The What, Who, When and With of Incest

Incest has been a part and parcel of all cultures and societies from time immemorial Cleopatra, the legendary Queen of the Egyptians was married to her own brother Ptolemy whom she liquidated to usurp the throne herself. Apart from this horrid end of incest, nowadays this behaviour pattern is not a sole right of royalty and is seen in all types of socio-economic setups. Do we need to enact legislatures to the effect that incest becomes a punishable offence in India (like the West)? Reported cases of such behaviour are scarce and few, yet we know the incidence is much higher, due to our social setup seldom are such activities reported. The present paper tries to highlight certain aspects of incest i.e. type of people, class of people and personalities thereof who take part in such behaviour. An etiological perspective is also detailed.