The Sentinelese: The History of the Uncontacted People on North Sentinel Island

There is no record of Marco Polo ever visiting the Andaman Islands, so his brief description of the islanders must have been drawn from a secondary source. They were, he wrote, “a most brutish and savage race, having heads, eyes, and teeth like those of dogs. They are very cruel, and kill and eat every foreigner whom they can lay their hands upon.”

Most subsequent travelers and travelogues have tended to agree, although in an age of inclusion and diversity, the modern understanding and appre...