Submitted by CaptainJZH t3_10mq259 in todayilearned
So if the Sentinelese are going to use the scrap metal to make tools and weapons does that count as a technological revolution, sort of like entering the iron age?
How advanced do they need to become to lose the "primitive isolated people" label?
Oh they absolutely were thrusted into an Iron Age of sorts, cause they have been spotted using metal-tipped spears and whatnot. And who knows, the rusting hulk of the ship is still there so they have a pretty good supply for a while, maybe eventually they'll put metal to fire and discover what you can do with that.
This is basically the equivalent of us reverse-engineering a crashed alien spaceship lol
I think that kind of thing happened a couple of times during the island hopping phase of WW2. There were religions set up around this concept.
There's also a tribe in Vanuatu who have a creation myth that involves their first queen leaving across the ocean to marry a god. So when the British turned up and told them about queen Elizabeth the 2nd they decided that prince Phillip must be god.
Ah the cargo cults! Such a fascinating phenomenon!
Metal ain't no Coke bottle, though.
The Gods must be crazy...
Dang it I and my middle school friends saw that advertised in the theaters and thought it looked good. Went to see it as 12 year olds and was fairly bored with it but it did have some comical relief at times. As an adult I appreciate that picture much more.
Everyone knows if you find a Coke bottle you have to take an adventure to the end of the world to throw it off.
The Sentinelese cold-forge iron to make arrowheads. And they are familiar with outsiders. All they would need to do is hold out their hands, stop killing those who try to contact them, and their lives would be easier. Or would they?
My guess is that they have seen what has happened to tribes that accepted the "blessings of civilization": disease, enslavement, loss of their traditional way of life. And they want none of it. They'll accept gifts, but only on their own terms. They're fighting for their independence. And the Indian government patrols stay at arm's length, keeping away those who would exploit the Sentinelese.
They have personal experience with what the ‘blessings of civilization’ means, the first time an outsiders made contact with the tribe 6 of them (two elderly people and 4 children) were kidnapped. All 6 of them fell ill and died.
I don’t think contact with outsiders is possible for them, their immune systems can’t handle modern diseases and sickness. There’s a good chance somebody spreading a cold to them could wipe out the entire tribe.
Also, some North Sentinel Islanders were once kidnapped, back in the colonial period, only for them to die because of disease. They probably have oral histories dating far far back so I would imagine "that time outsiders literally took some of us away never to be seen again" is a major part of their worldview.
And well, if anyone knows what it's like to have your culture and land tarnished by an outside force, it's India lol
That's actually probably what happened. Back in the 19th century some British guy basically kidnapped 4 of them and took them to Port Blair, they all got sick, 2 died, and he returned the other two. Who knows what effect those diseases had on the population
Couldn't have been good.
Flying up unto space past the huge dust clouds, seeing all of the stars and thinking "it'll have to go"
It’s just not Krikkit
This make twice this week I've had someone reply to one of my comments with a really obscure hitchhikers guide reference from one of the later books. I'm going to have to reread it all to make sure I'm not missing any I might have forgot.
Twice is kinda awesome though
/r/unexpectedhitchhiker
I just wanted a documentary about them today, which also claimed that the scrap metal “thrust them into the Iron Age”. No it didn’t. Making tools out of found metal does not equal being in the Iron Age. The Iron Age was when people figured out how to use raw iron to make tools. They have no iron ore, and if they did they wouldn’t know how to turn it into tools.
12 months later, the first sentinelese nuclear powered battleship enters international waters
The big thing with entering the iron age is being able to create usable iron. The finding and mining of ore, the refining and smelting, and finally the manipulation into something usable.
Tying something you found on the ground to a stick is still primitive, even if the thing they found is iron.
Agreed. There’s little difference between tying the iron onto the stick and an extremely sharp rock that has the same properties as iron.
The Inuit had a mini iron age when a iron rich metorite impacted in their region. Similar events for indigenous peoples in remote areas as ships or other salvage has given them resources they otherwise wouldnt have access to.
Huge difference between using scrap metal and forging iron into steel and shaping it.
The workers violated the Prime Directive.
They're in good company then lol
Exactly. All the workers were keen to 'touch the Sentinelese' but I wonder if they were simultaneously introducing the natives to diseases previously unknown to them.
The iron age refered to the ability to forge iron into a useful way by refining it. Previous to that there were isolated instances of using iron from meteorites that didn't require purification, even then they weren't able to melt them, only soften them up and hammer them into useful shapes.
Not really.
There's a difference between a "cargo cult" and actually developing your technology.
Absent access to things like coal, iron ore, copper, tin, and the like...they're not developing metallurgy or anything. They're just using scrap iron like a harder version of stone tools.
We have broken the Prime Directive.
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