Would incest be a common human trait in all cultures if we evolved from monkeys and not created by a God.?

Question

Is incest common in other wild life forms or is there evidence of rejection?

Some of you people sound like a bunch of inbred wild animals.

Answer 1

Incest was pretty common among humans even among royalty not so long ago. However, those particular choices were based on politics. Most Christians would never consider such a thing because the Bible prohibits it.

I think that our greater understanding of genetics and the studies that prove an increased chance of deformities and life-long health problems has also decreased the instances of incest (Jerry Springer guests not included).

There are definitely other animals - even mammals- which engage in incest. Both wild and domesticated dogs and cats will gladly mate with their offspring. Most "community" animals, however, recognize their close relatives and seem to typically avoid sexual activity with them.

I haven't done any specific research into the subject, but it's a very interesting question!

Answer 2

There is an instinct in most species to avoid incest.

Examples :Male baboons all leave their birth troop on reaching adulthood and join another troop.Many other primates behave this way though in some species the females move not the males.Other social animals behave in similar ways-e.g. wolves.

Killer whales tend to stay in their birth pod for life but never mate with members of their own pod-they have sex with unrelated killer whales when different pods meet up.

In those species where strong males rule over a harem of females-lions,wild horses,hippos,gorillas etc-incest is avoided by the simple fact that males seldom manage to maintain control of a female group long enough for their daughters to be of breeding age.Usually they are defeated by younger,stronger males and they and their sons are driven away.The young females-and their mothers-then breed with the new males.Dad usually dies and his sons eventually take over groups of their own.

Most other kinds of animals also have incest-avoiding behaviour.When incest among animals does occur it is usually due to a lack of unrelated members of the opposite sex being available.

Answer 3

There is an instinct in both animals and humans to avoid having sex with close relatives. In humans, it is called the Westermarck Effect, named after the german scientist who discovered it. Basically, when children live together in the same house from birth up to about the age of six, we tend to reject each-other as sexual partners. Animals have similar traits - probably resulting from evolutionary pressure to include the widest gene pool for the sake of viability.
However, when animals are forced to live where no outside members of the species are available, for example in isolated habitats, inbreeding does occur.
It has been discovered that humans who do not feel that other people outside their family are available to them, for whatever reason - emotional or physical isolation, incest is also more likely to occur.
We didn't evolve from monkeys, but we are related to them. Our ape-like ancestors lived in isolated groups. When the mutations began to occur in them that led to evolving into humans, incest preserved those mutations, allowing us to further develop. If there had been more mixing between groups, those mutations might have been eliminated. The fact that the mutations had evolutionary advantages allowed the near-apes with those traits to out-compete the less evolved apes.
As for whether or not this says anything about whether God created us or not - I happen to believe that evolution is his tool for improving us, and he used evolution to create us.

Answer 4

Are you Rh+? The rhesus monkey and Rh+ people have blood factor in common. That does not promote incest but it does say we have a lot in common with an ancestor or two. Incest began with the bloodline. The ones that right of kingship was handed down to them. They have Rh- blood. Their blood content is copper while ours is iron. The term blue blood came from them. Incest is their way of life and always has been. Their incest relations produce above normal children while ours produces below normal children.
Incest is bad, okay?
The bloodline has incestual relations because that is normal for them. It is not natural for full blood humans. They are hybrid. They used to have a high infant mortality rate because of blue babies. Technology has licked that problem.
Not all Rh- people are full blood "bloodline".

Answer 5

No, other kinds of animals do NOT typically commit incest. The offspring from incest-sex are often born with defects. Some animals end up matting with their brothers or sisters on accident because they go separate ways when they are young and then find each other years later and don't recognize one another. But that is supposed to be very rare thanks to the large numbers of animals of a given species. However, this has become more common in certain species recently because there have become so few families due to humans killing them all. But it's not natural. So in answer to your question: NO.

Answer 6

While most mammals reject incest, sometimes they are forced to inbreed purely for purposes of preservation. Bonobos are the most notable animal for incestuous tendencies. They use sex to resolve fights, rather than violence like their chimp cousins. However we are not directly related to bonobos, who look like chimps, but are significantly smaller.

Humans tend to reject incest as well, with or without religion. In fact, anti-incest sentiments don't necessarily have their basis in religion, it just is that religion is most commonly used to create morals that people generally feel should be enforced, but have no other outlet for enforcing them.

Many life forms reject incest. I remembered reading a book on chimps in which at one point, a male chimp attempted to rape his sister, but she fought him off, even though she would eagerly mate with any other male. It was because they were related that she denied him.

Answer 7

Well you would have to ask a creationist because as far as I have been able to tell, they are the only ones who believe that man evolved from monkeys.
Of course there is a lot of incest in the Bible as well, so I don't understand your question.

Answer 8

The strange thing is that there HAD to have been at least a bit of incest going on for us all to get here. And yes, incest is very common in other wild life. Think about dogs. They go through heat and will f*ck their brothers or sisters, no prob.
This being said, incest prob isn't the best idea.

Answer 9

Don't listen to the first guy who answered this question. This is NOT a dumb question. The answer is YES. I had some fish. And the mother had babies, and the babies were having more babies (amongst themselves). It happens. It isn't a very healthy thing for the babies becuase they can have messed up genes (aka missing fins ect) becuase the genes are so close. If you have commited incest. Don't be too mad at yourself. Sure it wasnt' the best thing to do, however, it was your instinct. I know people that have, and I don't judge them. I know that they are beautiful wonderful people who just have done some interesting things, that they are not proud of. I woudl say just don't do it again if you have. But don't beat yourself up too much. You are only human after all. And humans are only animals, just like the rest of them.

Answer 10

Well if you follow the bible, incest would have to have been pretty common then too, so I'm missing your point.