The Sentinelese (also Sentineli, Senteneli, Sentenelese, North Sentinel Islanders) are one of the Andamanese indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal. They exclusively inhabit North Sentinel Island which lies westwards off the southern tip of the Great Andaman archipelago. They are noted for vigorously maintaining their independence and sovereignty over the island, and resisting attempts of contact by outsiders. By their long-standing separation from any other human society they are among the most isolated and unassimilated peoples on Earth, their social practices being almost entirely free of any recorded external influence. Outline map of the Andaman Islands, with the location of North Sentinel Island highlighted (in red). ... Ethnolinguistic map of the precolonial Andaman Islands (drawn 1902) The Andamanese languages form a language family spoken in the Andaman Islands, a India. ... The Andamanese is a collective term to describe the peoples who are the aboriginal inhabitants of the Andaman Islands and Nicobar Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal. ... The Onge (also Ongee) are one of the Andamanese indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal. ... The Andamanese is a collective term to describe the peoples who are the aboriginal inhabitants of the Andaman Islands and Nicobar Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal. ... The term indigenous peoples has no universal, standard or fixed definition. ... Satellite photo of the Andaman Islands The Andaman Islands are a group of islands in the Bay of Bengal, and are part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Union Territory of India. ... A map showing the location of the Bay of Bengal. ... Outline map of the Andaman Islands, with the location of North Sentinel Island highlighted (in red). ... Great Andaman is the main archipelago of the Andaman Islands of India. ... ...

Population

The present population of the Sentinelese is not known with any great degree of accuracy, and estimates have been produced ranging from a low of fewer than 40, through to a median of around 250, and up to a maximum of 500. In the 2001 Census of India, officials recorded 39 individuals^[1] (21 males and 18 females); however, out of necessity this survey was conducted from a distance^[2] and almost certainly does not represent an accurate figure for the population who range over the 72-km² island. Any medium– or long–term impact on the Sentinelese population arising from the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and resulting tsunami remains unknown, other than the confirmation obtained that they had survived the immediate aftermath. Square kilometre (US spelling: Square kilometer), symbol km², is an SI unit of surface area. ... The December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami hits Thailand The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, was an undersea earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC (07:58:53 local time) on December 26, 2004. ... The tsunami that struck Malé in the Maldives on December 26, 2004. ...

Characteristics

The Sentinelese and other indigenous Andamanese peoples are frequently described as negritos, a somewhat indistinct anthropological term, which has been applied to variously widely-separated peoples in Southeast Asia, such as the Semang of the Malay archipelago and the Aeta of the Philippines, as well as sometimes to other peoples as far afield as South America and Australia. The defining characteristics of these 'negrito' peoples include a comparatively short stature, dark skin and "peppercorn" hair. The Sentinelese themselves appear however to be somewhat taller on average than other Andamanese peoples. The Andamanese is a collective term to describe the peoples who are the aboriginal inhabitants of the Andaman Islands and Nicobar Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal. ... Semang, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago The Negritos include the Ati, the Aeta and at least 4 other tribes of the Philippines, the Semang of the Malay peninsula, and 12 Andamanese tribes of the Andaman Islands. ... Anthropology (from the Greek word άνθρωπος, human or person) consists of the study of humanity (see genus Homo). ... Location of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia. ... The Semang are the Pygmy-sized Negritos of the Malay peninsula. ... The Malay Archipelago refers to the vast group of islands located between mainland Southeast Asia (Indochina) and Australia. ... The Aeta are an indigenous people who live in the northern part of the Philippines on the island of Luzon. ... South America South America is a continent crossed by the equator, with most of its area in the Southern Hemisphere. ...

The Sentinelese maintain an essentially hunter-gatherer society, obtaining their subsistence through hunting and fishing; there is no evidence of any agricultural practices among them. In anthropology, the hunter-gatherer way of life is that led by certain societies of the Neolithic Era based on the exploitation of wild plants and animals. ... Subsistence means living in a permanently fragile equilibrium between alimentary needs and the means for satisfying them. ...

It is frequently asserted that they rely upon natural events such as lightning strikes to obtain fire, but it is not known whether they also manufacture it; certainly, since the earliest reports of these people it has been observed that they maintain campfires on a nightly basis. Metalwork among them is unknown, as indeed is any likely source of the raw materials on the island. However, it has been observed that they have made adroit use of metal materials which have washed up or been left behind on their shores, and incorporated these into weapons and other items. For example, in the late 1980s two international container ships ran aground on the island's external coral reefs, from which the Sentinelese retrieved several items of iron^[3].

Language

Virtually nothing is known of the Sentinelese language, and no word lists or language samples have been collected by researchers. It is presumably an Andamanese language, but how closely it may be related to other languages of that family is unknown. Ethnolinguistic map of the precolonial Andaman Islands (drawn 1902) The Andamanese languages form a language family spoken in the Andaman Islands, a India. ...

Contemporary situation

Their island is nominally part of and administered by the Indian Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands; however, in practice the Sentinelese exercise complete autonomy over their affairs and the involvement of the Indian authorities is restricted to occasional monitoring, even more infrequent and brief visits, and generally discouraging any access or approaches to the island. A Union Territory is an administrative division of India. ... Map of Andaman and Nicobar Islands with an extra detailed area around Port Blair The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India. ... The Government of India, officially referred to as the Union Government, and commonly as Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of a federal union of 28 states and 7 union territories, collectively called Republic of India. ...

From the early 1990s the Indian authorities in Port Blair embarked on a programme of official but limited attempts at contacting the Sentinelese, under the auspices of the Director of Tribal Welfare. These "Contact Expeditions" consisted of a series of planned visits which would progressively leave "gifts", such as coconuts, on the shores, in an attempt to coax the Sentinelese from their customary hostile reception of outsiders. For a while these seemed to have some limited success; however the programme was discontinued in the late 1990s following a series of hostile encounters resulting in several deaths in a similar programme practiced with the Jarawa people of South and Middle Andaman Islands. The Sentinelese remain skeptical and generally hostile to any approaches from outsiders. Port Blair is the largest town in the Andaman Islands and the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands union territory of India. ... The Jarawa are an isolated people native to the Andaman Islands of the Bay of Bengal, south of India. ... South Andaman Island is the southernmost island of Great Andaman and is home to the majority of the Andaman Islands population. ... Middle Andaman Island is the central island of the Great Andaman archipelago, with a total area of 1,536 km². The island is home to many of the Jarawa people and was inundated by the tsunami resulting from the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. ...

In 2006, Sentinelese archers killed two fishermen who were fishing illegally within range of the island, and drove off the helicopter that was sent to retrieve their bodies with a hail of arrows.^[4] To this date, their bodies remain unrecovered. 2006 (MMVI in Roman) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

See also

• Uncontacted peoples

Few peoples have remained totally uncontacted by modern civilisation. ...

References

1. ^  Census of India 2001 (pdf), A&N Islands, Number of Households, Total Population and Population of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
2. ^  as noted in description text on 29 April 2005 image, North Sentinel Island, European Space Agency
3. ^  Master Plan1991-2021 for Welfare of Primitive Tribes of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Sec. II Ch. 21. Dept. of Tribal Welfare, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Administration; as reproduced in Andaman Book
4. ^  Stone Age tribe kills fishermen The Sydney Morning Herald

The European Space Agency (ESA), established in 1975,is an inter-governmental organisation dedicated to exploration of space with currently 17 member states. ...

External links

• "The Last Island of the Savages", in-depth article by Adam Goodheart
• Another article from the same site
• Brief factsheet about the indigenous people of the Andaman Islands, by the Andaman & Nicobar Administration
• Administration in India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands has finally decided upon a policy of minimal interference
• "Stone Age" Indian tribe kills two fishermen - Reuters