Verwandtenheirat

Richard Thurnwald, Verwandtenheirat (1929)

This brief encyclopedia article explains marriage between relatives through communal organization, descent principles, and neighboring customs. Thurnwald begins with a distinction between prohibitions on marriage and actual sexual conduct:

Obgleich überwiegend Schranken aufgerichtet sind, welche die Ehe unter den nächsten Blutsverwandten verhindern sollen, scheint doch sexueller Verkehr nebenher nicht selten vorzukommen.

English translation: Although barriers are predominantly erected to prevent marriage between the closest blood relatives, sexual intercourse nevertheless seems not infrequently to occur alongside them.

The qualification “seems” matters: Thurnwald offers a tentative generalization, not a documented comparison. His central explanation links restrictions on marriage between relatives to the joining of communities—usually already related—to form associations of friendship and culture. Australia, New Guinea, and America illustrate different scales of such association, but receive no extended treatment.

The argument then moves from relations between communities to principles organizing kinship internally:

Zum Teil wird die V. in besondere Bahnen durch mutterrechtliche oder vaterrechtliche Gesichtspunkte gedrängt.

English translation: In part, marriage between relatives is channeled into particular courses by considerations of maternal or paternal right.

Neighboring institutions and attitudes supply a final source of influence. The article’s conceptual contribution is to treat marriage restrictions as socially organized and locally shaped, rather than as an automatic consequence of biological relatedness. Its concluding cross-references situate this compact explanation within a broader study of marriage, kinship, sexual regulation, and social development.