Edvard Westermarck

Edvard Westermarck (1862–1939) was a Finnish sociologist, anthropologist, and philosopher whose work examined marriage, moral judgment, and the origins of social customs.

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Westermarck effect: A hypothesis that people raised in close association during early childhood tend to develop sexual aversion toward one another. This named hypothesis grew from Westermarck’s account of how childhood co-residence inhibits sexual attraction.
Shapiro–Stiglitz effect: A labor-economics result in which efficiency wages can deter workers from shirking when monitoring is imperfect. Despite the shared name pattern, this economic effect is unrelated to Westermarck’s theory.
Bronisław Malinowski: A Polish-British anthropologist who helped establish modern fieldwork-based social anthropology. Malinowski worked in the British anthropological milieu that Westermarck influenced and debated.
Incest avoidance: The tendency to avoid sexual relations or reproduction between close relatives, shaped by biological and social factors. Westermarck’s hypothesis offered a developmental explanation for this pattern of avoidance.
Kinship: Social relationships based on descent, marriage, adoption, or culturally recognized connections. His account of marriage and incest relied on distinguishing social kinship from biological relatedness.
Marriage, Past and Present: A comparative account of marriage customs and institutions across societies by Edvard Westermarck. This work presents the historical and cross-cultural research behind his analysis of marriage.
Edward Westermarck Memorial Foundation: A Finnish foundation established to support research in social sciences and humanities in Westermarck’s name. The foundation institutionalized his legacy in Finnish social-science research.
Evolved morality: The study of moral capacities and judgments as products partly shaped by biological evolution. His account connected moral sentiments to evolved human dispositions rather than solely to abstract reasoning.
Incest taboo: A social prohibition against sexual relations or marriage between specified relatives. Westermarck explained the taboo through aversion often formed among people raised together.
The History of Human Marriage: Westermarck’s comparative study of marriage customs, first published in 1891. This major book established his reputation through a wide-ranging account of marriage across cultures.