I mean, that island is kinda small…
Does the resources required to develop the technology that we have, even exist on that island?
Do they just remain “uncontacted” forever?
I mean what even is the ethical thing to do?
On one hand, they don’t have immunity, so we shouldn’t risk them getting diseases, therefore, leave them be.
BUT:
On the other hand, we have the medicine to help them live longer. Shouldn’t we try to gift them our technology so they are better equipped to survive?
What would a philosopher say about this? What does internation laws and the international community say about this?
What’s their future?
What do you personally think about this?
Trump hasn’t tariff them, let them alone and let Trump put tariffs on penguins instead.
Occasionally, humanity sacrifices a wannabe Christian missionary for them.
Why would they want the technology we have?
People hear “technology” and imagine Facebook, when in fact technology means not dying after scratching your foot on a dirt road.
They have made it very clear that they don’t want any contact. Enough many people have been killed in attempts to get contact with the tribe. I think the ethical thing to do is to respect their wishes and leave them alone.
Shouldn’t we try to gift them our technology so they are better equipped to survive?
Looking at the state of affairs right now, I’m not entirely sure this is the effect the “gift of technology” has had. At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if they end up outliving all of us.
The North Sentinel people are not actually fully isolated. They had contact with colonial authorities in the past (the British went on the island and even kidnapped some of the locals they found, an elderly couple and 4 kids. The couple died not soon after and the kids were sent back) and there was some peaceful contact with Indian anthropologists up until 1997. The 2004 earthquake and tsunami affected the island pretty badly and disturbed their fishing grounds but aerial survey of the island confirmed they survived and adapted to their new conditions. Most contact after that has been met with aggression most theories I heard about why assume it’s because of contact people fishing illegally in the area or an epidemic on the island after one such contact.
The Indian government considers it illegal to contact them and will punish anyone who does it. That one American preacher that landed on the a while back was eventually killed by the locals and his death was ruled a murder but the Indian government didn’t push for anyone to be prosecuted. The US government also didn’t push for prosecution. So yea the Indian government wants them to be left alone.
My personal take on this is that if the North Sentinel Islanders wanted to be in contact with the rest of the world they could. They are not very far from other Andaman islands and they could build a raft or a canoe that could reach them. The fact they haven’t done so means they don’t wish to be in contact with other people. It’s their choice to be isolated and it should be respected.
They have survived just fine without outside help, and acted hostile towards most attempts from outsiders to do so. They don’t need or want our help. They don’t need our technology.
Visiting North Sentinel Island is prohibited by the Indian government. Idiots still do it anyways and usually end up killed.
Leave them alone. They are living their best lives already. No need to interfere. No need to drag them into the misery of the modern world.
Your first point, do they remain uncontacted forever? They have been contacted several moments through history once in the 1880s by an exploratory survey. In 1991 there was an attempt to contact them and understand their language. But the people of the island repeatedly warned people off. And so India in 1997 made the decision to make no contact with them going forward and to actually protect the island from contact because they have had such a history of violence towards people that have washed up or stranded themselves on the island.
Is it an ethical thing to do? I think so, only in the sense that they’ve made it very clear to outsiders that they do not want to have contact with us. It’s obvious that they’re surviving just fine. They’ve probably figured out how to live in balance with the island on managing resources etc. It’s clear that they’re doing fine. I don’t think the outside world owes them contact. I think the outside world needs to respect their decision to be left alone.
Should we give them modern technology or medicine? No but again I just point to the fact that they’re doing fine on their own. If anything further contact with the outside world only further endanger them because we have the immunities too many different illnesses and diseases that they may just not have.
I’m not a philosopher by the way I’m an artist actually I’m just giving objective fact here. As far as the outside world is concerned, they are protected people. The Indian government has made it part of their territory and have made the decision to protect that island and those people. I guess my point is like the outside world doesn’t owe them anything.
Was there future? I suspect they’ll just continue to live on this island until a disease arises that wipes them out or environmental conditions worsen that they have to make the decision to leave and make a break for the mainland. But the fact is we know they have been living for centuries on this island with relatively no problems. During the great Malaysian tsunami there was concern and worry that the people may have been swept off the island or the entire tribe killed. But quickly after the tsunami aerial survey showed that there was activity on the island. So obviously they were able to survive that.
I honestly think their biggest threat is the outside world to them just diseases alone would probably decimate their population. If contact were to be made, I don’t expect them to really change their way of life. I do think it’s really interesting from anthropological position. I do think like these people give a window to our past, ann opportunity for us to understand our own survival through time. I think any study in that regard just has to be done from afar and respect them for the people and life they live.
Their future is climate change will cause them to die out and they won’t understand why it’s so hot and why the fish are all dead. Their last moments will be ether looking for a cave or in a cave to find some relief from the temperatures.
Who knows, there is small chance that they will continue to live like they do now. Realistically they are very limited in numbers, and resource poor, and essentially locked inside their current territories, so one small scale tragedy away from extinction.
Personally I think that their current situation is just an artifact of 20th century.
There is more than one way to genocide. Contact likely ends in assimilation, which is functionally a genocide.
For a historical example of this, see the “Stolen Generation” in Australia.
Assimilation is genocide?
I immigrated to the United States as a kid, and grew up mostly under western culture, did the US “genocide” me?
No, but in the 1800s they brought Native Americans into their schools and forced them to be as ‘white’ as possible, and killed those who didn’t conform.
Had they been more successful, most Native Americans would have forgotten all of their culture within a few generations.
Not that I’m in full agreement with the parent comment, but genocide is something that happens to groups of people, not individuals.
It didn’t murder you, but do you keep much of your original culture?
The whole point of the stolen generation policies were to destroy the aboriginals culture. Its not a genocide in the murder sense, but the end result is the same, the group will no longer functionally exist.
They don’t want to be contacted. I don’t think we have any moral obligation to supply them with medicines or technologies that they don’t want, even if they would objectively improve their quality of life.
No they will probably never advance substantially in technology. To get to where the developed world is today took centuries of industrialisation and trade.
But there are, presumably, happy with the status quo.
They have been contacted and responded with aggression, so they are obviously aware that they are not alone, but want to be left alone. Free will is free will.
I wish people would grant me the same courtesy.
Have bow and arrows ready, and they just might.
