Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective - Ipce

with their immediate descendants. The Azande of Africa, for example,
insist that the highest chiefs enter into sexual partnerships with
their own daughters. In no society, however, are such matings permitted
to the general population.
Though incest is prohibited it does occur. Incest between father
and daughter occurs in the United States. In years past we have not
recognized the extent of daughter-father occurrences because of our belief
that many of such accounts were fantasy. (Litin, 1965). In the
following incestuous encounter of a daughter and her father, daughterfather
roles became confused because of an unusual sleeping arrangement,
father’s drunken condition, and daughter’s favorable response to
the sensual experience.
There was only one bed in our hotel room, a double
one which I shared with my father that
night. As it turned out, my father came back
very late that night, after drinking quite
heavily. I had never seen him drunk before. He
got ready for bed and warned me before he got in
that he was used to sleeping with mother and
that he hoped he would not bother me. He started
to make love to me, not knowing what he was
doing. I did, however, but liked the sensation
and I let it continue for awhile--it seemed like
hours, but it was only a matter of minutes. One
way that it affected me was to cause me to wish
again to have the same sensations I had that
night which led me to masturbation.
In the following cases the incestuous relationship is being described
by the social worker in the first and by a participant in the
second. In only one case coitus attempted. As is apparent in these
cases, incestuous relationships run the gamut from relatively innocent
sex play to rape.
Mary was a sixth grader when she was raped by
her sixteen year old brother. The father was
drunk when we came to the home. The father began
to tussle Mary’s (now thirteen) hair and cuddle
her as fathers often playfully do. However, Mary
did not respond positively, and she seemed to
wish to pull away--her face showed anguish and
she appeared extremely distraught with every
movement of his hands on her face and chest. Her
eyes were closed as if she were in pain. To me
it was clear that the father, as well as the
brother, was a source of sexual torment for
Mary. In a short while, the father led Mary from
the entry area (where we were talking) into the
living room and sat in a chair with Mary lying
on his lap. It was possible to see them; the
father was stroking her body, particularly her
genitals. I was able to see now that Mary had
been conditioned to endure being touched by her
father for she had no other place to turn for
help.
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