How People From an Uncontacted Island Tribe Made Me Doubt My Faith

“Satan’s last stronghold” lies around 700km west of the Southern tip of Myanmar.

Rory Cockshaw
ExCommunications

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American ‘killed in India by endangered Andaman tribe’

Hah, so an uncontacted tribe killed an American trying to contact them, right?

Poor guy… but what did he expect?

I still remember the headline, and my reaction to it.

That BBC news article was a novelty and a curiosity for me… as most news is, when you don’t actually live the headline.

My curiosity dragged me into the article, raising questions as it did so: Who was this ‘endangered Andaman tribe’? Why are they endangered? Who was the American? And what were they doing that ended in their death?

For four quick questions, I found four quick answers.

  1. The tribespeople were the Sentinelese of North Sentinel Island, one of an island group south-east of India — closer to Myanmar, if anything. Technically, the islands are Indian.
  2. The Sentinelese are endangered because they live on a tiny island that is not large enough to support a population of more than about 200. Furthermore, they have been there and remained…

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Rory Cockshaw
ExCommunications

I write about science, philosophy, and society. Occasionally whatever else takes my fancy. Student @ University of Cambridge, Yale Bioethics alum.