Guest Essay - The Incest Taboo: A Wrong Turn in Human Understanding

“Captain Jim” has generously submitted a written contribution to Full Marriage Equality. The essay consists of Jim’s words, not Keith’s. Jim is an ally, with professional experience as a ship captain.

If you want to contribute in the same way, see here.

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The Incest Taboo: A Wrong Turn in Human Understanding

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A Hypothesis Built on Sand

For more than a century, public and scientific opinion has rested on one fragile idea: that sexual attraction between close kin is biologically impossible. The so-called Westermarck Hypothesis claims that people raised together from infancy develop a natural aversion to intimacy with one another.

It sounds neat, even comforting—but the evidence is vanishingly thin. The theory rests on three oft-cited pillars:

1. Studies of Israeli kibbutzim children said to avoid pairing off;

2. The practice of sim-pua (“minor marriage”) in old China and Taiwan;

3. The claim that animals instinctively avoid inbreeding.

Each case collapses under scrutiny. Kibbutz studies reveal strong social pressures, not innate disgust. Sim-pua marriages were arranged and loveless—socially coerced, not biologically revealing. And across the animal kingdom, kin mating is widespread: wolves, bonobos, and many birds pair within families when trust and safety prevail.

What remains is not science but confirmation bias—a hypothesis that began by assuming the taboo’s universality and then cited itself as proof.

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The Deep History of Endogamy

Long before law and dogma, endogamy—marriage within kin groups—was likely the human default. In small Paleolithic bands, kinship meant survival. Emotional familiarity fostered cooperation and care. Genetic data and historical records alike confirm that sibling and close-kin unions were not rare curiosities but often honored practices.

In Roman Egypt, sibling marriage was openly celebrated, common among peasants and elites alike. In Sasanian Persia, the doctrine of xwēdōdah sanctified marriage between parent and child as a religious virtue. These examples remind us that what we now call “taboo” was once woven into social and spiritual life.

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Possible Benefits, Overlooked Truths

When approached with mutual love and responsibility, close-kin unions may confer real advantages:

• Trust and loyalty—family bonds strengthened rather than divided.

• Epistatic harmony—the preservation of adaptive gene combinations across generations.

• Empathy and cohesion—a shared interest in collective well-being, reducing conflict and exploitation.

The near-universal prohibition of such intimacy may thus represent not biological wisdom but an instrument of governance, redirecting devotion away from family toward temple, state, and hierarchy.

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An Invitation to Truth

Today, the real stories of consanguinamory—loving relationships between kin—remain buried beneath a fog of secrecy and distortion. What little appears online often feels false, fetishized, or voyeuristic. Yet I am convinced that many genuine relationships exist quietly in every layer of society: tender, respectful, and spiritually sustaining.

I am seeking authentic, anonymous accounts from those living such relationships—truthful portraits of how love survives against law and custom.

All correspondence will remain confidential. Narratives may be shared under pseudonyms or written as fiction to protect privacy. The aim is not titillation, but truth—a collective record that might finally allow science and society to see what love really looks like when freed from fear.

If you wish to contribute, please contact Keith Pullman at Full Marriage Equality(fullmarriageequality@protonmail.com). He will ensure your privacy and forward your message securely.

Together, we can begin to replace the mythology of taboo with the clarity of lived experience—and perhaps recover a simple, buried truth:
that love between kin is neither monstrous nor rare, but a forgotten possibility in the long story of humanity.