Mark Koyama: belief

Transcript context

…It’s sometimes argued that the West has less cousin marriage, and thus is less clan based and perhaps more free, more democratic, more liberal. Agree or disagree? Broadly speaking, I agree. I think there’s a distinction. The difficulty is, I’m unpackaging . . . There’s a package of goods which come together. Prohibiting cousin marriage — this is something the Catholic Church was doing in the high Middle Ages or early Middle Ages. That’s part of its package, which seems to rise in Western Europe and seems to be associated with undermining kinship groups. That comparison really rests . . . It’s most persuasive when you compare the Middle East or Islamic societies with Europe. I’m not sure it’s as persuasive if you want to explain the rise of Europe vis-à-vis the experience of, say, China or Japan, where I know less about the prevalence of cousin marriage, for example. Your most frequently cited article is on the origins of anti-usury laws. Why are there still so many anti-usury laws at the state level in America?…

Stored transcript either side of the excerpt. The highlighted words are the published quote; the surrounding text is unedited source, never generated.