Ancora una testimonianza dell'antropologo Pandit su indigeni di North Sentinel. Interessante il particolare sul maiale.Nella foto il contatto diretto avvenuto molti anni fa.
Now 83, Pandit says their team worked hard to win the trust of the Sentinelese islanders. “We were trying to communicate to the members of the tribe that we were there just to extend a hand of friendship and wanted nothing from them. The pig was a gift. In the early days itself, we chalked out a method to drop gifts. We would stop our boats at a safe distance from the islands so that even if the Sentinelese were to shoot arrows at us, we wouldn’t be hit. We would wade through the water with the offerings, drop them on the shore and rush back to observe what happens,” Pandit says.
That day, as soon as the team left the pig on the island and reached their boats, the Sentinelese came out of the jungle to inspect the offering. Three-four of them looked at the pig intently and finally one speared it.
“We thought our gift had been accepted. The next day, we saw a small mound on the beach. Curious, we decided to take a risk and inspect the mound since there was no one on the shore. We found that they had killed the pig and buried it. Our gift had been rejected. We never took back another, sticking to coconuts,” Pandit recalls.