# Are we all at most 50th cousins?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-all-at-most-50th-cousins/635637>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 24, 2012, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-all-at-most-50th-cousins/635637 "2012-09-24T00:04:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 81

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**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-all-at-most-50th-cousins/635637/81 "2016-03-05T07:40:20Z")

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> [@Blake](#):
>
> How is maintaining a stone age culture in any way evidence of being “so isolated”? Northern Australian Aborigines maintained a stone age culture up to the WWII, and were engaged in annual international trading events.
> 
> The Japanese government is protecting Indian citizens? :dubious:
> 
> Well we know enough to know that you are wrong when you claim they don’t use fire. And we know enough to be highly skeptical of your claims that they don’t wear clothes. And we know enough to know that you are wrong when you claim that:  
> \*\*  
> [Finally, on 4 January 1991, Mr Pandit and his colleagues were met on the beach by a party of 28 men, women and children, for once unarmed. ‘They may not have chiefs, but a decision had obviously been taken by the Sentinelese to be friendly towards us,’ Mr Pandit said. ‘We still don’t know how or why.’
> 
> Now, the anthropologists have learned to remove most of their clothes, watches and spectacles before visiting the Sentinelese and the Jarawa, another isolated tribe. ‘I’ve lost half a dozen pairs of glasses,’ lamented Mr Pandit, who has been stripped naked by the islanders on several occasions. ‘Clothing doesn’t make much sense to them,’ he said. ‘They’re curious about what we’re trying to hide underneath.’]([Islanders running out of isolation: Tim McGirk in the Andaman Islands reports on the fate of the Sentinelese | The Independent | The Independent](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/islanders-running-out-of-isolation-tim-mcgirk-in-the-andaman-islands-reports-on-the-fate-of-the-1477566.html))  
> \*\*
> 
> An administrative decision was made to stop these visits C2000, but any claim that they are unapproachable is utterly false. They are extremely cautious and prone to hostility, but approachable given time.
> 
> Given your claims that these people do not use fire, do not wear clothes and are totally unapproachable, I suspect that it wouldn’t be too hard to know more than you do. 3 minutes on Google seems to be sufficient.

That is an interesting cite **Blake** and I appreciate you sharing it but it didn’t refute much of what I said. All it said was that it took over 20 years for a dedicated group to approach them through persistence. nothing about language and nothing about fire.

I made a mistake earlier when I referenced their island as being under Japanese jurisdiction when it is actually Indian (that I correctly referenced earlier). That was simple carelessness on my part.

This isn’t a debate and especially not a personal one. I just think it is fascinating that there are isolated tribes of people still left in the world that want to remain that way.

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