Writer Sanctum
Other & Off-Topics => Bar & Grill [Public] => Topic started by: Vidya on November 22, 2018, 05:19:31 PM
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https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/american-tourist-killed-by-isolated-tribe-on-remote-andaman-island/686756.html
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my comments:
Yes the Sentinelese Tribe wants nothing to do with the outside world and we have to respect that. Technically they are very much a part of India but when the govt sent helicopters to check up on them after the tsunami, they shot arrows at the choppers. They don't want our concern, help, protection, or anything from us.
I read none of them were affected by the tsunami. I think these tribes live so close to nature that they have animal instincts that were long ago “civilized” out of the rest of us. They can sense when natural disasters are about to occur and they all escaped to higher ground.
They would be a fascinating study for any anthropologist but they are off-limits. It’s not too much of a stretch to imagine they may have abilities that have been “civilized” out of the rest of us.
To me it brings up an interesting ethical question. While we have no right to impose our culture on them, is it fair to not even allow their children or any succeeding generation to choose for themselves what life they get to lead? Even the Amish youth are allowed to go out into the world to see it for themselves and decide which life they will choose.
Their population is estimated to be between 50 and 400 individuals. so are they just going to eventually die out? I assume they must have fantastic natural herbal remedies for all diseases and probably don't get the normal illnesses we do since they don't come into contact with strangers who can pass on their germs.
Even so one day they will die out unless we give some of their kids a chance to survive in the outside world.
More about them:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-22/how-can-the-sentinelese-people-stay-away-from-the-outside-world/10521126
note:
Part of the reason for keeping them isolated is a lack of genetic immunity to common diseases like influenza and measles.
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One of my friends was studying the language and customs of a tribe in Papua-New Guinea. They were open to it but already contact with the world changed them. By the time he went to study them, they already were sporting some western clothes and asked him for a Coke. I think it's fine if the tribe wants this contact. But we should respect the wishes of those who desire to be left alone. And parents are the first and best teachers of their children. Nobody should assume they can do better by them, whether it's well-meaning foreigners or govts. Since the Indians monitor it from time to time, they could always come to the aid of any children left behind, alone. Fascinating story. It could be a whole another Island of the Blue Dolphins type book. And yes, I think people who live close to the earth know her many secrets.
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One of my friends was studying the language and customs of a tribe in Papua-New Guinea. They were open to it but already contact with the world changed them. By the time he went to study them, they already were sporting some western clothes and asked him for a Coke. I think it's fine if the tribe wants this contact. But we should respect the wishes of those who desire to be left alone. And parents are the first and best teachers of their children. Nobody should assume they can do better by them, whether it's well-meaning foreigners or govts. Since the Indians monitor it from time to time, they could always come to the aid of any children left behind, alone. Fascinating story. It could be a whole another Island of the Blue Dolphins type book. And yes, I think people who live close to the earth know her many secrets.
I have to agree with this. These people have a culture of their own and should be left in peace to live it. Yes, the tribe may some day die out, but that is their choice.
And who knows. They may be the last survivors of a nuclear holocaust or the zombiepocalypse.
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As long as they don't go around sacrificing virgins to propitiate the gods, leave 'em alone.
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As long as they don't go around sacrificing virgins to propitiate the gods, leave 'em alone.
But if they did do so, and virgins agreed to it, does anyone have the right to force them to desist?
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As long as they don't go around sacrificing virgins to propitiate the gods, leave 'em alone.
Freedom of religion, as long as it's their own virgins. Now, if they hop in their canoes and kidnapped virgins from a neighboring island to sacrifice, that's an entirely different story.
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I'm seeing a heck of a thriller forming in my mind right now. Grin
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I'm seeing a heck of a thriller forming in my mind right now. Grin
Go for it!!!
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To me it brings up an interesting ethical question. While we have no right to impose our culture on them, is it fair to not even allow their children or any succeeding generation to choose for themselves what life they get to lead? Even the Amish youth are allowed to go out into the world to see it for themselves and decide which life they will choose.
I'm with the school of thought that says that we should leave these people in peace unless they somehow reach out for help or are in such distress that there is a compelling reason for us to intervene.
Having said that, it strikes me that we have gone all the wrong ways about establishing contact.
Those making attempts seem to have been predominately male and tried to make the contact person to person.
No wonder an apparently patriarchal warrior tribe have perceived them as a threat and taken action.
If I was trying to engage with them I would start by leaving objects where they could find them and keep people well out of it.
Firstly I would leave something simple and useful that they could make sense of with a little experimentation - a wheelbarrow, for example.
Even if it took a month before someone examined it and tried it out, there is a fair chance that they would see that it posed no threat and could be handy for collecting firewood or coconuts or whatever.
Assuming that they assimilated the first article into their lives I would try a second - maybe a bicycle for them to experiment with. Or a simply musical instrument like a recorder or penny whistle.
If they became interested and looked for more such gifts, they could be slowly introduced to new concepts which might expand their horizons and make them curious rather than frightened by the world beyond their island sanctuary.
But if the avoided or destroyed the gifts, that would be a clear message too.
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The Federation will invent the Prime Directive in about two hundred years for a very good reason
:icon_mrgreen:
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I'm seeing a heck of a thriller forming in my mind right now. Grin
Go for it!!!
I'm seeing Jason Statham and Russell Crowe, through their search and recovery company, being paid millions to go in and rescue John Heder after he goes missing on a missionary trip to the island. Russell takes a poison arrow to the shoulder and Jason ends up in a shirtless fist fight with the island bad ass.
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Even so one day they will die out unless we give some of their kids a chance to survive in the outside world.
More likely, those of us who survive the upcoming wars will move out into space, and thousands of years from now a ship from this island will find the remains of modern society and create legends about it.
I had an interesting conversation one time with a lady who grew up in a small tribe on a small island off Fiji. They certainly lived differently there.
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I had an interesting conversation with a native of Easter Island. He had gone to college off-island in South America. While growing up on the island, he and the rest of the residents didn't have electricity and they didn't have tourists. On the whole, he felt we could have kept both. In his opinion, neither have been a true advantage to the island.
"Think of the children" is the excuse people use to act in a genocidal manner toward supposedly "backward" groups. In Australia, they grabbed the children and educated them--to be servants. In the U.S., well, it's even worse here, if that's possible, since aside from basically doing the same thing--separating children from their homes on the pretext of "helping" them but really in an attempt to eradicate their culture--our government is still trying to destroy native lands and ignore treaties and all the rest of it.
The problem with leaving a wheelbarrow is the germs being left with it and the possible bugs secreted in it and the spiders hiding on it and all the germs they carry, too.
If I was in that tribe, I'd be shooting arrows at arrogant outsiders, too.
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All they want is to be left alone.
That's not hard. Let's leave them alone.
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This reminds me of a favorite book from childhood, which I always think of as The Smiley Possum but is actually entitled The Possum That Didn't.
It's got great cartoony illustrations. The story: The possum is smiling, but he's hanging upside down on a tree in the forest, so a bunch of interfering city people decide it is their civic duty to make sure he smiles. They transport him against his will to the city, where he finally gets miserable enough to stop smiling. Whereupon the people get medals. The possum creeps away back to the forest, finds another tree, and starts smiling again.
This was a good lesson for my mother to teach me at an early age. Perspective is not truth.