Cousin marriage, a common practice among preindustrial propertied classes and usually arranged by the families for economic reasons, continued as a marriage pattern among middle-class Victorians, for whom individual choice based on romantic love was the appropriate criterion for the selection of a marriage partner. This article argues that many Victorians married cousins as surrogates for beloved nuclear family members, toward whom strong attachments, accompanied by power ful unconscious incestuous feelings, were engendered in the privatized, emotionally intense, nineteenth-century home. This argument is supported by an analysis of specific Victorian cousin marriages. This article examines the late nineteenth-century controversy over the dangers of cousin marriage, and attributes its decline in the twentieth century to medical opposition and the changing psychodynamics of English family life.
In 1835 the English Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst introduced into the House of Lords a bill to correct an ambiguity in the law concerning marriages within prohibited degrees. The existing law, based on the 1533 Henrican statute fixing the degrees of consanguinity and affinity, specified that marriages within prohibited degrees could be annulled at any time within the lifetime of both spouses by the Ecclesiastical Court. Lord Lyndhurst argued that the uncertain status of such “voidable marriages” created an inconvenience and hardship for the married persons and especially for their children, who could during their parents' lifetime be declared illegitimate. His specific motive was to guarantee the legitimacy and inheritance of the son of the seventh Duke of Beaufort, who had married his deceased wife's half-sister, a relationship within the prohibited degrees. Lyndhurst proposed that parliament pass a bill to limit to two years the time within which marriages could be annulled.The consensus in parliament was that the ambiguity of “voidable marriages” should be eliminated, and they readily passed a revised form of Lord Lyndhurst's bill, declaring that all marriages within the prohibited degrees of affinity contracted before August 31, 1835 were immediately and absolutely valid. Yet, even as they eased restrictions on existing marriages, they tightened the law for the future by adding a clause which made marriages of both affinity and consanguinity contracted after that date absolutely void.In the parliamentary debate on the bill, there was some opposition from those who argued that marriages within certain degrees of affinity, in particular a man and his deceased wife's sister, should be permitted.
The persistence and periodic resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases have raised questions about the determinants of poor immunization coverage. In Sub-Saharan Africa, traditional health practitioners (THPs) play a major role in providing health care and health education, particularly in rural areas where Western health care is unavailable. The project, Immunization Advocacy: Saving Lives of Africa's Children, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was carried out in three countries, Benin, Nigeria, and Senegal, with THPs and other community-based leaders to gain insight into their basic knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions about immunization. In this article, the authors present the results from the Senegal study. In Senegal, 696 THPs involved in community culture, rites, education, and health were surveyed. THPs and community leaders were centrally involved in defining the term immunization during survey development, and their definition was integrated into the survey questionnaire. Results of the study in Senegal show that although knowledge about vaccination is high among THPs, their perceptions of vaccines may hinder the acceptance of vaccines in their communities. THPs define immunization as a comprehensive program of health promotion and provision that includes attention to traditional beliefs and behaviors, overall access to health care and, potentially, vaccination. Effective educational programs that involve THPs in vaccine campaigns from inception, that address their perceptions and integrate their cultural belief systems into vaccine advocacy programs in a culture-centered manner, and that recognize and respect the importance of comprehensive primary health care will be necessary to improve essential vaccine coverage in this population.
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