Re: NYTimes.com Article: Iraqi Family Ties Complicate American Efforts f

In a message dated 9/29/2003 9:55:24 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
b_rieux@yahoo.com writes:

> My question is how unique is the pattern of cousin
> marriage in Iraq? I'm not sure from reading the NYT,
> and will have to do further research. I'm sure most
> Iraqis are not traditional herders, though I'm also
> sure there are remnants in Iraq and Iran. Still I
> don't know about the marriage situation in Iraq but
> plan to find out.

This is an interesting question, but its also pretty much an academic one of 
interest to anthropologists seeking to understand Iraq. Whenever its been 
convenient, the West has come up with these reasons why one place or another 
(China, India, Iraq, whoever) can't be modern.  Actually, not long ago, the 
'line' about the Mideast was that the problem was that Islam had not 
sufficiently seperated from the state, that it required a Protestant 
Reformation(presumably skipping the three-hundred years or so that followed of 
religious wars and intolerance).  Now we hear its all a question of the Iraqis 
marrying their cousins--a reason seemingly designed to repulse Americans.

Steven Sherman