Note 278 — Chapter VII

It must be observed on this point that, according to Westermarck, the horror of incest is not an instinctive sentiment (animals do not have it), but rather a social habit springing from sexual repulsion for persons, even unrelated to the family, with whom one has been brought up from infancy. Thus we often see marriages prohibited between one village and another (ancient Peru), or between god-parents, who superintend the baptism of a child, and are in no way allied to each other by blood (Russia). The learned Helsingfors professor, who believes in the omnipotence of sexual selection, explains the frequency of the aversion to incest by the survival of individuals who did not contract consanguineous marriages, always mischievous in his opinion. However, he admits that the bad effects of consanguineous marriages may be mitigated by material well-being, as is the case in Europe.