Falling in love with your cousin

In 2013, SBS News had an article about cousin marriage:

"You can't help who you fall in love with. Lyle was the one I loved and that's who I wanted to be with, plain and simple."

Across Australia, cousins are having relationships, marrying and having children together. It’s legal but remains a taboo for many people.

In the Middle East, Africa and Asia, however, cousin marriages (or consanguinity) are widely practised and seen as a way to maintain family and community stability and reduce uncertainties of hidden financial or health problems.

“In Buddhism the Tibetans avoid cousin marriage absolutely,” says Genetics Professor Alan Bittles from Murdoch University, "whereas for Buddhists in Sri Lanka, South India, South East Asia, cousin marriage is very common.

“But I think the important thing with Western culture as well is that until the middle of the 19th century, first cousin marriage was regarded as being terribly romantic. All the English novelists were writing about ‘dearest cousin’ and this was a wonderful idea.

Why are Pakistani Cousin Marriages Still Popular Today?

In 2023, DESIblitz had an article about cousin marriage:

Traditionally, the perspective of inter-family marriages focuses on the arranged marriage route – families orchestrate the events.

However, cousin marriages have the possibility of being arranged by choice as a love-cousin marriage.

Arranged marriages are as discussed a by-product of cultural tradition as well as patriarchal norms that enforce cousin marriages, in certain areas.

Yet, cousin marriages by love are also present in Pakistan.

Before that matter of marriage is unfolded, it is important to consider the socialisation of cousins in Pakistani families.

This is seen among Pakistani families who still marry within families.

Patriarchal norms and culture go hand-in-hand here, with Pakistani men in the diaspora often exploring sex, love interests and dating outside of the family realm.

But when it boils down to commitment, they settle down and marry their cousins to meet family expectations.

Marriages in this instance are not just limited to first cousins only. It can go as far as second or third cousins.

The way cousins interact within the Pakistani culture can also raise many questions – whether it’s celebratory occasions or significant events such as weddings.

If love has no boundary, then cousin marriage is only a subject of cultural appropriation.

Why Have So Many World Leaders Married Their Cousins?

Britannica has an article on cousin marriage:

A crown. A ring. Your cousin. What else do you need for a royal wedding?

At this point, the fact that so many royals through history wed relatives in what are now termed consanguineous marriages is something of a history joke. But why did they do it in the first place?

Before we begin, an acknowledgement: it wasn’t only royals who wanted to “keep it in the family.” The economist and patriarch of a major manufacturing family, Pierre-Samuel du Pont, wasn’t afraid to admit his plan for his lineage, writing in 1810: “The marriages that I should prefer for our colony would be between the cousins. In that way we should be sure of honesty of soul and purity of blood.” Other magnates were more discrete, but they often shared the same opinion; by refusing to allow his female descendants to inherit his wealth, banking great Mayer Amschel Rothschild guaranteed that for his daughters and granddaughters to find wealthy, suitable husbands, they would have to look among their cousins. (And so they did: four pairs of Rothschild cousins, as well as one uncle-niece pairing, were wed.)