Incest Avoidance and the Incest Taboos: Two Aspects of Human Nature

Arthur P. Wolf

Published by Stanford University Press 2014

Incest Avoidance and the Incest Taboos

Two Aspects of Human Nature

Arthur P. Wolf

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804791694

Overview
Contents

About this book

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.

Author / Editor information

Arthur P. Wolf is the David and Lucile Packard Professor of Human Biology at Stanford University, and author or editor of numerous books and articles, including Sexual Attraction and Childhood Association: A Chinese Brief for Edward Westermarck, Marriage and Adoption in China, 1845-1945, and Inbreeding, Incest, and the Incest Taboo (with William H. Durham, co-editor).

Reviews

Larry Arnhart, Presidential Research Professor of Political Science:
"Arthur Wolf has done it again. Wolf's evolutionary explanation of incest avoidance and the incest taboo is one of the greatest achievements in the social sciences over the past half century."

Charles Stafford:
"In this highly readable account of incest avoidance and taboos, Arthur Wolf explores fundamental questions about what it is to be human. In particular, he examines the articulation between our biological and our social/cultural natures, arriving at some brilliant insights along the way. Every student of anthropology should read this book."

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
1. Two questions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. The Trobriand Islands Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	5
3. Matters of meaning Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
4. Universality affirmed Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	10
5. The dangers of inbreeding Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
6. A tempting solution Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	14
7. Group harmony theory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	18
8. Group alliance theory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	20
9. The !Kung on cognition Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
10. Incest and intuition Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	24
11. From nature to culture Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	25
12. Marx is missing Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
13. The Westermarck hypothesis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	28
14. Frazer and Freud Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	30
15. Three natural experiments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	34
16. Darwin’s method Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
17. Seven predictions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	40
18. The evidence from the Islamic World Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	42
19. The evidence from Israel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	45
20. The evidence from Taiwan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	48
21. Six objections Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	52
22. A seventh objection Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	57
23. Monkeys and apes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	60
24. Sexual indifference Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	65
25. The second question Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	66
26. Murdock’s other conclusions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	69
27. Starting over Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	70
28. The meaning of “taboo” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	72
29. Unnatural acts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	75
30. Native testimony Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
31. Incest and witchcraft Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	81
32. Incest and cannibalism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	85
33. Incest pollution Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
34. Automatic retribution Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	94
35. Supernatural retribution Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	96
36. Communal retribution Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	99
37. State retribution Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
38. A collective calamity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	106
39. Incest impossible Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
40. The power of awe Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
41. Incestuous origins Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
42. Taboos as consensus Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	116
43. Taboos as norms Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	118
44. An emotional animal Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	120
45. Degrees of incest Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	124
46. Beyond the family Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
47. The argument in review Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	133
48. A backward glance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
Statistical Appendix Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	139
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149

Language: English
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 188
Keywords: incest; incest avoidance; incest taboos; human nature

eBook

Published: April 16, 2014
ISBN: 9780804791694