Inbred Family of Appalachia: The Truth About Inbreeding

hi I'm Josh welcome to Mountain Roots I'm the producer of the exploring Appalachia series of episodes here whether you've seen those or not today's episode is a bit different in its format from those this is number 40 in the series and it's somewhat a Valentine's Day special but due to the sensitive nature of the content I wanted to caution those of you who watch with younger audiences as I know some of you do the following content is a bit sensitive so be advised and perhaps you you may want to preview this episode before allowing young eyes and ears to to view it so how did Appalachia in places like West Virginia and Kentucky get this reputation for inbreeding bluntly exaggeration prone Outsiders and it's always been attached to some sort of gain to be had often Financial for doing so if you watch my recent two-part episode on who are The Appalachian people you'll know from that that in the early 1900s there was a collusion by sociologists individuals and the federal government to malign and stereotype people from Appalachia in order to ultimately force them from their lands as far back as the 1880s authors such as Mary Murphy and John Fox Jr they were traveling across Appalachia looking for local color and they really overstated the degree to which mountain populations lived in isolation this gave rise to very crude assumptions about how these isolated people you know might be perpetuating their communities through widespread inbreeding and during the same time period you had missionaries and sociologists Reporting pervasive ignorance and poverty with large families living in these ramshackle cabins so stereotypes arose about widespread incest linked to appalachian's Poverty again when Eleanor Roosevelt visited West Virginia mining towns in the 1930s National newspapers ran pictures of rundown shacks and Barefoot children living in complete squalor and Rags as you can imagine this campaign left a lasting impression that West Virginia was a Backwater region and the people of Appalachia were forever branded as a stereotypical Hillbillies an incest served as the so-called scientific explanation for their downtrodden condition in life it also was used as justification to remove people by force and seize their lands for federal government projects like national parks although research on intra-family marriage is pretty slim in 1980 an anthropologist by the name of Robert Tincher published a study titled Night comes to the chromosomes it was a pretty in-depth analysis of inbreeding and population genetics in southern Appalachia and it was based on 140 years worth of marriage records in it he concluded that inbreeding levels in Appalachia are neither unique nor particularly common to the region when compared with those reported for populations elsewhere or at earlier periods in American history I find this fascinating given the assumptions about the prevalence of inbreeding in Appalachia that have long been used to account for certain characteristics of mountain people and their culture and even to blame for their disadvantaged political and economic situation in life yet such blindly accepted assumptions have little or no quantitative evidence that's ever been presented what has been well established if we're going to discuss incest is inbreeding among Royal and noble families from ancient Egypt and Cleopatra to recent centuries and European dynasties from Queens Victoria to Elizabeth seeking to protect family wealth power and preserve their Noble pure blood for them the practice was perfectly normal and seen as as acceptable they're allowed to break social taboos and conventions that others aren't allowed to but it has led to some noticeable defects and diseases for them like hemophilia which is a disorder that prevents blood from clotting and can be fatal some of you may be surprised to learn that Charles Darwin was married to his first cousin now I could sit here continuing to point fingers and name names and although in reality Appalachia and its people have long been set aside as sacrificial and Expendable that's not my aim I want to raise awareness and offer a better understanding that in reality genetically the world is smaller than you think our Global family tree is much more connected than previously understood understand that global population has changed dramatically in the last few hundred years just 600 years ago there were 20-fold fewer people alive than compared to today so if you're looking for a spouse you have fewer options either marrying someone outside your group or relative here's an exercise if I trace the number of my own ancestors two parents four grandparents eight great-grandparents and so on back just one thousand years I've got more people in theory on just my family tree than there are live on the entire planet at that time and that's the case for anyone so how do we solve this math problem lately I've been examining some groundbreaking genetic research that's being done in just the past five to ten years and I think it sheds light on the answer you simply make the branches of the family trees connect meaning my mother's side and my father's side yours as well must be more closely related than we previously thought this must also imply that racial or ethnic change happens much more quickly than we previously thought if you've watched this far I hope you've picked up on the spirit of what I'm trying to convey perhaps the next time you hear or see a grotesque stereotype being leveled at Appalachia it will give you pause and maybe the opportunity to speak up and give voice to the voiceless foreign [Music]

Channel: Mountain Roots

Views: 114,745

Keywords: inbred whitakers, inbred family, the whitakers of odd, soft white underbelly, whitakers of west virginia, inbreeding in humans, inbreeding, inbreeding in appalachia, the truth about inbreeding in appalachia, inbreeding in west virginia, inbreeding in kentucky, inbreeding in history, inbred hillbillies, inbred hillbilly family, mountain roots, appalachia, appalachian, appalachian inbreds, appalachia inbreeding, appalachian inbred family, human inbreeding, human inbreeding effects

Id: 5MF6vKjkz3k

Length: 6min 32sec (392 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 14 2023