Close is Too Close: What is Wrong with Incest?

This paper outlines incest as a social taboo with reference to the Jewish, Native American, and Malagasy cultures and identifies what is wrong with the practice of incest. It has 7 sources.

Definition of Incest

Incest or the sexual relations between persons to whom marriage is prohibited by custom or law because of close kingship [Kottak 2002] is a social phenomenon that differ from culture to culture and by definition too they differentiate from one group to the next. The reason being that customs, traditions and cultures all vary due to the accepted norms as well as religion found in these groups and hence the prohibition or the allowance for people to marry siblings differs greatly. Inter-marriage to close relatives in the American culture for instance is considered taboo while in the Jewish it is considered compulsory. What triggers such social...
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