Editing Incest taboo (section)

====Endogamy====
Exogamy between households or descent groups is typically prescribed in [[Classless society|classless societies]]. Societies that are stratified—that is, divided into unequal classes—often prescribe different degrees of endogamy. Endogamy is the opposite of exogamy; it refers to the practice of marriage between members of the same social group. An example is [[Caste_system_in_India|India's caste system]], in which unequal castes are endogamous.<ref>Marvin Harris 1997 ''Culture, People and Nature: An Introduction to General Anthropology'' 7th edition Longman pp. 250, 311</ref> Inequality between [[ethnic group]]s and [[Race (classification of humans)|races]] also correlates with endogamy.<ref>Marvin Harris 1997 ''Culture, People and Nature: An Introduction to General Anthropology'' 7th edition Longman pp. 317–318</ref>

An extreme example of this principle, and an exception to the incest taboo, is found among members of the ruling class in certain ancient states, such as the Inca, Egypt, China, and Hawaii; brother–sister marriage (usually between half-siblings) was a means of maintaining wealth and political power within one family.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Bixler | first1 = Ray | year = 1982 | title = Comment on the Incidence and Purpose of Royal Sibling Incest | journal = American Ethnologist | volume = 9 | issue = 3| pages = 580–582 | doi=10.1525/ae.1982.9.3.02a00100}}</ref> Some scholars have argued that in Roman-governed Egypt this practice was also found among commoners,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Frier |first1=Bruce W. |last2=Bagnall |first2=Roger S. |author2-link=Roger S. Bagnall |title=The Demography of Roman Egypt |publisher= [[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge, UK |year=1994 |isbn=0-521-46123-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last = Shaw | first = B. D. | title = Explaining Incest: Brother-Sister Marriage in Graeco-Roman Egypt | journal = Man |series=New Series | volume = 27 | issue = 2 | year = 1992 | pages = 267–299 | jstor=2804054 | doi=10.2307/2804054}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last = Hopkins | first = Keith | author-link = Keith Hopkins | year = 1980 | title = Brother-Sister Marriage in Roman Egypt | url = http://humweb.ucsc.edu/jklynn/ancientwomen/HopkinsBrotherSisterMarriage.pdf | journal = Comparative Studies in Society and History | volume = 22 | pages = 303–354 | doi = 10.1017/S0010417500009385 | issue = 3 | s2cid = 143698328 | access-date = 2013-07-21 | archive-date = 2016-03-03 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160303180202/http://humweb.ucsc.edu/jklynn/ancientwomen/HopkinsBrotherSisterMarriage.pdf | url-status = dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last = Scheidel | first = W | title = Brother-sister marriage in Roman Egypt | journal = Journal of Biosocial Science | year = 1997 | volume = 29 | issue = 3 | pages = 361–71 | doi = 10.1017/s0021932097003611 | pmid = 9881142 | s2cid = 23732024 | url = http://humweb.ucsc.edu/jklynn/AncientWomen/ScheidelBrotherSisterMarriages.pdf | access-date = 2013-03-08 | archive-date = 2013-11-02 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131102012940/http://humweb.ucsc.edu/jklynn/AncientWomen/ScheidelBrotherSisterMarriages.pdf | url-status = dead }}</ref> but others have argued that this was in fact not the norm.<ref>Walter Scheidel. 2004. "Ancient Egyptian Sibling Marriage and the Westermarck Effect", in ''Inbreeding, Incest, and the Incest Taboo: the state of knowledge at the turn of the century'' Arthur Wolf and William Durham (eds) Stanford University Press. pp. 93-108</ref><ref>[[Sabine R. Huebner|Huebner, Sabine R.]] "‘Brother-Sister’ Marriage in Roman Egypt: a Curiosity of Humankind or a Widespread Family Strategy?." The Journal of Roman Studies 97 (2007): 21-49.</ref><ref>Huebner, Sabine R. The family in Roman Egypt: a comparative approach to intergenerational solidarity and conflict. Cambridge University Press, 2013, pp.190-195</ref>