Incest Avoidance and the Incest Taboos | Two Aspects of Human Nature

Arthur P Wolf

ISBN 10: 0804789673 / ISBN 13: 9780804789677

Published by Stanford University Press, 2014

About this Item

Incest Avoidance and the Incest Taboos | Two Aspects of Human Nature | Arthur P Wolf | Taschenbuch | Einband - flex.(Paperback) | Englisch | 2014 | Stanford University Press | EAN 9780804789677 | Verantwortliche Person für die EU: Mare Nostrum Group B.V., Doelen 72, 4831 GR BREDA, NIEDERLANDE, gpsr[at]mare-nostrum[dot]co[dot]uk | Anbieter: preigu.

Seller Inventory # 123851411

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Incest Avoidance and the Incest Taboos | Two Aspects of Human Nature
• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Publication Date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0804789673
• ISBN 13: 9780804789677
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 203W x 123H x 22D millimeters 203 millimeters width by 123 millimeters height by 22 millimeters depth
• Weight: 200 grams
• Seller catalogs:
  • Bücher

About this title

Synopsis

Why do most people never have sex with close relatives? And why do they disapprove of other people doing so? Incest Avoidance and Incest Taboos investigates our human inclination to avoid incest and the powerful taboo against incest found in all societies. Both subjects stir strong feelings and vigorous arguments within and beyond academic circles. With great clarity, Wolf lays out the modern assumptions about both, concluding that all previous approaches lack precision and balance on insecure evidence. Researchers he calls "constitutionalists" explain human incest avoidance by biologically-based natural aversion, but fail to explain incest taboos as cultural universals. By contrast, "conventionalists" ignore the evolutionary roots of avoidance and assume that incest avoidant behavior is guided solely by cultural taboos. Both theories are incomplete.

  Wolf tests his own theory with three natural experiments: bint'amm (cousin) marriage in Morocco, the rarity of marriage within Israeli kibbutz peer groups, and "minor marriages" (in which baby girls were raised by their future mother-in-law to marry an adoptive "brother") in China and Taiwan. These cross-cultural comparisons complete his original and intellectually rich theory of incest, one that marries biology and culture by accounting for both avoidance and taboo.

About the Author

Arthur P. Wolf is the David and Lucile Packard Professor of Human Biology at Stanford University, and author or editor of numerous books and articles, including Sexual Attraction and Childhood Association: A Chinese Brief for Edward Westermarck, Marriage and Adoption in China, 1845-1945, and Inbreeding, Incest, and the Incest Taboo (with William H. Durham, co-editor).