Introduction
Each of mankind's succeeding generations has imposed severe penalities upon incestuous partners, and have established clearly defined rules and procedures for controlling the participation of sex between members of the same family.
Whereas the statutes and regulations are severe, the keenest control of all, comes from the society per se, so that universally, individuals themselves exert the greatest deterrent against this fear inspiring sexual act.
Each civilization, no matter how primitive and savage by our standards, has outlawed incest and further, has defined the degree of guilt to be attached to it, and the punishment to be metered out for committing it.
The term incest, is itself associated with sex and marriage from its earliest beginnings. The cestus or girdle was worn by women and loosened by her husband to bring conjugal and parental happiness. Its disuse was known as making marriage incestuous.
Until the eleventh century, marriage between Cousins was forbidden. Incest was taboo and thought was that it corrupted the youth in the family group while they were helpless and dependent on the older members of the family for protection and care. It was forbidden by both civil laws, as well as the ecclesiastical laws of the Roman church which decried it as forbidden relationships, in both the descending and ascending lines of kinship. And even Henry the VIII decreed that sex relations between a man and his wife's sister, and between a wife and her husband's brother was banned.
The basic reason for the disapproval of incest in any of its forms is the harmful effects it has on the family structure, to which it is a threat. The father image who is the head of the family and therefore represents the state is destroyed when he is involved with one of his family. The most sordid incest relationship is that of mother and son, for through all ages mother is exalted because of her unique role of child bearing and child raising. When her role in the family is debased, the basic structure of the family is destroyed, for she is the heart and the foundation of the emotional life of the children.