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First Friendly Contact with the Sentinelese

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Re: First Friendly Contact with the Sentinelese

#41

Post by actionwords »

ChrisDutrow wrote: post #29

> The tribes might be primitive in their technological achievements but socially they are far ahead of us”. Based on my understanding of "reality", I would assume this would tend to be the case. From what I understand, rapid technological advancement tends to wreak havoc on social structures. These people are wise to attack outsiders, especially given their early contact with westerners in 1880. There are all kinds o…

>matriarchy is more advanced

By absolutely no one with a critical minds metrics.

Re: First Friendly Contact with the Sentinelese

#42

Post by codezero »

devishard wrote: post #34
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"?

That frames it as if it were your choice. If I trusted the NSA to actually do that, I'd have no problem with it. The problem is, I don't have the choice of being surveilled by the NSA, and I don't trust them. Just as the Senigalese would have no choice in redsummer's proposal, and many reasons not to trust outsiders.

I agree with you, unfortunately I used a bad analogy and didn't make my point :/

Re: First Friendly Contact with the Sentinelese

#43

Post by codezero »

sampo wrote: post #40
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."

> I don't see anything indicating contact with the Sentinelese except the caption to the photo, is there any documented evidence? While in theory a similar looking beach could be anywhere, and the native people could be of any tribe, in the first photo the visitors are standing in water, offering coconuts. The other tribes live in the mainland of Andaman island, so when meeting them you would more probably arrive on…

Just let me know where the source of the information is.

Re: First Friendly Contact with the Sentinelese

#44

Post by codezero »

x1798DE wrote: post #39
codezero wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am saying that the author is using Sentinelese interchangeably with Jarawa/Andaman incorrectly. The only reference I can find for such contact is a blog post and a 1993 news article that appears anecdotal. I'd like to see the journal article written about this contact by the Anthropological Survey of India which funded the contact with the Andaman Islanders, but I can't find a source, leading me to believe it didn'…

According to Wikipedia, Sentinelese is apparently (based on other encounters) ,not mutually intelligible with Onge, which does seem to be an inconsistency in the idea that she heard them asking for coconuts in Onge.

Wikipedia references the same anecdotal source material and not anything from an authentic source.

Re: First Friendly Contact with the Sentinelese

#45

Post by stevecalifornia »

codezero wrote: post #26
skepicurean wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 f…

I am saying that the author is using Sentinelese interchangeably with Jarawa/Andaman incorrectly. The only reference I can find for such contact is a blog post and a 1993 news article that appears anecdotal. I'd like to see the journal article written about this contact by the Anthropological Survey of India which funded the contact with the Andaman Islanders, but I can't find a source, leading me to believe it didn'…

You didn't read the article. She landed on North Sentinel island and interacted with the Sentinelese. Then, later in the article it focuses on Jarawa.

Re: First Friendly Contact with the Sentinelese

#47

Post by astine »

codezero wrote: post #28
ealexhudson wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Right, and I am arguing that these are incorrectly labeled because there's no authentic source showing such contact, so something has been lost in translation wherein Andaman Islanders are being called Sentinelese.

Do you have any source for those particular photos and videos being from the other Andaman islands? I've seen the video before and it was labelled then as being of the Sentinelese. I feel that if it were of a different tribe, then you'd be able to find the original context and the actual tribe it was.

Re: First Friendly Contact with the Sentinelese

#48

Post by Jun8 »

ChrisDutrow wrote: post #29

> The tribes might be primitive in their technological achievements but socially they are far ahead of us”. Based on my understanding of "reality", I would assume this would tend to be the case. From what I understand, rapid technological advancement tends to wreak havoc on social structures. These people are wise to attack outsiders, especially given their early contact with westerners in 1880. There are all kinds o…

Does she use "us" to refer to Indian society, or humanity in general (minus other primitive tribes, presumably)? What parameters do you base "advancement" in this case, e.g. is the Sentilenese socially "far ahead of" US society in general? How about, say, Ethiopian or Navajo societies?

Once we start thinking about the diversity of human experience I think we can see such statements as examples of the Noble Savage sentiment (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_savage)

Re: First Friendly Contact with the Sentinelese

#49

Post by LeifCarrotson »

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…

The inhabitants are extremely unique. There may be no other society like theirs on the face of the planet.

If an unintrusive privacy breach of that small group was likely to allow us to learn something that would improve the lives of 7 billion others, it ought to be made. Just do the math.

I don't think there's likely to be that much we can learn which would actually be useful, but that ought to be the test.

Re: First Friendly Contact with the Sentinelese

#50

Post by goda90 »

Jun8 wrote: post #48
ChrisDutrow wrote: post #29

> The tribes might be primitive in their technological achievements but socially they are far ahead of us”. Based on my understanding of "reality", I would assume this would tend to be the case. From what I understand, rapid technological advancement tends to wreak havoc on social structures. These people are wise to attack outsiders, especially given their early contact with westerners in 1880. There are all kinds o…

Does she use "us" to refer to Indian society, or humanity in general (minus other primitive tribes, presumably)? What parameters do you base "advancement" in this case, e.g. is the Sentilenese socially "far ahead of" US society in general? How about, say, Ethiopian or Navajo societies? Once we start thinking about the diversity of human experience I think we can see such statements as examples of the Noble Savage sen…

Perhaps too much emphasis is being put on technological and cultural advancement when thinking about these things. It may be that a tight knit, homogenous society has fewer problems in general and thrives as long as outside influence doesn't overwhelm it.
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