The subject of incest has been recognized by many masters of the natural and social sciences, including Darwin, Freud, Frazer, Durkheim, and Marx. For Freud, incest was a historical or contemporary fantasy rather than a reality; for the others, the origin of the incest taboo, rather than incest itself, was the focus of considerable attention. Arguing against the conventional view--that the incest taboo developed in response to the act of incest--The...