It looks like the last verified contact with them has been in 2018. Recently a youtuber went there and tried to get their attention, but couldn’t find them.

Is it possible they’re not even still around? Maybe a disease found its way onto their island and took them out. It could have even been from the last visitor in 2018.

  • wetbeardhairs@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    4 days ago

    There are dozens of islands in that chain and it is protected water - no one is allowed to go there without explicit permission from the Indian government. The idea is they want to be left alone. They have wanted to be left alone but the fucking British couldn’t take no for an answer and constantly raped, abducted and murdered them with guns and disease for decades. Their population cratered because of the disease and now they are a tiny fraction of what they were. Just let them be. Our world has too many problems and if they can be happy living in makeshift huts with no cellphones then that’s the best humanity can get.

    • Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk
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      2 days ago

      the fucking British couldn’t take no for an answer and constantly raped, abducted and murdered them with guns and disease for decades

      In our defence, they might have had some new spices for us to discover and not use!

    • WaffleWarrior@lemmy.zip
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      4 days ago

      I watched a documentary on tribes in Papa New Guinea… FYI it was NOT a garden of eden. They were constantly killing each other, fighting off famine, dealt with health problems raw.

      Did not look as glamorized as our western brains imagine it to be.

      • wetbeardhairs@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        3 days ago

        What’s your point? We don’t have to manifest destiny every single plot of land and genocide every non-white people on the fucking planet. They can live how they want to.

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        It sucks. So does living off what you can hunt and fish in a tundra, but there are Alaskan people for whom that’s a significant portion of their lifestyle. So does chasing the buffalo and warring with your neighbors in the great plains, yet the Lakota fought devastating wars for their right to live that way. So does living deep in the Amazon, yet some people there know our world exists and choose not to join it. And so did everything that happened to the people of the North American east coast after they whethered an apocalyptic epidemic then helped out some strange looking people who showed up clearly unprepared for the brutal weather awaiting them.

        We, the people of the globalized world have a responsibility to respect uncontacted people’s right to remain as such, just as we must respect the right of indigenous people to choose whether or not and to what degree they live their traditional lifestyles. We’ve failed at this too many times.

      • Flax@feddit.uk
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        3 days ago

        I think we need to give them unrestricted internet access and a porsche

        • WaffleWarrior@lemmy.zip
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          3 days ago

          I mean…don’t you think there is some teen on that Island who would love access to pornhub and a THC Vape pen? Meanwhile all the people on social media rant and rave!!! Just leave them alone!!! In their air conditioned house typing on a $1000 smartphone

    • Yawweee877h444@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Your argument absolutely has merit. However the opposite is that there might be people there who are aware there’s maybe way more to their small world, and want nothing more than to see it.

      I care more about the latter, but mainly because that’s how I would think. If we found out there’s an alien superhighway passing over earth hidden from us, and they’re keeping us “protected” and not allowing contact, I’d be very pissed off. I immediately would want to leave, meet the aliens, learn their ways and knowledge, etc…

      Just sayin’, it can go both ways. Ya never know if you don’t talk to them.

      Also, it seems kind of morbid and archaic in a way, keeping them protected. Not like a zoo by any means, but still. If we knew for certain they all wanted to be left alone, that’d be better.

      • andros_rex@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Their language is not mutually intelligible with other nearby tribes’ languages. It’s very likely that they have been isolated from all other human contact for a very long time.

        Anthropologists visited them in the 90’s and even left gifts. They know we are here, they have chosen to remain isolated. The attempt to communicate has been made.

      • wetbeardhairs@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 days ago

        They have boats that can cross the ocean. If they wanted to get to us they could. But they definitely have a strong enough memory of us as outsiders coming in and ruining the civilization of neighboring sentinelese tribes. So I think they probably want to stay far, far from us.

          • nomy@lemmy.zip
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            4 days ago

            I think their arrows and spears speak pretty plainly.

          • wetbeardhairs@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            4 days ago

            I come from Texas where we have a proud tradition of shooting solicitors for knocking too loud. I very much empathise with the Sentinelese. Leave them the fuck alone. They have been there for 50 thousand years. Let them be.

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        They shoot at attempts at contact. They know we’re here. They have boats.

        It’s more like if an alien civilization had an outpost on Mars and made a point to not come to earth or to send messages in our used frequency bands after we shot down all communication satellites and probes they sent. Just showing up would be hard, but if we wanted to join their world we could signal desires to make contact.

      • callouscomic@lemmy.zip
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        3 days ago

        “I thought there’d be so much more to having sex with her, so I just decided to do it. Can’t you see my good intentions?”

        Alternatively:

        “My need to know what it’s like is more important than respecting her bodily autonomy.”

        /s for abject morons