The study of finding answers to questions that goes beyond mythology is called:

dear friend:

  i hope this letter finds you in soaring spirits and vibrant health. as you had expressed the wish to know about culture, traditions, and unity of india in your previous letter, in the following lines i have tried my best to give you glimpses of our culture, traditions, and unity. you will be amazed to know that our culture is the oldest culture in the world and the birth place of hinduism, buddhism, jainism, and sikhism. you won’t find any other culture as varied and multi-colored, multi-lingual as ours. each region has its own unique culture, traditions, language. there are 22 official languages in india.

  basically, india is a spiritual country with orthodox traditions. for example the people of india believe in traditions set by their wise forefathers. arranged marriages, joint-family system, universal brotherhood, vegetarianism, celebrating festivals such as diwali, holi, eid, etc., are the salient features of our culture and traditions.

  another unique aspect about our country is ‘unity in diversity’. in spite of the multi-lingual, multi-religious, multi-traditional, multi-cultural society, people live peacefully together, respecting one another’s views, cultures, traditions, and differences. i am sure you would love to visit india soon, and have a first-hand experience of the multi-colored culture. give regards to uncle and aunt. do visit india with your family and experience our hospitality.

your friend,

as university of miami psychologists debra lieberman and adam smith pointed out in a recent article in the journal current directions in psychological science, humans have social and psychological mechanisms to deter incest. with very few exceptions, marriages between brothers and sisters and between parents and their children are verboten in every human culture. the primary psychological anti-incest mechanism is the yuck response. even the idea of sex with their mom or dad, bro or sis is upsetting to most people. the psychologist jonathan haidt has found that nearly everyone is repelled by the prospect of brother-sister sex, even in hypothetical situations in which there is no chance of pregnancy).

the biological cost of incest

this raises an interesting question: just what’s so bad about incest? sure, having sex with your dad or your sister seems gross — but why? some anthropologists have argued that incest taboos are learned social conventions. this explanation, however, doesn’t make sense to me as it does not explain the widespread existence of anti-incest mechanisms in creatures ranging from cockroaches to chimpanzees. second, the incest taboo is about as close to a universal law as human moral rules get.

why should mechanisms to avoid incest be so widespread both in nature and across human societies? the answer is simple. the problem with having sex close with relatives is that there is an astonishingly high chance that your offspring will be born with a serious birth defect.