The Indian government monitors them, and seems to think they're doing alright.
IIRC the guy from 2018 was an enormous tool that harassed them for a couple months, so maybe they're just keeping their distance from this tool.
There are dozens of islands in that chain and it is protected water - no one is allowed to go there without explicit permission from the Indian government. The idea is they want to be left alone. They have wanted to be left alone but the fucking British couldn't take no for an answer and constantly raped, abducted and murdered them with guns and disease for decades. Their population cratered because of the disease and now they are a tiny fraction of what they were. Just let them be. Our world has too many problems and if they can be happy living in makeshift huts with no cellphones then that's the best humanity can get.
I watched a documentary on tribes in Papa New Guinea..... FYI it was NOT a garden of eden. They were constantly killing each other, fighting off famine, dealt with health problems raw.
Did not look as glamorized as our western brains imagine it to be.
What's your point? We don't have to manifest destiny every single plot of land and genocide every non-white people on the fucking planet. They can live how they want to.
Who mentioned that it was a garden of Eden?
Irrelevant. The argument is to leave them alone. That argument does not hinge on a glamorized version of native peoples.
It sucks. So does living off what you can hunt and fish in a tundra, but there are Alaskan people for whom that's a significant portion of their lifestyle. So does chasing the buffalo and warring with your neighbors in the great plains, yet the Lakota fought devastating wars for their right to live that way. So does living deep in the Amazon, yet some people there know our world exists and choose not to join it. And so did everything that happened to the people of the North American east coast after they whethered an apocalyptic epidemic then helped out some strange looking people who showed up clearly unprepared for the brutal weather awaiting them.
We, the people of the globalized world have a responsibility to respect uncontacted people's right to remain as such, just as we must respect the right of indigenous people to choose whether or not and to what degree they live their traditional lifestyles. We've failed at this too many times.
I think we need to give them unrestricted internet access and a porsche
I mean....don't you think there is some teen on that Island who would love access to pornhub and a THC Vape pen? Meanwhile all the people on social media rant and rave!!! Just leave them alone!!!! In their air conditioned house typing on a $1000 smartphone
Your argument absolutely has merit. However the opposite is that there might be people there who are aware there's maybe way more to their small world, and want nothing more than to see it.
I care more about the latter, but mainly because that's how I would think. If we found out there's an alien superhighway passing over earth hidden from us, and they're keeping us "protected" and not allowing contact, I'd be very pissed off. I immediately would want to leave, meet the aliens, learn their ways and knowledge, etc...
Just sayin', it can go both ways. Ya never know if you don't talk to them.
Also, it seems kind of morbid and archaic in a way, keeping them protected. Not like a zoo by any means, but still. If we knew for certain they all wanted to be left alone, that'd be better.
They have boats that can cross the ocean. If they wanted to get to us they could. But they definitely have a strong enough memory of us as outsiders coming in and ruining the civilization of neighboring sentinelese tribes. So I think they probably want to stay far, far from us.
They shoot at attempts at contact. They know we're here. They have boats.
It's more like if an alien civilization had an outpost on Mars and made a point to not come to earth or to send messages in our used frequency bands after we shot down all communication satellites and probes they sent. Just showing up would be hard, but if we wanted to join their world we could signal desires to make contact.
"I thought there'd be so much more to having sex with her, so I just decided to do it. Can't you see my good intentions?"
Alternatively:
"My need to know what it's like is more important than respecting her bodily autonomy."
/s for abject morons
Their language is not mutually intelligible with other nearby tribes’ languages. It’s very likely that they have been isolated from all other human contact for a very long time.
Anthropologists visited them in the 90’s and even left gifts. They know we are here, they have chosen to remain isolated. The attempt to communicate has been made.
They pretty famously kill people who come ashore and try to make contact. They don't engage with people who are stranded other than to leave them food (according to one account of shipwrecked sailors, and I don't have the article).
These people had a rough go the first contact they had, they haven't been receptive since.
Just leave them the fuck alone.
OP looks to be aware of the situation and isn't asking whether or not to bother them. He's asking if there is currently evidence of whether or not they are alive.
Maybe we should send someone to check. A Missionary or something.
or maybe a president...
The missionary could introduce bacteria for which they have no immunity. Bad idea. They've been too isolated.
they dealt with the crazy missionairy already
Tell 'em to deliver some instant noodles. Bitches love instant noodles.
Why can’t we just leave the Sentinelese alone? Stop disturbing them and let them live their lives? is that really so hard?
They’ve also made it clear they don’t want our help anyway.
I find it infinitely adorable (not in the condescending way) that you thought about them and want to know if they're ok. That's awesome. <3
Idk, lemme swing by and check rq
Update:
They survived the 2004 tsunami just fine. They've probably been there for thousands of years. They are probably just fine, don't need our help, and made it clear they aren't interested in our help.
I was really worried during covid. I hope they are doing okay
They're so isolated it wouldn't have reached them. There was no landings between 2018 and 2025, per the Wiki. Maybe they noticed less air traffic than usual.
With so few of them, it wouldn't take much to end them all.
With 200, half would be female, and maybe a third of them would be child bearing.
A food crisis, or internal strife, or disease, or all three at once, could easily drop that number to too few to sustain the population, and that would be the end of them.
Just because it hasn't happened before, doesn't mean it can not have happened recently. For all we know, they were suffering such a crisis for the past twenty+ years, and now the last of them have died off, or will die off soon.
There were 200? I understand that is exactly the lowest genetic pool limit for avoiding unsustainable inbreeding. They are likely dying off, if not already gone.
Idk, let's assume they are and not check
They thought about that, then they wondered how they could introduce them to Christianity and exploit them for capitalism.
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