How do Icelanders understand whether it is possible to start a relationship with a specific man or woman? What if this is a close relative, communication with which is taboo?
The island state of Iceland, which is small in terms of population, is a rather closed country and has never been an object of desire for emigrants. Of course, you can move there, but there are few people who want it: it is difficult, long, troublesome and costly. Therefore, the Icelanders today are experiencing serious problems with the influx of “fresh blood”: in the genetic sense, they are simply boiled in their own juice.
What is the problem?
The population of the country is just over 370 thousand people, and stories that they all know each other are not such stories. If an Icelander does not want to become famous throughout the area, he needs to behave carefully in public places, otherwise half of the island will know about his antics in a couple of days.
Some foreigners make fun of the Icelanders, asking if they really know their president personally.
In this situation, there are certain difficulties with romantic relationships. Due to the fact that the inhabitants of Iceland have married only with each other for centuries, a decent part of the population of the island is relatives. In fact, they are all related to each other, but the degree of relationship plays an important role. For example, it is impossible to marry cousins or second cousins, but fourth cousins are already considered almost strangers, there is a “green light”.
So how do you know if you can start a relationship with a potential candidate? It’s simple: they don’t go on a first date without first checking the degree of relationship.
Technology helps
The country has a special online resource “The Icelandic Book”, created back in 2003. Its database contains information about all the inhabitants of the country and their family ties. Every Icelander can look at his family tree there and find out who his ancestors were.
The “Icelandic Book” is based on genealogical books, historical documents, evidence of the settlement of the island. The age of many sources is hundreds of years, they were painstakingly collected together, digitized and made a convenient service.
Any citizen of Iceland can log in to the site and access their family tree through their personal account. Young people actively use the “Icelandic Book” to find out about potential partners: just enter the name and surname, and the service will show the degree of relationship with high accuracy. For many Icelanders, such “breaking through” candidates is a mandatory procedure before starting a relationship.