<story><title>An Indian Ocean island with a community that has been there for 60K years (2015)</title><url>http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3049022/The-island-dangerous-visit-Mysterious-Sentinelese-tribe-rejected-outsiders-60-000-years-try-kill-sets-foot-land.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>bunderbunder</author><text>The &amp;quot;avoid contact for 60,000 years&amp;quot; bit is quite the embellishment. We only have detailed history being recorded about the island going back for, what, a couple centuries, maybe? For the rest of that time, we&amp;#x27;ve got nothing.&lt;p&gt;Other sources tell a very different story from this site, which seems to be cherry-picking the historical record. The Wikipedia article documents several probable periods of contact in relatively recent history. That time in the 19th century where a large group of people shipwrecked on the island and lived there for a while before being rescued certainly counts. It wasn&amp;#x27;t peaceful contact at all, but it was prolonged, and a couple decades later British explorers were able to land on the island and explore - finding a largely depopulated landscape, presumably as a result of disease.&lt;p&gt;See also this account of peaceful contact a couple decades ago: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.independent.co.uk&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;world&amp;#x2F;islanders-running-out-of-isolation-tim-mcgirk-in-the-andaman-islands-reports-on-the-fate-of-the-1477566.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.independent.co.uk&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;world&amp;#x2F;islanders-running-ou...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;(edit: Looks like the title and link have both been updated. The &amp;quot;avoid contact for 60,000 years&amp;quot; was a direct quote from the original title, and the original link went to &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;themindunleashed.com&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;the-people-of-this-isolated-tribe-kill-anyone-approaching-their-island.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;themindunleashed.com&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;the-people-of-this-isola...&lt;/a&gt;)</text></comment>
<story><title>An Indian Ocean island with a community that has been there for 60K years (2015)</title><url>http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3049022/The-island-dangerous-visit-Mysterious-Sentinelese-tribe-rejected-outsiders-60-000-years-try-kill-sets-foot-land.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>lando2319</author><text>I originally heard about North Sentinel Island right here on Hacker News via this story [1]. One thing I found really interesting is how people credit their proximity to more desirable islands as one of the reason they have survived in (relative) isolation so long, since the other Andaman Islands were first to be exploited.&lt;p&gt;Also interesting is how the Sentelese didn&amp;#x27;t sail great distances like many Polynesian groups, they used small boats with long sticks which could only be operated in shallow waters. This kept them relatively tethered to the island.&lt;p&gt;I can&amp;#x27;t help but wonder what it&amp;#x27;s like there, what&amp;#x27;s the day to day like? I understand the ethical concerns, nevertheless I  can&amp;#x27;t help but wonder what we could learn from a youtube live feed of the main camp site.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.neatorama.com&amp;#x2F;2013&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;The-Forbidden-Island&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.neatorama.com&amp;#x2F;2013&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;08&amp;#x2F;The-Forbidden-Island&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>