Sociobiological Explanations of Incest Avoidance: A Critical Review of Evidential Claims

Leavitt, Gregory C.

doi:10.1525/aa.1990.92.4.02a00070

Cited by 100 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 84 publications

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“…Since individuals who share a close ancestor(s) are more likely to inherit the same detrimental recessive genes, closely related mates will more likely produce progeny that carry a double measure of the unsafe recessive. A number of studies on the deleterious effects of inbreeding have been published and support this commonly accepted fact (see Leavitt, 1990Leavitt, , 2005.…”

Section: The Deleterious Effect Of Inbreedingmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…This includes observations that the incest taboo is universal; that inbreeding is deleterious to offspring; that inbreeding avoidance occurs in many other species; and that evidence of such a mechanism has been demonstrated in Shepher's (1983) kibbutzim study and Wolf's (2005) research on Chinese minor marriage. Leavitt (1990Leavitt ( , 2005 critically examined this support literature and questions the evidence offered by evolutionary scholars. Although some of that discussion will be covered below, the focus will be on those central theoretical issues surrounding the Westermarck hypothesis.…”

Section: Alliance Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tylor vs. Westermarck: Explaining the Incest Taboo

Leavitt¹

2013

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In the late 19th century arguments explaining incest avoidance were framed separately by Edward Tylor and Edward Westermarck. Tylor offered an environmental theory asserting that people have to marry outside of their own kin and communities or die out from the detrimental effects of isolation. Westermarck turned to Darwin's theory to explain that harmful inbreeding had been selected against in the human genome. By the late 20th and early 21st centuries explanations of human behaviors have become increasingly encompassed by natural selection theory. The debate concerning the productiveness of evolutionary biology for explaining complex human behaviors is highly contentious and continues unabated. Although human evolutionists repeatedly say that environment is important for understanding human behavior they often do not develop this part of the equation. Behind the prestige of evolutionary biology selection models of human behavior have passed into popular science and the public psyche. Often heard today from a wide range of highly visible media sources is an assortment of topics on human behaviors which are framed by Darwinian assumptions. Contemplations about incest and inbreeding avoidance fall into this category and are presented by Darwinian social science as the best case example demonstrating evolutionary suppositions about human behavior. In the article that follows these issues are framed and examined. The argument is offered that evolutionary approaches are not always the most compelling and that convincing environmental explanations are overlooked.

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Section: The Deleterious Effect Of Inbreedingmentioning

confidence: 83%

Section: Alliance Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Tylor vs. Westermarck: Explaining the Incest Taboo

Leavitt¹

2013

Self Cite

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“…In fact, cross-cultural tests of these theories yield more support for biosocial theories than cultural ones, such as the alliance theory (Ember, 1975;Kang, 1979). Leavitt (1990) further contrasts the two theories, saying that the cultural theory specifies "more clearly the variables under consideration" (p. 984). There is a vagueness in the biosocial theory, he claims, about early intimacy in terms of the type, degree, and duration needed for any sort of sexual inhibition to develop and a vagueness about the formation of taboos.…”

Section: A Strategy For Restructuring the Biosocial Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Assumptions on Sex and Society in the Biosocial Theory of Incest

Hendrix¹,

Schneider²

1999

Cross-Cultural Research

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The biosocial theory of incest holds that the universal aspect of the taboo grows from innate sexual inhibitions triggered by intimacy in early childhood relationships everywhere. Much evidence suggests that this sexual inhibition does occur. However, the theory contains problematic assumptions that either interfere with the logic of the theory or are empirically questionable. We suggest that more attention to variation in early intimacy, sexual inhibitions, and taboos is needed for further development of the theory. We discuss sibling marriage in Egypt to suggest how research might be more fruitful if it were centered on variation in this way.

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“…It is worth mentioning that endogamy and incest are terms that have been more commonly used in biological and social sciences, respectively, many times imprecisely (Moore, 1992). Leavitt (1990) demonstrates that it is not simple to differentiate them, since both terms designate superficially the sexual activity between individuals with close kinship degrees. Specifically, endogamy is linked to the idea of reproduction between the individuals with kinship, whereas incest emphasizes the sexual activity that may or not generate offspring.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evitação e proibição do incesto: fatores psicobiológicos e culturais

Júnior

2017

Psicol. USP

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Although historically the incest prohibitive regulation is considered an almost ubiquitous cultural phenomenon that is not influenced by psychobiological factors related to the evolutionary history of human species, recent findings have challenged this traditional view and argued that the incest avoidance and prohibition are influenced by biological and cognitive factors along with cultural regulation. This article aims to develop a theoretical discussion about incest prohibition and avoidance, emphasizing the evolutionary mechanisms underlying these phenomena. One argues the existence of endogenous mechanisms that have evolved for inhibiting sexual activity between close relatives and form the basis to regulate the incest prohibition (exogenous mechanism) socially. The Westermarck effect is highlighted, in which the close proximity of persons living together from early childhood triggers sexual intercourse aversion between them. The absence of disposition to incest and its institutional prohibition represent a complex integration between psychobiological and cultural factors.

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Sociobiological Explanations of Incest Avoidance: A Critical Review of Evidential Claims

Cited by 100 publications

References 84 publications

Tylor vs. Westermarck: Explaining the Incest Taboo

Tylor vs. Westermarck: Explaining the Incest Taboo

Assumptions on Sex and Society in the Biosocial Theory of Incest

Evitação e proibição do incesto: fatores psicobiológicos e culturais

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