Are you in all honesty trying to correlate what that kid did in killing his mother to something like inbreeding which I know happens in a lot of 3rd world countries? It is ignorant to say that someone that killed their mother is due to a cultural problem, whatever that may be. Its about human nature for christ's sake. Like DD already said, they are uneducated and do not realize the possible consuqences in relation to genetic disorders.
I don't think this is even a cultural thing. I think it is a genetic thing. Even when people didn't know about genetics and stuff in general they didn't go marry their sister and cousins. If that happens well then you would have a lot of people having some deformed genes.
Which is why I provided an example of the United Kingdom. On the face of things the percentages might not be great, but there's a reason people who keep it in the family have mental irregularities as well as hormonal. British Pakistanis represent 3% of births in the UK, but account for 33% of children born with genetic illnesses. This greatly increases the chance of eternal alienation from anything outside of their comfort zone, and could be a contributing factor as to why the Islam world has not been able to adjust to globalization. ChrisBosh, the official stat is http://www.cousincouples.com/?page=facts That's 2 times the risk. Create a simple flow matrix and you'll find that percentage exponentially increases over generations of inbreeding.
I think the practice of avoiding marrying your cousins is mostly cultural, and not much at all informed by science. People have married their cousins all over the world, including in Europe and the USA. We are in the minority by avoiding it. It seems ridiculous to feel superior for this idiosyncrasy. Actually, I thought the comparison was apt and insightful.
This is along the lines of what I was looking for. I still don't get it. It's one of those things like drinking your own urine that can work for those who do it, but makes no scientific sense whatsoever. I haven't heard of any modern day success stories of communities that practice inbreeding - they tend to be impressionable deviants. Is it a coincidence that Pakistani's and Bangladeshi's have the highest rates of unemployment in the UK (http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=1089&Pos=2&ColRank=2&Rank=768)? Both these nations also have a population off the charts for the size of their country. All those cousins don't seem to be doing to well. When you have IQ's of 150+ you're automatically a social pariah. It's alienation that drives a lot of modern day taboo practices. At the same time your genetics will have some room for error when you're a genius.
Well, that and because the practice of marrying your cousin was common and acceptable in the societies in which they lived.
Obviously? It's easy to throw out lines about tons of people originating from cousin marriages, but let's look at the situation today. You can argue it's only the rural regions of undeveloped nations where backwards thinking prevails, but if you don't strengthen the gene pool, these people will never a chance. And it's not an Islam thing, it's not a Christian thing, it's specific to the Pakistani culture. (Bangladesh was formerly East Pakistan) We need people like you Juan. People who fear thinking outside the box. People who stick to the norm like a toddler clings to his mother. People who fear being politically incorrect. So when the big boys of the world pull the strings, the Juans of the world will follow.
A nice read, below is a link for you, too long to post........from your initial post appears you havn't done too much research in this area....... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/garden/26cousins.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 10% of marriages worldwide are thought to be of second counsin or closer
Is it surprising the people in those pictures are close to being morbidly obese and sitting on a Harley? Whether it's taboo or not, communities with higher rates of inbreeding fare worse than communities with more genetic diversity AS A WHOLE. In terms of health, IQ and hormonal balances. Do you agree with this? Pulling up articles highlighting 1 or 2 exception stories isn't going to blow me away due to my lack of "research". Norm biters are always pointing out the exceptions to stay politically correct. Let's look at the bigger picture.
Seeing as the standard position in our culture is to condemn marriage between cousins, I would say he is thinking outside of the box here. What I think is problematic about condoning marriages within families is that it encourages a fierce loyalty to your family at the expense of outsiders. I don't believe that is how we ought to feel towards strangers. Frequently enough people are very familiar with their cousins but when marriage between cousins is encouraged there are fewer people that are really "off limits" to you. It is only a step away from Uncle/niece or Aunt/nephew incest. And I think it is unhealthy to not be prepared to look at many other people as those who you don't have a sexual interest in. Learning to relate to your siblings, parents and extended family members in a wholesome and completely non-sexual manner helps greatly in training you to be able to look at non-relatives you are not married to in a healthier manner. Yes, it also screws with the gene pool in a negative way as well. This also occurs within smaller communities where you see very rare genetic diseases occuring with great frequency in a subgroup. Marrying a cousin doesn't guarantee the children will have genetic problems but it does increase the likelihood.
From Simpsonswiki.com: Shelbyville Manhattan was the founder of Shelbyville and former partner of Jebediah Springfield. Their split occurred when Springfield refused to found a town where you can marry your cousins. He considers cousins "so attractive". He thought the whole point of their journey to found a new town was for that reason.
I'm not arguing that at all. I'm arguing that marrying cousins is fairly common in many parts of the world and any genetic implication is insignificant to the wealth or happiness of the societies that practice it. Consider the United States where women are more likely to give birth after 40 than in just about any society the world has ever seen. The damage to the gene pool is at least as significant. Yet, the practice is not condemned and the US isn't screwed as a result either. (Also, I get the idea they you are mentally compounding the genetic defects through the generations in an exxagerated manner. Someone who is homogenous for a defect is more likely to pass it on than someone who is not, but many defects are also expunged by multiplication through generations. Pakistanis will not eventually devolve into a babbling goo, no matter how many generations marry their cousins.) (And, since when has it been politically correct to defend marrying one's cousin?)
Becky, This is not a tag team tournament. Where I come from, it's considered rude and inappropriate for a wife to fight her husband's fights in the open. It should be done in private, through moral support and information gathering. That being said, I agree, although I think it's alienation and a fear of the unknown that leads to cousin marriages and not the other way around.
My research comment was mainly due to you thinking that this only occurs in Pakistan as shown in your title of this thread, hardly close to the truth. I think this post eloquently descibes how I feel on the issue.....great post.
It seems they were trying to keep the thread on topic with well-thought and civil responses. Why are you trying to derail your own thread with all this garbage
I was referring to the vague statement "people have married their cousins all over the world", in which you implied there would always be exceptions. But this isn't about exceptions, and politically correct people fail to see certain issues (not necessarily in this case, but in general) because there's always that one success story for every 100,000 failures. Look at the current state of Pakistan. If it's not goo, then what is it? OK, even if the likelihood of babies from cousin marriages having genetic defects does not exponentially increase in comparison to non cousin marriages, the likelihood is significantly higher and it shows in communities that publicly acknowledge they support this tradition. Why make things harder than they already are?
My god. 1. That's about the rudest sexist comment I've seen directed to a female poster on this site since amfootball was around. 2. Your reading comprehension is deplorable. My wife was disagreeing with me.
I've said the same thing in real life, so I don't see the issue here. It has nothing to do with my reading comprehension - your wife eloquently pointed out one problem with cousin marriages and I referred to it as a tag team because of the proximity of her response to yours. Like I was about to tell pippendagimp, don't let emotions get involved in this. Women over 40 might not be banned from having babies, but a society consisting solely of women over 40 having babies isn't doing itself any favors, especially when their children wait until their 40 to get pregnant and so on.
"Becky?" Are you kidding? Is that even Mrs. JV's name? All I can say is that if it is not, it's a good thing my wife doesn't read this forum, because you would be verbally strung up as a sexist pig in about 2 seconds flat. She types about 80 words a minute. Make that 4 seconds.
Random incest isn't detrimental to the pair's children. It has to happen often within a small population for there to be damage.
