It’s just a fact: there are almost no uncharted places left on the map. Even the most adventurous explorer isn’t going to stumble on a group of people who haven’t experienced the modern world. Well, unless you’re in the Bay of Bengal. Just head over to North Sentinel Island if you want to try contacting the world’s last uncontacted people — but you’d better be careful.
How does an island population survive into the 21st century without ever running into a modern Magellan? Basically, by keeping any would-be “discoverer” at bay with bows, arrows, and spears. The people of North Sentinel Island have kept their corner of the Indian Ocean free of intruders for as long as they’ve lived there — about 60,000 years. It’s not because they or their island are unknown, either. North Sentinel Island can be found in the writings of Marco Polo (although modern historians doubt he ever landed there), and every three to five decades a ship tends to find itself on the island’s shore, whether on purpose or by accident. Today, the Indian government recognizes the island as a sovereign entity and makes efforts to ensure they’re left undisturbed.
One of the first deliberate encounters with the people that English-speaking mainlanders have come to call the Sentinelese came in 1880, and it might explain why they’ve been so hostile to outsiders ever since.
Led by anthropologist M.V. Portman, this expedition ended when the European researchers kidnapped an elderly couple and four children in order to “study” them. To make things worse, many of these unfortunate victims died shortly after from disease.
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