Incest Taboo and the Maintenance of Social Order in the Society
The study was empirically undertaken to examine incest taboo and the maintenance of social order in Adun clan of Obubra Local Government Area of Cross River State. After investigation, the findings depicts that a lot of factors determines for the enactment of incest taboo in Adun clan. These factors range from the construction of the kinship system which would otherwise not exist; the formation of non-competitive family bonds which provided the building blocks for more complex societies; the establishment of social order where everyone would be afraid of the law to avoid punishment or public embarrassment and the maintenance of stability, authority and compatibility of social roles. However, the negligence of incest taboo by Adun people, due to rural-urban settlement, lack of orientation and proper socialization made those who engaged in incest practices to realize the following manifest consequences: physical and emotional defeat; family disintegration; divorce; disobedience; procreation of illegal children, etc. This thus suggest the need for all African societies to appraise incest taboo with an aim of maintaining social order in society most especially among the Adun people of Cross River State and Nigeria in general.