Stone Age tribe kills fishermen

This was interesting.

ONE of the world's last Stone Age tribes has murdered two fishermen whose boat drifted on to a desert island in the Indian Ocean.

The Sentinelese, thought to number between 50 and 200, have rebuffed all contact with the modern world, firing a shower of arrows at anyone who comes within range.

They are believed to be the last pre-Neolithic tribe in the world to remain isolated and appear to have survived the 2004 Asian tsunami.

So should they be bombed into the stone age, or vaulted into the information age?

Should they be left alone?

Would bombing them into the stone age be an improvement? Perhaps the shrapnel fragments would give them ideas about how to advance into the bronze age.

Being serious though, leave them alone. If they were interested in contact, they wouldn't be shooting at everything that comes close.

*edit*
I think a means of contact, such a boat which passes by once a year, should be made available to them, but we shouldn't force anything on them. If they decide they want to talk to the rest of the world, we should help, but not unless they decide to do so.

They should be left alone.

"This is mine, that is your; trespass on mine and you'll get yours." Just let the buggers be.

Why mess with them? Leave them alone.

{I was a little disappointed by this... I thought we had just uncovered a stone age murder.)

Originally Posted by Papewaio's source

In the 1980s and early 1990s many Sentinelese were killed in skirmishes with armed salvage operators who visited the island after a shipwreck.

Sounds like they have good reason for their hostility to outsiders. The exclusion zone sounds like a good idea in theory, but clearly hard to implement in practice.

Isn't there a small, permanent Indian military garrison there to enforce it these days ? I recall seeing a document about these folks a while back.

If they are peacefucl, sure you can leave them alone. Showering two fishermen that drifted off course with arrows? No.

Gonna complain to the ambassador then ?

If Mexico landed 3 million fishermen on the shores of the USA would the USA act peacefully?

Yes. They wouldn't be feed and given a place to stay, but I really doubt that they would be seriously harmed...

If Mexico landed 3 million fishermen on the shores of the USA would the USA act peacefully?

Heck, we act peacefully when MS-13 plans to asault law enforcement on the borders, the Mexican army violates our borders, and armed bandits roam it. If we don't defend ourselves against armed, hostile, intruders, I daresay we wouldn't do anything to a bunch of drunk fishermen. Do we try to stop illegal immigrants?

EDIT: I say leave them alone. Though (here I am joking) it would be cool to have some sort of helicopter with fireworks going off from it fly over their island at an annual lunar event.

Crazed Rabbit

Originally Posted by Papewaio

If Mexico landed 3 million fishermen on the shores of the USA would the USA act peacefully?

They've landed 10 million, but technically they werent all fishermen.

So should they be bombed into the stone age, or vaulted into the information age?

But they're already in the stone age.

Ok, on topic- I say leave them be.

Well, I know what I'm doing for my summer vacation now. I'm going to sneak onto this island with a couple of handguns, a generator, a sixty-inch plasma TV, and a whole crapload of Gummy-Bears, Coca-Cola, and tupperwear, then install myself as the all-powerful God of these people's world...

And if you're in a bad mood, you could bring a radio and convince them that Bill O'rielly(sp?!) is God.

IMO, it would be well worth the trouble teaching them English.

Originally Posted by Papewaio

Should they be left alone?

What, after they killed two stranded seamen for nought? God knows what else those utterly shameless, half-naked men and uninhibited, lasciviously bare-breasted women are up to in their stretch of well-hidden, sweltering island jungle. In order to pacify and convert the poor heathens I will take it upon myself to lead a mission to the island from which I may never return. Farewell, dear organs, God bless...

You will have to take a micro brewery with you if you want beer...

Leave them.

Might as well just come by every couple months, tranq one of them and tag 'em with big plastic ear rings.

Leave them be, seems they've made their intentions well known.

Shame about the fishermen, but, hey ho, things happen.

...I want to shoot stone arrows at fishermen who block my nice view of the ocean... but then that'd be illegal...*mumbles something about joining them*

Leave them.
With a small and closed community like that I wouldn't be surprised if they will inbreed themself to death.

A great find. Saw this on BoingBoing.net where they posted some more
info on the tribe from this source:

On some visits the party would see Sentinelese; on others they would not. Invariably, however, they would try to land - at a place out of bow-shot, if there were natives on the beach - and leave gifts. These in-cluded sacks of coconuts, bananas, and bits of iron conveniently sized to be hammered and scraped into arrowheads; occasionally they brought special presents like mirrors, red ribbons, rubber balls, and bead neck-laces. Sometimes the Sentinelese would make gestures that appeared friendly, waving their hands as the dinghies chugged across the lagoon; sometimes they would make gestures that were probably hostile, turning their backs toward the visitors en masse and sitting on their haunches as if to defecate. It was not out of character for them to rush out of the jungle and grab the gifts, then shower their retreating benefactors with arrows.
Occasionally there were incidents more reminiscent of the Keystone Kops than of Captain Cook. Once, a high-ranking naval officer, newly deputed to the Andamans, accompanied the expedition. "He was a very fat guy, a Punjabi, with a very loud manner and talking too much, that type of character," Pandit recalls. As the officer's dinghy approached shore, and Sentinelese were seen emerging from the forest, he stood up and started waving his arms over his head, shouting at the tribesmen in Punjabi: "Hello! Hello! I am your friend!" A second later, an arrow clanged against an iron shield that a crewman had held up, just in time, in front of the officer's belly. During another expedition, a boat carrying the superintendent of police turned turtle in the surf. Some armed Sentinelese watched from the beach, but did not shoot the struggling men. This was seen as an encouraging sign.

I wonder how they see us? Do they think we worship them because we bring them gifts? I guess they think we're pretty stupid...

I wonder how this event could be turned as battle between the "right" and "left".Maybe those stone arrows and primitive bows need some gun control laws or maybe the existence of such community is just showing us proof what happens to an community with extremely liberal clothing policies.Damn hippies.

"It was not out of character for them to rush out of the jungle and grab the gifts, then shower their retreating benefactors with arrows."

That's homo sapiens alright.

Originally Posted by AdrianII

What, after they killed two stranded seamen for nought? God knows what else those utterly shameless, half-naked men and uninhibited, lasciviously bare-breasted women are up to in their stretch of well-hidden, sweltering island jungle. In order to pacify and convert the poor heathens I will take it upon myself to lead a mission to the island from which I may never return. Farewell, dear organs, God bless...

Could we get this on DVD or pay per view.

"Some armed Sentinelese watched from the beach, but did not shoot the struggling men. This was seen as an encouraging sign."

LOL!

In the old days we would have marched ashore, shot a few of them, sold the rest shiney things and alcohol and installed a TB sufferer as Governor before realising that the whole exercise was pointless and expensive.

Originally Posted by Slyspy

"Some armed Sentinelese watched from the beach, but did not shoot the struggling men. This was seen as an encouraging sign."

LOL!

In the old days we would have marched ashore, shot a few of them, sold the rest shiney things and alcohol and installed a TB sufferer as Governor before realising that the whole exercise was pointless and expensive.

...and then sent in Margaret Mead to study them before giving them tv's.

Yup, times have certainly changed. :)

Caption this!
From here

A Setineli man has had enough of the government "friendship visit" and signals all too clearly that they should, erh, go away (Photo courtesy KAS Film 1993)

To Mods: I figure this pic is okay to post? (it's not that sharp)

Originally Posted by Goodheart

The history of the period can be summarized as a series of epidemics and dates, like a roster of military campaigns: pneumonia (1868), syphilis (1874), ophthalmia (1876), measles (1877), mumps (1886), Russian influenza (1890), gonorrhea (1892). ...In 1858, it is believed, the aboriginal population of the Andaman Islands numbered at least 5,000. In 1931, the last time the British tried to count, it was estimated at 460.

Doesn't this seem profoundly depressing? I am not sure how far modern medicine has taken us, but even now I fear increasing contact would just doom the tribe. Their savagery in defending their seclusion may perversely be justified.