Jonathan F. Shulz (2016) has shown that not only is consanguineous marriage highly significantly correlated with mafia activity, “cousin marriage is a highly significant and robust predictor of democracy.”
The Mafia without godfathers
Are Corleone’s Mafiosi more likely to marry close relations? Part 1
Over the next several weeks, I will share the results of my first study, into the rates of consanguineous marriage among known members of the Mafia in Corleone, and a control group matched by year of marriage. I’ve noticed that Mafia members in Corleone appear to marry into other known Mafia families, engage in double... Continue Reading →
Cousins, many times over
There’s a classic illustration of exponential growth, that goes something like this: a king agrees to play a chess match for a prize: a single grain of rice on the first square of the chessboard, two grains on the second square, and so on, doubling the number for each of the 64 squares. The king... Continue Reading →
Kissing cousins
Cousin marriage, and double in-law marriages, reinforced familial bonds among the Fratuzzi of Corleone.
Mafia Genealogy 