MODERNIZATION AND CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGE IN IRAN

Using data on 4,667 women from the 1976-77 Iran Fertility Survey, we examine the trend and social correlates of consanguineous marriage in Iran. Based upon William Goode's theory of modernization, we hypothesize a declining trend in consanguineous marriage over time and negative relationships between consanguinity and measures of social status. Contrary to our expectations, there was a modest increase in the proportion of marriages between cousins in Iran from the 1940s to 1970s. Results from multivariate logistic regressions, however, indicate that many of the measures of individual social status had the expected negative relationships with consanguinity. Overall, the results of this analysis suggest that forces of modernization may be slowly eroding the social bases of consanguinity, while the increased availability of cousins may lead to an increase in consanguinity in the near term.