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
Well, many such groups have dealt with issues associated with inbreeding. It’s not like an instant thing though, you could go generations with no issues at all, or only a few unlucky ones who wind up with the bad genes. Also, it’s pretty common for such tribal societies to have their daughters marry into neighboring tribes, adding more distant blood into the mix.
But, it’s not like inbreeding will instantly lead to habsburg jaws or the hills have eyes, it just slowly raises the probability of certain issues over time.
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