Exploring the role of the incest prohibition in human societies
What is incest? Is it universal prohibited? Does this prohibition
concern only "biological" kinships or does it extend to various "social"
kinships, such as those that are formed today in so-called blended
families but which also exist in many other societies?
This prohibition plays a fundamental role in the functioning of the
multiple kinship systems studied throughout the world. But where does it
come from? Can we think, with Claude Lévi-Strauss, that the prohibition
of incest alone marks the passage from nature to culture? And how can we
understand, then, the persistent tension between the proclaimed,
institutionalized prohibition and the incestuous practice which,
everywhere, remains?
World-renowned anthropologist Maurice Godelier highlights an essential
fact, the spontaneously asocial and undifferentiated character of human
sexuality and the need for a social regulation of this spontaneity. It
thus brings to light the main teachings of anthropology on the question
of incest, a major social fact of burning relevance today.
