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Historical SummaryBut if the incest tabu and incest groups originated in an exchange of courtesies which developed into a calculated policy, without innate aversion to sex unions with near kindred, what would be the explanation of the horror which incestuous unions excite? The explanation would be that the violation of any habit system arouses emotional resistance, and there are numerous cases where the violation of habits which have no basis in organic repugnance evokes horror equivalent to the horror of incest. We have seen, for example, that marriage with a wife’s sister and with a deceased wife’s sister were among the usual and in some cases obligatory marriages among primitive groups, but in modern England the situation became so defined that marriage with a deceased wife’s sister became equivalent to incest and the thought of such marriage was defined as "psychic incest." It was argued that it would be impossible to have pure thoughts about a wife’s younger sister in the household if marriage with her were ever possible. Around the year 1850, when Lord Russell’s bill for the repeal of the law against such marriages was being debated, countless sermons were preached and thousands of pamphlets and letters were printed protesting against repeal:
It would be difficult [says Lecky] to overstate the extravagance of language employed. . . . One gentleman [Lord Hatherley], who had been Lord Chancellor of England, more than once declared that if marriage with a deceased wife’s sister ever became legal "the decadence of England was inevitable," and that for his part he would rather see 300,000 Frenchmen landed on the British coasts.1
The bill repealing the law was first adopted by the House of Commons in 1850 but became a law only in 1907, and this act contains a proviso justifying the clergy in refusing to solemnize a marriage with a deceased wife’s sister, and also preserves a feature of the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857 which defines adultery with a wife’s sister as "incestuous adultery."
1Lecky, W.E. H.n/an/an/an/a, , 2: 221.
Chicago:
Democracy and Liberty in Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, ed. Thomas, William I. (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1937), Original Sources, accessed July 5, 2025, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=58PGSLW4T4KALK9.
MLA:
. Democracy and Liberty, Vol. 2, in Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, edited by Thomas, William I., New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1937, Original Sources. 5 Jul. 2025. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=58PGSLW4T4KALK9.
Harvard:
, Democracy and Liberty. cited in 1937, Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, ed. , McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York. Original Sources, retrieved 5 July 2025, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=58PGSLW4T4KALK9.
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