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Information about Consanguinity

Consanguinity ("con- (with) (blood) -ity") refers to the property of being from the same genetic lineage as another person. In that respect, consanguinity is the quality of being descended from the same ancestor as another person. Consanguinity is an important legal concept in that the laws of many jurisdictions consider consanguinity as a factor in deciding whether two individuals may be married or whether a given person receives property when a deceased person does not leave a will.

The degree of relative consanguinity can be illustrated with a consanguinity table, in which each level of lineal consanguinity (i.e., generation) appears as a row, and individuals with a collaterally-consanguineous relationship share the same row. See, e.g., table of consanguinity.

Genetic definition

As a working definition, unions contracted between persons biologically related as second cousins or closer (F ≥ 0.0156) are categorized as consanguineous. This arbitrary limit has been chosen because the genetic influence in marriages between couples related to a lesser degree would usually be expected to differ only slightly from that observed in the general population. Globally, the most common form of consanguineous union contracted is between first cousins, in which the spouses share 1/8 of their genes inherited from a common ancestor, and so their progeny are homozygous (or more correctly autozygous) at 1/16 of all loci. Conventionally this is expressed as the coefficient of inbreeding (F) and for first cousin offspring,F = 0.0625. That is, the progeny are predicted to have inherited identical gene copies from each parent at 6.25% of all gene loci, over and above the baseline level of homozygosity in the general population. In some large human populations genetically closer marriages also are favoured, in particular uncle-niece and double first cousin unions where the level of homozygosity in the progeny is equivalent to = 0.125.

Legal definitions

In regard to family law, generally, consanguinity becomes important in defining who may marry. Some states, e.g., forbid cousins to marry. Others are more lenient and only forbid people to marry their brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, or aunts and uncles. On a related note, many states prevent individuals from serving on a jury in which they have a certain degree of consanguinity with the defendant.

Several volumes of SMITH'S LAWS, enacted from 1700 through 1829, contain certain public and private laws of the Province and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Several laws with a prescribed punishment against adultery, bigamy, incest and fornication and all combinations of those crimes were enacted in 1705. They are found in Volume I of SMITH'S LAWS, along with The TABLE of Degrees of CONSANGUINITY and AFFINITY, which can be viewed here: [1]

In regard to the law of intestate succession (when a person dies without a will), under the Uniform Probate Code section 2-103, after a surviving spouse receives his or her share, the descendants (depending on the circumstances this may include children, grandchildren, or great grandchildren, either biological or adopted) receive the remainder of the intestate estate. If there are no children, the decedent's parent(s) receive the remainder of the estate. If there are neither descendants nor parents, the decedent's estate is distributed to descendants of the decedent's parents (again, depending on the circumstances, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, grand nieces and nephews and great grand nieces and nephews). If there are no descendants, parents, or descendants of parents, then the deceased's property passes to descendants of the grandparents of the decedent (uncles and aunts, first cousins, or first cousins once, twice, or thrice removed). Interactive programs showing the distribution of intestate property according to the laws of the different American states are found at MyStateWill.com, which also includes a useful Degrees of Kinship Chart

The connotations of degree of consanguinity varies by context (e.g., Canon law, Roman law, etc.). Most cultures define a degree of consanguinity within which sexual interrelationships are regarded as incestuous (the "prohibited degree of kinship"). In the Roman Catholic Church, unwittingly marrying a closely-consanguineous blood relative is grounds for an annulment, but dispensations were granted, actually almost routinely (the Catholic Church's ban on marriage within the fourth degree of relationship (first cousins) lasted from 1550 to 1917; before that, the prohibition applied to marriages within the seventh degree of kinship).

Adoption may or may not be considered at law to create such a bond; in most Western societies, adoptive relationships are considered blood relationships for these purposes, but in others, including both Japan and ancient Rome, it was common for a couple with only daughters to adopt a son-in-law, making the marriage one between adoptive siblings.

Among the Christian Habesha highlanders of Ethiopia and Eritrea (the predominantly orthodox Christian Amhara and Tigray-Tigrinya), it is a tradition to be able to recount one's paternal ancestors at least 7 generations away starting from early childhood, because "those with a common patrilineal ancestor less than seven generations away are considered 'brother and sister' and may not marry." The rule is less strict on the mother's side, where the limit is about four generations back, but still determined patrilinearly. This rule does not apply to Muslims or other ethnic groups.[1]

Rates of occurrence

Historically, some European nobles cited a close degree of consanguinity when they required convenient grounds for divorce, especially in contexts where religious doctrine forbade the voluntary dissolution of an unhappy or childless marriage. Conversely, the consanguinity law of succession requires the next monarch to be of the same blood of the previous one; allowing, for example, illegitimate children to inherit.
  • International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology It is estimated that 55% of marriages between Muslims in the United Kingdom (and much of the Muslim world in general) are between first cousins[2][3], where "preferential patrilateral parallel cousin marriage" (where a boy marries his father's brother's daughter) is often favored.

See also

References

General
Inline
1. ^ Wolbert Smidt, "Genealogy" in Siegbert von Uhlig, ed., Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: D-Ha, (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005), p.743.
2. ^ [2]
3. ^ [3]

External links

The prefix con- (also co-, col-, com-, and cor-) first appeared in English words in the Middle English period in words borrowed from French. It comes from the Latin prefix com-/con- It existed in Old Latin only as a prefix but by Classical Latin it existed as the free-standing
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Kinship and descent is one of the major concepts of cultural anthropology. Cultures worldwide possess a wide range of systems of tracking kinship and descent. Anthropologists break these down into simple concepts which are common among many different cultures.
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An ancestor is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an ancestor (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, and so on).

Two individuals have a genetic relationship if one is the ancestor of the other, or if they share a common ancestor.
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cousin in English kinship terminology is a relative with whom one shares a common grandparent or more distant ancestor, and who is not in one's own line of descent. The term cousin never applies where there are other specific terms to describe relationships.
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Generation (from the Greek γενεά), also known as procreation, is the act of producing offspring. It can also refer to the act of creating something inanimate such as electrical generation or cryptographic code generation.
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The Law of Wills, Trusts and Inheritance
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The prohibited degree of kinship refers to a degree of consanguinity (relatedness) below which sexual interrelationships are regarded as incestuous. Inbreeding is a taboo across nearly all cultures worldwide, but the line at which a relationship is considered incestuous varies.
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Annulment is a legal procedure for declaring a marriage null and void. Unlike divorce, it is retroactive: an annulled marriage is considered never to have existed.

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In the Canon Law of the Catholic Church, a dispensation is the suspension by competent authority of general rules of law in particular cases. Its object is to modify the hardship often arising from the rigorous application of general laws to particular cases, and its essence is to
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Adoption is the legal act of permanently placing a child with a parent or parents other than the birth mother or father. An adoption order has the effect of severing the parental responsibilities and rights of the birth parents and transferring those responsibilities and rights
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Ethiopia (IPA: /i.θi.oʊ.pi.ə/) ( ʾĪtyōṗṗyā), officially the
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cousin in English kinship terminology is a relative with whom one shares a common grandparent or more distant ancestor, and who is not in one's own line of descent. The term cousin never applies where there are other specific terms to describe relationships.
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A cousin couple is a pair of cousins with a romantic or sexual relationship. Cousin couples are prohibited in certain jurisdictions and cultures because they are considered incestuous; in others, they are encouraged or expected.
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Genealogy (from Greek: γενεα, genea, "family"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the study and tracing of family pedigrees.
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Genetics is the science of heredity and variation in living organisms.[1][2] Knowledge of the inheritance of characteristics has been implicitly used since prehistoric times for improving crop plants and animals through selective breeding.
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