Incest

incest, sexual relations between persons to whom marriage is prohibited by custom or law because of their close kinship. Ideas of kinship, however, vary widely from group to group, hence the definition of incest also varies. Customs prescribing whom a person may and may not marry are found among all human groups, and these apparently antedated knowledge of the genetic effects of the intermarriage of close relatives. Even modern prohibitions of incest are based only in part on the observed fact that inherited defects tend to be transmitted in intensified form when both parents possess the same genes. In many societies, the marriage of parents and offspring, or brothers and sisters, is prohibited and abhorred—this is the incest taboo, much discussed in the anthropological literature. Only in some royal families, as in ancient Egypt and among the Inca, were such marriages customary, perhaps with the goal of conserving royal prerogatives and property; such marriages may have been largely symbolic. Theories concerning the incest taboo include sociological and psychological interpretations. In anthropology, it is often considered in relation to rules of exogamy, by which marriage serves as a means of social alliance between groups who might otherwise be disposed to fight one another. Incest is a recurrent theme in mythology and literature across the world, and it has played an important role in psychoanalytical speculation and theory (see Oedipus complex). For the contemporary legal aspects of incest, see consanguinity.

Bibliography

See J. Shepher, Incest: A Biosocial View (1983); J. B. Twitchell, Forbidden Partners: The Incest Taboo in Modern Culture (1986).

---

incest

Sexual relations between persons who, because of the nature of their kinship ties, are prohibited by law or custom from intermarrying. The incest taboo is generally universal, although it is imposed differently in different societies. Usually, the closer the genetic relationship between two people, the stronger and more highly charged is the taboo prohibiting or discouraging sexual relations. Some sociobiologists consider that inbred populations have diminished reproductive success and become gene pools for hereditary disorders. Some cultural anthropologists argue instead that the incest prohibition, with the corresponding rules of exogamy, acts to require males to seek sexual and marital partners outside the group, thereby establishing useful alliances. Other theories emphasize the need to control sexual jealousies within the family or to prepare children to function with restraint in adult society. No single explanation seems satisfactory, causing some to question whether incest should be treated as a unitary subject. Most cases of incest that come before criminal courts concern sexual intercourse between fathers and relatively young daughters (see child abuse).

---

Incest

Incompetence (See INEPTITUDE.)

Amnon

ravishes his sister, Tamar. [O.T.: II Samuel 13:14]

Antiochus

sexually active with daughter. [Br. Lit.: Pericles]

Canace

Aeolus’s daughter; committed suicide after relations with brother. [Gk. Myth.: Zimmerman, 49]

Cenci, Count Francesco

old libertine ravishes his daughter Beatrice. [Br. Lit.: Shelley The Cenci, Magill I, 131]

Clymenus

Arcadian who violated his daughter, Harpalyce. [Gk. Myth.: Zimmerman, 65]

Compson, Quentin

his only passion is for his sister Candace. [Am. Lit.: Faulkner The Sound and the Fury in Magill I, 917]

Electra

bore great, passionate love for father, Agamemnon. [Gk. Myth.: Zimmerman, 92; Gk. Lit.: Electra, Orestes]

Engstrand, Regina

Oswald’s half-sister and chosen lover. [Nor. Lit.: Ghosts]

Giovanni and Annabella

brother-sister romance. [Br. Lit.: ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore]

Harpalyce

bears child by father, Clymenus. [Gk. Myth.: Howe, 114]

Jocasta

unknowingly marries her son, Oedipus. [Gk. Lit.: Oedipus Rex]

Judah

unknowingly has relations with daughter-in-law. [O.T.: Genesis 38:15–18]

Lot

impregnates his two daughters. [O.T.: Genesis 19:36]

Myrrha

mother of Adonis; daughter of Adonis’s father. [Gk. Myth.: Brewer Dictionary, 741]

Niquee and Anasterax

sister and brother live together in incest. [Span. Lit.: Amadis de Gaul]

Oedipus

unknowingly marries mother and fathers four sons. [Gk. Lit.: Oedipus Rex]

Sieglinde and Siegmund

twin brother and sister passionately in love. [Ger. Lit.: Mann “The Blood of the Walsungs”]

Tamar

seduces her brother and her father. [Am. Lit.: Robinson Jeffers Tamar in Magill I, 948]

Tower, Cassandra

(Cassie) had relations with Dr. Tower, her father. [Am. Lit.: King’s Row, Magill I, 478–480]

Warren, Nicole

suffers after having had sexual relations with father. [Am. Lit.: Tender Is the Night]

---

Incest 

sexual association between close relatives. The USSR prohibits the registration of marriages between persons related in direct ascending or descending line, as well as between full brothers and sisters (of the same father and mother) or half brothers and sisters (of the same father and different mothers or of the same mother and different fathers). One of the chief rea-sons for the prohibition is concern for the health of the descend-ants, since defective children are often born of such marriages.