goatgodschild | Incest and the Illusory Transitive Sequence

With the massive expansion of world empires and the 1859 publication of On the Origin of Species, the question in Europe in the mid-19th century was this:

What separates humans from other animals? Obviously there’s something different, but where does it come from? Bipedalism exists elsewhere, since we’ve got birds. Animal tool use is well documented, so that clearly isn’t it. But you know what is different?

Incest.

Animals don’t seem to have a conceptualization of incest -- observed domesticates can and will breed within immediate family if given the chance, potential consequences be damned. Humans, however, have both the concept of incest, and societal barriers around it. To speak bluntly, a parent can rape their child, but it’s difficult, if not impossible (depending on social class) for them to marry.

With that in mind, why aren’t women in charge of things? With a long-term, high-commitment investment like a child, choosing partners is something a woman needs to do carefully. This primes them for leadership and enforcement of non-incestuous relations. Since there’s the biological imperative to reproduce, women need to be treated carefully so that their children survive. They can only bear one child at a time, maxing out at two, and gestation takes nine months. And women cannot deny that they’re pregnant, while men can ejaculate at a much higher rate, and pre-genetic testing, the only way you can prove that it wasn’t your set partner is by phenotype and hoping for the best.

If we started out as apes, and apes are a-okay with incest...and now we exist in the 19th century, and guys rule everything, despite women being better set up for it...what the heck happened in the middle?

J.J. Bachofen believed that he had the answer to this, and explained it in two words -- “Remember Orestes!”

Orestes killed his mother for killing his father, then was pursued all the way to Mt. Olympus. But then, Orestes was judged to be in the right for doing so! This showed, Bachofen believed, a mythical depiction of the turning point from matriarchal rule to patriarchal rule. Now, the father was valued over the mother, and that’s how we got where we are today.

Given that this conceptualization influenced Marx, Graves, and everything downstream of them, I think this is very useful to keep in mind.