Editing Edvard Westermarck (section)

==Views==
He has been described as "first [[Darwinian]] sociologist" or "the first [[sociobiology|sociobiologist]]",<ref name=sanderson>Sanderson, SK. "REFORMING THEORETICAL WORK IN SOCIOLOGY: A DETAILED REPLY TO MY CRITICS"</ref> as well as “an authority in the history of morals and of marriage customs.”<ref name="Columbia" /> He denied the then prevailing view that early human beings lived in sexual promiscuity, arguing that in fact historically [[monogamy]] preceded [[polygamy]].<ref name="Britannica" /> He maintained that “Marriage is rooted in the family rather than the family in the marriage”.<ref>Cited from: [[Bertrand Russell]]. ''[[Marriage and Morals]]''</ref>

The phenomenon of reverse sexual imprinting, the diminution in sexual attraction between persons who lived in close domestic proximity during the first few years in the life of either one, now known as the [[Westermarck effect]], was first formally described in his thesis ''The History of Human Marriage'' (1891).

Westermarck was also a scholar of [[Morocco]] and offered a positivist view of how its folk religion was formed in his two-volume work ''Ritual and Belief in Morocco'' (1926).<ref name="Britannica" /> He had started his fieldwork in Morocco as early as 1898, and visited the country 21 times in the next thirty years, spending in total seven years in the country. He also studied his favorite subject, marriage, there, publishing in 1914 ''Marriage Ceremonies of Morocco''.<ref name="Berose" />

Westermarck critiqued Christian institutions and Christian ideas on the grounds that they lacked foundation. He was also a moral [[relativist]] and in his two-volume ''The Origin and Development of Moral Ideas'' (1906–1908) he argued that moral judgements are not rational but are based on emotions and on social approval or disapproval. As a consequence, he also denied the existence of general or universal moral truth.<ref name="Britannica" />

In the UK, his name is often spelled '''Edward'''. His sister, [[Helena Westermarck]], was a writer and artist.<ref>{{cite book | last = Petteys | first = Chris | title = Dictionary of women artists : an international dictionary of women artists born before 1900 | publisher = G.K. Hall | location = Boston, Mass | year = 1985 | isbn = 0816184569 }}</ref>