Posted on 02/07/2006 5:58:05 PM PST by blam
Stone Age tribe kills fishermen who strayed on to island
By Peter Foster in New Delhi
(Filed: 08/02/2006)
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.
Sentinelese tribesmen prepare to fire arrows at the coastguard helicopter after the fishermen's murder
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.
The two men killed, Sunder Raj, 48, and Pandit Tiwari, 52, were fishing illegally for mud crabs off North Sentinel Island, a speck of land in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands archipelago.
Fellow fishermen said they dropped anchor for the night on Jan 25 but fell into a deep sleep, probably helped by large amounts of alcohol.
During the night their anchor, a rock tied to a rope, failed to hold their open-topped boat against the currents and they drifted towards the island.
Tribesmen clamber over the fishermen's beached boat
"As day broke, fellow fishermen say they tried to shout at the men and warn them they were in danger," said Samir Acharya, the head of the Society for Andaman and Nicobar Ecology, an environmental organisation.
"However they did not respond - they were probably drunk - and the boat drifted into the shallows where they were attacked and killed."
After the fishermen's families raised the alarm, the Indian coastguard tried to recover the bodies using a helicopter but was met by the customary hail of arrows.
Photographs shot from the helicopter show the near-naked tribesmen rushing to fire. But the downdraught from its rotors exposed the two fisherman buried in shallow graves and not roasted and eaten, as local rumour suggested.
Mr Acharya said the erroneous belief in the tribe's cannibalism grew from the practice of another tribe, the Onge, who would cut up and burn their dead to avoid them returning as evil spirits.
"People saw the flesh cooking on the fire and thought they must be cannibals but this incident clearly contradicts that belief," he said.
Attempts to recover the bodies of the two men have been suspended, although the Andaman Islands police chief, Dharmendra Kumar, said an operation might be mounted later.
"Right now, there will be casualties on both sides," he said from Port Blair. "The tribesmen are out in large numbers. We shall let things cool down and once these tribals move to the island's other end we will sneak in and bring back the bodies."
Environmental groups urged the authorities to leave the bodies and respect the three-mile exclusion zone thrown around the island.
In the 1980s and early 1990s many Sentinelese were killed in skirmishes with armed salvage operators who visited the island after a shipwreck. Since then the tribesmen have remained virtually undisturbed.
DNA analysis of another tribe, the Jarawa, whose members made first contact with the outside world in 1997, suggest that the tribesmen migrated from Africa around 60,000 years ago.
However, the experience of the Jarawa since their emergence - sexual exploitation, alcoholism and a measles epidemic - has encouraged efforts to protect the Sentinelese from a similar fate.
Right, and I guess this pretty much rules out any appearances on "Survivor" for the fishermen.
Also reminds me of the joke about the captured missionaries who are given the choice between "death" and "Tonga" - the first two choose "Tonga" which is something better imagined then described, (to the delight of the natives) so the third gets brave and chooses "death" at which point the chief pronounces "I now sentence you to death.....by Tonga".
Not on your life! I have no problem leaving them alone. But when they attack and kill people who mistakenly wonder onto their shores, their sovereign rights to not be disturbed end.
Is that sarcasm or is that true? I've heard of them, but know less about them than I do the Melungeons.
Nah. They are about as closely related to you as they are to the Khoisan Bushmen of Africa.
The human branch that produced everyone on earth today no longer exists in Africa, it went extinct there long ago.
Not True, some Pacific Islanders are in fact cannibals. The ones that come to mind though are in New Guinea.
(Waking up) Oh man . . I'll never drink agai.. THUCK
Armed with what? More spears and arrows? I would bet three Navy SEALS could take that whole island with the right equipment - and I'm not even talking about RPG, just a good sniper and another two with M16s and loads of ammo.
No, actually, not true, and in fact, you are describing the myth, not the reality by alleging that "...the notion...tribes practiced cannibalism grew from rumors spread to white explorers."
I'm sure that that's accurate to a certain degree but having known well many people who are first generation and in U.S. territories from mostly Indonesia and New Guinea specifically, cannibalism is well known and has been going on as a tradition for quite a while...especially the brains are eaten of any who is conquered and sometimes even revered, as a form of assuming their "power." It's not so rare, unfortunately, as some are now cautioned to conclude.
Yup. This is true. There was a tribe that ate the brains of the deceased elders as a form of reverence and to acquire the knowledge of those deceased. Unfortunately, it turns out that they were passing a form of ('unique') brain disease continuously through the generations with this practice. The disease was akin to something we call 'mad-cow disease' today but not the same. Anthropologists believe they have stopped this elder brain eating practice but, they're not 100% sure.
So it's ok to break into your house anytime? Maybe you'll serve cookies while I'm stumbling around your living room? Sing Kumbayah? Introduce me to the family?
Yes, I am aware of that problem. ~"One of" the "handicaps" to cannibalism.~
~:-o
I don't have the slightest idea what you are talking about.
I understood that from your first reply.
It's called an analogy. That island is their home.
That gives no one the right to murder. I don't think that they should have to make nice with the outside world if they don't want to. But no one has the right to murder. The families have the right to retrieve those bodies. And someone needs to communicate with them that there IS a line beyond which they cannot go. Of course, they will try to kill anyone who tries to help them. Their loss.
Nothing that some napalm couldn't solve! /sarcasm
Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Give a man a fisherman and the village chows down for at least a week!!
Be careful with your use of the word 'murder'. Here in Florida I have the law on my side if I shoot and kill a home invader. That's not murder either.
Obviously you don't agree that the island is their home and they have a right to keep intruders out by any and all means. The two liquored up fisherman, with all the knowledge of the consequences of approaching that island, knew the rules.
So either let 'em rot or invade and conquer the island and impose outside rule.
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