Marriage Patterns and Reproductive Decision-Making in the Inhabitants of a Single Muslim Village during a 50-Year Period

Abstract

Objectives: In a single Muslim village in Israel, established about 300 years ago by a small number of founders, a longitudinal study was conducted on the types of marriages and their effects on family planning, with the age at which a woman had her first child and the size of the family assessed. Methods: The information for the analysis was extracted from a detailed database including individuals residing in and originating from the village. Results: A shift from the practice of marrying a close relative, in particular patrilateral parallel first-cousin marriages, to marrying a more remotely related individual was observed during the study period. Another major change was a significant reduction in the mean number of children born per woman from 8.7 among women born between 1930 and 1939 to 4.7 among those born between 1960 and 1969. In families in which the parents were biological relatives, the number of children was always higher than in families in which the parents were unrelated. The mean age of the mother at the birth of her first child progressively increased during the study period from 20.9 to 23.7 years. The maternal age was always higher when the spouses were from different villages than when they were biological relatives, either being first cousins or more distantly related. Conclusions: Significant sociodemographic changes were observed during the course of the last 50 years. However, the consequences of the long-lasting isolation of the population remain and still exert an important effect on present-day medical problems in the village.