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ANNA MEIGS

KATHLEEN BARLOW

Beyond the Taboo: Imagining Incest

ABSTRACT This article provides an overview of anthropology's 150-year discussion of the incest taboo in light of the last 30 years of
feminist and psychoanalytic discoveries about the incestuous abuse of children, it invites anthropologists to explore incest ethnographi-
cally and offers three suggested ways: one biosocial, a second social relational, and a third psychoanalytic, focusing on a connection
between what psychologists call dissociation and what anthropologists call trance or possession. [Key words: incest taboo, childhood
sexual abuse, dissociation, trance/possession, innate avoidance mechanism]

T HE INCEST TABOO is to anthropology what Shake-


speare is to English literature—fundamental and clas-
sic. It is "the collective anthropological stock in trade" (Arens
trolled by its taboo. It is now understood by many as an
act of surprisingly frequent occurrence within our own
communities. For political as well as scholarly reasons, it is
1986:27), "as old as anthropology [itself]" (Schneider important to have a broad anthropological conversation
1976:149). There is also widespread recognition that dis- concerning incest. Many readers of anthropological texts
cussion of the incest taboo is stalled. Needham (1974) re- have already made the paradigm shift on incest so preva-
fers to the endless academic debate on incest; Schneider, lent in public culture. In all likelihood some of them have
to "the present state of chaos in this field" (1976:150). In had experience with incest and its consequences and may
his plea for "thick description" of the taboo, Schneider be disturbed by statements like the following that linger
complains that "the literature on the incest prohibition is unchallenged in the anthropological literature: "1 doubt
largely speculative, highly theoretical, and presumes unless it is severely inculcated, there is much guilt in fe-
that everyone knows what is being talked about" male feelings about sex with brothers and fathers" (Fox
(1976:161). One telling indicator of stalemate is the extent 1980, quoted in Suggs and Miracle 1993:215).3
to which textbook discussions of the incest taboo remain Why is it that anthropologists, at least for the most
static from one edition to the next.1 The authors recite the part, have not participated in what sociologist Bell calls
litany of arguments (Westermarck, Freud, Malinowski, the "profound theoretical shift in the way in which incest
Levi-Strauss), couched in statements of agnosticism such is conceived" (1993:3)? Or to put it differently, why have
as Kottak's: "There is no simple or universally accepted ex- scholars of marriage and family (the topics in which the
planation for the fact that all cultures ban incest" incest taboo is embedded) not attended to the burgeoning
(1994:22; see 2000b:255). Fox confirms the sense of im- feminist and psychoanalytic literatures of incestuous
passe: "When anthropological theorists ran out of steam abuse and its numerous first person accounts? McNaron
on the subject, it was largely because each explanation and Morgan, both survivors themselves, write in the intro-
they gave was about as good as any other" (1980:6). duction to their edited volume of survivors' stories:

Our goal is to break anthropology out of its stalemate This book is about breaking silence. It is true that there are
on this topic by shifting attention from the taboo to incest many kinds of silence, some of them eloquent, but the
itself. Outside the anthropological arena, there emerged in most eloquent silence of all can be shut out by the dosed
ear. That has been the history of most incest survi-
the 1970s and continues to this day an important Ameri- vors—eyes averted, voices unheard. The silence of women
can literature on the surprising frequency and traumatic who have been Incest victims Is often self-imposed. We
consequences of "incestuous abuse" (see Davies and feel shame at having been abused by those we know art
Frawley 1994; Finkelhor 1979, Melselman 1990).2 Overall, supposed to love us, and the horror of that abuse and
shame turns Inward as the victim tries to learn what she
this new literature signals a paradigm shift In American
has done wrong, why this Is happening to her. The inter-
public consciousness: it Is less acceptable to view lncist as nallzing of shame and the belief that she Is responsible
an infrequent and obscure act more or less effectively con- somehow for what Is done to her keep the victim silent.

A F R I C A N ANTHROPOLOGIST 104(1):38-49. COPYRIGHT O 2002, A M W C A N ANTHROPOIOGICAI A S S O C I A T E


Meigs and Barlow • Beyond the Taboo 39

often for years after she is an adult and it is safe to speak. cultural, inhuman, and unthinkable. The incest taboo sat-
Holding this pain inside, keeping even the fact of pain se- isfied Victorian evolutionists' impulse to identify those
cret starts a spiral that often leads to suicide—many incest
victims do not survive. [1982:11] features of society that differentiated humans from the
rest of the animal world. This project continues to inform
We answer the question of why anthropologists have the three major explanatory frameworks for discussing the
not participated in the paradigm shift in three stages. In incest taboo: social structural, psychobiological, psycho-
the first section below, we begin with a brief intellectual
analytic.
history of incest and its taboo and then consider how the
anthropological discussion came to its current state of sta-
The Three Reigning Arguments
sis. We examine the three reigning arguments about the
origins of the taboo, each of which emphasizes the ab- Social structural explanations,firstenunciated by Levi-Strauss
sence of incest far more strongly than its presence. Each in The Elementary Structures of Kinship (see 1969), empha-
argument comes to a halt in one way or another on ques- size that incest is a violation of the social design and, as
tions about the meaning and experience of incest—in such, interferes with the proper functioning of social
other words, by failing to consider sufficiently the psycho- groups. By means of incest prohibition, the Hobbesian
logical dimensions and consequences of incest. In the sec- condition of human life dominated by nature and driven
ond part, we address ways to reconfigure research on in- by biological needs and raw emotion is renounced for a so-
cest and incest-related subjects in a range of different cial world of culture and reason. Levi-Strauss's work, build-
cross-cultural contexts. In the third part, we suggest how ing on Tylor's (1889) and Mauss's (1967), asserts that the
anthropology's discussion of the taboo can be made to function of the incest taboo is to compel the reciprocal ex-
move again by attending to the insights on and interpre- change of women and, further, that this reciprocity is the
tive possibilities for incest and its prohibition offered by ancient and continuing condition for social solidarity in
post-Freudian psychoanalytic theory. In particular, we in- groups iarger than the nuclear family. He asserts, "The in-
dicate how new insights about ethnographic data can be cest prohibition is at once on the threshold of culture, in
achieved by using recent psychoanalytic theories of sexual culture, and in one sense, . cuiture itself" (1969:12), and
abuse. As an especially telling example, we cite recent within a few pages he declares, "Before it, culture is stili
work interpreting ethnographic data on trance and posses- non-existent; with it, nature's sovereignty over man is
sion as, in some cases, a dissociative response to incestu- ended" (1969:25).
ous abuse in childhood. Emphasizing the social network-building function of
incest taboos, Yehudi Cohen argues that incest taboo
DISCUSSION OF INCEST A N D INCEST TABOO functions to "promote the greatest flow of manufactured
goods and raw materials" (1978:76) and that the institu-
Brief Intellectual History tionalization of large and complex trade networks has led
Throughout the 20th century, anthropologists (cultural to a contraction of the need for and, therefore, the range
and biological) and psychologists have pursued the study of the taboo: "Human history suggests that the incest ta-
of incest and its taboo along separate analytic fronts, util- boo may indeed be obsolete'" (1978:78). This point of view
izing an array of remarkably different assumptions and is echoed by Harris in his recent textbook: "Incest has
definitions. Nevertheless, the assumptions and under- been decriminalized in Sweden, and there is an effort to
standings with which they began in the mid-19th century do likewise in the United States. . Some scientists argue
were surprisingly similar. Each explanation in some way that incest prohibitions will eventually disappear because
attempted to explain the relationship of human nature (a there are many alternative ways of establishing intergroup
product of evolutionary biology) to human society (those relationships in modem states" (1991:149). For these
achievements that seemed most uniquely human). theorists, the incest taboo exists to promote the broad net-
The original discussion of the incest taboo within an- works of social relations and economic exchange that are
thropology emerged from theories of primitive promiscu- constitutive of the social world.
ity promulgated by evolutionists such as Morgan (Ancient Biosocial explanations of the incest taboo became promi-
Society, 1877), Bachofen (Das Mutterrecht, 1861 [see 1948]), nent in the 1970s and 1980s and derive from Westermarck
and McLennan {Primitive Marriage, 1865 [see 1998)) and (1894), who argues contra Morgan, Bachofen, McLennon,
echoed later by Freud (Totem and Taboo, 1913 [see 1961b)). and Freud that it is the taboo rather than incest that is
In their view, early human groups were dominated by bio- natural: proximity in childhood, he maintains, leads to
logical urges—namely, sexual appetite, innate possessive- sexual aversion. Picking up on this hypothesis, Shepherds
ness, and instinctual mothering. These theorists argue that (1971, 1983) studies of kibbutzim marriages, McCabe's
the incest taboo transformed human groups from the cha- (1983) work on patrilateral parallel cousin marriages in
otic and promiscuous state of nature into the ordered and Lebanon, and Wolf's (1966, 1968, 1970, 1980, 1995) re-
(relatively) incest-free, certainly incest-condemning, state search on minor marriages in Taiwan document lessened
of culture. The taboo was, in fact, the Instrument of be- sexual attraction, comparatively low birth rates, and higher
coming human, and incest was thereby distanced as pre- divorce rates for marriage partners raised in close proximity.
40 American Anthropologist Vol. 104, No. 1 March 2002

More recently, primatologists and evolutionary psy- creatures have their breasts cut open, though they are in-
chologists (summarized in Boyd and Silk 2000:S96ff.), ar- visible with X-rays, can all be found In the stories of se-
duction. [Bonaparte et al. 1954:190-191]
gue that inbreeding avoidance is evolutionarily old—it
characterizes all primate species, including humans. Nine months later Freud had replaced the seduction
Therefore, it is likely that there is some as yet unspecified theory with his Oedipal theory, in which women's reports
biological basis to inbreeding avoidance, expressed in the of paternal and fraternal sexual advances are understood
ethnographic record as an incest taboo. Leavitt (1990) has and analyzed as unconscious fantasies generated by simi-
suggested that biosocial arguments do not present con- larly unconscious childhood sexual wishes (Davies and
vincing evidence that incest avoidance is directly pro- Frawley 1994:llff.). Freud's reversal had long-standing
duced from our biological makeup. A less deterministic consequences for how psychology viewed patient reports
view would have it that cultural learning and genetic of incestuous sex and for the choices that anthropologists
transmission are not mutually exclusive alternatives and made as to where to focus their studies. Psychology has,
may interact to produce incest avoidance in ways that are for the most part, returned to Freud's initial seduction the-
complex and flexible (Boyd and Silk 2000:583ff). ory, whereas anthropology has stayed with its long-stand-
The psychoanalytic argument is grounded directly in ing focus on the taboo and on the cross-cultural validity of
Freud's view that humans are innately incestuous because Oedipal theory.s
of the psychological processes of family life and the insis-
tence of the sex drive. In psychoanalytic work primarily Problems with Anthropological Theories
with women patients, Freud explored puzzling behaviors Structuralist discussions, in failing to consider the impor-
and symptoms with no known organic cause (for example, tance of the incest taboo for protecting relationships based
severe pain, paralysis, or blindness) involved in what was on primary attachment and trust, as between parents and
called "hysteria."4 In a paper read to his colleagues in April children, neglect the psychological consequences of in-
1896 (and published that year) Freud announced his dis- cest. To the extent that incest itself appears in their ac-
covery that hysteria is the psychological consequence of counts, it is as an exceptional but institutionalized phe-
actual incestuous experience: "At the bottom of every case nomenon occurring among elite groups in distant times
of hysteria there are one or more occurrences of premature and places, as, for example, in Arens's (1986) and Levi-
sexual experiences, occurrences which belong to the earli- Strauss's (1969) excurses on incestuous royal marriages
est years of childhood" (1961a:203, quoted in Davies and (see also Goody 1990; Hopkins 1981; Parker 1996; Shaw
Frawley 1994:12). Freud's seduction theory, as this insight
1992). The social structural approach, with its emphasis
came to be called, confirmed the reality of female patients'
on the effects of incestuous relationships on the distribu-
reported experience but violated Victorian notions of fam-
tion of resources or allocation of persons, ignores the vast
ily propriety and rectitude as well as the general intellec-
and complicated findings of psychological, feminist, and
tual consensus that widespread incest had receded into the
psychoanalytic theories of incest. These findings suggest
dawn of prehistory.
that victims and to a lesser extent perpetrators suffer seri-
After September 1897, Freud, under intense social
pressure (Masson 1984), repudiated his seduction theory, ous psychological consequences (cf. Davies and Frawley
but prior to that repudiation he suggested in a letter to 1994; Finkelhor 1979, 1984; Meiselman 1978, 1990;
Wilhelm Fliess (dated January 17, 1897) a connection be- Russell 1986; Williams and Finkelhor 1990).
tween hysteria and possession. We include the passage be- The discovery of widespread avoidance of inbreeding
low because it forecasts a similar connection, between among nonhuman primates (thought therefore to be evo-
what contemporary psychologists now call dissociation lutionarily old and in some way biologically supported)
and anthropologists call possession or trance, to which we has led to imperfect analogies between inbreeding and in
will turn in the last section of this article: cest. Willner (1983) among others points out the substan-
tial differences between the two; incest beliefs, she says,
By the way, what have you got to say to the suggestion involve cultural concepts with the result that sexual activ-
that the whole of my brand-new theory of the primary
origins of hysteria Is already familiar and has been pub- ity defined as incestuous is not necessarily reproductive.
lished a hundred times over, though several centuries Sussman (2000:85) warns of the general danger of inflict-
ago? Do you remember my always saying that the medie- ing our cultural wishes (in this case for nonincestuous hu-
val theory of possession, that held by ecclesiastical courts, mans) on our primate relatives. By now feminist critics
was Identical with our theory of a foreign body and the have created a substantial body of work pointing out the
splitting of consciousness? But why did the devil who
took possession of the poor victims Invariably commit ways In which standardized cultural scripts about gender,
misconduct with them, and In such horrible ways? Why family, and marriage have been read largely unawares into
were the confessions extracted under torture so very like the gender politics of primates (e.g., Fausto-Sterling 1985;
what my patients tell me under psychological treatment? Haraway 1989, 2000; Sperling 1997).
1 must delve Into the literature of the sub|ect. Incidentally
the cruelties practiced servo to Illuminate some hitherto For some anthropologists, a psychoanalytic perspec-
obscuie symptoms ol hysteria. The pins which appear In tive has the advantage of considering incest itself, not Just
such astonishing ways, the needles for which the pooi the taboo. On the other hand, the focus on the Oedlpitt
Meigs and Barlow • Beyond the Taboo 41

complex in classical Freudian analyses means that such The most extensive discussion of incest in the anthro-
analyses are mostly limited to male perspectives and to the pological literature lies in a 1976 issue of the Journal of the
least frequently documented form of incest, mother-son. Polynesian Society devoted solely to the topic. In his intro-
They do not adequately address the recent discussion of duction David Schneider articulates questions that might
incest in Western societies that emphasizes the damaging inform any cultural/symbolic investigation of incest:
effects of incest for females, especially female children. It "What is the meaning of incest in any particular culture?
is increasingly clear that the psychological dimensions of What does incest symbolise. ? What place has it . . in
incest in cultural context are essential to understanding the total symbolic and meaningful system which consti-
not just the reasons for its widespread prohibition but also tutes a culture?" (1976:160). The authors of the various ar-
the conditions of its occurrence and, further, its cultural ticles take up the difficult questions of translation in order
variability. to evaluate whether issues in regard to sex and kinship in
one society are comparable to those in another. The 1980s
INVESTIGATING INCEST A N D ITS TABOO saw a few more articles written from the perspective that
incest actually does occur (Errington 1987; Gillison 1987;
To investigate incest and its taboo we began with two
Hutchinson 1985; La Fontaine 1986; Willner 1983), but
questions: Is there a cross-cultural incidence of incest?
only two of them (La Fontaine 1986; Willner 1983) take
And what attention has been given to incest per se in the
any account of the psychological and feminist literatures
existing anthropological literature? To answer the first
on incest or evince any interest in its potentially damag-
question, we turned to the Human Relations Area Files
ing effects.
(HRAF), surveying the 87 societies (out of over 300 total)
selected for the CD-ROM/Web version of January 1998. Willner's article, in particular, raises issues of the vari-
This sample includes societies from all geographic re- ability in symbolic and psychological meanings of incest
gions 6 Within this sample, incest is, almost without ex- across cultures:
ception, covered in passing in the context of a larger dis- The meanings of incest can entail variable meanings of
cussion, usually of marriage and of the overt and explicit sex and gender . . . kinship and kinship category, family
rules of exogamy. The following passage describing mar- and domestic group, and the forbidden, within and be-
riage and incest rules among the Wolof (Senegal) is typical tween societies The meanings of age, generation,
in its focus on the rules of kinship and its avoidance of the stage of life and of relative ages, genders and relative free-
dom or duress of partners in an incestuous act axe also
topic of sexuality: variable. Childhood as well as child abuse can be consid-
Like most peoples, the Wolof regard matings between ered cultural constructions. [1983:138]
members of the immediate family as incestuous.... By
extension, these familial prohibitions apply to all classifi- To the issues of comparability and incomparability of
catory parents and their children. In addition, a man is meaning cited by Willner and the authors in the 1976 is-
prohibited from marrying his father's sister, his wife's sis- sue of the Journal of the Polynesian Society, one would also
ter, widows of his father and of his father's brother, or the want to add cross-cultural considerations of psychological
daughter of his wife by another man. [Ames 1953.44]
dynamics and emotion, as they are locally formulated
The ethnographic brevity of the discussion of incest and around incest.
its taboo in the HRAF is inconsistent with the theoretical One can approach the study of incest through sym-
prominence of the topic but, of course, consistent with bolic media or, as psychologists do in the West, through
the wider cultural inattention, particularly in the period investigation of actual cases. Interpreting myth, ritual,
(1920s through 1960s) from which most of the ethno- story, and customs that refer to incestuous impulses, acts,
graphic samples are drawn. or their consequences could enable anthropologists to un-
Nevertheless, many HRAF accounts represent incest as derstand cross-cultural similarities and differences in the
having an incidence, sometimes in a general way, as in psychodynamics of kin relations, sexuality, and traumatic
Chagnon's description of the Yanomamo: "The data sug- experience, real or fantasized. Spiro, acknowledging that
gest that incest, far from being feared, is widely practiced" "ethnographic data can provide only indirect evidence for
(1967:66); or Fortes's description of the Ashanti: "In the the existence of . . . a psychological constellation" (1982:
old days it [incest] was punished by death. Nowadays the 40), proposes a procedure for inferring such constellations
culprits are heavily fined" (1950:257). Or it is covered in a of meaning from symbolic data. By inferring a possible in-
more specific way, as in Hallowell's description of the terpretation from one set of data, such as stories or myths,
Ojibwa: "Although I have no quantitative data for the so- other kinds of meaning, such as kinship practice, might be
ciety as a whole in my sample of twenty-four cases, anticipated and help to validate (or invalidate) the initial
there are eight cases of parent-child i n c e s t . . . and ten in- interpretation. Gradually, an interpretation could emerge
stances of brother-sister incest" (1955:294-295); or Turn- from convergent sources or be invalidated by nonconver-
bull's description of the Mbuti: "1 asked Kenge what had gent data.
happened. He looked very grave now and said it was the A second mode of inquiry would be more akin to psy-
greatest shame that could befall a Pygmy. Kelemoke had chological investigation of actual cases and would require
committed incest" (1962:112). assiduous attention to issues ot confidentiality and trust.
42 American Anthropologist • Vol. 104, No. 1 • March 2002

Much of the research on incest in Western societies has caretaking of their daughters in childhood (Williams and
been conducted among clinical populations or in treat- Finkelhor 1995). These observations raise questions about
ment settings with stringent confidentiality requirements. what factors, social and biological, constitute risk or pro-
Similar populations and settings exist in a variety of non- tection for the daughter. It is well known among feminist
Western cultures but to our knowledge have been studied and psychological scholars of incest in the West that "fa-
only in Turkey, India, and Japan. Access to these and simi- ther"-daughter incest is associated with male-dominant
lar populations might be obtained through collaborative families characterized by relationships of emotional dis-
research with psychologists already working there. Such tance and often, though not necessarily, social isolation
collaborations would have the advantage of involving na- (Herman 1981: ch. 7).7 The incestuous experience of boys
tive speakers and members of the culture in the interpreta- is a new and underdeveloped field of study; the few exist-
tion process, an important check on importing Western ing discussions "probably grossly under report and seri-
ethnocentrisms. We advocate a symbolic approach bol- ously under represent the full extent of this problem"
stered by clinical data, done by researchers whose com- (Kluft 1990:3). Hunter (1990:27) reports that males do not
bined training represents both anthropological and psy- recognize a significant amount of the abuse they experi-
chological— in particular, psychoanalytic—perspectives. ence.
Ewing (1992) emphasizes that anthropological modes of Biosocial theorists, such as Parker and Parker, have
symbolic interpretation are already heavily informed by postulated that "close involvement by fathers in the early
psychoanalytic insights. Obeyesekere reminds us that a care of daughters decreases the likelihood of any later sex-
psychoanalytic perspective humanizes cultural explana- ual interest" (1986:540) by activating some biological
tions by admitting emotional and psychological dimen- mechanism that suppresses sexual arousal toward the
sions: "Psychoanalysis provides a much-needed corrective daughter. Others have used Westermarck's proximity the-
to a complacent worldview by focusing on human suf- ory and Shepher's negative imprinting as explanations for
fering and pain and the roots of suffering in desire" epide-miological studies that show dramatically higher
(1990:289). rates of abuse by stepfathers than by biological fathers
Research on incest and cultural understandings about (National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect 1981;
it requires extreme caution on several fronts: with respect Russell 1986, cited in Williams and Finkelhor 1995:102).
to linguistic and analytic ethnocentrisms, with respect to In recent years, the possibility of a biosocial mechanism to
the high potential for embarrassment and shame for par- inhibit incest has been revived as having policy implica-
ticipants in the discussion, and with respect to the prob- tions for educational programs to deter incestuous abuse:
lems of inferring psychological processes from cultural The biosocial theory continues to have a certain appeal....
and social data. These are ethnographic challenges that The theory, if correct, could have substantial significance
exist for other topics and should not prevent anthropolo- for social policy concerning families.... If greater pater-
gists from providing a broad comparative perspective and nal involvement during the early years of life can be
shown to reduce markedly the incidence of father-daugh-
critique on an issue of great contemporary importance. ter incest, this could support social policy moves toward
active promotion of such involvement. [Williams and
NEW AVENUES OF RESEARCH ON INCEST AND ITS TABOO Finkelhor 1995:102ff.]
In this section we consider three possible approaches to
Contra biosocial explanations, Williams and Finkel-
expanding the anthropological discussion. The first two
hor (1995), in a carefully designed study of American fa-
(one biosocial and the other social organizational) focus
thers, have found that early caretaking reduces incestuous
on the relative cross-cultural salience of father-daughter
abuse but that other factors in the fathers' experiences
incest versus brother-sister and mother-son incest. The
(such as physical or sexual abuse or rejection by their own
third, and perhaps most powerful, is based on recent re-
parents) overrides the caretaking factor and dramatically
search connecting trance and possession with incestuous
increases the risk of incestuous abuse for daughters. They
experience.
further find that the most protection for the daughter cor-
relates with high involvement at ages four to five, lending
Biosocial weight to an interpretation that protection may be due to
A biosocial hypothesis is now being debated in the Ameri- enhanced parenting skills and feelings of nurturance, pro-
can literature. Statistics show that in nuclear family struc- tectiveness, and identification with the daughter, rather
tures there has been and continues to be substantial risk of than inhibition of sexual arousal. In light of these findings.
father-daughter incest under certain conditions (Russell Williams and Finkelhor raise the possibility that protec-
1986) and that it leads to strong (if not devastating) psy- tion for the daughter results from complex social and psy-
chological consequences for the daughter (Herman 1981; chological factors, including cultural beliefs and practices,
Melselman 1978). Attention has turn drawn to the fact rather than a simple biological mechanism triggered by
that "father-daughter incest is more frequent lor stepfa- proximity. A cross-cultural understanding of father-daughter
thers and nonbiologic al male household members and relationships in societies with a range of incidences and
among biological fathers who were absent or did little expressed concern about Incest could make a significant
Meigs and Barlow • Beyond the Taboo 43

contribution to this discussion. As an example of high fa- societies in which incest is discussed is brother-sister (real
ther involvement and low concern about incest, we de- and classificatory) incest. Malinowski, in his 1927 Sex and
scribe father-daughter relationships in Murik society. Repression in Savage Society, cites the "brutality" of the
Among the Murik, biological and adoptive (20-25 per- Western father and "the atmosphere of . exclusive right
cent) fathers engage in a high level of caretaking of young to mother and child" (1961:72) in the Western family as
daughters (but not infants under six months) and are ac- the cause of the son's Oedipal hostility toward his father, a
tively involved in teaching them certain subsistence skills, hostility that he says does not exist in the matrilineal Tro-
namely, fishing.8 Fathers enlist their daughters' help with briands. What Malinowski fails to address, which is rele-
subsistence work, and prepubescent daughters accompany vant here, is the absence of Trobriand concern about or
them on long-distance trade trips or visits to town. (The apparent incidences of parent-child, in particular fa-
daughters are under the guidance of other female kin ther-daughter, incest and the presence, instead, of a tre-
while traveling with their fathers.) Father-daughter incest, mendous concern with brother-sister (real and classifica-
either actual or fantasized, does not appear to be a concern tory) incest. The Trobriand adolescent enters an age-mate
in Murik society. There is no mention that we are aware of world of active sexuality (Malinowski 1961:66), and it is
in any myth, ritual, dream, story, or actual occurrence of within this world of sexually active adolescents that the
father-daughter incest, although brother-sister and mother- greatest danger of incest lies. The taboo on sex between
son incest are mentioned in stories. real and classificatory siblings is "the most important gen-
On the other hand, Murik fathers do not deny their eral moral rule" and necessitates that "they . . constantly
mature daughters' sexuality. Rather, they celebrate it. The . .. avoid each other* (Malinowski 1961:68-69). Further
leadership of Murik society engages in extramarital sexual developing the implications of this comparative incidence
relationships (minimally flirtation and seduction) to es- of incest, but in a Navajo ethnographic context, Proskauei
tablish connections in the regional trade network (Barlow (1980) argues that clan structure, at least in his Navajo
1995; Lipset 1997). Fathers sponsor their first- and some- case, organizes incestuous wishes away from the par-
times second-bom daughters' initiations into the women's ent-child relationship and toward the brother-sister rela-
secret society through which sexual liaisons are legiti- tionship (on which, as among the Trobrianders, a vast
mated as a means to control the appetites of others. This number of avoidance rules are centered).
makes the lack of concern about incestuous relationships In societies like the Trobriands and the Navajo in
all the more remarkable. which families are submerged in the ciosscutting struc-
Does the Murik case support the hypothesis that early tures of kindred, lineage, and clan, these wider kinship
involvement in caretaking may extinguish incestuous at- structures may serve to inhibit the enactment of incestu-
traction and foster strong attachment? Perhaps. Does it ous impulses. Even where the family structure is nuclear
support a biosocial interpretation? More in-depth explora- and the system is patriarchal, as in Ulithi, the presence of
tion of father-daughter relationships, both biological and crosscutting structures of kinship dramatically reduces
adoptive, would be needed to understand why these con- what Lessa calls "the intensity" of parent-child relation-
ditions exist in Murik society. The evidence presented here ships as well as, according to Lessa (1983:67-68), the op-
is entirely social and cultural and fits with Williams and portunity for abuse within them.
Finkelhor's (1995:111) finding that positive parenting and In conclusion, cross-cultural analyses could make an
enjoyment of nonsexual aspects of the relationship may important contribution by exploring the ways in which
be the strongest factors in nonincestuous father-daughter the intimate construction of incest and its avoidance is
relationships. Whether the correlation of high father in- shaped by kinship structures. As a tentative hypothesis we
volvement and low expression of incestuous impulses suggest that a cultural focus on father-daughter incest cor-
holds for other societies and what the social, cultural, and relates with a patriarchal nuclear family structure, whereas
biological correlates of low-incest societies might be are
a cultural focus on brother-sister incest correlates with
subjects for future research. Williams and Finkelhor (1995)
nonnudear structures, such as lineage, kindred, and clan.
identify social and psychological aspects of father-daugh-
Exploring along other avenues the nature of the con-
ter relationships that need to be taken into account in any
nection between social structure and the particular shape
explanation, biosocial or otherwise. Cross-cultural analy-
of the incest taboo, Cohen (1978) and Leavitt (1989) dem-
ses could make an important contribution by providing a
onstrate (in a cross-cultural study of 121 societies) that the
broader sample of case studies and by exploring in other
cultural contexts factors that seem prominent in Western number of kinspeople included in the taboo (and the se-
societies. verity of punishment for infraction) decreases with the in-
creasing complexity of the society and its decreased reliance
on kin-based structures.9 Extension of the Incest taboo to
Social Relations
lineages and even clans points to an interesting congru-
Another comparative look at father-daughter incest is pro- ence between anthropological and psychological theories.
vided by one of the more interesting facts of the HRAF col- The incest taboo is discussed by anthropologists most
lective record: the predominant concern of the majority of usually hi the context of rules ol marriage. The underlying
44 American Anthropologist • Vol. 104, No. 1 • March 2002

assumption is that the incest taboo and rules of exogamy in such detail. Repression relegates to the unconscious ma-
are working hand in hand to create the same social effect: terial that was once known (consciously) but then forgot-
wider social relationships. Turning this around, we suggest ten (in order to reduce psychic conflict). Dissociation, on
that the rule of exogamy and the incest taboo are also the other hand, splits off from the knowing self pro-
working hand in hand to create a psychological effect: pro- foundly threatening material before it is symbolized or
tection of the community and its relationships of attach- consciously known. It exists in another dimension of the
ment from the psychic (as well as social) damage that en- individual's being, that of nonsymbolized experience
actment of incest would create. Consider, for example, (Harris 1997). It was not forgotten because it was never
exogamous Indian patrilineages in which the incest taboo known in a cognized, symbolic sense. When it later
and the rules of exogamy, if observed, work in concert to emerges, it is raw, brutal, and terrifying precisely because
protect the lineages' children from incestuous relation- it has never been processed, and therefore it tends to re-
ships but, if violated, produce severe psychological distur- emerge as bodily experience, perhaps a reexperiencing of
bances (see discussion in the next section). As Malinowski the traumatic event or sensations evoked by it. From the
says, "A group leading a joint life with the intimacy of perspective of relational or post-Freudian psychologies,
daily concerns . . . cannot tolerate within its framework the role of the therapist is to help the patient meet, know,
the possibilities of sexual approaches" (1940: 105, cited in and ultimately integrate the dissociated self or selves that
La Fontaine 1986:15). In parallel fashion a child cannot experienced the abuse. This dissociated self may contain
tolerate, within the framework of his or her psyche, sexual the split-off rage and hatred associated with the abuse;
approaches from those on whom he or she must rely for may seek to self-mutilate to relieve the associated high
care and nurture (Shengold 1989). tension; and may feel crazy or out of control and exhibit
odd motor behavior, hallucinate, hear voices, and so
Psychoanalytic forth. As the dissociated self and its world and relation-
ships emerge, the patient experiences temporary collapse
Our third and possibly most striking example of a fruitful
of the familiar structures of self (Davies and Frawley 1994).
area for research lies in a connection between recent psy- Dissociation is one of the primary mechanisms at
choanalytic discussion of dissociation and the anthropo- work in the process and aftermath of childhood sexual
logical discussion of trance and possession, a connection abuse, particularly incest. Putnam et al. (1996) show that
noted by Freud in 1897. Within nine months Freud had such abuse occurred in the majority of those suffering
repudiated the notion that hysteria could be caused by ac- from multiple personality disorder (in which multiple
tual real life events between people and postulated in its selves are dissociated). Increasingly, childhood sexual
stead a theory of hysteria that attributes women's stories abuse is found in those suffering from borderline personal-
of abuse and symptoms to unconscious incestuous wishes ity disorder (Davies and Frawley 1994; Stone 1990), a con-
for the father. This is Freud's famous Oedipal theory (most dition in which dissociation plays a role. There is "increas-
usually presented from the male perspective: a boy's un- ing evidence . that incest victims are overly represented
conscious sexual desire for his mother). Oedipal theory in among those seeking psychiatric care" (Kluft 1990:2) and
particular and most (but clearly not all) of Freud's psychol- that incest victims constitute a substantial proportion of
ogy in general understand pathological behavior, and, af- those psychiatric patients who become chronically institu-
ter 1897, hysteria as well, in terms of instinctual drives tionalized in state hospitals (Beck and van der Kolk 1987).
(sex and aggression), as well as the processes of conflict, There is a range of cognitive, affective, relational, and
defense, and repression. Because of its focus on the intiap- behavioral outcomes in American survivors (including af-
sychic dynamics of the individual psyche, this psychology fective numbing and hyperarousal, a sense of inauthentic-
(also known as classical) has been called a "one-person ity and isolation, a tendency toward reenactment, self-de-
psychology" and as such may be contrasted with the "two- structive behaviors, etc. Pavies and Frawley 1994: ch. 2)).
person'" or relational psychologies, also known as post- It is undoubtedly the case that some or all of these (plus
Freudian and postdassical, that have come in its wake. others, including drug abuse, promiscuity, chaotic rela-
Relational psychologies focus on the role of real hu- tionships, and suicidal behavior) may appear cross-cultur-
man relationships in the formation of the self. Neurotic ally. We have chosen to focus our discussion on dissocia-
and pathological behavior is understood in terms of fail- tion because of its centrality to contemporary feminist
ures in early patterns of relating between self and other. and psychoanalytic discussions of childhood sexual abuse
Psychoanalysts operating within this set of theories have and the wealth of ethnographic literature on trance and
returned to Freud's original understanding of childhood possession.
sexual abuse as a real world event (for a literature review, Trance and possession have been studied within an-
see Davies and lrawley 1994). It results, according to their thropology from a variety of perspectives, most of them
Uioories, in trauma from which the vulnerable organiza- functional, structural, or symbolic. A (very) small number
tion of the sell seeks protection, if not escape. A primary of anthropologists and an equally small number of eth-
avenue Is dissociation, a psychological phenomenon simi- nographically inclined psychologists have studied them
lar to but different from the repression that Freud explored from a psychoanalytic perspective. Most of this small
Meigs and Bartow Beyond the Taboo 45

number have, however, worked within the classical Freud- brother with sister and sister with brother. The next morn-
Ian paradigm and thus named trance and possession as ing these children went mad, rushing into fire, "one on
states of hysteria (resulting from repression) rather than top of the other, burning themselves up [acting] wild
dissociation (resulting from uncognized and, therefore, as though they have drunk whiskey'" (1980:45). The moth
split-off experience) (Freed and Freed 1964; Metraux that flies into the fire is, according to Proskauer, the sym-
1972). According to this perspective, the apparently bi- bol for "craziness" resulting from incest. Devereux and
zarre and irrational behaviors represent the release of sex Proskauer, while noting the Mohave and Navajo connec-
and aggression, instinctual urges pushed into the uncon- tion of "craziness" and incest, do not explore it.
scious in the course of dealing with the Oedipal conflict of In an article published in 1994 in Culture, Medicine and
desire for one's opposite-sex parent. One of the most influ- Psychiatry, Richard Castillo engages in precisely this explo-
ential of the anthropologists writing on possession, ration. He shifts anthropological and psychoanalytic inter-
Obeyesekere, says of female ecstatics in Sri Lanka, "Many est in cross-cultural instances of trance and possession
of these women are, in a purely clinical sense, hysterical" away from the Freudian concept of hysteria and toward
(1981:75). These approaches situate the trance-related pa- that of dissociation. Trance and states of possession are, he
thology in a woman's repressed Oedipal desire for her father. says, physiological and psychological states available to all
Kakar, writing from a similarly Freudian perspective, humans. Further, they are states to which humans may re-
describes the case of Asha, a 26-year-old woman from sort when faced with extreme stress or trauma—that is,
Delhi, who periodically experienced violent pain, ants they tend to dissociate from the traumatic material. They
crawling over her whole body, binge eating, and wild rage: are, however, states that employ the specific ideational
"Once I even slapped my father during such a rage. Can and symbolic content of the local culture, and thus each
you imagine a daughter hitting her father, especially a fa- "trance-related disorder" is culturally specific (Castillo
ther who I have loved more than anyone else in this 1994:14).
world?" (1982:71). Her behavior was attributed by her Thus, Castillo makes the link for anthropology be-
community to possession by two spirits. Kakar notes that tween states of trance and trauma, including but not em-
Asha had a relationship of intense physical closeness with phasizing sexual abuse. Psychiatrists have also noted the
her father that included being carried by him even as an association between intrafamilial sexual abuse and posses-
adult and, on one occasion, cleaning his genitals. Asha's sion (for a historical and contemporary U.S. case, see Hill
father's objections had made it impossible for her to and Goodwin 1993, and for a high incidence of possession
many. Kakar understands Asha's behavior as "a convulsive by a jinn among Turkish patients suffering from sexual
release of pent-up aggression and a rare rebellion against abuse, see Sar et al. 1995, 1996). Caldwell (1999) system-
the inhibiting norms and mores of a conservative Hindu atically explores the likelihood of this connection between
society" (1982:67)—in other words, in terms of the classi- trance and possession states and childhood incestuous
cal intrapsychic model of the drives of sex and aggression, abuse. Noticing the resemblance between tullal dances
their repression and release. Consistent with the classical performed by "mentally afflicted" women at some Kerala
model, Kakar ignores the real world relationai dynamic shrines (wild screaming, aggression, frantic hopping,
and speaks instead of Asha's "need for intense closeness choking, strangling, obscenities, head banging) and the
with her father" (1982:74), understood here as repressed dissociated states of survivors of childhood incestuous
Oedipal desire. The idea that Asha's painful states of disor- abuse as reported in the psychoanalytic literature,
ganization might have been created by the "two person- Caldwell decided to interview some men and women di-
ness" of the situation, namely, by the reality of her fa- rectly about incidence (note the use in translation of the
ther's inappropriately intimate and controlling behaviors, imprecise American terms uncle and cousins to identify the
is absent. abusers):
Within the anthropological literature, trance and pos- One low-caste woman told me that in joint families such
session were, as far as we know, first associated with incest sexual exploitation of children was fairly common. In her
in comments made not by anthropologists but by Mohave words, "Say an uncle feels like going to that child and he
and Navajo informants as reported by two psychoanalysts gets involved with her.... Some children agree or some
doing ethnographic work. Devereux reports the case of a children won't agree.... If the child doesn't agree, they
do it by force." [1999:510]
Mohave man who had intercourse with his daughter.
Boys told me of coerced sexual relations with married aunts
Nothing seems to have happened to the man. The daugh- and older male cousins; girls with undes. [1999:517]
ter, however, appears to have become neurotic. "She be-
gan to act queer. She thought someone had bewitched her." She went on to ask the important but previously unasked
She sat and spat about her, with an odd expression in her question of whether the incest motif so common in In-
eyes. She died two years later. Her mother and older sister dian literature and folklore might not reflect the reality of
also began to act "queer." In the end they became very
neurotic and died within the next few years. [1939:521] sexual abuse.
The possibility that childhood sexual abuse is wide-
Proskauer, reporting on a Nava)o origin myth, describes spread not just within the United States (where it has been
the decision of the legendary "moth people" to marry documented and, so lar, found to be most frequent among
46 American Anthropologist • Vol. 104, No. 1 - March 2002

female children) but beyond could bring anthropologists other fields would yield. Until and unless anthropologists
to interrogate the literature on trance and possession in are willing to integrate the vast and complicated findings
different ways. Consider, for example, 1. M. Lewis's claim of psychological, feminist, and psychoanalytic theories on
in his classic Ecstatic Religion (1971) that a disproportion- incest, we are cut off from the main contemporary sources
ate number of the cases of trance and possession around of explanatory power on this topic, marooned in a back-
the world are found in women. Lewis suggests that wo- water of our own creation. Furthermore, this intellectual
men's possession is "thinly disguised protest against stalemate puts anthropologists in the awkward public po-
the dominant sex" (1971:26), an explanation that empha- sition of seeming indifferent to both the personal damage
sizes political oppression. But might this oppression not that violation of the taboo may cause and the vast litera-
include, at least in some cases, sexual abuse of female chil- ture that documents it, at least in its U.S. context. In the
dren? third part of this discussion, we sketched possible areas of
Castillo (1994) interrogates the literature on trance further research and analysis.
and possession by reanalyzing the case of Daya (Freed and Naomi Quinn, in an essay on the "the recent history
Freed 1964), a newlywed 15-year-old Indian girl who, after of one discipline, cultural anthropology," faults the field
marriage, experienced possession by Chand Kor, a friend in general for its current turn toward particularism and
who had been forced to kill herself because of a premarital away from multicausality: "Cultural anthropology in-
pregnancy. Daya also had a second friend who was raped grains in its practitioners a related habit of cultural rela-
and murdered by her father when it was discovered that tivizing that denies human commonalities. . . Finally,
she had been having a sexual relationship with her the field has long been characterized by a disciplinary
teacher. Daya's states of possession began after her re- politics of explanatory schools disposed to square off
moval to her husband's village and the beginning of a sex- against one another rather than seeking to synthesize
ual relationship with her husband. Castillo notes that "the their diverse explanatory insights" (2000:232). We en-
Freeds interpreted Daya's story about her two dead friends dorse Quinn's call for more synthetic approaches that
and her intense fear of having sex with her husband as an once again address the potential contributions of cross-
cultural comparison, with due regard to the methodologi-
expression of her own (presumed) unconscious incestuous
cal and ethnographic challenges in doing so. Here we have
wishes toward her father, and her fear of punishment for
tried to show how anthropology can make significant con-
this prohibited sexuality" (1994:144). Castillo challenges
tributions to an issue of contemporary importance by ex-
this interpretation as "ignor[ing] the possibility of psycho-
panding its frame of reference theoretically and ethnog-
logical trauma" and "instead assuming Daya's symptoms
raphically and by taking account of dialogues in other
were the result of repression of her own oedipal guilt"
disciplines. It is our opinion that the topic of the prohibi-
without in the process providing any evidence to support
tion of incest will not move again in anthropology until
the existence of incestuous desire (1994:144). Castillo ad-
incest itself is explored—in its various cultural construc-
vocates instead a perspective that would attribute the
tions; in its diverse definitions; in the complexity of its re-
trances to the psychological traumas related to the sexual-
lation to structures of power; in the variety of its em-
ity and death of her two friends. He suggests that the
beddedness in the organizations of kinship; in the
trauma of Chand Kor's suicide caused Daya to "initiate richness of its representation in myth, symbol, and story;
trances or fantasies in which Chand Kor was still alive. and in the depth of its psychological impact on enculru-
'Chand Kor' lived on as a dissociated part of Daya, a sepa- rated individuals.
rate consciousness with its own personality, behavior,
memories, experiences and desires" (1994:145). Given the
outcome, Daya's possession points to "vicarious traumati- ANNA MEIGS Department of Anthropology, Macalester Col-
zation," a well-known phenomenon in the literature (Her- lege, 1600 Grand Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55105
man 1981:140-147) and one encountered not infre- KATHLEEN BARLOW Department of Anthropology, University
quently by therapists working with abuse survivors. The of Minnesota, 398 Hubert H. Humphrey Center, 301 19th
ethnographic record, if filled in on the topic of incest and Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 5S455
childhood sexual abuse, could provide an important op-
portunity for anthropologists to aid psychoanalysts and NOTES
feminists in their effort to come to terms with this appar- Acknowledgments. We thank Sarah Caldwell, Richard Castillo. Git-
ently widespread and possibly universally damaging phe- gory Leavltt, Melford E. Spiro, and Dorothy Willner, whose work
we have used here for comments and who suggested revisions on
nomenon. earlier drafts of this article. Sue Goette, John M lngham. Greg
Laden, Mlscha Perm, Emily Schultz, Kathleen Saunders. Anne
CONCLUSION Sutherland, and Martha Tappen all gave us helpful feedback on
this work. We thank Mary Gall Frawley for both her comments on
The three main types of explanation for Incest taboo have an earlier diaft of this article and her public comments about the
ground to a halt, in our view, because they have not yet odd status of the taboo In anthropology that served as our original
Impetus. Naomi Qulnn has offered extremely helpful comments
integrated either the phenomenon of Incest itself or the and encouragement through several Incarnations of this artide.
theoretical insights that greater attention to discussions in We are grateful to Stephanie Midler and Casey Kalt of Macalester
Meigs and Barlow • Beyond the Taboo 47

College's Women's and Gender Studies Program for their assis- that incest will bring "dire misfortune to the entire countryside,
tance in preparing the manuscript. and all its inhabitants" (Freeman 1951:29); the Ashanti think that
"the whole clan to which the delinquents belong would expect the
1. Compare, for example, Kottak 1974 with Kottak 2000a. Both
wrath of the unseen powers to be wreaked upon it" (Rattray
editions discuss the incest taboo in terms of the rules of marriage
and exogamy; both editions rehearse the litany of arguments with 1927:80); and the Korean community described by Brandt note
well-worn "catch phrases" (Westermarck's "familiarity breeds con- that "the entire Yi clan was forced by the rest of the village to ac-
tempt," Malinowski's "familiarity breeds attempt," and L6vi- cept a collective burden of shame" (1971:209).
Strauss's "marry out or die out"). Kottak's later edition differs from
the earlier in its inclusion of a full section on same-sex marriage,
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