Despite these overtures, the Sentinelese maintained their skepticism towards visitors (“skepticism” in this context means “aggressively shooting arrows at”), and such attempts to communicate have since been curtailed. The Sentinelese took the red buckets but left the green ones behind. The pots and coconuts were eagerly accepted. They also build canoes–however they have not been known to venture beyond the reefs of their island.įor a time the outside world attempted to initiate contact with the Sentinelese by presenting gifts such as coconuts, buckets, dolls, pigs and metal pots before (quickly!) retreating to a distance out of arrowshot. The islanders manufacture baskets, pounding stones, nets, and adzes. The tips of their weapons are steel and iron which have been scavenged and shaped through cold-smithing (in the late 1980s two international container ships ran aground on the island’s external coral reefs). The language, religion, and customs of the Sentinelese are unknown (although they are presumed to speak a language in the Andamanese family). The inhabitants go naked except during hunting expeditions when they wear belts/loincloths. The Sentinelese are hunter-gatherers, subsisting on fruits, seeds, tubers, fish, shellfish, honey, feral pigs, and the eggs of turtles and seabirds. Here they are pointing their weapons at a helicopter.Īgriculture is completely unknown on North Sentinel Island.
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