Inbreeding, Incest, and the Incest Taboo
The State of Knowledge at the Turn of the Century
Published on 1. November 2004
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-0-8047-5141-4 (ISBN)
Description
Is 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.
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.
More details
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Palo Alto
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
New edition
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
16 tables, 8 figures, 1 map
Dimensions
Height: 225 mm
Width: 175 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
340 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8047-5141-4 (9780804751414)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Arthur P. Wolf is David and Lucile Packard Foundation Professor of Human Biology at Stanford University. William H. Durham is Bing Professor of Human Biology at Stanford University.
Content
@fmct:Contents @toc4:List of Tables and Figures iii @toc2:Introduction 000 @tocca:Arthur P. Wolf @toc2:1 Incest Avoidance and Incest Taboos 000 @tocca:Patrick Bateson @toc2:2 Genetic Aspects of Inbreeding and Incest 000 @tocca:Alan H. Bittles @toc2:3 Inbreeding Avoidance in Primates 000 @tocca:Anne Pusey @toc2:4 Explaining the Westermarck Effect, or, What Did Natural Selection Select For? 000 @tocca:Arthur P. Wolf @toc2:5 Ancient Egyptian Sibling Marriage and the Westermack Effect 000 @tocca:Walter Scheidel @toc2:6 From Genes to Incest Taboos: The Crucial Step @tocca:Neven Sesardic 000 @toc2:7 Assessing the Gaps in Westermarck's Theory 000 @tocca:William H. Durham @toc2:8 Refining the Incest Taboo: With Considerable Help from Bronislaw Malinowski 000 @tocca:Hill Gates @toc2:9 Evolutionary Thought and Current Clinical Understanding of Incest 000 @tocca:Mark T. Erickson @toc2:10 The Incest Taboo as Darwinian Natural Right 000 @tocca:Larry Arnhart @toc4:Index 000 Library of Congress Subject Headings for this publication: Incest, Consanguinity, Inbreeding, Taboo