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and her brother 11 and between a woman and her father 12 but they describe these prohibitions in very different ways relations between a woman and her brother fall within the category of forbidden relations among members of the same clan relations between a woman and her father do not 12 this is because the trobrianders are matrilineal children belong to the clan of their mother and not of their father thus sexual relations between a man and his mother s sister and mother s sister s daughter are also considered incestuous but relations between a man and his father s sister are not 13 a man and his father s sister will often have a flirtatious relationship and far from being taboo trobriand society encourages a man and his father s sister or the daughter of his father s sister to have sexual relations or marry 14 instinctual and genetic explanations edit see also inbreeding depression an explanation for the taboo is that it is due to an instinctual inborn aversion that would lower the adverse genetic effects of inbreeding such as a higher incidence of congenital birth defects since the rise of modern genetics belief in this theory has grown 15 16 17 18 failed verification birth defects and inbreeding edit the increase in frequency of birth defects often attributed to inbreeding results directly from an increase in the frequency of homozygous alleles inherited by the offspring of inbred couples 19 this leads to an increase in homozygous allele frequency within a population and results in diverging effects should a child inherit the version of homozygous alleles responsible for a birth defect from its parents the birth defect will be expressed on the other hand should the child inherit the version of homozygous alleles not responsible for a birth defect it would actually decrease the ratio of the allele version responsible for the birth defect in that population the overall consequences of these diverging effects depends in part on the size of the population in small populations as long as children born with inheritable birth defects die or are killed before they reproduce the ultimate effect of inbreeding will be to decrease the frequency of defective genes in the population over time the gene pool will be healthier however in larger populations it is more likely that large numbers of carriers will survive and mate leading to more constant rates of birth defects 20 besides recessive genes there are also other reasons why inbreeding may be harmful such as a narrow range of certain immune systems genes in a population increasing vulnerability to infectious diseases see major histocompatibility complex and sexual selection the biological costs of incest also depend largely on the degree of genetic proximity between the two relatives engaging in incest this fact may explain why the cultural taboo generally includes prohibitions against sex between close relatives but less often includes prohibitions against sex between more distal relatives 21 children born of close relatives have decreased survival 17 18 many mammal species including humanity s closest primate relatives avoid incest 2 westermarck effect edit main article westermarck effect the westermarck effect first proposed by edvard westermarck in 1891 is the theory that children reared together regardless of biological relationship form a sentimental attachment that is by its nature non erotic 22 melford spiro argued that his observations that unrelated children reared together on israeli kibbutzim nevertheless avoided one another as sexual partners confirmed the westermarck effect 23 joseph shepher in a study examined the second generation in a kibbutz and found no marriages and no sexual activity between the adolescents in the same peer group this was not enforced but voluntary looking at the second generation adults in all kibbutzim out of a total of 2769 marriages none were between those of the same peer group 24 however according to a book review by john hartung of a book by shepher out of 2516 marriages documented in israel 200 were between couples reared in the same kibbutz these marriages occurred after young adults reared on kibbutzim had served in the military and encountered tens of thousands of other potential mates and 200 marriages is higher than what would be expected by chance of these 200 marriages five were between men and women who had been reared together for the first six years of their lives 25 a study in taiwan of marriages where the future bride is adopted in the groom s family as an infant or small child found that these marriages have higher infidelity and divorce and lower fertility than ordinary marriages it has been argued that this observation is consistent with the westermarck effect 26 third parties objections edit another approach is looking at moral objections to third party incest this increases the longer a child has grown up together with another child of the opposite sex this occurs even if the other child is genetically unrelated 18 humans have been argued to have a special kin detection system that besides the incest taboo also regulates a tendency towards altruism towards kin 27 counter arguments edit one objection against an instinctive and genetic basis for the incest taboo is that incest does occur 28 29 30 anthropologists have also argued that the social construct incest and the incest taboo is not the same thing as the biological phenomenon of inbreeding for example there is equal genetic relation between a man and the daughter of his father s sister and between a man and the daughter of his mother s sister such that biologists would consider mating incestuous in both instances but trobrianders consider mating incestuous in one case and not in the other anthropologists have documented a great number of societies where marriages between some first cousins are prohibited as incestuous while marriages between other first cousins are encouraged therefore it is argued that the prohibition against incestuous relations in most societies is not based on or motivated by concerns over biological closeness 31 other studies on cousin marriages have found support for a biological basis for the taboo 32 33 34 also current supporters of genetic influences on behavior do not argue that genes determine behavior absolutely but that genes may create predispositions that are affected in various ways by the environment including culture 35 steve stewart williams argues against the view that incest taboo is a western phenomenon arguing that while brother sister marriage was reported in a diverse range of cultures such egyptian incan and hawaiian cultures it was not a culture wide phenomenon being largely restricted to the upper classes stewart williams argues that these marriages were largely political their function being to keep power and wealth concentrated in the family and there is no evidence the siblings were attracted to each other and there is in fact some evidence against it for example cleopatra married two of her brothers but did not have children with them only having children with unrelated lovers stewart williams suggests that this was therefore simply a case of social pressure overriding anti incest instincts stewart williams also observes that anti incest behaviour has been observed in other animals and even many plant species many plants could self pollinate but have mechanisms that prevent them from doing so 36 sociological explanations edit psychoanalytic theory in particular the claimed existence of an oedipus complex which is not an instinctual aversion against incest but an instinctual desire has influenced many theorists seeking to explain the incest taboo using sociological theories 2 exogamy edit the anthropologist claude lévi strauss developed a general argument for the universality of the incest taboo in human societies his argument begins with the claim that the incest taboo is in effect a prohibition against endogamy and the effect is to encourage exogamy through exogamy otherwise unrelated households or lineages will form relationships through marriage thus strengthening social solidarity that is lévi strauss views marriage as an exchange of women between two social groups this theory is based in part on marcel mauss s theory of the gift which in lévi strauss words argued that exchange in primitive societies consists not so much in economic transactions as in reciprocal gifts that these reciprocal gifts have a far more important function than in our own and that this primitive form of exchange is not merely nor essentially of an economic nature but is what he aptly calls a total social fact that is an event which has a significance that is at once social and religious magic and economic utilitarian and sentimental jural and moral 37 it is also based on lévi strauss s analysis of data on different kinship systems and marriage practices documented by anthropologists and historians lévi strauss called attention specifically to data collected by margaret mead during her research among the arapesh when she asked if a man ever sleeps with his sister arapesh replied no we don t sleep with our sisters we give our sisters to other men and other men give us their sisters mead pressed the question repeatedly asking what would happen if a brother and sister did have sex with one another lévi strauss quotes the arapesh response what you would like to marry your sister what is the matter with you anyway don t you want a brother in law don t you realize that if you marry another man s sister and another man marries your sister you will have at least two brothers in law while if you marry your own sister you will have none with whom will you hunt with whom will you garden whom will you visit 38 by applying mauss s theory to data such as mead s lévi strauss proposed what he called alliance theory he argued that in primitive societies societies not based on agriculture class hierarchies or centralized government marriage is not fundamentally a relationship between a man and a woman but a transaction involving a woman that forges a relationship an alliance between two men 39 some anthropologists argue that nuclear family incest avoidance can be explained in terms of the ecological demographic and economic benefits of exogamy 40 while lévi strauss generally discounted the relevance of alliance theory in africa a particularly strong concern for incest is a fundamental issue among the age systems of east africa here the avoidance between men of an age set and their daughters is altogether more intense than in any other sexual avoidance paraphrasing lévi strauss s argument without this avoidance the rivalries for power between age sets coupled with the close bonds of sharing between age mates could lead to a sharing of daughters as spouses young men entering the age system would then find a dire shortage of marriageable girls and extended families would be in danger of dying out thus by parading this avoidance of their daughters senior men make these girls available for younger age sets and their marriages form alliances that mitigate the rivalries for power 41 endogamy edit exogamy between households or descent groups is typically prescribed in classless societies societies that are stratified that is divided into unequal classes often prescribe different degrees of endogamy endogamy is the opposite of exogamy it refers to the practice of marriage between members of the same social group an example is india s caste system in which unequal castes are endogamous 42 inequality between ethnic groups and races also correlates with endogamy 43 an extreme example of this principle and an exception to the incest taboo is found among members of the ruling class in certain ancient states such as the inca egypt china and hawaii brother sister marriage usually between half siblings was a means of maintaining wealth and political power within one family 44 some 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