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Islamization, along with an area's inclusion in the eighth-century Arab-Islamic Khalifate (and its persistence within the Islamic world) is a strong and significant predictor of parallel-cousin (FBD) marriage. While there is a clear functional connection between Islam and FBD marriage, the prescription to marry a FBD does not appear to be sufficient to persuade people to actually marry thus, even if the marriage brings with it economic advantages. A systematic acceptance of parallel-cousin marriage took place when Islamization occurred together with Arabization. (Cross-cultural research, Middle East, marriage, Galton's problem)
Cousin marriages are widespread among the cultures of the world (Ember 1983:83; Pasternak, Ember, and Ember 1997:133). The vast majority of these are cross-cousin marriages; the other main type, parallel-cousin marriage, is much less common. Parallel-cousin marriage can be divided into two types; matrilateral (MSD) and patrilateral (FBD). The former is so rare that I am aware of only one ethnographic case; i.e., that of the Tuareg of the Sahara (Pershits 1998:543). The latter is much more common but still is restricted to a few dozen cultures, and the shape of its regional distribution is rather peculiar. The overwhelming majority of these cases appear among the Islamic cultures of North Africa, and those of west and central Asia. That this marriage arrangement is connected with Islam stems logically from this observation, and has been expressed by many students of Middle Eastern anthropology (e.g., Barth 1954; Murphy and Kasdan 1959; Bourdieu 1995:30-71; for an almost exhaustive list of corroborative publications in French and English see Rodionov 1999:266).'
An initial attempt to test the hypothesis connecting Islam and FBD marriage by using the electronic version of the Ethnographic Atlas (Murdock et al. 1990) immediately resulted in a problem. Astonishingly, the first test showed no connection at all between Islamization and FBD marriage. The next step was to look at the individual cases. The results were even stranger. The sample comprising the societies with FBD marriage included Mbala, Nyasa, Cantonese, Rotinese, Banyun, Konkomba, Yurak, Mentaweians, Sivokakmeit, Goajiro, Songo, Afikpo, Toma, Coniagui, Riffians, Ossetians, Ainu, Yakut, Saramacca, Fon, Kanuri, Shantung, and Tibetans. Clearly there was something wrong here. The Ainu and Ossetians, for example, could never have practiced parallel-cousin marriage. On the other hand, some peoples definitely having FBD...