Inbreeding is a practice according to which a group of individuals rejects or denies the incorporation of individuals other than the group itself. Inbreeding is a social behavior or attitude in which members of other groups are prevented from associating or uniting, either for marriage or for reproduction, with members of a certain group.
In this sense, endogamous groups generally have limitations in the unions or marriages of their group taking into account factors such as: common lineage, belonging to the same social class or having ancestry, having the same religion, being part of the same ethnic group, or be a native of the same geographic area.
In the past, inbreeding was common for several reasons: to establish alliances with other groups of the same social class (aristocrats, bourgeois), to maintain the purity of a race and to maintain power within the same family (aristocracies, hegemonic groups)
In relation to the animal world, it is also possible to speak of inbreeding, which would be the crossing of members of a race that is genetically isolated or belonging to the same family. In terms of biology, inbreeding between members of the same family is normally a practice with negative consequences (genetic alterations occur more frequently and offspring are more prone to disease).
Each professional group has its codes, regulations and customs. These connecting elements and link provide some inbreeding. Being a way to protect themselves and avoid the rivalry of other similar groups. At the same time, professional inbreeding is a mutual aid mechanism between members of a sector. It could be said that it is a kind of unwritten rule that can be summed up in the following principle: "I will help you to help me if I ever need it." There are some expressions that indicate this custom (for example, among firefighters they do not have to step on the hose or this is among us).
Professional inbreeding is a work practice rejected from an ethical perspective, because it tends to protect people by being part of a group without taking into account the legitimacy of their behavior.
Exogamy is the opposite of inbreeding. In this sense, it is the practice of associating or establishing marital unions between people of different origins, social, ethnic, religious or geographical groups. Biology, for its part, considers exogamy as the crossing between individuals of different races, populations or communities, resulting in an increasingly heterogeneous offspring at the genetic level.
