Genetic markers of cousin marriage and honour cultures

Olympia Campbell (), Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias, Grégory Fiorio and Ruth Mace
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Olympia Campbell: TSE-R - Toulouse School of Economics - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - UT - Université de Toulouse - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement
Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias: UZH - Universität Zürich [Zürich] = University of Zurich
Grégory Fiorio: IJN - Institut Jean-Nicod - DEC - Département d'Etudes Cognitives - ENS-PSL - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CdF (institution) - Collège de France - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Département de Philosophie - ENS-PSL - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres
Ruth Mace: UCL - University College of London [London]

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Abstract: Honour cultures, characterized by violent responses to perceived threats to personal or family honour, are widespread. Honour killings, one of the manifestations of honour cultures, claims the lives of thousands of women each year, often at the hands of close relatives, representing not only a social problem but also an evolutionary puzzle. They typically follow accusations of sexual impropriety and are the most extreme manifestation of a range of punishments that control the sexual and marital choices of women. The origins of such practises remain unclear, though honour cultures frequently occur where cousin marriage is common. We propose that cousin marriage offers kin benefits through wealth consolidation yet may also generate parent-offspring conflict over marriage choices. In response, norms and punitive measures, including aspects of honour codes, may have evolved to enforce cousin marriage. To test this, we use the average genomic inbreeding coefficient of an ethnic group, as a measure of the historical practice of cousin marriage, to show that this is associated with the likelihood of endorsing honour killings across 52 ethnic groups. We interpret our findings within the context of parent-offspring conflict over consanguineous marriage and we contribute to the growing body of research exploring the relationship between intensive kinship and cultural traits.

Keywords: Kinship intensity; Cousin marriage; Honour; Violence against women; Runs of homozygosity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo
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Published in Evolution and Human Behavior, 2024, 45 (6), pp.106636. ⟨10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2024.106636⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05139476

DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2024.106636

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