re: Interesting article on poverty in Appalachia

I think the whole "mountain folk" not having marriage options outside their clan is way overplayed.

Nobody had access to easy transportation 120 years go, so by that standard everybody is inbred, everywhere on the planet.

My grandfather was from one of the most rural mountain areas of western Arkansas. In the 1920s, he married a girl born in Sherman, TX and moved her back home. Most of his brothers did something similar, marrying women from Oklahoma, Kansas, or from other places more than a few counties away. In fact, often the young people back then took trips for the express purpose of finding a spouse, and the most important standard for them was common religious beliefs.

All societies have been aware of the need to mix with other tribes for a long time.