f0xr on Nostr: Another excerpt from the first draft of my latest article on Amish culture and ...

Another excerpt from the first draft of my latest article on Amish culture and fertility.

“This cultural norm of large families establishes a kind of inertia that normalizes high fertility right from birth. Amish children grow up surrounded by siblings, observing, and as they get older, helping with the care and maintenance of a large family. All their relatives, cousins and extended family, are also likely to belong to large families. The average Amish child grows up with dozens of first cousins, and hundreds of more distant cousins, who they likely know well and socialize with regularly. This experience establishes a mental framework where a large family is assumed to be the default. And there is no stronger human tendency than the urge to fit in with the people around you.”