Title:
Incest avoidance and the incest taboos : two aspects of human nature / Arthur P. Wolf.
Author:
Wolf, Arthur P., author.
Publication Information:
Stanford, California : Stanford Briefs, an imprint of Stanford University Press, [2014]
Call Number:
GN480.25 .W65 2014
Abstract:
Why do most people never have sex with close relatives? And why do they disapprove of other people doing so? Incest Avoidance and Incest Taboos investigates our human inclination to avoid incest and the powerful taboo against incest found in all societies. Both subjects stir strong feelings and vigorous arguments within and beyond academic circles. With great clarity, Wolf lays out the modern assumptions about both, concluding that all previous approaches lack precision and balance on insecure evidence. Researchers he calls "constitutionalists" explain human incest avoidance by biologically-based natural aversion, but fail to explain incest taboos as cultural universals. By contrast, "conventionalists" ignore the evolutionary roots of avoidance and assume that incest avoidant behavior is guided solely by cultural taboos. Both theories are incomplete. Wolf tests his own theory with three natural experiments: bint'amm (cousin) marriage in Morocco, the rarity of marriage within Israeli kibbutz peer groups, and "minor marriages" (in which baby girls were raised by their future mother-in-law to marry an adoptive "brother") in China and Taiwan. These cross-cultural comparisons complete his original and intellectually rich theory of incest, one that marries biology and culture by accounting for both avoidance and taboo.
ISBN:
9780804789677
Physical Description:
viii, 177 pages
Contents:
Two questions -- The Trobriand Islands -- Matters of meaning -- Universality affirmed -- The dangers of inbreeding -- A tempting solution -- Group harmony theory -- Group alliance theory -- The!Kung on cognition -- Incest and intuition -- From nature to culture -- Marx is missing -- The Westermarck hypothesis -- Frazer and Freud -- Three natural experiments -- Darwin's method -- Seven predictions -- The evidence from the Islamic world -- The evidence from Israel -- The evidence from Taiwan -- Six objections -- A seventh objection -- Monkeys and apes -- Sexual indifference -- The second question -- Murdock's other conclusions -- Starting over -- The meaning of "taboo" -- Unnatural acts -- Native testimony -- Incest and witchcraft -- Incest and cannibalism -- Incest pollution -- Automatic retribution -- Supernatural retribution -- Communal retribution -- State retribution -- A collective calamity -- Incest impossible -- The power of awe -- Incestuous origins -- Taboos as consensus -- Taboos as norms -- An emotional animal -- Degrees of incest.
Personal Author:
