Talk:Sentinelese

Negrito inter-relatedness

I removed the following recently-inserted para:

they don't even make fire. They are pygmy negritos, which means that they are related in race not to the modern day populations of Asia but closer to the Mbuti pygmies of the central African rainforests and the Khoisan peoples of southern Africa. They are assumed to be the descendants of the first modern homo sapiens sapiens to colonise the world, and most of whom have now been replaced elsewhere by later population migrations. Small negrito groups do exist in places such as Vietnam, leading us to the conclusion that these were the original populations of the area, later replaced by South Chinese settlers. The fact that only the Andaman Islanders have retained their own language, while other groups have been overrun by migrants at different stages of history, shows just how isolated these people are.

Apart from its awkward phrasing, while it has indeed been speculated that the Andamanese share some genetic heritage in common with various other widely-dispersed peoples who have been identified as negritos, and that they represent the remaining descendants of some "earlier wave" of migration, this has not yet been "proved". The idea does warrant mentioning, but IMO not in the form given above, needs to be more carefully portrayed (and also, referenced). I think it best that this text be reworked.--cjllw | TALK 22:58, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

"Negritos" are an apparently paraphyletic catchall, and any six-footer who waves a 4-foot barbed arrow at me with his flatbow surely does not qualify as "pygmy" in my book. Dysmorodrepanis 09:30, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps a simple link to the Negrito article would suffice, which incidentally includes Andaman islanders within its definition. Kortoso (talk) 17:17, 3 June 2015 (UTC)

Citation needed

I'd like to see a cite for this statement:

"A curious incident occurred on March 29, 1970, when the research expedition's surveying party found themselves cornered on the reef flats between North Sentinel and Constance Island: A group of Sentinelese men threatened them with bows and arrows from a distance, but the situation was eventually broken up by Sentinelese women engaging the men in a mass orgy in the face of the amazed researchers, after which most of them retired to the forest with only a few guards overseeing the escape of the surveying party."—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.118.198.251 (talk • contribs) 7 Febuary 2007.

The above incident is a none-too-delicate retelling of an encounter by a group of Indian anthropologists which included T.N. Pandit. It may appear in his book, but a quote from either him or one of his companions describing the incident is reproduced online here in the Andaman Book by George Weber's Andaman Association. It'd probably be better to work the actual quote into the text and cite it.--cjllw | TALK 07:16, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

I see this has been done now, but it now suffers the opposite problem in that it is very coyly phrased, to the extent that is unclear exactly what the nature of the "display" was. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.193.245.14 (talk) 11:04, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

WP:INDIA Banner/Andaman and Nicobar Islands workgroup Addition

Note: {{WP India}} Project Banner with Andaman and Nicobar Islands workgroup parameters was added to this article talk page because the article falls under Category:Andaman and Nicobar Islands or its subcategories. Should you feel this addition is inappropriate , please undo my changes and update/remove the relavent categories to the article -- TinuCherian ^{(Wanna Talk?)} - 05:47, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

Slave trading

"Their social practices have been almost entirely free of external influence since the end of slave trading three centuries ago." Why is slave trading mentioned in the article? 87.70.11.29 (talk) 12:25, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

I haven't checked, but I think that line is new as I have read the article lots of times and it's the only thing I don't remember. Presumably it means that slavers used to visit the island, but some more detail should be given. Salopian (talk) 14:21, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

Slaving is mentioned because it was an external influence. And presumably the or a reason for the islanders' hostility. Probably in Nat Geo somewhere; I don't remember where I read that. kwami (talk) 14:24, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

Source

• The Most Isolated People in the World us1.campaign-archive2.com--91.39.99.159 (talk) 07:41, 6 July 2011 (UTC)

Fire: yes or no?

"there is no evidence of either agricultural practices or methods of producing fire." "Fires are maintained as embers inside dwellings, possibly assisted by resin torches." So do they have fire or not? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.82.132.35 (talk) 23:44, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

You can have fire w/o being able to produce fire. Not the same thing. — kwami (talk) 05:45, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

All that can be said is that officials from the Andaman Islands confirm that smoke sometimes rises from the islands. As for agricultural practices, from satellite photos it is clear there are no fields, but I don't have anything that resembles a source for that. -- Llehsadam (talk) 06:35, 15 March 2014 (UTC)

In reference 8 it is written: "... and if we may judge from the multitude of lights seen upon the shore at night, it is well inhabited...". I assume the lights are from fire? Tecfan (talk) 13:49, 12 September 2015 (UTC)

"cease" vs "ease"

I have to wonder if the change from cease to ease is valid since this is a quote rather than a description. Is "cease" a mistake from the original quote? Hue White (talk) 22:37, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Confusing length of arrows

Under the heading "Culture" the following sentence is found:

"The arrows are over 1 m (3 ft) long. The harpoon- or javelin-type arrows are nearly half as long again, about the same length as the bows (over 3 m (10 ft)), and can also be thrown or used for stabbing, but the latter probably only rarely."

There must be an error here. If regular arrows are "over 1 m ... long" and harpoon-type arrows are "nearly half as long again", that would make the latter about 1.5 m long. But that is not "about the same length as the bows (over 3 m (10 ft))".

Which measurement is right, 3 or 1.5 meters?

I have googled the phrase "harpoon- or javelin-type arrows" and found 43 results using the exact same wording, except that the harpoon-type arrows are in nearly every case said to be 5 feet long, which seems much more reasonable. Presumably, the copied text is from an earlier (and correct?) Wikipedia version and the 3 m claim is an error introduced later on, but without access to the original source (unnamed in the text) I cannot edit the article.

--Filursiax (talk) 16:33, 25 December 2012 (UTC)

In this video from the researchers that visited the island in the 80s, the arrows are stated as being 2.5m long. They also show one of the arrows. -- Llehsadam (talk) 06:25, 15 March 2014 (UTC)

The "arrow" shown in the video does appear to be at least 2 meters long, but it also depicts the Sentinelese aiming their bows at the researchers. They are holding the bows vertically, not sideways, and if those bows were much over 2 meters long they would not be able to use them effectively that way. If the arrows they were firing were 3 meters long, 2/3 of the arrow would extend past the bow when it was fully drawn (no matter how long the bow is the arrow can't be drawn farther than the distance between the extended arm and the opposite shoulder). It would make them very difficult to aim and there would be no benefit to the length of the arrow. I'm pretty sure that the "arrow" the researchers pull from the water is not an arrow but a stabbing or possibly throwing spear/harpoon for fishing. The Sentinelese would have to be 8 feet tall to fire that from a bow effectively. I'm going to edit the sizes to reflect this. 162.232.246.7 (talk) 18:42, 2 August 2014 (UTC)

"Slightly more males than females"

Is it not a bit ridiculous to state that "there appears to be slightly more males than females" when so little is known about the population that estimates range from 40 to 500? --2A01:E34:EE33:210:DC60:44A4:E3F3:CA65 (talk) 21:56, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Agreed, since the only Sentinelese that are counted are those that come out on the beach and it's clear that this is not their entire population (no children have ever been seen), this should be removed. 162.232.246.7 (talk) 18:43, 2 August 2014 (UTC)

There are children in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExdEHU02Zk0 , it's not a new vid either. 213.40.55.89 (talk) 13:35, 11 April 2017 (UTC)

If you do a google search for "Sentinelese Children" you can find some pictures that seem to depict them, but if you go to the site you can see these are pictures of other tribes of Andaman Islanders, who are related but not as isolated. 162.232.246.7 (talk) 19:01, 2 August 2014 (UTC)

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Marco Polo

"Describing the Sentinelese tribe of India's remote Andaman islands in his travel journals, the notoriously trite 13th-century explorer Marco Polo wrote: 'They are a most violent and cruel generation who seem to eat everybody they catch.'" [1]

Kortoso (talk) 18:26, 19 December 2016 (UTC)