This week’s entry includes some commentary…

North Sentinel Island: This island can be found in the Bay of Bengal and is officially ruled by India. This island is home to a group of people known as the Sentinelese. Their exact population is unknown but it is estimated to be in the range of 50 to 500. They maintain no official contact with any outside group. All past attempts to establish communications with them have met with hostility and all such attempts were abandoned in the 1990’s. Very little is known about their culture or language.

In 2004 Indian authorities thought that the tribe might have been wiped out by the Tsunami but a helicopter sent to investigate spotted several Sentinelese, who fired arrows at the helicopter until it departed.

About a year ago, a group of fisherman were killed by the islanders when their anchor line snapped and the boat drifted ashore, presumably while they were passed out drunk.

To most members of western (especially American) civilization it may be difficult to imagine that this isn’t a fictional account, that there is actually a stone-age tribe on this planet who has no contact whatsoever with the rest of civilization. They’re aware of the existence of other humans but they don’t seem to care who we are or how our technology works. They speak a language that nobody understands. Of course, even these statements are pure speculation because nobody really understands these people.

It is truly hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that there are still places on Earth where we may not tread because we would be killed on sight by naked men with spears and bows. As I considered this throughout today I didn’t find it too difficult to draw an analogy to other groups of people on this earth that I just can’t figure out.

There are still people who don’t believe in Evolution. There are still people who will look you right in the eye and tell you that smoking doesn’t cause lung cancer. I could go on and on. Those people may walk among us and speak in languages we understand but their culture and mindset is as mysterious to me as that of the Sentinelese. Go ahead and try to explain to me why Darwin was wrong. You might as well be attacking me with a spear.