Read Western Individualism May Have Roots In The Medieval Church's Obsession With Incest (NPR.org)

Researchers combed Vatican archives to find records of how ancient church policies restricting whom one could marry shaped Western values and family structures today.

Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic (WEIRD) countries ❧

I love this acronym!
Annotated on August 01, 2020 at 05:41PM

That restructuring of societies in Western Europe in turn also benefited the church, notes Henrich. “In some sense, the church is killing off clans, and they’re often getting the lands in wealth,” he says. “So this is enriching the church. Meanwhile, Europeans are broken down into monogamous, nuclear families and they can’t re-create the complex kinship structures that we [still] see elsewhere in the world.” ❧

If true, this is an astounding finding.
Annotated on August 01, 2020 at 05:46PM