How did pre-industrial tribal societies – for example Inuits, manage to deal with inbreeding even though they were small in size and lacked outside contact?
In: Biology
Most Alaska native groups had two moieties (subgroups or clans) and you couldn’t hook up within your own. In doing so, your closest legal hook up would be a cousin. Add to that some fresh genes from neighboring tribes every so often, as other people have mentioned. It was enough to keep the population running fairly healthy for an extended period. Not necessarily perfect.
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