Recent data do not demonstrate any trend away from consanguineous marriages in the urban Middle East. The continued observance of this preferential custom may correspond to the persistence of an archaic trait among urban dwellers; if this holds true, then one would expect consanguineous couples to conform more to the traditional family pattern than others. In order to test this hypothesis, 100 women married to a relative and 100 matched controls, selected from a hospital setting in Beirut, were interviewed with respect to their household type (nuclear/extended), residential pattern (proximity of parents and parents-in-law's residence to theirs), contacts with family and sex definitions. A substantial proportion of the respondents comply with the traditional norms prevalent in the Middle East (25–55%, according to the criterion), but no difference is detectable between cases and controls in this respect.