Summary and Analysis

"The Enigma of Incest" This chapter consists mostly of the author's commentary on the work of Claude Lévi-Strauss in studying intimate relationships in general and the nature of incestuous relationships in particular. The author quotes Lévi-Strauss as suggesting that the taboo against incest (which, the author suggests, is essentially a man's keeping of a female relative for himself) is, in the first place, an establishment of the boundary between animal and man. The un-self-aware animals, the theory suggests, have no sense of taboo, and therefore no sense that mating with a close relative is forbidden. Man, on the other hand, is fully self aware, fully aware of the taboos against sexuality in general and sees incest as among the most animal-like of the sexual acts and as something that must be avoided at all costs. The author then...