HBH 57: Extreme Tribalism -- The North Sentinelese and the Death of John Allen Chau

The History of Being Human

Part 1: The most tribal of tribes, the Sentinelese of North Sentinel Island
We don't know much about them. We don't know what they call themselves, what they think the world or universe is like, what they believe about the rest of humanity.
We don't know how they are organized, what they worship, how they see right and wrong.
What we do know is that the North Sentinelese are the most tribal of tribes -- hostile to outsiders, uninterested in changing or developing along 'Western' lines, and unwilling to extend any moral status to vistors.
In 2018 a young American Christian missionary, John Allen Chau, was killed by these people. Was it murder of an innocent or defense against an invader? Sadism or self-preservation?
To understand what happened, we will first look into the history of interactions between the people of North Sentinel Island and outsiders, contacts that went occasionally acceptably, but usually very badly, for one party ot the other.