Incest and Exogamy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Incest and Exogamy - Essay Example The ambiguity of the incest taboo that has for so long confused anthropologists is still not reveled whilst it is seen as establishing a structure of exchanges among separate groups. As it is practically universal---some constraints on marriage are found in each and every society---the incest taboo has the impulsiveness of a natural desire. However since it is not a biological need (and Lvi-Strauss demonstrates this extremely convincingly via the case of cross-cousin marriage, which is a desire and not a need, while parallel-cousin marriage is better choice as that could be done to fulfill need and just a desire ) it partakes of a law, of a cultural obligation. The incest taboo is not so much a harmful restriction on the pool of marriage partners as a assurance that one group will gives its daughters to another group to fulfill the needs , as long as that the other group does the same. For Lvi-Strauss---and this is for the most part vital for family theory --the incest taboo prevents the marital family from dying in on itself as well as gives assurance to the fact that the wider society will definitely take preference over the family by means of marrying out side the family this group could be called non-family groups. Philosophically, incest asks a essential question of our changing mores: not just what is normal as well as what is deviant, it also asks if such a thing as deviance really exists at all in the r