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Albert Cory's avatar

Good analysis of cousin marriage. I'd just add, though, that inter-tribal warfare has always been a constant, and taking women from the neighboring tribes during a raid served the purpose of genetic diversity.

I'm a follower of Nessim Nicholas Taleb, who writes from the perspective of the Lebanese-born. "Tribal" is viewed as Bad from the WEIRD. Same for "sectarian." Taleb's insight is that it's actually good, and a federated system of government, where the different tribes are neighbors rather than roommates, works best at preserving our humanity.

The WEF / Klaus Schwab view that we all must become WEIRD and own nothing is deserving of scorn. Scale matters. Beliefs that work fine at the village level stop working when scaled up to the nation, but that doesn't mean they were always wrong. It means they were right at their own scale.

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Kenneth J Clark's avatar

Almost passed it over, and then, almost quit reading. Excellent.. knowledge, and in our evolving history.

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