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First Friendly Contact with the Sentinelese

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Re: First Friendly Contact with the Sentinelese

#11

Post by redsummer »

codezero wrote: post #5
redsummer wrote: post #4

Any significant contact would wipe the Sentinelese out. Even a common cold infection would be the end of them. The anthropologists know this, but seem willing to risk this for their own ego. If we wanted to learn anything about the Sentinelese, then perhaps we could use well-camouflaged camera traps, and other electronic eavesdropping devices. The moral considerations are difficult - it's a privacy breach, but the in…

I don't think the moral considerations are that difficult. Would you accept NSA surveillance if they said it was so that your descendants could understand you, and "For Science"?

My background is Swedish. I would be happy to view video of Viking ancestors, for instance. I guess it's a question of the distance of time.

Re: First Friendly Contact with the Sentinelese

#13

Post by codezero »

donutz wrote: post #7
codezero wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the moral considerations are that difficult. Would you accept NSA surveillance if they said it was so that your descendants could understand you, and "For Science"?

Not the best analogy. The anthropologists aren't trying to root out wrongdoers in this tribe by surveilling the whole lot of them.

I know, but the NSA could argue they aren't trying to root out wrongdoers either.

What would they do if their camera recorded a violent act between tribe members, or against a child? They might feel obligated to act, or not act, either of which could have dangerous consequences.

Re: First Friendly Contact with the Sentinelese

#14

Post by codezero »

takee wrote: post #10
codezero wrote: post #2

It appears this is about contact with a different people, the Jarawa, I don't see anything indicating contact with the Sentinelese except the caption to the photo, is there any documented evidence? It appears the author has incorrectly labeled any tribe on the Andaman Islands as "Sentinelese."

The article gives both description and photographic proof of the contact with the sentinelese people.

See my edited comment – they have a photo of contact with a tribal people, there are many tribes on the Andaman Islands, not just the Sentinelese, and there is no documented contact between the Sentinelese and outsiders since 1880, which was just an abduction, not really contact.

The photos here appear to show contact with a Jawara tribe, and are incorrectly labeled as Sentinelese.

Re: First Friendly Contact with the Sentinelese

#15

Post by codezero »

ianhawes wrote: post #6
codezero wrote: post #2

It appears this is about contact with a different people, the Jarawa, I don't see anything indicating contact with the Sentinelese except the caption to the photo, is there any documented evidence? It appears the author has incorrectly labeled any tribe on the Andaman Islands as "Sentinelese."

The article is formatted oddly, but the middle section starting at "On January 4, 1991, MV Tarmugli," talks about the actual encounter with the Sentinelese.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11714639

I don't think this is contact with the Sentinelese, but with the Jarawa, another tribe on the same chain of islands.

Re: First Friendly Contact with the Sentinelese

#16

Post by 88e282102ae2e5b »

takee wrote: post #8

If this really was the first successful contact, I don't quite understand how the language of these people is the same as/similar to other Andaman island/Indian languages. Context: "Nariyali Jaba Jaba".

The Sentinelese and the people on Andaman Island must have been once been a single group living in the same place within the last few hundred years. The language would change somewhat after they split up, but it is still mutually intelligible apparently.

Re: First Friendly Contact with the Sentinelese

#17

Post by DougWebb »

takee wrote: post #8

If this really was the first successful contact, I don't quite understand how the language of these people is the same as/similar to other Andaman island/Indian languages. Context: "Nariyali Jaba Jaba".

They obviously didn't evolve there independently from other humans. They and the other tribes have common ancestry, and a common root language. I doubt anyone knows about inter-tribal contact through those 60,000 years that could have kept the languages from diverging too much.

Re: First Friendly Contact with the Sentinelese

#18

Post by ealexhudson »

codezero wrote: post #14
takee wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article gives both description and photographic proof of the contact with the sentinelese people.

See my edited comment – they have a photo of contact with a tribal people, there are many tribes on the Andaman Islands, not just the Sentinelese, and there is no documented contact between the Sentinelese and outsiders since 1880, which was just an abduction, not really contact. The photos here appear to show contact with a Jawara tribe, and are incorrectly labeled as Sentinelese.

Only two of the photos are captioned as being Sentinelese, the rest are captioned as being Jawara?

Re: First Friendly Contact with the Sentinelese

#20

Post by skepicurean »

codezero wrote: post #2

It appears this is about contact with a different people, the Jarawa, I don't see anything indicating contact with the Sentinelese except the caption to the photo, is there any documented evidence? It appears the author has incorrectly labeled any tribe on the Andaman Islands as "Sentinelese."

It appears you didn't closely read the article because it documents two separate events:

1. The author's meeting with the Sentinelese.

2. The author's meeting with the Jarawa.

You are correct that most of the photos are from the meeting with the Jarawa and that much of the article describes the author's time with the Jarawa but there is a segment which explicitly describes the meeting with the Sentinelese, separate from the Jarawa meetings.

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