Is Incest Really Dull?

"The first choice of object in mankind," Freud believed, "is regularly an incestuous one." Sir James Frazer, the British anthropologist, also explained the almost universal ban on incest as a necessary safeguard against man's urge to mate with the most available partner: "The law only forbids men to do what their instincts incline them to do." For years, most scientists discounted a contrary suggestion by Finnish Anthropologist Edward Westermarck that close childhood association discourages erotic feeling.

More recently, Westermarck's theory has been gaining ground. Observation of kibbutz life in Israel indicates that the sibling-like relationship in which boys and girls are reared leads to virtually no pairing-off later. Now a detailed study of old marital customs and problems among Taiwanese villagers, long since superseded, lends further credence to Westermarck's belief that brother and sister have little sex appeal for each other.

Tatami Mates. In a study of parentally arranged marriages near Shulin, Taiwan, Stanford Anthropologist Arthur P. Wolf found two distinct patterns of premarital behavior. In the so-called major form of marriage, which the villagers considered proper, the future partners had little or no contact as children, and the bride did not enter her husband's home until the marriage actually took place. In the minor system, which was considered less proper, the girl was taken to the prospective husband's household as an infant or young child, and they were reared as brother and sister until old enough to marry. They ate together, played together, bathed together and, until the age of seven or eight, slept on the same tatami platform.

Using interviews and government household registration records, Wolf studied 303 marriages between 1900 and 1925, a stable period on Taiwan, when the proportion of major and minor marriages remained roughly constant. His findings: minor marriages, with partners brought up together, produced more adultery, more divorces and fewer children than major marriages. This indicated to Wolf that the long years of proximity stifled rather than stimulated sexual desire.

Runaway Newlyweds. Thirty-two of the 132 minor marriages ended in divorce or separation, compared with only two of the 171 major marriages. In those minor marriages that did not break up, adultery was relatively common. Extramarital affairs were far fewer in major marriages. "The sharp difference," says Wolf, "suggests a need for extramarital sexual gratification on the part of women who marry a childhood associate. That this is due to a distaste for sexual relations with their husbands is evident." The aversion also worked on minor-marriage husbands, who were more likely than others to keep mistresses or patronize prostitutes.

Much of the passion of those involved in minor marriages was expended on avoiding sexual relations with their spouses. One girl was so repelled that she fed her husband a potion made from pomegranate roots; it was said to have made him impotent. Then she proceeded to demonstrate her appetite by sleeping around with dozens of other men. Sometimes "brother-sister" newlyweds have tried to escape their fate. Reports Wolf: "One old man told me that he had to stand outside the door of their room with a stick to keep the newlyweds from running away." Despite the strong Oriental concern with ensuring descendants, villagers believed that twelve of the couples had never consummated their marriages. In all twelve cases, husband and wife had been reared together.

Wolf concluded that the incest taboo is not a response to the needs of the social order, but an expression of private motives. In short, too much togetherness, in childhood and adolescence, can prevent the companionship from ripening into conjugal love.

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