The Incest Taboo in Relation to Social Structure and the Socialization of the Child

Abstract

t FTER SOMETHING like a generation in which the attention of ^ anthropologists and sociologists has been focused on the phenomena s Swhich differentiate one society from another and the different structures within the same society from each other, in recent years there has been a revival of interest in the problem of what features are common to human societies everywhere and what are the forces operating to maintain these common features. One reason for my present interest in the incest taboo is that it is one of the most notable of these common features. With all the variability of its ineidence outside the nuclear family, there is the common eore of the prohibition of marriage and in general of sexual relationships between members of a nuclear family except of course the conjugal couple whose marriage establishes it. In the older discussions the prevailing tendency was to attempt to find a specific " cause " of the taboo, thus instinctive aversion or Westermarck's contention that aversion was acquired through being brought up in the same household. As our empirical information and theoretical resources have accumulated, however, it seems less and less likely that this is the most fruitful approach. On the contrary anything so general as the incest taboo seems likely to be a resultant of a constellation of different factors which are deeply involved in the foundations of human societies. Analysis in terms of the balance of forces in the social system rather than of one or two specific " factors " seems much more promising. Furthermore, it seems highly probable that a combination of sociological and psychological considerations is involved; that a theory which attempts to by-pass either of these fields will find itself in difficulties. The element of constancy clearly focuses in the nuclear family. Perhaps the most recent authoritative survey is that of Murdock, [2] and we have his authority that no society is known where incest between mother-son, fatherdaughter or full brother-sister is permitted except the few cases of brother-sister