Autosomal recessive disorders occur in individuals who have two copies of the gene for a particular recessive genetic mutation. Except in certain rare circumstances, such as new mutations or uniparental disomy, both parents of an individual with such a disorder will be carriers of the gene. These carriers do not display any signs of the mutation and may be unaware that they carry the mutated gene. Since relatives share a higher proportion of their genes than do unrelated people, it is more likely that related parents will both be carriers of the same recessive gene, and therefore their children are at a higher risk of a genetic disorder. The extent to which the risk increases depends on the degree of genetic relationship between the parents: The risk is greatest when the parents are close relatives and lower for relationships between more distant relatives, such as second cousins, though still greater than for the general population.
Children of parent-child or sibling-sibling unions are at increased risk compared to cousin-cousin unions.
Royalty and nobility
Inter-nobility marriage was used as a method of forming political alliances among elites. These ties were often sealed only upon the birth of progeny within the arranged marriage. Thus marriage was seen as a union of lines of nobility, not of a contract between individuals as it is seen today. Royal intermarriage was often practised to protect property, wealth and position, but over time some dynasties became very closely inter- and intra-linked genetically:
In ancient Egypt, royal women carried the bloodlines and so it was advantageous for a pharaoh to marry his sister or half-sister; in such cases a special combination between endogamy and polygamy is found. Normally the old ruler's eldest son and daughter (who could be either siblings or half-siblings) became the new rulers. All rulers of the Ptolemaic dynasty from Ptolemy II were married to their brothers and sisters, so as to keep the Ptolemaic blood "pure" and to strengthen the line of succession. Cleopatra VII (also called Cleopatra VI) and Ptolemy XIII, who married and became co-rulers of ancient Egypt following their father's death, are the most widely known example. Among European monarchies Jean V of Armagnac formed a rare brother-sister relationship. Also other royal houses, such as the Wittelsbachs had marriages among aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews. The British royal family had several marriages as close as the first cousin, but none closer. One of the most famous examples of a genetic trait aggravated by royal family intermarriage was the House of Habsburg, which inmarried particularly often and is known for the mandibular prognathism of the Habsburger (Unter) Lippe (otherwise known as the 'Habsburg jaw', 'Habsburg lip' or 'Austrian lip'"). This was typical for many Habsburg relatives over a period of six centuries. The condition progressed through the generations to the point that the last of the Spanish Habsburgs, Charles II of Spain, could not properly chew his food. Besides the jaw deformity, Charles II also had a huge number of other genetic physical, intellectual, sexual, and emotional problems. It is speculated that the simultaneous occurrence in Charles II of two different genetic disorders: combined pituitary hormone deficiency and distal renal tubular acidosis could explain most of the complex clinical profile of this king, including his impotence/infertility which in the last instance led to the extinction of the dynasty. Francis II from the house of Habsburg-Lorraine married his double cousin Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily, and several of their children had potentially genetic health problems. Their daughter Marie Anne is said to have suffered from a hideous facial deformity and also being mentally deficient. Their son Ferdinand who became an emperor was also mentally deficient and suffered from Hydrocephalus (meaning water head) which resulted in an enlarged head. He also had several seizures daily. Of course he never was capable of leading the empire and relied on others and abdicated during the difficulties of the Revolutions of 1848. When informed of the revolution he supposedly asked “But are they allowed to do that?” (Viennese German: Ja, dürfen's denn des?) Also five of the children of Francis II died in infancy or early childhood. Another famous genetic disease that circulated among European royalty was hemophilia. This spread to the royal families of Russia and Spain, and was a factor in the overthrow of both. Because the progenitor, Queen Victoria, was in a first cousin marriage, it is often mistakenly believed that the cause was consanguinity (inbreeding). However, this disease (in males) is generally not aggravated by cousin marriages, although rare cases of hemophilia in girls (though not including Victoria) can occur from the union of hemophiliac men and their cousins. Some Peruvian Sapa Incas married their sisters; in such cases a special combination between endogamy and polygamy is found. Normally the son of the old ruler and the ruler's oldest (half-)sister became the new ruler. The Inca had an unwritten rule that the new ruler must be a son of the Inca and his wife and sister. The Chakri Dynasty of Thailand has included marriages between cousins as well as more close relatives. The current king, Bhumibol Adulyadej is a first-cousin once removed of his wife, Sirikit, the two being respectively a grandson and a great-granddaughter of Chulalongkorn. The parents of the king's father, Mahidol Adulyadej, were half-siblings, both being children of Mongkut by different mothers. Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh are third cousins as a result of both being directly descended from Queen Victoria; as well as second cousins once removed as a result of being directly descended from Christian IX of Denmark. Today, intermarriage within European royal families has declined in relation to the past along with the power and prevalence of noble families and their importance in international affairs.
Possible increase of fertility
A recent study in Iceland by the deCODE genetics company, published by the journal Science, found that third cousins produced more children and grandchildren than more distant marriages, suggesting that "in spite of the fact that bringing together two alleles of a recessive trait may be bad, there may be some biological wisdom in the union of relatively closely related people".[For hundreds of years, inbreeding was historically unavoidable in Iceland due to its then tiny and isolated population.[
lamin Member # 5777
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The Ptolemies were not part of "Ancient Egypt". They were settler Greeks who assumed the AE pharaonic traditions.
the lioness, Member # 17353
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From a blog in regard to pre-Greek Egyptian royals:
According to tradition, incestuous marriages between the pharaohs and their sisters were common. If this was the case, it could have been done to emulate the god Osiris and his sister/wife the goddess Isis and/or to keep the sacred bloodline pure. On the other hand, the historical record for a lot of Egyptian antiquity is spotty and open to interpretation; some would argue that this tradition is based on a modern misreading of inscriptions while others claim that brother-sister unions were usually symbolic and that other concubines were the mothers of the pharaohs' offspring. I carried out a superficial search online for examples of brother-sister marriages looking at two of the most famous dynasties of pre-Hellenistic Egypt and here's what I could find.
In the 4th dynasty (c. 2600-2450 BC ?), Khufu (aka "Cheops"), the pharaoh who most scholars believe built the Great Pyramid of Giza, had a wife named Meritites who was maybe his sister (or half-sister). Khufu's father Sneferu and his mother Hetepheres are also believed to have both been children of the pharaoh Huni. Khufu's son and successor Djedefre married his (probably half) sister Hetepheres who had previously been married to another brother or half-brother named Kawab with whom she produced a daughter, the future queen Meresankh.
Looking ahead to the 18th dynasty (c. 1550-1300 BC ?), Thutmosis II was married to his sister Hatshetsup with whom he had a daughter (his "son and heir" Thutmosis III was the child of a lesser wife or concubine). Thutmosis IV's second queen, Iaret, was probably his sister although again she was not the mother of his son and successor Amenhotep III. Finally, the famous King Tutankhamun's wife Ankhesenamen was probably either his half-sister or his niece. Also, DNA tests administered on the mummies of 18th-dynasty royals appear consistent with the genealogical accounts gleaned from inscriptions, including the marriages between close relatives.
As for birth defects among inbred pharaohs, not much evidence has reached us. Looking again at the 18th dynasty (where we found only three likely incestuous marriages), we see that overbites and elongated skulls (dolichocephalism) seemed to run in the Thutmosis family but these were not so pronounced as to be pathological. Scientists have also theorized that Tutankhamun may have had scoliosis or that his predecessor Akhenaten may have had any number of genetic disorders which would explain his bizarre depiction in artwork (we haven't uncovered his mummy so no one knows how accurate these depictions are), but anyway neither of these pharaohs were excessively inbred.
The Ptolemies
When Alexander the Great's general Ptolemy seized control of Egypt around 323 BC, his descendants would continue the local custom of pharaonic brother-sister marriages. This practice was unknown among Greeks and Macedonians (err, not to open up a can of worms there), and it earned Ptolemy II Philadelphos and his sister/wife Arsinoe the nickname "philadelphoi" (φιλάδελφοι) meaning "brother loving."
Here the record is much clearer, with Greek and Egyptian historians giving us accounts of marriages between brother and sister and between uncle and niece ("double niece", meaning the daughter of his brother AND his sister) which produced offspring. Have a look at the attempted reconstruction of the Ptolemy family tree below. It's open to some debate (check out this site for a more detailed genealogy and discussion), but it gives you some idea of how inbred they became.
King Tut Mysteries Solved: Was Disabled, Malarial, and Inbred "Frail boy" needed cane, says study, which also found oldest genetic proof of malaria.
Regarding the revelation that King Tut's mother and father were brother and sister, Pusch said, "Inbreeding is not an advantage for biological or genetic fitness. Normally the health and immune system are reduced and malformations increase," he said
Troll Patrol aka Ish Gebor Member # 18264
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quote:Originally posted by lamin: The Ptolemies were not part of "Ancient Egypt". They were settler Greeks who assumed the AE pharaonic traditions.
Cosigned, they weren't accepted as part of KMT.
They forced themselves up on the inhabitance of KMT as being so.
In their mind they probably were the same since they likely were carriers of Hg E-V13. And the Ptolemy likely were of Macedonian descent.
quote:Ptolemy I Soter, (born 367/366 bc, Macedonia—died 283/282, Egypt), Macedonian general of Alexander the Great, who became ruler of Egypt (323–285 bc) and founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty, which reigned longer than any other dynasty established on the soil of the Alexandrian empire and only succumbed to the Romans in 30 bc.
Regarding the revelation that King Tut's mother and father were brother and sister, Pusch said, "Inbreeding is not an advantage for biological or genetic fitness. Normally the health and immune system are reduced and malformations increase," he said
What validity I am suppose to see in this creative spare time blogger his opinion, who hails from Arlington, Virginia, USA?
And I have no idea what you are implying now, by Tut?
But in Southern Egypt were Tut originated, there is still this ancient tradition of endogamy, till this very day.
And Hg E-V13 is only at a very low resolution in Northern Egypt, to basically non-existent in the South.
quote: Here, we describe a system for the molecular dissection of haplogroup E-M78 (E1b1b1a), consisting of multiplex polymerase chain reaction and minisequencing of M78 and nine population-informative Y-SNPs (M148, M224, V12, V13, V19, V22, V27, V32, V65) in a single reaction.
--S. Caratti, et al. Subtyping of Y-chromosomal haplogroup E-M78 (E1b1b1a) by SNP assay and its forensic application
Phylogeny of Y-chromosome haplogroups and their frequencies (%) in the examined populations. Nomenclature and haplogroup labelling according to the Y Chromosome Consortium (http://ycc.biosci.arizona.edu/) updated according to Karafet et al. 32 *Paragroups: Y chromosomes not defined by any phylogenetic downstream-reported and -examined mutation. aIntrapopulation haplogroup diversity. The terminal markers of haplogroups E-V12 and E-V13 (V32 and V27, respectively) were typed but did not show any variation.
Frequency (left) and variance (right) distributions of the main Y-chromosome haplogroups, I-M423, E-V13 and J-M241, observed in this survey. Frequency data are reported in Figure 2, variance data are relative to the examined microsatellite reported in the Supplementary Table S2. We acknowledge that interpolated spatial frequency surfaces should be viewed with caution because of sample size.41 Data from this study. Frequency and variance values were assigned to sample-collection places (dots). Population samples (geographically close) with less than five observations were pooled and the corresponding variance assigned to a middle position of the pooled sample locations. +Data from the literature.13, 23, 27, 28, 36, 45, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54
-- Vincenza Battaglia et al.
Eur J Hum Genet. 2009 June; 17(6): 820–830. Y-chromosomal evidence of the cultural diffusion of agriculture in southeast Europe
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Troll the above is useless spamming. Stay on topic> inbreeding in royal families.
mena7 Member # 20555
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Inbreeding is the reason the European Royal families and nobilities stay black and brown for so long to the late colonial era after the mass invasion of Europe by white central Asian tribes in the 6 cent CE and their mixture with indigenous brown and black European.
The European Royal families and aristocracies married each other for 600 years.
Troll Patrol aka Ish Gebor Member # 18264
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quote:Originally posted by the lioness,: Troll the above is useless spamming. Stay on topic> inbreeding in royal families.
I patrol on your trolling.
And I elaborated on the topic with deep insight on who the Ptolemy's were, so I went to the nitty gritty. You lack logic and comprehension. This is why you consider it off topic and spamming.
The real spamming is done by your pseudo spare time blogger, from Virginia. And that pseudo Wikipedia rant, you coopted.
Lemme' explain to ya'.
If the Ptolemy royal house descents from Macedonians and they range in a certain Hg, which happens to be E-V13. We can trace to what degree this is relevant in Egypt. As is known, it is basically insignificant. Therefore the hypothetical pseudo suggestion is pure B.S.
We also know that the boy King Tut, originated in the South. Where we still find a similar tradition of endogamy as was ever since the Neolithic. Which you happen to call interbreeding. Do you get it now?
quote:A biological affinities study based on frequencies of cranial nonmetric traits in skeletal samples from three cemeteries at predynastic Naqada, Egypt, confirms the results of a recent nonmetric dental morphological analysis. Both cranial and dental traits analyses indicate that the individuals buried in a cemetery characterized archaeologically as high status are significantly different from individuals buried in two other, apparently nonelite cemeteries and that the nonelite samples are not significantly different from each other. A comparison with neighbouring Nile Valley skeletal samples suggests that the high status cemetery represents an endogamous ruling or elite segment of the local population at Naqada, which is more closely related to populations in northern Nubia than to neighbouring populations in southern Egypt.
[...]
The origins of the ancient Egyptian state may be traced to the rapid socialand political changes that occurred in Upper (southern Egypt during the predynastic period (approximately 5000 to 3050 BC) and which ended with the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt in the first of thirty ruling dynasties (Bard, 1994a,b)
--Prowse TL, Lovell NC. Am J Phys Anthropol. 1996 Oct;101(2):237-46. Concordance of cranial and dental morphological traits and evidence for endogamy in ancient Egypt.
quote: In a sample of 282 marriages in New Nubia in Egypt, 39% were between first cousins and 21% between less closely related kin. The average number of liveborn offspring in first-cousin marriages was higher than in marriages between more distant relations and unrelated spouses, but the number of deaths among children of first-cousin couples was also higher.
--F. H Hussiena. Endogamy in Egyptian Nubia, Katedra Antropologie, Bratislava, Czechoslovakia
quote:Originally posted by Troll Patrol aka Ish Gebor:
We also know that the boy King Tut, originated in the South. Where we still find a similar tradition of endogamy as was ever since the Neolithic. Which you happen to call interbreeding. Do you get it now?
Of course I get it in my intial post text endogamy was mentioned as being the intent behind the inbreeding.
Troll Patrol aka Ish Gebor Member # 18264
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quote:Originally posted by the lioness,:
quote:Originally posted by Troll Patrol aka Ish Gebor:
We also know that the boy King Tut, originated in the South. Where we still find a similar tradition of endogamy as was ever since the Neolithic. Which you happen to call interbreeding. Do you get it now?
Of course I get it in my intial post text endogamy was mentioned as being the intent behind the inbreeding.
"Good girl".
I am happy it penetrated into you, after you squeezed it out of me. Where I had to explain it to you "in my own words".
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![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)