HW32: Responding to Riverbend

As I continued reading Riverbend, she had mentioned that Iraqi's marry their cousins!! Why, I though to myself? " He simplifies the whole situation incredibly stating that because Iraqi's tend to marry cousins, they'll be less likely to turn each other into American forces for all sorts of reasons that all lead back to nepotism" (Riverbend, 87). She associated that in larger cities (Baghdad) people are more likely to not marry cousins. Mentioning that in small poorer cities there are sometimes only four or five large"tribes" or "clans". This meaning that everyone is related to one another, and in order to reproduce they must do it with a relative. Merely each person is referred to as a cousin, so tribes such as this one have one main leader or "Sheikh". Mainly it is a man that is the leader, and surprisingly they are the ones who make most of the money and often can be wealthy. "He is usually considered the wisest or most influential member of the family" (Riverbend, 88). Considering that most of them have very good college degrees this is bound to happen.The sheikh's first wife is often referred to as the "First Lady" and also is looked up to by the other family members.