The incest taboo and bioanthropology

Abstract

The debate about the incest taboo has been widely discussed even before the foundation of anthropology as a field of study. However, it was in that area of knowledge that the theme acquired accentuated attention, especially after the publication of the renamed work of Claude Levi-Strauss, The Elementary Structures of Kinship, in 1949. A large part of Brazilian schools of social sciences assumes this subject was ended by this author; nevertheless, this is far from being true. In this article we try to relight the debate with the Levi-Straussian structuralism and its main theory about the prohibition of incest – the alliance theory – through the selection of several studies that somehow dialogs with this author’s work. Thereby, it is with special help of the boundary works between biology and anthropology – which many times don’t reach the social scientists – that we hope to revive this reflection among the Brazilian academy.