Tara inbred?

[Black Eye Guy]

I was just wondering how it is that Tara's family managed to keep control of the women in their family if they married outside of their own family, since "only the girls are the demons"

Since it was a family legend it's obviously gone on for a while, That means they would have to marry their cousins and stuff, because they couldn't get a women from outside their bloodline and tell them they are demons - maybe thats why cousin Beth was traveling around with Tara's Dad and Donnie?

[Summers Blood]

I suppose it depends on how long the men in the family had been telling the women this little "tale". It may have begun with Tara's mum, because her Dad had found out that she was a witch and decided to try and keep tabs on his wife and daughter... I always thought it weird that cousin Beth didn't seem bothered that she was accused of being a demon, I mean do we know for definite that Beth was accused or was it just Tara.

[Black Eye Guy]

I think she was, cuz he says that all the women in their family are demons, and she was a cousin.

[master kenobi]

i have to agree with summers blood

[Black Eye Guy]

But it doesn't really make sense that Tara's mom with get with her dad and he would tell her, "Your a demon" and she would be like "Oh right OK, well I'll do your bidding". Why would she believe him, it would only really make sense if she was told she was a demon from when she was a child, and grew up believe it!

[eponinethen]

True. I'd go for your inbred theory Black Eye Guy.. It's very very strange but nothing else would really make sense..

[Charmed Jon]

But what if it was more like this;
Tara's parents met and married, then Tara's mum explained she was a witch. The dad couldn't take it, so he kind of brainwashed her into thinking she was evil. And we don't even know if Tara's mum even knew he thought that. Spike could of meant, the man was lieing to keep Tara, and the younger females in line.

[zombie.apparatus]

yeh, Charmed Jon that theory is interesting as well.. but i dont know.. its reallt something the writers didnt go into...

[Black Eye Guy]

Ok but Tara's cousin Beth also believes it which would mean that Tara's mom had a Brother or sister.

If it was a brother he could have had a wife, had a baby girl and told her the lie to - but that means he wouldn't have been able to control his wife cuz she wasn't in their blood?

If it was a sister, the husband wouldn't have known about the lie if he was an outsider. Unless the father told him - which why would he? Why would he want his daughters being controlled by her husband if he had no connection to him?

See if it was an arranged marriage situation, that may help to explain it, Maybe Tara’s husband would have been chosen by her father and he would have been a family friend, who would be let in on the secret. But where it gets messy is with the boys, Donnie for example would have to marry someone in his blood to still be able to control her - he wouldn’t be able to marry outside his family and control the wife in the same way!

We also see that Tara was meant to stay with her family so when would she have the time to go out and find a husband?

It could also be why Beth was travelling with Taras Dad and Brother, maybe she was to be Donnie's partner?

And Tara’s mother had to have believed it. Tara’s mom died when Tara was 17, I don’t think they would have had to start lying to her after that, and I don’t think she would have believed them. She must have grown up with it.

It is possible to have children with your cousin and the children will be genetically fine, no mutations. But one of the out comes of inbreeding is a reduction in genetic diversity, and I know they are cousins, but Tara and Beth were quite similar?

[Charmed Jon]

Well, Black Eye Guy. Maybe it was an arranged marriage, and the dad of Tara's mum actually told Tara's dad to keep her in line. They don't have to be related for him to tell the other.
Also, I am still sticking with, maybe her dad made it up to keep Tara and Beth and so on in line. Afterall, her mum did die when she was only 17. He might have said if you tell your mum you know, she will turn evil on you or something.
And as to the reason Beth may have been travelling with Tara's dad and Donny, maybe her parents died? Or something happened, and she lived with Donny and Tara's dad. So, she was also made to believe the fake evil in the female line story.

ETA: Spike said to keep the female's in the family in line. That doesn't have to mean blood relative. Maybe, he grew up with her, the dad made her believe it, and Tara's dad just carried on the tradition when they married. That is, if my other theories didn't pan out. ;).

[mogwaid]

I'm starting to think, That the lie was only told to Tara. Not to other female members. After Tara's mum dying, maybe the brother and the Dad realised they wouldnt have a woman around, once Tara left, to do all the housework and such. So they started telling her the women in their family had demon in them. Also, maybe cousin beth wasn't 20 at the time, or was in on it too [to squirm out of doing the housework herself].

[nerd4hire]

Think of the British Royal Family for an example. As I understand it the cousin-marrying thing has happened along the line, but it doesn't necessarily happen. Well you could say we're all cousins if you go back far enough, but you get my point right?

OK so the gene for Hemophillia runs along the British Royal Family's blood line. The hemophillia gene is passed on by the males in a bloodline. It doesn't necessarily follow that all males along that line will have a hemophilliac child, but suppose 3 generations in a row did. The next male in the line might be a little more freaked about passing on the gene, than say his cousin who hasn't had the same problem even though he also knows the hemophillia gene is in his bloodline, and there have been cases a couple of generations back.

With hemophillia though there's scientific information available. You can learn exactly how the gene passing thing works. In Tara's case all she might know is the Demon-turning thing has been passed down to all the generations she's seen. If cousin Beth's mother is Tara's mother's sister she's dealing with the same reality. The family legend can be exploited by the male member's of that immediate family to gain psychological control of the female members.

[Edmund Blackadder]

Think of the British Royal Family for an example. As I understand it the cousin-marrying thing has happened along the line, but it doesn't necessarily happen. Well you could say we're all cousins if you go back far enough, but you get my point right?

OK so the gene for Hemophillia runs along the British Royal Family's blood line. The hemophillia gene is passed on by the males in a bloodline. It doesn't necessarily follow that all males along that line will have a hemophilliac child, but suppose 3 generations in a row did. The next male in the line might be a little more freaked about passing on the gene, than say his cousin who hasn't had the same problem even though he also knows the hemophillia gene is in his bloodline, and there have been cases a couple of generations back.

With hemophillia though there's scientific information available. You can learn exactly how the gene passing thing works. In Tara's case all she might know is the Demon-turning thing has been passed down to all the generations she's seen. If cousin Beth's mother is Tara's mother's sister she's dealing with the same reality. The family legend can be exploited by the male member's of that immediate family to gain psychological control of the female members.

:):)
We are not amused....I watched that about 3 hours ago, marvellous

[Wiccaness]

There are some interesting therories here but i think that if it was something that went back for a while then the Maclay family wasnt the only one telling their women that they were part demon, There fore there where fixed mariage in only the families that had the demon story.

[Elithustra]

But it doesn't really make sense that Tara's mom with get with her dad and he would tell her, "Your a demon" and she would be like "Oh right OK, well I'll do your bidding". Why would she believe him, it would only really make sense if she was told she was a demon from when she was a child, and grew up believe it!

Maybe, and I apologize for not reading through all the posts here, slacker that I am, but maybe Tara's father told Tara's mother that the demon gene was in his DNA and that any female child he had, would inherit said gene. Also, if Tara's father had brothers with the same gene in their DNA, thus Cousin Beth would also be convinced of being a demon. The fathers pretended to have the gene, convinced their wives who loved them regardless, or who were told after they'd gotten married/pregnant and then the mothers simply believed it to be true...

[Rowan Hawthorn]

Re: Cousin Beth, we also don't know that she was a cousin through Tara's mother's family. Could just as easily have been through her father's.

[palabravampiress]

I thought it was a pretty clear cut reference to the Christian concept of original sin as passed down through Eve. I just figured it was a story which, like that story, has the ability to make women believe they are somehow fundamentally dirty or flawed or unworthy or error-prone in some frightening and dangerous way. People have been doing this for ages. Heck, someone tried to do it to me (and he got an earful, I'll tell you). A lot of women really believe it. They believe it so deeply that they don't even see it as offensive! I thought this was just the Buffyverse version of that story.

The story can't possibly be true. It doesn't hold up to scrutiny. If you ask enough questions, you realize you have to do some pretty wacky fanwanking to make it work. But if you're raised to just accept it as a given and not question it or talk about it because to do so is taboo and possibly dangerous... then all you've got is the basic underlying fear that something in you is evil and must be kept in check.

That's my opinion, anyway.