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Summary of Question:	Marriage To Cousins Ok?
Category:	Other
Date Posted:	Friday, 7/05/2002 7:20 PM MDT

i dnt understand this soem sikhs marry very very distant cousins. not first but lest say 4th of 5th cousins

my mum says it is ok to marry someone as long as the dnt have the same surname as u or ur mums maiden surname. and the same for the girl long as u dnt have the same surname as her or the same surname as her mums maiden name.
she also sed u can marry someone lets say ur bro has married into a family a boy can again marry into the family but not a gal. so if ur sis has married into a family her ynga bro cannot marry into that family.
wats sikhism view point on this

hope this makes sense, wats the limits in the sikh faith?

sunny

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REPLY
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Sat Siri Akaal, Sunny,
The issue is not about what SIkhi says or doesn't say. I haven't seen anything in Siri Guru Granth Sahib or in the rehit that specifically says you can't marry a distant cousin.
Cultures -religious or social--around the world prevent or disapprove strongly of people marrying close BLOOD family relations. The reason is simple: genetics. Marrying outside the family bloodlines brings in fresh genes, so to speak. Marrying within the bloodlines has the effect over time of concentrating the gene pool with the very worst genes. The result of such 'in-breeding' is babies born with a range of problems such as: brain disorders, weak organs, auto-immune diseases, etc. From your description above, it seems that the focus is on whether or not the MEN in a marriage are related, but scientifically speaking, the results are the same with both sexes.
If this is hard to understand, ask a medical doctor, and s/he can explain it to you better.
Guru rakha,
-DKK