Inbreeding, Incest, and the Incest Taboo: The State of Knowledge at the Turn of the CenturyIs inbreeding harmful? Are human beings and other primates naturally inclined to mate with their closest relatives? Why is incest widely prohibited? Why does the scope of the prohibition vary from society to society? Why does incest occur despite the prohibition? What are the consequences? After one hundred years of intense argument, a broad consensus has emerged on the first two questions, but the debate over the others continues. That there is a biological basis for the avoidance of inbreeding seems incontrovertible, but just how injurious inbreeding really is for successive generations remains an open question. Nor has there been any conclusion to the debate over Freud s view that the incest taboo is necessary because humans are sexually attracted to their closest relatives--a claim countered by Westermarck's argument for the sexually inhibiting effects of early childhood association. This book brings together contributions from the fields of genetics, behavioral biology, primatology, biological and social anthropology, philosophy, and psychiatry which reexamine these questions. |
Contents
List of Tables and Figures | 1 |
Inbreeding Avoidance and Incest Taboos | 24 |
Genetic Aspects of Inbreeding and Incest | 38 |
Inbreeding Avoidance in Primates | 61 |
Explaining the Westermarck Effect | 76 |
Ancient Egyptian Sibling Marriage | 93 |
The Crucial Step | 109 |
Assessing the Gaps in Westermarcks Theory | 121 |
With Considerable | 139 |
Evolutionary Thought and the Current | 161 |
The Incest Taboo as Darwinian Natural Right | 190 |
List of Contributors | 219 |
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adopted adult American animals appears argued argument association attachment aversion behavior biological birth brother brother-sister Cambridge cause Chapter child childhood childhood associates close complex consanguineous consequences couples cultural direct early early association Edward effects emotions ethics evidence evolution evolutionary example experience explain expression fact fathers feel females fertility first genes genetic History human human nature hypothesis inbreeding incest avoidance incest taboo individuals infant inhibition Journal kinship known later less living London major males marriage marry maternal mating mean minor moral mothers natural observed occur offspring origin parents percent persons physical populations possible preference primates problem prohibition question rates reason relations relationship relatives result Roman rules selection sexual siblings sister social societies species Stanford suggest Table theory tion Trobrianders unions University Press Westermarck Wolf women York