Quote:
|
Originally Posted by smooth
I will say, however, that historic societies didn't hinge their taboos regarding incest on genetic anomolies. That should be obvious, since the understanding of genetics is fairly recent in the positivist timeline. I do agree, however, that incest taboos have been very critical to the social ordering within and between families. I could go into this more in depth but in the end of day I agree with what you're saying: there are scientific along with sociological reasons to restrict sexual relationships between family members' siblings and/or their parents. Whether they are outweighed by our notions of individual rights is an altogether different question, I think...
|
They might not have known genetics, but they did understand basic heredity at a phenotypic level. Humans have been genetically engineering animals and plants since the first agricultural societies with selective breeding. It doesn't take understanding of genetics to see that mating siblings in animals caused more problems than other matings. Likewise if you had a brother-sister human mating the increase in still births, some of which would look quite monstrous, and other defects would be easy to note. This is why you would have the taboo in the first place. We understood the genetic consequences, even back then.