Incest: concepts, definitions, and issues

Incest: concepts, definitions, and issues

Titre de l'ensemble: Incest

This chapter describes concepts, definitions, and issues related to incest. The fact that the word incest incorporates the notion of illicitness is perhaps somewhat problematic if it is argued that prohibitions are only one form of regulations by which intercourse between close relatives is rendered rare. Most of the problems of incest research stem from an assumption of the ubiquitous coexistence and interdependence of the family and incest prohibitions. Including all dyads in the concept of incest is not sufficient. As genetic relatedness proceeds in an ordinal scale, if incest regulations have something to do with genetic relatedness, then the severity of reaction to the transgression should reflect such relatedness. However, if incest regulations are completely, or even largely, independent of genetic relatedness, then degrees of severity ought to be distributed in the squares of the matrix independently of both heterosexuality versus homosexuality and degree of genetic relatedness. Sexual intercourse is a biological act present in all animal species with internal fertilization.