From: MB@nospam.net   
      
   On 15/11/2019 14:50, Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:   
   > The Guardian has an interesting article today entitled "Who's the daddy?   
   > Paternity mixed up in cities, study finds". I have opened the paper that   
   > it links to (it's open access). I haven't read it thoroughly but just   
   > skimmed through it, but I have the impression that it makes the same   
   > error Bryan Sykes made in his book Adam's Curse, of assuming that if a   
   > son has the same Y chomosome as his mother's husband then his mother's   
   > husband is the biological father. However, that overlooks an important   
   > point.   
   >   
   > In the past, and to some degree today, it was assumed that if a marriage   
   > didn't produce a child then it was entirely the woman's fault. However,   
   > if a woman finds herself married to a man who is impotent or a strict   
   > homosexual, how is she to keep up the appearances? Getting help from the   
   > milkman is very risky, but there are at least two other men with the   
   > right Y chromosome that can help, her father-in-law or a brother-in-law.   
   > In either case the man would probably be anxious to keep it secret to   
   > preserve the honour of the family.   
   >   
      
      
   I don't read the tabloids so not seen that.   
      
   Knowledge and availability of DNA evidence is recent so I can't see it   
   having much influence.  Perhaps going back a bit further, people knew   
   deductions could be made from blood groups.   
      
   People were more practical in the past.  In rural areas, children would   
   be needed to work a farm so if the husband was unable to produce a child   
   then I suppose his wife might take steps to get pregnant with or without   
   his knowledge though it seems common for brides to be pregnant possibly   
   as proof of fertility or her and husband.  Would she marry someone else   
   if he could not get her pregnant?   
      
   One of my family was widowed with two infants in her thirties and   
   married someone over twice her age, it could have been "love" but seem   
   more likely just practicality as she needed a husband and he needed a   
   cook, carer etc.  He died after a few years.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)