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

Summary: Why do most people never have sex with close relatives? And why do they disapprove of other people doing so? Incest Avoidance and Incest Taboos investigates our human inclination to avoid incest and the powerful taboo against incest found in all societies. Both subjects stir strong feelings and vigorous arguments within and beyond academic circles. With great clarity, Wolf lays out the modern assumptions about both, concluding that all previous approaches lack precision and balance on insecure evidence. Researchers he calls ""constitutionalists"" explain human incest avoidance by.

Record details

ISBN: 9780804791694 (electronic bk.)
ISBN: 0804791694 (electronic bk.)
ISBN: 9780804789677 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN: 0804789673 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Physical Description: remote
1 online resource (188 pages)
Publisher: Stanford, California : Stanford Briefs, an imprint of Stanford University Press, 2014.

Content descriptions

General Note:

Description based upon print version of record.

Multi-User.

AC-SUB

CatMonthString:march.15

"Stanford Briefs"--Cover.

Formatted Contents Note:

1. Two questions; 2. The Trobriand Islands; 3. Matters of meaning; 4. Universality affirmed; 5. The dangers of inbreeding; 6. A tempting solution; 7. Group harmony theory; 8. Group alliance theory; 9. The !Kung on cognition; 10. Incest and intuition; 11. From nature to culture; 12. Marx is missing; 13. The Westermarck hypothesis; 14. Frazer and Freud; 15. Three natural experiments; 16. Darwin's method; 17. Seven predictions; 18. The evidence from the Islamic World; 19. The evidence from Israel; 20. The evidence from Taiwan; 21. Six objections; 22. A seventh objection