Andrey Korotayev claimed that Islamization is a strong and significant predictor of the marriage of a cousin (daughter of the father`s brother – FBD), bint `amm marriage. He showed that although there is a clear functional link between Islam and FBD marriage, the recipe for marrying FBD does not seem to be enough to convince people to marry this way, even if marriage brings economic benefits. According to Korotaev, a systematic acceptance of marriage between cousins took place when Islamization took place at the same time as Arabization. [53] The Qur`an does not say that marriages between first cousins are prohibited. In Surah An-Nisa (4:22-24), Allah mentions women who are forbidden to marry: To quote the Qur`an: „. The lawful ones for you are all beyond those mentioned, so that you can seek them with your wealth in an honest marriage. In Surah Al-Ahzab (33:50), marriage between cousins was allowed throughout the Middle East for all recorded history. [33] Anthropologists have debated the importance of the practice; Some consider this to be the defining feature of the Middle Eastern kinship system,[34] while others note that overall rates of marriage between cousins have varied considerably between different communities in the Middle East. [35] There is very little numerical evidence of the rate of marriages between cousins in the past. [36] Lévi-Strauss postulated that marriage between cross-cousins had two consequences of establishing classes that automatically delineate the group of possible spouses and determining a relationship that might decide whether to want or exclude a potential spouse. While in other kinship systems one or the other of these aspects dominates, in marriage between cousins they overlap and accumulate their effects. It differs from the prohibitions of incest in that the latter uses a set of negative relationships and says who not to marry, while marriage between cousins uses positive relationships that say who should marry.
Most importantly, cousin marriage is the only preferred type of union that can function normally and exclusively, while giving every man and woman the chance to marry a cross cousin. Unlike other systems such as levirate, sororate, or uncle-niece marriage, marriage between crossed cousins is preferred because these others cannot represent the exclusive or even predominant rule of marriage in any group for obvious reasons. Marriage between cross-cousins divides members of the same generation into two roughly equal groups, those of cross-cousins and „siblings,“ which include real siblings and parallel cousins. Therefore, marriage between cousins can be a normal form of marriage in a society, but the other systems mentioned above can only be privileged forms. This makes marriage between cousins extremely important. [168] World map showing the prevalence of marriage from second cousins to second cousins according to data published in 2012 by the U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information. [111] In most societies, marriage between cousins appears to be more common among people of low socioeconomic status, the illiterate and uneducated, and rural areas. [18] This may be due in part to the symbolic or significantly reduced dowry that exists in these marriages, and also to the much smaller pool of viable marriage candidates in rural areas.
Some societies also report a high prevalence among landowning families and the ruling elite: here it is assumed that the relevant consideration is to keep family property intact for generations. [19] The mean age at marriage is lower for cousin marriages, with a difference of 1.10 and 0.84 years for first cousins and second cousins in a Pakistani study. In Pakistan, the age of spouses was also closer, with the age difference increasing from 6.5 years for unrelated couples to 4.5 years for first cousins. A slight increase in the time to first birth, from 1.6 years in general to 1.9 years in first-degree cousins, may occur due to the younger age of marriage of inbred mothers and juvenile subfertility or the resulting delay in completion of education. [165] Interestingly, in almost all of these cases, the marriage is between crossed cousins, that is, children born to a brother and sister, and not between two sisters and not between two brothers. In other words, marriages between parallel cousins are not allowed. Even in the absence of preferential inbreeding, alleles that are rare in large populations may randomly increase at a high frequency in small groups due to founder effect and accelerated genetic drift in a breeding basin of limited size. [212] For example, since the entire Amish population is descended from only a few hundred German-Swiss settlers of the 18th century, the average coefficient of inbreeding between two random Amish is higher than between two non-Amish second cousins.
[213] Marriage to a first cousin and a first cousin is taboo among the Amish, but they still suffer from several rare genetic diseases. In Ohio`s Geauga County, Amish make up only about 10 percent of the population, but account for half of all special needs cases. In the case of debilitating seizure disorder, the total number of cases worldwide is for Amish patients only. [214] Similar troubles have been noted in The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which allows the marriage of first cousins, 75 to 80 percent of whom are related to two founders in the 1830s. [215] [216] In the 1989 Malayalam film Kireedam, Mohanlalal`s character, Sethumadhavan, falls helplessly in love with his uncle`s daughter, played by Parvathy. In the same year, Mammootty played the mythical figure of Chandu in Oru Vadakkan Veeragadha, where he is in love with his warrior cousin Unniyarcha (Madhavi). Years earlier, Prem Nazir and Sarada starred in a film called Murappennu – the cousin of a man he can marry according to habit – Prem Nazir and Sarada as loving cousins. In all these stories on screen, it was a relationship that was accepted and sometimes prompted by relatives. The term „ammavante makalâ – uncle`s daughter“ would attract the discerning eyes of friends. It was a norm that has not been questioned for generations, followed by some religions and castes. But maybe not anymore. Today, consanguineity marriages or marriages between cousins are not as common in Kerala as in other southern Indian states.
„The argument in this petition that if she (the girl) reaches the age of 18, they will marry is also illegal in itself,“ the judge said, while hearing a man`s request to marry a girl who is his first cousin, The Indian Express reported. Since the 13th century, the Catholic Church has measured inbreeding according to the so-called civil law method. In this method, the degree of relationship between linear parents (i.e. a man and his grandfather) is simply equal to the number of generations between them. However, the degree of relationship between collateral (non-linear) relatives is equal to the number of links in the family tree from one person to the common ancestor and then back to the other person. Thus, brothers in the second degree are related and cousins of the first degree in the fourth degree. [184] Even northerners can enter into such marriages under the Hindu Marriage Act, provided that the conditions of the law are met, the conditions explicitly mentioning the condition that there is a cultural tradition and heritage of those who marry in this way. Rates of marriage between cousins in most African countries outside the Middle East are unknown.
It is estimated that 35-50% of all populations in sub-Saharan Africa prefer or accept marriages between cousins. [54] In Nigeria, Africa`s most populous country, the three largest tribes in order of size are the Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo. [55] The Hausa are predominantly Muslim, although there are followers of traditional religions. Hausa Muslims prefer to practice marriage between cousins, and polygamy is allowed if the husband can support several wives. [56] The book Baba of Karo presents an important account of The life of the Hausa: According to its English co-author, it is not known that Hausa women are not married for long periods after the age of about 14. [57] Divorce can easily be done by a man or a woman, but then women must remarry. [58] Even for a man, the absence of a spouse is overlooked. [59] Baba of Karos was with his second cousin. She recounts in the book that her good friend married her friend`s first cousin of the cross. [60] The Igbo people of southeastern Nigeria, who are predominantly Christians, strictly practice blood marriages in which parents and cousins are not allowed to marry or have privacy.
Therefore, men and women are prohibited from marrying as part of their last line of inheritance and marriage.