Do we know anything about the culture of the Sentinelese?

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Moga Deet Profile
Moga Deet answered

I never heard of these people, so I read about them on Wikipedia.  They don't seem to like dolls!  I hope everyone continues to leave them alone.  They must quarrel with each other, because they are good archers.  It just goes to show, if you have more than one person, an argument will break out.  Some people even argue with themselves.

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Walt O'Reagun
Walt O'Reagun commented
I looked it up, after you answered. Interesting.
Good on the Indian gov't for leaving them alone, for the most part. Though it's too bad there's no way to communicate with them.
Didge Doo Profile
Didge Doo answered

What a fascinating question. LIke virtually everybody else, I'd never heard of them.

Their culture? They're isolated, they're fierce, they will defend their home with lethal force, and they're not afraid to tackle helicopters with bows and arrows.

They've populated North Sentinel Island (in the Indian Ocean) for 60,000 years (about 20,000 years longer than the aborigines have lived in Australia). Nothing is known of their language or culture.

It's interesting that, although isolated, they developed similar weapons to other primitive people -- arrows, spears, thrown stones -- but the Indian government has declared the island off limits because of the fear that a simple infection, passed to them by visitors, could wipe out the entire tribe.

Here's an interesting article from the Daily Mail.

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ZombieE Lee
ZombieE Lee commented
I read your link. Thanks! This tribe is blowing my mind the more I think about them..........which is ironic because I don't think that they have any idea that we are so fascinated by them!
Walt O'Reagun Profile
Walt O'Reagun answered

I'm going to make a couple guesses, based on what I read in Wikipedia.

1 - Based on the observation of burials ... They probably have a religion.

2 - Based on their automatic response of hiding or threatening strangers ... They may have had contact prior to that known.  I wouldn't be surprised if they had contact with the Chinese in the 1400's. 

3 - It also shows that they have some sort of governance, which has an official stance on outside contact.  Without this, it would be highly likely for an individual's curiosity to get the better of them and allow contact on an individual basis.

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Didge Doo
Didge Doo commented
Good conclusions. I didn't even think that far.
Walt O'Reagun
Walt O'Reagun commented
Makes ya wonder ... if we can land a probe on a comet - why can't we stealthily put monitors on the island? Not people, of course. But like those cameras hunters use - with uplinks to satellites.

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