Incest Avoidance and Familial Bonding

Incest Avoidance, the Incest Taboo, and Social Cohesion: Revisiting Westermarck and the Case of the Israeli Kibbutzim

“…Despite sporadic challenges, mainly from anthropologists (e.g., Graber 1984;Kopytoff 1984;Leavitt 1989Leavitt , 1990Harris 1991), the bulk of scholarly work on incest during the past two decades adopts Westermarck's aversion hypothesis (e.g., Erickson 1989Erickson , 1993Bvec andSilverman 1993, 2000;Wolf 1993Wolf , 1995Wolf , 2005bWilliams and Finkelhor 1995;Lieberman and Symons 1998;Sesardic 1998Sesardic , 2005Schneider and Hendrix 2000;Fessler and Navarrete 2004). While some of these writers are more careful and talk about disinterest (Uhlmann 1992) or "a barrier specific to potentially reproductive acts rather than a general suppressor of sexual interest" (Bvec and Silverman 1993, p. 159), most align with Westermarck and use the term aversion when discussing the results of early association.…”

“…In the past few decades a consensus seems to be forming over one of the major questions that has fueled this debate: What is the major cause for incest avoidance? Increasingly, scholars maintain that Edward Westermarck was right when he suggested in 1889 that early childhood association leads to sexual aversion, which is in turn the reason for incest avoidance (e.g., Erickson 1989Erickson , 1993Lieberman and Symons 1998;Schneider and Hendrix 2000;Wolf 2005b). Many of these scholars also support Westermarck's second proposition, that this aversion is the historical source of the incest taboo (e.g., Wolf 1993;Fessler and Navarrete 2004;Bateson 2005;Sesardic 2005).…”

Naturalism as a political-cultural enterprise

“…The influence of psychoanalysis more generally has led to ignorance of the specific nature of family ties, through an unwarranted assimilation of the forms of affection (familial and sexual). Compare on this subject and in the same field of naturalism: Erickson (1989) and Wolf (1995). 12.…”

Familiarity breeds: incest and the Ptolemaic dynasty

“…(1980) 29-48, 83-107; Murray and Smith (1983); 80 Fox (1980) 48; Bixler( 1982a) 267; Shepher( 1983) Shepher (1983) 51-67; Burling (1985); Kitcher (1985) 6 1 , 1 3 1 ; Arens (1986) 109; Wolf (1993) 160-1; 273-4; Arens (1986) 61-101; Blouin and Blouin (1988); Mitterauer (1994) 246. Pusey (1990); Durham (1991) 309-15; Bevc and 81 Roscoe (1994); see also Erickson (1989Erickson ( , 1993 and Silverman (1993,2000); Wolf (1993Wolf ( , 1995; Scheidel Hardy (2001). (1996a) 39-44; Pillay (1999); Schneider and Hendrix feelings may also arise.…”