Let me just do away with a misunderstanding here.
People seem to think that, in the West, marriage between first cousins is incestuous and generally illegal. This is far from true. In fact, nearly all Western countries allow marriage between first cousins. The incest ban usually applies to siblings or relatives in direct lineal descent.
Here are the relevant sections of the current marriage law of Denmark:
Quote: | § 6. Ægteskab må ikke indgås mellem slægtninge i ret op- og nedstigende linje eller mellem søskende.
§ 7. Ægteskab må ikke uden justitsministerens tilladelse indgås mellem personer, af hvilke den ene har været gift med den andens slægtning i ret op- eller nedstigende linje. Er der fællesbørn i det tidligere ægteskab, må tilladelsen kun gives, såfremt hensynet til børnene ikke taler derimod. |
which translates as:
Quote: | § 6. Marriage may not be entered into by relatives in direct line of ascent or descent, or between siblings.
§ 7.Marriage may not, without the permission of the Minister of Justice, be entered into by persons, of which one has been married with the relative of the other in direct line of ascent or descent. If common children exist in the former marriage, permission can only be granted after taking into account the welfare of the children. |
So, in Denmark, you can marry your first cousin. You can also marry your father's ex-wife or widow, assuming you can get the Minister of Justice to grant permission.
And no, Denmark is in no way exceptional in this regard.
Having said all that, the issue here isn't law, but social taboo. In most Western countries, Denmark included, marrying close to the limits of the incest legislation is considered socially unacceptable.
Going almost off-topic, just for the heck of it...
Incidentally, the origin of the word "incest" is in Latin, where it originally applied not only to sexual relations with family members, but to any form of illicit sex in contravention of divine law. Thus, for instance, sex with a Vestal virgin would be considered incest in ancient Rome. The penalty for this crime, btw, was to be thrown to one's death from the Tarpeian rock into the Tiber river.
The Clodius scandal, a famous sex scandal and trial in ancient Rome, involved a not-very-gentlemanly fellow called Publius Clodius Pulcher, and Caesar's wife. This scandal is the origin of the phrase "Caesar's wife must be above reproach." The crime for which Clodius was tried was incest, because the situation involved Caesar's wife in her capacity of priestess. Later Christian writers, immured in the idea that incest meant sex with siblings, invented a new version of the trial for their histories of Rome, wherein Clodius had had sex with his sister (Clodia, better known as the pseudonymous Lesbia in the poems of her admirer Catullus). Here we see how a linguistic error can confuse matters for historians.
- abunai
|
SirWence
while yes the event that turned her inot a killer rather than just a brooding youngster was the killing of the puppy she found you could see that she was becoming more accepting of humanity in general(she questions her flippancy in saying she needs to kill someone new to live in their place, and she goes as far as to make Kouta promise to kill her if she does) while she was with Kouta.
upon hearing that he was going to the festival with his cousin she immediately asks if that cousin is a boy or a girl, which would in no way have even crossed a potential girlfirends mind if she were from a western culture.
furhtermore once they do arrive at the festival upon seeing Kouta hugging and soothing Yuka she assumes again that they care for each other, which again would not really cross a westerners mind, it would just be a family thing, not an incestuous thing.
so I believe that were she from a western culture the feeling that he had not really cared for her(and only been friends with her because she was a 'strange looking animal') and had instead cared for Yuka in a girlfriend/boyfriend kind of way wouldn't have been an issue.
essentially if she were European she would not have felt the need to think Kouta loved someone else and not her.
|