DNA samples taken from polygamists' kids

[superconnected]

Source: Associated Press

SAN ANGELO, Texas - Using cotton swabs and cameras, lab technicians began taking DNA samples Monday from hundreds of children and mothers — many in long, pioneer-style dresses — in hopes of sorting out the tangled family relationships within the West Texas polygamist sect.

A judge ordered last week that the genetic material be taken to help determine which children belong to which parents.

Authorities need to figure that out before they begin custody hearings to determine which children may have been abused and need to be permanently removed from the sect compound in Eldorado, and which ones can be safely returned to the fold.

State social workers have complained that over the past few weeks, sect members have offered different names and ages. Also, the children refer to all of their fathers' wives as their "mothers," and all men in their families as "uncles."


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080421/ap_on_re_us/polygamist_retreat

[maxsolomon]

1. good.

step up & claim your kids, dads.

[Warpy]

2. I find it horribly sad

that while the mothers probably can tell the children apart, the dormitory warehousing the children experienced once they were weaned prevented them from knowing who their mothers are.

This is in no way a family as any of us understands the word, not even those of us with wildly liberal ideas of what can constitute a family.

This was a booty farm for old men.

[superconnected]

3. agreed!

[izquierdista]

6. It is a family

But not one of the modern world. More like the Dayak longhouse villages in Borneo or a primitive tribe in New Guinea where the link between sex and pregnancy has not been made (don't laugh, there are some cultures that primitive) and males and females consort with each other freely. Or like bonobos (pygmy chimpanzees) where females will engage with all of the male members of the troop.

To an anthropologist, this must be both horrific and fascinating. Horrific, for the children involved will have great difficulty assimilating in the culture they have been isolated from and are now surrounded by. Fascinating, for it stretches the very limits of human sexuality and societal organization.

If they were an indigenous tribe discovered living in the wilds of some remote mountain valley or on some remote island, I doubt that the State would have come down on them as hard as it has. Because they are superficially like other white Americans (albeit those of 150 years ago), they have no excuse to carry on in what has become their tribal tradition. I'm almost inclined to say the government should ignore them and find some isolated area where they can live in their own Brigadoon-like world.

[harmonicon]

9. I think this is a modern phenomenon

Mormonism of any sort has only been around for 200 years, and this splinter group for far less than that. Their present state of operating is far more recent. They couldn't get by without welfare. They make a business of scamming the government for money, and feel entitled to it, because they think the government is evil. They do live in their own isolated worlds. Do you know about Colorado City? It's their sort of capital. Though a road goes through it which leads to the north rim of the Grand Canyon, it is still very isolated. Their other towns are even more so. They are in several western states, but also Mexico and Canada. The 'wives', who are little more than slaves, are trafficked between these locations. While the group has been polygamous for 150 years, the rape of children didn't start until quite recently. For most of the 20th century, no one in the group could be married until adulthood.

I'm so glad that light is being shed on this evil sect. Slavery does still exist in America in the FLDS church, and until now, nothing had been done about it. I hope this is the beginning of what will bring this whole damned group to the ground.

[izquierdista]

10. You make a good point

They want the best of both worlds, money from the modern world, and sex practices from some prehistoric alpha-male centered society. They are going to have to make a choice: (1) the modern monogamous world where wives must be a certain age, or (2) the primitive world without any US government contracts. If they want to choose #2, I think there are some unpopulated islands in the Aleutians that they could pioneer.

[Warpy]

11. Oh, I'm not laughing, I know there are tribes like that

still out there and I know of a lot of tribes that used large dwellings for males over the age of five or so, while female children stayed in small huts with their mothers and brothers under five. The main thing those tribes didn't have was monogamous marriage. Polygyny and polyandry were both practiced.

However, five and up is a far cry from three and up. These kids were put into the dormitories so young they forgot who Mom and Dad were, something the cult reinforced by having all women be Mom and all men be Uncle. Polyandry most certainly wasn't practiced, only involuntary polygyny.

The fact that the parental bond was consciously severed in such young children is pretty chilling and that is what differentiates it from communal cultures.

It really was a booty farm for old men, you know.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. This is really strange

I wonder how many cases of inbreeding they will find.

I find it hard to believe that the kids don't know who their biological mother is. Even in Biblical times, the kids knew that--and had certain status because of that (ie, Isaac and Ishmael). I can't help but wonder if the leaders of this cult even try to keep family lines straight, or whether they get off on having sex with their daughters, cousins, etc.

[superconnected]

5. There's got to be a lot of inbreeding

there's no other way that many homely looking could exist.

Nothing wrong with homely looking people, it's that all of them look the same, that bothers me. They ALL look alike. I know the women don't wear makeup so that's probably not fair, but come on, even the kids look that homely manor. Maybe it's the prarie dresses mixed with the same jaws and that ALL the women have. I see no diversity there. All the women have turkey gobble skin under the chin. They all have the same eyes. Genetics didn't have a lot to choose from. Plus the young ones - early 20's look like the 50 yo's. I keep being shocked when the news shows pics and claims the person is 23.







40 yo going on 60


Warren Jeffs - Note the Eyes, compare above




23 yo


Sisters? Whose going to sort out the parents?

[CookCountyResident]

15. The wives are like "Stepford wives"

in the sense that they all dress alike, their hair is nearly 100% the same, they have the same washed out pale skin.

It's very eerie.

[Catch22Dem]

7. "keep the family lines straight"

Yeah, like a tree without any branches!

[Marrah_G]

8. Who the mother is does not matter to these people, just the father

And even then the father normally doesn't even know his own children.

[kitfalbo]

12. Family ties

hmm wonder what will happen when they find them related to John McCain

[OKthatsIT]

13. Those samples better be destroyed after this episode is resolved

They have no rights to their DNA. These children need more protection than just the State taking control. Watch closely.

[King Coal]

14. Mormons have been anti-American since day one.

The sad thing is that there are so many really good people who are caught up in this cult. It's not the members, it's the fucking leadership. How anyone can believe that Joseph Smith is a prophet, and not just the original Warren Jeffs is beyond me. It is hard for people to come to terms with the truth, and this is the classic example.