Sociology

It has always been a mystery how groups of people behave, and how groups of people share a distinct similarity or sets of similarities when it comes to behaviors, or how the behaviors of groups of individuals contrast with one another. The explanation of particular behavior has been key in enabling professionals to understand better how people inside a group thinks, feels, behaves how they rationalize from right and wrong and what are the determining factors for such analysis and what are the roles that particular beliefs accomplish, what they are expected to result from as a consequence of the exercise and observation of such belief. One of the many different important and strongly significant characteristics of the social life is marriage. The selection of who to marry has been a complex practice. Often, there are too many complications that are involved with marriage. There are social pressures, the social role and function of marriage and the role and function of individual participating in it, and more importantly, the outcome. In the past, marriage is as much a personal decision as it is socio-political responsibility for a greater good. It was often centered on the society as benefiting from such roles of marriages and the participation of individuals in such arrangement and in the consideration of marriage. One of the prominent issues is whether to marry ones own kin or to marry from another bloodline. This resulted to the concept of incest, and how incest has been taboo or forbidden to some cultures, while in others it is something that has been socially accepted. One of the professionals who addressed the issue of incest is Claude Levi-Strauss, particularly in his explanation on kinship and the role of incest in this structure. Levi-Strauss ideas especially on kinship and incest has been an invaluable contribution to the knowledge available in addressing the arguments regarding incest and kinship. The thrust and focus of the discussion of the paper is focused on discussing and analyzing how Levi-Strauss explained incest in his kinship theory and other related and pertinent concepts.

Discussion
Many professional analysts relied on the idea and assumptions of Levi-Strauss regarding kinship and incest. They used Levi-Strauss ideas and explanations to simplify the concept of incest as it is explained in the kinship theory. For example, Ino Rossi, in the book The Logic of Culture advances in structural theory and methods noted how Louis Dumont explains the phenomenon inside the society consistent to the kinship theory that kinship is built in relation to understanding. The practice of incest through the fact that social groups efforts at building relationship with one another and establishing broader and wider kinship is achieved through the use of the concept of incest as taboo. By forbidding incest, the social groups discourage endogamy or inbreeding. This means people who are related to one another by blood inside the group cannot marry one another. Thus, the woman and the man have to marry those from outside the group which is then used as a tool to broaden and strengthen ties among groups. Louis Dumont summarizes Levi-Strauss theory as follows as exogamy prohibits incest among groups, so incest prohibition forbids relations among individuals (Rossi 1982, p. 45). Other individuals, like Robin Fox, explain that kinship is based on concepts including incest. According to him, the concept of incest clarifies a particular characteristic of kinship and that is this - people belonging to or sharing a similar kinship with one another through bloodlines should not marry one another (Meillassoux 1981, p. 11). Others presented ideas and postulates about kinship and its details based on their own reaction or interpretation of concepts and ideas that are nonetheless strongly affected by the kinship concept of Levi-Strauss. These are found in their own published works acting as relevant information source for this particular topic (Malinowski 2001, p. 186).

Claude Levi-Strauss
Claude-Levi Strauss is a world renowned specialist. Through his career, he has devoted his intelligence into developing ideas and theories that can help explain some of the important and significant social characteristics found in the society. One of the important contributions of Levi-Strauss is his explanation regarding kinship. In this paper, the focus of the discussion is about a particular detail in the idea of kinship as it is presented by Levi-Strauss that is, incest and how this figures prominently in the overall structure of kinship as it is exercised by individuals inside a group in the society.

Levi-Strauss, a renowned structuralist and is one of the pillars of structuralist thought in the modern era, approaches the idea of incest in a structuralist perspective. For example, Levi-Strauss believes that structural perspective can be used to explain a particular characteristic of incest - its being innately taboo in many different social groups despite the fact that there are no contact among these groups that can be the explanation for the transfer of such thought and behavior. It was as if they all had the same consciousness that incest should be taboo and kinship should survive not just on the dependence on blood relations but also on the consciousness on how these blood relations can be preserved and strengthened (Rossi 1982, p. 9). Levi-Strauss claims that only through structural perspective can one explain why the incest taboo is universal (Rossi 1982, p. 9).

Levi-Strauss works
Levi-Strauss works are often the important hinge of his ideas inside which his ideas are presented. One of the sources of his ideas that tackles and tries to explain the concept of incest in the structure of the kinship theory is found in the Tristes Tropiques as well as in his 1949 work The Elementary Structures of Kinship. Rossi explains that this work is used to answer the question of the sources and validity of Levi-Strauss orientation (1982, p. 9). It was in this particular work that Levi-Strauss explains how his ideas - influenced by individuals Lev-Strauss considers as his masters like Sigmund Freud and Saussure - are structured. The Elementary Structure of Kinship, also known as Les Structures elementaires de la parente and was intended to be an introduction to a general theory of kinship systems based on how Levi-Strauss saw it, was a seminal work on kinship and explained the role of taboo incest, with focus also on the role not just of kinship per se and incest per se, but also of language. Levi-Strauss The Elementary Structures of Kinship...dealt with a typically anthropological subject - marriage and descent - but in a typically semiological fashion, through the attempt to construct a grammar of kinship.

In these works, Levi-Strauss hoped to explain why the phenomenon existed as they did. According to him, one of the reasons for the spread of such characteristic of kinship (including the aspect of incest inside the kinship and the similar role it played in many societies) is because of the role and influence of linguistics and semiotics.

The influence of linguistics on the method of Levi-Strauss kinship analysis has been too greatly over interpreted or too easily dismissed. Yet, Levi-Strauss claims that the revolution of the semiotic approach was made possible precisely by structural linguistics... Levi Strauss begins his kinship
analysis from a long established insight of structural linguistics.

This idea was supported by other professionals and analysts that studied Levi-Strauss works (Parkin, Stone, p 125). It is important to note that as what Levi-Strauss stressed through his work and through his focus on kinship and the understanding of the systems, beliefs, practices and ideas involved in it, kinship is important in the study of anthropology, defining the role as crucial. Because kinship is crucial, its aspects, including the concept of incest and how it affects kinship, are also important and significant. Levi-Strauss, through his works and his ideas in incest and kinship and his theories about it, helped the people understand things better considering the fact that Levi-Strauss saw that traditional approaches to kinship lacked a secure theoretical foundation.

Incest
According to Levi-Strauss, every cultural practice around the world features in one way or another a means by which the selection of who to marry has limitations inclined at limiting the selection outside of those close in kin to the individual. Although there maybe variations, this practice is nonetheless observed by many different cultures. The prohibition against incest was a universal cultural phenomenon. In many parts of the world and among many groups of people, incest has been one of the social issues that have been approached in ways polar to one another. There are groups that encourage incest and consider incest as something that is not problematic, while there are groups who consider incest as a taboo. If incest is taken to mean copulation between offspring of the same genitors, or between genitors and their offspring, we know that such relations are practised and sometimes institutionalized in a certain number of societies.

Over time, there have been many reasons why incest has become taboo. There are moral, ethical, religious and socio-political concerns. Over time and as a result of endless practice among groups of people, the concept has been strengthened and has persisted strongly until today. Often, incest inside the concept of kinship is often considered as taboo. Many groups of people believe that marriage of two individuals should not be characterized by a couple that is related by blood to one another. Incest has been one of the issues tackled by many different professionals in the many different fields. Incest has also been an integral part of many ideas and school of thoughts.

In the more contemporary era, incest and the explanation on how incest is being received by the people is tackled in the kinship theory and related ideas as presented by Claude Levi-Strauss. The role of incest and the start of the consciousness towards the prohibition of incest are important in the concept of kinship theory. Kinship is dependent on the ability of the individual to socialize and to form the social aspect and capability of the individual inside a group or society. According to Turner, the ability to be social among people began once they started the move to prohibit incest. The prohibition of incest is the commencement of the social. Incest and how it should be a taboo was something that analysts like Philip Daniel Smith has considered as superseding the significance of kinship rules itself. The author explained that even more fundamental than kinship rules was the incest taboo, a universal prohibition which Levi-Strauss saw as being the point of origin for cultural life.

Incest as prohibition
One of the important characteristics of incest as it is being explained by Levi-Strauss through his kinship theory is the role of incest as a form of prohibition. Often, incest is highlighted based on its role as a prohibitive agent that stops the practice of inbreeding and encourages out breeding, and how this practice is connected to the establishment of the relationship of people with one another and the creation and sustenance of kinship inside and outside a particular society and group of people over a period of time. To be able to understand the relevance and significance of incest and its prohibitive characteristic and its significance, one must first be able to understand and comprehend the fact that the people in the earlier times relied heavily on the practice of exchanging things. Without the practice of exchanging with one another things that previously did not belong or was connected to them, professionals believed that the relationship among people and groups of people would break down and would not last and sustain itself. This is not to consider the fact that the urge to exchange was not merely a socially directed behavior but was also motivated by what many considers as the nature and primitive instinct of the individual, strengthening all the more the practice of trading and exchanging.
Where does incest fit into this Kinship is secured by the maintenance of the practices among humans, like the practice of exchanging things. For many observers, this practice also includes the exchanging of women among groups of people for marriage. This was something that was beneficial to them, and at the same time affected kinship positively. Because of this, incest, or marriage inside ones own group was prohibited so that the practice of exchanging women continue and persist, in the process, allowing the continuation as well of the kinship among people. Many people, including Levi-Strauss as well as other professionals were cognizant about it (Turner 2000, p. 166). Marcel Mauss, in The Gift, demonstrated that reciprocity is of great importance in primitive societies that the exchange of gifts in such societies is at the heart of the process of the maintenance of the social structures, and as such has much more than economic significance.

This idea was supported by Levi-Strauss. Levi-Strauss believes that the people are very particular with the aspect of exchange practice between people. Levi-Strauss also believes that selecting the partner in marriage is just one human experience and phenomena inside which this practice of exchange can also be exercised and expressed. This necessity made it imperative that incest becomes a taboo so that it will fit in the kinship system in the society. He argued that the taboo against incest was an expression of the fundamental cultural necessity for exchange to take place between groups.

Levi-Strauss, incest and the kinship theory
A significant contributor to the ideas in anthropology and a strong supporter of the structuralist and functionalist beliefs to which it has greatly contributed to, Levi-Strauss used as the basis of kinship theory. This is something that is difficult to understand for the ordinary individual without competent and necessary skills, how incest has stopped the practice of endogamy and has strengthened the practice of exogamy. In return, it allows the concept of the exchange of women, and thus, strengthened, broadened and widened the kinship of individuals and groups of people inside the different societies. This was explained in books addressing this particular issue, like Claude Meillassouxs Maidens, meal and money capitalism and the domestic community. The author explains that it is explicitly assumed, both by functionalists and structuralists, that the universal prohibition of incest is the primary cause of exogamy and the exchange of women, therefore accepted as the basis of kinship theory. The author also added that Levi-Strauss assumes that the incest prohibition is both rooted in natural or innate tendencies as well as sociological underpinnings.

Levi-Strauss explained the concept of incest in his kinship theory by presenting the idea of incest as something that is used by the people as a way or means for the group to be strengthened, enforced and to be broader and wider. Incest, according to Levi-Strauss is taboo, forces people to look for other partners outside the small social group.

If one cannot marry his own siblings or relatives, he has to find a marriage partner from outside his group. It is clear, then, that the essence of kinship relations cannot reside in the biological fact of consanguinity or descent, but only in consciousness as it entails an arbitrary system of representations.

As a result, the kinship of one group extends to another group. The new connection by marriage of one individual to the other group besides his or her own consequently gives the individuals old group a new ally to which the individual can rely on as well.

For example, Man A cannot marry inside his tribe (Tribe A) because incest here is taboo and the available women in Tribe A are all related by blood to Man A. Man A is thus constrained to look for a partner among the women in Tribe B, since the women there are not related to him by blood. Upon marriage of Man A and Woman B, the couple will be related and connected to both Tribe A and Tribe B, and more importantly, Tribe A and Tribe B will now have a connection, a bridge that connects the two tribes together. This is often a good reason and start for them to be in alliance or partner groups that interact well in commerce and support each other not just in peacetime activity but also in war. Because of the partnership and the marriage to an individual from another family, kinship extends outside wider and is not constricted inside one family. The set of relatives becomes broader and wider, which guarantees the extension of the bloodline and the establishment of the network of individuals related to one another not just by blood or consanguinity but also because of alliance forged by marriage.

This concept has been strongly exercised in many countries, in many groups of people (tribes, kingdoms, clans) for a long period of time. For example, kings sought to establish a strong political base and foundation for his bloodline by having his son or daughter married to the son or daughter of the king of another country or kingdom. It discourages incest because in incest, people know that the bloodline is in danger of decreasing and consuming itself and can contribute to the weakening and decreasing kinship with the bigger, broader group of people.

Conclusion
Today, Levi-Strauss and his works are still strongly used, for their merit and for the insight that it brings to the table. Levi-Strauss has provided the world a particular way of viewing and understanding a particular trait, behavior and perspective of the people. Today, it is easy for the ordinary individual to assume that incest is taboo or forbidden because it is immoral, unethical and is against customary and traditional beliefs as dictated by social institutions and religions. However, it does not say where the prohibition from such institutions came from, the deeper root and functionalist essence of such characteristic of this human practice (or non-practice). This is not to say that the truth is incest exists in many places and cultures nonetheless. In fact, incest has been practiced in some parts of Hawaii and within Pharaonic dynasties, between Azande fathers and daughters, Mbuti mothers and sons, and even among commoners in Roman Egypt.

Through individuals like Levi-Strauss and their works, issues such as this one is given a perceptive explanation and definition. This helps people understand what is happening to the society because of how the roles of individuals function and contribute to the preservation of the group which is one of the instincts of the individual other than self preservation. To help develop kinship, man, for many possible and yet undefined and concretized reasons opted to discourage incest because of the role of this social standard in the prohibition of endogamy and the encouragement of exogamy, which in turn, encourages extended, broadened and widened kinship. Although a taboo subject in itself, incest is something that Levi-Strauss nonetheless examined as a factor that contributes significantly to the development of the society. Through his efforts, Levi-Strauss has managed to provide a reason regarding what incest is based on its function in the society, and what incest is in relation to the kinship theory. Incest has been, above everything else, viewed from the kinship theory perspective, as something that prohibits one thing so that the other thing can prosper and affect a particular condition which is favorable to the people, to the group, to the society and to the idea of kinship among people. Incest, no doubt, has been a significant factor in defining the kinship theory. However, because of the fact that the limitation of the concept of prohibitive incest renders it as something that is not universal this too has its limitations. The universality of the incest prohibition is, however, far from being proved and remains too doubtful to serve as basis for the whole of kinship theory. But still, the fact is that it is significant in the kinship theory of Levi-Strauss and other professionals before or after him will continue to remain significant in the future. This is because of the degree of implication of the presence or absence of the condition of incest inside a society among individuals and groups of people.