Originally posted by FieldRatt9@Jun 17 2004, 03:17 PM
How much of a cousin is she? Sounds more like a biblical debate. :blink:
Actually, Leviticus 18 doesn't mention cousins. It mentions several in-laws and step-parents. It also doesn't mention nieces. (It uses descriptive kin terms, e.g., "father's sister" to describe an aunt.)
The modern incest laws resulted from several factors. At first, early Merkins preferred marrying relatives because as I said, Indian laws wrt incest are a lot more thorough than Western laws, partially a result of classificatory kin terms, so whites married their relatives as a way of distinguishing themselves from Indians. However, this resulted in all kinds of congenital disorders, so the government put an end to it.