marriage in families and WW generations

[carin_in_oh]

No: HPFGUIDX 86797

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Chelle" <teshara at y...> wrote:
>...
> As for Mr. and Mrs. Black being related...
> Even if they are, there are cultures that practice arranged marriage
> ONLY to members inside their family. I have seen it. They really do
> it. For generations. It's wierd, but from what I saw their kids were
> normal, happy, and healthy. To each their own.
> 
> The thing is, the Blacks are British, and I don't recall it ever being
> a part of THEIR culture.

Cousin marriages were normal among the Muggle landed classes in Britain into the 
19th century (it was a way to keep property in the family; cf. the assumption that Mr. 
Darcy will marry his cousin Anne de Bourgh in _Pride and Prejudice_), so I wouldn't 
see anything odd about the practice persisting in a very conservative and self-
isolating family of long-lived English Wizards. In fact, it would seem odd to me if the 
Blacks did not ordinarily marry their cousins.

Which sparks a tangential thought: I wonder about the relationship between the 
persistence of attitudes and practices in the WW and the longer Wizard lifespans. A 
senior citizen of the WW, like DD, was born in the mid-19th century. Now, DD is 
super-progressive in his attitudes, but imagine the perspective that the oldest 
patriarchs and matriarchs of the ancient wizarding families would have brought to the 
events of the 1990's - and so on, back through the Wizarding generations.

Carin