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The Precultural Basis of the Incest Taboo: Toward a Biosocial Theory
Author(s) -
PARKER SEYMOUR
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1976.78.2.02a00030
Subject(s) - biosocial theory , nature versus nurture , psychology , ethology , curiosity , sociobiology , taboo , sociology , social psychology , developmental psychology , anthropology , ecology , biology , personality
The literature on the origins of the incest taboo is characterized by controversy over the nature/nurture issue, and fears of reductionism. In recent years work emanating from such diverse disciplines as cultuml and physical anthropology, ethology, and neuropsychology warmnts a new look at this intriguing issue. It is probable that incest avoidance is widespread among the vertebrata and is “built into the wiring.” As learned behavior becomes more important phylogenetically, curiosity and exploration plays a larger role in adaptation and has manifest survival admntages. Incest awidance functions as a mechanism to propel the individual into new relationships and “social territory.” For humans, incest avoidance and its later elaboration into a cultuml taboo serve to motivate exploration of and attachment to a wider social nexus than the family. It also prevents fixation at a relatively undifferentiated psychological stage of development