Was she just wandering around the village solo? No. She was probably working closely with a local hospital or clinic, likely with the support of community leaders. She probably had a government-issued visa giving her the permission to work there. She was probably affiliated with a charitable organization that has an written agreement to conduct that sort of work.
Aid workers generally work at the invitation of the leaders of the area they are in. And even then, well-intentioned programs can and do have unexpected results. I knew someone who worked on a vocational education project for women once. When he returned to the village years later, the women all thanked him-- because their new jobs allowed them to get divorced! That definitely hadn’t been the planned outcome of that particular project. That sort of thing happens all the time.
We’ve seen what happens in this particular area. There are several groups like the Sentinalese that have been contacted. They are now mostly dead.
Hi sven. I do not know, if you have followed this thread from the start. I am not advocating to contact the Sentinelese. My position on that question can be found further up.
As for the French aid worker: No, she was not alone. She was with a small group of medical personnel. Whether they had the support of the local community leaders I do not know, but I think it likely, and I am sure they had all necessary permissions to make their activities legal under Nepalese law. So we are good with that, right? The nurse was welcome, thus she was not “forcing” her western culture upon the locals. The darn thing is “the locals” are usually not monolithic. People have vastly different preferences, beliefs, goals and convictions. What if half the population wants you to come and help and the other half wants you to go to hell? Do you tell the first half, they are on their own unless they get the rest to play along? Medical aid, education programmes, infrastructure support … you name it. There is probably no aid programme of significant scale that faces no local opposition whatsoever. At what point does helping become forcing yourself upon a country?
The issue becomes even trickier when severe human rights abuses happen, especially when the local government is allowing or even causing them to happen. What if a dictator is brutally suppressing the opposition in his country while plundering its riches? Should the west try to put pressure on him by freezing his foreign accounts, forbidding his clan from traveling to our country, imposing trade sanctions … etc.? Or should we do none of that, because what happens in that country is none of our business and we should not interfere?
Sorry, maybe I didn’t read your post closely enough. You are right that there isn’t an easy answer and “cultures” are neither static nor monolithic. The idea of “human rights” and culture is the topic of many a thesis, and the application of the topic is a mixed bag.
When it comes to development and human rights, it’s important for people to understand that we haven’t been doing this very long, and we aren’t always very good at it (though we have some real wins and we are getting better). Something like a vaccine problem can be somewhat straightforward, but in the case of the OP where the impact on a community is transformative-- well, nobody knows how to do it well. Most of the attempts have been disastrous.
A culture should not be preserved at the expense of its victims. Murdering infants to preserve your society’s racial purity is evil, no matter whether the Jarawans do it or the Nazis do it.
It’s not clear from the article it was the Jarawan that killed the child, only that he removed him from his home after talking with the non-Jarawan poacher.
At any rate, the contact has been made, and keeping the Jarawans as some kind of paleolithic pets is not a defensible approach.
Sorry for resurrecting this zombie, but regarding the question in this post («have any missionaries ever tried to “reach” this group?»), the answer now happens to be a resounding “yes”.
Emphasis on the ”tried”, though… Relevant piece of news follows:
Obviously, they aren’t culpable of violating a law since they don’t even know that there is a law to be followed.
To go way back to the OP. I think they should be contacted. If there were an alien race out there that could cure cancer, save us from natural disasters and all sorts of “magic” things. I would want to be contacted, even if it irrevocably changed my culture. I would not want to be kept as a sentimental curiosity of how things used to be.
How could they be contacted in a way that wouldn’t be utterly devastating to every aspect of their society, including their health and lives (due to lack of disease resistance)?
But that’s your opinion. They seem to have made it quite clear that theirs differs. They no longer even accept gifts like they used to.
I don’t think people have a right to force help except in circumstances of immediate danger that the person is not aware of, or in case of an actual illness. Otherwise, help should only be provided with consent.
Maybe if you see someone drowning and you help them, that would make sense. Or if it turns out they’re going to die if we don’t move them off the island due to some catastrophe. But I do not think it’s right to try and force our help on them otherwise.
The most we can do is let them know that we’re available to help if they choose it–though don’t ask me how that message could be sent to them.
That seems a bit ethnocentric and based in culture bias. This group has decided they don’t want to interact and in some cases their primitive beliefs and understandings are probably objectively better. Consider social media and reality TV as examples which are destructive products of technology.
The cultural exchange would be a complex mix of positive and negative.
The Sentinelese have made their wishes clear. As for us and the aliens, that would depend if they’re not just technologically advanced, but wise and good. If they’re going to make things better, awesome. If they’re going to cure cancer, change my culture, and inadvertently destabilize the Earth’s orbit, I’d want them to say, “Hi,” but keep their distance, until we’re advanced enough to be able to stabilize it back.
Not on Sentinel Island, but nearby, a tribesman once wandered into the local village, presumably to see what all the fuss was about. He ended up getting plied with drink and sexually assaulted.
Their orbit is already destabilized. Climate change is going to impact their hunting and fishing grounds. They’re going to lose shoreline and reef habitat. Some animal and plant species won’t survive. Storms will be stronger and more deadly. Rainfall could be impacted destroying freshwater sources. The rest of us have technology to survive and the ability to migrate. The Sentinalese have what? The ability to die of famine and from dehydration? At least we’ll know we’ve preserved their culture, at least until the last one dies.
I already posted this in the Pit thread, but it’s possible interesting enough to repost here. A twitter thread detailing some previous contacts between the North Sentinalese and outsiders
