Ancestral Consanguinity and Mortality Among Three Endogamous Populations of Chittoor District, Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

Consanguineous marriages have been practiced around the globe by many societies from time immemorial, particularly in South India. Consanguineous marriages play a major role in the health of a population, and diseases leading to mortality of the progeny are a consequence of detrimental recessive genes. To evaluate the effects of ancestral consanguinity on mortality in relation to consanguineous marriage, we have ascertained data from 1,500 women belonging to three endogamous communities (Akuthota Reddy, Odde, and Madiga) of Chittoor District, Andhra Pradesh, India. There were 500 women from each community. For each marriage we drew a family pedigree, extended upward to two earlier generations on either side of the spouses, to determine the prevalence and pattern of consanguinity, with detailed information on fertility and mortality. We observed a significant difference in the mortality rates between consanguineous and nonconsanguineous marriages when all the marriages of the women, women's parents, and (women's) husband's parents were considered in all three communities. In inbreeding, the offspring of earlier generations might have passed on deleterious genes to later generations (under unfavorable conditions), which resulted in a negative aspect of reproduction (among the offspring of the present couple).

The Causal Relationship Between Consanguineous Marriages and Infant Mortality in Turkey

“…In their study conducted in Tunisia, Jamai et al (2007) found that consanguineous marriage was significantly associated with mortality, not only in the neonatal and post-neonatal periods, but throughout childhood. In their study on India, Reddy et al (2007) demonstrated the effect of consanguineous marriage in increasing infant deaths. Benner and Hussain (2006) found that in Qatar the incidence of genetic diseases, and consequently infant deaths, among children born to consanguineous marriages was higher than in children born to other parents.…”

Whose Reality Counts?

“…This stereotype was used for decades by the British to humiliate, to shame and ultimately to govern Dalitbahujan peoples (Bayly 2016;Pathy 1989), and it continues today also amongst tribal peoples (Prakash and Raju 2010). More recent literature amongst this same caste focuses on their lack of genetic fi tness due to their practice of endogamy (Reddy et al 2006(Reddy et al , 2007. The authors of these papers conclude that the caste's cultural practice -which they refer to, incorrectly, as 'inbreeding' -is maladaptive from a genetic point of view in that it leads to an increase in infant mortality due to the prevalence of a recessive gene (Reddy et al 2006(Reddy et al , 2007.…”

“…More recent literature amongst this same caste focuses on their lack of genetic fi tness due to their practice of endogamy (Reddy et al 2006(Reddy et al , 2007. The authors of these papers conclude that the caste's cultural practice -which they refer to, incorrectly, as 'inbreeding' -is maladaptive from a genetic point of view in that it leads to an increase in infant mortality due to the prevalence of a recessive gene (Reddy et al 2006(Reddy et al , 2007. These depictions are humiliating, and wri en from an outsider or etic point of view that ignores colonial and imperial processes that have led to extreme poverty amongst some sectors of this caste and that have a direct relationship to increases in infant mortality (Hollen 2003).…”

“…Either way, nutrition and health are compromised, and this would certainly aff ect patterns of infant mortality. For my colleague, however, the most egregious aspect of this account was the use of the term 'inbreeding' (Hollen 2003;Reddy et al 2006Reddy et al , 2007 to characterise her caste's norm of crosscousin marriage. Kinship is a social construction in all human societies, and the imposition of the term 'inbreeding' by upper-caste scholars (whose caste grouping, incidentally, owns most of the adjacent lands in the region being depicted and has been known to dominate lower-caste people) goes against the anthropological concept of cultural relativism and the social construction of Dalitbahujan genetics (Shaw 2009;Yalamala 2013).…”

“…How was full and informed consent achieved? None of these questions are broached in the articles (Hollen 2003;Reddy et al 2006Reddy et al , 2007. There are many social nuances of the caste that would be hidden from the reader of these foreign journals in which anthropological articles are published, and yet these dimensions are vitally important to understanding the social realities at hand.…”