> However, another finding was completely unexpected: on Crete and the other Greek islands, as well as on the mainland, it was very common to marry one's first cousin 4,000 years ago.
I guess this is revealing is modern, western biases. Throughout much of history and through large parts of the world, it was very common for cousins to marry. Even in the Bible, Jacob marries his first cousins.
Inheritance to daughters and widows was developed and enforced by muslims, and I hear in turn families became motivated to marry among their own to keep the wealth in the family.
It depends on what era of the Catholic church we're talking about. The medieval church got very expansive about which relations were illegal to marry, including in-laws.
> until the 13th century, the church forbade marriages with consanguinity or affinity (kinship by marriage) to the seventh degree— a rule which covered a very large percentage of marriages.
So it would forbid you marrying your brother-in-law's first cousin, for example, even if you have no consanguinity with them. Even not counting affinity, you'd still be forbidden to marry third cousins, which nobody has had problems with for centuries.
I think that's why so many people have this unreasonable urge to travel. If you didn't have that in the past very little genetic diversity was available for your offspring.
I find it entertaining how much marriage rules have changed over the years, yet it seems to be a long-standing human practice that is not terribly sensitive to asymmetric risks or downsides. It seems no matter how unconscionable a contract it may look like on the surface for the wife or the husband (depending on when and where in history) it persists in widespread use.
Readit News
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-022-01952-3
I guess this is revealing is modern, western biases. Throughout much of history and through large parts of the world, it was very common for cousins to marry. Even in the Bible, Jacob marries his first cousins.
Inheritance to daughters and widows was developed and enforced by muslims, and I hear in turn families became motivated to marry among their own to keep the wealth in the family.
I wonder if studies have been done to show better outcomes when genes are similiar vs very different
> until the 13th century, the church forbade marriages with consanguinity or affinity (kinship by marriage) to the seventh degree— a rule which covered a very large percentage of marriages.
https://www.thoughtco.com/consanguinity-and-medieval-marriag...
So it would forbid you marrying your brother-in-law's first cousin, for example, even if you have no consanguinity with them. Even not counting affinity, you'd still be forbidden to marry third cousins, which nobody has had problems with for centuries.
I think that's why so many people have this unreasonable urge to travel. If you didn't have that in the past very little genetic diversity was available for your offspring.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cousin_marriage_in_the_Middl...
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