The Sentinelese: The History of the Uncontacted People on North Sentinel Island

By: Charles River Editors

Narrated by: Dan Gallagher

There is no record of Marco Polo ever visiting the Andaman Islands, so his brief description of the islanders must have been drawn from a secondary source. They were, he wrote, “a most brutish and savage race, having heads, eyes, and teeth like those of dogs. They are very cruel, and kill and eat every foreigner whom they can lay their hands upon.”

Most subsequent travelers and travelogues have tended to agree, although in an age of inclusion and diversity, the modern understanding and appreciation of the indigenous Andamanese is somewhat more sympathetic. Nonetheless, that one common theme has persisted, in particular in the many colonial-era chronicles, which were all written at a time when Darwin and his contemporaries were rationalizing evolution and evolutionary divergence. How could it be, they ask, that a small pocket of the human race could be content to linger so far behind in the journey of human development?

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands comprise a tiny archipelago of some 200 islands in the Indian Ocean. They are located in a seemingly insignificant spot in the Bay of Bengal, comprising a combined area of only 3,500 square miles, but the islands are a tropical idyll, populated by dark Indians drawn mainly from the east coast, with a curious aboriginal people who appear more African than Asian. The islands have been within sight of international shipping routes since the very birth of ocean travel, and yet, until the arrival of the great European trading enterprises, the archipelago remained virtually unvisited and absolutely unsettled by any other than its indigenous inhabitants.

The Sentinelese: The History of the Uncontacted People on North Sentinel Island profiles the indigenous people, famous attempts to contact them, and what’s known and unknown about them. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Sentinelese like never before.

©2019 Charles River Editors (P)2019 Charles River Editors

A layperson-friendly anthropological study

This is a fascinating accumulation of anthropological records which provide the only known details on the indigenous people of North Sentinel Island. Perhaps what I appreciate most is that this didn't feel too erudite for my layman's perspective to understand! Everything is presented in a way that's accessible even if you're not a social scientist by trade. It has the general air/tone of an educational textbook (which is entirely appropriate), and the narrator enunciates well and reads at a relaxed (but not dragging) pace. I would definitely recommend to anyone interested in learning about the island without having to watch internet videos of dubious origin or comb for the more scholarly articles available online that are scattered throughout search engine results.