Re: anti-inbreeding laws
Gerold Firl (geroldf@sdd.hp.com)
24 May 1995 12:18:29 -0700
In article <Pine.Sola.3.91.950517134614.12432A-100000@ux5.cso.uiuc.edu> Lemonhead <karpiak@uiuc.edu> writes:
>On 17 May 1995, Evolution is both cultural and biological wrote:
>> The most probable reason against inbreeding at the begining was
>> due to that the more you marry outwards of a group the more area
>> you can draw resources from. But at the same time the more alliances
>> you have and the more allies you can draw from for aid.
> But this implies cogantive processes at work, or at least a human
>way of life (eg drawing on a large area for resources)
Right. Many species of animals, and even plants, have the ability to
recognize kin, and to act on that information; to eat or not to eat, to
breed or not to breed being the states into which this information is most
commonly mapped. (see scientific american, april or may 95)
Humans have developed all kinds of cultural rules about incest, but
analogous prohibitions occur in species which have no culture, and some
which don't even have a brain.
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