The history and legality of cousin marriage

My last blog post was from Reddit, but I found it through an AOL link. That article has more information about cousin marriage:

In the Western world, the notion of marrying a cousin is largely alien. In Western Europe, North America, and Oceania, only around 0.1–0.2% of marriages take place between cousins or close relatives.

But it isn’t so unusual in other parts of the world. Research shows that globally, over 10% of people marry their close relatives, including cousins — this being more common in the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Asia.

It also wasn’t so unusual a few centuries go. Charles Darwin married his first cousin Emma and went on to have 10 children, while Queen Victoria also married her cousin, Prince Albert. This practice was fairly common among the royal family in 19th Century Britain.