ABSTRACT
Among the Guro, the word for an incestuous person trègyèzan, ‘killer of the earth’ (i.e. of ancestors) is never uttered. Nor do we find any metaphoric usage; in my notes I have found only one metaphor relating to an incestuous person, which can be translated as ‘the one who looks upon (the genitals of) a relative’. Thus, as in Sophocles, sight is endowed with power. Nor is incest ever referred to directly. In the discussions of marriages between those too closely related, they speak simply of ‘miserliness’. Only the practicability of marriages is mentioned: ‘so-and-so can marry that girl’, ‘he cannot marry this girl!’ In this context, they describe genealogical connections which allow or forbid marriage between the two individuals, though, at the same time, no incest prohibitions may hold. The only absolute prohibitions are between primary relatives (father-daughter, mother-son, brother-sister) and even here, as has been mentioned, they are rarely referred to and, even when they are, only indirectly.
