Tio_Narratore
Studies
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2008
- Posts
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Incest is a socio-cultural construct, referring to sex with 'relatives' you aren't supposed to have sex with. I grew up with the traditional RC prohibition on marriage between third cousins (sharing a great-great-grandparent) or closer unless one had a clerical dispensation.
In extremely matrilineal societies, such as the Trobriand Islanders, a father is not related to his children, so sex with his daughter wouldn't be considered incest. (It's considered more as 'greed,' and strongly frowned upon). Among the Kachin, definitively patrilineal, a woman is seen as only the ground in which the father's seed grows, and so is not a relative of her son. In fact, the son inherits all his father's wives. He is expected to give his own mother to an uncle. Among the nobility of ancient Egypt, the Inca Empire, and royal Polynesia, it was expected that a first-born daughter would marry her younger brother in order to keep wealth and status with her father's lineage.
Biological inbreeding is different, and has increased homozygosity as it's main problematic effect. Consistent Brother-Sister or First Cousin mating results in 97% homozygosity after 5 and 10 generations, respectively. Consistent Second Cousin mating, however, plateaus at 47% homozygosity after about 15 generations. (This is a common pattern in small, closed populations). Consistent Third Cousin mating is equivalent to Strangers.
In extremely matrilineal societies, such as the Trobriand Islanders, a father is not related to his children, so sex with his daughter wouldn't be considered incest. (It's considered more as 'greed,' and strongly frowned upon). Among the Kachin, definitively patrilineal, a woman is seen as only the ground in which the father's seed grows, and so is not a relative of her son. In fact, the son inherits all his father's wives. He is expected to give his own mother to an uncle. Among the nobility of ancient Egypt, the Inca Empire, and royal Polynesia, it was expected that a first-born daughter would marry her younger brother in order to keep wealth and status with her father's lineage.
Biological inbreeding is different, and has increased homozygosity as it's main problematic effect. Consistent Brother-Sister or First Cousin mating results in 97% homozygosity after 5 and 10 generations, respectively. Consistent Second Cousin mating, however, plateaus at 47% homozygosity after about 15 generations. (This is a common pattern in small, closed populations). Consistent Third Cousin mating is equivalent to Strangers.
