Social Class Relatedness in Some Oxfordshire Parishes

Abstract

Based on data obtained from the marriage registers of seven Oxfordshire parishes in the Otmoor region, an analysis has been made of the effects of social mobility and marriage exchanges on the relatedness of the five social classes which are recognized by the Registrar General. From a starting position in which it is assumed that there was no relatedness between the classes, it is calculated that under the average social mobility patterns which have characterized the area from 1837 to 1967 the different social classes would come to share 95% of their ancestry in sixteen generations. The marriage movement would produce the same levels of relatedness in twenty generations, and the combined effects of social mobility and marriage produce homogeneity in nine generations. It is further argued that these are maximal estimates but in considering the genetic implications it is noted that, whilst genes which do not affect social mobility and marriage movement are not likely to show social stratification in Otomoor populations, genes affecting behavioural traits may well be heterogeneously distributed.