incest taboo
Family mating ban
The incest taboo is the near-universal prohibition against sexual relations between close family members—typically parents and children, siblings, and sometimes extending to aunts, uncles, and first cousins.
Found across virtually all human societies, the taboo varies in scope: some cultures forbid marriage between any traceable relatives, others permit cousin marriage.
The prohibition is enforced through social stigma, religious sanction, and criminal law.
Whether its origins are biological (inbreeding avoidance) or social (preserving family structure) remains debated.
- prohibitedOfficially not permitted
- forbiddenNot allowed
- sexualOf physical desire
- sexual abuseNonconsensual intimate violation
- power imbalanceUnequal distribution of control
Jocasta · illicit · family secret · relative · kin · intergenerational trauma · sibling · close relatives · blood relative · matrilineality · Oedipus · Oedipus complex · affinity · kinship · nuclear family · genetic disorders · genetic mutation · psychoanalysis
incest tabooacceptable
Meeting minimum standards
legal · permitted · sanctioned · encouraged · normalized