This is a reworking of an already existing draft, which sadly got saddled with a lot of knee-jerk bombs right out the gate. As I saw potential in the idea, and the draft already had some good examples listed, I decided to start new instead of adopting the old one.
Incest is defined as romantic or sexual relations between people sharing a familial connection and is a common cultural taboo across different societies. The most common no-no is incest between close blood relatives (i.e. parent/child or sibling/sibling), which is illegal in most countries nowadays. The legality of cases like Kissing Cousins or non-blood-related incest like Wife Husbandry or Not Blood Siblings may vary, but those usually still carry a stigma. The exact definition of what counts as family and thus also incest can however be very different across cultures and time periods. A romantic relationship between the following may thus also be defined as incest and taboo:
- Between in-laws (e.g. by marrying your dead brother's wife or her sister)
- Between milk siblings (people nursed by the same woman)
- Between Sworn Brothers
- Between cousins or uncle/niece pairs, but only for certain sides of the family (e.g. parallel cousin marriage
) - Between people who grew up in the same creche, kibbutz or other cultural in-group
- Between people with a religious or spiritual connection (e.g. one being a godparent to another)
If one or more of these definitions of family is normal or widespread in the culture of the creator of a work, the Angst and drama caused by this kind of Forbidden Love may cause Values Dissonance in readers not brought up with that taboo. Culture-specific incest may also be played for Deliberate Values Dissonance, especially from an outsider POV or in a constructed fantasy culture.
Subtrope to Forbidden Love.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Literature
- In one of Fazil Iskander's stories, a person is being blackmailed with a secret so terrible, his son is certain to commit suicide should he learn. The secret is that long ago, before the son married, his father and his future mother-in-law used to be lovers. Both were widowed at the time, and there were no children born from the affair, but still makes their kids' marriage incest by Abkhasian standards.
- In War and Peace, Sonya is secretly delighted when Andrey and Natasha reunite because Nikolay can't possibly have an 'incestuous' relationship with Marya; this despite the fact that Sonya is his blood relation (first cousins), while Marya is only his brother-in-law's sister. Which, to clarify, made her his actual sister by the standards of the time, while a cousin is just extended family and therefore at least one step removed.
- Two cases in Ursula K. Le Guin's books:
- On the planet O from Hainish, people are divided into "Moieties" known as Evening and Morning, and all of society is built around said moieties. Sexual relationships within a moiety are forbidden. A typical marriage involves two men and two women, one from each moiety. As such, each person has two people he is married to, a man and a woman, who he is supposed to have sex with, and one of the opposite with whom he cannot have sex with. No one in the books ever even considers it.
- In Always Coming Home, all the Kesh people belong to one of five "Houses", determined by the mother's House. Sex with a member of the same house is a strict taboo. One story describes a man who raped a woman and immediately killed himself, with the author commenting that in the original, untranslated story, the way he addressed the woman makes it obvious from the start they are from the same House.
- In ''A Time of Changes" by Robert Silverberg, the narrator has been attracted to his "bondsister", Halum, all his life, even going as far as marrying her very similar looking cousin. Once she learns of his feelings, Halum is so disturbed she is Driven to Suicide at once.
- Judge Dee: In "The Chinese Maze Murders", General Ting's son turns out to be having an affair with a married woman his age. Unfortunately, said woman is his father's concubine, which is considered as bad as incest even without the (attempted) Murder the Hypotenuse (Ancient China did not like patricides, even against an Asshole Victim). The judge orders the man to commit suicide to prevent the family's corruption spreading any further.
- In one of The Wolfhound books, a girl doesn't want the guy chosen for her as a husband. He, thankfully, isn't so keen on the idea either. So the two publicly perform a form of food sharing which, in their society, makes them officially siblings.
- The titular character of The Ingenue cannot marry with Miss de Saint-Yves because she accepted to be his godmother for his bapticism, causing the major part of the intrigue to obtain a Papal dispense.
- The Free Traders of Citizen of the Galaxy divide their boats in moieties, crew of sailors treated as relatives among whom no marriage is allowed. For instance, on the Sisu, when Mata grew close with the main character Thorby, the Chief Officer actually sent Mata to another ship, since both belonged to the same moiety.
Mythology and and Folklore
- One Muslim legend tells of a ruler who wanted to take one common man's wife for himself. Upon realizing the intention, said man served the ruler a drink... and then revealed his wife contributed a certain ingredient. The ruler said "That makes your wife my mother!" and went home.
- The story of Saint Olga states that she, when a pagan and a widow, caught the eye of the Emperor Constantine VII. She insisted on being baptised with him as her godfather, giving her grounds to refuse him as his daughter.
Theatre
- Hamlet: Hamlet frequently accuses his usurpurous uncle King Claudius of engaging in adultery and incest by marrying his late brother's wife (the one he murdered). While unusual, it appears that the Church does not consider Claudius and Gertrude's marriage to be unlawful.
- Six: The Musical: Discussed in "No Way", since Catherine of Aragon mentions one of Henry VIII's reasons for annulling their marriage was that Catherine was first married to his late brother (never mind the fact that Catherine didn't choose to marry either man). Subverted, since it's made clear Henry's just making excuses so he can marry someone else.
Video Games
- Crusader Kings II: What "counts" as incest and is therefore prohibited depends on characters' religious preference. Eastern Orthodoxy outlaws "avunculate" (aunt-nephew or uncle-niece) marriages, but Roman Catholicism doesn't, and religions with the "Divine Blood" doctrine (Zoroastrianism, Messalianism, and reformed pagan religions depending on player or AI choice in Holy Fury) actively encourage marrying sibling to sibling or parent to child.
