Incest Laws Research Articles

Biblical Theology

Biblical Theology David A. Bosworth, Christopher T. Begg, Thomas Hieke, Richard A. Taylor, Gerald A. Klingbeil, Todd R. Hanneken, Fred W. Guyette, Robert D. Miller II, Frederick E. Greenspahn, and Joseph E. Jensen David A. Bosworth Catholic University of America Christopher T. Begg Catholic University of America Thomas Hieke Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz Richard A. Taylor Dallas Theological Seminary Gerald A. Klingbeil Andrews University Todd R. Hanneken St. Mary's University, San Antonio TX Fred W. Guyette Erskine College and Seminary Robert D. Miller II Catholic University of America Frederick E. Greenspahn Florida Atlantic University Joseph E. Jensen Old Testament Abstracts 883. [Religious Violence] Hector Avalos, The Reality of Religious Violence: From Biblical to Modern Times (The Bible in the Modern World 72; Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2019). Pp. xiv + 499. $48.75. ISBN 978-1-910928-58-5. In twenty polemic chapters, A. argues that religious violence is a meaningful category of violence and that religion creates needless violence by creating scarce resources (sacred revelations, spaces, people). Religious claims invite counterclaims, which leads to violence. He aligns himself loosely with the "new atheism" and identifies theism as intrinsically unethical. He depicts academic biblical scholarship as complicit in religious violence and calls for academic study of the Bible to undermine biblical claims and bring an end both to biblical studies and religious violence. His book includes reference to the Qur'an and focuses on the Abrahamic religions, but A. does not think the evils of theism are limited to these faiths.—D.A.B. Google Scholar 884. [Incarnation in the Christian Bible] Reinhard Feldmeier and Hermann Spieckermann (Brian McNeil, tr.), God Becoming Human: Incarnation in the Christian Bible (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2021). Pp. xix + 457. Paper $79.99. ISBN 976-1-4813-1354-4. The German original of this volume was published in 2018 under the title Menschwerdung. For an abstract of this German original, see OTA 42 (2019) #793.—C.T.B. Google Scholar 885. [Sexuality in the OT] Irmtraud Fischer, Liebe, Laster, Lust und Leiden. Sexualität im Alten Testament (Theologische Interventionen; Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2021). Pp. 176. €19. ISBN 978-3-17-037026-5. F. provides a basic overview of various aspects of human sexuality within the Hebrew Bible. An introductory chapter (I) addresses the language of and for sexuality. The next three chapters (II–IV) deal with sociocultural, anthropological, and pedagogical aspects of sexuality and marriage featured in OT literature (including incest laws, the Primeval History, and Wisdom literature). Chaps. V, VI, and VII reflect on texts about successful and failed sexual relationships, disorders, and irregularities (impotence, infertility, prostitution, etc.). Chap. VIII is dedicated to the aspect of joy in sexual encounters, while chap. IX analyzes the close interconnectedness of sexuality and violence. Finally, chap. X presents issues with the metaphorical use of sexuality for God and God's relationship to Israel (especially in prophetic literature). F. concludes that sexuality affects human life in all its dimensions (chap. XI). The book comes with an index of biblical references.—T.H. Google Scholar 886. [Genesis 2–3] Nathan S. French, A Theocentric Interpretation of : The Knowledge of Good and Evil as the Knowledge for Administering Reward and Punishment (FRLANT 283; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2021). Pp. 336. €99.99. ISBN 978-3-525-56499-8. This monograph is a revision of the author's doctoral dissertation completed in 2018 at the University of Aberdeen under the direction of Prof. Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer. It seeks to provide a fresh interpretation of the expression hdʿt ṭwb wrʿ ("the knowledge of good and evil") found in Gen 2:9, 17 (cf. 3:5, 22). The book has eight chapters. Chap. 1 provides a brief introduction to the research topic and summarizes F.'s main conclusions. Chap. 2 [End Page 311] traces the history of research on the meaning of the phrase "the knowledge of good and evil," noting certain methodological concerns and clarifying F.'s exegetical methodology. Chap. 3 surveys ANE backgrounds pertinent to the topic, analyzing the theme of divine retribution as an essential part of mšpṭ ("justice") in the Hebrew Bible...

A libertanian critique of incest laws: Philosophical and anthropological perspectives

Abstract This article is a libertarian critique of incest laws. On the basis of the libertarian “harm principle”, one must ask what exactly is the harm that incest brings forth. Traditionally, anthropologists have tried to rationalize the incest taboo in various theories, and lawmakers have used these principles as grounds for the criminalization of incest. These principles are the preservation of family structure, the enhancement of alliances and the avoidance of genetic risks. While I acknowledge that these rationalizations are plausible, I argue that they are still not sufficient grounds for the preservation of incest laws, and consequently, there is an ethical need to reform them.

Selfness and Kinship in Medieval Karaite Incest Laws

Selfness and Kinship in Medieval Karaite Incest Laws

How to Criminalize Incest

This chapter, part of a larger book-length project titled Criminalizing Sex--A Unified Theory, offers a “normative reconstruction” of the law of incest, consisting of four parts: Part I looks at the concept of incest as a complex cultural taboo, one which has attracted the attention of a wide range of social scientists and theorists. Part II considers the striking multiplicity of ways in which incest has been dealt with across systems of criminal law, including the fact that a broad swath of “civilian” jurisdictions do not treat it as a crime at all. Part III considers instances in which adults have sex with closely related juveniles, arguing (on “fair labeling” grounds) that such cases should be treated as an aggravated form of statutory rape, rather than as a separate, free-standing offense of “juvenile incest.” Part IV looks at incestuous relationships between adults. In most such cases, it is argued, criminal sanctions are unjustifiable unless lack of consent can specifically be proved. Two possible exceptions exist, however, where the adult relationship is a continuation of one that began when one of the parties was a minor, or where the two parties are in a hierarchical relationship, such as that between parent and child. In such cases, lack of consent could be presumed, subject to rebuttal evidence that consent was genuinely given.

The Incest Horrible: Delimiting the Lawrence v. Texas Right to Sexual Autonomy

Is the criminalization of consensual sex between close relatives constitutional in the wake of Lawrence v. Texas and Obergefell v. Hodges? Justice Scalia thought not. The substantive due process landscape has changed dramatically in response to the LGBTQ movement. Yet, when a girl in a sexual relationship with her father recently revealed in an anonymous interview with New York Magazine that they were planning to move to New Jersey, one of the only two states where incest was legal, the New Jersey legislature introduced with unprecedented speed a bill criminalizing incest. But who has the couple harmed? The very mention of incest conjures fears of deformed babies, yet when people think about sex in most other contexts, procreation is the last thing on their minds. Steeped in a nearuniversal incest taboo, judges are unlikely to strike down incest legislation any time soon. But they must still respond to any constitutional challenge in the language of the law. This Article evaluates the constitutionality of criminalizing sexual relationships between first-degree relatives. First, the Article situates incest statutes within the sociological incest taboo and the biological mechanism known as the Westermarck Effect. It asserts that incest laws are counter-natural exercises in socio-biological engineering. Second, it argues that incest cannot be excluded from the fundamental rights to sexual intimacy and reproduction. Third, it questions the constitutional sufficiency of a range of possible government interests, and the tailoring of existing laws to those interests. Fourth, it proposes revised statutory language that would prohibit certain incestuous relationships without violating the constitution. The Article concludes by suggesting that norms against incest, like norms against same-sex relationships, can change and may already be changing.

Vice is Nice But Incest is Best: The Problem of a Moral Taboo

Incest is a crime in most societies. In the United States, incest is punishable in almost every state with sentences going as far as 20 and 30 years in prison, and even a life sentence. Yet the reasons traditionally proffered in justification of criminalization of incest—respecting religion and universal tradition; avoiding genetic abnormalities; protecting the family unit; preventing sexual abuse and sexual imposition; and precluding immorality—at a close examination, reveal their under- and over-inclusiveness, inconsistency or outright inadequacy. It appears that the true reason behind the long history of the incest laws is the feeling of repulsion and disgust this tabooed practice tends to evoke in the majority of population. However, in the absence of wrongdoing, neither a historic taboo nor the sense of repulsion and disgust legitimizes criminalization of an act.

Incest Laws and Absent Taboos in Roman Egypt

For at least two hundred and fifty years, many men in the Roman province of Egypt married their full sisters and raised families with them. During the same era, Roman law firmly banned close-kin marriages and denounced them both as nefas, or sacrilegious, and against the ius gentium, the laws shared by all civilized peoples. In Egypt, however, Roman officials deliberately chose not to enforce the relevant marriage laws among the Greek metic, hybrid, and native Egyptian populations; the bureaucracy also created loopholes within new laws which tolerated the practice. This policy created a gap between the absolute theoretical ban in Roman law and the reality of common incestuous unions in Egypt. Since Roman Egypt was both an important and a dangerous province, Rome needed both to pacify its people and to weaken Egypt’s status with its neighbors. By permitting incestuous marriages among non-Romans in Egypt, the Roman governors simultaneously pleased the local population while causing Jews and North Africans to hold their neighbor in contempt.

Incest and Influence: The Private Life of Bourgeois England (review)

Reviewed by: Incest and Influence: The Private Life of Bourgeois England Ginger Frost (bio) Incest and Influence: The Private Life of Bourgeois England, by Adam Kuper; pp. 304. Cambridge, MA, and London: Harvard University Press, 2009, $27.95, £20.95. The laws of consanguinity and affinity in Victorian England were notably peculiar. English law prohibited marriages between close kin both by blood and marriage, yet first-cousin marriage was not only legal but positively encouraged. In other words, one could marry one’s first cousin but not one’s deceased wife’s niece. A book-length exploration of this anomaly has long been needed, and Adam Kuper, an anthropologist, has taken on this task. Kuper limits his study to the “upper bourgeoisie,” a group that emerged from the Industrial Revolution. (His definition of this group is largely the same as “upper middle class,” except he excludes landed gentry.) Kuper argues that “marriage within the family—between cousins, or between in-laws—was a characteristic strategy of the new bourgeoisie, and that it had a great deal to do with the success of some of the most important Victorian clans” (27). Twenty years ago, in Family Fortunes (1987), Leonore Davidoff and Catherine Hall asserted that relationships between brothers- and sisters-in-law and between cousins were vital to the success of the family enterprise, but few subsequent studies have explored this connection in depth. Incest and Influence, based entirely on secondary sources, unfortunately, does not focus exclusively on family marriage and business and is clearly geared toward a popular audience. The first part of the book is a good example of its impressionistic approach. Chapter 1 offers a brief survey of literary descriptions of cousin marriage from Jane Austen to Anthony Trollope; the summaries are well executed but include little analysis. The second is a discussion of the law of incest, which argues in part that the oddities of England’s marital law emerged both from its tortured history (Henry VIII’s marital troubles, for example), and the fact that England continued to have both ecclesiastical and secular control of moral issues for far longer than revolutionary states. Kuper then briefly surveys the arguments for and against marriage with a deceased wife’s sister, the major controversy of the Victorian period, and ends the chapter with the criminalization of incest in 1908. The “greatest hits” approach continues with the next chapter, which discusses the idea of intermarriage and heredity, primarily focusing on the efforts of Charles Darwin and Francis Galton to determine any ill effects from cousin marriages (both found very few). This chapter is the most disappointing of the book. The topic offers an opportunity to analyze the contradictory and overlapping ideas of Victorians on intermarriage, heredity, and degeneration, but Kuper simply describes their various studies superficially. The author does not give a satisfactory explanation of the change from incest as a category that included in-laws and stepfamily to one that was based solely on blood (as in the 1908 Incest Act). Why did this happen? And what does it say about Victorian and Edwardian ideas of family? The rest of the book concentrates on intermarriage as a business strategy, the ostensible focus of the work. This part of the book begins with a chapter that describes the intermarriages of famous banking houses—both Quaker (the Barclays) and Jewish (the Rothschilds). This section clearly demonstrates the interconnection between cousin marriage and business success in the age before corporations and limited liability, though one must wonder how typical the author’s examples are. Both of these family groups had small minority religions as an additional tie, one that excluded them from a large number of possible marriage partners. It is not clear, [End Page 499] however, if such strategies worked in Anglican families who did not have as many reasons for endogamy. Answering this would require a much broader research sample. Kuper then turns to a number of case studies of famous groups of people who intermarried (or had sexual affairs) within a small cadre of like-minded individuals. The Clapham Sect had evangelicalism and reform to bind them together, and remained a strong group for several decades, in part...

The case for re-thinking incest laws

The recent case of German siblings Patrick Stübing (age 30 years) and his sister Susan Karolewski (age 22 years) has reignited debate over the criminalisation of sexual intercourse among consanguine...

Renaissance England's Chief Rabbi: John Selden (review)

Renaissance England's Chief Rabbi: John Selden, by Jason P. Rosenblact. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. 314 pp. $99.00. The impact of Greek and Latin upon English Renaissance culture continues to be examined intensely, but apart from studies of King James Bible and Milton, little concerted attention has been devoted to contribution of Hebrew studies to that culture. Hence exceptional importance of Jason Rosenblatts new study: Renaissance England's Chief Rabbi: John Seiden, a work deploring and correcting that neglect. Rosenblatt s volume swirls around Seiden, but is more broadly dedicated to the cultural influence of and especially talmudic on some early modern British poets and intellectuals as mediated principally by (p. 3). The sweep of volume is large. Rosenblatt opens with divorce proceedings of Henry VIII. Lacking adequate authorities in England, Henry sent inquiries to Jewish scholars abroad concerning incest laws and critical biblical texts concerning levirate marriage. This discussion illuminates impoverished state of Hebrew studies at outset of English Renaissance and curious responses of rabbis themselves, and likewise shows how an understanding of that theological controversy leads to a richer understanding of Hamlet. From that point, Rosenblatt focuses upon Seiden's intense exploration of and Talmudic material and impact of his studies upon a wide spectrum of English figures, ranging from Ben Jonson to Sir John Vaughan Among English intellectuals of his rime, only placed rabbinic thought at centre of his scholarship (p. 105). The focus of Rosenblatt's study is thus two-fold: (1) character and direction of Selden's explorations of wisdom; and (2) his transmission of that learning to his friends and to his culture at large. Rosenblatt documents that Selden's fascination with materials was already well advanced by time of writing of De Diis Syris (1617) (p. 2), and continued to explore these materials until end of his life, producing six substantial works resting upon that scholarship. By time of his death in 1654, Rosenblatt affirms, Seiden would have been most learned scholar in country, an accomplishment leading one Christian Hebraist in 1641 to address him as Rabbi (p. 4). Selden's reputation, moreover, as most learned man in England led students of every stripe to pore over his volumes, to such an extent that he in essence became a primary text himself, study of generally substituting for study of actual works. Once Selden's influence weakened, tellingly, so did quality of Hebrew learning itself in England. As important as study of Hebrew texts themselves, however, was Selden's orientation. Rosenblatt shows that Selden's works constitute a notable exception to those products of English Renaissance that emphasize otherness and difference (p. 161). In midst of an age of prejudice, he insists, Seiden transmitted an uncommonly generous view of Judaism (p. 9). So influential were Selden's views, in fact, that Rosenblatt argues that his promulgation of ideas drawn from ancient writers as well as post-Talmudic rabbis created conditions leading to reintroduction of Jews into England in 1650s (pp. 277-8). Such is larger portrait of Seiden. The chapters themselves have a divided emphasis. The first half of volume brings learning (largely mediated by Seiden) to bear on literary matters. Selden's learned correspondence with Ben Jonson over issue of cross-dressing is particularly interesting, as are Rosenblatt's two chapters detailing Selden's influence upon Milton's creations. …

The Naked Truth of the King's Affection in the Old English Apollonius of Tyre

�� � If I were the King of Antioch and wanted to go on having sex with my own daughter, I wouldn’t publish an incest riddle and make its solution, on pain of death for a wrong answer, a condition of marrying her. If I’d just told a suitor who’d gotten it right that he was wrong, I wouldn’t give him thirty days to go away and figure it out. If I were the suitor, I wouldn’t waste time going back to my private library and consulting 1001 Kinship Riddles of the Chaldeans to confirm the king was cheating. I certainly wouldn’t load the getaway ship with a full cargo of grain, or mount the podium in the forum at Tarsus to announce I was relieving the city’s famine in the hope that everyone present would conceal my whereabouts when the hit men arrived. But then, I’m not Apollonius of Tyre, nor was meant to be. The fragmentary Old English translation of the prose romance Apollonius of Tyre offers rich material for reflection on constructions of gender and sexuality —m aterial that recent scholarship has hardly failed to notice. The opening episode of the incest riddle reads like a parable of the linguistic bind imposed upon the subject by Lacan’s Name-of-the-Father. Later on, the relationship of our hero to the daughter of King Arcestrates of Cyrene offers the winning combination of sex, literacy, and rhetoric as the means by which the path of desire is set right. Elizabeth Archibald stresses the ways in which incest continues to haunt the story’s narrative logic well after Antiochus and his violated daughter have disappeared from view. 1 Clare A. Lees takes up the Old English version as part of her consideration of desire and knowledge in Anglo-Saxon England. “What the Apollonius offers Anglo-Saxon culture,” she observes, “is a rare moment of explicit sexual representation and regulation in the secular literature: Antiochus transgresses the fundamental law of incest. . . ; Apollonius reveals the connection between sexuality and knowledge.” 2 Despite the text’s trajectory toward ulti

Is Incest Next?

This paper examines how the Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas (the gay sodomy case) affects laws regulating other forms of sexual behavior, focusing in particular on consensual adult incest. It engages in and compares two kinds of inquiries: formalist and realist. The formalist inquiry attempts to make sense of Lawrence using traditional legal materials. One must identify the implicated individual liberty interest and examine the extent to which the interest is constitutionally protected. The paper identifies three basic approaches to identifying liberty interests, all with some support in the Court's history. The Burkean approach recognizes a right only if it can be clearly shown that the our society has specifically and widely acknowledged the right for a long time. The Millian approach forbids the state from regulating behavior which directly affects only those who engage in it and does not harm anyone else. The Burkean approach looks to our history and is unwilling to impose a simple general harm principle, but is willing to allow that over time we may come to recognize new sorts of interests that should be protected. The paper argues that the Court has taken a Goldilocks position: conservative Burkeanism is too restrictive, Millianism is too expansive, and liberal Burkeanism is just right. After identifying the liberty interest, one must identify the state's interests in regulating that behavior. Lawrence is ambiguous as to what level of scrutiny applies to the government's asserted interests. The formalist analysis ends by comparing the individual liberty interest with the asserted state interests. Several interests might justify laws against consensual adult incest, including the risk of genetic defects, protecting relations within the family from becoming overly-sexualized, and reinforcing moral norms. All of these justifications have problems, though. The formalist analysis is indeterminate, but suggests that core forms of incest are probably constitutional, although laws against incest between cousins and perhaps against incest between step-relatives may be more vulnerable to judicial review. The realist inquiry views the Court as a political institution and asks how it is likely to respond to future cases given both the preferences of its members and the political constraints which they face. This inquiry suggests that the Court is less likely to strike down incest laws than sodomy laws, both because there is no major political group attempting to repeal incest laws and because general social norms against incest have weakened less than those against sodomy, although that may be less true for non-core forms of incest such as incest between cousins. The realist inquiry thus also suggests that the Court would not strike down the core incest laws, and this conclusion seems firmer than the formalist analysis. If the Court ever does protect incest, it will happen only when most Americans are unwilling to throw people in jail for that behavior.

Incest, consanguinity and a monstrous birth in rural England, January 1600

This article examines a pamphlet of 1600 which describes a deformed child born to cousins-german in a Herefordshire village, and relates it to the attempt of the Baconian scientific revolution to interpret nature rationally. It discusses the description of this consanguineous union as incestuous' and explores the law of incest in this period, its basis in scripture and natural law, and the controversy surrounding its extent. It contrasts the learned debate on whether the union of cousins-german should be regarded as incestuous with the undifferentiated Puritan condemnation of incest and fornication. It contrasts the precise and ordered empirical description of the child's deformities in the pamphlet with the common fabulous accounts of monstrous births in this period, and demonstrates that it is sufficiently detailed and accurate to allow a modern medical expert to diagnose the precise condition. It argues that while this description provides the reliable empirical evidence Baconian scientists needed, it combines this with a traditional view of divine punishment for sin as the cause of deformity in the offspring of incestuous unions. It suggests that this juxtaposition of accurate observation with a traditional view of causation illustrates the gradual nature of the development of science and the new learning in early modern England.

The law of incest in England and Wales

The law of incest in England and Wales

A Reply to Heider's "Anthropological Models of Incest Laws in the United States

American AnthropologistVolume 74, Issue 3 p. 787-791 Free Access A Reply to Heider's “Anthropological Models of Incest Laws in the United States ALAIN CHARRAUD, ALAIN CHARRAUD Paris, FranceSearch for more papers by this authorMARTINE SEGALEN, MARTINE SEGALEN Paris, FranceSearch for more papers by this authorMICHEL DE VIRVILLE, MICHEL DE VIRVILLE Paris, FranceSearch for more papers by this author ALAIN CHARRAUD, ALAIN CHARRAUD Paris, FranceSearch for more papers by this authorMARTINE SEGALEN, MARTINE SEGALEN Paris, FranceSearch for more papers by this authorMICHEL DE VIRVILLE, MICHEL DE VIRVILLE Paris, FranceSearch for more papers by this author First published: June 1972 https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1972.74.3.02a00520AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat REFERENCES CITED Benzecri, J. P. 1969 Classifications ascendantes hiérarchiques. Publications de l'Institut de Statistique de l'Université de Paris. Cuisenier, Jean, Martine Segalen, and Michel De Virville 1970 Pour une étude de la parenté dans les sociétés complexes, le programme d'ordinateur Archiv. L'Homme 10(3): 27– 74. Galton, F. 1889 As quoted in E. B. Tylor, On a Method of Investigating the Development of Institutions. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 18: 245– 269. Kuchler, Frances W. 1966 Law of Engagement and Marriage. Dobbs Ferry, New York: Oceana Publications. Legal Almanac Series No. 59. Sokal, Robert S., and Peter H. A. Sneath 1963 Principles of Numerical Taxonomy. San Francisco: Freeman. Volume74, Issue3June 1972Pages 787-791 ReferencesRelatedInformation

Anthropological Models of Incest Laws in the United States

The incest laws of the fifty states are esoteric folk models or norms. The fifty state laws seem haphazard in their prohibitions and do not scale. However, using two different approaches, anthropological models may be constructed to explain the data.