In dealing with the question of sexual selection in man various writers
have been puzzled by the problem presented by that abhorrence of incest
which is usually, though not always so clearly marked among the different
races of mankind.[184] It was once commonly stated, as by Morgan and by
Maine, that this abhorrence was the result of experience; the marriages of
closely related persons were found to be injurious to offspring and were
therefore avoided. This theory, however, is baseless because the marriages
of closely related persons are not injurious to the offspring.
Consanguineous marriages, so closely as they can be investigated on a
large scale,--that is to say, marriages between cousins,--as Huth was the
first to show, develop no tendency to the production of offspring of
impaired quality provided the parents are sound; they are only injurious
in this respect in so far as they may lead to the union of couples who are
both defective in the same direction. According to another theory, that of
Westermarck, who has very fully and ably discussed the whole
question,[185] "there is an innate aversion to sexual intercourse between
persons living very closely together from early youth, and, as such
persons are in most cases related, this feeling displays itself chiefly
as a horror of intercourse between near kin.
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