Not trying to be funny, either, but how could an isolated population, of a severely remote/xenophobic island, not just disappear due to the side effects of inbreeding? Do secluded populations eventually become immune to the mutations?
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No. Inbreeding does not cause mutations and it’s not possible to become “immune” to mutations.
Inbreeding is harmful because it shrinks the number of genetic variants available in the population. If a genetic variant exists that is rare or uncommon in the general population, when it exists in the inbred population it’s much more common.
All inbreeding means to the Sentinelese is that certain genetic diseases are more common among them. It’s quite possible that they don’t naturally have very long life spans or an environment where these issues are particularly detrimental. Perhaps some lead to high infant mortality, but they just have many children.
However, they clearly are self-sustaining. We don’t know how big the Sentinelese population is either, so perhaps it’s large enough that the inbreeding effect are not so terrible.
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