Incest

The incest taboo is about as close to a universal law as human moral rules get - Hal Herzog

HWN Suggests

Evolving a Mechanism to Avoid Sex with Siblings

Child molestation and rape top the social taboo list, according to a survey of 186 people between the ages of 18 and 47, and smoking marijuana ranks lowest among the 19 choices of forbidden behavior. In the middle—worse than robbing a bank but better than spousal murder—lies incest between brothers and sisters. Given the deleterious genetic impacts of offspring from such mating, some researchers have suggested that there may be an evolved mechanism designed to prevent that from occurring. And now evolutionary psychologist Debra Lieberman of the University of Hawaii–Honolulu believes she may have elicited some of its functions from this simple questionnaire.

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Resources

Incest: why is ‘worst of the worst’ abuse so often ignored?

Until the invisibility of incest is tackled, the “worst of the worst” is not just a possibility in Australia. For some children and women, it is their inescapable reality.

America Has an Incest Problem

People are rightly horrified by abuse scandals at Penn State and in the Catholic church. But what about children who are molested by their own family members?

Hidden Victims: The Plight of Pakistan's Child Incest Survivors

An alarming number of children, especially girls, are abused by older family members, who know that their country's legal system and social mores make it unlikely that they will be punished.

Is Incest Wrong?

Firstly, the old, tired argument that “It’s not natural”. Secondly, people claim that incest creates ‘deformed’ children. Thirdly, and oddly, people exclaim it’s “just” repugnant.

The greatest taboo? The surprising truth of what The Bible says about incest

Incest sparks strong emotions – and today, in many cultures at least, they are largely negative. But has it always been thus? Or is the taboo peculiar to certain times and places?

Evolving a Mechanism to Avoid Sex with Siblings

Evolutionary psychologists claim humans evolved a detector for avoiding sex with close kin.

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