Reading Winds, Waves Help Indian Islanders

MyWay ^ | 01/04/05 | NEELESH MISRA

[rocksblues]

PORT BLAIR, India (AP) - Two days after a tsunami thrashed the island where his ancestors have lived for tens of thousands of years, a lone tribesman stood naked on the beach and looked up at a hovering coast guard helicopter.

He then took out his bow and shot an arrow toward the rescue chopper.

It was a signal the Sentinelese have sent out to the world for millennia: They want to be left alone. Isolated from the rest of the world, the tribesmen needed to learn nature's sights, sounds and smells to survive.

Government officials and anthropologists believe that ancient knowledge of the movement of wind, sea and birds may have saved the five indigenous tribes on the Indian archipelago of Andaman and Nicobar islands from the tsunami that hit the Asian coastline Dec. 26.

"They can smell the wind. They can gauge the depth of the sea with the sound of their oars. They have a sixth sense which we don't possess," said Ashish Roy, a local environmentalist and lawyer who has called on the courts to protect the tribes by preventing their contact with the outside world.

The tribes live the most ancient, nomadic lifestyle known to man, frozen in their Paleolithic past. Many produce fire by rubbing stones, fish and hunt with bow and arrow and live in leaf and straw community huts. And they don't take kindly to intrusions.

Anil Thapliyal, a commander in the Indian coast guard, said he spotted the lone tribesman on the island of Sentinel, a 23-square-mile key, on Dec. 28.

"There was a naked Sentinelese man," Thapliyal told The Associated Press. "He came out and shot an arrow at the helicopter."

According to varying estimates, there are only about 400 to 1,000 members alive today from the Great Andamanese, Onges, Jarawas, Sentinelese and Shompens. Some anthropological DNA studies indicate the generations may have spanned back 70,000 years. They originated in Africa and migrated to India through Indonesia, anthropologists say.

It appears that many tribesman fled the shores well before the waves hit the coast, where they would typically be fishing at this time of year.

After the tsunami, local officials spotted 41 Great Andamanese - out of 43 in a 2001 Indian census - who had fled the submerged portion of their Strait Island. They also reported seeing 73 Onges - out of 98 in the census - who fled to highland forests in Dugong Creek on the Little Andaman island, or Hut Bay, a government anthropologist said.

However, the fate of the three other tribes won't be known until officials complete a survey of the remote islands this week, he said. The government reconnaissance mission will also assess how the ecosystem - most crucially, the water sources - has been damaged.

Taking surveys of these people is dangerous work.

The more than 500 islands across a 3,200-square mile chain in the southern reaches of the Bay of Bengal appear at first glance to be a tropical paradise. But even one of the earliest visitors, Marco Polo, called the atols "the land of the head hunters." Roman geographer Claudius Ptolemaeus called the Andamans the "islands of the cannibals."

The Sentinelese are fiercely protective of their coral reef-ringed terrain. They used to shoot arrows at government officials when they came ashore and offered gifts of coconuts, fruit and machetes on the beach.

The Jarawas had armed clashes with authorities until the 1990s, killing several police officers.

Samir Acharya, head of the independent Society for Andaman and Nicobar Ecology, said the Jarawas were peaceful until the British, and later the Indians, began encroaching on their territory. Thousands of bow-wielding Jarawas were killed by British bullets in 1859.

Over the past few years, however, relations have improved and some friendly contacts have been made. The government has banned interaction with the tribes, and even taking their pictures is an offense. Many tribe members have visited Port Blair, capital of the Indian-administered territory, and a few Great Andamanese and Onges work in government offices.

Outsiders are forbidden from interacting with the tribesmen because such contact has led in the past to alcoholism and disease among the islanders, and sexual abuse of local women.

"They have often been sexually exploited by influential people - they give the tribal women ... sugar, a gift wrapped in a colored cloth that makes them happy, and that's it," said Roy.

One of the most celebrated stories of a tribal man straddling both worlds is that of En-Mai, a Jarawa teenager brought to Port Blair in 1996 after he broke his leg. Six months later, he looked like any urban kid, in a T-shirt, denim jeans and a reversed baseball cap. But he is back on his island now, having shunned Western ways.

"He took to the ways of the certain, out of a certain novelty," said Acharya. "It's like eating Chinese food on a weekend."

[rocksblues]

Sounds like they want to be left alone to me.

Of course there will be some Liberal morons that want to help these poor uneducated peoples. /sarcasm

[Fitzcarraldo]

This may sound strange but it's good to hear that there are folks on the Planet that can live without advanced technology. We may have much to learn from them.

[FixitGuy]

For God's sake, don't let the missionaries know about these people. They'll all be dead in the twinkling of an eye.

And heaven forbid that there are any resources on the island.

[rocksblues]

This doesn't sound strange to me. Here are one of last people that are in touch with their world.

I am also sure that if we destroy our world it is people like this that will repopulate the Earth.

Deja vu?

[ORECON]

Sorry about the arrow. With all of the wind and noise from the helicopter, we thought it was Hillary coming to help us.

[rocksblues]

Ain't this the truth!

[rocksblues]

LOL!

[woofer]

We may have much to learn from them.

I already know how to hunt, fish, start a fire, make a winter shelter and find water. Other than prancing around in a bark loincloth and limiting my arsenal of defense and meat gathering to a flimsy, short range bow and arrow there is nothing these people can teach me.

But, if they want to be left alone, so be it. Obviously there was nothing on their islands worth exploiting since the British came in 1859, killed a bunch of the natives then left. The Victorian Empire wasn't known to be lovers of native aesthetics

[68skylark]

This may sound strange but it's good to hear that there are folks on the Planet that can live without advanced technology. We may have much to learn from them.

I feel just to opposite. I'm extremely thankful I don't have to live that way with all the perils of nature -- starvation; diseases; and a painful, early death for most people (especially for kids and women). I don't think the life is romantic at all.

Of course, if anyone disagrees, that's fine too. Feel free to try out that life it sounds appealing -- I think the harsh reality will quickly scrub away all illusions, probably in the first few days.

[TAquinas]

"They can smell the wind. They can gauge the depth of the sea with the sound of their oars. They have a sixth sense which we don't possess,"

Wow! These savages must then be superior to the rest of the world.

[TAquinas]

"We may have much to learn from them."

So why don't you go live with them and then come back and impart their "knowledge" on the rest of us uncivilized peons.

Better yet, once there, stay there.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

"They can smell the wind. They can gauge the depth of the sea with the sound of their oars. They have a sixth sense which we don't possess," said Ashish Roy...

Sorry, Roy, there part and parcel of our 5 senses.

Survival isn't so much a matter of a 6th sense as it is honing your 5 senses and learning how to read and be a part of nature. That's one of the things we lose by living in the social world we live in. It can be honed, but it takes a lot of work and a big commitment. A good place to start is with the writings of Tom Brown, Jr. and the Survival Guide of the SAS.

[Stars N Stripes]

sugar, a gift wrapped in a colored cloth that makes them happy, and that's it," said Roy.

Always worked for me....

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

there = they're

[Twinkie]

Who have missionaries, honestly preaching the Gospel of Christ with total dedication, ever killed?

There are missionaries who Christ sends, then there are well-intentioned souls who haven't had a clue in the past and still don't have a clue who have not been called to be missionaries.

To give missions credit, most mission ministries have learned that indigenious peoples are their own best missionaries and tend to have more of what it takes in dedication to Christ to reach their own people with the Good News of Christ, and are more readily accepted than outsiders.

[rocksblues]

Not superior but they obviously can tell which way the wind is blowing!

[rocksblues]

Who have missionaries, honestly preaching the Gospel of Christ with total dedication, ever killed?

My vote would be "American Indian tribes".

I guess smallpox would be the disease.

[razoroccam]

Well said.

[razoroccam]

Sadly true.

[razoroccam]

If nothing else, they could teach you some humility.

[TAquinas]

LOL!

[razoroccam]

Depends on what the starting point is and what a person is used to.
Your perspective is that of a person living in a "civilized" world. Their perspective may be different - you may want to see the movie "The Gods must be crazy" to understand that.

[TAquinas]

"If nothing else, they could teach you some humility."

Or cannibalism.

[razoroccam]

No - not superior. Just different. They won't be able to use a keyboard to type messages, for example.

[Quix]

Look, Fred,

the much ballyhooed BLAME IT ON THE MISSIONARIES is largly BS.

Missionaries preserved and protected life with sanitation, medical care and helped many people groups cope better with the modern world through education. They preserved languages and often cultural distinctives.

There were some abuses of cultural mores in earlier times by some misguided missionaries. However, the idea that the missionaries contaminated and degraded pure, healthy noble savages is hogwash.

Rarely if ever were the 'savages' that pure or that noble or even, sometimes, that healthy.

You'd do well to research the topic better before such flat statements and before accepting the conventional PC nonsense from those hostile to God and democracy.

The perspective you cleave to is rooted and grounded in Marxism and related sociological intellecutalism heavily polluted by Marxism.

[Quix]

LOL. THX.

[Quix]

NO! IT'S NOT the TRUTH.

[razoroccam]

Touche

[rocksblues]

So the Missionaries visiting isolated peoples with their unclean possession's and already being immune to the smallpox disease were not the carriers of this disease?

[TAquinas]

Good post, and so true what it says too.

[beelzepug]

"The Gods must be crazy"

Highly recommended. They don't get much better that this.

[68skylark]

Man, I loved that movie! It's been awhile since I've seen it -- maybe it's time to re-watch.

I hope I don't sound argumentative, but I can't agree 100% with what you wrote. My "perspective" is that if I'm starving, I want something to eat. My "perspective" is that if a loved one is dying from some horrible and painful condition (e.g. a woman suffering and dying in childbirth), I want them to be cured. I my leader is hurting me for his own sport of gain, I'd like to vote him out of power and get a better leader.

I don't think I have the "perspective" of a civilized person. I think I have a universal human perspective that is shared by all people. And the way we live in the United States is a clearly superior way to satisfy universal human desires.

[FreedomCalls]

In this photo released by the Indian Coast Guard, a Sentinel tribal man aims with his bow and arrow at an Indian Coast Guard helicopter as it flies over their island for survey in Indias Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, Tuesday, Dec, 28, 2004. From circumstantial evidence, officials say fate and the ancient knowledge of secret signals in the wind and sea have combined to save the five indigenous tribes living for centuries in the southern archipelago of Andaman and Nicobar from the catastrophic tsunami that lashed Asian coastlines last week. But the fate of the tribes _ on the verge of extinction _ will be known with certainty only after officials complete a survey of their remote islands beginning Wednesday. (AP Photo/Indian Coast Guard, HO)

[Quix]

While in my BA program at Flagstaff AZ, I'd sometimes hear anthropologists wax rapsodic about the wonderous Dineh [Actually, they called them Navajos which = thief]. The anthropologists were fiercely insistent that the Dineh should preserve their way of life to the nth detail.

Of course, if they ever had occasion to live in a hogan for month after month with no running water, not even an outhouse; some strange parts of the sheep for food etc. they tended to adjust their 'idealism.'

Personally, if they want to persist in native traditional ways after considering a fair presentation of the choices and implications--more power to them. But to arbitrarily insist that they must remain primative OR become modern without the natives having a meaningful choice--smacks of far too much playing God and forcing that on them, for my comfort.

[rocksblues]

But the fate of the tribes _ on the verge of extinction _ will be known with certainty only after officials complete a survey of their remote islands beginning Wednesday.

Oh Oh !

[Quix]

Amen.

A lot of people get all wound up over Michner's HAWAII on such scores.

Michner later admitted that a lot of the hostile-to-missionary stuff in the volume was total fabrication.

A huge percentage of the rest of it was a function of Westerners who came after the missionaries.

[razoroccam]

You do make some very valid points as to the good that missionaried do.

However, one sore point is that Christianity, by its very nature, emphasizes that EVERY religion (including Judaism) is wrong and that the ONLY way to salvation is through Jesus.

This means that WHATEVER practice, faith, customs exist in a culture (remember, culture has a large amount of "religion" in it), it is inferior and should be discarded in favor of Christianity.

That may, and does, work in case of "tribals". But it can also be a source of friction, as we are seeing in parts of the world that don't buy this idea.

[Quix]

Yes. It's a source of friction.

And, Christ almost seemed to emphasize that element of friction when He declared that He came to bring a sword etc.

However, HE IS THE ONE WHO DECLARED THAT NO MAN GETS TO THE FATHER EXCEPT BY JESUS, HIMSELF.

Either HE WAS WHO HE SAID HE WAS

OR

HE WAS AN IDIOT.

I'm not THE BOSS.

Those who throw rocks at the exclusvieness of believe in Christ as the route to God ARE NOT THE BOSS.

GOD ALONE IS GOD. HE ALONE WRITES THE RULES. HE ALONE PROVED HIS RIGHT TO DO SO WITH ANYWHERE NEAR THE MIRACULOUS DEMONSTRATIONS HE'S OFFERED.

Thankfully, HE ALSO SAID--somewhat carte blanche--"HE THAT SEEKS ME [evidently earnestly, persistently, authentically from their heart], SHALL FIND ME."

ETERNITY IN THEIR HEARTS is a great anthropologists narrative of many tribal groups' experiences in finding the God of The Bible rather independently of any significant or at leasdt initial outside experience and often enough without any Bible.

[razoroccam]

You are not being argumentative. You do make good points. It is just that these folks have chosen (that is actually a bad word, since one cannot really make a choice based on ignorance, but if you come up with a better one, let me know) a way they of living and don't want to change. We have to respect that - even it means their extinction. Where I differ from liberals is that I won't shed tears when they do become extinct (and they will become extinct) - that was the course they chose and paid the price for it.

[68skylark]

You make some good points. I hope I don't sound insulting to so-called primitive people, or bragging too much about living in the U.S.

I just wish more people could enjoy the blessings that we have here -- freedom, prosperity, etc. But unfortunately, most of the world doesn't work that way.

Given the savage way that most governments rape and rob their own people, these so-called "primitive" people may be smart to keep their distance from civilization in that part of the world.

[Chode]

no different than when the Yards that shot arrows at in Nam... natures way of saying leave us alone

[rocksblues]

I find it funny that this article that I posted became a religious post and not a positive reflection on the survivability of mankind.

[Chode]

yeah... threads just get high-jacked sometimes.

like somebody said about the tide going out before the wave came in

"when primitive man saw something he didn't understand, he either clubbed it to death, or ran like hell!!! these "civilized" tourists not only didn't run... many of them went down to the NEW waterline to look at the stuff now exposed without the water!!!"

we surly lost something when we gained the arrogance to think we didn't need to pay attention to nature anymore

[rocksblues]

Your response is a fitting end to this article.

Have a Happy New Year All!

[FierceDraka]

I say leave them be. If they're not starting any trouble, so be it.

And I get the feeling that any Liberal do-gooder offering "help" will end up roasting on a spit.

[rocksblues]

Another good thought!

[Twinkie]

Well, dadgum their hides! If they know "secret signals in the wind and the sea" which has protected them from tsunamis and storms for generations - well, some brave soul please show them videos of the devastation and ask them to please be sharing this knowledge with the rest of us. If it's a sixth sense thing, all human beings have it within them buried, some deeper than others. If it's a learned skill, speak up. Humanity is a shared condition.

[fso301]

With all of the wind and noise from the helicopter, we thought it was Hillary coming to help us.

Naw! If it was hillary, she'd be on a broom.

[fire_eye]

We'll send a grad stoont in anthropology over there to "Go Native" and try to bribe the "Secret" out of them, in return for which he'll get a PhD. thesis, and have loose leftie-lieberal coeds swooning all over him in the bargain.

(Assuming the "study group" doesn't eat him, of course...)

[FixitGuy]

Another scripture quoting "know-it-all"

The problem with many missionaries, is that they think their way of life IS The Way. It may NOT be for these people. They bring disease and their own brand of ignorance (and arrogance)along with their proselytizing!

I notice you use the typical old buzz words such as "savages" to describe people from which we might learn a lot. It's a typical "missionary" word meant to demean so that they can remold their conquests.

These "natives" are also God's creatures, and deserve to be left in peace.

Also you have taken that great ignorant leap and also branded me as a "Marxist".

How easy it is for one people to look upon another and feel that these "poor savages" should suddenly dress like us, call their "God" in our language, eat what we eat etc.

We don't help these people by insisting they forget their culture and their spirituality, and are diminished ourselves when we refuse to look upon them as equals and learn from them as well.

We pulled the same crap on the Native Americans and should hang our heads in shame for what we did.

The ones we called allies were probably closer to "savages".

PS: Don't you EVER assume that I don't know God or that I am not loved equally by Him.

Now go forth and repent! !^)