Inbreeding, Incest, And The Incest Taboo: The State of Knowledge at the Turn of the Century

239 Pages·2004·0.7 MB·English

by  Arthur P. Wolf

inbreeding, incest,
and the incest taboo
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Inbreeding, Incest,
and the Incest Taboo
the state of knowledge
at the turn of the century
Edited by Arthur P. Wolf
and William H. Durham
stanford university press
stanford, california 2005
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
© 2004by the Board of Trustees of the
Leland Stanford Junior University.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system without the
prior written permission of Stanford University Press.
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free,
archival-quality paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Inbreeding, incest, and the incest taboo :
the state of knowledge at the turn of the century /
edited by Arthur P. Wolf and William H. Durham.
p. cm.
Papers presented at a conference held at Stanford
University, Feb. 24–25, 2000.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 0-8047-4596-X (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Incest. 2. Consanguinity. 3. Inbreeding.
4. Taboo. I. Wolf, Arthur P. II. Durham, William H.
gn480.3.i53 2005
306.877—dc22 2004003967
Original Printing 2005
Last figure below indicates year of this printing:
14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05
Typeset by James P. Brommer in 10/12.5Sabon
Contents
List of Tables and Figures vii
Introduction 1
arthur p.wolf
1. Inbreeding Avoidance and Incest Taboos 24
patrick bateson
2. Genetic Aspects of Inbreeding and Incest 38
alan h. bittles
3. Inbreeding Avoidance in Primates 61
anne pusey
4. Explaining the Westermarck Effect, or,
What Did Natural Selection Select For? 76
arthur p.wolf
5. Ancient Egyptian Sibling Marriage and
the Westermarck Effect 93
walter scheidel
6. From Genes to Incest Taboos: The Crucial Step 109
neven sesardic
7. Assessing the Gaps in Westermarck’s Theory 121
william h. durham
8. Refining the Incest Taboo: With Considerable
Help from Bronislaw Malinowski 139
hill gates
9. Evolutionary Thought and the Current
Clinical Understanding of Incest 161
mark t. erickson
10. The Incest Taboo as Darwinian Natural Right 190
larry arnhart
List of Contributors 219
Index 221
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Tables and Figures
Tables
2.1 Major Types of Consanguineous Relationship 39
2.2 Levels of Death and Defect Reported in Four
Studies of Incest 50
3.1 Avoidance of Sexual Activity with Relatives 64
4.1 General Fertility by Wife’s Age at First Association 80
4.2 Fertility/Divorce Index by Wife’s Age at First
Association 81
4.3 General Fertility by Husband’s Age at First
Association When Wife’s Age at First Association
Is Zero 84
4.4 Fertility/Divorce Index by Husband’s Age at First
Association When Wife’s Age at First Association
Is Zero 85
4.5 General Fertility by Wife’s Age at First Association
When Wife Is Adopted Before Husband’s Birth 87
4.6 Fertility/Divorce Index by Wife’s Age at First
Association When Wife Is Adopted Before
Husband’s Birth 87
4.7 Comparison of the Consequences of Early Association
When the Wife Is an Infant (Tables 4.3and 4.4) and
the Husband Is an Infant (Tables 4.5and 4.6) 87
5.1 Sibling Couples Attested in Papyrus Documents
from Roman Egypt (first to third centuries ad) 95
5.2 Marital Fertility in Roman Egypt (mean number
of births per maternal age cohort) 98
5.3 Cases of Divorce by Spousal Age Gap 101
5.4 Birth Intervals of Offspring of Prolific Sibling
Couples Separated by Fewer Than Six Years of Age 102
9.1 Estimated Prevalence of Incest, 1953–1996 164
viii Tables and Figures
Figures
2.1 Map of the United States Indicating States in Which
First-Cousin Marriages Are Legal and Those in Which
They Are Civil or Criminal Offenses 42
3.1 Copulations Between Mothers and Sons and Sisters
and Brothers in the Gombe Chimpanzees 69
4.1 General Fertility by Wife’s Age at First Association 80
4.2 Fertility/Divorce by Wife’s Age at First Association 81
4.3 General Fertility by Husband’s Age at First Association 84
4.4 Fertility/Divorce by Husband’s Age at First Association 85
6.1 Aversion and Prohibition: Mismatch 113
6.2 Aversion and Prohibition: No Mismatch 115
6.3 The Expression Hypothesis and the Aversion
Hypothesis: An Epistemological Tension 118
inbreeding, incest,
and the incest taboo