Edvard Westermarck
Edvard Alexander Westermarck (November 20, 1862 - September 3, 1939) was a Finnish philosopher and sociologist. Among other subjects, he studied exogamy and the incest taboo.
He is known for first noting the Westermarck effect in which infants raised together are unable to form sexual feelings for one another as adults, regardless of their genetic relationship.
Sexual imprinting
Sexual imprinting is the process by which a young animal learns the characteristics of a desirable mate. For example, male zebra finches appear to prefer mates with the appearance of the female bird that rears them, rather than mates of their own type.
Sexual imprinting on objects other than people is the most popular theory of the development of sexual fetishism. For example, according to this theory, imprinting on shoes or boots (as with Lorenz' geese) would be the cause of shoe fetishism.
Westermarck effect
Reverse sexual imprinting is also seen: when two people live in close domestic proximity during the first few years in the life of either one, both are desensitized to later close sexual attraction and bonding. This phenomenon, known as the Westermarck effect, was discovered by anthropologist Edvard Westermarck. The Westermarck effect has since been observed in many places and cultures, including in the Israeli kibbutz system, and the Shim-pua marriage customs of Taiwan, as well as in biological-related families.
In the case of the Israeli kibbutz farms, these children grew up in a common children's house, away from their parents. They spent the entire day and night together. This resulted in a generation that was not interested in the opposite sex within their class. It is an extreme example of grouping since the adults were also removed from the environment.
When this does not occur, for example where a brother and sister are brought up not knowing about one another, they may find one another highly sexually attractive when they meet as adults: a phenomenon known as genetic sexual attraction. This observation is consistent with the theory that the Westermarck effect evolved to suppress inbreeding.
Westermarck vs. Freud
Freud argued that members of the same family naturally lust for one another, making it necessary for societies to create incest taboos, but Westermarck argued the reverse, that the taboos themselves arise naturally as products of a simple inherited epigenetic response. Subsequent research over the years supports Westermarck's observations and interpretation. But still psychoanalysts do agree with and support the Freudian concept. One argument used to support their stance is that such taboos would obviously be meaningless if there was no desire to perform the acts in question.
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