1

Incest Taboo and

Family
A STRUCTURAL APPROACH
Approaches to the study of the 2

family
Evolutionary
Functionalism
Structuralist
Constructivist
Post-modern
Structuralist Approach 3

Claude Levi-Strauss anthropologist

Discussesthe relationship between

incest taboo, marriage and family
What is the incest taboo? 4

Prohibitionof sexual relations or marriage

between people related by blood or people who
are closely related in kinship terms
(consanguines)

Mother-son, father daughter, sister-brother

Oedipus and Electra Complex (instinctual desire)

Universality of incest taboo 5

Found in every society

Anabhorrence towards sexual relations between

blood relations

Hence forbidden?

Severe punishment for transgressing incest taboo

Why incest taboo? 6

Isit because people realize that

inbreeding will be detrimental to
humans?

Instinctualaversion - Is it that we dont

wish to have sexually intimate
relationships with people we grow up
with ? (Westermack)
Eugenic, Instinctual theories 7

However, eugenic, biological, physiological

explanations are not very robust

Instinctual aversion - why should the taboo be

there if on its own something like this would not
happen?

That it does happen also does not support the

instinctual theory
Inbreeding is harmful theory 8

Levi- Strauss argues that the dangers of

consanguineous marriage are the outcome of
the incest prohibition rather than its
explanation.

Inbreeding weeds out the harmful

characteristics after a while
Nature and Culture 9

Incesttaboo sits on the cusp of nature

and culture

Is it what separates us from animals?

Isit what helps establish us as social

beings?
Levi- Strauss incest taboo 10

Incest
taboo is in effect a prohibition against
endogamy and to encourage exogamy

Exogamy marrying out

Familiesmust marry outside each other and not

within each other

Endogamy marrying in
A social rule to perpetuate society 11

If people cohabited within the family, society would not be possible

for social reasons. Relationships between families would not emerge.

Families would remain self-perpetuating units that faced the danger

of dying out.

Taboos on marriage within family and exchange of women allow

families to become inter-related

Gifting ones sister to a man in another family rather than keeping

her for oneself; acquiring brothers-in-law
Theory of Alliance (Marriage) 12

Restricted and Generalized exchange

Creating networks in society

Strengthening social solidarity

Social and cultural concept of 13

incest
Ultimately, the definition of incest is not based
purely on avoiding those with the closest
biological links

Societiesdecide what to define as an incestuous

relationship/marriage

Some blood-linked relatives could be allowed

while others might be prohibited
Contd. 14

Prohibition of marriage might extend to very distantly related

persons on both the maternal and paternal side as in the
case of north Indian marriage

However, in the south, marriage with cross cousins is allowed

while not with parallel cousins

Maternal Uncle and nieces marriage is allowed and preferred

Among Muslims cousin marriage on both sides is allowed

Gayle Rubins critique of Levi- 15

Strauss from a gender

perspective
For men, giving the gift of a daughter or a sister to another man for the

purpose of matrimony allows for the formation of kinship ties between
two men and the transfer of sexual access, genealogical statuses,
lineage names and ancestors, rights and people to occur.

When using a Marxist analysis of capitalism within this sex/gender

system, the exclusion of women from the system of exchange
establishes men as sellers and women as their commodities fit for
exchange.

Rubin hopes for an "androgynous and genderless" society in which

sexual difference has no socially constructed and hierarchical meaning.
Parsons - a psycho-functionalist approach to 16
understanding the incest taboo

Links universality of incest taboo to universality of the nuclear

family

Incest taboo operates to propel the individual out of the nuclear

family

Socialization and personality development of the young child

(Freuds stages of childs psychological development oral,
anal, phallic, latent, genital)

Attachment to mother
Parsons - continued 17

Family a small group of long duration.

Apart from erotic attraction, permits a high level

of diffuse affective involvement for its members

Overt erotic attraction and gratification

(between the couple) is given an
institutionalized place in its structure
Contd. 18

Sexual-erotic relationship between the marital pair - bond and

symbol of solidarity of the marriage pair responsible for the family

Mother-child pre-genital erotic relationship, to some extent also

with the father

Organic gratification to a diffuse spreading into a general

sensation of well-being

Role in socialization of the child

process 19

Yet, this erotic relationship with the parent cannot be allowed to

be dominant in later phases of childs development.

Taboo on erotic relationship between post-oedipal children and

both parents.

Mechanism is that of repression

Diffuse aspect of erotic attachment survives to positively

motivate the child to learn a new role
Contd. 20

Distinctive function of the incest taboo is therefore

regulation of erotic relationships within the family and
in relation to the establishment of new families

New nuclear family is formed by the marriage of the

child; cycle closed by his marriage and parenthood

Propelled into non-familiar roles

Parsons contd. 21

Not that children cannot be

socialized outside the small
group

Larger kinship (lineages and

clans, for instance) units might
exercise restrictions on inter-
marriage where these (units) are
of critical importance