Sunday, April 21, 2024

Cross-cousin marriage

Britannica has an article on the term cross-cousin which means "the children of a father’s sister or of a mother’s brother":

Some societies consider first-cousin marriages to be ideal. In those that differentiate between cross-cousins and parallel cousins, cross-cousin marriage is usually preferred or sometimes even obligatory, while marriage between parallel cousins often falls under incest taboos. In exceptional cases, however, the opposite is true. Even when a cross-cousin is the preferential mate, actual instances of such marriages in a given society may be small, for such decisions are also influenced by local customs governing succession, inheritance, and residence. Cross-cousin marriage often acts as a device to strengthen alliances between clans.

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