Brother-Sister Marriage in Roman Egypt - A Curiosity of Humankind or a Widespread Family Strategy

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Brother-Sister Marriage in Roman Egypt - A Curiosity of Humankind or a Widespread Family Strategy

JournalArticle (Originalarbeit in einer wissenschaftlichen Zeitschrift)

ID	2832043
Author(s)	Huebner, Sabine R.
Author(s) at UniBasel	Huebner, Sabine
Year	2007
Title	Brother-Sister Marriage in Roman Egypt - A Curiosity of Humankind or a Widespread Family Strategy
Journal	Journal of Roman Studies
Volume	97
Pages / Article-Number	21-49
Abstract	Scholars over the last few decades have been unable to find a convincing explanation for the widespread practice of brother-sister marriage among the common people in Roman Egypt, a social practice seemingly disregarding one of the most fundamental taboos. This paper now argues that these ‘incestuous’ marriages were in fact marriages between a biological child and an adopted one, a practice documented also for other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. Due to the severe mortality regime before the demographic transition, up to 30 per cent of all fathers did not have a male heir, and therefore adopting the son-in-law was a common succession and inheritance strategy in many pre-modern societies.
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
ISSN/ISBN	0075-4358 ; 1753-528X
edoc-URL	http://edoc.unibas.ch/51056/
Full Text on edoc	No
Digital Object Identifier DOI	10.3815/000000007784016070
ISI-Number	WOS:000253287500002
Document type (ISI)	Review

03/05/2024

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