Incest, and the Incest Taboo - Essay Example

?Taboos have existed in all the cultures in the world for thousands of years and they can be considered as old as man has practiced culture. There exist taboos for a very wide range of things and all of these depend on the culture within which it is put in practice. Examples of these are food taboos, taboos on topics to discuss and which not to, sexual relations among many others. Different cultures have different taboos that are strictly observed and it is indeed a very rare thing for a person to break the taboos of the culture within which one was raised. One of the taboos that are observed by most cultures in the world is the incest taboo, which prohibits the practice of sexual relations between those people who are related (Burns 352). It has been said that incest is the most universal taboo and that it is the basis upon which many human societies are founded (Cohen 53).All cultures in the world have rules regarding those who can be considered partners in either sexual intercourse or marriage and it is very common for close relatives to be excluded from such partnerships. There is very little agreement between different cultures on the definition of who can be considered a close blood relation and who cannot. Some cultures permit the marriage of certain types of cousins where others would consider them as taboo (Barlow 447). In some cases, the relations between clan members are strictly forbidden even though those who might get involved are not even remotely related by blood. Taboos against incest are learned by the people who practice these cultures from a very young age and in fact, they are learned at almost the same time as they learn their language. These taboos therefore become a part of a person’s state of mind and it is an integral part of their growing up process and due to this, it remains with them for the rest of their lives (Borg 149). In some cultures especially those in Africa and in some cases the Middle East, if a person breaks an incest taboo, punishment can be very severe and the people who are involved in such acts tend to be shunned by the rest of their society and at times they may even be banished or sentenced to death (Spomer 1662). There are some cultures, which allow the marriage between uncles and nieces or aunts and nephews, and there have been instances where marriages between brothers and sisters have been practiced regularly by some elites, a good example being in Ancient Egypt (Fischer and Ager 299). These instances have come to raise questions concerning incest and the way it came to be universally recognized as a taboo by so many cultures (Patterson 95). Questions have been considered with some wondering whether it has come about instinctively or whether they have come about due to the realization by many communities that intercourse between people who are related are detrimental to the society’s wellbeing. Some of the most significant subjects in such discussions are why parent – child or brother – sister relationships are forbidden in all cultures. Incest taboos serve many functions and they have a tendency of remaining in effect in their respective cultures long after the original reason for their enforcement has been forgotten by those who practice them (Guillet and Arndt 866). One of the explanations that have been brought up to explain incest taboos has been that it is a culture’s way of implementing a preference that has been developed biologically for sexual partners who do not share the same genes because inbreeding has been observed to have a very bad effect on the genetic makeup of a community. Another widely held idea is that human beings are naturally indisposed to engage in sexual relations with those people they grew up with and instead, they prefer those who come from outside of their immediate community (Ingham 677). The incest taboo has also been argued to arise from a general preference by human beings for group exogamy and this arises because of the need for the formation of valuable alliances, which greatly improves the chances of the groups involved to thrive. This view shows that incest may not necessarily be universal and may instead arise and increase in strictness where cultural circumstances favor exogamy over endogamy and vice versa. The incest taboo is a ban against internal marriage whose effect is to encourage members of a community to marry outside it and this ensures that relationships between completely unrelated lineages are formed through marriage and the aim of this is to make sure that social solidarity is strengthened (Meigs 38). This practice not only ensures social cohesiveness but it also creates relationships, which can be relied upon in times of emergency such as when the need arises for social support. Modern culture has also raised a great debate on the previously taboo subject of incest with some seeking for the normalization of all consensual adult relationships despite the degree of blood relationship while others have made it harder for such things to happen by setting up laws restricting such relationships (Dutton 41). Despite the fact that people have become liberal on many matters including sexual relations, the one thing that has largely remained taboo is incest and there are times when even its discussion is forbidden (Eilola and Havelka 353). One of the main reasons for this is the discovery by modern science that inbreeding has very negative effects on the offspring of those who are involved in incestuous relations. Many countries today have laws forbidding such relationships; moreover, these tend to have stiff penalties for those caught committing such acts although the most common punishment is always being sent to prison. The incest taboo has existed for a very long time in human society and it is quite possible that those who established such taboos knew of the genetic damage that incestuous relationship could have on people. This taboo has helped to strengthen the genetic makeup of the human race and it is our belief that it should remain in force for that very reason. Works Cited Barlow, Kathleen. "Inbreeding, Incest, and the Incest Taboo: The State of Knowledge at the Turn of the Century." American Anthropologist 108.2 (2006): 447-8. Borg, Ruben. "Working with History, Working with Taboo: A Comparative Review of Two Works of Joyce Criticism." Journal of Modern Literature 31.2 (2008): 149-55. Burns, E. M. "Dinner with a Cannibal: The Complete History of Mankind's Oldest Taboo." Choice 46.2 (2008): 352-. Cohen, David. "Paperback History -- Totem and Taboo by Sigmund Freud." History Today 43 (1993): 53-. Dutton, Edward Croft. "Ritual, Taboo and Political Protest." Mankind Quarterly 47.1 (2006): 41-59. Eilola, Tiina M., and Havelka, Jelena. "Behavioural and Physiological Responses to the Emotional and Taboo Stroop Tasks in Native and Non-Native Speakers of English." The International Journal of Bilingualism 15.3 (2011): 353-69. Fischer, Michael M. J., and Ager, Sheila L. "Ptolemaic Jouissance and the Anthropology of Kinship: A Commentary on Ager "the Power of Excess: Royal Incest and the Ptolemaic Dynasty"/Response to Michael M.J. Fischer's "Ptolemaic Jouissance and the Anthropology of Kinship: A Commentary on Ager 'the Power of Excess: Royal Incest and the Ptolemaic Dynasty'"." Anthropologica 49.2 (2007): 295,299,301-310. Guillet, Rebecca, and Arndt, Jason. "Taboo Words: The Effect of Emotion on Memory for Peripheral Information." Memory & Cognition (pre-2011) 37.6 (2009): 866-79. Ingham, John M. "Sensual Attachment and Incest Avoidance in Human Evolution and Child Development." Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 11.4 (2005): 677-701. Meigs, Anna. "Beyond the Taboo: Imagining Incest." American Anthropologist 104.1 (2002): 38-49. Patterson, Mary. "Coming Too Close, Going Too Far: Theoretical and Cross-Cultural Approaches to Incest and its Prohibitions." The Australian Journal of Anthropology 16.1 (2005): 95-115. Spomer, M. Y. "Sex and Religion: Teachings and Taboos in the History of World Faiths." Choice 49.9 (2012): 1662-3. Read More