The matrimonial behavior of a rural population in Haute-Vienne, France

Abstract

Although biodemography prefers to focus on isolated human populations, in our analysis we have considered an opened community, neither culturally nor geographically separated from the nearby communities. The aim of the present study was to reconstruct the degree of consanguinity and assess the level of openness of a certain French population through the observation of its people’s matrimonial behavior. Marriages and, in general, the choice of the partner, are often affected by culture and society which affect, in the end, the community’s genic pool.