''The History of Human Marriage'' is an 1891 book by the Finnish philosopher and anthropologist
Edvard Westermarck
Edvard Alexander Westermarck (Helsinki, 20 November 1862 – Tenala, 3 September 1939) was a Finnish philosopher and sociologist. Among other subjects, he studied exogamy and the incest taboo.
Biography
Westermarck was born in 1862 in a ...
that provides an overview of marriage over time.
[ Blankenhorn 2007. pp. 9-10.]
The Finnish philosopher
Jaakko Hintikka
Kaarlo Jaakko Juhani Hintikka (12 January 1929 – 12 August 2015) was a Finnish philosopher and logician.
Life and career
Hintikka was born in Helsingin maalaiskunta (now Vantaa).
In 1953, he received his doctorate from the University of Hels ...
calls the work a monumental study and a classic in its field, but notes that it is now antiquated.
Summary
In the book, Westermarck defined marriage as "a more or less durable connection between male and female lasting beyond the mere act of propagation till after the birth of the offspring."
Westermarck argues that marriage is a social institution that rests on a biological foundation, and developed through a process in which human males came to live together with human females for sexual gratification, companionship, mutual economic aid, procreation, and the joint rearing of offspring.
[ Blankenhorn 2007. p. 37.]
Besides other observations and propositions, Westermarck also proposes that people who live in close domestic proximity during the first few years of their lives become desensitized to
sexual attraction
Sexual attraction is attraction on the basis of sexual desire or the quality of arousing such interest. Sexual attractiveness or sex appeal is an individual's ability to attract other people sexually, and is a factor in sexual selection or ma ...
, and as one explanation for the
incest taboo
An incest taboo is any cultural rule or norm that prohibits sexual relations between certain members of the same family, mainly between individuals related by blood. All human cultures have norms that exclude certain close relatives from ...
. This hypothesis has come to be known as the
Westermarck effect
The Westermarck effect, also known as reverse sexual imprinting, is a psychological hypothesis that people tend not to be attracted to peers with whom they lived like siblings before age six. This hypothesis was first proposed by Finnish anthr ...
, named after him, or as reverse
sexual imprinting.
Scholarly reception
David Blankenhorn
David Blankenhorn (born 1955 in Jackson, Mississippi) is the founder and president of the Institute for American Values and its initiative Braver Angels. He is also co-director of The Marriage Opportunity Council and the author of ''Fatherless Am ...
calls the book one of the best histories of human marriage, and considers it deservedly famous. He comments, however, that it leaves out a great deal of material while "skimming too quickly over too much."
Blankenhorn believes, however, that scholarship subsequent to Westermarck's has tended to support his conclusions.
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...
extensively used citations from the book in ''
Marriage and Morals
''Marriage and Morals'' is a 1929 book by philosopher Bertrand Russell, in which the author questions the Victorian notions of morality regarding sex and marriage.
Russell argues that the laws and ideas about sex of his time were a potpourri fr ...
''.
References
Bibliography
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External links
''The History of Human Marriage. Volume I'' 5th edition (1921)
''The History of Human Marriage. Volume II'' 5th edition (1921)
''The History of Human Marriage. Volume III'' 5th edition (1921)
{{DEFAULTSORT:History of Human Marriage
1891 non-fiction books
Books by Edvard Westermarck
Books about marriage
Sociology books