Beth,
In Mynatt and Doherty's
Understanding Human Behavior, there is a section on the incest taboo.
They suggest that the incest taboo is akin to imprinting and cite the
example of the Israli kibbutz. Even though the children were not related, there
were very few marriages between the children that grew up
together.
It is a short section in
Chapter 21 - I did notice that most of the research cited is rather old (1983
was the latest citation).
**********************
Cheri A.
Budzynski, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of
Psychology
Heidelberg College
310. E. Market Street
Tiffin, Ohio
44883
(419) 448-2000 ext. 2251
(419) 893-1986 ext. 4005
--------Original Message-----
From: Beth Benoit [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Friday, March 19, 2004 11:41 AM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences
Subject: Incest taboosMy husband and I recently finished reading Kathryn Harrison's memoir, The Kiss, which describes an affair she had with her father, from whom she was estranged until about age 20. He then pursued an affair with her and she found herself helpless to resist for several years. (I know it sounds very bizarre, but Harrison is a wonderful author, and she tells this story with restraint and a strong literary style for which she's also known in The Binding Chair, Poison, the beautifully written Seeking Rapture, and others.) She was a deeply troubled young woman before, with an unsupportive mother and lots of other messy things in her childhood and adolescence. She did manage to withdraw from him, but it took its toll.My question for the theoreticians out there: Is our aversion to incest purely a social product, or is there anything biological about it? I opt for the former, my husband for the latter.I argue that there's no incest taboo in the animal kingdom. He counters that there are lots of biological differences that have evolved in humans that don't appear in humans.From an evolutionary psychology standpoint, this seems understandable. The biological penalties for incest, though recently discovered to be less severe than originally thought, are still worthy of consideration.What think you, TIPSters?Beth BenoitUniversity System of New Hampshire---
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