I actually thought the law was old, not new. The eew for me comes from the notion of marrying any of my cousins...I am not even attracted to men who look anything like me or my family whatsoever (which resulted in me having a son who people have implied was adopted).

A hundred years ago in the United States, we didn't have national women's suffrage, child labor laws, and, if you go back not much further, we have legal slavery and all sorts of other unpleasant things. People tend to romanticize the "good ole days", but the cold hard truth is right there in the history books. I am studying American History in college right now, and I cry every single chapter because of the horrific things people did and the terrible conditions in which people lived. Similar things still go on today, but in much smaller numbers - and it is no longer acceptable. We still have a long way to go before we reach an ideal society and government, but I sincerely hope and pray we do not return to the "morality" of the past.

Just my two cents.

Bellanca, when I speak of a decay of morality, I'm speaking mostly of the last hundred years. Morality hasn't ALWAYS been decaying, and was mostly dependent on who conquered who, through most of history.

I think marrying FIRST cousins is rather unusual, legally speaking; marrying second cousins and beyond has only very rarely been illegal, if I'm not mistaken. Forgive me, though, for not having researched any facts on this one; I really don't care very much.

I had never even given considered parentage with my villagers before I saw threads about it here. Besides, in real life unless blood tests are taken, you would never know you were related to someone if they had been adopted right after birth and never told of their real parentage.

I still don't, honestly.