If I made a claim that all people are ‘inbred’, chances are I would get scolded or at least laughed at! However, a simple reality is that “yes” we are all ‘inbred’ to some degree. The concept is that back in time, there simply weren’t enough people living in the world to account for all of the ancestors that a person would have to have. It is a significant reality that everybody descends many times from certain select people.
Genetically, the offspring of close cousins can be thrifty as long as it doesn’t continue for too many consecutive generations. The Habsburg family dynasty is the perfect example of continuous close breeding. By looking at portraits of Habsburg family members, their distorted facial features are alarming! For the Habsburgs, their fate was a matter of choice but fortunately, the rest of us have a choice in who we get involved with!
