Relaxed Observance of Traditional Marriage Rules Allows Social Connectivity without Loss of Genetic Diversity.

ABSTRACT: Marriage rules, the community prescriptions that dictate who an individual can or cannot marry, are extremely diverse and universally present in traditional societies. A major focus of research in the early decades of modern anthropology, marriage rules impose social and economic forces that help structure societies and forge connections between them. However, in those early anthropological studies, the biological benefits or disadvantages of marriage rules could not be determined. We revisit this question by applying a novel simulation framework and genome-wide data to explore the effects of Asymmetric Prescriptive Alliance, an elaborate set of marriage rules that has been a focus of research for many anthropologists. Simulations show that strict adherence to these marriage rules reduces

SUBMITTER: Guillot EG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4540962 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature