scholarly journals The Power of Materialist-Environmental Explanations: General and Specific Evolution, and the Incest Taboo

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (03) ◽  
pp. 81-94
Author(s):  
Gregory C. Leavitt
Keyword(s):  
Incest Taboo

What happened to the universality of the incest taboo?

1991 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-273
Author(s):  
Frank B. Livingstone
Keyword(s):  
Incest Taboo

Phenomenology and the Incest Taboo

2002 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-222
Author(s):  
Peter Hadreas
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
Erotic Love ◽  
Incest Taboo ◽  
Human Element ◽  
Functional Explanations ◽  
Parent Child

AbstractIt is argued that traditional functional explanations of the incest taboo do not sufficiently supply causal conditions. It is widely acknowledged that the incest taboo, although universal among human societies, is largely a feature of human behavior. Husserl's investigations of intentionality are introduced to supply the particularly human element by which the taboo may be understood. So as to illumine the contrast between the conflicting intentionalities, a classical Aristotelian contrast between eros and parent/ child philia is drawn. Parent/child philia and eros, although both requisite for the survival of the species, are shown to be crosspurposeful in several ways. Husserl's understanding of 'negation,' as it applies to affective and practical intentionalities, is reconsidered. It is thereby explained how parental/child affection and erotic love, are 'incompossible' and not only conflict, but 'nullify' and 'cancel out' each other, generating the 'taboo'.

Maimonides’s Rationalization of the Incest Taboo, Its Reception in Thirteenth-Century Kabbalah, and Their Affinity to Aquinas

2021 ◽  
Vol 114 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-392
Author(s):  
Leore Sachs-Shmueli
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Incest Taboo ◽  
Common Presentation ◽  
The Common ◽  
Jewish Philosophy

AbstractThis article discusses Maimonides’s rationale for the incest taboo and traces its reception in Christian and kabbalistic traditions in the thirteenth century. Tracing the reception of Maimonides’s view enables recognition of the resemblance between Maimonides and Aquinas, the ambivalent stance toward Maimonides’s explanation expressed by Nahmanides, and the incorporation of Maimonides’s reasoning in one of the most systematic and enigmatic works of kabbalistic rationalization of the commandments, the Castilian Kabbalist Joseph of Hamadan’s The Book of the Rationales of the Negative Commandments. R. Joseph’s acceptance of Maimonidean principles and his integration of them in the theurgic Kabbalah reveal a conflict in the heart of its system and teach us about an important aspect of the theory of sexuality in Kabbalah. The inquiry offered here examines the inter-relations between divergent medieval religious trends in constructing the role of sexuality. Instead of the common presentation of Kabbalah as diverging from the ascetic positions of Jewish philosophy and Christianity, this analysis will elucidate Kabbalah’s continuity with them.

racial prejudice and the incest taboo

1972 ◽  
Vol 2 (9) ◽  
pp. 57-73
Author(s):  
Karem Monsour
Keyword(s):  
Racial Prejudice ◽  
Incest Taboo

scholarly journals Evolution of kinship structures driven by marriage tie and competition

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (5) ◽  
pp. 2378-2384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenji Itao ◽  
Kunihiko Kaneko
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationships ◽  
Mate Preference ◽  
Social Cooperation ◽  
Family Unit ◽  
Incest Taboo ◽  
Moran Process ◽  
Indirect Exchange ◽  
The Family ◽  
Group A ◽  
Generalized Exchange

The family unit and kinship structures form the basis of social relationships in indigenous societies. Families constitute a cultural group, a so-called clan, within which marriage is prohibited by the incest taboo. The clan attribution governs the mating preference and descent relationships by certain rules. Such rules form various kinship structures, including generalized exchange, an indirect exchange of brides among more than two clans, and restricted exchange, a direct exchange of brides with the flow of children to different clans. These structures are distributed in different areas and show different cultural consequences. However, it is still unknown how they emerge or what conditions determine different structures. Here, we build a model of communities consisting of lineages and family groups and introduce social cooperation among kin and mates and conflict over mating. Each lineage has parameters characterizing the trait and mate preference, which determines the possibility of marriage and the degree of cooperation and conflict among lineages. Lineages can cooperate with those having similar traits to their own or mates’, whereas lineages with similar preferences compete for brides. In addition, we introduce community-level selection by eliminating communities with smaller fitness and follow the so-called hierarchical Moran process. We numerically demonstrate that lineages are clustered in the space of traits and preferences, resulting in the emergence of clans with the incest taboo. Generalized exchange emerges when cooperation is strongly needed, whereas restricted exchange emerges when the mating conflict is strict. This may explain the geographical distribution of kinship structures in indigenous societies.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document