In one of the classes that I am taking right now, Evolutionary Biology, we read an article this week about inbreeding in royal families. I knew that back before they knew about genetics and what inbreeding does to a community/family, royalty did this often to keep the 'rule' in the family. This eventually led to many of the dynasties dying out.



This is a family tree that the article was about, the Spanish Habsburg Dynasty.


But, something I didn't know was that inbreeding is still a common practice in many cultures today. Many societies in Asia, Africa, and India inbreed because that is the socio-cultural norm. There are other societies that inbreed because of their religion such as the Amish, the Hutterites, and the Mennonites.


To me and probably most of western civilization, this just seems rather...gross. Along with the taboo of it, I was shocked to hear that this happens now-a-day with the knowledge that we have of how inbreeding affects genes, which in turn affects physical traits. Some of the attributes of the people that are the results of inbreeding include reduced fertility, high child mortality rate, mental and physical retardation, slow learning, many rare diseases, and many more.