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understanding Plutarch's take on the incest taboo in "Roman questions", ¶108
sentinel166 posted a topic in Academia
Hi, One of my "special interests" is the issue of incest, the definition and ban of it or lack thereof in all societies. I usually work mostly with secondary sources (expert books compiling quotes) but whenever possible I go back to the primary source. Could you explain this ? First off my knowledge of Roman culture is on a need-to-know basis (or rather it grows organically as I find bits that interest me), and secondly English is not my mother tongue so sometimes I don't get the logic of some sentences, what it's supposed to convey. Could you paraphrase these sentences so that It makes sense to me ? > Or do they fear the disagreements which arise in marriages of near kin, on the ground that these tend to destroy natural rights? Or, since they observe that women by reason of their weakness need many protectors, were they not willing to take as partners in their household women closely akin to them, so that if their husbands wronged them, their kinsmen might bring them succour? Plutarch has something specific in mind with "destroy natural rights" but I don't get it. Jealousy male relatives about who gets to marry and s∃x a hot daughter ? And in the second sentence, am I right that Plutarch finds strange that Romans, knowing the vulnerability of women and their eternal dependency on their family, did not reach the logical conclusion that they would be safer not leaving it at all ? Thanks- 3 replies
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- incestus
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