Africa-Press – Malawi. Endogamous marriages are those that occur between spouses who are related by blood. In Senegal, most endogamous marriages are between paternal and maternal cousins.
The 1986 Senegalese Demographic and Health Survey data reveal that women first marrying do so with paternal or maternal cousins or other relations. About 70 percent of married women are related to their husbands. This pattern has not changed much since 1970, although there are variations among ethnic groups.
The lowest prevalence of endogamous marriages (50% to 60%) are found among the Manding and Diola, who live in the southern and Eastern parts of the country, while the highest levels (between 65% and 80%) prevail among the Wolof, Pulaar, and Serer. In most cases, women are married to paternal cousins, except among the Serer, where preference is given to maternal cousins.
Cousin marriage has often been practiced to keep cultural values intact, preserve family wealth, maintain geographic proximity, keep tradition, strengthen family ties, and maintain family structure or a closer relationship between the wife and her in-laws.
Many jurisdictions have laws prohibiting people who are related by blood from marrying or having sexual relations with each other. The degree of consanguinity that gives rise to this prohibition varies from place to place.
There are serious problems in marriages with blood relation. A risk of autosomal recessive disorders increases in offspring coming from consanguineous marriages due to the increased likelihood of receiving recessive genes from cognate parents. According to population based case-control studies, a higher risk of stillbirth is associated with consanguineous marriages.
There are common reasons for people to marry. Among married and cohabiting adults, love is cited more than any other reason for why they decided to get married or to move in with their partner: 90% of those who are married and 73% of those living with a partner say love was a major factor in their decision.
What does the Bible say about marrying relatives? Among the forbidden couples are parent-child, sister-brother, grandparent-grandchild, uncle-niece, aunt-nephew, and between half siblings and certain close in-laws. This “Levitical law” is found in Leviticus 18:6-18, supplemented by Leviticus 20:17-21 and Deuteronomy 27:20-23.
Consanguineous marriages are thought to have social and cultural advantages like stable marital relationships, reduced risks of family financial problems, ease of marriage arrangements, improved female autonomy, better compatibility with in-laws, less domestic violence, lower divorce rates, and so on.
Can blood relatives be witness in marriage? The witness can be any person willing to be present during the marriage. The witnesses can be family members of either party, relatives, friends, colleagues, or any other person eligible for being a witness for the marriage registration.
There are many reasons marriage between close relatives is a health risk. Consanguineous marriages are associated with an increased risk for congenital malformations and autosomal recessive diseases, with some resultant increased postnatal mortality in the offspring of first cousin couples, but demographic and socioeconomic confounders need to be well controlled.
Cultures where cousin marriage is common point to its social and economic benefits, such as strengthening family ties and keeping wealth in the family.
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