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Peter Frost's avatar

Interesting. I would opt for a compromise between the two explanations of the Western European Marriage Pattern. In other words, this pattern preceded Christianization and was assimilated into the norms of Western Christianity, which then provided a more effective mechanism for enforcing that pattern.

We have good evidence of this marriage pattern from 9th century France, which corresponds to the time when the Church adopted an extreme ban on cousin marriages. We also have some fragmentary evidence from pre-Christian times. See my note at the end of Schulz's paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aau5141

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Jon's avatar

Brilliant. Excellent piece on inflation, too.

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