A man, armed with a bow and arrow, valiantly chases his unseen photographer. This picture of the hostile Sentinelese man taken from a helicopter flying over India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands after the December 2004 tsunami is one of the iconic images that have shaped the outside world's perception of this little known, indeed even misunderstood, tribe.

The Sentinelese, who live on North Sentinel Island, were catapulted to global attention again this week after it emerged that they had killed an American missionary who had set foot on their island.