Incest Taboo

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Incest Taboo
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Kinship is social, not biological.

• Because kinship is social and not biological,
  incest is defined differently in unilineal
  kinship systems than it is in bilateral kinship
  systems.
• The negative consequences of incest must,
  therefore, also be seen in social not biological,
  terms.

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Patrilineal Descent
Bilateral Descent
Unilineal descent systems distinguish between
parallel and cross cousins.
In bilateral kinship systems all cousins are
equally related.
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Because Incest taboos are an extension of kinship
beliefs, Incest taboos may be seen as
Infrastructurally determined.
Incest Rule
--All Cousins
Cross Cousin not Parallel Cousin
--All Cousins
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Incest taboos force people to marry outside
their own group, to form alliances and to
maintain trade networks. --Yehudi Cohen
(1978) Marry out or be
killed out. --E.B. Tylor (1872)
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"The Disappearance of the Incest Taboo --Yehudi
Cohen

• Incest rules become far more relaxed in those
  societies that do not depend upon intermarriage
  among different extended kinship groups as a
  means of survival.
• As population increased within human societies
  and as businesses, governments and other
  non-kin-based institutions became increasingly
  responsible for the social, economic and
  political functions that were previously
  performed by kinship relations in lineage-based
  societies, the social importance intermarriage
  between lineage groups declined.
• This led to the gradual disappearance of the
  incest taboo and along with it a reduction in the
  very definition of what constitutes incest. 

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Cohen's point can be seen by examining the
definition of incest used by most states in the
U.S. 

• As the following state laws indicate, incest in
  the U.S. refers only to marriage or sexual
  relations within the immediate family.
• In none of the states which follow does incest
  apply even to first cousins.
• In Massachusetts, incest applies only to parents
  and children.
• Nowhere in the U.S. do we see the elaborate and
  complicated incest-avoidance rules typical of the
  Yanomamo and other kinship-based societies.

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Alabama  --  Section 13A-13-3 --  Incest

• A person commits incest if he marries or engages
  in sexual intercourse with a person he knows to
  be, either legitimately or illegitimately
• His ancestor or descendant by blood or adoption
  or
• His brother or sister of the whole or half-blood
  or by adoption or
• His stepchild or stepparent, while the marriage
  creating the relationship exists or
• His aunt, uncle, nephew or niece of the whole or
  half-blood.
•  
• A person shall not be convicted of incest or of
  an attempt to commit incest upon the
  uncorroborated  testimony of the person with whom
  the offense is alleged to have been committed.
•  
• Incest is a Class C felony.
• ___________________________
• (Acts 1977, No. 607, p. 812, sect7010.)

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Alaska  --  AS 11.41.450.  --   Incest.

• A person commits the crime of incest if, being 18
  years of age or older, that person engages in
  sexual penetration with another who is related,
  either legitimately or illegitimately, as
• (1)   an ancestor or descendant of the whole or
  half blood
• (2)   a brother or sister of the whole or half
  blood or
• (3)   an uncle, aunt, nephew, or niece by blood.
•  
• Incest is a class C felony.

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Nebraska  --  28-702.  --  Incest

• Incestuous marriages are marriages between
  parents and children, grandparents and
  grandchildren of every degree, between brothers
  and sisters of the half as well as the whole
  blood, and between uncles and nieces, aunts and
  nephews.  Incestuous marriages are declared to be
  absolutely void. This section shall extend to
  children and relations born out of wedlock.

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Missouri  --  568.020.  --  Incest.

• A person commits the crime of incest if he
  marries or purports to marry or engages in sexual
  intercourse or deviate sexual intercourse with a
  person he knows to be, without regard to
  legitimacy
• His ancestor or descendant by blood or adoption
  or
• His stepchild, while the marriage creating that
  relationship exists or
• His brother or sister of the whole or half-blood
  or
• His uncle, aunt, nephew or niece of the whole
  blood.
•  
• For purposes of this section
• "Sexual intercourse" means any penetration,
  however slight, of the female sex  organ by the
  male sex organ
• "Deviate sexual intercourse" means any act of
  sexual gratification between persons not lawfully
  married to one another, involving the genitals of
  one person and the mouth, tongue or anus of
  another.
•  
• Incest is a class D felony.

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Pennsylvania  --  Section 4302--  Incest

• A person is guilty of incest, a felony of the
  second degree, if that person knowingly marries
  or cohabits or has sexual intercourse with an
  ancestor or descendant, a brother or sister of
  the whole or half blood or an uncle, aunt, nephew
  or niece of the whole blood. The relationships
  referred to in this section include blood
  relationships without regard to legitimacy, and
  relationship of parent and child by adoption.
•  

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Massachusetts is currently revising its incest
statute.  Lawmakers in the House approved a bill
in January designed to toughen the state's incest
law by broadening the definition of sexual
contact.  The current Massachusetts incest law
only applies to intercourse between a child and
parent and not to other forms of sexual conduct. 
The bill would change the law by expanding the
definition of incest to include a wide range of
sexual behavior, including oral sex and digital
contact. The new bill was approved by the State
Senate last year. The State House passed a
slightly different version of the bill in
January. If both houses can agree on a single
version of the bill, it will be sent to the
acting governor for her signature.  However,
although there appears to be a good chance that
the new more inclusive incest bill will be made
into law, there is no indication that the
definition of incest is or will be expanded to
include relatives other than parents.
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