Lewis Henry Morgan and the Prohibition of Cousin Marriage in the United States

Abstract

In contrast to European countries, individual states in the United States have enacted civil laws prohibiting cousin marriage. Currently, over sixty percent of the states have laws making first cousin marriage illegal. This development in the United States can be best understood by reference to a significant cultural development during the nineteenth century in this country. There was an acceptance of an evolutionary perspective in determining proper marriages that included cousin marriage being categorized as an early type of evolutionary institution: something to be avoided or discarded by so-called civilized peoples.