Talk:Incest

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Incest article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1, 2, 3: 6 months

This page is not a forum for general discussion about incest. Any such comments may be removed or refactored. Please limit discussion to improvement of this article. You may wish to ask factual questions about incest at the Reference desk.

Psychology High‑importance

	Psychology portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Psychology, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Psychology on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PsychologyWikipedia:WikiProject PsychologyTemplate:WikiProject Psychologypsychology articles
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Sexology and sexuality High‑importance

	Human sexuality portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Sexology and sexuality, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of human sexuality on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Sexology and sexualityWikipedia:WikiProject Sexology and sexualityTemplate:WikiProject Sexology and sexualitySexology and sexuality articles
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Anthropology High‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Anthropology, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Anthropology on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.AnthropologyWikipedia:WikiProject AnthropologyTemplate:WikiProject AnthropologyAnthropology articles
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the importance scale.

Sociology Low‑importance

	Society portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Sociology, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of sociology on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SociologyWikipedia:WikiProject SociologyTemplate:WikiProject Sociologysociology articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Genealogy Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Genealogy, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Genealogy on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.GenealogyWikipedia:WikiProject GenealogyTemplate:WikiProject GenealogyGenealogy articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the importance scale.

Molecular Biology: Genetics High‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Molecular Biology, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Molecular Biology on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Molecular BiologyWikipedia:WikiProject Molecular BiologyTemplate:WikiProject Molecular BiologyMolecular Biology articles
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the importance scale.
	This article is supported by the Genetics task force (assessed as Low-importance).

Real incest?

The article lists "Father–daughter and stepfather–stepdaughter sex is the most commonly reported form of adult–child incest" but stepfather–stepdaughter sex isn't considered real incest and only pseudo-incest in some cultures or under some religious codes. Biofase ^flame| stalk 22:39, 30 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe stepfather–stepdaughter sex isn't real incest, but it's very bad mojo. I'm in the USA, and here it would be almost universally condemned and considered incest and labeled incest. You can't control how people use words. I can't speak for other countries. Herostratus (talk) 19:18, 6 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

This isn't about "bad mojo", whatever that is, but about what constitutes incest so it should stick to the definition. While such relationships were seen as impropriety in biblical Jewish times they are not incest. I also don't know which part of the USA you are from but it seems such kind of relationships regularly pop up there without much chagrin. Biofase ^flame| stalk 20:45, 8 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Distant cousins

I have a 6th degree relative (second cousin). We share 2.6% of DNA. I could legally marry her in several EU countries. So, I don't understand the fuss about distant cousins: that isn't incest according to the laws of several EU countries. Why should we care if European nobles married their distant cousins centuries ago? The point: DNA similarity dilutes very quickly with each passing generation. Example: Romanian law prohibits incest, but marrying your second cousin isn't incest. Genetic similarity of relatives of the 9th degree (and higher) is negligible to all practical purposes. And that's what "distant cousins" means. tgeorgescu (talk) 04:50, 11 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Are you referring to the start of the "From the Middle Ages onward" section? I did rewrite that to clarify. I assume that the deal is that if you're occasionally marrying first cousins, but when it's not a first cousin it's probably a second or third cousin or something like that, almost always, for generation after generation, you're going to get problems (e.g. Hapsburg Jaw).. The passage doesn't say that. It does imply it. I don't think anyone knows for sure how much this contributed to Hapsburg Jaw etc. Herostratus (talk) 05:02, 12 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki Education assignment: Gender and Culture

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 28 August 2023 and 18 December 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): MichelleEstrada55 (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Alyssagarcia.422 (talk) 22:05, 6 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Commonness of incest in ancient Greece

User:Yue and User:CycloneYoris, sibling incest was not common in ancient Greece and this is a typo. See for example this: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-hellenic-studies/article/abs/familiarity-breeds-incest-and-the-ptolemaic-dynasty/C60A3A24562133A347E54A8F5977D690 It discusses how sibling incest was viewed as morally abhorrent and was outside Greek tradition. That is why the marriages were controversial. I am fixing the typo again, as I don't think this should really be controversial. Happy to go to WP:DRN if it really is. 69.142.179.131 (talk) 15:40, 1 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Can you please do the edit together with the proper references to the reliable sources, i.e. not only change a word but to make such a change that it be accompanying by the references, so the other editors could see that those claims are properly backed up? I mentioned it in the talk page of User_talk:69.142.179.131

Thank you! Maxim Masiutin (talk) 15:51, 1 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, sure.

69.142.179.131 (talk) 15:53, 1 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for understanding! Sorry that I didn't mention it before, but when such changes are made without proper references, people may wrongly consider it vandalism, however, it may be indeed a good-faith edit. Maxim Masiutin (talk) 15:56, 1 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I actually noticed that the reference I googled happened to be the one already in the article, cited in that very line. So now it is cited twice.

69.142.179.131 (talk) 15:59, 1 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

You can give names to references in the "ref" tag and then use this tag multiple times only giving the name, without all other attributes. Maxim Masiutin (talk) 16:00, 1 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I understand. I was just trying to fix a one word typo, based on the source that was already in that line of the article. Would you mind fixing it?

69.142.179.131 (talk) 16:03, 1 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@69.142.179.131 I am not competent to determine whether it was a typo or intentional word, so I let other editors to decide on substance Maxim Masiutin (talk) 07:57, 2 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Since this page is semi-protected, and you are not logged in with a user account in wikipedia, it will take time for your edit to be reviewed by editors, they may further decide on whether to accept or revert the change. Maxim Masiutin (talk) 15:59, 1 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

hic thalamum invasit natae vetitosque hymenaeos

Terrible mistranslation. “This man invaded (encroached upon) the wedding-bed of his daughter, a forbidden marriage.” 203.164.227.115 (talk) 11:22, 30 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The word incest doesn't specify that it is about sex

The word incest literally means "impure". There is no specific mention of sex in that word, unlike for example "inbreeding". I've seen news articles about mothers who married their own sons and fathers who married their own daughters. I don't think e.g. "inwedding" is a recognised word, but it is established that sexuality and loyalty (or "romance") are not always both present (e.g. asexual but not "aromantic"). There seems to be no mention of this, not on Child marriage either. This page only mentions sex. Wallby (talk) 10:40, 15 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Do you have sources that describe incest excluding sex? ꧁Zanahary꧂ 00:01, 12 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Possible copyright problem

This article has been revised as part of a large-scale clean-up project of multiple article copyright infringement. (See the investigation subpage) Earlier text must not be restored, unless it can be verified to be free of infringement. For legal reasons, Wikipedia cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or printed material; such additions must be deleted. Contributors may use sources as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences or phrases. Accordingly, the material may be rewritten, but only if it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously. GreenLipstickLesbian (talk) 07:10, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]