Saying that Amish “practice inbreeding”, as you say, is misleading. It is basically because the communities are very small and marrying within the Amish community often means marrying someone that you are somehow related to. Some Inherited Diseases Among the Amish. the problem is what happens over multiple generations of imbreeding. While close cousin marriages are widely discouraged, in a limited, largely closed population, more distant relations inevitably wed. What does an Amish farm look like? If you get above that threshold you are risking problems. This isn’t really so much inbreeding but on a different posting I related about the complicated relationships that had developed when a twice widowed 82 year old bishop remarried for the third time to an 84 year old widow. Once that has been done, only pure genes are left. At its root, the problem is all about recessive genes. Our adorable foster children are biracial. Different Spanish terms for inbreeding/endogamy? I have even heard Amish joke about this (“our family trees don’t fork”), but is this “inbreeding” as we commonly think of it?eval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'amishamerica_com-large-leaderboard-2','ezslot_3',131,'0','0'])); It’s frequently noted that the Lancaster Amish population descends from a relative handful of immigrant families (see this explanation of genetic drift and the founder principle). Thanks for commenting on the Big Valley situation Rich. “It's a 'private mutation. They feel their lifestyle and their families can best be maintained in a rural environment. . This was so at least from first meeting people would know the odds of having a Tay Sachs child before getting into a relationship (if both parents are carriers of Tay Sachs the punnet square odds are if they have four kids, one will be a non carrier, two will be carriers, and one will have Tay Sachs). I have also read in the research literature about the relative absence of autism in the Amish community as well (obviously relating autism to genetic predispositions, etc.). Out of practicality or necessity, they have evidently removed the normal restrictions and allow their children to date and marry across Nebraska affiliations. We dig down into the controversy over pedigree dogs and pure breeding. I've heard guys getting paid up to $4,000 to do so. The reason behind the ban on tractors is (just like ban on cars) to keep … There is a Kevin Yoder who is a politician in Kansas and has an Amish-descended father and a non-Amish mother, and who can forget Verne Troyer, who was raised Amish, has an Amish form of dwarfism, and acted in his famous Hollywood roles? Thus, the practice of endogamy in this situation is the primary practice and the by-product of that practice (due to restricted access and limited early population of settlers) is marrying others who have some relation to you (not marrying a relative as practice in and of itself). I also think that the Amish should adopt children out of the foster care system to help with their genetic problems. Inbreeding is the process of mating genetically similar organisms. In humans, it's associated with consanguinity and incest, in which close relatives have sexual relationships and children. Even though they’re mostly synonymous with Pennsylvania, the Amish may today be found in 31 U.S. states, as well as two Canadian provinces. and Third cousins count back four generations to their great-great-grandparents. When they’d have a dance or youth event for the Jewish young people, each student would put either one or two dots on the hand, one dot meant non carrier, two dots meant carrier. Jackie that is interesting, but not knowing anything more than what’s presented here, I’d probably give the benefit of the doubt and assume it was a translation issue and not so much an accusation by this researcher. Discounts are offered for group testing projects or tests bought in bulk. It would be the talk of Holmes county! Inbreeding and linebreeding help select the desirable traits in the offspring. Here’s a link: http://articles.philly.com/2011-12-26/news/30559240_1_mennonite-families-biological-mother-janelle. Besides the Jews and Hispanic Jewish-descended populations, other groups having genetic problems due to endogamy are New England Puritans, Romani Gypsies, French-Canadians and Middle Eastern Christians. On the backyard scale, I think the best bet is to just save your best birds back for breeding each year, and to add in outside blood if you start noticing genetic problems. This is not anything to do with having a thing for incest. A: There are some diseases that appear more frequently in some Amish communities because their gene pool is restricted. Unfortunately the word is so loaded that some people will glance at a headline like that and think Amish men marry their sisters. One of my great grandfather’s sisters grandsons wanted to date me when we were in high school.. They were like any other 1800s family… except they liked inbreeding. The term is derogatory. Inbreeding will not destroy a population, if anything it will make it genetically purer. “Twin studies” is another tool scientists use to get answers to the same kinds of questions. It’s because they began with a small population, only married each other, and faced persecution from host societies so that conversion from the outside was rare and openly discouraged- JUST like Amish!! 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