is unknown; [36] the Anthropological Survey of India's 2016 handbook on Vulnerable Tribe Groups considers them mutually unintelligible. [8]

Isolation and uncontacted status

In 1957, the Indian government declared North Sentinel Island a tribal reserve and prohibited travel within 3 nautical miles (5.6 kilometres). [22] [37] [38] Photography was prohibited. [39] A constant armed patrol prevents intrusions by outsiders. [40]

The Sentinelese are a community of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation. Designated a particularly vulnerable tribal group [41] and a Scheduled Tribe, [42] they belong to the broader class of Andamanese people.

Along with the Great Andamanese, the Jarawas, the Onge, the Shompen, and the Nicobarese, the Sentinelese are one of the six native and often reclusive peoples of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. [41] Unlike the others, the Sentinelese appear to have consistently refused any interaction with the outside world. They are hostile to outsiders and have killed people who approached or landed on the island. [43] [44]

History of contacts

The first peaceful contact with the Sentinelese was made by Triloknath Pandit, a director of the Anthropological Survey of India, and his colleagues, on 4 January 1991. Later, contact was made by Madhumala Chattopadhyay. [45] : 288 : 289  [3] Indian visits to the island ceased in 1997. [46] An American, John Allen Chau, was killed in 2018 while visiting the island illegally as a Christian missionary.

Colonial period

In 1771, an East India Company hydrographic survey vessel, the Diligent, observed "a multitude of lights [...] upon the shore" of North Sentinel Island, which is the island's first recorded mention. The crew did not investigate. [23]

During a late summer monsoon in October 1867, the Indian merchant-vessel Nineveh foundered on the reef off North Sentinel. All the passengers and crew reached the beach safely, but as they proceeded for their breakfast on the third day, they were subject to a sudden assault by a group of naked, short-haired, red-painted islanders with arrows that were probably iron-tipped. [23] The captain, who fled in the ship's boat, was found days later by a brig and the Royal Navy sent a rescue party to the island. Upon arrival, the party discovered that the survivors had managed to repel the attackers with sticks and stones and that they had not reappeared. [23]

The first recorded visit to the island by a colonial officer was by Jeremiah Homfray in 1867. He recorded seeing naked islanders catching fish with bows and arrows, and was informed by the Great Andamanese that they were Jarawas. [35] [47] [48]

In 1880, in an effort to establish contact with the Sentinelese, the Royal Navy officer Maurice Vidal Portman, who was serving as a colonial administrator to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, led an armed group of Europeans along with convict-orderlies and Andamanese trackers[ clarification needed ] (whom they had already befriended) to North Sentinel Island. On their arrival, the islanders fled into the treeline. After several days of futile search, during which they found abandoned villages and paths, Portman's men captured six people: an elderly man, a woman and four children. [49] [50] The man and woman died of illness shortly after their arrival in Port Blair and the children began to fall ill as well. Portman hurriedly sent the children back to North Sentinel Island with a large quantity of gifts in an attempt to establish friendly relations. [23] Portman visited the island again in 1883, [35] 1885 and 1887. [48] [ clarification needed ]

Maurice Vidal Portman photographed with Andamanese chiefs in British India. M V Portman.jpg
Maurice Vidal Portman photographed with Andamanese chiefs in British India.

In 1896, a convict escaped from the penal colony on Great Andaman Island on a makeshift raft and drifted across to the North Sentinel beach. His body was discovered by a search party some days later with several arrow-piercings and a cut throat. The party recorded that they did not see any islanders. [23]

In an 1899 speech, Richard Carnac Temple, who was chief commissioner of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands from 1895 to 1904, reported that he had toured North Sentinel island to capture fugitives,[ clarification needed ] but upon landing discovered that they had been killed by the inhabitants, who retreated in haste upon seeing his party approach. [51] Temple also recorded a case where a Sentinelese apparently drifted off to the Onge and fraternized with them over the course of two years. When Temple and Portman accompanied him to the tribe and attempted to establish friendly contact, they did not recognize him and responded aggressively by shooting arrows at the group. The man refused to remain on the island. [51] Portman cast doubt on the exact timespan the Sentinelese spent with the Onge, and believed that he had probably been raised by the Onge since childhood. [35] Temple concluded the Sentinelese were "a tribe which slays every stranger, however inoffensive, on sight, whether a forgotten member of itself, of another Andamanese tribe, or a complete foreigner". [51]

Other British colonial administrators visited the island, including Rogers in 1902, but none of the expeditions after 1880 had any ethnographic purpose, probably because of the island's small size and unfavourable location. [23] M.C.C. Bonnington, a British colonial official, visited the island in 1911 and 1932 to conduct a census. On the first occasion, he came across eight men on the beach and another five in two canoes, who retreated into the forest. The party progressed some miles into the island without facing any hostile response and saw a few huts with slanted roofs. Eventually, failing to find anyone, Bonnington and his men left the island. [52] Notably, the Sentinelese were counted as a standalone group for the first time in the 1911 census. [31]

In 1954, the Italian explorer Lidio Cipriani visited the island but did not encounter any inhabitants. [53]

T. N. Pandit (1967–1991)

In 1967, a group of 20 people, comprising the governor, armed forces and naval personnel, were led by T. N. Pandit, an Indian anthropologist working for the Anthropological Survey of India, to North Sentinel Island to explore it and befriend the Sentinelese. [23] [38] [54] This was the first visit to the island by a professional anthropologist. [8] Through binoculars, the group saw several clusters of Sentinelese along the coastline who retreated into the forest as the team advanced. The team followed their footprints and after about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi), found a group of 18 lean-to huts made from grass and leaves that showed signs of recent occupation as evidenced by the still-burning fires at the corners of the hut. The team also discovered raw honey, skeletal remains of pigs, wild fruits, an adze, a multi-pronged wooden spear, bows, arrows, cane baskets, fishing nets, bamboo pots and wooden buckets. Metal-working was evident. The team failed to establish any contact and withdrew after leaving gifts. [55]

The government was aware that leaving the Sentinelese (and the area) completely isolated and ceasing to claim any control would lead to rampant illegal exploitation of the natural resources by the numerous mercenary outlaws who took refuge in those regions, and probably contribute to the Sentineleses' extinction. Accordingly, in 1970, an official surveying party landed at an isolated spot on the island and erected a stone tablet, atop a disused native hearth, that declared the island part of India. [23]

In early 1974, a National Geographic film crew went to the island with a team of anthropologists (including Pandit), accompanied by armed police, to film a documentary, Man in Search of Man. They planned to spread the operation of gift-giving over three days and attempt to establish friendly contact. When the motorboat broke through the barrier reefs, the locals emerged from the jungle and shot arrows at it. The crew landed at a safe point on the coast and left gifts in the sand, including a miniature plastic car, some coconuts, a live pig, a doll and aluminium cookware. [56] The Sentinelese followed up by launching another volley of arrows, one of which struck the documentary director in his thigh. The man who wounded the director withdrew to the shade of a tree and laughed proudly while others speared and buried the pig and the doll. They left afterward, taking the coconuts and cookware. [12] [57] This expedition also led to the first photograph of the Sentinelese, published by Raghubir Singh in National Geographic magazine, where they were presented as people for whom "arrows speak louder than words". [58]

During the 1970s and 1980s, Pandit undertook several visits to the island, sometimes as an "expert advisor" in tour parties including dignitaries who wished to encounter an aboriginal tribe. [12] [23] Beginning in 1981, he regularly led official expeditions with the purpose of establishing friendly contact. [59] Many of these got a friendly reception, with hoards of gifts left for them, [8] [ clarification needed ] but some ended in violent encounters, which were mostly suppressed. [12] [56] [ clarification needed ][ clarification needed ] Some of the expeditions (1987, 1992, et al.) were entirely documented on film. [8] Sometimes the Sentinelese waved and sometimes they turned their backs and assumed a "defecating" posture, which Pandit took as a sign of their not being welcome. On some occasions, they rushed out of the jungle to take the gifts but then attacked the party with arrows. [23] Other gestures in response to contact parties, such as swaying of penises, have been noted. [60] On some of his visits, Pandit brought some Onge to the island to try to communicate with the Sentinelese, but the attempts were usually futile and Pandit reported one instance of angering the Sentinelese. [54] [58]

Wreck of the Rusley

In 1977, the Rusley ran aground off the north coast of North Sentinel Island. [61]

1981 wreck of MV Primrose

On 2 August 1981, the MV Primrose, carrying a bulk cargo of chicken feed from Bangladesh to Australia, ran aground in rough seas just off North Sentinel Island, stranding a small crew. [62] After a few days, the captain dispatched a distress call asking for a drop of firearms and reported boats being prepared by more than 50 armed islanders intending to board the ship. Strong waves prevented the Sentinelese canoes from reaching the ship and deflected their arrows. The crew of 31 men were keeping a twenty-four-hour guard with axes, pipes, and flare guns. Nearly a week later, the crew was evacuated by a civilian helicopter contracted to the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) with support from Indian naval forces. [23] [63] [64]

The Sentinelese scoured the abandoned shipwrecks to salvage iron for their weaponry. [12] [62] M. A. Mohammad, a scrap dealer who won a government contract to dismantle the Primrose wreck (about 90 m [300 ft] from the shoreline) and assembled men for the purpose, recorded friendly exchange of fruits and small metal scraps with the Sentinelese, who often canoed to the workplace at low tide: [12] [65]

After two days, in the early morning when it was low tide we saw three Sentinelese canoes with about a dozen men about fifty feet away from the deck of Primrose. We were skeptical and scared and had no other solution but to bring out our supply of bananas and show it to them to attract them and minimize any chance of hostility. They took the bananas and came up on board of Primrose and were frantically looking around for smaller pieces of metal scrap [...] They visited us regularly at least twice or thrice in a month while we worked at the site for about 18 months.

1991 expedition

In 1991, the first instances of peaceful contact were recorded in the course of two routine expeditions by an Indian anthropological team consisting of various representatives of diverse governmental departments, [23] [66] including the anthropologist Madhumala Chattopadhyay. This was the first time a woman was a part of a contact expedition with the Sentinelese. [67] [68]

During a 4 January 1991 visit, the Sentinelese approached the party without weaponry for the first time. [3] They collected coconuts that were offered but retreated to the shore as the team gestured for them to come closer. The team returned to the main ship, MV  Tarmugli. It returned to the island in the afternoon to find at least two dozen Sentinelese on the shoreline, one of whom pointed a bow and arrow at the party. Once a woman pushed the arrow down, the man buried his weapons in the sand and the Sentinelese approached quite close to the dinghies for the first time. The Director of Tribal Welfare distributed five bags of coconuts hand-to-hand. [23]

Pandya comments: [69]

Those present in the defining moment of physical contact now wished to extract professional mileage from the fact of being actually 'touched' by the Sentinelese during the gift giving exercise. Every participating member of the contact party wanted to take the credit of being the first to 'touch the Sentinelese', as if it were a great mystical moment of transubstantiation wherein the savage hostile reciprocated a gesture of civilized friendship.

Who touched and who was touched during the contact event became an emotionally charged issue within various sectors of the administration where claims and counter-claims were sought to be established with earnestness and vigor ... it is interesting to note the range of political and cultural significance invested in this specific event of contact.

Pandit and Madhumala took part in a second expedition on 24 February. The Sentinelese again appeared without weapons, jumped on the dinghies and took coconut sacks. They were also curious about a rifle hidden in the boat, which Chattopadhyay believed they saw as a source of iron. [62] [54]

In light of the friendly exchanges with the scrap dealers' team and Portman's observations in 1880, Pandya believes that the Sentinelese used to be visited by other tribes. [70]

Later expeditions

The series of contact expeditions continued until 1994, with some of them even attempting to plant coconut trees on the island. [71] The programmes were then abandoned [12] [23] for nearly nine years. [8] The Indian government maintained a policy of no deliberate contact, intervening only in cases of natural calamities that might pose an existential threat or to thwart poachers. [72]

A likely reason for the termination of these missions was that the Sentinelese did not let most of the post-Pandit contact teams get near them. [23] The teams usually waited until the armed Sentinelese retreated, then left gifts on the beach or set them adrift toward shore. [12] The government was also concerned about the possibility of harm to the Sentinelese by an influx of outsiders, a result of them projecting a relatively friendly image. [72] Photos of the 1991 expedition were removed from public display and use of them was restricted by the government. [72]

The next expedition was in April 2003, when a canoe built by the Onges was given to the visitors. [8]

2004 tsunami

Further expeditions (some aerial) in 2004 and 2005 evaluated the effects of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which caused massive tectonic changes to the island: it was enlarged by a merger with nearby small islands, and the sea floor was raised by about 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in), exposing the surrounding coral reefs to air and destroying the shallow lagoons, which were the Sentinelese's fishing grounds. [73] The expeditions counted 32 Sentinelese scattered over three places but did not find any bodies. [5] The Sentinelese responded to these aerial expeditions with hostile gestures, which led many to conclude that the community was mostly unaffected and had survived the calamity. Pandya argues that Sentinelese hostility is a sign of the physical as well as the cultural resilience of the community. [74]

The Sentinelese generally received the post-tsunami expeditions in a friendly manner. They approached the visiting parties unarmed, in contrast to the arms or shields carried when meeting earlier expeditions. [8]

2006 killing of fishermen

On 27 January 2006, Indian fishermen Sunder Raj and Pandit Tiwari, who had been attempting to illegally harvest crabs off North Sentinel Island, drifted towards the island after their boat's makeshift anchor failed during the night. They did not respond to warning calls from passing fishermen, and their boat drifted into the shallows near the island, [75] where a group of Sentinelese tribals attacked it and killed the fishermen with axes. [76] According to one report, the bodies were later put on bamboo stakes facing out to sea like scarecrows. [77] Three days later, an Indian Coast Guard helicopter, dispatched for the purpose, found the buried bodies. [12] [75] [78] When the helicopter tried to retrieve them, the Sentinelese attacked it with arrows, and according to some sources with spears, and the mission was soon abandoned. [79] [80] There were contrasting views in the local community as to whether the Sentinelese ought to be prosecuted for the murder. [81]

Pandya hypothesizes that the aggressive response might have been caused by the sudden withdrawal of those gift-carrying expeditions, which was not influenced or informed by any acts of the Sentinelese. [72] He also notes that while the images of the hostile Sentinelese the helicopter sorties captured were heavily propagated in the media, the images of them burying the dead were never released. This selective display effectively negated the friendly images that circulated in the aftermath of the 1991 contact, which had already been taken out of public display, and restored the 1975 National Geographic narrative. [81]

2018 killing of missionary

In November 2018, John Allen Chau, a 26-year-old American [82] trained and sent by the US-based Christian missionary organization All Nations, [83] travelled to North Sentinel Island with the aim of contacting and living among the Sentinelese [83] in the hope of converting them to Christianity. [13] [82] [84] [85] He did not seek the necessary permits required to visit the island. [86] [87]

On 15 November, Chau paid local fishermen to take him to a point 500–700 metres (1,600–2,300 feet) from the island's shore, [88] then continued to the island in a canoe. As he approached, he attempted to communicate with the islanders [82] and offer gifts, but retreated after facing hostile responses. [89] [90] On another visit, Chau recorded that the islanders reacted to him with a mixture of amusement, bewilderment, and hostility. He attempted to sing worship songs to them, and spoke to them in Xhosa, after which they often fell silent, while other attempts to communicate ended with them bursting into laughter. [90] Chau said the Sentinelese communicated with "lots of high pitched sounds" and gestures. [91] Eventually, according to Chau's last letter, when he tried to hand over fish and gifts, a boy shot a metal-headed arrow that pierced the Bible he was holding in front of his chest, after which he retreated again. [90]

On his final visit, on 17 November, Chau instructed the fishermen to leave without him. [85] The fishermen later saw the islanders dragging Chau's body, and the next day they saw his body on the shore. [88]

Police subsequently arrested seven fishermen for assisting Chau to get close to the island. [89] Local authorities opened a murder case naming "unknown individuals", but there was no suggestion that the Sentinelese would be charged [92] and the U.S. government confirmed that it did not ask the Indian government to press charges against the tribe. [93] [94] Indian officials made several attempts to recover Chau's body but eventually abandoned those efforts. An anthropologist involved in the case told The Guardian that the risk of a dangerous clash between investigators and the islanders was too great to justify any further attempts. [95]

Notes

  1. ↑ The Onges call it Chia daaKwokweyeh. [5]
  2. ↑ The Onge call these canoes "Chanku-ate". [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andaman Islands</span> Archipelago in the Bay of Bengal

The Andaman Islands are an archipelago, made up of 200 islands, in the northeastern Indian Ocean about 130 km (81 mi) southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a maritime boundary between the Bay of Bengal to the west and the Andaman Sea to the east. Most of the islands are part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a Union Territory of India, while the Coco Islands and Preparis Island are part of the Yangon Region of Myanmar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andaman and Nicobar Islands</span> Union territory of India

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India comprising 572 islands, of which only 38 are inhabited. The islands are grouped into two main clusters: the northern Andaman Islands and the southern Nicobar Islands, separated by a 150 km (93 mi) wide channel. The capital and largest city of the territory, Port Blair, is located approximately 1,190 km (740 mi) from Chennai and 1,255 km (780 mi) from Kolkata in mainland India. The islands are situated between the Bay of Bengal to the west and the Andaman Sea to the east. The northernmost point is 901 km (560 mi) from the mouth of the Hooghly River. Indira Point, located at 6°45'10″N and 93°49'36″E on the southern tip of Great Nicobar, is the southernmost point of India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andamanese languages</span> Languages spoken by people of the Andaman Islands

The Andamanese languages are the various languages spoken by the indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. There are two known Andamanese language families, Great Andamanese and Ongan, as well as two presumed but unattested languages, Sentinelese and Jangil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Effect of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake on India</span> Effect of 2004

According to official estimates in India, 10,749 people were killed, 5,640 people were missing and thousands of people became homeless when a tsunami triggered by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake near the Indonesian island of Sumatra struck the southern coast on 26 December 2004. The earthquake registered 9.1–9.3 Mw and was the largest in five decades. It was followed by strong aftershocks on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The death toll of the earthquake was 1,500 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Sentinel Island</span> Island in the Andaman Islands

North Sentinel Island is one of the Andaman Islands, an Indian archipelago in the Bay of Bengal which also includes South Sentinel Island. The island is a protected area of India. It is home to the Sentinelese, an indigenous tribe in voluntary isolation who have defended, often by force, their protected isolation from the outside world. The island is about eight kilometres long and seven kilometres wide, and its area is approximately 60 square kilometres (23 sq mi).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andamanese</span> People of Andaman archipelago

The Andamanese are the various indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, part of India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the union territory in the southeastern part of the Bay of Bengal. The Andamanese are a designated Scheduled Tribe in India's constitution.

Rutland Island is an island of the Andaman Islands. It belongs to the South Andaman administrative district, part of the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The island is located 20 km (12 mi) south from Port Blair.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Andamanese</span> Indigenous people in the Andaman Islands

The Great Andamanese are an indigenous people of the Great Andaman archipelago in the Andaman Islands. Historically, the Great Andamanese lived throughout the archipelago, and were divided into ten major tribes. Their distinct but closely related languages comprised the Great Andamanese languages, one of the two identified Andamanese language families.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Onge</span> Ethnic group of Andaman Islands

The Onge are an Andamanese ethnic group, indigenous to the Andaman Islands in Southeast Asia at the Bay of Bengal, India. They are traditionally hunter-gatherers and fishers, but also practice plant cultivation. They are designated as a Scheduled Tribe of India.

The Jangil were one of the Indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands in India. They lived in the interior of Rutland Island, and were given the name Rutland Jarawa because it was supposed that they were related to the neighboring Jarawa people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sentinelese language</span> Presumed language of the Sentinelese of North Sentinel Island

Sentinelese is the undescribed language of the Sentinelese people of North Sentinel Island in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. Due to the lack of contact between the Sentinelese people and the rest of the world, essentially nothing is known of their language or its vitality. The Sentinelese people do not allow outsiders onto the island and are generally hostile towards visitors. Friendly interactions have been rare.

The Jarawas are an indigenous people of the Andaman Islands in India. They live in parts of South Andaman and Middle Andaman Islands, and their present numbers are estimated at between 250–400 individuals. They have largely shunned interaction with outsiders, and many particulars of their society, culture and traditions are poorly understood. Since the 1990s, contacts between Jarawa groups and outsiders grew increasingly frequent. By the 2000s, some Jarawas had become regular visitors at settlements, where they trade, interact with tourists, get medical aid, and even send their children to school.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Onge language</span> Ongan language of Little Andaman Island

The Onge language, also known as Önge, is one of two known Ongan languages within the Andaman family. It is spoken by the Onge people in Little Andaman Island in India.

South Andaman district is one of the 3 districts of the Indian Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands located in the Bay of Bengal. Sri Vijaya Puram, the capital of the Union Territory is the district headquarters. The area covered by this district is 2,640 km2.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jarawa language (Andaman Islands)</span> Language of India

Järawa or Jarwa is one of the Ongan languages. It is spoken by the Jarawa people inhabiting the interior and south central Rutland Island, central interior, and south interior South Andaman Island, and the west coast of Middle Andaman Island.

The Society for Andaman and Nicobar Ecology, also known as SANE, is an environmental organization based in the city of Port Blair, in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. It was formed for the preservation of the Andaman ecosystem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maurice Vidal Portman</span> British naval officer and photographer (1860–1935)

Maurice Vidal Portman was a British naval officer, who is best known for documenting some of the Andamanese tribes between 1879 and 1901 when he was posted as a superintendent of the Andaman Island Penal Colony.

Triloknath Pandit is an Indian anthropologist. He was the first professional anthropologist to land on the North Sentinel Island in 1967, leading the team that made the first friendly contact with the Sentinelese people on 4 January 1991.

Madhumala Chattopadhyay is an Indian anthropologist who specializes in the Indigenous peoples of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In 1991, Chattopadhyay and her colleagues were the first outsiders to make peaceful contact with the Sentinelese people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Allen Chau</span> American missionary (1991–2018)

John Allen Chau was an American evangelical Christian missionary who was killed by the Sentinelese, a tribe in voluntary isolation, after illegally traveling to North Sentinel Island in an attempt to introduce the tribe to Christianity.

References

  1. ↑ "When the Sentinelese shun bows and arrows to welcome outsiders". The Times of India. 3 December 2018. ISSN   0971-8257 . Retrieved 7 September 2024.
  2. ↑ Wire Staff (22 November 2018). "'Adventurist' American Killed by Protected Andaman Tribe on Island Off-Limits to Visitors". The wire. Archived from the original on 22 November 2018. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 McGirk, Tim (10 January 1993). "Islanders running out of isolation: Tim McGirk in the Andaman Islands reports on the fate of the Sentinelese". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 8 December 2017. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  4. ↑ Chatterjee, Tanmay. "Month after American youth was killed by Sentinelese tribe, Andaman police launches new helpline for tourists". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 22 November 2024.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Pandya 2009, p. 362.
  6. ↑ Foster, Peter (8 February 2011). "Stone Age tribe kills fishermen who strayed on to island". The Daily Telegraph . ISSN   0307-1235. Archived from the original on 22 November 2018. Retrieved 11 November 2018.
  7. 1 2 Dobson, Jim (21 November 2018). "A Human Zoo on the World's Most Dangerous Island? The Shocking Future of North Sentinel". Forbes . Archived from the original on 22 November 2018. Retrieved 11 November 2018.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 "The Sentineles of Andaman & Nicobar Islands". The Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups in India : Privileges and Predicaments. Anthropological Survey of India. 2016. pp. 659–668. ISBN   978-93-5098106-1.
  9. ↑ "North Sentinel". The Bay of Bengal Pilot. Admiralty. London: United Kingdom Hydrographic Office. 1887. p. 257. OCLC   557988334. Archived from the original on 17 May 2016. Retrieved 5 March 2019.
  10. ↑ Harrer, Heinrich (1977). Die letzten Fünfhundert: Expedition zu d. Zwergvölkern auf d. Andamanen [The last five hundred: Expedition to the dwarf peoples in the Andaman Islands] (in German). Berlin: Ullstein. ISBN   978-3-550-06574-3. OCLC   4133917. Archived from the original on 8 May 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  11. ↑ "The Most Isolated Tribe in the World: The Sentinelese".
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Pandya, Vishvajit (2009a). "Through Lens and Text: Constructions of a 'Stone Age' Tribe in the Andaman Islands". History Workshop Journal . 67 (67): 173–193. doi:10.1093/hwj/dbn081. JSTOR   40646218. PMID   19824229.
  13. 1 2 "American 'killed by arrow-wielding tribe'". BBC News . 21 November 2018. Archived from the original on 21 November 2018. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  14. ↑ Bagla, Pallava; Stone, Richard (2006). "After the Tsunami: A Scientist's Dilemma". Science . 313 (5783): 32–35. doi:10.1126/science.313.5783.32. JSTOR   3846572. PMID   16825546. S2CID   159773091.
  15. 1 2 Enumeration of Primitive Tribes in A&N Islands: A Challenge (PDF) (Report). Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 December 2014. The first batch could identify 31 Sentinelese. The second batch could count altogether 39 Sentinelese consisting of male and female adults, children and infants. During both the contacts the enumeration team tried to communicate with them through some Jarawa words and gestures, but, Sentinelese could not understand those verbal words.
  16. ↑ "Forest Statistics – Department of Environment & Forests, Andaman & Nicobar Islands" (PDF). 2013. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
  17. ↑ "Census of India 2011 Andaman & Nicobar Islands" (PDF). censusindia.gov.in. 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 August 2015. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  18. ↑ Government of India, Ministry of Tribal Affairs (24 February 2016). "Tribals in A & N Islands". Press Information Bureau. Archived from the original on 9 February 2019. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  19. ↑ "The Forbidden North Sentinel Island". KD's Stolen History Blog. 12 December 2020. Retrieved 14 December 2024.
  20. ↑ Burman, B. K. Roy, ed. (1990). Cartography for Development of Outlying States and Islands of India: Short Papers Submitted at NATMO Seminar, Calcutta, December 3–6, 1990. National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. p. 203. OCLC   26542161.
  21. ↑ Weber, George. "The Tribes: Chapter 8". andaman.org. Archived from the original on 2 April 2013. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  22. 1 2 Burton, Adrian (2012). "A world of their own". Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment . 10 (7): 396. Bibcode:2012FrEE...10..396B. doi: 10.1890/1540-9295-10.7.396 . JSTOR   41811425.
  23. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Goodhart, Adam (2000). "The Last Island of the Savages" (PDF). The American Scholar . 69 (4): 13–44. JSTOR   41213066.
  24. ↑ Shammas, John (22 April 2015). "Mysterious island is home to 60,000-year-old community who KILL outsiders". Daily Mirror . Archived from the original on 21 November 2018. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  25. ↑ "The Forbidden Island". Neatorama. Archived from the original on 22 November 2018. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  26. ↑ Pandit 1990, p. 16.
  27. ↑ Gettleman, Jeffrey; Kumar, Hari; Schultz, Kai (21 November 2018). "Isolated Tribe Kills American With Bow and Arrow on Remote Indian Island". The New York Times .
  28. ↑ Pandya 2009, p. 41.
  29. 1 2 Pandya 2009, p. 346.
  30. ↑ Portman, Maurice Vidal (1899). "XVIII: The Jàrawas". A History of Our Relations with the Andamanese. Vol. II. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. p. 728. ISBN   978-0-598-49815-1. OCLC   861984. Archived from the original on 17 May 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  31. 1 2 Pandit 1990, p. 14.
  32. ↑ Pandya 2009, p. 361.
  33. 1 2 Zide, Norman; Pandya, Vishvajit (1989). "A Bibliographical Introduction to Andamanese Linguistics". Journal of the American Oriental Society . 109 (4): 639–651. doi:10.2307/604090. JSTOR   604090.
  34. ↑ Moseley, Christopher (2007). Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages. Routledge. p. 342. ISBN   978-0-7007-1197-0. Archived from the original on 18 January 2021. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  35. 1 2 3 4 "Chapter 8: The Tribes". 5 July 2013. Archived from the original on 7 May 2013. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
  36. ↑ Pandit 1990, pp. 21–22.
  37. ↑ Whiteside, Philip (21 November 2018). "US man killed by tribe after ignoring ban on visiting remote North Sentinel island". Sky News. Archived from the original on 21 November 2018. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  38. 1 2 Sengar, Resham. "Know how 60,000-year-old human tribe of secluded North Sentinel Island behaves with outsiders". The Times of India Travel. Archived from the original on 22 November 2018. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  39. ↑ Bhatnagar, Gaurav Vivek (23 November 2018). "Centre Ignored ST Panel Advice on Protecting Vulnerable Andaman Tribes". The Wire. Archived from the original on 3 December 2018. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  40. ↑ Pandya 2009, p. 334.
  41. 1 2 Dutta, Prabhash K. (21 November 2018). "Beyond killing of American national: Sovereign citizens of India". India Today . Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  42. ↑ "List of notified Scheduled Tribes" (PDF). Census India. p. 27. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 November 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
  43. ↑ Gettleman, Jeffrey (21 November 2018). "American Is Killed by Bow and Arrow on Remote Indian Island". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 21 November 2018. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  44. ↑ Westmass, Reuben. "North Sentinel Island Is Home to the Last Uncontacted People on Earth". curiosity.com. Archived from the original on 22 November 2018. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  45. ↑ Sarkar, Jayanta (1997). "Befriending the Sentinelese of the Andamans: A Dilemma". In Pfeffer, Georg; Behera, Deepak Kumar (eds.). Development Issues, Transition and Change. Contemporary Society: Tribal Studies. Vol. 2. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company. ISBN   81-7022-642-2. LCCN   97905535. OCLC   37770121. OL   324654M. Archived from the original on 28 April 2016. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  46. ↑ Weber, George. "Chapter 8: The Tribes; Part 6. The Sentineli". The Andamanese. Archived from the original on 7 May 2013.
  47. ↑ Kavita, Arora (2018). Indigenous Forest Management in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. Springer. pp. 17–100. ISBN   978-3-030-00032-5.
  48. 1 2 Pfeffer, Georg; Behera, Deepak Kumar (1997). Contemporary Society: Developmental Issues, Transition, and Change. Concept Publishing Company. ISBN   978-81-7022-642-0. Archived from the original on 18 January 2021. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  49. ↑ Weber, George. "Maurice Vidal Portman (1861–1935)". The Andamanese (Appendix A – Pioneer Biographies of the British Period to 1947). Archived from the original on 5 August 2012. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  50. ↑ (1935) "Obituary – Mr. M.V. Portman – 'Father' of Andaman Islanders Archived 5 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine ". The Times of London, 22 February 1935. Reproduced by G. Weber in The Andamanese Archived 24 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine , Appendix A
  51. 1 2 3 Temple, R. C.; Bare, H. Bloomfield (1899). "Journal of the Society for Arts, Vol. 48, no. 2457". The Journal of the Society of Arts . 48 (2457): 105–136. JSTOR   41335348.
  52. ↑ Sarkar, S. S. (1962). "The Jarawa of the Andaman Islands". Anthropos. 57 (3/6): 670–677. JSTOR   40455833.
  53. ↑ Pandit 1990, p. 15.
  54. 1 2 3 Sharma, Shantanu Nandan (24 November 2018). "Surprised the Sentinelese killed someone: First anthropologist to enter North Sentinel island". The Economic Times . Archived from the original on 26 November 2018. Retrieved 26 November 2018.
  55. ↑ Pandit 1990, pp. 17–20.
  56. 1 2 Pandya 2009, p. 357.
  57. ↑ Pandit 1990, pp. 24–25.
  58. 1 2 Pandya 2009, p. 330.
  59. ↑ Pandit 1990, p. 13.
  60. ↑ Pandya 2009, p. 358.
  61. ↑ Buckner, William (30 November 2018). "The Not-So-Lost Tribe". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on 30 November 2018.
  62. 1 2 3 Tewari, Debayan (3 December 2018). "When the Sentinelese shun bows and arrows to welcome outsiders". The Economic Times . Archived from the original on 3 December 2018. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
  63. ↑ UPI Archives (25 August 1981). "Twenty-eight sailors shipwrecked for nearly two weeks off a..." United Press International. Archived from the original on 2 August 2017. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  64. ↑ Mottram, Dennis (22 December 2010). "North Sentinel Island, Captain Robert Fore and previously unseen photographs of the 1981 Primrose rescue". eternalidol.com. Archived from the original on 11 July 2011.
  65. ↑ Pandya 2009, pp. 342–343.
  66. ↑ Pandya, Vishvajit (2009a). In the Forest. University Press of America. ISBN   978-0-7618-4272-9. Archived from the original on 10 June 2016. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  67. ↑ Zakeer, Fehmida (7 December 2018). "Meet the first woman to contact one of the world's most isolated tribes". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 28 February 2021. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  68. ↑ Sengupta, Sudipto (30 November 2018). "Madhumala Chattopadhyay, the woman who made the Sentinelese put their arrows down". The Print. Archived from the original on 28 February 2019. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  69. ↑ Pandya 2009, p. 331.
  70. ↑ Pandya 2009, p. 343.
  71. ↑ Pandya 2009, p. 332.
  72. 1 2 3 4 Pandya 2009, p. 333.
  73. ↑ Pandya 2009, p. 347.
  74. ↑ Pandya 2009, p. 336.
  75. 1 2 Foster, Peter (8 February 2006). "Stone Age tribe kills fishermen who strayed on to island". The Daily Telegraph . Archived from the original on 20 October 2013. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
  76. ↑ McDougall, Dan (12 February 2006). "Survival comes first for Sentinel islanders – the world's last 'stone-age' tribe". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 26 November 2018. Retrieved 26 November 2018.
  77. ↑ All India – Agence France-Presse (25 November 2018). "Cops Retreat After Andaman Tribe Seen Armed With Bows And Arrows". ndtv.com. Archived from the original on 25 November 2018. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  78. ↑ Pandya 2009, p. 340.
  79. ↑ Som, Vishnu (23 November 2018). "Attacked By Andaman Tribe, Coast Guard Officer's Terrifying Account". NDTV. Archived from the original on 24 November 2018. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  80. ↑ Banerjie, Monideepa (25 November 2018). "Cops Studying Rituals of Tribe That Killed US Man To Recover His Body". NDTV. Archived from the original on 24 November 2018. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  81. 1 2 Pandya 2009, pp. 349–352.
  82. 1 2 3 Slater, Joanna (21 November 2018). "'God, I don't want to die,' U.S. missionary wrote before he was killed by remote tribe on Indian island". The Washington Post . Archived from the original on 21 November 2018. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  83. 1 2 News Corp (26 November 2018). "Police face-off with Sentinelese tribe as they struggle to recover slain missionary's body". News.com.au. Archived from the original on 26 November 2018. Retrieved 26 November 2018.
  84. ↑ Roy, Sanjib Kumar (21 November 2018). "American killed on remote Indian island off-limits to visitors". Reuters. Archived from the original on 21 November 2018. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  85. 1 2 "US man killed by remote tribe was trying to spread Christianity". South China Morning Post. Reuters. Archived from the original on 23 November 2018. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  86. ↑ Chatterjee, Tanmay; Lama, Prawesh (23 November 2018). "American national John Allen Chau violated every rule in the book to meet the Sentinelese". Hindustan Times . Archived from the original on 29 November 2018.
  87. ↑ Bhardwaj, Deeksha (28 November 2018). "John Allen Chau 'lost his mind', was aware of dangers of North Sentinel Island, say friends". ThePrint. Archived from the original on 1 December 2018.
  88. 1 2 Banerjie, Monideepa (22 November 2018). "American Paid Fishermen Rs. 25,000 For Fatal Trip To Andamans". NDTV. Archived from the original on 21 November 2018. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  89. 1 2 Firstpost Staff (21 November 2018). "US tourist killed by tribe in Andaman and Nicobar's North Sentinel Island, seven arrested in connection with murder". firstpost.com. Archived from the original on 22 November 2018. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  90. 1 2 3 Jeffrey Gettleman; Hari Kumar; Kai Schultz (23 November 2018). "A Man's Last Letter Before Being Killed on a Forbidden Island". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 26 November 2018. Retrieved 26 November 2018.
  91. ↑ Slater, Joanna; Gowen, Annie (23 November 2018). "Fear and faith: Inside the last days of an American missionary died on tribe's remote Indian Ocean island". The Washington Post . Archived from the original on 25 November 2018. Retrieved 26 November 2018.
  92. ↑ BBC News (25 November 2018). "Indian authorities struggle to retrieve US missionary feared killed on remote island". BBC. Archived from the original on 26 November 2018. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  93. ↑ Indo Asian News Service (8 February 2019). "US not seeking action against Sentinelese tribe for killing missionary". Hindustan Times . Archived from the original on 19 February 2019.
  94. ↑ "International Religious Freedom". United States Department of State. 7 February 2019. Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  95. ↑ Michael Safi; Denis Giles (28 November 2018). "India has no plans to recover body of US missionary killed by tribe". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 28 November 2018. Retrieved 28 November 2018.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.