Book Description

This book is titled Consanguinity, Inbreeding, and Autism: An Anthropological Quest. It is based on the research project report “Consanguinity and Its Impact on Probability of Autism in an Inbred Community of Bangladesh” conducted by the authors and their team in Dhaka Metropolitan City in 2020–2021. The initiative to improve the quality of life and well-being of autistic children by the honorable prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, and her daughter, Saima Wazed, inspired us to write this book. This volume is divided into fifteen chapters. The introductory chapter highlights the historical background of consanguineous marriage across the East and the West and its impact on inbreeding, which was widespread until a few hundred years ago and continues today but to a lesser degree. Subsequently, the following chapters of this volume encompass the methods and techniques applied to collecting qualitative and quantitative data, data analysis, and report writing: the prevalence of consanguineous marriage from a cross-cultural perspective; the demographic profile of the parents and their autistic children; and the consanguinity and autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) of the offspring. Consanguinity, gene mutation, and inbreeding and their effects on autism spectrum disorder (ASD); perceptions, beliefs, and myths about ASD; diagnosis, treatment, and knowledge of parents about treatment; challenges to parents and families in raising autistic children; problems faced by the autistic children at the family level; initiatives of GOs, NGOs, INGOs, and POs about ASD; life cycle-focused prevention and rehabilitation strategies; genetic counseling against consanguinity of inbred community; and methods of parents’ training of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)along with conclusions and policy implications at the national level. This volume examines to what extent the consanguinity in terms of cross-cousin and parallel-cousin marriages affects autism in the inbred community of Bangladesh. The findings of this research will contribute to the knowledge of administrators, planners, policymakers, and practitioners to prevent autism by providing counseling to people to avoid consanguineous marriages and, at the same time, to educate the parents of autistic children on how to take care of their children involving the cooperation and supports of the GOs, NGOs, INGOs, and VOs to make the autistic children as productive members of the society to lead an everyday life with the fulfillment of basic needs and other civic facilities.