Bara endogamy and incest prohibition

Abstract

Since young (and old) Bara generally have an active and varied sex life and since the category of kin includes the great majority of nearby members of the opposite sex, this incest rule is seen as a constraint. Bara incest regulations relate, not to corporate unilineal groups, but to a general social and moral category, hava, which is essentially a cognatic kindred. Since this category amounts to little other than who is and who is not related to one, and is not a corporate or political group, there is no direct way this incest prohibition and atonement can be viewed as supporting societal integration. Sexual regulation may be said to maintain the category of kinship, but, more than that, it is the most BARA ENDOGAMY AND INCEST PROHIBITION 39 important aspect, almost the very essence of the Bara definition of kinship (fihava). Since other obligations of common kinship (mutual aid, etc.) are secondary to (or, at least, no more important than) the ancestral regulation of sexuality between kin, it would be absurd to view the latter as maintaining anything other than itself. [...]what I have referred to as the inner boundary of the Bara endogamous category has for the Merina merged with that outer boundary between restricted distant cousins and unrelated fair sexual game.