The Last Island of the Savages

We read a reprint of this long article by Adam Goodheart several months ago, and simply haven’t been able to shake it from our memory. It’s about the Sentinelese, the last stone age tribe to remain isolated from the rest of the world, and the efforts that have been made at contact.
On some visits the party would see Sentinelese; on others they would not. Invariably, however, they would try to land - at a place out of bow-shot, if there were natives on the beach - and leave gifts. These in-cluded sacks of coconuts, bananas, and bits of iron conveniently sized to be hammered and scraped into arrowheads; occasionally they brought special presents like mirrors, red ribbons, rubber balls, and bead neck-laces. Sometimes the Sentinelese would make gestures that appeared friendly, waving their hands as the dinghies chugged across the lagoon; sometimes they would make gestures that were probably hostile, turning their backs toward the visitors en masse and sitting on their haunches as if to defecate. It was not out of character for them to rush out of the jungle and grab the gifts, then shower their retreating benefactors with arrows.
[Acknowledgements to BoingBoing]
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