North Sentinelese: the most isolated tribe in the world

We live in a modern and globalized society. Regardless of opinions on the matter, it is undeniable that in the age of globalization contact with different cultures is something sought after constantly by a large majority of the population, sharing ideas, points of view and advances of different kinds.

But this contact is not sought by everyone. There are multiple groups and tribes that reject contact with other human beings outside of them, protecting their way of life and customs. An example of this can be found in the northern Sentinelese, who live totally cut off from the rest of the world.

One of the most isolated and unknown tribes

Located in the Indian Ocean, between the islands belonging to the archipelago of the andaman islands, can be found an island of about 72 square kilometers called Sentinel del Norte. This area belonging to India is home to the Sentinelese, one of the few primitive tribes that have evaded until the contact with the rest of humanity, preserving their customs and traditions without coming into contact with the civilization.

Knowledge about this tribe is very scarce, mainly limited to observations made by satellite images and aerial reconnaissance and the few attempts at rapprochement that have been made throughout history.

The Northern Sentinelese are a tribe that has been characterized as an elusive people, actively avoiding contact both with the outside world and with other tribes. They are territorial and before attempted contact by strangers have reacted either by avoiding them or with violence. Neither the structure nor the meaning of their language is known and, in fact, it is not even known how they call themselves, the name being a place name.

A way of life outside of civilization

The one inhabited by Sentinel del Norte is a tribe with pre-Neolithic characteristics, which is believed descends directly from the first Asians who arrived on the island around sixty years ago a thousand years. Its technological level corresponds to that of primitive tribes, possessing weapons made of wood and stone. that they use in order to defend their territory and shoot down prey, although occasionally they also use the iron that comes from remains and residues that arrive by sea. They do not appear to be aware of the fire, and the aerial images obtained from the island also do not reflect the existence of areas of cattle or farmland.

They are a tribe of hunters and gatherers., and have been seen hunting in the forests and fishing on the beaches of North Sentinel. They build narrow canoes that are used to navigate shallow water. Despite these simple living conditions, their general state of health appears to be good and stable, with a good proportion of children and pregnant women being sighted. They live in large communal houses that can be seen from the air, although they also have small huts at specific points, such as on the beach.

Regarding the number of people who are part of the Sentinelese tribe, although it has only been possible to take a partial census by remote observation, it is estimated that the tribe of the Sentinelese is made up of between thirty and several hundred, unable to grow too much due to the difficulties caused by having to hunt and gather to subsist.

Their small number makes them capable of meeting their nutritional needs. It is therefore a tribe of hunters and gatherers who survives in a relatively small territory due to its low demographic expansion.

Contacts with the Sentinelese throughout history

The first known contacts with the Sentinelese in the north apparently date back to the 13th century. Marco Polo already wrote about this tribe saying that before the arrival of a foreigner the natives would kill him to later devour him. This is probably the product of an exaggeration, since in the few subsequent contact attempts they have not been found. indications of cannibal behavior among the inhabitants of this island, but it gives an idea that the reaction to the arrival of strangers was not positive.

In the 19th century, in the middle of the colonial era, a British officer named Portman landed on the island in an attempt to contact the native population. This rapprochement apparently did not have any results, since the expedition did not meet the natives, who hid in the jungle.

There were other expeditions with the same results, although in one of them two elderly people and two children were found, who were kidnapped and forcibly transferred to civilization, the two old men dying of illness and the two children being returned to their village with numerous gifts. This may have resulted in the transmission of Western diseases for which the immune system of the natives was not prepared, producing large casualties that in the long run could lead to the existence of hostility towards foreigners.

Another well-known attempt at contact occurred in 1978, when a team of anthropologists went to Sentinel del Norte to shoot the documentary Man in search of man. The end result was that the natives attacked the film crew and they had to flee, wounding the director of the documentary with arrows.

Although on almost all occasions the reactions of the Sentinelese to external contact have been of an aggressive type, in some cases there have been more flattering results in that the inhabitants of the island have allowed a certain level of rapprochement and even accepted gifts. In 1991 a first contact was reached in which the natives came up unarmed to accept gifts, but after a brief period of time and for reasons that have not come to be known, the Sentinelese ended up once again rejecting the contact.

After several years of failing to get a successful approach and the Sentinelese attacking those who approached their island, attempts at rapprochement ended up being suspended. Also contributing to this was the fact that similar programs with other tribes in the archipelago ended up with devastating consequences for the natives, with habitat degradation and the death of a large part of their populations due to diseases.

The most recent contacts

In 2004 an earthquake and subsequent tsunami shook and devastated much of the island of Sentinel del Norte. The authorities decided to send helicopters to check if the tribe had survived, finding that indeed at least a certain number had; some of the natives appeared pointing bows and arrows at the airship.

More recently, in 2006 two poachers ignored the ban on docking on the island's reefs. The search helicopters found the boat on the shore of the island and the bodies half buried in the sand, not being able to recover due to the hostile attitude of the natives before the approach of the aircraft.

The importance of its isolation: protection measures

Although knowledge about the existence and culture of the North Sentinel tribe is very scarce and could help the understanding of the evolution of human societies, the fact that they do not maintain contact with other human groups prevents them from being assimilated by other cultures as well as from dying due to their own contact. And it is necessary to take into account that, as it is a tribe that has remained and survived separated from the rest of humanity, their immune systems could suffer from contact with other cultures by not having acquired the necessary defenses to combat diseases that for us are only a nuisance or that are easily curable.

It is for this reason and to respect both the existence and the desire of a community to remain isolated that contact with the island of Sentinel is currently under protection, the Indian government having established an exclusion zone (that is to say, in which access is prohibited) of five miles around the island and agreeing not to interfere in the life of the natives.

• You may be interested in: "The Hunza: the oriental tribe of eternal youth"

Bibliographic references:

• Goodheart, A. (2000). The Last Island of the Savages. The American Scholar 69(4): 13-44.

• Grigg, S. (2013). The Sentinelese: the most isolated tribe in the world? Survival International. Bulletin 194.