Is Cousin Marriage Dangerous?

In 2019 Gabriel Andrade wrote a long article for Skeptic about cousin marriage:

At best, public policy should encourage (but again, not force) cousin couples to undergo genetic testing, in order to consider the risks on a case-by-case basis, and ultimately, let them decide on their own. In this age of hypersensitivity and political correctness, the idea of Manifest Destiny is offensive to many. But at least, the overwhelming majority of Americans still like to think of their country as the “Land of the Free.” A country where you cannot marry your cousin is not fully free. It is time to change that.

My boyfriend once slept with his first cousin

On January 29th, Rappler had an advice column about cousin romance:

I recently found out that my boyfriend had hooked up with his first cousin in the past.

He doesn’t think it’s a big deal and thinks that I’m weird for being uncomfortable about it, especially since it happened before we met.

I keep trying to make him understand that it’s not the hooking up part but the incest aspect that makes me uncomfortable, but he doesn’t get it.

There are two responses to this letter. Here is part of the first:

Relationships between cousins spark diametrically opposed views around the world. For example, cousin marriage is illegal in countries such as China, Taiwan, both Koreas, many US states, and of course the Philippines. By contrast, a high percentage of marriages in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and some other Middle Eastern and African countries are reportedly between first or second cousins, though statistics are incomplete. Culture, religion, and economics, particularly protection of family wealth, play their part in this disparity of approach.

While the above sheds some light on the frequency and acceptability of cousin marriage, it is silent as to extramarital cousin relationships, though it is likely that these are more frequent than actual marriages. Again, there are laws against such liaisons in some countries, but generally legislation is reserved for cases involving minors, coercion, undue influence, and such. While I am very happy to be corrected, I have found no Philippine law that prohibits sexual relationships between fully consenting adult cousins.

Here is part of the second response:

However, I have experienced that many Filipinos have a gut-level reaction against any kind of incest, so I can understand your discomfort. There are some theories that support this seemingly instinctive aversion to incest. One is the inbreeding avoidance hypothesis (nature); the other the incest taboo (nurture).

Diego’s relationship with his cousin shows that neither the incest taboo (mainly focused on how we do not feel sexual attraction for people we grew up with, such as siblings and close cousins) nor inbreeding avoidance (circumvented by birth control) are applicable to the situation you describe.

Famous cousin couples who had White House weddings

On August 8th, the Davie County Enterprise-Record in North Carolina had an article about weddings in the White House:

There was not another wedding there until March 9, 1820, when Maria Hester Monroe, the daughter of President James Monroe and his wife, Elizabeth Kortwright Monroe, married her first cousin, Samuel L. Gouverneur.  The restoration of the White House had been completed in 1817 so the building was in good condition when Maria Monroe decided to have her wedding.  The wedding of the president’s daughter caused a bit of feud with the Diplomatic Corp because the Monroes did not follow the protocols which the previous First Ladies had established.  The Diplomatic Corp was not invited to the Monroe/Gouverneur wedding which was considered an insult. The diplomats and their wives were not even invited to a reception to congratulate the newlyweds.  Such treatment did not help the relationship between the Diplomatic Corp and the Monroe administration.

All of that did not have any effect on the wedding itself which is believed to have been held in the Blue Room though some writers believe that the wedding was held in the unfinished East Room. The Blue Room was decorated in the French style furniture with which the Monroes had come so enambured when he served as envoy to France.  President Monroe ordered great quantities of French furniture for the White House.

Maria and Samuel had four children, including a daughter who died in infancy and a son who was born a deaf mute.

The next White House wedding did not occur until 1828 when John Adams II married Mary Catherine Hellen in the Blue Room. John Adams II is the only son of a president to be wed in the White House.

The story of their marriage is tumultuous. John Quincy Adams and his wife, Louisa Catherine, had three sons, George, John and Charles Francis, and all three fell in love with the flirtatious Mary Catherine Hellen, their first cousin.  Mary Catherine was the orphaned daughter of Louisa Adams’ sister, Nancy Johnson Hellen. Louisa Catherine, the wife of John Quincy Adams, cared for Mary Catherine and her siblings.  The Hellen children lived at the White House throughout John Quincy Adams’ term.

George, the oldest Adams son, graduated from Harvard and was living in Boston and reading law in Daniel Webster’s office.   Mary Catherine was fascinated by the handsome older man who was taken with her delightful ways.  In the summer of 1923, George asked his father’s consent to become engaged. Mr. Adams asked some questions and then agreed.

Even after Mary Catherine was engaged to his older brother, Charles Francis could not shake off his infatuation for his cousin.  Mary Catherine seemed to enjoy her power over Charles Francis when he came home from Harvard, even though she was engaged to his brother.

To complicated matters, John, the second son who was living at the White House and studying law under the guidance of his father because he had been expelled from Harvard when he participated during a student rebellion in 1823, became infatuated with Mary Catherine.  As the romance between John II and Mary Catherine was going on in Washington, the two brothers who lived in Boston often got together, but Charles Francis could not bring himself to tell George what he thought was going on between John and Mary Catherine.

Mrs. Adams was aware of all that was going on, and she told the former president that John and Mary Catherine should get married right away. Mr. Adams couldn’t bring himself to approve such a marriage. The engagement was on-again, off again, and, then, Mrs. Adams announced the news of the wedding date, Feb. 25, 1828. On that date, John and Mary Catherine were married in the oval drawing room.

John and Mary were the parents of two daughters, but only one of them lived to adulthood.

Can you marry your first cousin in North Carolina?

On November 16th, The Charlotte Observer had an article about cousin marriage:

It is actually legal to marry your first cousin in North Carolina, according to the N.C. Judicial Branch.

However, marriages between double first cousins (the children of two sisters who married two brothers) are prohibited, state law says.

The validity of marriage licenses between cousins depends on the state, according to LegalMatch.

“For example, there are certain states that make distinctions between the categories of cousins as well as half-cousins and adopted cousins,” LegalMatch says. “In general, the rule of thumb is that the more distant the blood relationship between the parties, the more likely the state will allow a marriage to occur between them.”

Cousin Marriages May Be Taboo, but They're Not Genetic Disasters

In 2008, Discover had an article about cousin marriage:

In the western world, marriage between first cousins is labeled incest or inbreeding, and in the United States the practice is banned or restricted in 31 states. But a new essay argues that such laws are based on an outdated notion of the genetic risks involved in cousins marrying and reproducing.

[T]hose laws "seem ill-advised" and "should be repealed," a geneticist and medical historian write.... "Neither the scientific nor social assumptions that informed them are any longer defensible" [Scientific American].

First cousins share about an eighth of their genes, and are therefore more likely to receive two copies of some recessive gene that poses health problems. Scientists had assumed that the children of first cousins would therefore be more likely to be born with birth defects. But coauthor Hamish Spencer writes that the risk of congenital defects is about 2 per cent higher than average for babies born to first-cousin marriages – with the infant mortality about 4.4 per cent higher – which is on a par with the risk to babies born to women over 40. "Women over the age of 40 have a similar risk of having children with birth defects and no one is suggesting they should be prevented from reproducing," said Professor Spencer [The Independent].

Kissing Cousins: The States Where Marrying Your Relative Is Legal

In 2018, Inside Edition had an article showing the legality of cousin marriage in every state:

Though it is less common now, marriage of some form between first cousins is legal in many of America's 50 states. Think you know where your state falls on such laws? Click through to find out!

Consanguineous marriages

In 2011 the National Library of Medicine had an article about genetic counseling for consanguineous marriages:

Consanguinity is a deeply rooted social trend among one-fifth of the world population mostly residing in the Middle East, West Asia and North Africa, as well as among emigrants from these communities now residing in North America, Europe and Australia. The mounting public awareness on prevention of congenital and genetic disorders in offspring is driving an increasing number of couples contemplating marriage and reproduction in highly consanguineous communities to seek counseling on consanguinity. Primary health care providers are faced with consanguineous couples demanding answers to their questions on the anticipated health risks to their offspring. Preconception and premarital counseling on consanguinity should be part of the training of health care providers particularly in highly consanguineous populations.

Yes, you can marry your first cousin in New Jersey

On October 10th, New Jersey 101.5 had an article about cousin marriage:

Whenever the topic comes up, most people are surprised to learn that the United States is one of the few countries in the world where marrying your first cousin is considered taboo.

They will usually joke about states like Arkansas or Alabama, but it is legal here and much more common in other parts of the planet. Worldwide more than 10% of marriages are between first and second cousins. It gets a really shocked reaction here.

Although the article doesn't mention it, consensual incest between people 18 years old or more is not a criminal offense in New Jersey.

Sex Secret: I Slept with My Cousin!

In 2010 Cafe Mom shared a confession:

This Week's Confession:

When I was in my early 20s, I moved to a new city and my mom suggested I look up a long-lost cousin, the product of an uncle's affair who my family had never met. I did. He was in his 30s and there was an instant attraction. Before you could say "kissing cousins," we were having the most amazing sex -- and had a crazy affair for two years before guilt finally made me cut it off.  I guess everyone has a crazy affair in their 20s, but the fact that mine was with a relative makes me feel so weird about it. I have no photos of that time and have never told my husband. Or my mom, obviously! There's no point regretting it because it's done. It's more like it feels like it happened to someone else. --anonymous

Oral Sex with Cousin

TheBody had an advice column from 2003:

I am an asian and i will be marrying my first-cousin soon(which is common here)with blessings.

But we have pre-marital sex bout 6 month now after our engagement.

Doctor, my cousin is free from Hiv(which i strongly believe and i hope so), and so do i b'cos i only have sex with him .We use condom while sex but every time /all the time when we have sex i give him blow job..which i and him love it.

Go Ahead, Kiss Your Cousin

In 2003 Discover Magazine had an article about cousin marriage:

In the United States they are deemed such a threat to mental health that 31 states have outlawed first-cousin marriages. This phobia is distinctly American, a heritage of early evolutionists with misguided notions about the upward march of human societies. Their fear was that cousin marriages would cause us to breed our way back to frontier savagery—or worse. "You can't marry your first cousin," a character declares in the 1982 play Brighton Beach Memoirs. "You get babies with nine heads." So when a team of scientists led by Robin L. Bennett, a genetic counselor at the University of Washington and the president of the National Society of Genetic Counselors, announced that cousin marriages are not significantly riskier than any other marriage, it made the front page of The New York Times. The study, published in the Journal of Genetic Counseling last year, determined that children of first cousins face about a 2 to 3 percent higher risk of birth defects than the population at large. To put it another way, first-cousin marriages entail roughly the same increased risk of abnormality that a woman undertakes when she gives birth at 41 rather than at 30. Banning cousin marriages makes about as much sense, critics argue, as trying to ban childbearing by older women. But the nature of cousin marriage is far more surprising than recent publicity has suggested. A closer look reveals that moderate inbreeding has always been the rule, not the exception, for humans. Inbreeding is also commonplace in the natural world, and contrary to our expectations, some biologists argue that this can be a very good thing. It depends in part on the degree of inbreeding.

Why Marrying Your Cousin May Pay Off

In 2014 Live Science had an article about cousin marriage:

Yet some research suggests an alternative perspective. "There's this counterintuitive finding that higher spousal relatedness is related to higher reproductive success in several humans societies," said Drew Bailey, a psychologist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and co-author of the study detailed May 21 in the journal Biology Letters.

Even in modern, industrialized society, research suggests that people tend to marry others with similar DNA.

In line with previous findings, the researchers found that among non-foraging societies, a couple's relatedness was linked with having more surviving children. But among foraging societies, the opposite was true: More-closely related spouses had fewer surviving children.

Furthermore, the more family intermarriage in a society, the greater the benefit of intermarrying on the number of children couples had. In other words, in societies in which people frequently married their relatives, intermarrying showed a stronger link to having more children.

There could be many explanations for the different effects of inbreeding shown in the two kinds of societies. Perhaps the best explanation, Bailey said, may be that non-foraging societies are more likely to have heritable resources, such as wealth or livestock, so a tight-knit family group might be more likely to defend each other and their shared resources. By contrast, in a foraging society, it might make more sense to be part of a much larger, interconnected group, since there are few or no resources to be inherited.

When Cousins Get Married

In 2006 ABC News had an article about cousin marriage:

Everyone wants to fall in love.

It's the stuff of movies, songs and dreams.

But what if you fall in love with your cousin?

For two cousins, romance bloomed when they met as adults after a 20-year absence.

"We ran into each other, at a family reunion," Christie Smith said. "And we just struck it off."

Smith said marrying her cousin, Mark, brought concerns.

"It was very scary, at first. I thought that it was something that was very wrong," she said.

Cousins who fall in love have a right to voice concerns. After all, marrying a cousin just isn't done, right?

Keeping Marriage in the Family

The Oprah website has an article about cousin marriage:

Most people balk at the idea of first cousins marrying each other, but the practice isn't as forbidden or as risky as you may think.

In other parts of the world, marrying your first cousin is socially acceptable; in the United States, it's a bit more taboo. But in 21 states, it is legal for first cousins to get married, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures' website (NCSL). Professor Alan Bittles of Murdoch University and Edith Cowan University in Australia has studied cousin marriages for the past 30 years. He says it's likely 10.4 percent of people worldwide are married to a close relative or are the children of such a marriage. "This equates to over 700 million people," Bittles says.

The assumption that children of first cousins are likely to suffer from health problems has been around for centuries, Bittles says. "Although there has been a tradition of cousin marriage among royalty, major land-owning families and some business dynasties, the highest rates of consanguinity [cousin marriage] are actually among the rural poor whose general health status often is marginal," he says. "Under these circumstances, unless appropriate allowance is made for adverse family socioeconomics, just about all health problems have simply been blamed on consanguinity, even though there usually is no specific evidence of a causal relationship between consanguinity and the disorder in question."

Few Risks Seen To the Children Of 1st Cousins

In 2002 the New York Times had an article about children born to cousin couples:

Dr. Motulsky said medical geneticists had known for a long time that there was little or no harm in cousins marrying and having children. ''Somehow, this hasn't become general knowledge,'' even among doctors, he said.

Twenty-four states have laws forbidding first cousins from marrying, and seven states have limits like requiring genetic counseling. But no countries in Europe have such prohibitions, and in parts of the Middle East, Africa and Asia, marriages between cousins are considered preferable.

''In some parts of the world,'' the report says, ''20 to 60 percent of all marriages are between close biological relatives.''

Dr. Motulsky said many immigrants from cultures where cousin marriages are common expect to continue the tradition in the United States, and doctors and genetic counselors should respect their wishes.

Laws against cousin marriage should be abolished, he said. Even though longstanding ones reflect a view that such marriages are ''really bad,'' he said, ''the data show it isn't that bad.''

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.

It is not known how many cousins marry or live together. Estimates of marriages between related people, which include first cousins and more distant ones, range from less than 0.1 percent of the general population to 1.5 percent. In the past, small studies have found much higher rates in some areas. A survey in 1942 found 18.7 percent in a small town in Kentucky and a 1980 study found 33 percent in a Mennonite community in Kansas.

The report made a point of saying that the term ''incest'' should not be applied to cousins but only to sexual relations between siblings or between parents and children. Babies who result from those unions are thought to be at significantly higher risk of genetic problems, the report said, but there is not enough data to be sure.

Why not marry your cousin? Millions do

In 2012, The Conversation had an article about cousin marriage:

The topic of consanguineous marriage raises both interest and unease in Western societies. For those who are wondering, that big word means “marrying your cousin”.

But why would anyone want to marry a cousin when there are so many other potential partners out there?

In generational terms this mode of thought is actually quite recent, and until the middle of the 19th century first cousin marriage was common in most Western countries, in part due to the shortage of available unrelated spouses in many outlying areas.

Further, many of the ill-effects on health that have been ascribed to “inbreeding” are more probably due to a wide range of adverse non-genetic factors, including young maternal age, very short birth intervals, trans-placental infection of the developing fetus with organisms such as rubella and cytomegalovirus, and inadequate nutrition both during pregnancy and early childhood.

In assessing whether or not consanguinity is “good” or “bad” there has been a notable failure to take into account the social and economic benefits of close kin marriage, which is a particularly important consideration in the poorer sections of societies where consanguinity is more common. Or to acknowledge that wives in consanguineous unions generally seem to enjoy more equal status.

Alan Bittles is the author of "Consanguinity in Context".

11 State Laws About First Cousin Marriage, Ranked

On March 28th, 11 Points had an amusing article about cousin marriage.

All I know is that I thought cousin marriages could make for an interesting list topic. And my article on the practicability of marrying your third cousin was well accepted. So I started digging around the topic of first cousin marriages, and that brought us to now.

So here, my friends, are the 11 different first cousin marriage laws that exist across the 50 states. I’ve ranked the list from the places where it’s most difficult to marry your first cousin down to the places where anything goes.

And who knows? Maybe someone will find this list, realize that those taboo feelings they’ve been having every year at Thanksgiving aren’t that strange, and use the info gathered here to finally make true love happen.

Number 11 is called "Let it ride!" and includes all of the states where it is fully legal. Shelbyville is also mentioned, which I think is a reference to The Simpsons.

Why do Muslims marry their cousins?

In 2018 Medium had an article about Muslim marriage customs.

We are not brought up thinking up of our cousins as siblings. In fact, there is a certain “distance” we maintain with our cousins of the opposite sex once we grew up.

We don’t have to marry the cousins we have grown up with as brothers and sisters, and in my personal experience, we don’t. If someone does marry her or his cousin, it’s someone you are not really close to and haven’t shared a brotherly or sisterly relationship.

Almost 10% of the marriages in the world are consanguine. The practice is more common in countries with a predominance of Islamic culture but isn’t completely unknown in other cultures as well. There are many parts of the world — including China, Korea, and some states of US — where it is banned between first cousins. There are cultures which are okay with cross-cousins and then there are others where parallel-cousins are more accepted.

One major objection raised against cousin marriage is that it leads to birth defects in the offspring. Islamophobe pages have used this very insensitively in the past to crack jokes at the expense of the Muslim community. This is not entirely false — studies have shown that the risk of birth defects increases by two times. The risk of a baby having birth defects increases from 3% to 6% when the marriage is between first cousins. However, the same jump in risk is seen while comparing the children born of a 30-year-old woman and a 40-year-old woman. The exaggerated effects of inbreeding that have been played out in the media do not find favour with the scientific community any longer.

Lady reveals dating cousin after hiding it for years

On March 16, 2019, Punch had an article about a woman dating her cousin.

A woman has revealed she is dating her cousin by sharing intimate pictures of them together online.

She posted several photographs, including one of them kissing, on Twitter with the caption: “Don’t let y’all being cousins stop you from being in love.”

The woman revealed she has had romantic feelings for her first cousin – whose mum is her mum’s blood sister – since they were kids.

Dating first cousin

Go Ask Alice had an advice column about a cousin couple that was originally published on October 27, 1995, but was updated on December 30, 2022.

What are the pros and cons (legally and morally) of dating your 1st cousin? To make a long story short, my cousin and I became close friends, then fell in love with each other. We have that "don't care" attitude on what others say or think about our relationship, but are curious anyway.

Alice had a long response, but here is part of it:

Studies have found some social benefits to consanguineous relationships. These include a lower risk of financial problems, ease of marriage arrangements, increased female autonomy in heterosexual relationships, better compatibility with in-laws, preserved family wealth and values, shared cultural values, and lower rates of domestic violence and divorce. Some biological benefits from consanguineous mating are the likelihood of childbearing at an earlier age and thus a longer reproductive life, a higher number of live births, and an overall possible increase in fertility.

Shaking Off the Shame

On November 25th, 2009, The New York Times had an article about cousin marriage:

WHEN Kimberly Spring-Winters told her mother she was in love, she didn’t expect a positive response and she didn’t get one.

“It’s wrong, it’s taboo, nobody does that,” she recalled her mother saying.

But shortly after the conversation, Ms. Spring-Winters, 29, decided to marry the man she loved: her first cousin.

Shane Winters, 37, whom she now playfully refers to as her “cusband,” proposed to her at a surprise birthday party in front of family and friends, and the two are now trying to have a baby. They are not concerned about genetic defects, Ms. Spring-Winters said, and their fertility doctor told them he saw no problem with having children.

The couple, she is a second-grade teacher and he builds furniture, held their wedding last summer on a lake near this tiny town in central Pennsylvania. But their official marriage took place a month earlier in Maryland, at Annapolis City Hall, because marriage between first cousins is illegal in Pennsylvania and in 24 other states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures under laws enacted mostly in the 19th century.

Divorced man has feelings for his younger cousin

On May 24th the New York Post had an advice column with a question from a man attracted to his cousin.

I am a 57-year-old male. I have no children, and I was forced to move back in with my mother to start my life over again. I divorced my wife because she was cheating.

I have a cousin from Alabama who is 30. I love her dearly. She’s my favorite cousin, and I have begun having feelings for her. I think it may be my body’s way of telling me it wants to procreate and leave a legacy.

Abby had a really good response:

In some (not all) states, marriage between cousins is legal. Tennessee and Alabama happen to be two of them. Your cousin may be 27 years younger, but at 30, she’s a grown woman. Do you have any indication of whether your feelings are reciprocated? Sometimes the feelings we suppress only make them grow stronger. A way to resolve this would be to express them.

The letter doesn't say if they are first cousins, but the large age gap is still possible. My youngest first cousin was born 24 years after me.

New book to explore unconventional love story

On April 8th, WION had an article about a book exploring the cousin marriage of a famous painter:

An upcoming book, "Amrita & Victor", explores the love story between avant-garde artist Amrita Sher-Gil and her husband Victor Egan.

The book, based on archival evidence, aims to bring out the truth of the "misconstrued relationship" the Hungarian-Indian painter shared with Egan who was also her first cousin.

She was born in Hungary and died in British India (now Pakistan).

Wikipedia article

I slept with my cousin after years of sexual tension and now I don't know what to do

On February 28th the Daily Mail had an article about an unnamed woman who had sex with her cousin but feels guilty because of how their family and the public will react:

Her cousin admitted he felt the same, and the two became intimate. 

The anonymous person added that she is now unsure about what she wants from her cousin, but said she wants to keep him in her life. 

She said that she fears that there could be a fall out if other members of the family heard of what happened between them. 

She asked the columnist for her opinion, adding she wants to know what other people think of her story, and that she cannot be the only one in a similar situation. 

In the response to the anonymous post, the columnist said that the person was not 'weird' for having sexual urges towards her cousin, but should seek a therapist to explore where her desire to be with him stemmed from. 

Lalala LetMeExplain began by explaining that marrying your cousin is not illegal in the UK and Ireland, but that it is not a common practice. 

The columnist added that the anonymous person should not be judged for having sex with her cousin.

Sultan of Brunei's Daughter Marries Her First Cousin

On January 25th, People had an article about the royal family in Brunei, a small monarchy on the island of Borneo:

It's a royal wedding in Brunei — that of Princess 'Azemah Ni'matul Bolkiah and Prince Bahar ibni Jefri Bolkiah.

Princess 'Azemah, 38, is the daughter of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, and wedding festivities began in the independent sultanate on the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia on Jan. 8. Prince Bahar is the son of the sultan's brother Prince Jefri Bolkiah, making the couple first cousins, Tatler reported.

The event began in the Banquet Hall of Istana Nurul Iman, the sultan's official residence, and seven ceremonies were held in the days that followed, according to the Borneo Bulletin. The traditions included a gift exchange, the presentation of the royal insignia, a three-day wedding ceremony, a dining reception and a ceremonial close.

Marriage between first cousins was encouraged in Ancient Greece

On January 16th, CNN had a article about marriage customs in Bronze Age Greece:

Even more surprising was the discovery that around half of those living on the islands married their cousins, while the proportion on the mainland was about a third.

“It’s not 100%, but not everybody has a cousin,” Stockhammer said.

“People have studied thousands of ancestral genomes and there’s hardly any evidence for societies in the past of cousin-cousin marriage. From a historical perspective this really is outstanding,” he added.

Stockhammer and his colleagues believe such unions were down to economics, to prevent family land from being divided.

He explained: “All of the driving force is to unite the land within the family. If you look at what people were growing, it was grapes and also olives for olive oil, but both grapes and olives might need to be at a certain place for decades.

“If you marry in your family it means that you focus on staying in the same area.”

He said that, by contrast, in other parts of Bronze Age Europe, women often traveled hundreds of miles in order to marry. Resources in those areas would have been more plentiful, he explained.

“In Greece, there’s not much space to grow things and things that you plant need decades to grow,” he said.

“We can completely see the cousin to cousin marriage from the genomic evidence. It’s too many people doing it to say it’s pure chance – but it isn’t 100%. I would say it was quite a strict practice.

“It’s an unwritten rule because everyone has done it.”

Do we really have equality if some cousins can't marry?

On November 1st, The Telegraph in Alton posted an article from Scott Reeder, a staff writer for Illinois Times:

In fact, cousins can’t marry in Illinois unless at least one person in the union is sterilized or they are both past the age of 50. That law is based on a cultural taboo and faulty science.

And it makes no sense. None.

Once upon a time, there was a worry that the offspring of two cousins were at a higher risk for birth defects. But recent medical studies indicate it poses little risk. In fact, cousin marriage is common in much of the Middle East and Asia.

The prohibition against cousins marrying is deeply rooted in American racism, Martin Ottenheimer, a retired anthropology professor at Kansas State University, told me recently.

“White settlers came to this country and encountered Indians, who often married their cousins. By attacking cousin marriage, they were depicting their enemies as savages.”