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From: szabo@crg5.UUCP (Nick Szabo)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Incest avoidance
Message-ID: <21563@crg5.UUCP>
Date: 16 Apr 91 19:21:14 GMT
References: <8987.27f748d9@jetson.uh.edu> <1991Apr2.035304.11461@leland.Stanford.EDU> <21487@crg5.UUCP> <1991Apr5.233453.3577@leland.Stanford.EDU> <21529@crg5.UUCP> <1991Apr15.044023.14297@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Reply-To: szabo@crg5.UUCP (Nick Szabo)
Organization: Sequent Computer Systems, Inc
Lines: 31

In article <1991Apr15.044023.14297@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> bryans@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (B. Charles Siegfried) writes:
>
>	The Chinese traditionall had two forms of marriage.  In the
>	major form, the bride came to the husnad's household as 
>	an adult.  In the minor form, she came as a *sim-pua*: virtually 
>	an adopted daughter of the the family who came in during 
>	childhood and lived there until old enough to marry a designated
>	son of the household.
>
>	The situation is much like a kibbutz, where the sabras [members
>	of a peer group that is very sibling like] are expected to
>	marry [but never do].
>
>	Fox goes on to state that sim-pua marriages are often wrought
>with difficulties.  Both spouses often enter into it very unwillingly.
>Fox gives several account of where one of the spouses had to be threatened
>by their parents before they would marry.  In China, the sim-pua marriage
>is considered inferior to the major form of marriage.

In both traditions, the couples involved have a strong aversion to entering
the marraige, despite social pressures.  This is what is predicted by
the sociobiological theory of incest avoidance based on shared childrearing
environment at a young age.



-- 
Nick Szabo			szabo@sequent.com
"The biscuits and the syrup never come out even" -- Robert A. Heinlein
The above opinions are my own and not related to those of any
organization I may be affiliated with.