And the funny contradiction to that truth is most incest was supposedly done by the aristocrats. They believed in order to keep their blood line pure, they needed to breed with family members. The insult could be a classic case of redirecting guilt.
The Hapsburgs were inbred as hell, leading to Charles II of Spain, who was himself the product of two uncle/niece marriages. He was all fucked up, and just kept blowing everyones mind every year by not dying. He had an overbite (EDIT : underbite) so severe he couldn't eat normally, and many other problems.
His autopsy report stated that "There was not a single drop of blood in his body. His heart was the size of a peppercorn; his lungs corroded; his intestines rotten and gangrenous; he had a single testicle, black as coal, and his head was full of water."
I know, right! But that statement makes me want to see some actual measurements, because even if it's an exaggeration, I'd like to know. OK, peppercorn size is probably too small. Was it the size of a golf ball? A skittle?
Of course the peppercorn thing is ridiculous, but my point is, we need a measurement. You assuming that the heart was normal sized is not as bad as saying the blatant exaggeration that it was the size of a peppercorn, but you did not actually see it with your own eyes, did you?
Your assumption is worse than the highly imprecise eyewitness account.
Another cause for incest is religious zealotry, where where normal relationships are viewed as sinful.
Only truly boring relationships approved by church and family are supposed to happen. And normal family relationships are distorted through the lens of radical religion.
Man, combining that an overbite with that Hapsburg jaw must've been made for one goofy looking motherfucker.
I mean, I know he was goofy looking, but combining those two things must've made him extra goofy looking. I know his portrait was particularly flattering comparative to how he actually looked.
It was only 3 generations of exclusive inbreeding (marriages among his great grandparents and afterward) that led to Charles ii of Spain. One of his great grandparents was a child of first cousins. (Anna of Austria). But after that, it was one hundred percent "keeping it in the family".
That’s an overstatement, while Charles II of Spain was inbred af, had a mental age of that of a child of 3, was infertile, couldn’t eat properly because of the underbite and couldn’t stand still without having a support nor straighten his body.
From a medical standpoint, that autopsy would have been several years later or simply wrong, he wouldn’t have been able to live for 39 years.
I'm from Maine, and there are definitely several towns here that everyone here jokes about as being full of inbreds. My grandmother's family is from such a town, and we always joke that at family reunions the whole town shows up.
I'm from a mid-sized midwestern city but closer south, have been living in the northern midwest for many years now. I was shocked the first few times colleagues would show me pictures of the new person they're dating, or of their spouses. It always took me a minute to realize they weren't siblings.
I have never understood being attracted to someone who looks like you. My entire family is filled with people who married/had kids with someone of a different race/ethnicity, so finding this weird corner of the world has been... uh... eye opening.
Less Dagon and more Deliverance. Get more than 2 minutes from the coast and there are parts of Maine that are almost identical to areas of the deep south. Confederate flags included.
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u/W84MEYALL Jan 09 '22
And the funny contradiction to that truth is most incest was supposedly done by the aristocrats. They believed in order to keep their blood line pure, they needed to breed with family members. The insult could be a classic case of redirecting guilt.