Sociobiological Explanations of Incest Avoidance: A Critical Review of Evidential Claims

In: American anthropologist: AA, Band 92, Heft 4, S. 971-993

Abstract

Sociobiologists of human behavior, arguing that close inbreeding results in deleterious offspring, have proposed that natural selection processes have produced incest avoidance mechanisms in the human genotype. To support this evolutionary hypothesis, universal cultural incest proscriptions and research indicating a close compliance with these taboos are cited. Additional evidence from population genetics, ethology, and human community studies is also offered as evidential support. In this article I argue that the research cited in support of a biological basis for incest avoidance does not justify these resolute conclusions.