Polygamist Sects: How They Avoid Inbreeding Problems

To geneticists, the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) community, based in West Texas, might look a bit like an eddy in the river of gene flow.

Within this sect, for generations, a small number of families have married and remarried, their genes becoming subtly more similar with each passing decade.

Now, state officials have begun gathering DNA samples from the more than 400 children taken into state custody, primarily to help tease out the complex family trees within the group and determine whether sexual abuse has taken place.

But through these tests, officials may also get a glimpse of exactly how genetically similar the individuals that make up the group have become -- and why the members of this sect appear to have largely sidestepped the archetypical deformities that come part and parcel with close inbreeding.

Martha Bradley is a sociologist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and author of the book "Kidnapped From That Land," which documents the government's 1953 raid on a polygamous fundamentalist community in Short Creek, Ariz. She is also an expert on the FLDS, having studied the group in the early 1990s, and she believes it is likely that some degree of inbreeding has already occurred within the sect.

"I wouldn't be surprised if there were [inbreeding]," Bradley says. "It's such a small pool of members, and it has been since the '20s."

Yet, in a community roster that contains hundreds of names -- but remarkably few different surnames -- some wonder why the more obvious physical defects associated with inbreeding, such as cleft palate and encephalopathy, have not yet manifested themselves in the appearance of the sect members.

The answer -- give it many more generations. So says Jonathan Turner, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Riverside.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[happytrails]

This is an organization which throws out boys who might compete with the older pedophiles. What would stop them from "disappearing" unfortunate examples of inbreeding?

[Trueheart]

Polygamists Avoiding Inbreeding Problems?
Shallow Gene Pool Not Yet Translated Into Defects; Some Experts Say Effects Still Possible

That's the full title of this article. It hink what they are saying is that there is enough genetic diversity in the population right now so that birth defects related to inbreeding have not sufaced.

[offred]

Birth defects ARE showing up within FLDS communities. Google this: fumarase deficiency + Kingston + FLDS. Researchers have traced the fumarase deficiency to two Mormon men back in the mid-19th century; their descendants have been intermarrying and forming new communities since then.

Since this sect seems to have stopped recording birth certificates (to avoid evidence of plural marriage), we don't really know how many children were born and didn't survive long. I'd bet if the graves in the "Babyland" cemeteries in the communities were dug up, evidence of significant birth defects would be found.

What surprises me is that no one is getting bent out of shape about the welfare fraud the FLDS men are perpetrating. Since the men officially marry only one woman, the other women claim welfare benefits. Some of these men have 30 to 40 children, and they're not supporting them. Instead, the men are sending enormous amounts of money to Warren Jeff, and it's not going back to any of the kids and the wives.

[PhillyQuaker]

Bent out of shape about the welfare fraud here. Had people jump all over me for mentioning the welfare fraud. "How do you know?' "Where's your proof."

People need to realize the FLDS worship Warren Jeffs. This is not some sweet little group of faith driven individuals. It's a racket and a child and woman abusing racket as well.

[MourningDude]

I've been bent out of shape over our welfare system rewarding unwed motherhood for years. The system is the problem. Fix the fundamentals of the system to encourage responsibility, and you won't have to fix the fundamentalists.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

I hope the kids get reunited with their mothers. But it's not so simple.

What if their genetic mothers aren't the ones who've been raising them, who the kids might think is mom?

And what if the genetic mothers are the kids' half-sisters? (Dad = Gramps)

And what if the dads are bonking other underage girls?

Such a mess.

[PioneerKing]

Is it true that they let the deformed babies starve and die?

[offred]

Google fumerase deficiency + Kingston + FLDS. Fumerase deficiency is recorded as showing up in some FLDS communities, as well as other birth defects. The research is out there.

Since this sect doesn't record birth certificates all the time, we don't really know how many children were born and didn't survive long.

[TXfemmom]

Heh, who is to say that they don't have some of those disorders? They are secretive, and one member who has since left said that one of her children was treated for a serious cancer which is genetic.

The situation has arisen within the Amish, and they were beginning to see some serious birth anomalies. Therefore, some of the Pennsylvania Amish and groups in other parts of the country have begun to meet and to try to form marriages from groups not so closely associated.

[Trueheart]

If you read the piece again, you'll see that the population of this community hasn't inbred for a long enough period of time for defects to surface. I've read some stuff on the problems of the Amish, and they do realize the seriousness of living in closed communities for as long as they have.

[Trueheart]

Perhaps it will help to understand some of the reasons why polygamous Mormon groups are so insular. One of the facts that I ran across in my readings on this issue is that in 1838, the State of Missouri enacted an Extermination Order which sanctioned legal killings of Mormons. It was put into force, and massacres occurred. This law was finally taken off the books in 1976.

[montestruc]

You really need to be doing it for a lot more generations than they have for it to become a big issue. See the site. FYI Arabs, [not just Muslim Arabs, and not necessarily non Arab Muslims] have that problem bad.

http://www.as.wvu.edu/~kgarbutt/QuantGen/Gen535Papers2/Inbreeding.htm

[Trueheart]

Whoa, that was way too scientific for this brain! Outbreeding has increased the likelihood of birth defects when consanguinity occurs....like cousins marrying, right? Outbreeding makes those who intermarry more vulnerable. Oh my.

[montestruc]

Several dangers exist to populations regarding in or out breeding. It is simply not true that inbreeding *directly* causes birth defects, it is a lot more complex than that. As a rule it is wiser to out-breed, but that also exposed the children of future generations to the genetic diseases of the people you out-breed with, and potential ones resulting from the combination of your genes and theirs. Mostly those risks are smaller than the risks of close inbreeding, and in the very long term lack of genetic diversity will make your population more vulnerable to viruses and bacterial in that your immune system uses your genetic code as a key to identification of intruders. Given a lot of time, and very small gene pool, viruses can evolve a "fake id" that will allow them to infect most of the population.

[kellygrrrl]

I have often wondered what kinds of birth defects affect these FLDS members. It seems common knowledge that there is quite a bit of inbreeding. I feel for all these people. I hope the children are able to assimilate into some more functional lifestyle. I have a hard time believing they are better off without their mothers ... but I definitely feel they are better off out of a cult-like existence wherein young girls are being forced to marry older men.

[montestruc]

Pardon me ma'am, but where exactly is the proof that young girls in the FLDS are being forced to marry older men?

In the case that Jeffs is in jail for, the "older man" was 19, and the "force" was Jeffs telling her that she faced eternal damnation and excommunication if she refused to follow his orders as the "Prophet" of that sect. No threats of physical violence were made as far as I know. That is the only case I am aware of where serious allegations of such force were made.

Do you seriously think that is "force"??

[MourningDude]

What gets me is that the judge ruled that all of these kids are at risk of abuse today. Not 10 years from now. The risk was so urgent that the state had to intercede.

It begs the question of how a 6 month old child is at risk of being married off today.

It begs the question of how ANY of the boys are at risk of being married off today.

Even if every male in the group left the compound today, the state will not allow the children back.

How do you marry off children to men that aren't there?

The state's argument is patently absurd. The fact that so many people are willing to sit idly by while the state terrorizes and tortures these families is very disturbing to me.

[JohnFromCensornati]

"some wonder why the more obvious physical defects associated with inbreeding have not yet manifested themselves in the appearance of the sect members."

Must be the magic underwear!