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Daily Life and Customs-
Cousins marrying each other was quite normal, only recently has it began to be looked down upon. In the 19th century a lot of people married cousins without thinking twice, it was normal and natural to them. Cousins married cousins to mainly keep land and property in the family. Also you didn’t move around a lot back then. You lived out your life mainly where you were born, and you lived near relatives so eventually it got to the point cousins were the closes eligible spouses. However in Gone with the Wind, Gerald O’Hara explained to his daughter that you were supposed to marry people like you, marrying someone completely opposite of you was a bad idea, where as now we say opposites attract. However after years and years of such inbreeding the children began looking strange, not deformed, but having unappealing features. Even in the Bible cousins married cousins, so why is it looked down on now?