Relatives as spouses: Preferences and opportunities for kin marriage in a Western society

Abstract

This article investigates the determinants of kin marriage on the basis of a large-scale database covering a major rural part of The Netherlands during the period 1840-1922. We studied three types of kin marriage: first cousin marriage, deceased spouse's sibling marriage, and sibling set exchange marriage. Almost 2% of all marriages were between first cousins, 0.85% concerned the sibling of a former spouse, while 4.14% were sibling set exchange marriages. While the first two types generally declined across the study period, sibling set exchange marriage reached a high point of almost 5% between 1890 and 1900. We found evidence for three mechanisms explaining the choice for relatives as spouses, centering both on preferences and on opportunities for kin marriage. Among the higher and middle strata and among farmers, kin marriages were commonly practiced and played an important role in the process of social class formation in the late nineteenth century. An increased choice for cousin marriage as a means of enculturation was observed among orthodox Protestants in the Bible Belt area of The Netherlands. Finally, all studied types of kin marriage took place more often in the relatively isolated, inland provinces of The Netherlands. Sibling set exchange marriages were a consequence of the enlarged supply of same-generation kin as a result of the demographic transition.

Socioeconomic, Demographic and Legal Influences on Consanguinity and Kinship in Northern Coastal Sweden 1780–1899

“…Consanguineous unions possibly were associated with high village autonomy and a more pronounced rural character, which in turn necessitated marriage strategies aimed at preserving and rebuilding farms when sub-division had reduced their viability and the possibilities to clear new land became restricted. Although this type of development was observed in other parts of Sweden, it resulted in different marriage strategies, in particular sibling exchange unions, which also were more popular than first cousin or affinal marriages among contemporary Protestant communities in rural areas of The Netherlands (Bras et al, 2009).…”

Consanguineous Marriage in Turkish Families in Turkey and in Western Europe

“…The marriage not only connects families but in fact re connects them, as they are already related to each other. Consanguineous marriages of today can be understood in terms of three underlying explanatory mechanisms (Reniers ; Bras, van Poppel, and Mandemakers ).…”

Consanguinity and Endogamy in the Netherlands: Demographic and Medical Genetic Aspects

“…Classes 1, 2 and 3 were overrepresented among the consanguineous couples. Bras et al [11] argued that for these social classes cousin marriages served both an economic and a political purpose. A limitation of the study is that important provinces (i.e.…”

“…Bras et al [11] studied kin marriage using a unique database, named GENLIAS, which contains information on over 1 million marriage certificates from 5 of the (then) 11 Dutch provinces during the period 1812-1922. Almost 2% of all marriages in these provinces were between first cousins.…”