Cover Image

Incest avoidance and the incest taboos : two aspects of human nature /

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Wolf, Arthur P. (Author)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Stanford, California : Stanford Briefs, an imprint of Stanford University Press, [2014]
Subjects:
Incest.
Taboo.
Table of Contents:
  • Two questions
  • The Trobriand Islands
  • Matters of meaning
  • Universality affirmed
  • The dangers of inbreeding
  • A tempting solution
  • Group harmony theory
  • Group alliance theory
  • The !Kung on cognition
  • Incest and intuition
  • From nature to culture
  • Marx is missing
  • The Westermarck hypothesis
  • Frazer and Freud
  • Three natural experiments
  • Darwin's method
  • Seven predictions
  • The evidence from the Islamic world
  • The evidence from Israel
  • The evidence from Taiwan
  • Six objections
  • A seventh objection
  • Monkeys and apes
  • Sexual indifference
  • The second question
  • Murdock's other conclusions
  • Starting over
  • The meaning of "taboo"
  • Unnatural acts
  • Native testimony
  • Incest and witchcraft
  • Incest and cannibalism
  • Incest pollution
  • Automatic retribution
  • Supernatural retribution
  • Communal retribution
  • State retribution
  • A collective calamity
  • Incest impossible
  • The power of awe
  • Incestuous origins
  • Taboos as consensus
  • Taboos as norms
  • An emotional animal
  • Degrees of incest.