Not Remotely Interested in Civilization
"These people have been clearly telling us that please don't come near us, we don't want to meet you."
"And yet we keep on barging into their areas, bothering them, and that risks even the tribe's death."
Anvita Abbi, linguistics professor
Outsiders need to respect their wishes and treat them with dignity as fellow human beings."
"Respect means we don't assume to know better how they should live."
John Bodley, anthropologist, Washington State University
"[It's] unwise and inhumane to forcibly keep these groups isolated by building protective fences around them."
"Humans are an extremely social species. No groups want to live isolated forever. They do it out of fear."
Kim Hill, anthropologist, Arizona State University
"It takes a certain amount of courage and hard thinking. It has to start with gift-giving, years of gift-giving, then the language has to be learned through this gift-giving."
"You have to make an effort to engage in dialogue. It's not easy, but everybody is entitled to think about their future, that is the first right, the right to have rights."
Vishvajit Pandya, Indian anthropologist
 |
| Photo by Christian Caron/Survival International |
The government of India prohibits any contact with the islanders known as Sentinelese. They live on North Sentinel island, which lies far off India's coast in the Andaman Island chain. The island is roughly the size of Manhattan. The tribe consists of no more than several hundred people who are hunters and gatherers, following a style of life that is tens of thousands of years old. Their language is unknown by any outsiders. And they make it plain they will not permit those alien to their tribe and culture to set foot on North Sentinel.
 |
A young American missionary, John Chau did, He was a committed evangelist and his dream was of serving god by spreading Christianity to the tribe living on North Sentinel. The 26-year-old Chau knew of the danger. And in acknowledging that danger he was fearful, yet remained determined. He knew also that it was illegal to approach the island. He bribed local fishermen to boat him to the island on several occasions. He was warned of the consequences, but felt the risk was worth it, to serve god.
Islanders, almost naked but for loincloths will attack anyone who approaches their shore, firing arrows before retreating to melt back into the forest. Mr. Chau brought gifts with him. It's unlikely he had the opportunity show what he had to gift them with -- the people whom the Indian government deem an "ultrasensitive human treasure". The government of India feels an obligation to protect these deliberately isolated people who want nothing but to live unmolested in their traditional way of life.
 |
Among academics and intellectuals a discourse rages; whether to intrude or to ignore. Some feeling there is a humane obligation to introduce these stone-age people to the wonders of the modern world, while others come down in favour of the human courtesy of appreciating and respecting their wish to live as they will, in the natural world that sustains them. Ms. Abbi points out that islanders have no immunity to outside world maladies; contact could conceivably infect them with diseases that might destroy them.
North Sentinel, while isolated is a mere 50 kilometers from the region's growing capital, Port Blair. Inevitably, some contact will, at some time, occur. Vishvajit Pandya, the Indian anthropologist, has made three trips to North Sentinel, where in 1998 he accompanied a government team presenting islanders with bags of coconuts which the islanders accepted, then thanked the strangers with obscene gestures withholding violence.
 |
Labels: Isolation, North Sentinel Island, Primitivism, Sentinelese
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, December 12, 2018
<< Home