incest n : sexual intercourse between persons too closely related to marry (as between a parent and a child)

English

Noun

1. sexual relations between people who may not legally marry, especially between close relatives
2. the crime of having such a relationship

Translations

• Chinese: 近亲相奸 (jìn qīn xiāng jiān)
• Dutch: bloedschande , incest
• Finnish: insesti, sukurutsaus
• West Frisian: ynsest
• Old Frisian: swesbed
• German: Blutschande , Inzest
• Icelandic: sifjaspell
• Italian: incesto (1,2)
• Old English: sibbleger, mæghæmed
• Russian: кровосмешение (krovosmesheniye)
• Serbian: rodosknavljenje , krvomešanje
• Spanish: incesto

Related terms

• incestuous
• twincest

See also

• sexual intercourse

Incest is sexual activity between closely related persons (often within the immediate family) that is illegal or socially taboo. The type of sexual activity and the nature of the relationship between persons that constitutes a breach of law or social taboo vary with culture and jurisdiction.

The most frequently reported type of incest is father-daughter incest. Incest between adults and prepubescent or adolescent children is a form of child sexual abuse Approximately twenty percent of all women have had at least one incest experience before they turned 18.

Consensual mutually desired adult incest is very rare, found almost exclusively between kin who were separated early in life and therefore did not experience early association and the related development of the natural adaptation for incest avoidance. Consensual incest between adults is criminalized in most countries, although it is seen by some as a victimless crime.

Incest is sexual activity between family members of either sex and age, with or without consent (depending on local laws, especially age of consent). However, which family members constitute those covered by the incest prohibition is determined by the society in which the persons live. Some societies consider it to include only those who live in the same household, or who belong to the same clan or lineage; other societies consider it to include "blood relatives"; other societies further include those related by adoption or marriage.

Most societies have some form of incest avoidance. The incest taboo is and has been one of the commonest of all cultural taboos, both in current nations and many past societies, with legal penalties imposed in some jurisdictions. Most modern societies have legal or social restrictions on closely consanguineous marriages. However, in some societies, such as that of Ancient Egypt, brother–sister, father–daughter, and mother–son relations were practiced among royalty. In addition, the Balinese and some Inuit tribes have altogether different beliefs about what constitutes illegal and immoral incest.

Types

Between adults and children

Incest perpetrated by an adult of either gender against a child is called "intrafamilial child sexual abuse". The most-often reported form of incest is of this inherently abusive form. Father-daughter and stepfather-daughter incest is most commonly reported, with most of the remaining reports consisting of mother/stepmother-daughter/son incest. Prevalence of parental child sexual abuse is difficult to assess due to secrecy and privacy; some estimates show 20 million Americans have been victimized by parental incest as children.

Emotional incest occurs when a parent relates to a child as a substitute for an adult partner. That child may become emotionally bonded to, and codependent with, the parent. Emotional incest usually occurs before physical parent-child incest. Even without physical sexual contact, the consequences to such "bonded" children include a lifetime of partnership difficulties, according to Martyn Carruthers who wrote that this is a socially accepted form of child abuse in many countries.

The ISNA reported that a counselling hotline stated that a large percentage of the calls they handle deal with the issue of parental child abuse.

The Goler clan is a specific instance in which child sexual abuse in the form of forced adult/child and sibling/sibling incest took place over at least three generations. A number of Goler children were victims of sexual abuse at the hands of fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, sisters, brothers, cousins, and each other. During interrogation by police, several of the adults openly admitted to engaging in many forms of sexual activity, up to and including full intercourse, multiple times with the children. Sixteen adults (both men and women) were charged with hundreds of allegations of incest and sexual abuse of children as young as five. A 2006 study showed a large portion of adults who experienced sibling incest have distorted or disturbed beliefs both about their own experience and the subject of sexual abuse in general. An observational study in 1993 found that 16 percent of the 930 adult women interviewed reported that they had been sexually abused by a sibling before they were 18 years old.

Sibling incest is most prevalent in families where one or both parents are often absent or emotionally unavailable, with the abusive siblings using incest as a way to assert their power over a weaker sibling and thereby express their feelings of hurt and rage. The damaging effects on both childhood development and adult symptoms resulting from brother–sister sexual abuse are similar to the effects of father–daughter, including substance abuse, depression, suicidality, and eating disorders.

Between consenting adults

Incest between consenting adults is sexual behavior between adult, blood relatives (which can include parents and adult offspring, siblings, cousins, etc.) that is not coerced or forced in any way. While incest between consenting adults has not been widely reported in the past, the internet has shown that this behavior does take place, possibly more often than many people realize. As he described in his article, in 2003, U.S. Senator Rick Santorum publicly derided the theory of the Supreme Court ruling to allow private consensual sex in the home (primarily as a gay rights move). He stated: "If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery." It derives from the Latin incestus or incestum, the substantive use of the adjective incestus meaning 'unchaste, impure', which itself is derived from the Latin castus meaning 'chaste'. The derived adjective incestuous does not appear until the 16th century.

Prior to the introduction of the Latin term, incest was known in Old English as sibbleger (from sibb 'kinship' + leger 'to lie') or mǣġhǣmed (from mǣġ 'kin, parent' + hǣmed 'sexual intercourse') but in time, both words fell out of use.

Ancient civilizations

It is relatively accepted that incestuous marriages were widespread at least during the Graeco-Roman period of Egyptian history. Numerous papyri and the Roman census declarations attest to many husbands and wives being brother and sister (Lewis, 1983; Bagnall and Frier, 1994; Shaw, 1993). In Hopkins (1980) this is conclusively demonstrated, and more recent scholars in the field have not questioned it. Some of these incestuous relationships were in the royal family, especially the Ptolemies (see the biography of Cleopatra, who married more than one of her brothers).

The fable of Oedipus, with a theme of inadvertent incest between a mother and son, ends in disaster and shows ancient taboos against incest as Oedipus is punished for incestuous actions by blinding himself.

Incestuous unions were frowned upon and considered as nefas (against the laws of gods and man) in Roman times, and were explicitly forbidden by an imperial edict in AD 295, which divided the concept of incestus into two categories of unequal gravity: the incestus iuris gentium, which was applied to both Romans and non-Romans in the Empire, and the incestus iuris civilis, which concerned only Roman citizens. Therefore, for example, an Egyptian could marry an aunt, but a Roman could not. Despite the act of incest being unacceptable within the Roman Empire, Roman Emperor Caligula is rumored to have had open sexual relationships with all three of his sisters, (Julia Livilla, Drusilla, and Agrippina the Younger). The taboo against incest in Ancient Rome is demonstrated by the fact that politicians would use charges of incest (often false charges) as insults and means of political disenfranchisement.

Additionally, many European monarchs were related due to political marriages, sometimes resulting in distant cousins becoming married.

Hypothesis of incest avoidance origins

Some researchers hypothesize that humans have a kin recognition ability that functions in part to enable incest avoidance between close relatives, thereby protecting the gene pool of the family or tribe from excessive damage by inbreeding; and, that this kin recognition system may form a biological basis for social and psychological prohibitions against incest.

Laws regarding incest

Incest is illegal in many jurisdictions. The exact legal definition of "incest," including the nature of the relationship between persons, and the types sexual activity, varies by country, and by even individual states or provinces within a country. These laws can also extend to marriage between said individuals.

Religious views on incest

Judeo-Christian

In the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Book of Genesis in the Bible, Lot's two daughters have sex with him to carry on their lineage.

Later, the Book of Leviticus lists prohibitions against sexual relations between various pairs of family members. Men are prohibited, on pain of death, to have sexual relations with their daughters, mothers, aunts, and various other relations. (Father–daughter incest is covered by a prohibition on sexual relationships between a man and any daughter born to any woman he has had sexual relationships with, thereby prohibiting his incest not only with his own daughters but also with women who could be his stepdaughters by marriage.)

It is to be noted that the Book of Leviticus says nothing about the marriage of cousins (see Cousin couple).

Islam

The Quran mentions incest which prohibits a man from having sexual relationships with his mother, daughter, sister, paternal aunt, maternal aunt or niece. However, Islam allows for marriage with cousins and other more distant relatives.

Hinduism

Hinduism speaks of incest in highly abhorrent terms. Hindus were greatly fearful of the bad effects of incest and thus practise to date strict rules of both endogamy and exogamy, that is, marriage in the same caste (varna) but not in the same family tree (gotra) or bloodline (Parivara). Marriages within the gotra ("swagotra" marriages) are banned under the rule of exogamy in the traditional matrimonial system. People within the gotra are regarded as kin and marrying such a person would be thought of as incest.

In some South Indian communities, where gotra membership passed from father to children, marriages were allowed between uncle and niece, while such marriages were forbidden in matrilineal communities, like Malayalis and Tuluvas, where gotra membership was passed down from the mother. A much more common characteristic of south Indian Hindu society is permission of marriage between cross-cousins (children of brother and sister). Thus, a man is allowed to marry his maternal uncle's daughter or his paternal aunt's daughter but is not allowed to marry his paternal uncle's daughter, a parallel cousin, who is treated as a sister.

North Indian Hindu society not only follows rules of gotra for marriages, but also has many regulations which go beyond the basic definition of gotra which result in few occurrences of similarly incestuous relationships.

In Inidan Mythology, Brother-Sister incest is strictly discouraged in the Yma -Yamuna story but cousin-interest is shown no apathy. For the whole race of living creatures are shown as cousins and marriage between cousins is traced back to the Manus, Saptrashis. Devas, Asuras and ilk. In Mahbharata, example of marriage between first couisns are those between Arjun and Subhadra, and Abhimanyu(Subhadra's son/0 and Blaram's daugheter, while many others like Vasudev-Devaki, Krishna-Staybhama, Samba(Krishna's son)-Lakshmana(Duryodhana's daughter) and many more

Buddhism

Asian societies shaped by Buddhist traditions takes a strong ethical stand in human affairs and sexual behavior in particular. In most of those societies, incest is regarded as highly abhorrent. However, unlike most other world religions, most variations of Buddhism, does not go in to details what is right and what is wrong in mundane activities of life. Incest (or any other detail of human sexual conduct for that matter) is not specifically mentioned in any of the religious scriptures. The most common formulation of Buddhist ethics are the Five Precepts and the Eightfold Path, one should neither be attached to nor crave sensual pleasure. These precepts take the form of voluntary, personal undertakings, not divine mandate or instruction. The third of the Five Precepts is "To refrain from committing sexual misconduct". It is understandable that incest itself could constitute "sexual misconduct".. 'Sexual misconduct' is a loose term, and is subjected to interpretation relative to the social norms of the followers. In fact, Buddhism in its fundamental form, does not define what is right and what is wrong in absolute terms for lay followers. Therefore the interpretation of whether incest for a layperson is right or wrong, is not a religious matter as far as Buddhism is concerned.

See also

• Child sexual abuse
• Incest in folklore
• Incest in popular culture
• Consanguinity
• Covert incest
• Genetic sexual attraction
• Human sexual behaviour
• Kinship and descent
• Levirate marriage
• Westermarck effect
• Inbreeding
• Incest pornography
• Incest taboo
• Prohibited degree of kinship
• Royal intermarriage
• Sexual ethics
• Cousin couple

Notes

References

• Adams, Kenneth, M., Silently Seduced: When Parents Make Their Children Their Partners, Understanding Covert Incest, HCI, 1992.
• Adams, Kenneth, M., When He's Married to His Mom: How to Help Mother-Enmeshed Men Open Their Hearts To True Love, Fireside, 2007.
• Anderson, Peter B., and Cindy Struckman-Johnson, Sexually Aggressive Women: Current Perspectives and Controversies, Guilford, 1998.
• Bagnall, Roger S. and Bruce W. Frier, The demography of Roman Egypt, Cambridge, 1994
• Bixler, Ray H. (1982) "Comment on the Incidence and Purpose of Royal Sibling Incest," American Ethnologist, 9(3), Aug, pp. 580-582.
• Blume, E. Sue, Secret Survivors: Uncovering Incest and its Aftereffects in Women, Ballantine, 1991.
• DeMilly, Walter, In My Father's Arms: A True Story of Incest, University of Wisconsin Press, 1999.
• Elliot, Michelle, Female Sexual Abuse of Children, Guilford, 1994.
• Toxic Parents: Overcoming Their Hurtful Legacy and Reclaiming Your Life
• Goody, John (Jack Goody) (1956) A Comparative Approach to Incest and Adultery, The British Journal of Sociology, 7 (4), Dec, pp. 286-305 doi:10.2307/586694
• Gil, Eliana, Treating Abused Adolescents, Guilford, 1996.
• Herman, Judith, Father-Daughter Incest, Harvard University Press, 1982.
• Hislop, Julia, "Female Sexual Offenders: What Therapists, Law Enforcement, and Child Protective Services Need to Know", Issues, 2001.
• Hopkins, Keith (1980) "Brother-Sister Marriage in Roman Egypt", Comparative Studies in Society and History, 22: 303-354.
• Leavitt, G. C. (1990) "Sociobiological explanations of incest avoidance: A critical claim of evidential claims", American Anthropologist, 92: 971-993.
• Lew, Mike, Victims No Longer: Men Recovering from Incest and Other Sexual Child Abuse, Nevraumont, 1988.
• Lewis, Naphtali, Life in Egypt under Roman Rule, Oxford, 1983.
• Lobdell, William, "Missionary's Dark Legacy", Los Angeles Times, Nov. 19, 2005, p. A1.
• Love, Pat, Emotional Incest Syndrome: What to Do When a Parent's Love Rules Your Life, Bantam, 1991.
• Méndez-Negrete, Josie, Las hijas de Juan: Daughters Betrayed, Duke University Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-8223-3896-3.
• Miletski, Hani, Mother-Son Incest: The Unthinkable Broken Taboo, Safer Society, 1999.
• Miller, Alice, That Shalt Not Be Aware: Society's Betrayal of the Child, Farrar Strauss Giroux, 1983.
• Pryor, Douglass, Unspeakable Acts: Why Men Sexually Abuse Children, New York University Press, 1996.
• Rosencrans, Bobbie, and Eaun Bear, The Last Secret: Daughters Sexually Abused by Mothers, Safer Society, 1997.
• Scruton, Roger, Sexual Desire: A Moral Philosophy of the Erotic, Free Press, 1986.
• Shaw, Brent D., Explaining Incest: Brother-Sister Marriage in Graeco-Roman Egypt, Man, New Series, 27(2), Jun 1992, pp. 267-299. JSTOR article
• Shaw, Risa, Not Child's Play: An Anthology on Brother-Sister Incest, Lunchbox, 2000.
• Tyldesley, Joyce, Ramesses: Egypt's Great Pharaoh, London, 2000.

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