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Cousin Marriage Conundrum: The ancient practice discourages nation-building

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Re: Cousin Marriage Conundrum: The ancient practice discourages nation-building

#11

Post by eugenejen »

CaptainMorgan wrote: post #6
emilind wrote: post #4

As if all the increase-your-productivity/get-rich-quick self-help twaddle wasn't bad enough, now there's a notorious internet racist at the top of HN. Anybody know a tech news site that sticks to tech?

From the FAQ: On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If th…

I don't feel this as off topic. Nation is a much newer concept than clans and tribes in human history.

The same problems happened before in early 20th Century China. Both Nationalists and Communist governments in China tried very hard for a long time to remove clan and tribal influence and a lot of bloody consequences happened. So this is part of social science. (though social science is political and not real science).

Re: Cousin Marriage Conundrum: The ancient practice discourages nation-building

#12

Post by jwecker »

For some informed data on the topic instead, try http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/04/us/few-risks-seen-to-the-c...

or, more recently: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/garden/26cousins.html

"Dr. Motulsky said researchers did not know why marriage between cousins was viewed with such distaste in the United States. He said some of the revulsion might have stemmed from the eugenics movement, which intended to improve the human race by deciding who should be allowed to breed. The movement flourished in this country early in the 20th century."

Anti-cousin-marriage is a very recent and very American thing, and stems from the same movement that gave us nazi racism.

Re: Cousin Marriage Conundrum: The ancient practice discourages nation-building

#13

Post by SlyShy »

ars wrote: post #10
SlyShy wrote: post #5

This article doesn't mention the cause of such high rates of inbreeding, so I'll provide that information (kindly supplied by a Muslim friend). Basically, when all the children of the family are young they play and do everything together. Childhood friends are likely to be mostly cousins and siblings. Once kids reach a certain age the genders are rigidly separated (with the burka, and adjusted living arrangements). T…

The http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westermarck_Effect#Westermarck_... would argue against what you wrote. I think the causes are more likely that couples meet only through introductions, and their parents know each other. What they need are some matchmakers who make a point of knowing tons of young people, and can introduce them.

I'm aware of this effect, and the reason I think it doesn't apply is this: the children play with each other, but they are raised in separate households. (Sloppy writing on my part, I wrote "children of the family are young they play and do everything together" which was an exaggeration. My bad.)

Re: Cousin Marriage Conundrum: The ancient practice discourages nation-building

#14

Post by SlyShy »

zaidf wrote: post #8
SlyShy wrote: post #5

This article doesn't mention the cause of such high rates of inbreeding, so I'll provide that information (kindly supplied by a Muslim friend). Basically, when all the children of the family are young they play and do everything together. Childhood friends are likely to be mostly cousins and siblings. Once kids reach a certain age the genders are rigidly separated (with the burka, and adjusted living arrangements). T…

Once kids reach a certain age the genders are rigidly separated (with the burka, and adjusted living arrangements). My parents are first cousins. And indeed they grew up together. But they didn't get married because they didn't have other options beyond cousins. That part doesn't ring true to my larger family's history with cousin marriages(sample size: 3 cousin marriages). There are so many myths about the harms of…

I'm certainly not saying people don't have options beyond cousins, but would you agree that it's far more difficult to meet people beyond cousins?

Re: Cousin Marriage Conundrum: The ancient practice discourages nation-building

#15

Post by sriramk »

boundlessdreamz wrote: post #2

This article is very very wrong about South Indian Hindus. I'm one and I have never heard of an uncle-niece marriage. It is a taboo. Decades ago cousin marriages were common but it has all but disappeared now and is mostly taboo.

Sadly, I think the article might be right about South Indian Hindus (I'm one too). Though very rare in modern urban areas (I think), it is definitely common in large parts of Tamil Nadu atleast. I have atleast one such couple in my extended family (they got married over 2 decades ago though).

You see this reflected in a seemingly infinite number of movie storylines - where the hero is betrothed to his sister's daughter or some such thing.

Re: Cousin Marriage Conundrum: The ancient practice discourages nation-building

#16

Post by anamax »

jwecker wrote: post #12

For some informed data on the topic instead, try http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/04/us/few-risks-seen-to-the-c... or, more recently: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/garden/26cousins.html "Dr. Motulsky said researchers did not know why marriage between cousins was viewed with such distaste in the United States. He said some of the revulsion might have stemmed from the eugenics movement, which intended to improve the…

> Anti-cousin-marriage is a very recent and very American thing, and stems from the same movement that gave us nazi racism.

Actually, eugenics in the US was a Progressive thing. They also pushed segregation. They were national while their allies, Jim Crow Democrats, were strictly southern.

After a while, "Progressive" came to be seen as a bad label, so those folks started calling themselves "liberal".

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