PROBASHI- A Cultural News Magazine Volume 2 Issue 2 | Page 13

Probashi-Cover Story

Creating Anthropological History

The three feet distance between the Jarawa woman and Madhumala in this picture encompasses 60,000 years of timeline – from
the early man’s (women’s) hunter gatherer lifestyle to his(her) present forays to the Moon and beyond. Humankind has come a
long way.

his share of the coconuts. This was
a moment of standoff, Madhumala
refusing to remove eye contact and
the arrow refusing to go down. And
this is when Providence intervened,
the arrow was released but the
marksman got a push from a
Sentinelese woman and the arrow
missed its mark and fell harmlessly
in the water. The woman had done
that on purpose thus saving the
contact party from either severe
injury or even death. Undeterred
the team persisted.
It was now the turn of the
Sentinelese to be surprised. The
contact
party,
including
Madhumala, decided to jump into
water. Knee deep in water, the
space age man (woman) was
looking eye to eye with one of the
most primitive people on earth.

And it was not a meeting with the
finger on the trigger or with a bow
string pulled, it was a meeting
between equals, with dignity and
respect. And the coconuts were
not being floated in water
anymore but were being handed
over in person. This was making of
anthropological history
Madhumala came back to the
North Sentinel Islands as member
of another contact party on 21 Feb,
month and a half of the first
contact. This time the welcome
was enthusiastic. The Sentinelese
climbed up on the boat to receive
the coconuts. And thankfully no
arrow was aimed this time. While
the ice with this hostile tribe was
on the verge of being broken,
Government of India decided to
stop any more contact with the
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Sentinelese even for academic
purposes. It was feared that outside
contact might introduce diseases in
this tribe. A justified move given the
epidemics introduced by outside
contact in other tribes of the
Andamans.
Today Sentinelese remain secluded
and hostile despite the early contacts
made. The 2011 census of this tribe
was done from a distance of 1.5 kms
from the sea shore through
observation, given the risks involved
in sending enumerators ashore. As
recent as 2006, two fishermen who
had strayed close to the shores of
North Sentinel Islands were killed by
the Sentinelese. Government of India
enforces a 3 miles no entry zone
around these Islands. Madhumala
continued her research for many
more years in the Andamans primarily