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On Monday, March 24, 2003, at 01:22 am, Dan Minette wrote:
From: "Erik Reuter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Incest by itself is something that, if consensual, doesn't cause direct harm to anyone.
That is probably the wost ignorant statement I've seen you write.
The rules of consanguinity (or prohibited degrees of relationship) vary from culture to culture and time to time. The brother-sister marriages of the Pharaohs still fall within the prohibited degrees of kindred for everyone (?) on this list.
Exactly. The discussion arose over confusion over the term "incest". In the biological sense it simply means sex with a close relation, to be avoided due to hightened risk of genetic problems. When breeding domesticated animals (eg dogs or cows) we have no problem with that, creating virtual clones through inbreeding (probably what the pharaos where aiming for as well ;)).
But in the psychological sense incest is tantamount to sexual/ emotional abuse, if there's any sort of power issue involved. And even a true love story (without power issues) between brother and sister, which does happen as it happens between cousins, is fraught with emotional distress if the family ties are known and the culture condems the interaction.
Ticia ',:) ---------- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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