[245] It is not perhaps quite easy to see what can be the psychic mechanism in virtue of which men should be attracted to blood relations strictly as such, though to the present writer it would seem to be a possibility which should not be entirely lost sight of. Such a tendency may perhaps have arisen: (1) as the result of some vague and unconscious sense of affinity, similarity or harmony, based perhaps on an unconscious memory impression of pre-natal life (in the case of child and mother or of twins), or upon some other condition of a psychical, physiological or chemical order; (2) at a higher level through the action of perceived physical or psychical resemblance, these in turn playing on the Narcissistic components of the love impulse.
[246] "La Prohibition de l'inceste et ses origines," L'Année Sociologique, I, 1890, 55 ff.
[247] Cp. Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy", IV, 100 ff.
[248] "History of Human Marriage," 320 ff.
[249] A difficulty in connection with Westermarck's theory is concerned with the question as to how an aversion to sexual intercourse between those who have lived from infancy together changed to a similar aversion between blood relatives. How is it, if the original aversion was of the former kind, that it has left but little trace of its existence, while the aversion to marriage between blood relatives, which is supposed to have been derived from it, is grown so strong? It would seem as if the theory would perhaps have to be modified so as to postulate the existence of an original aversion to the marriage of blood relatives, as such; though of course this only opens up the fresh difficulty of accounting for the manner in which such an aversion could arise. We are here faced with the same problem that we have already encountered in the case of the positive aspects of the love impulse between relatives (p. 198 footnote).
[250] If this were not the case, we might well ask with other critics why a natural instinct to avoid incestuous relations should need the reinforcement of legal penalties and prohibitions.
[251] For a discussion of the question of inbreeding in the present connection, see Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy", IV. 160 ff.
[252] "Inbreeding and Outbreeding", Monographs on Experimental Biology, 1919.
[253] Supposing that natural selection does exercise some influence of the kind indicated, such influence does not of course, here any more than elsewhere, necessarily imply any appreciation of the nature of the causes at work. On the contrary, as some authorities have pointed out, it is scarcely possible to ascribe to primitive man any conscious realisation of the ill effects of inbreeding (if these exist). These ill effects manifest themselves much too slowly to be observed by the savage with his relatively short memory and his lack of interest in remote events, especially when, as has often been the case, there has been uncertainty as to the nature of paternity. Even if the savage were able to realise the nature of this hereditary influence, it is pretty clear that his actions and feelings would be but little affected thereby, for it is one of the most general characteristics of the primitive mind that it takes but small account of distant consequences, whereas Eugenics involves the appreciation of such consequences in a high degree.
[254] "Elements of Folk Psychology", 151.