There are things we accept as obvious truths that aren't necessarily backed up by data. For example, the idea that cousin marriage is, to use a scientific term, icky.
有些我們認為是明顯事實 所以接受的事情, 但不見得背後有資料支持。 舉例來說, 用科學說法來說, 表親婚姻被認為很髒。
[Am I Normal? with Mona Chalabi]
〔我正常嗎?〕 〔夢娜·查拉比主持〕
First off, cousin marriage is way more common than you may think. Approximately 10 percent of the world's families are headed by couples who are second cousins or closer. That's more than 750 million people. And it maybe wildly out of fashion in Europe and North America now, but like hoop skirts and top hats, cousin marriage used to be a much more common sight.
首先,表親婚姻比你想的還要普遍。 全世界的家庭中有大約 10% 是由第二代表親或更近的親人組成。 超過七億五千萬人。 現在在歐洲和北美 可能已經退流行了, 但就像箍裙和大禮帽, 表親婚姻在以前更常見許多。
People like Charles Darwin, Edgar Allan Poe and Albert Einstein, all married their first cousins. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt married his fifth cousin, Eleanor Roosevelt. She didn't even have to change her last name. One study looking at millions of genealogy profiles concluded that between 1650 and 1850, the average person was fourth cousins with their spouse.
達爾文、艾倫坡,和愛因斯坦等人 都和第一代表親結婚。 羅斯福總統娶了他的第五代表親, 伊蓮娜·羅斯福。 她的姓就已經是夫姓了。 有一項研究探究了數百萬份家譜, 結論是在 1650 年到 1850 年間, 一般人和他們的配偶 會是第四代表親。
I know, I know, what the hell is a fourth cousin? Well, it basically means that the average person had the same great great great grandparent as their romantic partner. So why was that? Well, marrying a cousin meant keeping money and power within the family and maintaining your social relationships. It was also about proximity. If you weren't traveling far in your young life, you're more likely to end up with someone you already know, like a second cousin.
我知道,我知道, 第四代表親到底是什麼? 基本上,意思就是,一般人 和伴侶有相同的曾曾曾祖父母。 為什麼會這樣? 和表親結婚意味著 把錢和權都留在家族中, 且能維持社交關係。 它也和鄰近程度有關。 如果你年輕時沒有跑很遠, 你最後比較可能會 和你已經認識的人在一起, 比如第二代表親。
But even with the onset of the railroad and the industrial revolution, it still took another 50 years for cousin marriage to go out of style in Western society. Mobility may have played a factor, but researchers also think that greater autonomy for women and smaller family sizes, meaning that there were just fewer cousins to marry, also influenced the change.
但即使鐵路和工業革命出現了, 還是再經過了五十年, 表親婚姻在西方社會中才過時。 行動力可能是個因素, 但研究者也認為,女性自主權提升, 以及家庭規模變小, 可以結婚的表親變少, 也是造成改變的因素。 雖然在大西洋的兩邊, 表親婚姻都不再流行,
Though it became much less popular on both sides of the Atlantic, it was only in the US that it became illegal. Following the Civil War, the American government took a greater interest in overseeing more elements of daily life, including marriage. American states began to outlaw not only interracial marriage but cousin marriage as well. Today, 32 states either outright ban the practice or restrict it to those who seek genetic counseling, are beyond reproductive age or are sterile.
只有在美國才變成不合法的事。 內戰之後,美國政府非常想要 監控更多日常生活的元素, 包括婚姻。 美國各州開始用法律禁止的 不僅是跨種族婚姻, 還有表親婚姻。 現今,有三十二州 若不是完全禁止表親婚姻, 就是只開放給有徵詢遺傳諮詢的人、 超過生育年齡的人,或者不孕的人。
It's estimated that less than one percent of American couples are cousins. But the widespread illegality, not to mention the social stigma, makes quantifying it quite difficult. If you ask people why cousin marriage seems wrong, health might come up. The fear of birth defects and genetic disorders has influenced the change in social norms. But in 2002, researchers from the National Society of Genetic Counselors found that the increased risk was a minor one. In the general population, the risk that a child will be born with serious complications is three to four percent. With a first-cousin couple, the risk increased by 1.7 to 2.8 percentage points. And with those figures, the researchers concluded that there was no biological reason to discourage cousins from marrying.
估計美國夫妻中 只有不到 1% 是表親。 但因為在多數地方都不合法, 更不用說在社會上會有的汙名, 讓估計表親婚姻的比例很困難。 去問別人表親婚姻為何不對, 可能有人會提到健康。 對先天缺陷和基因疾病的恐懼, 影響到社會規範的改變。 但,2002 年,國家遺傳 諮詢師協會的研究者 發現風險的增加極其微小。 在一般人口中, 孩子出生時發生嚴重 併發症的風險是 3~4%。 若夫妻為表親, 風險會增加 1.7% 到 2.8%。 根據這些數字,研究者的結論 是在生物層面上沒有理由 阻止表親結婚。
Look, I totally get it. Whether you fancy your cousin or not, depending on where you're from, this can still be a bit of a taboo subject. But the truth is, our feelings around it are shaped by the culture we live in and not necessarily by whether it's objectively dangerous or not. After all, if it wasn't for cousin marriage, you probably wouldn't be here.
聽著,我完全能懂。 不論你是否喜歡你的表親, 每個地方不太一樣, 但這個主題仍然是有點禁忌。 但,其實,我們對表親婚姻的 感受來自於我們的文化, 反而不見得是客觀的危險性。 畢竟,若沒有表親婚姻, 你可能就不會在這裡了。