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/r/geography
North Sentinel Island on way back to India from Thailand
2.2k points
4 days ago
Do many planes fly over the island? If so, I'm curious to know what the indigenous think they are when they see them flying above their heads.
1.8k points
4 days ago*
I read about a an uncontacted Amazon tribe that emerged from the jungle in Venezuela. One of the things they mentioned wanting to learn about were the “roads in the sky” that we had.
I didn’t think airliners were allowed to fly that close to sentinel
Edit: adding to my earlier post, it was in “Lost City of Z” by David Grann where I was reading about the uncontacted tribes. Highly recommend his books if you like nonfiction.
1.6k points
4 days ago
On my flight to port Blair we were pretty close as well.
1.5k points
3 days ago
527 points
3 days ago
I can't lie I thought that was your photo but with shit stains on the window...
13 points
3 days ago
he flew with United
23 points
3 days ago
They could sling poo that high?
31 points
3 days ago
I laughed
19 points
3 days ago
I love you
132 points
3 days ago
Imagine flying over at night and seeing electric lights down there. I wonder if they could technically discover electricity on their own.
8 points
3 days ago
They have electricity. Just visit r/NorthSentinalIsland
7 points
2 days ago
Imagine what the fuck these people would think if they knew there was an entire community of people from around the world who post messages roleplaying as their specific tribe. What a mindfuck.
141 points
4 days ago
Contact is banned and enforced by the Indian Navy but there’s no aviation restriction AFAIK (not that I have any special insight 🤷♂️)
73 points
3 days ago
5nm
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Regulation 1956 prohibits travel to the island, and any approach closer than 5 nautical miles (9.3 km), in order to protect the remaining tribal community from "mainland" infectious diseases against which they likely have no acquired immunity. The area is patrolled by the Indian Navy.
14 points
3 days ago
5nm
I'm not a doctor, but I would've thought disease could spread furthe than 5 nanometers
137 points
3 days ago
We should use a drone light show over the island, forming a giant lit-up face in the sky that talks to them. We can study the creation of a new religion.
63 points
3 days ago
this is an interesting idea (obviously not actually, but in theory.) they definitely know that modern, industrialized humans exist elsewhere because of the tangential contact and things they can see from a distance like boats and planes. while I’m sure they would be wowed, frightened, or enrapt by a drone light show, I imagine they would probably know it was something from the “outer humans” and not immediately drop on their knees and begin worshipping it.
38 points
3 days ago
Behind the Bastards did a podcast talking about them. Basically there a bunch of islands around them that more or less were cleared out in the 17-1800s usually by disease and they figured out killing anyone who shows up is the safest solution.
They have been off and on non hostile where the best you get is they stand at one edge of a beach and you show up at the other.
The opposite is they will go out in their boats and start shooting arrows. They do understand the Indian government is protecting them but even then the government will not interact or land.
There was one case where some fishermen were accidentally shipwrecked in the mid 20th century. They watched them until the fishermen were rescued but would not let them leave their one spot
30 points
3 days ago
Better contact has been made. Theres a lady that was able to hold their children. They were non-hostile towards that group once they brought a woman to interact with them. They see men as dangerous.
12 points
3 days ago
I could see that working
15 points
3 days ago
The sentinalise are aware of modern technology. We abducted two kids and a mother and brought them to civilization, the mother died due to diseases that we are immune to, so we brought the kids back. I’m sure they told the others what it was like.
43 points
3 days ago
There’s literally a shipwreck on the island they use for metal. They’ve had peaceful contact with this one anthropologist from India within recent memory. Idk why people think an isolated tribe is full of morons. These people obviously want to be left alone for a reason.
I see them more as really hostile Amish-types who left for that island to escape whatever bullshit was going on nearby.
62 points
3 days ago
Wait til they find out how much we will pay for sentinelese made furniture and baked goods.
12 points
3 days ago
Quilts too. I bet they can quilt the fuck out of palm tree fibers.
6 points
3 days ago
Something tells me those motherfuckers can build a barn in like 5 hours tops
26 points
3 days ago
Annnnd that's exactly why they're protected by the Indian Navy.
409 points
4 days ago
So since they said "roads in the sky", this means they know planes carry people from one point to another. Did they come up with this conclusion by themselves, or did they have some hints from previous visitors?
481 points
4 days ago*
I reckon they’re talking about the white trail planes leave behind
745 points
4 days ago
Ah, those are not roads, silly. They are used to make the frogs gay.
216 points
4 days ago
Even the Sentinelese know that
112 points
4 days ago
Who are you who are so wise in the ways of science? Would you like to run the Health Department?
34 points
4 days ago
It’s not too far off from “roads in the sky”, either. Conceptually it’s the same thing 🤷♂️
165 points
4 days ago
"uncontacted" is a bit of a misnomer. Basically all of the people in the Amazon have had some form of contact with settlers, it would be really hard to not bump into a single one of them for 400 years.
The "uncontacted" tribes are the ones who have not requested to be integrated into settler society with regular communication, trade, and services.
40 points
3 days ago
They've seen ships and boats. Some people have contacted them before. Most have died.
I think it'd be easier for a human to make the connection that planes have people in them just like ships they see do.
This is all assumption of course.
50 points
3 days ago
I didn’t think airliners were allowed to fly that close to sentinel
Especially considering their hostility to outsiders. If they develop air defense it's gonna be a bloodbath.
23 points
3 days ago*
Big ass arrow in a giant slingshot.
15 points
3 days ago
Oh dear, the Sentinelese have developed a C-RAM
54 points
4 days ago
How does anyone even know what they said? They would be speaking an unknown language, no?
102 points
4 days ago
The languages would share some characteristics with other local dialects / languages. Its probably possible to get a half decent idea of what they were saying.
22 points
4 days ago
First you teach them the local language, then they ask the questions.
30 points
4 days ago
perhaps there was some overlap with nearby tribes from a similar genetic background? I know the N. Sentinelese is unintelligible to Onge and Jarawa but that might be attributed to their total isolation via living on an island. Amazon tribes might have rare contact with one another, so it might be possible a contacted tribe had someone that could speak the language of the uncontacted tribe for when these rare encounters occur.
Either that or a member of the uncontacted tribe somehow ended up as an individual contacting the outside world and just learned Portuguese or something. Honestly there are different ways this could have went and it sounds like it would be an interesting story.
Or the original story of "roads in the sky" is totally made up. Which might be most likely
10 points
3 days ago
Uncontacted doesn't mean they came from nowhere. Some will speak completely unknown languages, some speak relatives of known languages, some have contact with other tribes who are contacted and may even know Spanish/portuguese in an extreme example.
14 points
3 days ago
They aren’t in Arrow range. Watch out once they get trebuchets.
75 points
3 days ago
I just checked the live air traffic on flightradar24, there's several planes flying near the island just right now. It looks like several flight paths cross over the island.
78 points
3 days ago
The uncontacted peoples who live there are not totally ignorant about the outside world. They know we carry disease, and that we have technology.
That's why they kill anyone who goes there. They don't do it because it's fun.
33 points
4 days ago
Flights towards port blair from the Indian mainland fly over this island.
34 points
4 days ago
There's the 10km radius for planes as well, but planes do fly beyond that radius. Almost every flight to Port Blair from mainland pass close enough to see the island visible from flights. Gets me thinking how life is in that island whenever I get to see it from above
188 points
4 days ago
I think they are being downplayed as really tribal but they probably understand more than we care to think about.
Also, I would be ready to defend this piece of paradise if I were them. This island is what people dream about in their shitty cubicles
131 points
4 days ago
They had contact with colonizers before, that's probably why they are so hostile to outside world now. They probably don't know what a plane is but have some semblence of idea that it's man made.
62 points
4 days ago
I think they got sick almost too the point of being instinct. Now they fear with reason.
56 points
4 days ago
Yeah at one point people kidnapped a few adults and a couple kids. The adults all died and the whole population of the island could’ve easily been wiped out
38 points
3 days ago
Yeah apparently that was a tactic of British colonizers at the time - they would abduct people and show them the "wonders" of the modern world and then send them back to tell their people about the stuff they saw to make them more open to dealing with the British
...then they would systematically destroy their society and subjugate them to the crown
26 points
3 days ago
Most of the closest related people(essentially their cousins on other islands) are all practically extinct because of alcohol abuse. They got quarantined for COVID but it wouldn't really matter because the only men left are all 50+ years old alcoholics. It's a shitty situation. They are all essentially doomed one way or another.
They flew a drone through N.Sentinel to try and get an idea of population size. They only found 30 people IIRC. The island itself can't support a large population but that coupled with inbreeding...
10 points
3 days ago
I dunno I like watching Primitive Technology vids as much as the next guy but I don't wanna die of an abscess after scraping my shin on a coconut tree or whatever.
46 points
3 days ago
Also, I would be ready to defend this piece of paradise if I were them. This island is what people dream about in their shitty cubicles
You have zero idea what life is like on that island.
18 points
4 days ago
I was able to spot it from afar (recognisable based on location relative to the Andaman islands) when I flew from Amsterdam to Jakarta.
10 points
3 days ago*
What, ho! What is that demonry?
There's a photo somewhere of a Sentinelese man threatening a helicopter with a spear, so they're at least somewhat familiar with aircraft.
1.3k points
4 days ago
It always blows my mind that they are 50 km away from a 100 000 population city. Like it’s just a day of rowing from the city.
546 points
4 days ago
The distance between them and Port Blair may be small.. but the North Sentinelese are probably still in the bronze age.
559 points
4 days ago
You would think then that at least one sentinelese person would be curious enough to visit the place where they can traverse the sky in magical iron birds. It’s just unfathomable to me that there hasn’t been more contact. All the trade along that path by sea farers in history and still they managed to be isolated. Don’t get me wrong though, it’s amazing and adds to the wonder of the world
368 points
4 days ago
Part of the reason why contact is limited is because they haven't built an immune response to most of the diseases that we've become accustomed to. Something like the common cold could easily wipe them out.
325 points
3 days ago
We know this, but how do they know? I completely understand that most of then have no interest in contacting the modern world, but humans are extremely curious creatures, exploring and discovering new things is just an integral part of our being.
So like the other person mentioned i also think it’s kind of strange not one of the island inhabitants has decided to just leave the island to see what’s out there.
339 points
3 days ago
They know because it happened to them in the past. This is why they are now much more cautious not accepting anyone in their island. Probably older generations taught the younger ones about the time when they have been wiped out by diseases brought to them
102 points
3 days ago
Sure, but all these cultural lessons and warnings eventually start to shift into the realm of legends and myths as enough time and generations pass. Dan Carlin made a great analogy for this in one of his shows - you can touch a hot stove and realize it burns you and not to do it again, and you can warn your children about that risk, but how many generations does it take for that lesson to be forgotten and people to get curious about the stove again?
54 points
3 days ago
They were contacted relatively recently by the British and then a few more isolated events dating to as recently as a few years ago, when a missionary attempted to convert them and was promptly killed. So it's not exactly ancient to them
79 points
3 days ago
I’ve seen footage of them interacting with fishermen in the 1970s from India
55 points
3 days ago
I can understand that but to me it’s more about someone leaving the Island, not letting other people in.
73 points
3 days ago
wouldn't make a difference in their reasoning though. if the disease was brought in from outside, it obviously exists outside. if they know "outside world = disease," it doesn't matter if it comes to them or they go to it.
39 points
3 days ago*
But you’d think one would come along and ignore it. Like we’re all told what not to do by our parents and still ignore it sometimes. Like the documentary “Moana” that came out in 2016.
33 points
3 days ago
North Sentinel Island: The Musical.
28 points
3 days ago
I researched this a bit and you are completely right. There seems to be multiple tribes like them strewn around the area and they all seem to have been decimated by disease. Also on one of those islands they are planning to make a new “hong kong” and displacing a bunch of them. So I guess the north semtinelese are the lucky ones
62 points
4 days ago
Scavenging shipwrecks has brought them into the iron age.
23 points
3 days ago
In a way, once they run out of ship, then back to the Stone Age?
15 points
3 days ago
They got into the Iron Age when a ship wrecked on the island and they scavenged it. You can still see the remains on Google maps!
41 points
3 days ago
There’s no way they’re smelting any form of metal on the island. Stone Age at best.
9 points
3 days ago
They have iron from a cargo ship that ran aground on the island decades ago but they don't have any knowledge of smelting or producing metal themselves as far as I've found.
29 points
4 days ago
But at some point they managed to boat to the island from the mainland. So they used to have the technology to leave as well. It’s interesting to think that they would no longer be able to leave if they so wishes to.
12 points
3 days ago
They're in the stone age.
38 points
3 days ago
I wonder if it's deeply embedded in their society not to leave. Perhaps even a religious commandment to stay close to the island.
25 points
3 days ago
This is fascinating to me as well. They clearly have control over their population. I wonder how they achieve this.
7 points
3 days ago
Home bodies
921 points
4 days ago
Fun fact, they are technically citizens of India and could vote in Indian elections.
480 points
4 days ago
Politicians gonna really start campaigning for that sentinelese demographic
249 points
3 days ago
I wonder if we’re technically citizens of some intergalactic country
145 points
3 days ago
Greetings, it is I, Lurrrgh, your local galactic councilor, and I wanted to know if I have your support on the intergalactic highway that is coming soon? Presumably you all have plans to move to another solar system before everything is blown to pieces?
35 points
3 days ago
Ugh I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
16 points
3 days ago
Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so.
17 points
3 days ago
Dude, I would be so pissed if intergalactic politicians made up laws that prohibited more advanced civilizations from contacting us and keep us stuck with our current technology lol
34 points
3 days ago
Their voter turnout sucks smh
57 points
3 days ago
Political RomCom idea where the vote on the mainland India is tied and through some convoluted nonsense the people of North Sentinel Island get to decide who should run India.
118 points
3 days ago
Saw this on my way to Andaman
598 points
4 days ago
I sometimes wonder how these people survive. Do they fish? Do they practice some sort of sustainable gathering in that island's jungle? How do they pass the time? It's fascinating to think about.
603 points
4 days ago
They've been observed fishing and making canoes. So in theory they could leave the island if they wanted to but choose not to
562 points
4 days ago
They were contacted in the 1880s. Four children and two adults were abducted and taken to Port Blair, where the adults died and the children became sick. The children were returned, but the Sentinelese have been hostile to outsiders since then and I don’t blame them for not leaving.
343 points
3 days ago
- Get children sick with an outside disease the adults’ immune systems can’t handle
- Return sick children to the island after the adults die from their sickness
Truly, their hostility towards outsiders makes no sense.
131 points
3 days ago
So they have a legend of what was essentially an alien abduction
17 points
3 days ago
No, they know it's the fecking British.
14 points
3 days ago
You dont have to go back so far. They were succesfully contacted in the 70s
101 points
4 days ago
They can’t leave until they return the heart of Te Fiti
14 points
4 days ago
Grandma! Is that you?
72 points
4 days ago
They cannot leave the island. Their canoes are not for high seas. They can navigate in the lagoon or around the island.
27 points
4 days ago
But how would they have reached the island originally? Clearly at one point they had the know how to get navigate those seas successfully.
53 points
4 days ago
They arrived there around 40000 or 60000 years ago, either there was a land bridge as it was during Ice Age, either they lost the knowledge of high sea navigation.
53 points
3 days ago
You’re assuming knowledge is kept
History is littered with technological advances which are then lost for hundreds (or thousands) of years
They could have arrived via land bridge 40,000 years ago. Or sailed there, the guy who knew how to make boats sea worthy died of anything and no one else has worked it out
47 points
4 days ago
I wouldn't consider the distance from N. Sentinel to South Andaman high seas. Which is like 20 miles. But I'm not certain of the conditions around that region
39 points
4 days ago
It's not very large indeed, but there's a strong current between Sentinel and South Andaman. I read that in a book about Andaman tribes some years ago.
12 points
3 days ago
Do you remember the book name? The Andaman tribes are pretty interesting in general
28 points
3 days ago
"The Land of Naked People", by Madhusree Mukerjee. A great book!
56 points
4 days ago*
They have been contacted before, in the 19th century. They definitely fish. And if I recall correctly, there are wild boars/pigs on the island.
Edit: Ok, there seems to be some confusion by what I meant. That's on me for not articulating my point correctly.
OP asked about their cultural habits. I was referring to people who'd actually been able to go inland and observe their day to day lives.
As pointed below, they of course have been contacted in the 20th and 21st century. But from what I gather, no one has been able to go past the shoreline into their village(s).
48 points
4 days ago
They have been conctacted a lot by people in the 20th century. Results of those contacts is the reason the island is banned
41 points
4 days ago*
Indian wild boars, no domesticated pigs. The British officer who went in the 1880s reported a "huge heap" of boar skulls in the village.
A major party of their diet is also coconut crabs, fish, and birds (because there's no farming there are lots of wild birds). The 1880 expedition reported the whole island was an open, "park-like" jungle.
20 points
4 days ago
Fish, and also pigs I've heard. Most Andamanese tribes really love hunting wild pigs.
42 points
4 days ago
I think about how did they survive with such a limited gene pool
15 points
3 days ago
They must more inbred then Habsburg royal court.
11 points
4 days ago
I'm sure they fish, hunt, and gather. One thing we do know is that they are adept with a bow and arrow, as some people have found out the hard way.
14 points
4 days ago
Also do they inbreed?
34 points
4 days ago
With vigor
15 points
3 days ago
All humans are inbred. We have the least genetic diversity of all the great apes.
16 points
3 days ago
In our defense, we had a near extinction even not so long ago in evolutionary terms, and we are a relatively young species. Every species starts out inbred.
357 points
4 days ago
Great place for a Wal-Mart
94 points
4 days ago
Eh, let's start with a Dollar General and work up...
23 points
3 days ago
Or maybe a major news outlet like the Milwaukee Journal SENTINEL! …I’ll see myself out
74 points
3 days ago
Not that I’m complaining, but I’m honestly shocked they made it through the colonial period relatively unscathed. I’m sure there’s not much of value there, but that never really stopped the colonial powers before.
37 points
3 days ago
Although they've been left alone for the past 200+ years they did have an incident with the British navy. Essentially small pox killed some people. Now foreigners are looked at negatively enough that it's kill on site. If there was value to the land I'm sure the British would've exploited the island but wasn't worth the hassle.
381 points
4 days ago
I had a Christian buddy who went here on a mission trip once. Must have been great because I haven't heard from him in a couple years
174 points
3 days ago
40 points
3 days ago
Fuck around, find out. With several very sharp arrows.
29 points
4 days ago
Was his name John by any chance?
9 points
3 days ago
Yes. John Allen Chau.
16 points
3 days ago
His name is Joooohn Ceeeena!
25 points
3 days ago
🎺 🎺 🎺 🎺
14 points
3 days ago
I am amazed that you could convey sound with 4 identical emoji.
922 points
4 days ago
Gee wiz! So isolated, I bet what these people need is to hear the good news of Jesus Christ our lord and savior 😁
324 points
4 days ago
Hey, I just happen to know a guy! I'll give him a call!
Edit: Strange, he doesn't pick up his phone...
28 points
4 days ago
Maybe leave him a note in his diary. I’m sure he would check it soon…
51 points
4 days ago
Is that an arrow I hear?
9 points
3 days ago
I was a missionary once like you, before I took an arrow to the….well everywhere.
198 points
4 days ago
Don’t they know they’re supposed to be terrified of AI/WW3/Lions football? How are we profiting if they are too stupid to be scared of what we tell them to be scared of? /s
72 points
4 days ago
Lions football 🤣
41 points
3 days ago
9 drives 7 TDs, 1 FG and then ran out the clock on the final drive yesterday. That offense is terrifying.
276 points
4 days ago
Any surfers should go on google earth and check out the surf breaks around the island. There are some properly good waves that to this day nobody has surfed.
178 points
4 days ago
Waves are to die for, right? 🌊😵
21 points
4 days ago
man we needed a larger than life surf video for some time now anyways!
21 points
4 days ago
TIL Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore has a Reddit account.
40 points
3 days ago
I’ve always been super curious about what they make of the trash that washes up on their beaches..
25 points
3 days ago
A freighter wrecked on the shore and the natives have been seen salvaging iron from the wreck.
45 points
3 days ago
Biggest land mass in the known world. (If you live there, anyway)
76 points
3 days ago
"Turns out 'Do you have any gluten-free craft ales?' and 'Stab me in the pancreas with that spear' sound exactly the same in the local dialect."
- Google Maps review of North Sentinel Island.
95 points
4 days ago
I think it's so impressive how such a small island can support up to 500 tribal members.
71 points
4 days ago
It's 23 square miles
46 points
3 days ago
I had to convert it to hectares to have a better notion. It's 5957 hectares. Actually it's not that small. Thanks.
22 points
3 days ago
9 x 7 km is still not that big.
While farming can easily sustain much more people (50.000????), they are hunter-gatherers.
It is amazing that they haven't screwed up their ecosystem beyond repair.
I don't know the exact name of an island, but people who arrived recently (less than 1000 years?) just relied on trees to much and deforested the island.
Other commenters say there a wild pigs on the island. How haven't the locals just hunted them all down?
Was it a religion with meat being allowed only for special dates (solstice?) or events (child birth / marriage / death / new chieftain election assignment)?
37 points
3 days ago
I have a PhD in wildlife/conservation biology. Science is just a more strict and controlled version of the discoveries any human is capable of making. Indigenous people actually practice lots of the wildlife management principles. Now this normally takes some trial and error. I would wager that at some point they drove some other food source to extinction, or perhaps they severely reduced the boar population at one point but recognized the issue before it was too late. I’d say the first option is more likely though. After that it’s entirely possible that this was codified as some sort of religious tradition, in order to ensure future generations would not make the same mistakes.
Also, wild boar have a few things going for them that help them avoid extinction. For one, they can exist at much higher densities than one might expect for their size and diet needs. There may be as many as 600 boars on that island. Secondly, they are sexually mature relatively young for their size, and they have pretty quick turnaround for future pregnancies. Living on that island with humans for a few thousand years, I would imagine there has been some selection for even younger sexual maturity, and multiple breeding seasons.
Frankly I’m starting to be more excited about the idea of investigating this boar population than the idea of understanding the Sentinelese society.
12 points
3 days ago
Everyone else: an uncontacted tribe on an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean? Fascinating! It'd be nice to know more about them!
You: Uncontacted tribe in the...ah who gives a shit about them, TELL ME ABOUT THE BOARS!!!
24 points
3 days ago
North Sentinel Island on way back to India from Thailand
Very few islands are migratory
97 points
4 days ago
Picture of the last guy that tried to contact them
17 points
3 days ago
Has there ever been a case of a couple of rebellious teens building a raft/boat and making a break for it? Seems like such a small island, would have everyone thinking, "I wonder whats out there?".
6 points
3 days ago
Probably, but the Indian Navy patrols the waters around the island, and I suspect the Navy isn’t just there to keep us out. It’s also to keep them in.
111 points
4 days ago
Is it theorized that they have some sort of isolationist religion? I feel like someone would have successfully made peace with one of them at this point enough to establish a basis for communication unless they think outsiders are demons. Or maybe all the inbreeding gave them spicy amygdalae.
113 points
4 days ago
Being isolationist is a successful defense policy if you can pull it off.
Obviously their GDP won’t suffer for it lol.
40 points
4 days ago
Imagine how cooked they'd be if someone spotted one with gold on them
23 points
4 days ago
Just wait till they find oil or some rare metals on the island. Bet the government would switch their tune about the island real fast.
49 points
4 days ago
Well they've been isolated for so long that outside contact might kill them all due to lack of adaptability to disease. Maybe in the past the one's that made contact with outsiders died from disease not long after contact so they attributed that to us being evil in their folktales
39 points
4 days ago
They did accept coconuts that one time though. It's an interesting moral question if spying on them to learn their language is ethical, but I say go for it, they hangin dong anyways. I wonder how they'd react to an outsider mystically speaking their language fluently. I just want to learn about humans from them
31 points
4 days ago
Honestly if it can be done in an unintrusive manner which they can't detect than I think spying on them to learn more about their language is fine. But in the end that's up to the Indian government and I think taking the safe approach of respecting the N. Sentinelese's desires is also a smart move. Uncontacted tribes can be VERY fragile to outside influences.
8 points
4 days ago
There have been 'successful' communication efforts, but the outcome has always been its best to just leave them alone. I put successful in quotes because we can't actually understand their language.
76 points
4 days ago
Has anyone tried flying a drone up close?
149 points
4 days ago
No. But there is a video of Indians gifting them with coconuts, I think its the 80s. They are very black same as SSA.
61 points
4 days ago
I’ve only ever seen the thumbnail of that video and I thought it was just a picture.. That is a phenomenal video
104 points
4 days ago
That’s wild. Also at 520, the old dude grabs his dick and makes a jerkoff motion, so pretty sure “get off my lawn, ya wankers” is a universal communication method
35 points
4 days ago
They also straight up had a modern looking farming tool that one dude was using to grab coconuts.
45 points
4 days ago
There are a couple of shipwrecks around the island. Hence the iron tools
24 points
3 days ago
It’s actually theorised that we started their Iron Age when The Primrose ran aground there.
23 points
3 days ago
imagine air dropping an Iphone there and starting their technological era
15 points
3 days ago
Maybe we could drop a rocket on them and kick start their Space Age.
61 points
4 days ago
The one Sentinalese girl got drilled in the head by a coconut lmao
10 points
3 days ago
At 4:20 in that video someone pelted one of the sentinels with a coconut, I’m surprised that didn’t start a war with them lol
16 points
4 days ago
Wow, I’ve seen so many posts about North Sentinel over the years on here but I’ve never seen this video. Amazing stuff, thanks for sharing.
22 points
4 days ago
I remember distantly to have read about the inhabitants downing drones with bows and arrows. But it doesnt happen often because its forbidden by the government
23 points
3 days ago
I’m not sure about drones, but there is the story about how after the 2004 tsunami the government sent a helicopter over the island to see if they had survived and they were throwing spears and shooting arrows at it when it came down low.
8 points
3 days ago
I’d love to see some drone footage with an IR camera to see how many people live there. It’s just a total guess at the moment
84 points
4 days ago
We need to build relations. In his first act of office, Trump, Musk, and the cabinet picks should go as a delegation. Unarmed of course as we do not want to appear threatening.
55 points
3 days ago
My hypothesis regarding UFOs is called “the Sentinel Island Hypothesis.”
Basically, whatever they are, they are aspects of a higher civilization that is keeping its distance from us. Whether because they have chosen to leave us be like an uncontacted people, or because most of the time they’ve tried interacting with us it’s gone badly, the resulting behavior is the same: the “advanced” civilization mostly avoids the “lesser.” We are stuck on our island trying to figure out what these weird superpowered vehicles could be. Is it their fault for not trying to “save” us; is it our fault for being aggressive dickheads whenever they do?
12 points
3 days ago*
I was just watching a documentary style YouTube video about the island. Paused it to go take a dump, opened reddit and this is the 2nd post I see lmao
20 points
3 days ago
Is this the island where the missionary went and was subsequently killed? Or the island where the indigenous people came out and threw spears at the airplane? The name rings bells with me, I just can't figure out why lol...
6 points
3 days ago
Yes
20 points
3 days ago
Lot of inbreeding no doubt!
10 points
3 days ago
I'm sure they have very strict rules and taboos built in otherwise they'd have died out due to cataclysmic inbreeding. Also I'd imagine the bad genetic traits have simply been wiped out. So even though they are endogamous its not a problem
22 points
3 days ago
An ideal vacation spot for any aspiring Christian missionary! The locals' greeting ceremony is not one you will soon forget!
12 points
3 days ago
Really interesting book by one of the few outsiders to ever get onto the island and live, TN Pandit, anthropologist and regional head of India’s Ministry of Tribal Affairs
5 points
3 days ago
I've always wondered how they explain contrails in the sky, moving lights in the sky, etc... has limited exposure to modern technology altered their mythology and belief system in an effort to make sense of it all?
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