Much ado about incest taboo

Cliff S.

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Much ado about incest taboo

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Abstract

As González establishes with extensive detail, there are multiple parallels between two stories, Infante's "The Voice of the Turtle" and the Arawak folktale of Deminán Caracaracol and his brothers, and both imply the incest taboo under the guise of a bestiality taboo story. In addition, the author brings in the "miracle story" that prefaces "The Voice of the Turtle," and outlines a "three-step progression" shared by these two stories (González, 2006, pp 17). We can extend this structured parallel even further by considering how the Caracaracol tale fits into it. Beginning with the first step (1), the excursion out of one's village, we can see that the four twin brothers are physically ripped out of their home, the womb of the Mother Earth-type figure, Itiba Cahubaba.

Introduction
The birthing of the turtle
Cross-cultural similarities in structure and subject matter
The incest taboo as a cultural universal
Conclusion
Works cited

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[...] Presented with cross-cultural similarities in structure and subject matter such as these, the author (together with his readers) may very well wonder if these stories in question help form a larger universal weave of incest taboo stories. Each of the stories simultaneously articulate and reinforce the incest taboos present in their respective cultures (“Incest avoidance seems implicit in the dismal affair” (González 2006, pp and there is much secondary literature that traces similar patterns across world cultures. Current research of biology and kin-recognition psychology indicates that humans and other animal species have an inborn aversion to incest and inbreeding, and it is likely that this complements the same cultural pressures that the tales in play within Cuba and the Tempest (Wilson, 1998). [...]

[...] In the end though, there is no clear consensus for the incest taboo as a cultural universal, even if stories from the Arawak, Tukuna, Plains Indians, and many cultures hint at these “structural affinities between distant actors” (González, pp 45). Stories from Judeo-Christian traditions may perhaps be a useful tool to illustrate some such ambiguities, especially given the importance they have had in many world cultures. On one hand, there are several sections of The Bible that clearly forbid inbreeding and incest (Lev Deut 22:30; 27: though one immediate inconsistency is the mandated degree of separation. [...]

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