I am wondering if it’s true that there are, or were, inbred families or communities that live(d) in the Ozark Mountains. Was it just the movie Deliverance that led people to believe that? –Josh from Montreal
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What you’re thinking of is the Appalachian Mountains, which extend nearly 2,000 miles from Alabama to Newfoundland and encompass the Chattooga watershed. Northerners, evidently including Canadians, figure the southern end of the range is crammed with mental defectives, an assumption worth examining. If you don’t mind, therefore, we’ll restructure your question along slightly more scientific lines: Is southern Appalachia characterized by an unusually high incidence of (a) inbreeding and (b) mental retardation and genetic defects, and if so, has (a) led to (b)? For reasons to become apparent, we’ll start not at the beginning or end of this question, but in the middle.
- Does inbreeding lead to genetic abnormalities? Time to waffle. Last year I wrote a column saying cousin marriage wasn’t guaranteed to produce genetic defects. It’s not, strictly speaking. However, defects may be more common than I let on. The problem is “inbreeding depression,” the emergence of undesirable traits when closely related parents each contribute a normally dormant gene. According to one paper (Jaber et al, Community Genetics, 1998), congenital malformations are 2.5 times more common among offspring of inbred couples than of unrelated parents. A famous example is the “blue Fugates,” members of an inbred Kentucky hill clan who suffered from a rare genetic blood disorder that made their skin look blue.
