[Pharmboy]

As distasteful as this sounds, with such small populations and their isolation it does make sense.

[Right Brother]

The genetic defect known as ‘liberalism’ can probably be traced back to this.

[Pharmboy]

Also, see thread from 8 months ago here.

[ElkGroveDan]

severe inbreeding may have created many health problems and the small populations were likely a barrier to the development of complex culture and technologies

On the other hand where would we be without banjo players.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

It would have been exceedingly common. Even in the Bible, the lineage of the Patriarchs was either inbreeding or what we would consider very close to inbreeding.

Abraham and Sarah: half-siblings
Isaac and Rebekah: second cousins
Jacob and his wives, Leah and Rachel: first cousins and his wives were full sisters

Not exactly a lot of genetic mixing going on.

[Perseverando]

The beginning of low information voters.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

[Baynative]

In the beginning, how could inbreeding not have been a factor?

[dfwgator]

[Sacajaweau]

kinda like duh....

[Pharmboy]

The original New Scientist article can be found here.

But be patient, it takes a while to get there. Reminded me of the old days of a twisted pair and a dial-up.

[mountn man]

[Boogieman]

“Archaic populations had low genetic diversity, really extraordinarily low,” he said. “It’s among the lowest diversity of any organism in the animal kingdom.”

---

Hmm... I wonder why that might be. It’s almost as if there was some event that wiped out nearly every human, while multiples of most animal species were preserved.

[Big Mack]

Educational institutions are in fact proving this with teachers unions,

[Jack Hydrazine]

And we wonder why the Torah states over and over again with whom you can and can’t have relations.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

If that be so, then the middle eastern mohammedans should be the most brilliant people in the world as they marry their cousins.

[blueunicorn6]

Well, if any school would know about inbreeding, it would be Harvard.

[MasterGunner01]

Just remember that Islam encourages first cousin marriage and has been inbred for over 1,400+ years. That’s one of the reasons it is a psychotic death cult.

[JoeProBono]

[is_is]

“a barrier to the development of complex culture and technologies”

i can see where this has played out in several races .......

[Black Agnes]

As a modern day example, I offer the Hapsburg family.

[elkfersupper]

We had a situation in our own family 3 generations ago when 2 brothers married 2 sisters and had a passle of kids.

As a further complication, my mother had 9 siblings.

I have cousins I've never met and don't even know their names.

I remember asking the elderly participants in this about the situation and they always responded "muddy roads".