The Uncontacted Tribes of North Sentinel Island
Out of the approximate 100 uncontacted tribes of the world, it is well-agreed upon that this is least contacted of all. The North Sentinelese (a name not given by themselves, if that tells you anything), live in palm leaf huts on an island off of India, using javelins and flat bows for protection and fishing; the island surrounded by reefs and filled with forests.
It’s a fairly large island for the estimated 50–500 indigenous tribespeople that live there, and it’s not horribly far from the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. They are believed to have settled on the island about 60,000 years ago as one of the first groups of humans to leave Africa. This is incredible to me, nearly unbelievable. Isn’t it insane that a tribe of people have become isolated for this long? I’ll go into it shortly, but the amount of times this tribe has been contacted is right around just a handful.
In this article, I want to discuss not only about the past of this tribe and its encounters with other cultures, but how that reflects upon society and the psychological implementations of this history.
To start, in 1867 an Indian merchant ship called the Ninevah wrecked on a reef near North Sentinel Island. Within a few days the Sentinelese attacked but the people from the ship defended themselves with stones and sticks, later to be rescued by a ship. This seemed like enough to intrigue Maurice Vidal Portman, a British naval officer and all-around not great guy. He traveled to the island, looking for days to find the Sentinelese. Finally, he found an elderly couple and up to four children. He kidnapped them, taking them to Port Blair and soon after the elderly couple died (because of disease, duh) and the children got really sick. In response, Portman brought them back to the island with presents, as if that would make up for it, later recalling that the Sentinelese displayed, “Idiotic expression of countenance and manner of behavior.” If you’re interested in learning more about Portman and the specifics of what happens, this Twitter thread is super fascinating and informative.
In the 1960s anthropologists began to study the island. Triloknath Pandit, who would sail to the island occasionally within the span of 20 years, would leave gifts of candy, clothing and buckets, taking some items of the Sentinelese as well. Most of the time he wasn’t able to land on the island, and instead circled around it because of the displeased way the Sentinelese often responded. The videos of these trips are especially fascinating to me: being able to view this interaction between peoples that are so incredibly different from each other and attempting to understand one another.
A few years later, anthropologists attempted to shoot a documentary, but the director was shot in the leg on the boat as they tried to give them gifts of coconuts. I’ve included the video of this below.
A ship by the name of the Primrose wrecked off the island in 1981, having to then fight off the Sentinelese using axes and flare guns, finally being rescued soon after.
Pandit continued to try to visit the island during this length of time, finally having a chance to meet them and hand them coconuts. However, not too long after the Indian government banned any visits (even from anthropologists) from fear of disease.
In 2004, shortly after the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, a helicopter was sent to hover around North Sentinel Island, to see if the Sentinelese were alright. From the reports, they had reached higher ground a few days before and had survived.
The most recent contact we’ve heard of is concerning the killing of John Chau, a missionary who was determined to inform the Sentinelese about Christianity, and was promptly shot and killed soon after.
And so here we are, the indigenous tribe seems to be respected in its interests of privacy, with a restriction zone as an invisible 3 mile perimeter around the island. There’s only one recorded remnant of its culture outside of the island (at least of the items I could find online), and that is this arrow in the British Museum.
So my first thoughts when I heard all of this was amazement. The fact that out of the millions who had found out about North Sentinel Island within the last handful of years, no one had successfully disturbed their land. But I was having a bit of cognitive dissonance… I kind of wanted this tribe to be contacted. I think the internal drive to understand them and for them to understand us took over. What had they thought of when people who looked so different visited them? Did anyone from the tribe wonder and desire to understand our world more?
Something that really hit me was what the Twitter thread above included (the link to Respectable Lawyer), “Imagine climbing on board that ship [the Primrose]. A completely alien vessel filled with alien things. Imagine seeing simple machines for the first time. A hinge. A latch. A wheel. Things that would instantly make sense in a satisfying way. Others would be so incomprehensible to avoid notice.” I am so curious as to every moment the Sentinelese had while pulling apart the Primrose for scraps. I wonder what their everyday life is like and how they evolved physically and mentally to become so different than what humans are today. Psychology Today makes the comparison of what it would be like if intelligent aliens were to land on Earth today. I honestly don’t think that is very far off. To think, if there was a culture so different from our own, with technology we couldn’t even comprehend, then what more would be the response than fear?
The reasoning behind the Sentinelese aggression seems to be primarily by how they’ve been initially treated (by Portman). The children who survived must have told their parents the stories and terrors that they went through, something that was just barely two generations ago. This trauma must still be present in their minds, yet regardless it’s not unlikely for tribes to react this way to people they see as a threat. Amazonian tribes react similarly to others that are not a part of their group, so to some degree this might be normal.
The Sentinelese grew up incredibly different than us for thousands of years. Their brains are probably wired differently in how they view death and what they prioritize in life. According to the American Psychological Association, universal personality traits (the Big Five, openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism) don’t necessarily apply to indigenous people. Instead for them it appears to be the Big Two: socially beneficial behavior, also known as prosociality, and industriousness. They conducted multiple studies within small tribes, concluding,
Researchers also conducted a separate study between March 2011 and January 2012 to gauge the reliability of the model when answered by peers. They asked 430 Tsimane adults, including 66 people from the first study, to evaluate their spouse’s personality. The second study revealed that the subject’s personality as reported by his or her spouse also did not fit with the Big Five traits.
They are so different than us even down to the way their personalities are structured. It makes me wonder what else they view differently and the specifics on how they think. When I see a shrub, I just see a pretty plant. I would imagine that someone from the Sentinelese sees this as a tool or possibly food, shelter, or maybe just a plant as well. Who is to really say?
To end, I’ll give you my final conclusion concerning the island: although my curiosity and interest is insatiable, the need to keep this tribe alive and uncontacted is more important. Support them in whatever way you can through Uncontacted Tribes’ website. I hope you’ve found this article as fascinating and informative as I’ve found researching it.
Much of my research sprung from this amazing video all about the island.
And to end, here’s a funny yet fascinating video of Joe Rogan discussing the Sentinelese…
