Consanguinity Inbreeding and Autism: An Anthropological Quest

About the Book

This book is titled Consanguinity, Inbreeding, and Autism: An Anthropological Quest. It is based on the research project report “Consanguinity and Its Impact on Probability of Autism in an Inbred Community of Bangladesh” conducted by the authors and their team in Dhaka Metropolitan City in 2020–2021. The initiative to improve the quality of life and well-being of autistic children by the honorable prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, and her daughter, Saima Wazed, inspired us to write this book. This volume is divided into fifteen chapters. The introductory chapter highlights the historical background of consanguineous marriage across the East and the West and its impact on inbreeding, which was widespread until a few hundred years ago and continues today but to a lesser degree. Subsequently, the following chapters of this volume encompass the methods and techniques applied to collecting qualitative and quantitative data, data analysis, and report writing: the prevalence of consanguineous marriage from a cross-cultural perspective; the demographic profile of the parents and their autistic children; and the consanguinity and autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) of the offspring. Consanguinity, gene mutation, and inbreeding and their effects on autism spectrum disorder (ASD); perceptions, beliefs, and myths about ASD; diagnosis, treatment, and knowledge of parents about treatment; challenges to parents and families in raising autistic children; problems faced by the autistic children at the family level; initiatives of GOs, NGOs, INGOs, and POs about ASD; life cycle-focused prevention and rehabilitation strategies; genetic counseling against consanguinity of inbred community; and methods of parents’ training of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)along with conclusions and policy implications at the national level. This volume examines to what extent the consanguinity in terms of cross-cousin and parallel-cousin marriages affects autism in the inbred community of Bangladesh. The findings of this research will contribute to the knowledge of administrators, planners, policymakers, and practitioners to prevent autism by providing counseling to people to avoid consanguineous marriages and, at the same time, to educate the parents of autistic children on how to take care of their children involving the cooperation and supports of the GOs, NGOs, INGOs, and VOs to make the autistic children as productive members of the society to lead an everyday life with the fulfillment of basic needs and other civic facilities.

About the Author

Dr. Profulla C. Sarker did his BA (Hon’s) and MA in Social Work in 1971 and 1973, respectively, from the Department of Social Work, University of Rajshahi. He obtained an MPhil. In Sociology 1978 from the Institute of Bangladesh Studies of the same University. He did a PhD in Anthropology from the Department of Anthropology, Centre for Advanced Study, University of Ranchi, India, in 1986. Professor P. C. Sarker is the author of twenty books and co-authored three books published in Dhaka, New Delhi, Singapore, and Toronto University Press. To his credit, he has more than one hundred scientific research papers published in different national and international journals. He is the editor of three journals and a member of the Editorial Board of six international journals. He has supervised eighteen PhD and five MPhil. Dissertations. Dr. Profulla C. Sarker is the vice chancellor of Sheikh Hasina University of Science and Technology and Adviser to the Royal University of Dhaka. Dr. Sarker was the former pro-vice chancellor of the European University of Bangladesh and the vice chancellor of Prime University, Dhaka. He was a professor and former chairman of the Department of Social Work at the University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh. Dr. Sarker was a professor of Social Work and Social Administration, chairman of the Teachers’ Students’ Relation Committee, former director of the Institute for Cross-Cultural Studies, and dean of the Division of Social Science and Humanities of Hong Kong Baptist University-Beijing Normal University, UIC, China. Moreover, he was a senior policy advisor for the National Food Security and Surveillance Project of the Bangladesh Government and the European Commission. Professor Sarker served as a member of the Curriculum Board of the Regional Center for Social Development, Latrobe University, Australia. He was one of the organizers of the Fourteenth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences held in Virginia, USA, in 1998. Professor P. C. Sarker was a member of the International Scientific Committee of the International Seminars on Health. Mental Health and Social Work was held in Melbourne in 1999 and Tempare, Finland, in 2001. He was a member of the International Scientific Committee of the Third International Conference on Anthropology and the History of Health and Diseases held in Genova, Italy, 2002. He received the Award on Social Development from the International Consortium for Social Development (ICSD), Australia, and the Sir Jagodish Chandra Basu Award on Education and Research in 2018. Dr. Nazir M Hossain is a trained clinician who obtained his MBBS from Rajshahi Medical College, Bangladesh, in 1997. Dr. Hossain traveled to the United States of America for his higher study in public health and secured a MPH degree with an Outstanding Scholastic Achievement Award at the Florida International University, USA, in 2001. During his MPH study, he extensively researched “Global Infant Mortality Reasons and Solution” and worked with several government-funded projects on health promotion. To learn more about research on public health and its specialized units, in the year 2004, Dr. Hossain started his Master’s in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Western University of Canada. ( Previously, it was Western Ontario University), in which he had done community-based research on Prescription and Non-prescription Medication Use in Pregnancy. In 2005, he was awarded the most prestigious scholarship from York University of Canada to pursue his Doctoral degree in Epidemiology. Dr. Nazir M Hossain completed his PhD in 2011 with a thesis on “Immigrant Children’s Health in Canada.” Dr. Hossain obtained education and experience in Health Services and Policy Research from the Ontario Training Centre under The Ontario Provincial Ministry of Health and Long-term Care. During his tenure as a researcher with various institutes, he has authored several articles and published them in industryfamous journals. He also co-authored a few government publications. Dr. Hossain has presented several research works at national and international conferences and delivered speeches in many institutes in the last two decades. Dr. Hossain’s expertise and relevance in the field of public health were demonstrated when he became one of the crucial members of the 2009 “Swine Flu Pandemic Preparatory Task Force of Canada.” This role showcased his ability to contribute to critical health initiatives and his dedication to public health research. Dr. Nazir M Hossain was also one of the researchers for the historical scenario-building project, “Evidencebased Visions of the Future,” with the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) under the Ministry of Health, Canada. To extend his research in public health during disaster situations, he started working with Canada’s leading Disaster and emergency management Professionals. Later, He obtained a Master in Disaster and Emergency Management degree from York University. Dr. Hossain is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Global Health at York University, Canada. He is also affiliated with Wilfred Laurier University, Canada, and has academic relations with several other post-secondary institutes in Canada. In addition, he has also been working as a consultant to the private and public sectors for the last decade. He is the reviewer for almost a dozen prestigious academic journals. Dr. Nazir M Hossain and Dr. Profulla C. Sarker have a rich history of collaborative research, with their current project holding significant potential. Their initial work on Arsenic and its impact on reproductive health was presented in Australia in 2001. Now, their research on Inbreeding and Autism from the perspective of Bangladesh has the potential to make a substantial contribution to the field, a prospect that is eagerly anticipated by the academic and professional community.