Consanguineous Marriage, Kinship Ecology, and Market Transition

Shenk, Mary K.; Towner, Mary C.; Voss, Emily A.; Alam, Nurul

doi:10.1086/685712

Cited by 39 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 46 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Humans learn the rules of cultural institutions while individual agents push the limits, bringing about game changes that alter niches and make history. ( [24], and see [23,25,[33][34][35][36][37][38] for detailed examples of these patterns/processes) Any attempt to include the range of active processes involved in the production, maintenance and patterns that characterize the variables in the human niche must be able to accommodate, accurately, the diversity of human developmental, physiological, behavioural, perceptual and cultural action. This is not to say that standard evolutionary approaches are incorrect, rather that they are incomplete.…”

Section: The Standard Evolutionary Approach and The Problem Of Human Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

Human niche, human behaviour, human nature

Fuentes¹

2017

Interface Focus.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The concept of a 'human nature' or 'human natures' retains a central role in theorizing about the human experience. In it is clear that we have a suite of capacities generated via our evolutionary past, and present, and a flexible capacity to create and sustain particular kinds of cultures and to be shaped by them. Regardless of whether we label these capacities 'human natures' or not, humans occupy a distinctive niche and an evolutionary approach to examining it is critical. At present we are faced with a few different narratives as to exactly what such an evolutionary approach entails. There is a need for a robust and dynamic theoretical toolkit in order to develop a richer, and more nuanced, understanding of the cognitively sophisticated genus and the diverse sorts of niches humans constructed and occupied across the Pleistocene, Holocene, and into the Anthropocene. Here I review current evolutionary approaches to 'human nature', arguing that we benefit from re-framing our investigations via the concept of the human niche and in the context of the extended evolutionary synthesis (EES). While not a replacement of standard evolutionary approaches, this is an expansion and enhancement of our toolkit. I offer brief examples from human evolution in support of these assertions.

show abstract

Section: The Standard Evolutionary Approach and The Problem Of Human Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

Human niche, human behaviour, human nature

Fuentes¹

2017

Interface Focus.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Over a billion of the global population live in communities where CM is a traditional and respected social trend of marital union [3,4]. The primary reasons for a preference for CM in communities with high consanguinity rates include maintaining the lineage solidarity of family, relative ease for the partners in finding a suitable spouse, backing the female status and improved relationships with in-laws, lowering the marital cost, enhancing the likelihood of getting better care for people in old age, and above all, better stability of marital relationship [1,2,[5][6][7][8][9]. These factors seem to carry more significance in the context of protective and semi-protective cultures of many Middle Eastern, South and West Asian, and sub-Saharan African societies, which is why CM is most frequent in these countries [4,10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic and reproductive consequences of consanguineous marriage in Bangladesh

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Introduction This study aimed to assess the prevalence, sociodemographic factors, reproductive consequences, and heritable disease burdens associated with consanguineous marriage (CM) in Bangladesh. Methods A total of 7,312 families, including 3,694 CM-families, were recruited from 102 locales of 58 districts of Bangladesh. Using a standard questionnaire, we collected medical history and background sociodemographic data of these families. Family history was assessed by pedigree analysis. Fertility, mortality, secondary sex ratio, selection intensity, lethal equivalents were measured using standard methods. Results The mean prevalence of CM in our studied population was 6.64%. Gross fertility was higher among CM families, as compared to the non-CM families (p < 0.05). The rate of under-5 child (U5) mortality was significantly higher among CM families (16.6%) in comparison with the non-CM families (5.8%) (p < 0.01). We observed a persuasive rise of abortion/miscarriage and U5 mortality rates with the increasing level of inbreeding. The value of lethal equivalents per gamete found elevated for autosomal inheritances as compared to sex-linked inheritance. CM was associated with the incidence of several single-gene and multifactorial diseases, and congenital malformations, including bronchial asthma, hearing defect, heart diseases, sickle cell anemia (p < 0.05). The general attitude and perception toward CM were rather indifferent, and very few people were concerned about its genetic burden. Conclusion This study highlights the harmful consequences of CM on reproductive behavior and the incidence of hereditary conditions. It essences the need for genetic counseling from premarital to postnatal levels in Bangladesh.

show abstract

“…Interactions are generally cooperative but may also be competitive, especially in the context of poverty or resource stress (e.g. [51]).…”

Section: Sample and Methods (A) Study Populationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social support, nutrition and health among women in rural Bangladesh: complex tradeoffs in allocare, kin proximity and support network size

Shenk

Morse

Mattison

et al. 2021

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Malnutrition among women of reproductive age is a significant public health concern in low- and middle-income countries. Of particular concern are undernutrition from underweight and iron deficiency, along with overweight and obesity, all of which have negative health consequences for mothers and children. Accumulating evidence suggests that risk for poor nutritional outcomes may be mitigated by social support, yet how social support is measured varies tremendously and its effects likely vary by age, kinship and reproductive status. We examine the effects of different measures of social support on weight and iron nutrition among 677 randomly sampled women from rural Bangladesh. While we find that total support network size mitigates risk for underweight, other results point to a potential tradeoff in the effects of kin proximity, with nearby adult children associated with both lower risk for underweight and obesity and higher risk for iron deficiency and anaemia. Social support from kin may then enhance energy balance but not diet quality. Results also suggest that a woman's network of caregivers might reflect their greater need for help, as those who received more help with childcare and housework had worse iron nutrition. Overall, although some findings support the hypothesis that social support can be protective, others emphasize that social relationships often have neutral or negative effects, illustrating the kinds of tradeoffs expected from an evolutionary perspective. The complexities of these effects deserve attention in future work, particularly within public health, where what is defined as ‘social support' is often assumed to be positive. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Multidisciplinary perspectives on social support and maternal–child health'.

show abstract

Consanguineous Marriage, Kinship Ecology, and Market Transition

Cited by 39 publications

References 46 publications

Human niche, human behaviour, human nature

Human niche, human behaviour, human nature

Genetic and reproductive consequences of consanguineous marriage in Bangladesh

Social support, nutrition and health among women in rural Bangladesh: complex tradeoffs in allocare, kin proximity and support network size

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About