Opinion of the Sentinelese

[minionofmidas]

Please vote option 3 if you googled "Sentinelese". Thanks in advance.

[minionofmidas]

Replies seem to generate more replies so...

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

Replies seem to generate more replies so...

Really?

Here is.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

I had to wiki them (or rather, did a few days ago when someone else mentioned them here). Does that make me option three?

FFs regardless obviously.

[Hash]

Damn cool.

[minionofmidas]

I had to wiki them (or rather, did a few days ago when someone else mentioned them here). Does that make me option three?

Obviously.

Oh, except you did google them when you had to.

So no, I suppose.

[Хahar 🤔]

Well, they can't be Horrible People, and I didn't have to look it up, so Option 1 by default.

[The Mikado]

I knew who they were without Googling!  Do I get a cookie?

Anyways, I have sort of mixed feelings.  Feel free to call me all sorts of horrible things (I'm fully expecting "cultural imperialist,"), but I feel that leaving an entire ethnic group in what amounts to a nature preserve is cruelty in the name of cultural relativism.  Does a Sentinelese man have the option to go to India and make a life for himself in the real world?  No!  That would contaminate their culture!  Does a Sentinelese woman have the option of an epidural during childbirth?  No, you damn Westerner!

I have no problem with people who choose such a lifestyle playing caveman.  I do have a problem that every Sentinelese child born is systematically denied the right to be a member of global society, and by the time they're old enough to think for themselves, they are so lacking in basic human skills that they couldn't live in the outside world unless as a King Kong-esque circus attraction.

I suppose I'll vote FF for the tribe itself: I have no problem with the Sentinelese.  I do have a problem with the rest of the world treating them as an almost zoological curiosity rather than as actual other human beings.

[Psychic Octopus]

FF by default.

[Хahar 🤔]

Now that's an interesting perspective. The problem is that the Sentinelese as a people are far enough removed from our civilization that introducing them to ours would destroy theirs. Do we have the right to make that decision?

The Great Andamanese are nearly gone. The Onge are nearly gone. The Jangil are long gone, and that was without prolonged contact. Even the Jarawa are in danger. The question is whether the Sentinelese are to be zoological curiosities or dead. I prefer the former.

[Sbane]

FF's of course. Although introducing them to society would be interesting....it would probably mean the end of their culture as well.

[Middle-aged Europe]

I knew who they were without Googling!  Do I get a cookie?

Anyways, I have sort of mixed feelings.  Feel free to call me all sorts of horrible things (I'm fully expecting "cultural imperialist,"), but I feel that leaving an entire ethnic group in what amounts to a nature preserve is cruelty in the name of cultural relativism.  Does a Sentinelese man have the option to go to India and make a life for himself in the real world?  No!  That would contaminate their culture!  Does a Sentinelese woman have the option of an epidural during childbirth?  No, you damn Westerner!

I have no problem with people who choose such a lifestyle playing caveman.  I do have a problem that every Sentinelese child born is systematically denied the right to be a member of global society, and by the time they're old enough to think for themselves, they are so lacking in basic human skills that they couldn't live in the outside world unless as a King Kong-esque circus attraction.

I suppose I'll vote FF for the tribe itself: I have no problem with the Sentinelese.  I do have a problem with the rest of the world treating them as an almost zoological curiosity rather than as actual other human beings.

As far as I understand it, the Sentinelese actively resist any contact with the outside world. They've developed the habit of trying to kill people who approach their island.

So, I'm not sure what "we" are supposed to do here except to leave them alone. They don't "us" there, so why force us upon them?

[minionofmidas]

I knew who they were without Googling!  Do I get a cookie?

No, but you get to be not held in contempt! OH THE JOY!

You must be logged in to read this quote.

I think the decision to attack all outsiders was the tribe's first and foremost.

And yes, it might very well suck to be a Sentinelese and not be allowed to ask questions about the world outside.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

Now that's an interesting perspective. The problem is that the Sentinelese as a people are far enough removed from our civilization that introducing them to ours would destroy theirs. Do we have the right to make that decision?

The Great Andamanese are nearly gone. The Onge are nearly gone. The Jangil are long gone, and that was without prolonged contact. Even the Jarawa are in danger. The question is whether the Sentinelese are to be zoological curiosities or dead. I prefer the former.

Well, former cultures die, new ones, different, rise, and so it goes. And anyways nothing die nor born, all things just transform themselves...

That's them to see anyways, they have the "luck" that until there are not "evil colonizers" that have decided to wipe them out.

Then, yes, if they stay cut, why would they want to discover something else. Well, personally i think that the right thing could be that those who want it try to constantly propose just some communication with them, if they constantly refuse, then they refuse, but i tend to think it would be good to try, if some are interested in trying. Because, yes, for the principle, i don't like the isolation of cultures, i think it isn't good from my pov, i prefer the mix...

[Sbane]

Some friendly encounters do occur......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaPYwlXOTzQ

[Sbane]

And here is why we shouldn't try contacting the Sentinelese and "civilizing" them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlRSsvB4iLE&feature=fvw

Oh and Mrs. Ganguly can go fuck herself.

[The Mikado]

Now that's an interesting perspective. The problem is that the Sentinelese as a people are far enough removed from our civilization that introducing them to ours would destroy theirs. Do we have the right to make that decision?

The Great Andamanese are nearly gone. The Onge are nearly gone. The Jangil are long gone, and that was without prolonged contact. Even the Jarawa are in danger. The question is whether the Sentinelese are to be zoological curiosities or dead. I prefer the former.

I'm not proposing that "we" (by which I mean the entire human race) give them the Native American treatment and kidnap their children.  And yes, Lewis, I am aware of their rather intense xenophobia and isolationism.  But as to the "do we have the right" question?  It offends every sensibility in my consciousness that tribal consensus in this case is allowed to override the desires of any member of the Sentinelese tribe that might want to leave and discover a world where the average lifespan isn't thirty and life isn't literally nasty, brutish, and short.

Do I have a proposal?  No serious ones.  I just want to make something clear: the Sentinelese are human beings.  I strongly resent cultural anthropologists who act like they're fricking Jane Goodall studying apes.  Treating them like lesser beings that should be examined from on high rather than our brothers and sisters is morally repugnant to me.  If a Sentinelese child were to be raised from birth in India or the United States, s/he would be indistinguishable from his/her classmates.  Treating them like freaks and exotic curiosities rather than fellow sentient beings is an intense disservice.

[Хahar 🤔]

If a Sentinelese child were to be raised from birth in India or the United States, s/he would be indistinguishable from his/her classmates.

Except for the extremely high mortality rate, no?

It's not that I disagree with your thrust. The problem is that what you propose is quite literally impossible.

[GMantis]

As I'm one of the few who knew about them without googling, I repeat Mikado's request
Otherwise, I completely disagree with him. The only way to end the Sentinele's isolation is by force and we don't need to go far to see what this leads to. Of course, history shows that this strategy of "preserve for humans" is doomed in the long term, so perhaps it's better if their absorption into civilization happens gradually instead of them being wrenched in.
Anyway, they're Freedom Fighters for trying to resist being part of global civilization. I like lost causes.