This Tribe Rejected Civilization

[00:00:00]There's a mysterious island you're not allowed to visit. Not because of radiation or a military base or some corporate secret, but because the people who live there will kill you. They've made that very clear. And every government on Earth has agreed to just leave them alone. But the more you look at why, the more you start to wonder. Do they know something that we don't? Hey people, welcome back. If you're new here, I'm Michael. I have a degree in ancient history and on this channel we explore the recurring patterns that shape and shatter civilizations. Let's get into it.

[00:00:36]This is North Sentinel Island. If you go here, you'll die. That's not an exaggeration or clickbait. The island is home to a tribe of people completely cut off from the outside world. And they've made it very clear that they want nothing to do with us. But we've tried.

[00:00:52]They've watched every ship that's ever come close, every helicopter, every missionary who thought God's protection was stronger than a Sentinel's arrow.

[00:01:01]It's fascinating that there's a group of people who have looked at modern life without roads, healthcare, TVs, computers, and just flat out said, "Nah, leave us alone." But this isn't really a story about them. It's a story about us.

[00:01:15]because it makes you think, why do the people of North Sentinel Island want nothing to do with modern society? North Sentinel Island is located right here in the Bay of Bengal, part of the Andaman Archipelago. Technically speaking, it's a part of India, but the government has clearly marked it off as a special protected space removed from the rest of the territory. The island itself is minuscule, barely 60 km in total. The land is about what you'd expect to see of a tropical island, able to sustain human life fairly comfortably. Were it's not for its inhabitants, nobody would bat an island at North Sentinel Island.

[00:01:54]But for the last 300 years or so, the tribe inhabiting the island have fended off anyone trying to set foot on its shores. They've deliberately chosen to remain fenced off from the rest of human civilization and do their own thing.

[00:02:08]Looking at their society is like peering into the distant past. No writing, no widespread infrastructure or agriculture, tribal hierarchies living off the land. Now, we don't know for sure how many sentinelles there are on the island, but estimates put it at no more than 100 people. It's pretty crazy to imagine going through your entire life only ever encountering 100 people.

[00:02:32]The idea of a stranger doesn't exist to the North Sentinel, except for us, of course. Their social fabric and lives in general are so far removed from our own that it's almost impossible to put ourselves in their shoes, which they don't even have to be clear. And I feel pretty confident in saying that if you had to choose between modern life and a prehistoric style life with no running water, electricity or any of the comforts that we know, 99% of you would stay right where you are. I know I would. Thus, a lot of people still assume the Sentinel just don't know any different. They see our helicopters patrolling the skies and our ships patrolling the seas as alien metal beasts. They only live in their prehistoric style lives because they don't know anything different. But that's not the case. The Sentinel definitely know we exist. They've interacted with us multiple times and they've seen a good chunk of what we can do with modern technology. They just don't want to be part of it. Nearly every time a stranger has tried to make contact with the Sentinel, the tribe has struck back violently. They fire arrows at our ships whenever we approach.

[00:03:43]That's pretty much the opposite of rolling out the red carpet from an international relations point of view.

[00:03:48]The Sentinel have made it crystal clear that they reject our way of life, what they know of it at least, and prefer their own. To our credit, we've mostly respected their choice. The Indian government has made it illegal to go to the island and are very strict when it comes to enforcing this rule. For the most part, we're happy to just be casual observers and let them do their thing.

[00:04:11]We've had trouble with the odd missionary trying their luck or with violent encounters after shipwrecks, but we've managed to get out of them without any harm coming to the Sentinel. Because the reality is that any kind of contact could wipe the people of the island out.

[00:04:26]In the same way European settlers heading to America spread devastating diseases across the continent, any kind of interaction we'd have with them could subject their immune systems to foreign germs they're totally unprepared for.

[00:04:40]They might not know it, but by keeping modern life off the island, the Sentinel are actually sparing themselves from total annihilation. Not everyone agrees with the hands-off approach, though. The Christian missionary John Alan Chow saw the island as Satan's last hold on Earth. He traveled to North Sentinel Island illegally to spread the word of Jesus and save its people. But to nobody's shock, the islanders killed him after repeated warnings. They then buried his body on the beach. Others argue that the Sentinel aren't making an informed choice. Since they don't really know what modern life is like, they can't choose agriculture, refined healthcare, and widespread infrastructure. If they were given perfect information of how we live, then chose to stay isolated, that would be fair enough. But their experiences of us are incredibly limited. The line between good-natured contact and old-fashioned colonialism is a blurry one. Regardless of how informed their choice is, the Sentinel have made their choice. And it's one that raises some interesting questions about our own choices. It's very easy for us to look down on the people of North Sentinel Island. The place is often buil as the island that time forgot where people too frightened by the modern world to interact with us are stuck in prehistory. Now, don't get me wrong, the situation is fascinating and there's nothing wrong with exploring that. There's no denying that the Sentinel live simpler lives than we do and that their ways of life are something of a snapshot of how humanity might have looked way back in the past.

[00:06:15]But like I said, the Sentinel have chosen to stay cut off from us. They're more or less happy with the way that they are. They have their own culture, customs, story, and a language that is almost totally isolated from any language we know. A sentinel living in our society might be vulnerable to diseases, but given how cut off we are from nature, I don't think the vast majority of us would fare long in their society either. It's also a mistake to assume the Sentinel society remains completely static. A few ships have run ground near the island, and once the crew have been rescued, the tribe there have scavenged the Rex for materials.

[00:06:54]We've now seen them switch to iron arrow heads not long after, showing that they're pretty resourceful and are able to adapt. But do they need to be so hostile? You might ask. It's a fair question, especially if we assume they don't know about the threat of diseases from coming into contact with us. But consider their history. Back in the 19th century, a British expedition kidnapped a family of six sentinelles, two adults and four children, to study them. The parents died of sickness, so the expedition sent the children rapidly back to the island. Obviously, the expedition didn't mean to harm the natives, but they still kidnapped them against their will, and two of them died. So, you can understand why the Sentinel might not be so keen on us after an interaction like that. It's not a tragedy that the Sentinel live their lives this way. It's just how it is, and we've done well to respect their space and their culture. What I do think is a shame is that we don't get to share our cultures and get a glimpse into how they set up their societies. It would be fascinating to see if they follow similar patterns as other civilizations have done throughout history or if they've developed unique ways of structuring themselves. I'd love to hear the stories and to see if they have the same foundational myths we do. Do they have a version of a great flood story?

[00:08:12]Do they tell stories of a great hero like many cultures that we know of?

[00:08:16]Understanding their language would also give us a glimpse of a totally new linguistic group. Does it have any connections to languages in the region?

[00:08:24]We may never know. The silver lining is that we have had a couple of positive interactions with the people of North Sentinel Island. In the '90s, a group of Indian anthropologists managed to communicate enough with the Sentinel to let them know that they meant no harm.

[00:08:39]Then they handed them a few coconuts as thanks. The Sentinel accepted them but warned the anthropologists not to stick around for too long. And that's about as far as we've gotten in establishing contact with the tribe. Thus, we have so many questions about the Sentinel. The whole situation is an anthropologist dream come true. But we can't get any answers and we just have to accept that.

[00:09:03]We have to stay humble, put the wishes of a sovereign people above our curiosity, and be happy with what we know. The Sentinel don't need saving.

[00:09:12]They're not a petri dish for us to play around with. They're just different and there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, as much as I'm focusing on their society, maybe the way they live could uncover one or two things about our way of life. In 2004, a massive earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra right here in Indonesia. The earthquake did plenty of damage by itself. But it also caused enormous tsunamis to strike all over the Indian Ocean. India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Sri Lanka all got hit hard. In total, over 200,000 people sadly died. A huge part of the chaos from the tsunami came from the damage it did to our infrastructure. Power outages, a lack of clean water, and food shortages left local populations scrambling to survive. During the chaos, someone thought to check on North Sentinel Island. How badly had the tsunami hit the people living there?

[00:10:07]Would they be able to withstand such a calamity? Well, it turned out that the Sentinel did survive the tsunami. Not only that, they adapted to the after effects quite well, switching up their fishing locations after realizing the tsunami had affected their local pools.

[00:10:23]The island itself actually rose because of the earthquake, exposing coral reefs and changing the ecosystem. But the Sentinel found a way. Despite being pretty close to the danger center of the natural disaster, the Sentinel pulled through more successfully than many would give them credit for. Now, I'm not going to tell you that the people of North Sentinel Island have a society more resilient to the threats of the world than we do. They obviously don't, given the fact that we can't even get into contact with them without putting their entire people at risk of extinction. That said, the 2004 tsunami showed that a people who don't have to rely on massive infrastructure projects, energy plants, and global supply chains might be better suited to adapt to a natural disaster. So, just how strong is modern society? We like to think we're not dependent on nature anymore, that we've mastered the land, the sea, and the sky. But the truth is that if we didn't have access to all the structures that keep modern life going, we'd be finished. Do you know how to get fresh water without just turning on a tap? How do we keep ourselves warm without central heating? Where do we get food without supermarkets and the like? If you think about it, we're actually incredibly vulnerable. The apocalypse isn't the only time these systems are put under a lot of stress either. War and natural disasters happen. And that's to say nothing of the risks of climate change or pandemics. But the Sentinel show it's possible to adapt our ways of life in times of chaos and still come out on top. We might be wise to think about how much our own societies could withstand the kind of shocks we might see in a few years. Globalization has given us huge amounts of benefits.

[00:12:01]Supply chains and international trade have made our lives infinitely better.

[00:12:05]But in a world where everything is so interconnected and linked together, it might be a people completely shut off from the rest of the planet who teach us something new about ourselves. Thanks so much for watching guys. If you enjoyed this video, please consider leaving a like, a comment, or subscribing to my channel down below. I'll see you next time.