Population Genetics
Further information: Population genetics and inbreedingThe isolationist practices of endogamy may lead to a group's extinction rather than its survival, as genetic diseases may develop that can affect a larger percentage of the population. For instance, while long serving to preserve their religion, the Samaritans' practice of endogamy threatens this community: refusal to intermarry, in conjunction with their non-acceptance of converts, has led the population of this ethnic group to decrease to fewer than one thousand.
Read more about this topic: Endogamous Group
Famous quotes containing the word population:
“The population of the world is a conditional population; these are not the best, but the best that could live in the existing state of soils, gases, animals, and morals: the best that could yet live; there shall be a better, please God.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)