Why not marry your cousin? Millions do

Bittles, A.H. (2012) Why not marry your cousin? Millions do. The Conversation, 7 Jluy .

Abstract

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.

Item Type:	Non-refereed Article
Publisher:	The Conversation Media Group
Copyright:	The Author
Publisher's Website:	http://theconversation.com/au
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/29966

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