Incest





Incest is sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in a consanguineous relationship (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity, such as individuals of the same household, stepfamily, those related by adoption or marriage, or members of the same clan or lineage.

The incest taboo is and has been one of the most widespread of all cultural taboos, both in present and in many past societies. Most modern societies have laws regarding incest or social restrictions on closely consanguineous marriages. In societies where it is illegal, consensual adult incest is seen by some as a victimless crime. Some cultures extend the incest taboo to relatives with no consanguinity such as milk-siblings, stepsiblings, and adoptive siblings. Third-degree relatives (such as half-aunt, half-nephew, first cousin) on average share 12.5% genes, and sexual relations between them is viewed differently in various cultures, from being discouraged to being socially acceptable. The children of incestuous relationships were regarded as illegitimate, and are still so regarded in some societies today. In most cases, the parents did not have the option to marry to remove that status, as incestuous marriages were, and are, normally also prohibited.

A common justification for prohibiting incest is avoiding inbreeding: a collection of genetic disorders suffered by the children of parents with a close genetic relationship. Such children are at greater risk for congenital disorders, death, and developmental and physical disability, and that risk is proportional to their parents' coefficient of relationship—a measure of how close the parents are related genetically. But inbreeding is not the sole basis for the incest taboo for two reasons. First, most prohibitions on incest cover affinity relationships—that is, relationships created by marriage (for example, father-in-law and stepfather)—as well as relationships created by adoption. And second, the incest taboo also applies to non-procreative sex—for example, sex between infertile relatives, relatives of the same sex, or sex performed with birth control.

In some societies, such as those of Ancient Egypt and others, brother–sister, father–daughter, mother–son, cousin–cousin, aunt–nephew, uncle–niece, and other combinations of relations were practiced among royalty as a means of perpetuating the royal lineage. Some societies, such as the Balinese and some Inuit tribes, have different views about what constitutes illegal and immoral incest. However, sexual relations with a first-degree relative (such as a parent or sibling) are almost universally forbidden.

Terminology
The English word incest is derived from the Latin incestus, which has a general meaning of "impure, unchaste". It was introduced into Middle English, both in the generic Latin sense (preserved throughout the Middle English period ) and in the narrow modern sense. The derived adjective incestuous appears in the 16th century. Before the Latin term came in, incest was known in Old English as sib-leger (from sibb 'kinship' + leger 'to lie') or mǣġhǣmed (from mǣġ 'kin, parent' + hǣmed 'sexual intercourse') but in time, both words fell out of use. Terms like incester  and incestual  have been used to describe those interested or involved in sexual relations with relatives among humans, while inbreeder has been used in relation to similar behavior among non-human animals or organisms.

Antiquity
In ancient China, first cousins with the same surnames (i.e., those born to the father's brothers) were not permitted to marry, while those with different surnames (i.e., maternal cousins and paternal cousins born to the father's sisters) were.

Several of the Egyptian Pharaohs married their siblings and had several children with them. For example, Tutankhamun married his half-sister Ankhesenamun, and was himself the child of an incestuous union between Akhenaten and an unidentified sister-wife. It is now generally accepted that sibling marriages were widespread among all classes in Egypt during the Graeco-Roman period. Numerous papyri and the Roman census declarations attest to many husbands and wives being brother and sister, of the same father and mother. The most famous of these relationships were in the Ptolemaic royal family; Cleopatra VII was married to her younger brother, Ptolemy XIII, while her mother and father, Cleopatra V and Ptolemy XII, had also been brother and sister.

The fable of Oedipus, with a theme of inadvertent incest between a mother and son, ends in disaster and shows ancient taboos against incest as Oedipus is punished for incestuous actions by blinding himself. In the "sequel" to Oedipus, Antigone, his four children are also punished for their parents' incestuousness. Incest appears in the commonly accepted version of the birth of Adonis, when his mother, Myrrha has sex with her father Cinyras during a festival, disguised as a prostitute.

In Ancient Greece, Spartan King Leonidas I, hero of the legendary Battle of Thermopylae, was married to his niece Gorgo, daughter of his half-brother Cleomenes I. Greek law allowed marriage between a brother and sister if they had different mothers. For example, some accounts say that Elpinice was for a time married to her half-brother Cimon.

Incest is mentioned and condemned in Virgil's Aeneid Book VI: hic thalamum invasit natae vetitosque hymenaeos; "This one invaded a daughter's room and a forbidden sex act".

Roman civil law prohibited marriages within four degrees of consanguinity but had no degrees of affinity with regards to marriage. Roman civil laws prohibited any marriage between parents and children, either in the ascending or descending line ad infinitum. Adoption was considered the same as affinity in that an adoptive father could not marry an unemancipated daughter or granddaughter even if the adoption had been dissolved. Incestuous unions were discouraged and considered nefas (against the laws of gods and man) in ancient Rome. In AD 295 incest was explicitly forbidden by an imperial edict, which divided the concept of incestus into two categories of unequal gravity: the incestus iuris gentium, which was applied to both Romans and non-Romans in the Empire, and the incestus iuris civilis, which concerned only Roman citizens. Therefore, for example, an Egyptian could marry an aunt, but a Roman could not. Despite the act of incest being unacceptable within the Roman Empire, Roman Emperor Caligula is rumored to have had sexual relationships with all three of his sisters (Julia Livilla, Drusilla, and Agrippina the Younger). Emperor Claudius, after executing his previous wife, married his brother's daughter Agrippina the Younger, and changed the law to allow an otherwise illegal union. The law prohibiting marrying a sister's daughter remained. The taboo against incest in Ancient Rome is demonstrated by the fact that politicians would use charges of incest (often false charges) as insults and means of political disenfranchisement.

In Norse mythology, there are themes of brother-sister marriage, a prominent example being between Njörðr and his unnamed sister (perhaps Nerthus), parents of Freyja and Freyr. Loki in turn also accuses Freyja and Freyr of having a sexual relationship.

Biblical references
According to of the Hebrew Bible, the Patriarch Abraham and his wife Sarah were half-siblings, both being children of Terah, but with different mothers. According to 2 Samuel, Amnon, King David's son, raped his half-sister, Tamar.

In Genesis 19:30-38, living in an isolated area after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot's two daughters conspired to inebriate and seduce their father due to the lack of available partners to continue his line of descent. Because of intoxication, Lot "perceived not" when his firstborn, and the following night his younger daughter, lay with him. (Genesis 19:32-35)

Other references
According to the Book of Jubilees, Cain married his sister Awan.

From the Middle Ages onward
Many European monarchs were related due to political marriages, sometimes resulting in distant cousins (and even first cousins) being married. This was especially true in the Habsburg, Hohenzollern, Savoy and Bourbon royal houses. However, relations between siblings, that may have been tolerated in other cultures, was considered abhorrent. For example, the accusation that Anne Boleyn and her brother George Boleyn had committed incest was one of the reasons that both siblings were executed in May 1536.

Incestuous marriages were also seen in the royal houses of ancient Japan and Korea, Inca Peru, Ancient Hawaii, and, at times, Central Africa, Mexico, and Thailand. Like the pharaohs of ancient Egypt, the Inca rulers married their sisters. Huayna Capac, for instance, was the son of Topa Inca Yupanqui and the Inca's sister and wife.

Half-sibling marriages were found in ancient Japan such as the marriage of Emperor Bidatsu and his half-sister Empress Suiko. Japanese Prince Kinashi no Karu had sexual relationships with his full sister Princess Karu no Ōiratsume, although the action was regarded as foolish. In order to prevent the influence of the other families, a half-sister of Korean Goryeo Dynasty monarch Gwangjong became his wife in the 10th century. Her name was Daemok. Brother-sister marriages were common during some Roman periods as some census records have shown.

In the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, it is a widely practiced custom for men to marry their sisters' daughters.

Prevalence and statistics
Incest between an adult and a person under the age of consent is considered a form of child sexual abuse that has been shown to be one of the most extreme forms of childhood abuse; it often results in serious and long-term psychological trauma, especially in the case of parental incest. Its prevalence is difficult to generalize, but research has estimated 10–15% of the general population as having at least one such sexual contact, with less than 2% involving intercourse or attempted intercourse. Among women, research has yielded estimates as high as 20%.

Father-daughter incest was for many years the most commonly reported and studied form of incest. More recently, studies have suggested that sibling incest, particularly older brothers having sexual relations with younger siblings, is the most common form of incest,        with some studies finding sibling incest occurring more frequently than other forms of incest. Some studies suggest that adolescent perpetrators of sibling abuse choose younger victims, abuse victims over a lengthier period, use violence more frequently and severely than adult perpetrators, and that sibling abuse has a higher rate of penetrative acts than father or stepfather incest, with father and older brother incest resulting in greater reported distress than stepfather incest.

Between adults and children
Sex between an adult family member and a child is usually considered a form of child sexual abuse and for many years has been the most reported form of incest. Father–daughter and stepfather–stepdaughter sex is the most commonly reported form of adult-child incest, with most of the remaining involving a mother or stepmother. Many studies found that stepfathers tend to be far more likely than biological fathers to engage in this form of incest. One study of adult women in San Francisco estimated that 17% of women were abused by stepfathers and 2% were abused by biological fathers. Father–son incest is reported less often, but it is not known how close the frequency is to heterosexual incest because it is likely more under-reported. Prevalence of incest between parents and their children is difficult to assess due to secrecy and privacy.

In a 1999 news story, BBC reported, "Close-knit family life in India masks an alarming amount of sexual abuse of children and teenage girls by family members, a new report suggests. Delhi organisation RAHI said 76% of respondents to its survey had been abused when they were children—40% of those by a family member."

According to the National Center for Victims of Crime a large proportion of rape committed in the United States is perpetrated by a family member:

A study of victims of father–daughter incest in the 1970s showed that there were "common features" within families before the occurrence of incest: estrangement between the mother and the daughter, extreme paternal dominance, and reassignment of some of the mother's traditional major family responsibility to the daughter. Oldest and only daughters were more likely to be the victims of incest. It was also stated that the incest experience was psychologically harmful to the woman in later life, frequently leading to feelings of low self-esteem, very unhealthy sexual activity, contempt for other women, and other emotional problems.

Adults who as children were incestuously victimized by adults often suffer from low self-esteem, difficulties in interpersonal relationships, and sexual dysfunction, and are at an extremely high risk of many mental disorders, including depression, anxiety disorders, phobic avoidance reactions, somatoform disorder, substance abuse, borderline personality disorder, and complex post-traumatic stress disorder. Research by Leslie Margolin indicates that mother-son incest does not trigger some innate biological response, but that the effects are more directly related to the symbolic meanings attributed to this act by the participants.

The Goler clan in Nova Scotia is a specific instance in which child sexual abuse in the form of forced adult/child and sibling/sibling incest took place over at least three generations. A number of Goler children were victims of sexual abuse at the hands of fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, sisters, brothers, cousins, and each other. During interrogation by police, several of the adults openly admitted to engaging in many forms of sexual activity, up to and including full intercourse, multiple times with the children. Sixteen adults (both men and women) were charged with hundreds of allegations of incest and sexual abuse of children as young as five. In July 2012, twelve children were removed from the 'Colt' family (a pseudonym) in New South Wales, Australia, after the discovery of four generations of incest. Child protection workers and psychologists said interviews with the children indicated "a virtual sexual free-for-all".

In Japan, there is a popular misconception that mother-son incestuous contact is common, due to the manner in which it is depicted in the press and popular media. According to Hideo Tokuoka, "When Americans think of incest, they think of fathers and daughters; in Japan one thinks of mothers and sons" due to the extensive media coverage of mother-son incest there. Some western researchers assumed that mother-son incest is common in Japan, but research into victimization statistics from police and health-care systems discredits this; it shows that the vast majority of sexual abuse, including incest, in Japan is perpetrated by men against young girls. The Mainichi Daily News column WaiWai, by Australian journalist Ryann Connell, featured often-sensationalist stories, principally translated from and based on articles appearing in Japanese tabloids. On June 28, 2008, The Mainichi newspaper announced punitive measures. Mainichi said, "We continued to post articles that contained incorrect information and indecent sexual content. These articles, many of which were not checked and properly investigated should not have been dispatched. We apologize deeply for causing many people trouble and for betraying the public's trust in the Mainichi Shimbun."

Between childhood siblings
Childhood sibling–sibling incest is considered to be widespread but rarely reported. Sibling-sibling incest becomes child-on-child sexual abuse when it occurs without consent, without equality, or as a result of coercion. In this form, it is believed to be the most common form of intrafamilial abuse. The most commonly reported form of abusive sibling incest is abuse of a younger sibling by an older sibling. A 2006 study showed a large portion of adults who experienced sibling incest abuse have "distorted" or "disturbed" beliefs (such as that the act was "normal") both about their own experience and the subject of sexual abuse in general.

Sibling abusive incest is most prevalent in families where one or both parents are often absent or emotionally unavailable, with the abusive siblings using incest as a way to assert their power over a weaker sibling. Absence of the father in particular has been found to be a significant element of most cases of sexual abuse of female children by a brother. The damaging effects on both childhood development and adult symptoms resulting from brother–sister sexual abuse are similar to the effects of father–daughter, including substance abuse, depression, suicidality, and eating disorders.

Between consenting adults
Sexual activity between adult close relatives is sometimes ascribed to genetic sexual attraction. This form of incest has not been widely reported, but evidence has indicated that this behavior does take place, possibly more often than many people realize. Internet chatrooms and topical websites exist that provide support for incestuous couples.

Proponents of incest between consenting adults draw clear boundaries between the behavior of consenting adults and rape, child molestation, and abusive incest. The law struggles to accept the existence of consensual sibling-sibling sexual relationships. As the legal system does not deal with moral issues on a continuum, these cases are divided into categories or binaries. This is why, even consensual relationships such as these, are still classified as "incest". James Roffee, a senior lecturer in criminology at Monash University and former worker on legal responses to familial sexual activity in England and Wales, and Scotland, discussed how the European Convention on Human Rights deems all familial sexual acts to be criminal, even if all parties give their full consent and are knowledgeable to all possible consequences. He also argues that the use of particular language tools in the legislation manipulates the reader to deem all familial sexual activities as immoral and criminal, even if all parties are consenting adults. According to one incest participant who was quoted for an article in The Guardian:

In Slate, William Saletan drew a legal connection between gay sex and incest between consenting adults. As he described in his article, in 2003, U.S. Senator Rick Santorum commented on a pending U.S. Supreme Court case involving sodomy laws (primarily as a matter of Constitutional rights to Privacy and Equal Protection under the Law):

However, David Smith of the Human Rights Campaign professed outrage that Santorum placed being gay on the same moral and legal level as someone engaging in incest. Saletan argued that, legally and morally, there is essentially no difference between the two, and went on to support incest between consenting adults being covered by a legal right to privacy. UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh has made similar arguments. In a more recent article, Saletan said that incest is wrong because it introduces the possibility of irreparably damaging family units by introducing "a notoriously incendiary dynamic—sexual tension—into the mix".

Aunts, uncles, nieces or nephews
In the Netherlands, marrying one's nephew or niece is legal, but only with the explicit permission of the Dutch Government, due to the possible risk of genetic defects among the offspring. Nephew-niece marriages predominantly occur among foreign immigrants. In November 2008, the Christian Democratic (CDA) party's Scientific Institute announced that it wanted a ban on marriages between nephews and nieces.

Consensual sex between adults (persons of 18 years and older) is always lawful in the Netherlands and Belgium, even among closely related family members. Sexual acts between an adult family member and a minor are illegal, though they are not classified as incest, but as abuse of the authority such an adult has over a minor, comparable to that of a teacher, coach or priest.

In Florida, consensual adult sexual intercourse with someone known to be your aunt, uncle, niece or nephew constitutes a felony of the third degree. Other states also commonly prohibit marriages between such kin. The legality of sex with a half-aunt or half-uncle varies state by state.

In the United Kingdom, incest includes only sexual intercourse with a parent, grandparent, child or sibling, but the more recently introduced offence of "sex with an adult relative" extends also as far as half-siblings, uncles, aunts, nephews and nieces. The term 'incest' however remains widely used in popular culture to describe any form of sexual activity with a relative.

Between adult siblings
The most public case of consensual adult sibling incest in recent years is the case of a brother-sister couple from Germany, Patrick Stübing and Susan Karolewski. Because of violent behavior on the part of his father, Patrick was taken in at the age of 3 by foster parents, who adopted him later. At the age of 23 he learned about his biological parents, contacted his mother, and met her and his then 16-year-old sister Susan for the first time. The now-adult Patrick moved in with his birth family shortly thereafter. After their mother died suddenly six months later, the siblings became intimately close, and had their first child together in 2001. By 2004, they had four children together: Eric, Sarah, Nancy, and Sofia. The public nature of their relationship, and the repeated prosecutions and even jail time they have served as a result, has caused some in Germany to question whether incest between consenting adults should be punished at all. An article about them in Der Spiegel states that the couple are happy together. According to court records, the first three children have mental and physical disabilities, and have been placed in foster care. In April 2012, at the European Court of Human Rights, Patrick Stübing lost his case that the conviction violated his right to a private and family life. On September 24, 2014 the German Ethics Council has recommended that the government abolish laws criminalizing incest between siblings, arguing that such bans impinge upon citizens.

Some societies differentiate between full sibling and half sibling relations. In ancient societies, full sibling and half sibling marriages occurred.

Cousin relationships
Marriages and sexual relationships between first cousins are stigmatized as incest in some cultures, but tolerated in much of the world. Currently, 24 US states prohibit marriages between first cousins, and another seven permit them only under special circumstances. The United Kingdom permits both marriage and sexual relations between first cousins.

First- and second-cousin marriages are rare, accounting for less than 1% of marriages in Western Europe, North America and Oceania, while reaching 9% in South America, East Asia and South Europe and about 50% in regions of the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. Communities such as the Dhond and the Bhittani of Pakistan clearly prefer marriages between cousins as belief they ensure purity of the descent line, provide intimate knowledge of the spouses, and ensure that patrimony will not pass into the hands of "outsiders".

There are some cultures in Asia which stigmatize cousin marriage, in some instances even marriages between second cousins or more remotely related people. This is notably true in the culture of Korea. In South Korea, before 1997, anyone with the same last name and clan were prohibited from marriage. In light of this law being held unconstitutional, South Korea now only prohibits up to third cousins (see Article 809 of the Korean Civil Code). Hmong culture prohibits the marriage of anyone with the same last name – to do so would result in being shunned by the entire community, and they are usually stripped of their last name. Some Hindu communities in India prohibit cousin marriages.

In a review of 48 studies on the children parented by cousins, the rate of birth defects was twice that of non-related couples: 4% for cousin couples as opposed to 2% for the general population.

Defined through marriage
Some cultures include relatives by marriage in incest prohibitions; these relationships are called affinity rather than consanguinity. For example, the question of the legality and morality of a widower who wished to marry his deceased wife's sister was the subject of long and fierce debate in the United Kingdom in the 19th century, involving, among others, Matthew Boulton and Charles La Trobe. The marriages were entered into in Scotland and Switzerland respectively, where they were legal. In medieval Europe, standing as a godparent to a child also created a bond of affinity. But in other societies, a deceased spouse's sibling was considered the ideal person to marry. The Hebrew Bible forbids a man from marrying his brother's widow with the exception that, if his brother died childless, the man is instead required to marry his brother's widow so as to "raise up seed to him" (per ).

In Islamic law, marriage among close blood relations like parents, stepparent, parents in-law, siblings, stepsiblings, the children of siblings, aunts and uncles is prohibited, while first or second cousins may marry. Marrying the widow of a brother, or the sister of deceased or divorced wife is also allowed.

Inbreeding
Offspring of biologically related parents are subject to the possible impact of inbreeding. Such offspring have a higher possibility (see Coefficient of relationship) of congenital birth defects because it increases the proportion of zygotes that are homozygous for deleterious recessive alleles that produce such disorders (see Inbreeding depression). Because most such alleles are rare in populations, it is unlikely that two unrelated marriage partners will both be heterozygous carriers. However, because close relatives share a large fraction of their alleles, the probability that any such rare deleterious allele present in the common ancestor will be inherited from both related parents is increased dramatically with respect to non-inbred couples. Contrary to common belief, inbreeding does not in itself alter allele frequencies, but rather increases the relative proportion of homozygotes to heterozygotes. However, because the increased proportion of deleterious homozygotes exposes the allele to natural selection, in the long run its frequency decreases more rapidly in inbred population. In the short term, incestuous reproduction is expected to produce increases in spontaneous abortions of zygotes, perinatal deaths, and postnatal offspring with birth defects. This also means that the closer two persons are related, the more severe are the biological costs of inbreeding. This fact likely explains why inbreeding between close relatives, such as siblings, is less common than inbreeding between cousins.

There may also be other deleterious effects besides those caused by recessive diseases. Thus, similar immune systems may be more vulnerable to infectious diseases (see Major histocompatibility complex and sexual selection).

A 1994 study found a mean excess mortality with inbreeding among first cousins of 4.4%. Children of parent-child or sibling-sibling unions are at increased risk compared to cousin-cousin unions. Studies suggest that 20-36% of these children will die or have major disability due to the inbreeding. A study of 29 offspring resulting from brother-sister or father-daughter incest found that 20 had congenital abnormalities, including four directly attributable to autosomal recessive alleles.

Animals
Many mammal species, including humanity's closest primate relatives, tend to avoid mating with close relatives, especially if there are alternative partners available. However, some chimpanzees have been recorded attempting to mate with their mothers. Male rats have been recorded engaging in mating with their sisters, but they tend to prefer non-related females over their sisters.

Livestock breeders often practice controlled breeding to eliminate undesirable characteristics within a population, which is also coupled with culling of what is considered unfit offspring, especially when trying to establish a new and desirable trait in the stock.

Insects


Bed bugs: North Carolina State University found that bedbugs in contrast to most other insects tolerate incest and are able to genetically withstand the effects of inbreeding quite well.

Laws
Laws regarding sexual activity between close relatives vary considerably between jurisdictions, and depend on the type of sexual activity and the nature of the family relationship of the parties involved, as well as the age and sex of the parties. Prohibition of incest laws may extend to restrictions on marriage rights, which also vary between jurisdictions. Most jurisdictions prohibit parent-child and sibling marriages, while other also prohibit first-cousin and uncle-niece and aunt-nephew marriages. In most places, incest is illegal, regardless of the ages of the two partners. In other countries, incestuous relationships between consenting adults (with the age varying by location) are permitted, including in the Netherlands, France, Slovenia and Spain. Sweden is the only country that allows marriage between half-siblings and they must seek government counseling before marriage.

While the legality of consensual incest varies by country, sexual assault committed against a relative is usually seen as a very serious crime. In some legal systems, the fact of a perpetrator being a close relative to the victim constitutes an aggravating circumstance in the case of sexual crimes such as rape and sexual conduct with a minor – this is the case in Romania.

Jewish
According to the Torah, per Leviticus 18, "the children of Israel"—Israelite men and women alike—are forbidden from sexual relations between people who are "near of kin" (cf. verse 6), who are defined as:


 * 1) Parents and children (cf. verse 7)
 * 2) Siblings and half siblings (cf. verses 9 and 11). Relationships between these are particularly singled out for a curse in Deuteronomy 27, and they are of the only two kinds incestuous relationships that are among the particularly-singled-out relationships—with the other particularly-singled-out relationships being ones of non-incestuous family betrayal (cf. verse 20) and bestiality (cf. verse 21)
 * 3) Grandparents and grandchildren (cf. verse 10)
 * 4) Aunts and nephews, uncles and nieces, etc. (cf. verses 12–14). Relationships between these are the second kind of relationships that are particularly singled out for a curse in Deuteronomy 27, and the explicit examples of children-in-law and mothers-in-law (cf. verse 23) serves to remind the Israelites that the parents-in-law are also (or at least should be also) the children-in-laws' aunts and uncles:

"And Moses commanded the children of Israel according to the word of the LORD, saying: 'The tribe of the sons of Joseph speaketh right. This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying: Let them be married to whom they think best; only into the family of the tribe of their father shall they be married. So shall no inheritance of the children of Israel remove from tribe to tribe; for the children of Israel shall cleave every one to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. And every daughter, that possesseth an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel, shall be wife unto one of the family of the tribe of her father, that the children of Israel may possess every man the inheritance of his fathers. So shall no inheritance remove from one tribe to another tribe; for the tribes of the children of Israel shall cleave each one to its own inheritance.' Even as the LORD commanded Moses, so did the daughters of Zelophehad. For Mahlah, Tirzah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married unto their father's brothers' sons."

Incestuous relationships are considered so severe among chillulim HaShem as to be, along with the other forbidden relationships that are mentioned in Leviticus 18, punishable by death as specified in Leviticus 20.

In the 4th century BCE, the Soferim (scribes) declared that there were relationships within which marriage constituted incest, in addition to those mentioned by the Torah. These additional relationships were termed seconds (Hebrew: sheniyyot), and included the wives of a man's grandfather and grandson. The classical rabbis prohibited marriage between a man and any of these seconds of his, on the basis that doing so would act as a safeguard against infringing the biblical incest rules, although there was inconclusive debate about exactly what the limits should be for the definition of seconds.

Marriages that are forbidden in the Torah (with the exception of uncle-niece marriages) were regarded by the rabbis of the Middle Ages as invalid – as if they had never occurred; any children born to such a couple were regarded as bastards under Jewish law, and the relatives of the spouse were not regarded as forbidden relations for a further marriage. On the other hand, those relationships which were prohibited due to qualifying as seconds, and so forth, were regarded as wicked, but still valid; while they might have pressured such a couple to divorce, any children of the union were still seen as legitimate.

Christian
The Catholic Church does not generally permit the marriage if a doubt exists on whether the potential spouses are related by blood relations in any degree of the direct line or in the second degree of the collateral line.

Definitions of incest varied throughout history. The Fourth Lateran Council held in 1215 attempted to codify that marriage was forbidden up to and including third cousins, though permissible beyond this for fourth cousins, third cousins once removed, etc.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, marriages are banned between second cousins or closer and between second uncles / aunts and second nieces / nephews (between first cousins once removed) or closer. Marrying one's godparent or deceased spouse's sibling is also prohibited, although marrying one's stepchild is not – e.g. Vyacheslav Ivanov exercised his right to marry his stepdaughter after her mother's (his first wife's) death.

The Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican Communion allows marriages up to and including first cousins.

In Augustine of Hippo's book City of God, he claimed that the children of Adam and Eve must have married each other in order to produce offspring.

Islamic
The Quran gives specific rules regarding incest, which prohibit a man from marrying or having sexual relationships with:

The main differences (apart from relationships between a man and his daughter) are:

Zoroastrian
In Zoroastrianism, incest between cousins is a virtue although in some sources incest is believed to be related to that of parent-child or brothers-sisters. This is called Xvaetvadatha. Friedrich Nietzsche, in his book The Birth of Tragedy, cites that among Zoroastrians a wise priest is born only by Xvaetvadatha To what extent Xvaetvadatha was practiced in Sasanian Iran and before, especially outside the royal and noble families (“dynastic incest”) and, perhaps, the clergy, and whether practices ascribed to them can be assumed to be characteristic of the general population is not clear. Evidence from Dura-Europos, however, combined with that of the Jewish and Christian sources citing actual cases under the Sasanians, strengthen the evidence of the Zoroastrian texts. In the post-Sasanian Zoroastrian literature, Xvaetvadatha is said to refer to marriages between cousins which have always been relatively common. When Anquetil Duperron visited the Parsis in the mid-18th century, he was told the term referred to marriage with cousins, and according to James Darmesteter, it was rare for a Parsi to marry out of the family; marriage between cousins (a marriage made in heaven) was both practical and normal, while incestuous marriage was taboo and illegal.

Hindu
Rigveda regard incest to be "evil". Hinduism speaks of incest in abhorrent terms. Hindus believes there are both karmic and scientifically bad effects of incest and thus practice strict rules of both endogamy and exogamy, as well as same family tree (gotra) or bloodline (Pravara). Marriage within the gotra ("swagotra" marriages) are banned under the rule of exogamy in the traditional matrimonial system. People within the gotra are regarded as kin and marrying such a person would be thought of as incest. i.e. Marriage with paternal cousins is strictly prohibited. In fact marriage between two people whose parents are related paternally up to several generations is expressly prohibited. Gotra is transferred down the male lineage while the Gotra of a female changes upon marriage. i.e., upon marriage a woman would belong to her husband's lineage.

The marriage with a person having same Gotra as of the original Gotras (lineage) is prohibited.