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Dead missionaries, wild Sentinelese: An anthropological review of a global media event
Author(s) -
SCHÖNHUTH MICHAEL
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
anthropology today
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.419
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1467-8322
pISSN - 0268-540X
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8322.12514
Subject(s) - trope (literature) , perspective (graphical) , power (physics) , reading (process) , history , subject matter , variety (cybernetics) , subject (documents) , event (particle physics) , white (mutation) , sociology , media studies , aesthetics , gender studies , literature , art , visual arts , political science , law , physics , quantum mechanics , pedagogy , biochemistry , chemistry , curriculum , artificial intelligence , library science , computer science , gene
This article aims to shed light on the background to a media event that occupied the world press, and even more the digital media, for a few weeks at the end of last year. The trope of the violent ‘murder’ of a white missionary by one of the last ‘uncontacted tribes’ is likely to evoke a variety of Western projections. Ultimately, it is about power over images, interpretations and how we want to behave towards isolated groups of people in today’s world: leave them alone? Protect them from the culture of violence at the fringe of their territories or contact them now and support them in the long term? An anthropological reading of the case does not lead to a simple answer to this question, but it might help in getting a more informed perspective on a complex subject matter.