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From Westermarck's Effect to Fox's Law: paradox and principle in the relationship between incest taboos and exogamy

Various theories that purport to explain the relationship between incest taboos and exogamous marriage customs are reviewed. These include sociological, psychological, and sociobiological approaches. Each of these approaches poses challenges not easily addressed by its competitors and yet no satisfactory synthesis seems available given the currently existing explanatory paradigms. It is argued here that exogamy is not a simple outgrowth of incest taboos and incest taboos are not a simple extenuation of inbreeding avoidance. Relationships between the sociobiology of inbreeding avoidance and social institutions such as exogamy and incest taboos are recast with the help of evolutionary psychology, which provides additional tools with which to approach this complex and contradictory set of interlocking problems.

Key Words: Darwinian psychology • Exogamy • Incest taboo • Psychoanalysis • Sociobiology

Social Science Information, Vol. 39, No. 3, 467-488 (2000)
DOI: 10.1177/053901800039003007


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