Contributions to the development of the sociobiological theory of incest

Contributions to the development of the sociobiological theory of incest

Titre de l'ensemble: Incest

This chapter elaborates contributions to the development of the socio-biological theory of incest. Miriam Slater's “Ecological Factors in the Origin of Incest” appeared in 1959 in American Anthropologist. Although she substitutes the word ecological for demographic, she was not the first to apply demographics to the problem of incest. Slater's work was more sustained and intensive than Wallis's work. She criticized the theoretical approach to incest of White, Seligman, and Levi-Strauss on methodological grounds. Robin Fox has devoted almost two decades to incest research. His first article, “Sibling Incest”, was followed by various other publications, including a book. The Red Lamp of Incest summarizes and synthesizes his research. The authors accept the inbreeding theory but do not clearly define their grounds for acceptance. They conclude that inbreeding creates biological harm in animals such as humans and reject the counterargument by indicating that cross-cultural differences in the sanctioning of cross-cousin marriages and the interdiction of parallel cousin marriages are irrelevant.