WEIRD means no kin-groups. The Church was stripping kin-groups of control over marriage and assets. It insisted on testamentary rights—which both increased the chance of donations to the Church and broke up kin-group control over assets. Female consent for marriage and very restrictive incest rules broke up kin-group control over marriage.
This worked in manorial Europe, as all manor holders—which was almost everyone who mattered—did not want kin-groups as alternative sources of authority and loyalty. Which is why nobles and royalty bought into it. It didn’t work in the (pastoralist) Celtic fringe or the Balkan uplands, as local power-holders had their positions via kin-groups.
These rules were developed very early in the medieval period. Indeed, the Fourth Lateran Council (1213-14) weakened the bans on incest (though they still remained highly restrictive).
The Church was building on the suppression of kin groups in the Greek polis and Roman Republic. Same issue—destroying an alternative, and divisive, source of authority and loyalty. Kin groups colonise institutions and organisations—rulers come and go, the kin-group is forever.
Even today, much of the appeal of Christianity in Africa—especially Pentecostalism—is that their congregations provide an alternative support mechanism to, and a refuge from the demands of, kin-groups.
I wrote extensively about this, fairly recently. The Church not only was not responsible for the cousin marriage taboo, but spent much of its early history weakening it, because Christianity has a Semitic origin and the Semitic tradition is very much in favor of cousin marriage. Henrich was very shifty when he focused his MFP theory (which is sound) on its weakest, but most easily defended link, that of the cousin marriage ban
WEIRD means no kin-groups. The Church was stripping kin-groups of control over marriage and assets. It insisted on testamentary rights—which both increased the chance of donations to the Church and broke up kin-group control over assets. Female consent for marriage and very restrictive incest rules broke up kin-group control over marriage.
This worked in manorial Europe, as all manor holders—which was almost everyone who mattered—did not want kin-groups as alternative sources of authority and loyalty. Which is why nobles and royalty bought into it. It didn’t work in the (pastoralist) Celtic fringe or the Balkan uplands, as local power-holders had their positions via kin-groups.
These rules were developed very early in the medieval period. Indeed, the Fourth Lateran Council (1213-14) weakened the bans on incest (though they still remained highly restrictive).
The Church was building on the suppression of kin groups in the Greek polis and Roman Republic. Same issue—destroying an alternative, and divisive, source of authority and loyalty. Kin groups colonise institutions and organisations—rulers come and go, the kin-group is forever.
Even today, much of the appeal of Christianity in Africa—especially Pentecostalism—is that their congregations provide an alternative support mechanism to, and a refuge from the demands of, kin-groups.
I wrote extensively about this, fairly recently. The Church not only was not responsible for the cousin marriage taboo, but spent much of its early history weakening it, because Christianity has a Semitic origin and the Semitic tradition is very much in favor of cousin marriage. Henrich was very shifty when he focused his MFP theory (which is sound) on its weakest, but most easily defended link, that of the cousin marriage ban
https://mankind.substack.com/p/quick-take-the-christian-church-didnt?utm_source=publication-search
David, what means exactly "NW Europeans"?
North West Europeans?
Found this after writing this post. https://policytensor.substack.com/p/the-churchs-crusade-against-cousin
Good insight 😌 Can i translate part of this article into Spanish with links to you and a description of your newsletter?
Sure.
Good article, but what means exactly "NW Europeans"? I did not find a definition or something similar...
Cousin marriage was once common among northeastern Wasps (e.g., Eleanor Roosevelt and FDR) and remains not unknown today. Just an outlier?
What would be the mechanism by which neolocalism would cause WEIRDness?
I suspect cousin marriage is a consequence of clannishness, as opposed to the other way around.