(07-18-2013, 04:53 PM)Callipygian Wrote: TL;DR: In-breeding is not as bad as everyone has been led to believe. In the long-term, it actually improves the genetic fitness of a population. Socio-economic factors in human society offset the short-term costs.
(Just for the record, I read it all ;P)
Thank you! I was hoping someone with some biology know-how would show up, lol.
So, I was on the right track (at least) to suggest that perhaps the Miqo'te had some sort of "immunity" to the defects typically associated with in-breeding. Considering this has been their life style for who-knows-how-long, it sounds very plausible to suggest that they've significantly removed the bad genes from their entire race, if not eliminated it all-together.
This, combined with the fact that their concept of "family" should be very different from its conventional definition, would go further to assert that they're perfectly fine with in-breeding for the sake of raising strong, able-bodied children.
