How common are intra-familial relationships and how harmful are they?

How common are intra-familial relationships and how harmful are they?

Introduction

Being from the south, we hear many offensive jokes about “incest”.  Today it has appeared to be very socially unacceptable, and is illegal in most states.  However, though parental incest has been illegalized (as it should be) there have been few states that still allow cousins to be married (7).  When reading of Edgar Allen Poe’s life, I learned that he did just that.  His wife, thirteen year old Virginia Clemm at the time of their marriage, and Edgar were first cousins.  Her early death, dying at only 25, has been rumored to even inspire some of his stories (1).  Though Poe is a primary example of marrying within the family, he is not the only one known to do so.  Other famous examples as Jessie James and his first-cousin wife, Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor, Thomas Jefferson and his third cousin, Albert Einstein and his second cousin, and Jerry Lee Lewis and his cousin Myra (7).  Incest has also been popular in important movies, such as when Oedipus sleeps with his mother unknowingly (3). It is true that marrying inside the family was much more acceptable before and in the Victorian ages.

Poe and his wife

Just how common is this?

                It has been recorded that incest occurs in 30 percent of people across the world.  However, these are only cases that have admitted and some cases are kept in the dark.  It was reported that males were more likely to express being victims of this than girls (5).  If we include marriage between first cousins, then incest is very common.  I found on one website, that “half the US states will marry first cousins”.  Whether first cousins or not, it has been found that we at least know one person who has been part of incest whether we know it or not.  During the last two centuries, it has been shown that sexual child abuse happened more than we’d expect.  Many sleeping arrangements placed children in the beds with parents and sometimes had a negative impact (4).  Dreams consisting of incest are even said to be common and shouldn’t bring you much alarm.  These dreams could just be results of deep appreciation for a relative, not a crush (6).  Thankfully, in a study it was found that we are not attracted to people who look like ourselves (8).     

Statistics

Charles Darwin’s Marriage


Charles Darwin and his wife

Like Poe, Charles Darwin is also another candidate of marrying a first cousin, Emma Hedgewood.  It is been discussed that he may have also a product of this.  Charles’s children fell sick very often.  Charles thought that maybe this was actually due to the inbreeding.  His daughter Anne was a result of being ill and died during her childhood.  Inbreeding has occurred long before the date of 1860.  However, it wasn’t until then that scientific studies were made showing that inbreeding actually had harmful effects.   Charles, being concerned for his children as well as his own life, went on to study this as well.  A study, on inbreeding in Scotland, concluded that 44 percent of children of incest were mentally impaired and that six percent were deaf.  Others argue that there is always the risk of having a child with a mutation.  It has been concluded, though, that inbreeding with family members has doubled the risks (2).


Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Allan_Poe (1)
http://newhumanist.org.uk/2133/kissing-cousins (2)
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/30/weekinreview/incest-as-a-selling-point.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm (3)
http://www.faqs.org/childhood/In-Ke/Incest.html (4)
http://www.rationalskepticism.org/social-sciences/just-how-common-is-incest-t9841.html (5)
http://marriage-equality.blogspot.com/2011/12/frequently-asked-question-how-common-is.html (6)
http://listverse.com/2008/07/20/10-famous-people-who-married-their-cousins/ (7)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl3da490MTY (8)

Photos

http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/images/2008/12/22/charlesandemma.jpg
http://muirmiddle.enschool.org/album/users/54687/57058/82028.jpg
http://hbdchick.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/mbd-marriage.jpg
http://evolutionaryanthropology.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/cousinmarriage.png?w=500

What were two early forms of slavery?

What were two early forms of slavery?

Slavery  has been noted in many civilizations in Europe and America.  Even today, it continues to exist even though it is illegal.  Some view the relationship between bankers and those in monetary debt as a slave system.  The people who are in debt slave over paying it back and give up their processions to do so.   Sex slaves are still present in all countries, mainly in Asia.  Corrupt parents may sell their child into this type of slavery for money against the child’s will.   It has almost been described as human nature, however how sad it may be, to want to have complete power over other humans to the point of serfdom.  The most talked about is the form of manual labor.  This type of slavery can be found in ancient Rome and in the Aztec empire (1).

Slavery in ancient Rome was viewed at as natural, and was never questioned by anyone as being wrong (6).  Slaves, like many others, in Rome were used for farming on plantations.  The amount of slaves in Rome was roughly about 25% to 40% percent, which equaled the amount of freedmen (7).  Slaves consisted often of prisoners of war (8)(7), or unwanted children (6), and were taken just because of simple greediness.  The Roman belief is that slaves were living dead.  They were considered dead, but were spared from actually dying (6).  Therefore they did not have worth.  Even though race did not play a big part in slavery, it did play a role in which task a certain slave was assigned.  Barbarian slaves were often assigned tasks that required a lot of strength and endurance.  The master of the household determined how a slave would be treated (7).  Slaves, who were treated the most poorly, consisted of those who worked in mines (6)(8).  Some slaves were even privileged enough to be considered part of their master’s family and been seen as a pet (7).  Slaves could also be socially reborn into higher stature (6).

Slavery played a large role in the Aztec culture as well.  The Aztec class system was divided into three parts:  the emperor on top of the class pyramid, priests and nobles in the middle of the pyramid, and merchants, craftsmen and servants at the very bottom (2).  Unlike in America, slavery did not discriminate into one race.  Most Aztec slaves, who wore very little clothing (5), were criminals who were being punishment.  Other slaves were just so poor (2)(4) that they did it just to keep food in their mouths.  Another percentage of slaves were just captured or in debt (3)(4).  Aztec slaves commonly had to harvest corn (3) and farm.  Unlike African American slavery in America, Aztec slaves were granted marriage and possession of property (2).  Slaves could also have children and not worry about them being enslaved as well (2) (4). Slaves that did not do good work or were hated by their masters would be sold.  Before the slave could go to market, they would have to be publicly beaten three times. (2). 

 

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery

Aztec Slavery

http://www.localhistories.org/aztec.html

http://www.allabouthistory.org/aztec-civilization.htm
http://slaveryinjustice.wordpress.com/slavery-in-ancient-aztec-mayan-and-inca/
http://www.angelfire.com/az/atid410/

Roman Slavery

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvB6X_4Ilu4

http://www.unrv.com/culture/roman-slavery.php
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/roman_slaves.htm

Pictures

http://www.richeast.org/htwm/Greeks/Romans/slavery/slave.gif

http://clio.missouristate.edu/chuchiak/New%20Webpage%20Images/Slaves1.gif
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQnuLXSiDC1RrBGRZTqJ5lHLDI6j-hlvui6m4xngZ2flacb-ccV