[88e282102ae2e5b]

The Sentinelese and the people on Andaman Island must have been once been a single group living in the same place within the last few hundred years. The language would change somewhat after they split up, but it is still mutually intelligible apparently.

[schoen]

It was really interesting to read in James C. Scott's work that many uncontacted tribes are not only not primordially isolated from other human beings, but may be descended from people who deliberately separated from other civilizations because they didn't like them. (Edit: for example, they might have been slaves or conscript soldiers, or people who were defeated in a war.) Some of these people may then have significant, but maybe increasingly vague, awareness of outsiders, and a dislike of them.

Scott suggests that we might tend to think that isolated people have been there for millennia and have no idea that there are other human beings, but that very often they just wanted to be alone, or not part of a particular society. (And for those who deliberately left, they may have left behind things like governments, agriculture, and metalworking technology.)

It does seem like we have a tendency to say "ooh! unchanging primordial antiquity!" and not remember that human migration is one of the greatest constants of human history, and everyone has a story about how they got where they are.