incest
Forbidden family relations
Incest is sexual activity between close family members—parent and child, siblings, or sometimes first cousins.
Most societies prohibit it through both law and taboo, though definitions of which relationships qualify vary by culture and jurisdiction.
The family secret was years of incest.
The adjective is incestuous, which extends figuratively to describe insular relationships: the incestuous world of Washington politics.
Lasting psychological wound
- victimizationBeing made to suffer
- survivorOne still alive after
- exploitationSelfish use of others
- coercionPressured compliance through threats
manipulation · grooming · powerlessness · violation · betrayal · therapy · recovery · healing
Relatedness through shared ancestry
- bloodlineAncestry through generations
- relativesThose connected by blood
- siblingsFellow offspring
- parentageFamily line origin
offspring · lineage · clan · genealogy · nuclear · extended · familial · parent-child
Cultural or social prohibition
- forbiddenNot allowed
- illegalForbidden by statute
- unlawfulForbidden by statute
- criminalPerson who breaks laws
banned · outlawed · illicit · proscribed · exogamy · endogamy · laws · criminalization
Reproduction between close relatives
- consanguinityRelatedness through shared ancestry
- hereditaryPassed through generations
- mutationsAlterations in genetic sequence
- recessiveMasked unless paired identically
offspring · coefficient · homozygosity · linebreeding · deformity · Hapsburg · royal
Painful awareness of failure
- disgraceLoss of honor
- humiliationLoss of dignity
- guiltMoral self-reproach
- dishonorLoss of respect
scandal · ostracism · secrecy · silence · disclosure · stigmatization · hidden · unspoken
trauma
Lasting psychological wound
- victimizationBeing made to suffer
- survivorOne still alive after
- exploitationSelfish use of others
coercion · manipulation · grooming · powerlessness · violation · betrayal · therapy · recovery · healing · consent
consanguinity
Relatedness through shared ancestry
parentage · offspring · lineage · clan · genealogy · nuclear · extended · familial · parent-child · intergenerational
taboo
Cultural or social prohibition
criminal · banned · outlawed · illicit · proscribed · exogamy · endogamy · laws · criminalization · prosecution
inbreeding
Reproduction between close relatives
- consanguinityRelatedness through shared ancestry
- hereditaryPassed through generations
- mutationsAlterations in genetic sequence
recessive · offspring · coefficient · homozygosity · linebreeding · deformity · Hapsburg · royal
shame
Painful awareness of failure
- disgraceLoss of honor
- humiliationLoss of dignity
- guiltMoral self-reproach
dishonor · scandal · ostracism · secrecy · silence · disclosure · stigmatization · hidden · unspoken · unspeakable
- vice lawssodomy laws, obscenity laws, blue laws, adultery laws, indecency laws
- Jewish sinsidolatry, adultery, blasphemy, idol worship, apostasy
- marriage barriersbigamy, prior marriage, lack of consent, duress, underage
- Roman crimescrimen, homicide, parricide, patricide, treason
- sexual sinsfornication, adultery, lust, lechery, lewdness
- family tragedyfamilicide, filicide, infanticide, matricide, patricide
incestoutbreeding
Mating outside one's group
exogamy · outcrossing · marrying out · hybridization · intermarriage
- incest tabooBan on kin mating