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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/14325-0.txt b/14325-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b032b2c --- /dev/null +++ b/14325-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5985 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14325 *** + +Transcriber's note: The irregular footnote markers in this text [numbers] + refer to the reference book the author used, and not + always to the specific page numbers. These reference + books are listed numerically at the end of each + chapter. The footnotes are marked with [letters] and + the referenced footnotes are contained within the + text, near to the footnote marker. Therefore, + occasionally the numerical footnote markers are out + of sequence. Words that were italicized are now + marked by an underscore (_). + + + + + +TABOO AND GENETICS + +A Study of the Biological, Sociological and Psychological Foundation of +the Family + +by + +M. M. KNIGHT, PH.D. + +IVA LOWTHER PETERS, PH.D. + +PHYLLIS BLANCHARD, PH.D. + +Author of _The Adolescent Girl_ + +London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd. +New York: Moffat, Yard & Co. + +1921 + + + + + + + +DEDICATED TO +OUR FRIEND AND TEACHER, +FRANK HAMILTON HANKINS + + + + +PREFACE + + +Scientific discovery, especially in biology, during the past two decades +has made necessary an entire restatement of the sociological problem of +sex. Ward's so-called "gynæcocentric" theory, as sketched in Chapter 14 +of his _Pure Sociology_, has been almost a bible on the sex problem to +sociologists, in spite of the fact that modern laboratory +experimentation has disproved it in almost every detail. While a +comparatively small number of people read this theory from the original +source, it is still being scattered far and wide in the form of +quotations, paraphrases, and interpretations by more popular writers. It +is therefore necessary to gather together the biological data which are +available from technical experimentation and medical research, in order +that its social implications may be utilized to show the obsoleteness of +this older and unscientific statement of the sex problem in society. + +In order to have a thoroughly comprehensive survey of the institutions +connected with sexual relationships and the family and their entire +significance for human life, it is also necessary to approach them from +the ethnological and psychological points of view. The influence of the +primitive sex taboos on the evolution of the social mores and family +life has received too little attention in the whole literature of sexual +ethics and the sociology of sex. That these old customs have had an +inestimable influence upon the members of the group, modern psychology +has recently come to recognize. It therefore seems advantageous to +include these psychological findings in the same book with the +discussion of the sex taboos and other material with which it must so +largely deal. + +These fields--biology, ethnology, and psychology--are so complicated and +so far apart technically, although their social implications are so +closely interwoven, that it has seemed best to divide the treatment +between three different writers, each of whom has devoted much study to +his special phase of the subject. This leads to a very simple +arrangement of the material. The first part deals with the physical or +biological basis of the sex problem, which all societies from the most +primitive to the most advanced have had and still have to build upon. +The second part deals with the various ideas man has developed in his +quest for a satisfactory adaptation of this physical basis to his own +requirements. Part three attempts to analyze the effect of this long +history of social experimentation upon the human psyche in its modern +social milieu. + +In the social evolution of the human mind, the deepest desires of the +individual have been often necessarily sacrificed to the needs of the +group. Sometimes they have been unnecessarily sacrificed, since human +intelligence is, unfortunately, not omniscient. Nevertheless, the sum +total of human knowledge has now become great enough so that it is at +least well to pause and take account of its bearing on the age-old +problem of family life, in order that our evolution henceforth may be +guarded by rational control rather than trial and error in so far as is +possible. Such a summarization of our actual knowledge of the biology, +sociology and psychology of the foundations of the family institution +this book aims to present, and if it can at the same time suggest a +starting point for a more rationalized system of social control in this +field, its purpose will have been accomplished. + +THE AUTHORS. + + + + +CONTENTS + +PART I + +BY M. M. KNIGHT, PH.D. + +THE NEW BIOLOGY AND THE SEX PROBLEM IN SOCIETY + +CHAPTER + +I. THE PROBLEM DEFINED + +What is sex? A sexual and mixed reproduction. Origin of sexual +reproduction. Advantage of sex in chance of survival. Germ and body +cells. Limitations of biology in social problems. Sex always present in +higher animals. Sex in mammals--the problem in the human species. +Application of the laboratory method. + +II. SEX IN TERMS OF INTERNAL SECRETIONS + +Continuity of germ plasm. The sex chromosome. The internal secretions +and the sex complex. The male and the female type of body. How removal +of sex glands affects body type. Sex determination. Share of the egg and +sperm in inheritance. The nature of sex--sexual selection of little +importance. The four main types of secretory systems. Sex and sex +instincts of rats modified by surgery. Dual basis for sex. Opposite sex +basis in every individual. The Free-Martin cattle. Partial reversal of +sex in human species. + +III. SEX AND SEX DIFFERENCES AS QUANTITATIVE + +Intersexes in moths. Bird intersexes. Higher metabolism of males. +Quantitative difference between sex factors. Old ideas of +intersexuality. Modern surgery and human intersexes. Quantitative theory +a Mendelian explanation. Peculiar complication in the case of man. +Chemical life-cycles of the sexes. Functional-reproductive period and +the sex problem. Relative significance of physiological sex differences. + + +IV. SEX SPECIALIZATION AND GROUP SURVIVAL + +Adaptation and specialization. Reproduction a group--not an individual +problem. Conflict between specialization and adaptation. Intelligence +makes for economy in adjustment to environment. Reproduction, not +production, the chief factor in the sex problem. + +V. RACIAL DEGENERATION AND THE NECESSITY FOR RATIONALIZATION OF THE MORES + +Racial decay in modern society. Purely "moral" control dysgenic in +civilized society. New machinery for social control. Mistaken notion +that reproduction is an individual problem. Economic and other factors +in the group problem of reproduction. + + +PART II + +BY IVA LOWTHER PETERS, PH.D. + +THE INSTITUTIONALIZED SEX TABOO + +I. THE PRIMITIVE ATTITUDE TOWARD SEX AND WOMANHOOD + +Primitive social control. Its rigidity. Its necessity. The universality +of this control in the form of taboos. Connection between the universal +attitude of primitive peoples toward woman as shown in the +Institutionalized Sex Taboo and the magico-religious belief in Mana. +Relation of Mana to Taboo. Discussion of Sympathetic Magic and the +associated idea of danger from contact. Difficulties in the way of an +inclusive definition of Taboo. Its dual nature. Comparison of concepts +of Crawley, Frazer, Marett, and others. Conclusion that Taboo is +Negative Mana. Contribution of modern psychology to the study of Taboo. +Freud's analogy between the dualistic attitude toward the tabooed object +and the ambivalence of the emotions. The understanding of this dualism +together with the primitive belief in Mana and Sympathetic Magic +explains much in the attitude of man toward woman. The vast amount of +evidence in the taboos of many peoples of dualism in the attitude toward +woman. Possible physiological explanation of this dualistic attitude of +man toward woman found in a period before self-control had in some +measure replaced social control, in the reaction of weakness and disgust +following sex festivals. + +II. FROM THE DAWN OF HISTORY: WOMAN AS SAINT AND WITCH + +Taboos of first chapter indicate that in the early ages the fear of +contamination by woman predominated. Later emphasis fell on her mystic +and uncanny power. Ancient fertility cults. Temple prostitution, +dedication of virgins, etc. Ancient priestesses and prophetesses. +Medicine early developed by woman added to belief in her power. Woman's +psychic quality of intuition: its origin--theories--conclusion that this +quality is probably physiological in origin, but aggravated by taboo +repressions. Transformation in attitude toward woman in the early +Christian period. Psychological reasons for the persistence in religion +of a Mother Goddess. Development of the Christian concept. Preservation +of ancient woman cults as demonology. Early Christian attitude toward +woman as unclean and in league with demons. Culmination of belief in +demonic power of woman in witchcraft persecutions. All women affected by +the belief in witches and in the uncleanness of woman. Gradual +development on the basis of the beliefs outlined of an ideally pure and +immaculate Model Woman. + +III. THE DUALISM IN MODERN LIFE: THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO + +The Taboo and modern institutions. Survival of ideas of the uncleanness +of woman. Taboo and the family. The "good" woman. The "bad" woman. +Increase in the number of women who do not fit into the ancient +classifications. + +IV. DYSGENIC INFLUENCES OF THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO + +Taboo survivals act dysgenically within the family under present +conditions. Conventional education of girls a dysgenic influence. +Prostitution and the family. Influence of ancient standards of "good" +and "bad." The illegitimate child. Effect of fear, anger, etc., on +posterity. The attitude of economically independent women toward +marriage. + + +PART III + +BY PHYLLIS BLANCHARD, PH.D. + +THE SEX PROBLEM IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY + +I. SEX IN TERMS OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY + +Bearing of modern psychology on the sex problem. Conditioning of the +sexual impulse. Vicarious expression of the sexual impulse. Unconscious +factors of the sex life. Taboo control has conditioned the natural +biological tendencies of individuals to conform to arbitrary standards +of masculinity and femininity. Conflict between individual desires and +social standards. + +II. HOW OUR INSTITUTIONS FIT INDIVIDUAL SEX PSYCHOLOGY + +Social institutions controlling sex activities based on the assumption +that _all_ women are adapted to as well as specialized for reproduction. +Neurotic tendencies which unfit women for marriage--the desire for +domination. Sexual anæsthesia another neurotic trait which interferes +with marital harmony. The conditioning of the sexual impulse to the +parent ideal and the erotic fetish as factors which determine mating. +Homosexual tendencies and their part in the sex problem. The conflict +between the desire for marriage and egoistic ambitions. The social +regulations from the viewpoint of individual psychology. + + +III. DYSGENIC NATURE OF CERTAIN FACTORS OF SEX PSYCHOLOGY AND NECESSITY + FOR A SOCIAL THERAPY + +Mating determined by unconscious psychological motives instead of +eugenic considerations. Some of the best male and female stock refusing +marriage and parenthood. The race is reproduced largely by the inferior +and average stocks and very little by the superior stock. As a +therapeutic measure, society should utilize psychological knowledge as a +new method of control. Romantic love and conjugal love--a new ideal of +love. The solution of the conflict between individual and group +interests. + + + + +PART I + +THE NEW BIOLOGY AND THE SEX PROBLEM IN SOCIETY + +BY + +M. M. KNIGHT, PH.D. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE PROBLEM DEFINED + +What is sex? Asexual and mixed reproduction; Origin of sexual +reproduction; Advantage of sex in chance of survival; Germ and body +cells; Limitations of biology in social problems; Sex always present in +higher animals; Sex in mammals; The sex problem in the human species; +Application of laboratory method. + + +Sex, like all complicated phenomena, defies being crowded into a simple +definition. In an animal or plant individual it is expressed by and +linked with the ability to produce egg- or sperm-cells (ova or +spermatozoa). Sexual reproduction is simply the chain of events +following the union of the egg and sperm to produce a new individual. +Looked at from another angle, it is that sort of reproduction which +requires two differentiated individuals: the male, which produces +spermatoza, and the female, which produces ova. In the case of very +simple forms, it would be simply the union or conjugation of a male and +a female individual and the reproductive process involved. Where there +is no differentiation into male and female there is no sex. + +An individual which produces both sperm-and egg-cells within its body +is termed an hermaphrodite. Very few hermaphrodites exist among the +vertebrates, although they may be found in one or two species (e.g., the +hagfish). There are no truly hermaphroditic mammals, i.e., individuals +in which both the male and the female germ cells function, except +perhaps in rare instances. + +Sexless or asexual reproduction assumes various forms. What is usually +considered the most primitive of these is fission or simple division, in +which the cell divides into two equal, identical parts. There is of +course no suggestion of sex here. It is fairly safe to assume that life +began thus in the world, as neuter or sexless--i.e., with no suggestion +of either maleness or femaleness.[A] + +[Footnote A: This asexual type of reproduction has been misinterpreted +by a whole school of non-biological writers, who have followed the lead +of Lester F. Ward, in his classification of these neuter-organisms as +females. Ward says ("Pure Sociology," Ch. 14): "It does no violence to +language or science to say that life begins with the female organism and +is carried on a long distance by means of females alone. In all the +different forms of asexual reproduction from fission to parthenogenesis, +the female may in this sense be said to exist alone and perform all the +functions of life including reproduction. In a word, life begins as +female" (p. 313). Adding to this statement the assertion that the male +developed at first as a mere parasite, in the actual, physical sense, +Ward proceeds to build up his famous Gynæcocentric Theory, which is +familiar to all students of social science, and need not be elaborated +here. It is obvious that a thorough biological knowledge destroys the +fundamental concept on which this theory is founded, for there is no +doubt that life begins as neuter or sexless, and not as female.] + +There are a number of other forms of asexual reproduction, or the +"vegetative type" (Abbott's term, which includes fission, budding, +polysporogonia and simple spore formation). Budding (as in yeast) and +spore formation are familiar to us in plants. Such forms are too distant +from man, in structure and function, for profitable direct comparison. +Especially is this true with respect to sex, which they do not possess. + +Parthenogenesis includes very diverse and anomalous cases. The term +signifies the ability of females to reproduce in such species for one or +a number of generations without males. Many forms of this class (or more +strictly, these classes) have apparently become specialized or +degenerated, having once been more truly sexual. Parthenogenesis +(division and development of an egg without the agency of male sperm) +has been brought about artificially by Jacques Loeb in species as +complicated as frogs.[1,2] All the frogs produced were males, so that +the race (of frogs) could not even be theoretically carried on by that +method. + +The origin of sexual reproduction in animals must have been something as +follows: The first method of reproduction was by a simple division of +the unicellular organism to form two new individuals. At times, a fusion +of two independent individuals occurred. This was known as conjugation, +and is seen among Paramecia and some other species to-day. Its value is +probably a reinvigoration of the vitality of the individual. Next there +was probably a tendency for the organism to break up into many parts +which subsequently united with each other. Gradually some of these +uniting cells came to contain more food material than the others. As a +result of their increased size, they possessed less power of motion than +the others, and in time lost their cilia (or flagella) entirely and were +brought into contact with the smaller cells only by the motion of the +latter. Finally, in colonial forms, most of the cells in the colony +ceased to have any share in reproduction, that function being relegated +to the activities of a few cells which broke away and united with others +similarly adrift. These cells functioning for reproduction continued to +differentiate more and more, until large ova and small, motile +spermtozoa were definitely developed. + +The clearest evidences as to the stages in the evolution of sexual +reproduction is found in the plant world among the green algæ.[3] In +the lower orders of one-celled algæ, reproduction takes place by simple +cell division. In some families, this simple division results in the +production of several new individuals instead of only two from each +parent cell. A slightly different condition is found in those orders +where the numerous cells thus produced by simple division of the parent +organism unite in pairs to produce new individuals after a brief +independent existence of their own. These free-swimming cells, which +apparently are formed only to reunite with each other, are called +zoöspores, while the organism which results from their fusion is known +as a zygospore. The zygospore thus formed slowly increases in size, +until it in its turn develops a new generation of zoöspores. In still +other forms, in place of the zoöspores, more highly differentiated +cells, known as eggs and sperms, are developed, and these unite to +produce the new individuals. Both eggs and sperms are believed to have +been derived from simpler ancestral types of ciliated cells which were +similar in structure and closely resembled zoöspores.[A] + +[Footnote A: This evidence, which points to the conclusion that in the +early origin of sexual reproduction the males and females were +differentiated and developed from a uniform type of ancestral cell, +quite controverts Ward's point that the male originated as a kind of +parasite.] + +Having once originated, the sexual type of reproduction possessed a +definite survival value which assured its continuation. Sex makes +possible a crossing of strains, which evidently possesses some great +advantage, since the few simple forms which have no such division of +reproductive functions have undergone no great development and all the +higher, more complicated animals are sexual. This crossing of strains +may make possible greater variety, it may help in crossing out or +weakening variations which are too far from the average, or both. + +Schäfer[4] thinks that an exchange of nuclear substance probably gives +a sort of chemical rejuvenation and very likely stimulates division. At +any rate, the groups in which the reproductive process became thus +partitioned between two kinds of individuals, male and female, not only +survived, but they underwent an amazing development compared with those +which remained sexless. + +There came a time in the evolution of the groups possessing sexual +reproduction, when increasing specialization necessitated the division +into reproductive and non-reproductive cells. When a simple cell +reproduces by dividing into two similar parts, each developing into a +new individual like the parent, this parent no longer exists as a cell, +but the material which composed it still exists in the new ones. The old +cell did not "die"--no body was left behind. Since this nuclear +substance exists in the new cells, and since these generations go on +indefinitely, the cells are in a sense "immortal" or deathless. In a +one-celled individual, there is no distinction between germinal and +bodily functions. In the more complicated organisms, however, there are +innumerable kinds of cells, a few (the germ cells) specialized for +reproduction, the others forming the body which eats, moves, sees, +feels, and in the case of man, _thinks_. But the germ-cells or germplasm +continue to be immortal or deathless in the same sense as in the +simplest organisms. The body, in a historical sense, grew up around the +germ-cells, taking over functions a little at a time, until in the +higher animals nutrition and other activities and a large part even of +the reproductive process itself is carried on by body-cells. + +When we think of a man or woman, we think of an individual only one of +whose innumerable activities--reproduction--is carried on by germ-cells, +and this one only at the very beginning of the life of a new individual. +Human societies, needless to remark, are not organized by germplasms, +but by brains and hands--composed of body cells. If these brains and +hands--if human bodies--did not wear out or become destroyed, we should +not need to trouble ourselves so much about the germplasm, whose sole +function in human society is to replace them. + +Since the individual human bodies and minds which seek after the things +to which we mortals attach value--moral worth, esthetic and other +pleasure, achievement and the like--do have to be replaced every few +years, the germplasms from which new individuals must come have always +been and always will be of fundamental importance. It is always the +_product_ of the germplasm which concerns us, and we are interested in +the germ-cells themselves only in relation to their capacity to produce +individuals of value to society. + +So let us not go erring about in the philosophical ether, imagining that +because the _amoeba_ may not be specialized for anything over and above +nutrition and reproduction that these are necessarily the "main +business" or "chief ends" of human societies. Better say that although +we have become developed and specialized for a million other activities +we are still bound by those fundamental necessities. As to "Nature's +purposes" about which the older sex literature has had so much to say, +the idea is essentially religious rather than scientific. If such +"purposes" indeed exist in the universe, man evidently does not feel +particularly bound by them. We do not hesitate to put a cornfield where +"Nature" had a forest, or to replace a barren hillside by the sea with a +city. + +Necessities and possibilities, not "purposes" in nature, claim our +attention--reproduction being one of those embarrassing necessities, +viewed through the eyes of man, the one evaluating animal in the world. +Thus in reasoning from biology to social problems, it is fundamental to +remember that man as an animal is tremendously differentiated in +functions, and that most of the activities we look upon as distinctively +human depend upon the body rather than the germ-cells. + +It follows that biology is the foundation rather than the house, if we +may use so crude a figure. The solidity of the foundation is very +important, but it does not dictate the details as to how the +superstructure shall be arranged. + +Civilization would not be civilization if we had to spend most of our +time thinking about the biological basis. If we wish to think of +"Nature's" proscriptions or plans as controlling animal life, the +anthropomorphism is substantially harmless. But man keeps out of the way +of most of such proscriptions, has plans of his own, and has acquired +considerable skill in varying his projects without running foul of such +biological prohibitions. + +It is time to abandon the notion that biology prescribes in detail how +we shall run society. True, this foundation has never received a surplus +of intelligent consideration. Sometimes human societies have built so +foolishly upon it that the result has been collapse. Somebody is always +digging around it in quest of evidence of some vanished idyllic state of +things which, having had and discarded, we should return to. This little +excursion into biology is made in the full consciousness that social +mandates are not to be found there. Human projects are the primary +material of social science. It is indispensable to check these against +biological fact, in order to ascertain which are feasible and which are +not. The biological basis may _help_ in explaining old social structures +or in planning new ones; but much wild social theory has been born of a +failure to appreciate the limitations of such material. + +All the so-called higher animals, mammals and others, are divided into +two sexes, male and female. Besides the differentiation of germ-cells +there are rather obvious differences in the bodies of the two sexes. In +common with many other mammals, the human male has a larger and stronger +body, on an average, than has the human female. This is true also of the +anthropoid apes, the species which most resemble man physically and are +commonly supposed to be his nearest blood relatives in the animal +kingdom. It has been true of man himself as far back as we have any +records. + +Such differences are only superficial--the real ones go deeper. We are +not so much interested in how they originated in the world as in how +they _do_ come about in the individual. At least, we can come a good +deal nearer ascertaining the latter than the former. In either case, our +real purpose is to determine as nearly as possible what the unlikeness +really consists of and so help people to sensibly make up their minds +what can be done about it. + +To define sex with rigid accuracy as the term applies to human beings, +it is necessary to tell what it is in mammals, since man is a mammal. +The presence of distinct body-cells is not peculiar to mammals, but +there is one respect in which these latter are quite different from +non-mammals: A mammalian individual, beginning like a non-mammal with a +fertilized egg, has a period of intra-maternal development which a +non-mammal has not. That is, a non-mammalian is a fertilized egg _plus_ +its parental (or extra-parental) environment; but a mammalian individual +is a fertilized egg, _plus its intra-maternal environment_, plus its +non-parental environment. + +Here in a nutshell is the biological basis of sex problem in human +society. Human individuals do wear out and have to be replaced by +reproduction. In the reproductive process, the female, as in mammals +generally, is specialized to provide an intra-maternal environment +(approximately nine months in the human species) for each new +individual, and lactation or suckling afterward. The biological phase of +the sex problem in society consists in studying the nature of that +specialization. From the purely sociological standpoint, the sex problem +concerns the customs and institutions which have grown up or may grow +up to meet the need of society for reproduction. + +The point which most concerns us is in how far biological data can be +applied to the sex problem in society. Systematic dissections or +breeding experiments upon human beings, thought out in advance and under +control in a laboratory, are subject to obvious limitations. Surgical +operations, where careful data are kept, often answer the same purpose +as concerns some details; but these alone would give us a fragmentary +record of how a fertilized egg becomes a conscious human being of one +sex or the other. The practice of medicine often throws light on +important points. Observation of abnormal cases plays its part in adding +to our knowledge. Carefully compiled records of what does occur in +inheritance, while lacking many of the checks of planned and controlled +experiments, to some extent take the place of the systematic breeding +possible with animals. At best, however, the limitations in +experimentation with human subjects would give us a rather disconnected +record were it not for the data of experimental biology. + +How may such biological material be safely used? Indiscriminately +employed, it is worse than useless--it can be confusing or actually +misleading. It is probably never safe to say, or even to infer directly, +that because of this or that animal structure or behaviour we should do +thus and so in human society. On this point sociology--especially the +sociology of sex--must frankly admit its mistakes and break with much of +its cherished past. + +The social problem of sex consists of fitting the best possible +institutions on to the biological foundation _as we find it in the human +species_. Hence all our reasoning about which institution or custom is +preferable must refer directly to the human bodies which compose +society. We can use laboratory evidence about the bodies of other +animals to help us in understanding the physical structure and functions +of the human body; but we must stop trying to apply the sex-ways of +birds, spiders or even cows (which are at least mammals) to human +society, which is not made up of any of these. + +It is possible to be quite sure that some facts carefully observed about +mammals in a biological laboratory apply to similar structures in man, +also a mammal. Because of this relationship, the data from medicine and +surgery are priceless. Thus we are enabled to check up our systematic +experimental knowledge of animals by an ascertained fact here and there +in the human material, and to get a fairly exact idea of how great the +correspondence actually is. Gaps thus filled in are narrow enough, and +our certainty of the ground on either side sufficiently great, to give +a good deal of justifiable assurance. + +If we use our general biological evidence in this way, merely to help in +clearing up points about _human_ biology, we need not be entirely +limited to mammals. Some sex phenomena are quite general, and may be +drawn from the sexual species most convenient to study and control in +experiments. When we get away from mammalian forms, however, we must be +very sure that the cases used for illustrations are of general +application, are similar in respect to the points compared, or that any +vital differences are understood and conscientiously pointed out. + +Too much stress cannot be laid upon the point that such animal data, +carefully checked up with the human material, cannot safely be used for +any other purpose than to discover what the facts are about the human +body. When the discussion of human social institutions is taken up in +Part II, the obvious assumption will always be that these rest upon +human biology, and that we must not let our minds wander into vague +analogies concerning birds, spiders or crustacea. + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER I + +1. Loeb, Jacques. Artificial Parthenogenesis and Fertilization. Chicago, +1913. + +2. Loeb, Jacques. The Organism as a Whole. N.Y., 1916, p. 125--brief +summary of results of [1]. + +3. Bower, Kerr & Agar. Sex and Heredity. N.Y., 1919, 119 pp. + +4. Schäfer, E.A. Nature, Origin and Maintenance of Life. Science, n.s., +Vol. 36, pp. 306 f., 1912. + +5. Guyer, M.F. Being Well-Born. Indianapolis, 1916; p. 123. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +SEX IN TERMS OF INTERNAL SECRETIONS + + +Continuity of germplasm; The sex chromosome; The internal secretions and +the sex complex; The male and the female type of body; How removal of +sex glands affects body type; Sex determination; Share of egg and sperm +in heredity; Nature of sex--sexual selection of little importance; The +four main types of secretory systems; Sex and sex-instincts of rats +modified by surgery; Dual basis for sex; Opposite-sex basis in every +individual; The Free-Martin cattle; Partial reversal of sex in man. + + +In Chapter I, the "immortality" of the protoplasm in the germ cells of +higher animals, as well as in simpler forms without distinct bodies, was +mentioned. In these higher animals this protoplasm is known as +_germplasm_, that in body cells as _somatoplasm_. + +All that is really meant by "immortality" in a germplasm is continuity. +That is, while an individual may consist of a colony of millions of +cells, all of these spring from one cell and it a germ cell--the +fertilized ovum. This first divides to form a new group of germ cells, +which are within the embryo or new body when it begins to develop, and +so on through indefinite generations. Thus the germ cells in an +individual living to-day are the lineal descendants, by simple division, +of the germ cells in his ancestors as many generations, or thousands of +generations, ago as we care to imagine. All the complicated body +specializations and sex phenomena may be regarded as super-imposed upon +or grouped around this succession of germ cells, continuous by simple +division. + +The type of body in each generation depends upon this germplasm, but the +germplasm is not supposed to be in any way modified by the body (except, +of course, that severe enough accidents might damage it). Thus we +resemble our parents only because the germplasm which directs our +development is a split-off portion of the same continuous line of germ +cells which directed their development, that of their fathers, and so on +back. This now universally accepted theory is called the "continuity of +the germplasm." + +It will be seen at once that this seems to preclude any possibility of a +child's inheriting from its parents anything which these did not +themselves inherit. The bodies of each generation are, so to speak, mere +"buds" from the continuous lines of germplasm. If we _develop_ our +muscles or our musical talent, this development is of the body and dies +with it, though the physical basis or capacity we ourselves inherited +is still in the germplasm and is therefore passed along to our +children. We may also furnish our children an environment which will +stimulate their desire and lend opportunity for similar or greater +advancement than our own. This is _social inheritance_, or the product +of _environment_--easy to confuse with that of _heredity_ and very +difficult to separate, especially in the case of mental traits. + +It will likewise become clear as we proceed that there is no mechanism +or relationship known to biology which could account for what is +popularly termed "pre-natal influence." A developing embryo has its own +circulation, so insulated from that of the mother that only a few of the +most virulent and insidious disease germs can ever pass the barrier. The +general health of the mother is of utmost importance to the vitality, +chances of life, constitution and immunity from disease of the unborn +child. Especially must she be free from diseases which may be +communicated to the child either before or at the time of birth. This +applies particularly to gonorrhoea, one of the most widely prevalent as +well as most ancient of maladies, and syphilis, another disastrous and +very common plague which is directly communicable. As to "birthmarks" +and the like being directly caused by things the mother has seen or +thought about, such beliefs seem to be founded on a few remarkable pure +coincidences and a great deal of folk-lore. + +Reproduction in its simplest form is, then, simply the division of one +cell into two parts, each of which develops into a replica of the +original. Division is also the first stage in reproduction in the most +complicated animal bodies. To get an idea of what takes place in such a +division we must remember that a cell consists of three distinct parts: +(a) the protoplasm or cytoplasm, (b) the nucleus, and (c) a small body +known as the centrosome which need not be discussed here. + +When a cell division takes place, the nucleus breaks up into a number of +thread-like portions which are known as chromosomes. There are supposed +to be 24 pairs, or 48, in the human cell. All the evidence indicates +that these chromosomes carry the "factors" in inheritance which produces +the characters or characteristics of the individual body. + +In mitosis or ordinary cell division, these chromosomes split +lengthwise, so that the new cells always have the same number as the +original one. When the germ-cells of the male and female make the +division which marks the first step in reproduction, however, the +process is different. Half the chromatin material passes into each of +the two cells formed. This is called _maturation_, or the maturation +division, and the new cells have only half the original number of +chromosomes. Each of these divides again by mitosis (the chromosomes +splitting lengthwise), the half or haploid number remaining. The result +is the _gametes_ (literally "marrying cells"--from the Greek _gamé_, +signifying marriage). Those from the male are called sperms or +spermatozoa and those from the female eggs or ova. (The divisions to +form ova present certain complications which need not be taken up in +detail here.) Of the 24 chromosomes in each sperm or egg we are here +concerned with only one, known as the sex chromosome because, in +addition to transmitting other characteristics, it determines the sex of +the new individual. + +Neither the ovum nor the spermatozoon (the human race is referred to) is +capable alone of developing into a new individual. They must join in the +process known as fertilization. The sperm penetrates the egg (within the +body of the female) and the 24 chromosomes from each source, male and +female, are re-grouped in a new nucleus with 48 chromosomes--the full +number. + +The chances are half and half that the new individual thus begun will be +of a given sex, for the following reason: There is a structural +difference, supposed to be fundamentally chemical, between the cells of +a female body and those of a male. The result is that the gametes (sperm +and eggs) they respectively produce in maturation are not exactly alike +as to chromosome composition. All the eggs contain what is known as the +"X" type of sex chromosome. But only half the male sperm have this +type--in the other half is found one of somewhat different type, known +as "Y." (This, again, is for the human species--in some animals the +mechanism and arrangement is somewhat different.) If a sperm and egg +both carrying the X-type of chromosome unite in fertilization, the +resulting embryo is a female. If an X unites with a Y, the result is a +male. Since each combination happens in about half the cases, the race +is about half male and half female. + +Thus sex is inherited, like other characters, by the action of the +chromatin material of the cell nucleus. As Goldschmidt[1] remarks, this +theory of the visible mechanism of sex distribution "is to-day so far +proven that the demonstration stands on the level of an experimental +proof in physics or chemistry." But why and how does this nuclear +material determine sex? In other words, what is the nature of the +process of differentiation into male and female which it sets in motion? + +To begin with, we must give some account of the difference between the +cells of male and female origin, an unlikeness capable of producing the +two distinct types of gametes, not only in external appearance, but in +chromosome makeup as well. It is due to the presence in the bodies of +higher animals of a considerable number of glands, such as the thyroid +in the throat and the suprarenals just over the kidneys. These pour +secretions into the blood stream, determining its chemical quality and +hence how it will influence the growth or, when grown, the stable +structure of other organs and cells. They are called endocrine glands or +organs, and their chemical contributions to the blood are known as +_hormones_. + +Sometimes those which do nothing but furnish these secretions are spoken +of as "ductless glands," from their structure. The hormones (endocrine +or internal secretions) do not come from the ductless glands alone--but +the liver and other glands contribute hormones to the blood stream, in +addition to their other functions. Some authorities think that "every +cell in the body is an organ of internal secretion",[2] and that thus +each influences all the others. The sex glands are especially important +as endocrine organs; in fact the somatic cells are organized around the +germ cells, as pointed out above. Hence the sex glands may be considered +as the keys or central factors in the two chemical systems, the male and +the female type. + +These various hormones or chemical controllers in the blood interact in +a nicely balanced chemical system. Taken as a whole this is often +called the "secretory balance" or "internal secretory balance." This +balance is literally the key to the sex differences we see, because it +lies back of them; i.e., there are two general types of secretory +balance, one for males and one for females. Not only are the secretions +from the male and the female sex glands themselves quite unlike, but the +whole chemical system, balance or "complex" involved is different. +Because of this dual basis for metabolism or body chemistry, centering in +the sex glands, no organ or cell in a male body can be exactly like the +corresponding one in a female body. + +In highly organized forms like the mammals (including man), sex is +linked up with _all_ the internal secretions, and hence is of the whole +body.[3] As Bell [2, p.5] states it: "We must focus at one and the +same time the two essential processes of life--the individual metabolism +and the reproductive metabolism. They are interdependent. Indeed, the +individual metabolism is the reproductive metabolism." + +Here, then, is the reason men have larger, differently formed bodies +than women--why they have heavier bones, tend to grow beards, and so on. +The sex glands are only part of what we may call a well-organized +chemical laboratory, delivering various products to the blood, but +always in the same general proportions for a given sex. The ingredients +which come from the sex glands are also qualitatively different, as has +been repeatedly proved by injections and otherwise. + +Each of these sex types, male and female, varies somewhat within itself, +as is true of everything living. The two are not so far apart but that +they may overlap occasionally in some details. For instance, some women +are larger than are some men--have lower pitched voices, etc. The whole +bodily metabolism, resting as it does upon a chemical complex, is +obviously more like the male average in some women than it is in others, +and _vice versa_. But the average physical make-up which we find +associated with the male and female sex glands, respectively, is +distinctive in each case, and a vast majority of individuals of each sex +conform nearly enough to the average so that classification presents no +difficulty. + +The extreme as well as the average body types existing in the presence +of the respective types of sex-glands are different. For example, we +find an occasional hen with male spurs, comb or wattles, though she is a +normal female in every other respect, and lays eggs.[4] But we never +find a functional female (which lays eggs) with _all_ the typical +characteristics of the male body. Body variation can go only so far in +the presence of each type of primary sexuality (i.e., sex-glands). + +The bodily peculiarities of each sex, as distinguished from the +sex-glands or gonads themselves, are known as _secondary_ sex +characters. To put our statement in the paragraph above in another form, +the primary and secondary sex do not always correspond in all details. +We shall find as we proceed that our original tentative definition of +sex as the ability to produce in the one case sperm, in the other eggs, +is sometimes difficult to apply. What shall we say of a sterile +individual, which produces neither? The problem is especially +embarrassing when the primary and secondary sex do not correspond, as is +sometimes the case. + +Even in a fully grown animal, to remove or exchange the sex glands (by +surgery) modifies the bodily type. One of the most familiar cases of +removal is the gelding or desexed horse. His appearance and disposition +are different from the stallion, especially if the operation takes place +while he is very young. The reason he resembles a normal male in many +respects is simply that sexuality in such highly-organized mammals is of +the whole body, not of the sex-glands or organs alone. + +Suppose this horse was desexed at two years old. Nearly three years had +elapsed since he was a fertilized egg. During the eleven months or so he +spent within his mother, he developed a very complicated body. Beginning +as a male, with a male-type metabolism (that is, as the result of a +union between an X and a Y chromosome, not two X's), all his glands, as +well as the body structures they control, developed in its presence. Not +only the sex glands, but the liver, suprarenals, thyroid--the whole body +in fact--became adjusted to the male type. He had long before birth what +we call a male sex complex. Complex it is, but it is, nevertheless, easy +enough to imagine its nature for illustrative purposes. It is simply all +the endocrine or hormone-producing organs organized into a balanced +chemical system--adjusted to each other. + +When the horse had had this body and this gland system for nearly three +years (eleven months within his mother's body and twenty-four outside), +it had become pretty well organised and fixed. When a single chemical +element (the hormones from the sex-glands) was withdrawn, the system +(thus stereotyped in a developed body and glands) was modified but not +entirely upset. The sex complex remained male in many respects. It had +come to depend upon the other chemical plants, so to speak, quite as +much as upon the sex glands. The later the castration is performed--the +more fixed the body and gland type has become--the closer the horse will +resemble a normal male. Much laboratory experimentation now goes to +show that some accident while this horse was still a fertilized egg or +a very small embryo might have upset this male type of body +chemistry--perhaps even caused him to develop into a female instead, if +it took place early enough. This is well illustrated by the so-called +"Free-Martin" cattle, to be described later. + +For a long time a controversy raged as to whether sex is determined at +the time of fertilization, before or after. Biologists now generally +prefer to say that a fertilized egg is "predisposed" to maleness or +femaleness, instead of "determined." The word "determined" suggests +finality, whereas the embryo appears to have in the beginning only a +strong tendency or predisposition toward one sex type or the other. It +is now quite commonly believed that this predisposition arises from the +_quantity_ rather than the quality or kind of factors in the chemical +impetus in the nuclei of the conjugating gametes. A later chapter will +be devoted to explaining the quantitative theory of sex. + +Hence the modern theory of "sex determination" has become: + +1. That the chemical factors which give rise to one sex or the other are +present in the sperm and ovum _before_ fertilization; + +2. That a tendency or predisposition toward maleness or femaleness +arises at the time of fertilization, depending upon which type of sperm +unites with the uniform type of egg (in some species the sperm is +uniform while the egg varies); + +3. That this predisposition is: + + a. Weaker at first, before it builds up much of a body and gland system + to fix it; + + b. Increasingly stronger as the new body becomes organized and + developed; + + c. Liable to partial or complete upset in the very early stages; + + d. Probably quantitative--stronger in some cases than in others. + +The new definition is, then, really a combination and amplification of +the three older points of view. + +The term "sex determination" does not mean to the biologist the changing +or determining of the sex at will on the part of the experimenter. This +might be done by what is known as "selective fertilization" artificially +with only the kind of sperm (X or Y as to chromosomes) which would +produce the desired result. There is as yet no way to thus select the +sperm of higher animals. It has been authoritatively claimed that +feeding with certain chemicals, and other methods to be discussed later, +has affected the sex of offspring. These experiments (and +controversies) need not detain us, since they are not applicable to the +human species. + +Let us consider this fertilized egg--the contributions of the father and +the mother. The total length of the spermatozoon is only about 1/300 of +an inch, and 4/5 of this is the tail. This tail does not enter the egg, +and has no other known function than that of a propeller. Its movement +has been studied and found to be about 1/8 of an inch per minute. Only +the head and neck enter the egg. This head consists almost entirely of +the nuclear material which is supposed to determine the characters of +the future individual. + +The ovum or egg contributed by the mother is much larger--nearly round +in shape and about 1/120 of an inch in diameter. Besides its nucleus, it +contains a considerable amount of what used to be considered as "stored +nutritive material" for the early development of the individual. + +In ancient times the female was quite commonly supposed to be a mere +medium of development for the male seed. Thus the Laws of Manu stated +that woman was the soil in which the male seed was planted. In the Greek +_Eumenides_, Orestes' mother did not generate him, but only received and +nursed the germ. These quaint ideas of course originated merely from +observation of the fact that the woman carries the young until birth, +and must not lead us to imagine that the ancients actually separated the +germ and somatic cells in their thinking. + +A modern version of this old belief was the idea advanced by Harvey that +the ovum consisted of fluid in which the embryo appeared by spontaneous +generation. Loeuwenhoek's development of the microscope in the 17th +century led immediately to the discovery of the spermatozoon by one of +his students. At the time, the "preformation theory" was probably the +most widely accepted--i.e., that the adult form exists in miniature in +the egg or germ, development being merely an unfolding of these +preformed parts. With the discovery of the spermatozoon the +preformationists were divided into two schools, one (the ovists) holding +that the ovum was the container of the miniature individual, the other +(animalculists) according this function to the spermatozoon. According +to the ovists, the ovum needed merely the stimulation of the +spermatozoon to cause its contained individual to undergo development, +while the animalculists looked upon the spermatozoon as the essential +embryo container, the ovum serving merely as a suitable food supply or +growing place. + +This nine-lived notion of male supremacy in inheritance was rather +reinforced than removed by the breeding of domestic animals in the +still more recent past. Attention has been focused on a few great males. +For example, the breed of American trotting horses all goes back to one +sire--Hambletonian 10. The great Orloff Stud Book, registering over a +million individuals, is in the beginning founded on a single horse--a +male. It is not strange that we still find among some breeders vestiges +of the ancient belief that the male predominates in inheritance. A +superior male can impress his characters in a single year upon 100 times +as _many_ colts as a female of equal quality could produce in her +lifetime. So slight an incident in his life is this reproductive process +for each individual that he could if he devoted his life solely to +reproduction stamp his characters upon a thousand times as many colts as +could a female. Thus under artificial breeding conditions, the good +males do have a tremendously disproportionate share in improving the +whole breed of horses, though each single horse gets his qualities +equally from his male and female parents. + +Though Mendel knew an astonishing amount about inheritance a +half-century ago, it is worth noting that the foundation upon which +rests our present knowledge of sex has been discovered less than twenty +years before--the reference is, of course, to the chromosomes as the +carriers of inheritance. While from the standpoint of biology the +opinions of two decades ago about sex literally belong to a different +age, some of them have been so persistent in sociological thought and +writings that they must be briefly reviewed in order that the reader may +be on his guard against them. Books which still have a wide circulation +deal with the sex problem in terms of a biology now no more tenable than +the flatness of the earth. + +On the one hand were the ancient traditions of male predominance in +inheritance, reinforced by the peculiar emphasis which animal breeding +places upon males. On the other hand, biologists like Andrew Wilson[5] +had argued as early as the seventies of the past century for female +predominance, from the general evidence of spiders, birds, etc. Lester +F. Ward crystallized the arguments for this view in an article entitled +"Our Better Halves" in _The Forum_ in 1888. This philosophy of sex, +which he christened the "Gynæcocentric Theory," is best known as +expanded into the fourteenth chapter of his "Pure Sociology," published +fifteen years later. Its publication at this late date gave it an +unfortunate vitality long after its main tenets had been disproved in +the biological laboratory. Germ-cell and body-cell functions were not +separated. Arguments from social structures, from cosmic, natural and +human history, much of it deduced by analogy, were jumbled together in +a fashion which seems amazing to us now, though common enough thirty +years ago. It was not a wild hypothesis in 1888, its real date, but its +repeated republication (in the original and in the works of other +writers who accepted it as authoritative) since 1903 has done much to +discredit sociology with biologists and, what is more serious, to muddle +ideas about sex and society. + +In 1903, Weismann's theory of the continuity of the germplasm was ten +years old. De Vries' experiments in variation and Mendel's rediscovered +work on plant hybridization had hopelessly undermined the older notion +that the evolution or progress of species has taken place through the +inheritance of acquired characters--that is, that the individuals +developed or adapted themselves to suit their surroundings and that +these body-modifications were inherited by their offspring. As pointed +out in Chapter I, biologists have accepted Weismann's theory of a +continuous germplasm, and that this germplasm, not the body, is the +carrier of inheritance. Nobody has so far produced evidence of any trace +of any biological mechanism whereby development of part of the body--say +the biceps of the brain--of the individual could possibly produce such a +specific modification of the germplasm he carries as to result in the +inheritance of a similar development by his offspring. + +Mendel's experiments had shown that the characters we inherit are units +or combinations of units, very difficult to permanently change or +modify. They combine with each other in all sorts of complicated ways. +Sometimes one will "dominate" another, causing it to disappear for a +generation or more; but it is not broken up. These characters have a +remarkable way of becoming "segregated" once more--that is, of appearing +intact later on. + +While it follows from Weismann's theory that an adaptation acquired by +an individual during his lifetime cannot be transmitted to his +offspring, it remained for De Vries to show authoritatively that +evolution can, and does, take place without this. Once this was +established, biologists cheerfully abandoned the earlier notion. Lester +Ward and the biologists of his day in general not only believed in the +transmission of acquired characters, but they filled the obvious gaps +which occurred in trying to apply this theory to the observed facts by +placing a fantastic emphasis upon sexual selection. That is, much +progress was accounted for through the selection by the females of the +superior males. This, as a prime factor in evolution, has since been +almost "wholly discredited" (Kellogg's phrase) by the careful +experiments of Mayer, Soule, Douglass, Dürigen, Morgan and others. The +belief in sexual selection involved a long string of corollaries, of +which biology has about purged itself, but they hang on tenaciously in +sociological and popular literature. For instance, Ward believed in the +tendency of opposites to mate (tall men with short women, blonds with +brunettes, etc.), although Karl Pearson had published a statistical +refutation in his _Grammar of Science_, which had run through two +editions when the _Pure Sociology_ appeared. The greater variability of +males than females, another gynæcocentric dogma had also been attacked +by Pearson on statistical evidence in 1897 (in the well-known essay on +Variation in Man and Woman, in _Chances of Death_) and has become +increasingly unacceptable through the researches of Mrs. +Hollingworth[6,7,8]. The idea of a vanished age of mother-rule in human +society, so essential to the complete theory, has long since been +modified by anthropologists. + +De Vries' experiments showed that a moderately simple fact practically +makes all these complicated theories unnecessary. No two living things +are exactly alike--that is, all living matter is more or less variable. +Some variations are more fortunate than others, and these variants are +the ones which survive--the ones best adapted to their environment. +Given this fact of the constant variation of living matter, natural +selection (i.e., survival of the fittest and elimination of the unfit) +is the mechanism of evolution or progress which best accounts for the +observed facts. Such variation is called "chance variation," not because +it takes place by "chance" in the properly accepted sense of the term, +but because it is so tremendously varied--is evidently due to such +complicated and little-understood circumstances--that it can best be +studied mathematically, using statistical applications of the "theory of +probabilities." + +The fine-spun, elaborate theories about sex, so current twenty years +ago, have fallen into almost complete desuetude among scientists. With +the discovery of the place of the chromosomes in inheritance, biologists +began to give their almost undivided attention to a rigid laboratory +examination of the cell. This has included sex phenomena since McClung +and Sutton pointed out the function of the sex chromosome in 1902 and +1903. Present-day "theories" are little more than working hypotheses, +developed, not in a library or study, but with one eye glued to a +high-power microscope. + +Besides its faulty foundation as to facts, the old gynæcocentric theory +involved a method of treatment by historical analogy which biologists +have almost entirely discarded. Anyone interested in the relative value +of different kinds of biological data for social problems would do well +to read the opening chapter of Prof. Morgan's "Critique of the Theory of +Evolution"[9], for even a summary of which space is lacking here. +College reference shelves are still stocked with books on sex sociology +which are totally oblivious of present-day biology. For example, Mrs +Gilman (Man-Made World), Mrs Hartley (Truth About Woman) and the +Nearings (Woman and Social Progress) adhere to Ward's theory in +substantially its primitive form, and not even sociologists like +Professor Thomas (Sex and Society) have been able to entirely break away +from it. + +The old question of male and female predominance in inheritance has been +to a considerable extent cleared up, to the discomfiture of both sides +to the controversy. Most exhaustive experiments failed to trace any +characters to any other part of either sperm or egg than the nucleus. +Transmission of characteristics seemed to be absolutely equal by the two +parents. The male nucleus enters the egg practically naked. Hence if the +characters are transmitted equally, there is certainly ground for +supposing that only the nucleus of the egg has such functions, and that +the remainder merely provides material for early development. Yet this +does not seem to be strictly true. + +Parthenogenesis (development of eggs without agency of male sperm) +proves that in many simple forms the female nucleus alone possesses all +the essential determiners for a new individual. Boveri's classic +experiment[10] proved the same thing for the male nucleus. He removed +the nuclei from sea-urchin eggs and replaced them with male nuclei. +Normal individuals developed. To make things still more certain, he +replaced the female nucleus with a male one from a different variety of +sea-urchin. The resulting individual exhibited the characteristics of +the _male nucleus_ only--none of those of the species represented by the +egg. Here, then, was inheritance definitely traced to the nucleus. If +this nucleus is a male the characters are those of the male line; if a +female those of the female line, and in sexual reproduction where the +two are fused, half and half. + +Yet the fact remained that all efforts to develop the spermatozoon alone +(without the agency of any egg material at all) into an individual had +signally failed. Conklin[11] had found out in 1904 and 1905 that the egg +cytoplasm in Ascidians is not only composed of different materials, but +that these give rise to definite structures in the embryo later on. So a +good many biologists believed, and still believe[12,13,14] that the egg +is, before fertilization, a sort of "rough preformation of the future +embryo" and that the Mendelian factors in the nuclei "only impress the +individual (and variety) characters upon this rough block." + +If we look at these views from one angle, the apparent conflict +disappears, as Professor Conklin[15] points out. We can still presume +that all the factors of inheritance are carried in the nucleus. But +instead of commencing the life history of the individual at +fertilization, we must date it back to the beginning of the development +of the egg in the ovary. Whatever rude characters the egg possesses at +the time of fertilization were developed under the influence of the +nucleus, which in turn got them half and half from its male and female +parents. These characters carried by the female across one generation +are so rudimentary that they are completely covered up, in the +developing embryo, by those of the new nucleus formed by the union of +the sperm with the egg in fertilization. + +In case fertilization does not take place, this rude beginning in the +egg is lost. Since no characteristic sex is assumed until after +fertilization, we may say that life begins as neuter in the individual, +as it is presumed to have done in the world. It will occur to those +inclined to speculation or philosophic analysis that by the word +"neuter" we may mean any one or all of three things: (a) neither male +nor female; (b) both male and female, as yet undifferentiated, or (c) +potentially either male or female. Clearly, the above explanation +assumes a certain _germinal_ specialization of the female to +reproduction, in addition to the body specialization for the +intra-parental environment (in mammals). + +A tremendous amount of laboratory experimentation upon animals has been +done in late years to determine the nature of sex. For example, +Goodale[16] castrated a brown leghorn cockerel twenty-three days old +and dropped pieces of the ovary of a female bird of the same brood and +strain into the abdominal cavity. These adhered and built up circulatory +systems, as an autopsy later showed. This cockerel, whose male sex +glands had been exchanged for female ones, developed the female body, +and colouration so completely that expert breeders of the strain +pronounced it a female. He found that simply removing the female sex +glands invariably led to the development of spurs and male plumage. But +simple removal of the male sex glands did not alter plumage. To make +sure, he replaced the male sex glands with female, and found that the +former male developed female plumage. + +This obviously signifies that in birds the female is an inhibited +male.[4, p.49.] Either sex when castrated has male feathers--the male has +them either with or without testes, unless they are _inhibited_ by the +presence of (transplanted) ovaries. It will be remembered that the +sociological theory of sex held by Ward, Mrs. Hartley and a host of +others was founded on the supposition that evolution or development of a +species is chiefly due to selection by the females of the better males, +a conclusion based almost entirely on bird evidence. Ward[17] states +that "the change or progress, as it may be called, has been wholly in +the male, the female remaining unchanged"; also that "the male side of +nature shot up and blossomed out in an unnatural, fantastic way...." +Speaking of the highly-coloured males, especially among birds, the same +writer states that "the _normal colour_ (italics ours) is that of the +young and the female, and the colour of the male is the result of his +excessive variability." Goodale's results completely refute this idea, +and should bury for ever the well-known sociological notion of "male +afflorescence." + +The general doctrine of a stable, "race-type" female and a highly +variable male has been widely circulated. In tracing it back through +voluminous literature, it appears to have been founded on an article +published by W.I. Brooks in the _Popular Science Monthly_ for June, +1879, fourteen years before Weissmann's enunciation of the theory of +continuity of the germ-plasm. Like Wallace, Brooks continued to study +and experiment till the last, and finally withdrew from his earlier +position on sexual selection. However, this has not prevented others +from continuing to quote his discarded views--innocently, of course. + +Havelock Ellis[18] and G. Stanley Hall[19] have applied the idea of a +"race-type" female with peculiar insistence to the human race. Goodale +has finally killed the bird evidence upon which earlier workers so +largely founded this doctrine, by showing that the "race type" toward +which birds tend unless inhibited by the female ovarian secretion is the +male type, not the female. There is a great difference in the way the +internal secretions act in birds and in man, as will be pointed out +later. It is so important that such a major point as general variability +must be supported and corroborated by mammalian evidence to prove +anything positively for man. As already noted, the statistical studies +of Pearson and Mrs. Hollingworth _et al._ have yielded uniformly +negative results. + +In the utilization of data gathered from non-human species, certain +differences in the systems of internal secretion must be taken into +account. Birds differ from the human species as to internal secretory +action in two vital particulars: (a) In the higher mammals, sex depends +upon a "complex" of all the glands interacting, instead of upon the sex +glands alone as in birds; (b) The male bird instead of the female is +homogametic for sex--i.e., the sperm instead of the eggs is uniform as +to the sex chromosome. + +Insects are (in some cases at least) like birds as to the odd +chromosome--the opposite of man. But as to secondary sex-characters they +differ from both. These characters do not depend upon any condition of +the sex organs, but are determined directly by the chemical factors +which determine sex itself.[20] + +In crustacea, the male is an inhibited female (the exact opposite of +birds), as shown by the experiments of Giard and Geoffrey Smith on +crabs. A parasite, _Sacculina neglecta_, sometimes drives root-like +growths into the spider crab, causing slow castration. The females thus +desexed do not assume the male type of body, but castrated males vary so +far toward the female type that some lay eggs[3, p.143; 20]. It is the +discovery of such distinctions which makes it necessary to re-examine +all the older biological evidence on the sex problem, and to discard +most of it as insufficiently exact. + +The work of Steinach[12, pp.225f.] on rats is another well-known example +of changing sex characters by surgery. Steinach found that an ovary +transplanted into a male body changed its characteristics and instincts +into the female type. The growth of the male sex organs he found to be +definitely inhibited by the ovaries. He went so far as to transplant the +whole uterus and tube into the male body, where it developed normally. +One of the most interesting of his results is the observation of how the +instincts were changed along with the type of body. The feminized males +behaved like normal females toward the other males and toward females. +Likewise they were treated as normal females by the males. + +It would be impossible to give here any just idea of the vast amount of +rigid scientific experimentation which has been carried on in this +field, or the certainty of many of the results. Sex is really known, +about as well as anything can be known, to arise from the chemical +causes discussed above. That is, the endocrine explanation is the +correct one. + +One of the most significant results of the transplantation experiments +is the evidence that _each individual carries the fundamental bases for +both sexes_. When Goodale changed a male bird into a female as to +secondary characters and instincts by replacing one secretion with +another, he was faced with the following problem: How can a single +secretion be responsible for innumerable changes as to feather length, +form and colouring, as to spurs, comb and almost an endless array of +other details? To suppose that a secretion could be so complicated in +its action as to determine each one of a thousand different items of +structure, colour and behaviour would be preposterous. Besides, we know +that some of these internal secretions are _not_ excessively +complicated--for instance adrenalin (the suprarenal secretion) can be +compounded in the laboratory. We may say that it cannot possibly be that +the ovarian or testicular secretion is composed of enough different +chemical substances to produce each different effect. + +There remains only the supposition that the female already possesses the +genetic basis for becoming a male, and _vice versa_. This is in accord +with the observed facts. In countless experiments it is shown that the +transformed female becomes like the male of her own strain and brood--to +state it simply, like the male she would have been if she had not been a +female. If we think of this basis as single, then it must _exhibit_ +itself in one way in the presence of the male secretions, in another way +under the influence of the female secretions. In this way a very simple +chemical agent in the secretion might account for the whole +difference--merely causing a genetic basis already present to express +itself in the one or the other manner. + +This may be illustrated by the familiar case of the crustacea _Artemia +salina_ and _Artemia Milhausenii_. These are so unlike that they were +long supposed to be different species; but it was later discovered that +the genetic basis is exactly the same. One lives in 4 to 8% salt water, +the other in 25% or over. If, however, the fresh-water variety is put in +the saltier water with the salt-water variety, all develop exactly +alike, into the salt-water kind. Likewise, if the salt-water variety is +developed in fresh water, it assumes all the characteristics of the +fresh-water kind. Thus the addition or subtraction of a single chemical +agent--common salt--makes all the difference. + +If this basis for sex is single, it is represented by the male plumage +in domestic birds, the secretions from the sex-glands acting as +modifiers. But a great deal of evidence has been produced to show that +the genetic basis, in man and some other forms at least, is double. That +is, we must think of two genetic bases existing in each individual--each +representing one of the two types of secondary sex characters. The +primary sex (i.e., the sex glands) would then determine which is to +express itself. In the domestic birds described above, the male type of +body appears in the absence of the ovarian secretion, and the female +type in its presence. In man and the more highly organized mammals, we +must use "secretions" in the plural, since a number of them, from +different glands, act together in a "complex." Goodale, experimenting +with birds, was unable to definitely decide whether the basis for sex +was single or double in that material, though he favoured the latter +explanation. + +Dr Bell, the English gynecologist, using human surgical cases as a +basis, commits himself strongly to the dual basis.[2, p.13.] "Every +fertilized ovum," he says, "is potentially bisexual," but has "a +predominating tendency ... toward masculinity or femininity." But "at +the same time," he remarks, "it is equally obvious that latent traits of +the opposite sex are always present." After discussing mental traits +observed in each sex which normally belong to the other, he concludes as +follows: "If further evidence of this bisexuality, which exists in +everyone, were required, it is to be found in the embryological remains +of the latent sex, which always exist in the genital ducts." + +In some lower forms, dual sexuality is apparent until the animal is +fairly well developed. In frogs, for example, the sex glands of both +sexes contain eggs in early life, and it is not possible to tell them +apart with certainty, until they are about four months old.[12, p.125.] +Then the eggs gradually disappear in the male. + +However, we need not depend upon non-mammalian evidence for either the +secretory explanation or the dual basis. An ideal case would be to +observe the effects of circulating the blood of one sex in a developing +embryo of the other. This blood-transfusion occurs in nature in the +"Free-Martin" cattle.[21] + +Two embryos (twins) begin to develop in separate membranes or chorions. +At an early stage in this development, however, the arteries and veins +of the two become connected, so that the blood of each may circulate +through the body of the other. "If both are males or both are females no +harm results from this...," since the chemical balance which determines +the bodily form in each case is of the same type. But if one is a male +and the other a female, the male secretory balance dominates the female +in a very peculiar fashion. The female reproductive system is largely +suppressed. She even develops certain male organs, and her general +bodily appearance is so decidedly masculine that until Dr Lillie worked +out the case she had always been supposed to be a non-functional male. +She is sterile. The blood transfusion not only alters the sex-type of +her body, but it actually modifies the sex glands themselves, so that +the ovary resembles a testicle, though dissection proves the contrary. + +Why does not the female become a true, functional male? Perhaps she does +in some cases. Such a one would not be investigated, since there would +be no visible peculiarity. In all the cases examined, the embryo had +begun its female development and specialization under the influence of +a predisposition of the female type in the fertilized egg, before the +transfusion began. There is no absolutely convincing mammalian evidence +of the complete upset of this predisposition, so all one can say is that +it is theoretically possible. Cases of partial reversal, sometimes +called "intersexes," are common enough. In birds and insects, where the +material is less expensive and experimentation simpler, males have been +produced from female-predisposed fertilized eggs and _vice versa_, as we +shall see in the next chapter. + +Dr Bell[2, pp.133f.] points out that the so-called human "hermaphrodites" +are simply partial reversals of the sex type from that originally fixed +in the fertilized egg. As has been remarked earlier in these pages, +there is rarely if ever true hermaphroditism in higher animals--i.e., +cases of _two functional sexes_ in the same individual. In fact, the +pathological cases in the human species called by that name are probably +not capable of reproduction at all.[A] + +[Footnote A: _Note on human hermaphroditism_: This subject has been +treated in a considerable medical literature. See, for example, Alienist +and Neurologist for August, 1916, and New York Medical Journal for Oct. +23, 1915. It has been claimed that both human and higher mammalian +"hermaphrodites" have actually functioned for both sexes. Obviously, +absolute certainty about cause and effect in such cases, where human +beings are concerned, is next to impossible, because of lack of +scientific, laboratory control. If a case of complete functional +hermaphroditism in the human species could be established beyond +question, it would indicate that the male secretory balance in man does +not inhibit the female organs to the same extent that it apparently does +in the Free-Martin cattle. If established, the idea of "male dominance" +in the human species would be undermined in a new place. Such cases, if +they occur at all, are exceedingly rare, but are of theoretical +interest. We must not rush to conclusions, as the earlier sociologists +used to do. Such a case would require careful analysis. Its very +uniqueness would suggest that it may not be due to the ordinary causes +of hermaphroditism, but might arise from some obscure and unusual cause +such as the fusion of two embryos at a very early stage. The +biochemistry involved is so intricate and so little understood that any +deduction from the known facts would be purely speculative.] + + +Like the Free-Martin cattle, some accident has resulted in a mixture of +male and female characteristics. This accident occurs after a certain +amount of embryonic development has taken place under the influence of +the original predisposition of the fertilized egg. The delicate +secretory balance, so complex in man, is upset. With partially developed +organs of one type and with a blood-chemistry of the opposite one, some +curious results follow, as the illustrative plates in Dr Bell's book +show. + +It should be remembered that sex in higher mammals is of the whole body, +and depends upon all the secretions. Hence an accident to one of the +other glands may upset the balance as well as one to the sex glands +themselves. For example, 15% of Neugebauer's[22] cases of female tubular +partial hermaphroditism had abnormal growths in the suprarenals. + +Thus in the human species, it is possible for one type of sex glands to +exist in the opposite type of body, as we saw it to be in +cattle--though it apparently could not occur unless compensated for in +some way by the other secretions. This is a very great departure from +birds, rats and guinea pigs, whose bodies change over their sex type +when the gonads are transplanted. Birds take on the male appearance when +the sex glands are removed (or retain it, if they are males). This is +not true of man. The chemical life processes of the two sexes after +puberty in the human species are quite characteristic. The male and +female types are both very different from the infantile. When it becomes +necessary to desex men, the resulting condition is _infantile_, not +female.[23] + +The desexed man is of course the eunuch of ancient literature. If +desexed near maturity, he might look like a normal man in many respects; +but if the operation were performed before puberty, his development is +simply arrested and remains infantile--incomplete. Only in 1878 was the +practice of desexing boys to get the famous adult male soprano voices +for the Sistine Choir discontinued. + +Removal of the ovaries in women likewise produces an infantile +condition, which is pronounced only in case the operation takes place +very young. [24] From his clinical experience, Dr Bell [2, p.160] +concludes that no very definite modifications can be produced in an +adult woman by withdrawal of the ovarian secretion alone. "There must +be," he says, "some gross change in those parts of the endocritic +system, especially apart from the genital glands, which normally produce +masculinity--potentiality that appears to be concentrated in the +suprarenals, the pituitary and probably in the pineal." + +What, then, do we mean by "male" and "female" in man? Take Dr Russell +Andrews' patient: photographs[2, plate opposite p.243] show a rounded +bodily outline, hairless face, well-developed mammæ--the female sex +characteristics in every respect which the ordinary person could detect. +Yet an operation proved that the sex glands themselves were male. + +Presumably extreme cases like the above are rare. Obviously operations +cannot be performed on all those with female-type bodies who do not bear +children, to determine the primary sex, and conversely with men. This +does, however, point the obvious question: Are not some we classify as +men _more male_ or masculine than others--some we classify as women +_more feminine_ than others? Bearing in mind the fact that the genetic +basis for both sexes exists in each individual, are not some women more +masculine than others, some men more feminine than others? However much +we may object to stating it just that way, the biological fact remains +thus. The Greeks called these intermediate types _urnings_--modern +biology knows them as "intersexes." + +Only within the past few years have the general phenomena of +intersexuality been cleared up to any considerable extent--naturally on +the basis of the secretory explanation of sex. This secretory or +endocrine idea has also given us an entirely new view of sex +differences. These are best discussed as functional rather than as +structural. To correlate this material, we must next give a rude sketch +of the quantitative theory of sex. + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER II + +1. Goldschmidt, R. Intersexuality and the Endocrine Aspect of Sex. +Endocrinology, Vol. I, p. 434, 1917. + +2. Bell, Dr Blair. The Sex Complex. London, 1916, p. 98. + +3. Paton, D. Noël. Regulators of Metabolism. London, 1913, p. 146. + +4. Goodale, H.D. Gonadectomy...Carnegie Pub. 243, 1916, pp. 43f. + +5. Wilson, Andrew. Polity of a Pond (essay). Humboldt Lib. of Sc., +No. 88--reprint, dated 1888. + +6. Hollingworth, L.S. Variability as Related to Sex Differences in +Achievement. Am. Jour, of Sociol., XIX., 1914, pp. 510-530. + +7. Lowie, R.H. & Hollingworth, L.S. Science and Feminism. Sci. Mthly., +Sept., 1916, pp. 277-284. + +8. Montague, Helen & Hollingworth, L.S. Comparative Variability of the +Sexes at Birth. Am. J. of Sociol. XX, 335-70. 1915. + +9. Morgan, T.H. A Critique of the Theory of Evolution. N.Y., 1916, +pp. 1-27. + +10. Loeb, Jacques. Artificial Parthenogenesis and Fertilization. +Chicago, 1913, pp. 3, 51f., 240f, 303. + +11. Conklin, E.G. Organ-Forming Substances in the Eggs of Ascidians. +U. of Pa. Contrib. from the Zool. Lab. Vol. 12. 1905, pp. 205-230. + +12. Loeb, J. The Organism as a Whole. N.Y., 1916, pp. 138f, 151-2. + +13. Guyer, M.F. Being Well-Born. Indianapolis, 1916, p. 51. + +14. Tower, W.L. (et al.). Heredity and Eugenics. Chicago, 1912, +pp. 164, 254-5. + +15. Conklin, E.G. Share of Egg and Sperm in Heredity. Proc. Nat. Acad. +of Sc., Feb., 1917. + +16. Goodale, H.D. A Feminized Cockerel. Jour. Exp. Zool. Vol. 20, +pp. 421-8. + +17. Ward, Lester F. Pure Sociology. N.Y., 1903, pp. 322f. + +18. Ellis, Havelock. Man and Woman, 4th Ed. London, 1904. Ch. XVI. + +19. Hall, G. Stanley. Adolescence. N.Y., 1907. Vol. II, pp. 561-2. + +20. Morgan, T.H. Heredity and Sex. N.Y., 1913, pp. 155f. + +21. Lillie, F.R. Theory of the Free Martin. Science, n.s., Vol. XLIII, +pp. 611-13. + +22. Neugebauer, F.L. Hermaphrodismus, Leipzig, 1908. + +23. Vincent, S. Internal Secretions and the Ductless Glands. London, +1912, p. 69. + +24. Marshall, F.H. Physiology of Reproduction. London, 1910, p. 314. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +SEX AND SEX DIFFERENCES AS QUANTITATIVE + +Intersexes in moths; Bird intersexes; Higher metabolism of males; +Quantitative difference between sex factors; Old ideas of +intersexuality; Modern surgery and human intersexes; Quantitative theory +a Mendelian explanation; Peculiar complication in the case of man; +Chemical life cycles of the sexes; Functional-reproductive period and +the sex problem; Relative significance of physiological sex differences. + + +Crossing European and Japanese gypsy moths, Goldschmidt [1,2,3,4] +noticed that the sex types secured were not pure--i.e., that certain +crosses produced females which bore a distinctly greater resemblance to +the male type than others, and _vice versa_. One of these hybrids of +"intersexes," as he calls them, would always possess some female and +some male sexual characters. He found that he could separate the males +and females, respectively, into seven distinct grades with respect to +their modification toward the opposite-sex type, and could produce any +one of these grades at will by breeding. + +For example, the seven grades of females were roughly as follows: +(1) Pure females; (2) Females with feathered antennæ like males and +producing fewer than the normal number of eggs; (3) Appearance of the +brown (male) patches on the white female wings; ripe eggs in abdomen, +but only hairs in the egg-sponge laid; instincts still female; +(4) Instincts less female; whole sections of wings with male colouration, +interspersed with cuneiform female sectors; abdomen smaller, males less +attracted; reproduction impossible; (5) Male colouration over almost the +entire wing; abdomen almost male, with few ripe eggs; instincts +intermediate between male and female; (6) Like males, but with +rudimentary ovaries and show female traits in some other organs; +(7) Males with a few traces of female origin, notably wing-shape. + +The males showed the same graded approach to the female type. Their +instincts likewise became more and more female as the type was modified +in that direction. That is, a moth would be 12% or 35% female, and so +on. + +Goldschmidt watched the crosses which produced seven different grades of +maleness in his females. The moth material, like the birds and mammals, +suggested a dual basis for sex in each individual. The grades of +maleness and femaleness made it seem probable that the factor which +determines sex must be stronger in some instances than in others, i.e., +that the difference between two of these grades of female is originally +quantitative, not qualitative--in amount rather than in kind. + +Mating European moths with European, or Japanese with Japanese, produced +pure, uniform sex-types, male and female. But a cross of European with +Japanese strains resulted in intersexes. Goldschmidt concluded that +(1) all individuals carried the genetic basis for both sexes; and +(2) that these basic factors were two chemicals of enzyme nature. One +of these he called Andrase, enzyme producing maleness, the other Gynase, +enzyme producing femaleness. Further, (3) since each chemical sex +determiner is present in both individuals in every cross, there must be +two chemical "doses" of maleness and two of femaleness struggling for +mastery in each fertilized egg. (4) If the total dose of maleness +exceeds the total dose of femaleness, the sex will be male, and +_vice versa_. (5) These quantities get fixed by natural selection +in a single race which always lives in the same environment, i.e., the +doses of maleness and femaleness in a given sex always bear practically +the same relation to each other. Hence the types are fixed and uniform. +(6) But different races are likely to have a different strength of +chemical sex-doses, so that when they are crossed, the ratios of +maleness to femaleness are upset. Often they are almost exactly equal, +which produces a type half male and half female--or 2/3, or 1/3, etc. +The proof of this theory is that it solved the problems. Goldschmidt +was able to work out the strengths of the doses of each sex in his +various individuals, and thereby to predict the exact grade of +intersexuality which would result from a given cross. + +Riddle's work on pigeons [5,6] brings us much nearer to man, and +suggests the results noted by both Goldschmidt and Lillie. As in the +Free-Martin cattle, there is an apparent reversal of the sex +predisposition of the fertilized egg. As in the gypsy moths, different +grades of intersexes were observed. In the pigeons, it was found that +more yolk material tended to produce a larger proportion of females. The +most minute quantitative measurements were made of this factor, to +eliminate any possibility of error. + +The chromosome mechanisms practically force us to suppose that about +half the eggs are originally predisposed to maleness, half to +femaleness. A pigeon's clutch normally consists of two eggs, one with a +large yolk and one with a small yolk. But the half-and-half numerical +relation of males to females varies considerably--i.e., not all the +large-yolked eggs produce females or all the small-yolked ones males. + +Wild pigeons begin the season by throwing a predominance of males, and +the first eggs of the clutches also tend to produce males all along. In +both cases, the male-producing eggs were found to be the ones with the +smaller yolks. Family crosses also produce small yolks, which hatch out +nearly all males. Some pairs of birds, however, have nearly all female +offspring. Riddle investigated a large number of these cases and found +the amount of yolk material to be large. In other words, there seems to +be a definite relation between the amount of yolk and sex. + +A great number of clever experiments were carried out to find out if +eggs originally predisposed to one sex were actually used to produce the +other. Selective fertilization with different kinds of sperm was +impossible, since in these birds there is only one type of sperm--two of +eggs--as to the sex chromosome. For instance, by overworking females at +egg-production, the same birds which had been producing more males than +females were made to reverse that relation. + +One of the interesting results of the experiments was the production of +a number of intersexual types of various grades. This was easily +verifiable by colour and other characteristics. To make sure that the +instincts were correspondingly modified, behaviour was registered on +moving-picture films. Where the first egg of a clutch (the one with a +small, normally male-producing yolk) produces a female, she is usually +found to be more masculine than her sister from the second egg with the +larger yolk. This is true both as to appearance and as to behaviour. +Some of these were quite nearly males in appearance and behaviour, +though they laid eggs. + +Testicular and ovarian extracts were injected. The more feminine birds +were often killed by the testicular extract, the more masculine by the +ovarian extract. Finally, to make assurance doubly sure, some females +which should theoretically have been the most feminine were dissected +and shown to be so. That is, out-crosses which produced a predominance +of females in the fall were mated with females which had been overworked +at egg production until they threw nearly all females. Dissecting the +females thus produced, they were shown to have _right ovaries_, which +means _double femaleness_, since normally the pigeon is functional only +in the left ovary, like other birds. The right one usually degenerates +before or at hatching and is wholly absent in the week-old squab. + +In pigeons, Riddle thinks the "developmental energy" of the eggs is in +an inverse ratio to their size. The last and largest eggs of the season +develop least and produce most females. The second egg of a clutch is +larger than the first, but develops less and the bird produced is +shorter-lived. Overworking and other conditions tending to produce large +eggs and females also throw white mutants and show other signs of +weakness. Old females lay larger eggs than do young ones. These eggs +produce more females. They store more material, have a lower metabolism +and less oxidizing capacity than do the earlier male-producing eggs. + +It would be unsafe to draw specific conclusions about mammals from these +bird and insect experiments. Both the secretory action and the +chromosome mechanisms are different. The quantitative nature of sex, and +also the existence of intersexual types, between males and females, +would seem to be general phenomena, requiring rather slight +corroboration from the mammals themselves. We have such mammalian cases +as the Free-Martin cattle, and some convincing evidence of +intersexuality in the human species itself, which will be reviewed +presently. + +The notion of more "developmental energy" or a higher metabolism in +males is borne out in the human species. Benedict and Emmes[7] have +shown by very careful measurements that the basal metabolism of men is +about 6% higher than that of women. Riddle cites the work of Thury and +Russell on cattle to show that a higher water value (as he found in the +pigeon eggs), associated with increased metabolism, helps to produce +males. + +In males, the secretion of the sex glands alone seems to be of +particular importance, again suggesting this idea of "strength" which +comes up over and over again. Removal of these glands modifies the male +body much more profoundly than it does the female.[8] It is quite +generally supposed that the action of this one secretion may have much +to do with the superior size and vigour of males. For example, Paton +says[9]: "The evidence thus seems conclusive that in the male the gonad, +by producing an internal secretion, exercises a direct and specific +influence upon the whole soma, increasing the activity of growth, +moulding the whole course of development, and so modifying the +metabolism of nerve and muscle that the whole character of the animal is +altered." It used to be said that the male was more "katabolic," the +female more "anabolic." These expressions are objectionable, inasmuch as +they hint that in a mature organism, with metabolism rather stable, +tearing down, or katabolism, could go on faster than building up, or +anabolism, or that one of two phases of the same process might go on +faster than the other. It seems safer to say merely that a lower +metabolism in the female is accompanied by a tendency to store +materials. + +A long time will doubtless be required to work out the details of +differences in metabolism in the two sexes. Some of the main facts are +known, however, and the general effects of the two diverse chemical +systems upon the life cycles of the sexes are quite obvious. What we +call the "quantitative theory of sex" has, besides a place in exact +science, an interesting relation to the history of biological thought, +especially as applied to society. It is thus in order to state as +clearly as possible what it now is; then, so that no one may confuse it +with what it is not, to run over some of the old ideas which resemble +it. + +Experiments with transplanted sex glands, with sex-gland extracts +(testicular and ovarian) and the observation of infusions of a male-type +blood-stream into a female body, as occurs in nature in some cattle and +in the so-called human "hermaphrodites," indicate a gross chemical +difference between the respective determiners for femaleness and for +maleness. So the chemicals involved, though not yet isolated, must be +presumed to be _qualitatively_ different, since they produce such +different results. + +But such experiments also indicate that both determiners must be present +in some proportions in every individual of either sex. The basis for +both sexes being present, the one which shall predominate or be +expressed in the individual must depend upon the _quantitative_ relation +between the determiners which come together at fertilization. The +quantitative theory merely means that this predominance of one factor or +the other (maleness or femaleness--Gynase or Andrase) is more pronounced +in some cases than in others. + +In brief, then, the quantitative theory of sex is merely the most +reasonable explanation of the known fact that intersexes exist--that is, +females with some male characteristics, or with all their characters +more like the female type than the average, and _vice versa_. Laboratory +biology has established the phenomena of intersexuality beyond question, +and the word "inter-sex" has become a scientific term. But the fact that +this word and the idea it represents are new to _exact science_ does not +mean that it is new in the world. + +Intersexes in the human species--not only the extreme pathological cases +represented by the so-called "hermaphrodites," but also merely masculine +women and effeminate men--have been the subject of serious remarks as +well as literary gibes from the earliest times. The Greeks called these +people _urnings_. Schopenhauer was interested in the vast ancient +literature and philosophy on this subject. The 19th century produced a +copious psychological treatment of warped or reversed sexual impulses by +such men as Moll, Krafft-Ebing and Havelock Ellis. Otto Weiniger[10] +collected a mass of this philosophy, literature, psychology, folklore +and gossip, tied it together with such biological facts as were then +known (1901) and wove around it a theory of sex _attraction_.[A] The +same material was popularized by Leland[11], Carpenter[12] and W.L. +George[13] to support quite different views. + +[Footnote A: NOTE: Weiniger thought he could pick, merely by observing +physical type, people who would be sexually attracted to each other. +There is much ground for scepticism about this. To begin with, the +biological experiments indicate that intersexes are peculiarly likely to +appear where two or more races are mixed. So far, there is no exact +knowledge about the amount or kind of sex difference in each race. As +Bateson remarks (Biol. Fact & the Struct. of Society, p.13), one +unversed in the breeds even of poultry would experience great difficulty +and make many mistakes in sorting a miscellaneous group of cocks and +hens into pairs according to breed. If this is true in dealing with pure +breeds, "in man, as individuals pure-bred in any respect are very rare, +the operation would be far more difficult." In the human species sexual +attraction also obviously depends upon many factors which are not purely +biological; it is rather a complicated sentiment than an instinct.] + +George's statement that "there are no men and ... no women; there are +only sexual majorities"[p.61, op. cit.] has been widely quoted. The +feminists, he adds, "base themselves on Weininger's theory, according to +which the male principle may be found in woman, and the female principle +in man." Unfortunately, George does not make clear what he means by +"principle," so his theory, if he has one, is impossible to appraise in +biological terms. From the embryonic idea expressed above, he deduces a +very positive social philosophy of sex. The feminists, he says, +"recognize no masculine or feminine '_spheres_' and ... propose to +identify absolutely the conditions of the sexes." So, while George seems +to think much more highly of women than does Weininger, their +philosophies come together, for quite different reasons, on the +practical procedure of disregarding reproduction and letting the race go +hang[10, p.345]. Weininger seems to recognize the dual basis for sex; +George evidently does not quite follow him. Both entirely misconceived +the real issues involved, as well as the kind of evidence required to +settle them, as we shall see later in discussing adaptation and +specialization. + +Dr Blair Bell[14,15] has collected a mass of evidence on intersexes in +the human species. This includes his own surgical and other cases, as +well as many treated by his colleagues, and a very considerable review +of the medical literature. He not only believes in degrees of femininity +in women, but has worked out classifications which he claims to have +found of great practical value in surgery.[14, pp.166-7] As noted above, +Riddle discovered that his more feminine female pigeons were often +killed by a dose of testicular extract which was practically harmless to +a partially masculinized female. Sex in the human species being a matter +of all the glands organized into a complex, the quantitative "strength" +of that complex would be useful to know before removing any one +secretion from it. Dr Bell states that the oöphorectomy operation +(removal of ovaries) may be performed upon a masculine type of woman +with "little disturbance of the metabolism..." But he thinks that the +degree of masculinity should always be carefully observed before +undertaking such operations, which in some cases have most undesirable +effects. + +At one end of the scale, this surgeon places the typically feminine +woman in all her characteristics--with well-formed breasts, menstruating +freely and feminine in instincts--he says "mind." The intermediate +grades consist, he says, of women whose metabolism leans toward the +masculine type. Some have sexual desires but no maternal impulse. Others +desire maternity but take no interest in sex activity, or positively +shun it. The physical manifestations of masculine glandular activity +take the form of pitch of voice, skin texture, shape and weight of +bones, etc. Some of the inter-grades are a little hard to define--the +human species is such an inextricable mixture of races, etc.; but Dr +Bell does not hesitate to describe the characteristically masculine +woman of the extreme type, who "shuns both sexual relations and +maternity...(She) is on the fringe of femininity. These women are +usually flat-breasted and plain. Even though they menstruate, their +metabolism is often for the most part masculine in character: +indications of this are seen in the bones which are heavy, in the skin +which is coarse, and in the aggressive character of the mind...If a +woman have well-developed genitalia, and secondary characteristics, she +usually is normal in her instincts. A feebly menstruating woman with +flat breasts and coarse skin cannot be expected to have strong +reproductive instincts, since she is largely masculine in type..." + +The glandular and quantitative explanation of sex, instead of being +abstruse and complicated, brings the subject in line with the known +facts about inheritance generally. The dual basis for femaleness and +maleness in each individual simply means that both factors are present, +but that only one expresses itself fully. The presence of such a dual +basis is proved by the fact that in castration and transplantation +experiments both are exhibited by the same individual in a single +lifetime. In the case of the Free-Martin cattle, even the female +sex-glands are modified toward the male type to such an extent that they +were long mistaken for testes. The same applies to some glands found in +human "hermaphrodites," as Dr Bell's plates show. + +The peculiar complication of the chemical complex determining sex in +these mammalian forms, involving all the glands and hence the entire +body, makes it problematical whether a complete (functional) reversal is +possible, at least after any development whatever of the embryo has +taken place. On the other hand, the fact that such complete +transformations have not so far been observed by no means proves their +non-existence. Their being functional, and hence to all external +appearances normal, would cause such animals to escape observation. + +Latent traits of the opposite sex of course immediately suggest +recessive or unexpressed characters in the well-known Mendelian +inheritance phenomena. In the bird-castration cases, we saw that to +remove the inhibiting sex glands caused previously latent characters to +act like dominant or expressed ones. The case of horns in sheep, +investigated by Professor Wood[16], is so similar that it seems worth +summarizing, by way of illustration. + +Both sexes in Dorset sheep have well-developed horns; in the Suffolk +breed both sexes are hornless. If the breeds are crossed, all the rams +in the first (hybrid) generation have horns and all the ewes are +hornless. If these hybrids are mated, the resulting male offspring +averages three horned to one hornless; but the females are the reverse +of this ratio--one horned to three hornless. This is an example of +Mendel's principle of segregation--factors may be mixed in breeding, but +they do not lose their identity, and hence tend to be sorted out or +segregated again in succeeding generations. + +In the horned Dorsets, we must suppose that both males and females carry +a dual factor for horns--technically, are _homozygous_ for horns. The +hornless Suffolks, on the contrary, are homozygous for _absence_ of +horns. Thus the dual factor in the zygotes or fertilized eggs at the +basis of the first filial (hybrid) generation consists of a single +factor for horns and a single factor for their absence. If we represent +horns by _H_ and absence of horns by _A_, Dorsets have a factor _HH_, +Suffolks _AA_ and the hybrids _HA_. + +All the males in this generation have horns, which means that a single +"dose" of the factor _H_ will produce horns in a male, or that they are +_dominant_ in males. But a single dose will not produce horns in a +female--that is, horns are _recessive_ in females--the factor is present +but unexpressed. + +Mating two _HA_ hybrids, the _H_ and _A_ of course split apart in the +formation of the gametes, as the _HH_ and _AA_ did in the previous +generation; so that we get an equal number of single _H_ and _A_ +factors. In reuniting in fertilized eggs, the chance is just half and +half that an _H_ will unite with another _H_ or with an _A_--that an +_A_ will unite with an _H_ or another _A_. Thus we have two chances of +getting _HA_ to each chance of getting either _AA_ or _HH_. Half the +zygotes will be _HA_, one-fourth _HH_ and one-fourth _AA_. + +If we consider four average males, one will have two _A's_ (absence of +the factor for horns) and will thus be hornless. One will have two +_H's_, or the double factor for horns, and hence will exhibit horns--as +will also the two _HA's_ since a single dose of horns expresses them in +a male. So we have the three-to-one Mendelian ratio. + +But four females with exactly the same factors will express them as +follows: The one _HH_ (double factor for horns) proves sufficient to +express horns, even in a female. The _AA_, lacking the factor entirely, +cannot have horns. Nor will the two _HA_ females have horns, a single +dose being insufficient to express them in a female. Again we get our +three-to-one Mendelian ratio, but this time it is three hornless to one +horned. + +Especially Goldschmidt's carefully graded experiments point to a similar +difference in the strength of the dose or doses of the sex factors. +Instead of the two doses of horns required to express them in the +presence of the female secretory balance in Professor Wood's sheep, +Goldschmidt found it took six doses of maleness to completely express it +on a female basis in his moths. But even with three doses, the female +was incapable of reproduction. A single dose in excess of the ordinary +combination to produce normal females modified the type of body, also +reducing the number of eggs. + +In the case of the horns, only two types were possible, absence or +presence of the character. Likewise there are only two types of primary +sex, i.e., of sex glands proper. But seven different types or grades of +body for each sex were found to exhibit themselves in the moths. In more +complicated bodies, we should of course expect many more, and where many +races (instead of two) are mixed, as in man, a classification merely on +the basis of physical characteristics would be much more complicated. +Indeed, we may well be sceptical as to the possibilities of cataloguing +differences of the sort between men and women by body type alone. + +In society, however, we are much more interested in the mental than the +purely physical qualities of the two types of bodies, especially since +the use of machines has so largely replaced brute strength with skill. +Most employments do not even require a muscular skill beyond that +possessed by ordinary individuals of both sexes. + +Even this ignores the primary consideration in the sex problem in +society, the first of the following two parts into which the whole +problem may be divided: (1) _How to guarantee the survival of the group +through reproduction_ of a sufficient number of capable individuals; and +(2) How to make the most economical use of the remaining energies, first +in winning nutrition and protection from the environment, second in +pursuing the distinctly human values over and above survival. The sex +problem as a whole is concerned with adjusting two different general +types of individuals, male and female, to the complicated business of +such group life or society. The differences between these two sex-types +being fundamentally functional, the best way to get at them is to trace +the respective and unlike life cycles. + +We have already shown in rude outline how a difference (apparently +chemical) between two fertilized eggs starts them along two different +lines of development in the embryonic stage. One develops the +characteristic male primary and secondary sex characters, the other the +female. Throughout the embryonic or intra-maternal stage this +differentiation goes on, becoming more and more fixed as it expresses +itself in physical structures. Childhood is only a continuation of this +development--physically separate from the mother after the period of +lactation. Until puberty, when sex ceases to be merely potential and +becomes functional (about 12-14 in girls and 14-16 boys), the +differences in metabolism are not very marked. Neither are they in old +age, after sex has ceased to be functional. It is during the period when +sex is functional (about 35 years in women and considerably longer in +men) that the gross physiological differences manifest themselves. + +Before puberty in both sexes, calcium or lime salts are retained in the +tissues and go to build up the bony skeleton. (A mere sketch of calcium +metabolism is all that can be given here--for details consult such works +as 15 and 17 in bibliography; summary in 14; pp. 34f. & 161f.) Note that +puberty comes earlier in girls than in boys, and that the skeleton +therefore remains lighter. During the reproductive period in women these +salts are heavily drawn upon for the use of the reproductive system. The +male reproductive system draws upon them as well, though the drain is +very slight as compared to that in women. In old age these salts produce +senility through deposit in the tissues, especially in the arteries. + +At the pubertal age in girls begins the phenomenon known as +menstruation, in which there is a large excretion of calcium salts. In +pregnancy these are needed for building the skeleton of the foetus, and +at delivery go to the breasts to assist in lactation. Bell states that +there is a noticeable connection between early menstruation and short +stature, and _vice versa_. What is commonly known as menstruation lasts +only a few days, and is merely the critical period in a monthly cycle or +periodicity which goes with the female sex specialization. This period +involves the gradual preparation of the uterus or womb for a guest, +together with the maturing of the ova. Then the Graafian follicles +containing the ova break and these latter enter the uterus for +fertilization. + +If fertilization takes place, the fertilized egg buries itself in the +wall and development of the embryo proceeds. Menstruation stops, the +calcium salts being required for the growing embryo. There is likely to +be no menstruation for a considerable time after delivery if the child +is nursed, as is normal. This gives the uterus time for devolution to +the normal, before a surplus of calcium salts sets the periodicity going +again. If the egg which passes from the ovary to the uterus is not +fertilized, it is excreted, the uterus goes through another monthly +cycle of preparation for the period of intra-maternal environment, and +so on indefinitely until the climacteric. + +This climacteric or decay of sexuality is a rather critical time, +especially in women. It marks the period at which the metabolism can no +longer support the strain of reproduction. A surplus of calcium brings +on senility, as noted above. Withdrawal of the interests which centre in +sex, together with the marked accompanying physical changes, involves a +shift of mental attitude which is also frequently serious. A British +coroner stated in the _British Medical Journal_ in 1900 (Vol. 2, p.792) +that a majority of 200 cases of female suicide occurred at this period, +while in the case of younger women suicide is peculiarly likely to occur +during menstruation. Krugelstein and Lombroso, respectively, remark the +same tendencies.[18] + +It is a matter of almost everyday observation that men and women in the +neighbourhood of fifty suddenly find themselves disoriented in the +world. Tolstoi, for example, who had written passionately of passion in +his earlier years, suddenly awoke, according to his "Confessions," from +what seemed to him afterward to have been a bad dream. In this case, the +result was a new version of religion as a new anchorage for the man's +life. It may be pacifism, prohibition, philanthropy, or any one of a +very large number of different interests--but there must usually be +something to furnish zest to a life which has ceased to be a sufficient +excuse for itself. + +If freed from worry about economic realities, it is not infrequently +possible for the first time for these people to "balance" their +lives--to find in abstraction a rounded perfection for which earlier in +life we seek in vain as strugglers in a world of change. Thus old people +are often highly conservative, i.e., impatient of change in their social +environment, involving re-orientation; they wish the rules of the game +let alone, so they can pursue the new realities they have created for +themselves. + +Socially, the old are of course a very important factor since a changed +metabolism sets them somewhat outside the passionate interests which +drive people forward, often in wrong directions, in the prime of life. +Hence in a sense the old can judge calmly, as outsiders. Like youth +before it has yet come in contact with complicated reality, they often +see men and women as "each chasing his separate phantom." + +While such conservatism, in so far as it is judicial, is of value to +society, looking at it from the viewpoint of biology we see also some +bad features. _Senex_, the old man, often says to younger people, "These +things you pursue are valueless--I too have sought them, later abandoned +the search and now see my folly;" not realizing that if his blood were +to resume its former chemical character he would return to the quest. + +Elderly people, then, biological neuters, come especially within the +problem of the economical use of the social as distinguished from the +biological capacities of the race. They affect the sex problem proper, +which applies to a younger age-class, only through their opinions. Some +of these opinions are hangovers from the time in their own lives when +they had stronger sexual interests, and some are peculiar to people of +their readjusted glandular activity. Their reproductive contribution to +society has been made. + +Pre-pubertal childhood and youth, on the contrary, has its biological +contributions to society still before it. The glandular activity of boys +and girls is perhaps not so unlike as to justify society in giving them +a different kind of education and preparation for group life. The excuse +for two sorts of training is that the two sexes will not do the same +work after puberty. Hence the question of youthful training is +sociological almost entirely--not biological--or rather, it rests upon +the biology, not of childhood but of the reproductive period, which +society anticipates. + +Instead of scattering attention over the whole history of the universe, +then, or even over the general field of biology, in dealing with sex as +a social problem, the emphasis must be upon the human life cycle during +the functional-reproductive period. Other biological data than that +which concerns this period is merely introductory or explanatory. The +extent to which the sociological problem involved is linked up with +general biological considerations like natural selection, adaptation and +specialization will be summarized in a separate chapter. + +Earlier female maturity and puberty, as well as lighter structure, have +already been accounted for by the metabolism, especially of the calcium +salts. These have also been shown to be the key fact in the monthly +periodicity of the mammalian female. Nearly all of the anatomical and +physiological sex differences catalogued by such pioneer workers as +Ellis, Ploss, Thomas and Bucura are simply what we should expect from +the less active and in some ways peculiar metabolism of woman. + +Among such differences are the size and shape of bones and other body +structures, the more plentiful hæmoglobin in male blood during the +reproductive period, and such blood peculiarities as the production of +more carbonic acid or the higher specific gravity in the male. The +greater percentage of fat as compared with muscle in women[19], if it is +generally true, is what we should expect from a lower metabolism and a +tendency to store materials. The long list of diseases which are more or +less sex-limited [20; 14, pp.160f.; 18] are largely endocrine. Even those +which do not primarily concern the internal secretory system would be +expected to work somewhat differently in the presence of unlike blood +streams. As to the greater average weight of the male brain, this is +true of the whole body. Brain weight, either absolute or relative to +body weight, is not positively known to be in any way correlated (in +normal people) with mental capacity. + +A library might be stocked with the vast literature devoted to +summarizing and cataloguing sex differences; and most of it would be +useless from the standpoint of sociology. Unaccompanied by the +criticisms a biologist would have to make on the method of their +ascertainment and validity, not to mention their significance, such +lists can easily do--and probably have done--more harm than good. One +simple and reasonable criterion would reduce this catalogue to fairly +modest proportions, so far as social science is concerned: _Which ones +have an obvious or even probable social significance?_ Over and above +that, while such contrasts may be of speculative interest, they lead +imaginative people to argue from them by analogy and thus cloud the real +issues. + +What are the outstandingly significant sex differences which application +of the above criterion leaves? (1) A less active and more uneven +metabolism of woman; (2) Associated with this, less physical strength on +the average--hence an inferior adaptability to some kinds of work, +resulting in a narrower range of choice of occupation, disadvantageous +in competitive society; (3) But the one fundamental difference, to which +all the others are as nothing, is the specialization of the mammalian +female body and metabolism to furnish the intra-maternal environment +(approximately nine months in the human species) for the early +development of the young and lactation for some months afterward. + +This last may be said to include the former two, which were arbitrarily +placed first because they are always in evidence, whether reproduction +is undertaken or not. This takes us out of cell and endocrine biology +and into the general problem in group adjustment to environment which +that specialization entails. + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER III + +1. Goldschmidt, R. Experimental Intersexuality and the Sex Problem. +Amer. Naturalist, 1916. Vol. 50, pp. 705f. + +2. Goldschmidt, R. Preliminary Report on Further Experiments in +Inheritance and Determination of Sex. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sc, 1916. +Vol. II, No. 1, pp. 53f. + +3. Goldschmidt, R. A Case of Facultative Parthenogenesis. Biol. +Bulletin, 1917. Vol. XXXII, No. 1, p. 38. + +4. Goldschmidt, R. Intersexuality and the Endocrine Aspect of Sex. +Endocrinology, Vol. I, p. 434. 1917. Fine summary of the work done on +moths, birds and various forms by many biologists. + +5. Riddle, Dr Oscar. Quantitative Basis of Sex as indicated +by the Sex-Behaviour of Doves from a Sex-Controlled Series. Science, +n.s., Vol. 39, p. 440, 1914. + +6. Riddle, Dr Oscar. Sex Control and Known Correlations in Pegeons. +Amer. Nat. Vol. L, pp. 385-410. + +7. Benedict, F.G. & Emmes, L.E. A Comparison of the Basal Metabolism of +Men and Women. Jour. Biol. Chem. Vol. 20. No. 3. 1914. + +8. Schäfer, Sir E.A. Endocrine Glands and Internal Secretions. Stanford +University, 1914, p. 91. + +9. Paton, D. Noël. Regulators of Metabolism. London, 1913, p. 146. + +10. Weininger, Otto. Sex and Character. London & N.Y., 1906. Eng. trans. +of Geschlecht u. Charakter, Vienna & Leipzig, 1901 & 1903. + +11. Leland, C.G. The Alternate Sex. London, 1904. + +12. Carpenter, Edw. Love's Coming of Age. London, 1906. + +13. George, W.L. The Intelligence of Woman, Boston, 1916. + +14. Bell, Dr Blair. The Sex Complex, London, 1916. + +15. Bell, Dr. Blair. Gynæcology. London, 1919. + +16. Bateson, W. Mendel's Principles of Heredity. 1909, pp. 169-70. + +17. Marshall, F.H. A Physiology of Reproduction. London, 1910. + +18. Ellis, Havelock. Man and Woman. 1904 ed., pp. 284f + +19. Thomas, W.I. Sex and Society. 1907, p. 19. + +20. Schäfer, Sir Edw. An Introduction to the Study of Internal +Secretions. London, 1916, pp. 106f. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +SEX SPECIALIZATION AND GROUP SURVIVAL + +Adaptation and specialization; Reproduction a group not an individual +problem; Conflict between specialization and adaptation; Intelligence +makes for economy in adjustment to environment; Reproduction, not +production, the chief factor in the sex problem. + + +From the facts briefly stated in the preceding chapters it is quite +evident that the general superiority of man over woman or _vice versa_ +cannot be proven by biology. Such an idea arises from a careless and +unscientific use of language. Superiority is a term which, when used to +express the rather exact ideas of biology, is employed in a carefully +limited and specific, not in a general, sense. That is, superiority, +even if an apparently general idea like survival value is referred to, +always implies a given, understood environment where such is not +specifically mentioned. Wolves, for example, might be found to possess +superior chances for survival over foxes, beaver or partridges in a +given environment. A biologist would probably use more exact and less +ambiguous terms to express such a fact, and say that wolves were the +best _adapted_ to the given surroundings. If all these animals continued +to live side by side in the given environment, they could be compared +only as to specific details--size, strength, cunning, fleetness in +running, swimming or flying, concealment from enemies, etc. Then the +biologist would probably make his meaning perfectly clear by stating +that one is _specialized_ in one direction or another. + +Especially is general superiority a vague idea when the things compared +are different but mutually necessary or complementary. If their +functions overlap to some extent (i.e., if certain acts can be performed +by either), we may say that one is better adapted to a certain activity +than the other. Thus it may be that women are generally better adapted +to caring for young children than are men, or that men are on the whole +better adapted to riveting boiler plates, erecting skyscrapers, or +sailing ships. Where their activities do not overlap at all, even the +word adaptation hardly applies. For example, women are not better +"adapted" to furnishing the intra-maternal environment for the young, +since men are not adapted to it at all. It is a case of female +_specialization_. + +Men being neither specialized nor adapted, to any extent whatever, to +this particular activity, any attempt at comparison is obviously +fruitless, since one term is always zero. This specialization, +absolutely necessary to the survival of human groups, is either present +or it is absent in a given individual. Any attempt to formulate a +general proposition about superiority either attaches purely arbitrary +values to different kinds of activity or is absurd from the standpoint +of the most elementary logic. + +From the standpoint of biology, reproduction is not an individual but a +group problem, however many problems of detail it may give rise to in +individual lives. Sex involves the division of the reproductive process, +without the exercise of which any human group would perish very shortly, +into two complementary, mutually necessary but unequal parts. (This +statement applies only to the reproductive process, as obviously the +male and female gametes contribute equally to the formation of the new +individual). Neither part (the male or the female) of this process is +more necessary than the other, both being _absolutely_ necessary. But +the female specialization for furnishing the intra-maternal environment +makes her share more burdensome. + +Biologically considered, not even two individuals (male and female), +together with their offspring, can be more than an arbitrary "unit" as +concerns sex, since inbreeding eventually impoverishes the stock. Hence +outcrosses are necessary. To intelligibly consider the sex problem in +the human species, then, we must always predicate a considerable _group_ +of people, with such organization and division of activities as to +guarantee that all the processes necessary to survival will be carried +on. Sex is a group problem. Considering the mutual interdependence and +the diversity of activities in human society, to make the generalization +that one sex is superior to the other is on a par with saying that roots +and branches are superior to trunks and leaves. It is sheer foolishness. +Yet oceans of ink have flowed in attempts to establish one or the other +of two equally absurd propositions. + +Since the specialization to furnish the intra-maternal environment for +the young makes the female part of the reproductive process essentially +and unavoidably more burdensome than the male, it results that an +economical division of the extra-reproductive activities of any group +must throw an unequal share upon the males. This specialization to carry +the young during the embryonic period is thus at the base of the +division of labour between the sexes. It is the chief factor involved in +the problems of sex, and gives rise, directly or indirectly, to most of +the others. + +But the sex problem as a whole is one of adaptation as well as of +specialization. An incident of the female specialization is a type of +body on the average smaller, weaker and less well adapted to some other +activities than is the male body, even when reproduction is not +undertaken. A great complication is added by the fact that some women, +and also some men, are better adapted than others to nonreproductive +activities. This is another way of saying that the type of body +associated with either type of sex glands varies a good deal, for +reasons and in respects already pointed out. + +The most important fact about this reproductive specialization is that +beyond fertilization it is _exclusive_ in the female. Since the males +cannot furnish the intra-parental environment for the young, the entire +burden must fall on half the group. If this aggregation is to even hold +its own numerically, its women must have, on an average, two children +each, _plus about one more_ for unavoidable waste--death in infancy or +childhood, sterility, obvious unfitness for reproduction, etc., i.e., +_three_ in all. If one woman has less than her three children, then +another must have more than three, or the group number will decrease. +_Group survival is the fundamental postulate in a problem of this kind._ + +The above figure is for civilized society. In primitive groups, the +terrific wastage makes a much higher birth-rate necessary, several times +as high in many cases. If we suppose such a group, where child +mortality, lack of sanitation, etc., necessitates an average of eight +children per woman (instead of three), the biological origin of the +division of labour between the sexes is much more clearly seen than it +is in civilized societies. + +If men are better hunters or fighters than women, the latter could +nevertheless hunt and fight--it is a question of superior or inferior +adaptation to particular activities. But it is more than that. _Only_ +the women are biologically specialized to the chief reproductive burden +(intra-parental environment and lactation). If half the women should +withdraw from child-bearing, the remainder would be obliged to average +_sixteen_ apiece. But even this is not all. Unfortunately, the half of +the women who would be found best adapted to hunting and fighting would +be the more vigorous half. The new generation would thus be born from +the leftovers, and would be poor quality. Such a division of labour +within a group would be fatally foolish and entirely uncalled for--since +there are plenty of men adapted to hunting and fighting, but entirely +unspecialized to child-bearing and nursing. + +Group survival being the fundamental thing, the group is obliged to +develop a division of labour which directs the activities of the +individuals composing it to providing for its necessities, regardless +of any interference with their own desires. That is, if group survival +requires that woman use her specialization to child-bearing instead of +any adaptation she may possess in other directions, one of two things +inevitably result: (1) Either the group finds or evolves some social +control machinery which meets the necessity, or (2) it must give way to +some other group which can do so. In either case, the result is a +division of labour, which we see more clearly in primitive peoples. The +less efficient group is not necessarily exterminated, but if it loses +out in the competition until some other group is able to conquer it and +impose _its_ division of labour the result is of course the extinction +of the conquered group as an integral part of society. This is simply +natural selection working on groups. Natural selection works chiefly in +this manner on the human species, _because that species lives in +groups_. Such group control of the component individuals as has been +described has led to a division of labour between the sexes in every +primitive society. All this means is that the group adopting such a +division has greater survival value, and hence is more likely to be +represented in later ages. + +It must not be supposed that such systems of control were always +logically thought out or deliberately planned. Even animals which live +in herds or colonies have divisions of labour. + +Through an infinite slaughter of the least fit, such groups arrive at +some kind of instinctive adjustment to produce and protect the young. +The crudest human intelligence must have eliminated much of the waste +involved, by comprehending obvious cause-and-effect relations which +animals have to arrive at through trial and error methods. + +For example, an intelligence capable of employing artificial weapons is +also able to see that the wielder of these for group defence cannot be +encumbered with baggage or children when the group is in movement. Hence +women became the burden bearers, and took care of the children, even +after the nursing period. War parties could not generally be mixed, for +the obvious reasons that such women as did not have young children would +be pregnant a good deal of the time, or likely to become so. Moreover, a +hunter and fighter must not have his courage, ferocity and physical +initiative undermined by unsuitable employments and associations. + +In a semi-settled group, the hunter and warrior cannot be relied upon to +keep hearth-fires burning or tend crops, even though he may occasionally +have time for such activities. These duties are therefore relegated to +the women, whose child-bearing functions impose upon them a more +sedentary existence. Women must reproduce practically up to their full +capacity to fill up the gaps made by war, accident and disease as well +as death from old age. To this biological service which they alone can +perform are added those which lie nearest it and interfere least with +carrying it out. + +We must therefore keep in view _all_ the activities of any group in +which the sex problem is being studied. There is a certain tendency to +disregard the female specialization to child-bearing, and to regard the +sex question as one merely of adaptation to extra-biological services. +In every group which has survived, some machinery--a "crust of custom," +reinforced by more arbitrary laws or regulations--has sought to +guarantee reproduction by keeping women out of lines of endeavour which +might endanger that fundamental group necessity. Primitive societies +which got stabilized within a given territory and found their birth-rate +dangerously _high_ could always keep it down by exposing or destroying +some of the unfit children, or a certain per cent of the female +children, or both. + +In primitive groups, the individual was practically _nil_. But modern +civilized society is able to survive without the rigid control of +individual activities which the old economy entailed. Man comes to +choose more and more for himself individually instead of for the group, +uniformity weakens and individualism becomes more pronounced. As +control of environment becomes more complete and easy, natural selection +grows harder to detect. We turn our interests and activities toward the +search for what we want and take survival largely for granted--something +the savage cannot do. Natural selection becomes unreal to us, because +the things we do to survive are so intricately mixed up with those we do +for other reasons. Natural selection in gregarious animals operates upon +groups rather than upon individuals. Arrangement of these groups is +often very intricate. Some have territorial boundaries and some have +not. Often they overlap, identical individuals belonging to several. +Hence it is not strange that natural selection phenomena often escape +attention. + +But this must not lead us to suppose that natural selection is wholly +inoperative in civilized society. We see some nations outbreeding +others, or dominating them through superior organization. Within +nations, some racial and religious groups outbreed others and thus +gradually supplant them--_for the future is to those who furnish its +populations_. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +RACIAL DEGENERATION AND THE NECESSITY FOR RATIONALIZATION OF THE MORES + +Racial decay in modern society; Purely "moral" control dysgenic in +civilized society; New machinery for social control; Mistaken notion +that reproduction is an individual problem; Economic and other factors +in the group problem of reproduction. + + +From the discussion in the preceding chapter, it becomes apparent that +for the half of the female element in a savage society possessing the +most vigor and initiative to turn away from reproduction would in the +long run be fatal to the group. Yet this is what occurs in large measure +in modern civilized society. Reproduction is a biological function. It +is non-competitive, as far as the individual is concerned, and offers no +material rewards. The breakdown of the group's control over the detailed +conduct and behaviour of its members is accompanied by an increasing +stress upon material rewards to individuals. So with growing +individualism, in the half of the race which can both bear children and +compete in the social activities offering rewards, i.e., the women who +are specialized to the former and adapted to the latter, there is a +growing tendency among the most successful, individualized strains, to +choose the social and eschew the biological functions. + +Racial degeneration is the result. Recorded history is one succession of +barbarous races, under strong, primitive breeding conditions, swamping +their more civilized, individualized neighbours, adopting the dysgenic +ways of civilization and then being swamped in their turn by barbarians. +This is especially pronounced in our own times because popularized +biological and medical knowledge makes it possible for a tremendous +class of the most successful and enlightened to avoid reproduction +without foregoing sex activity. + +In primitive groups, a "moral" control which kept all women at +reproduction was neither eugenic nor dysgenic unless accompanied by +systematic destruction of the least fit children. By "moral" control is +meant the use of taboo, prejudice, religious abhorrence for certain acts +and the like. The carefully nurtured moral ideas about sex and +reproduction simply represent the system of coercion which groups have +found most effective in enforcing the division of reproductive and other +activities among the individual members. When this social machinery grew +up, to regulate sexual activity was in general to regulate +reproduction. The natural sex desire proved sufficiently powerful and +general to still seek its object, even with the group handicaps and +regulations imposed to meet the reproductive necessity. But +contraceptive knowledge, etc., has now become so general that to +regulate sex activity is no longer to regulate reproduction. The taboo +or "moral" method of regulation has become peculiarly degenerating to +race quality, because the most intelligent, rationalized individuals are +least affected by it. + +There is no turning back to control by ignorance. Even theoretically, +the only way to stop such a disastrous selection of the unfit would be +to rationalize reproduction--so that _nobody_ shall reproduce the +species through sheer ignorance of how to evade or avoid it. This done, +some type of social control must be found which will enable civilized +societies to breed from their best instead of their worst stock. Under +the old scheme, already half broken down, natural selection favours +primitive rather than civilized societies through decreased birth-rates +and survival of the unfit in the latter. Even this is true only where +the savage groups are not interfered with by the civilized, a condition +rapidly disappearing through modern occidental imperialism and the +inoculation of primitive peoples with "civilized" diseases such as +syphilis, rum-drinking and rampant individualism. + +To continually encourage the racially most desirable women to disregard +their sexual specialization and exploit their social-competitive +adaptation must, obviously destroy the group which pursues such a +policy. The only way to make such a course democratic is to carefully +instruct all women, rich and poor, wise and ignorant, in the methods of +avoiding reproduction and to inject the virus of individualism in all +alike. Then the group can get its population supply only by a new system +of control. To remove any economic handicaps to child-bearing is +certainly not out of harmony with our ideas of justice. + +In removing the economic handicaps at present connected with the +reproductive function in women, care must also be taken that the very +measures which insure this do not themselves become dysgenic influences. +Such schemes as maternity insurance, pensions for mothers, and most of +the propositions along this line, may offer an inducement to women of +the poorer classes to assume the burdens connected with their +specialization for child-bearing. But their more fortunate sisters, who +find themselves so well adapted to modern conditions that they are even +moderately successful in the competition for material rewards, will +hardly find recompense thus for turning from their social to their +biological functions. To these highly individualized modern women must +be presented more cogent reasons for taking upon themselves the burden +of reproducing the group. + +It is obvious that from just this energetic female stock we should +obtain a large part of the next generation if we are at all concerned +over the welfare of the group and its chances of survival. One +suggestion is that we may be able to turn their very individualism to +account and use it as a potent factor in the social control of their +reproductive activities. If we can demonstrate on the basis of sound +biological data that the bearing of children is necessary for the full +and complete development of the individual woman, physically and +mentally, we shall have gone a long way toward securing voluntary +motherhood. Only such argument will induce the highly individualized, +who may also be the most vital, woman to turn of her own accord from +competitive social activities to the performance of the biological +function for which she is specialized. This is especially true, as has +been intimated above, since contraceptive knowledge now permits the +exercise of sexual functions without the natural consequences, and the +avoidance of motherhood no longer involves the denial of expression to +the sexual urge. + +Even if we are able to utilize this method of control, it will not +obtain the requisite number of offspring to maintain the eugenic quality +of the group, since the bearing of one or two children would be all that +individual development would require. If the group must have on the +average three children from each of its women in order to replace +itself, the larger part of the reproductive activities will still be +confined to the more ignorant, or if they also make use of contraceptive +knowledge, the group will simply die out from the effects of its own +democratic enlightenment. Thus it becomes apparent that we must find +some more potent force than this narrow form of self-interest to +accomplish the social purposes of reproduction. When reproduction is +generally understood to be as thoroughly a matter of group survival as +for example the defensive side in a war of extermination, the same +sentiment of group loyalty which now takes such forms as patriotism can +be appealed to. If the human race is unsocial it will perish anyway. If +it has not become unsocial--and it does not display any such tendency, +but only the use of such impulses in mistaken directions--then a group +necessity like reproduction can be met. Whatever is required of the +individual will become "moral" and "patriotic"--i.e., it will be +wreathed in the imperishable sentiments which group themselves around +socially necessary and hence socially approved acts everywhere and +always. + +In whatever races finally survive, the women of good stock as well as +poor--perhaps eventually the good even more than the poor--will +reproduce themselves. Because of our ideals of individual liberty, this +may not be achieved by taboo, ignorance or conscription for motherhood. +But when it is found to be the personal interest to bear children, both +as a means of complete physical and mental development and as a way of +winning social approval and esteem, it will become as imperative for +woman to fulfil the biological function to which she is specialized as +it was under the old system of moral and taboo control. The increasing +emphasis on the necessity of motherhood for the maintenance of a normal, +health personality, and the growing tendency to look upon this function +as the greatest service which woman can render to society, are manifest +signs that this time is approaching. There is little doubt that woman +will be as amenable to these newer and more rationalized mores as human +nature has always been to the irrationally formed customs and traditions +of the past. + +To ignore the female specialization involved in furnishing the +intramaternal environment for three children, on an average, to the +group, is simply foolish. If undertaken at maturity--say from +twenty-two to twenty-five years of age--and a two-year interval left +between the three in the interest of both mother and children, it puts +woman in an entirely different relation toward extra-reproductive +activities than man. It does imply a division of labour. + +In general, it would seem socially expedient to encourage each woman to +have her own three children, instead of shifting the burden upon the +shoulders of some other. If such activities of nursing and caring for +the very young can be pooled, so much the better. Doubtless some women +who find them distasteful would be much more useful to society at other +work. But let us not disregard fundamentals. It is obviously +advantageous for children of normal, able parents to be cared for in the +home environment. In a _biologically healthy_ society the presumption +must be that the average woman has some three children of her own. Since +this obviously includes nurses and governesses, we see at once the +futility of the oft-proposed class solution of hiring single women to +care for the children of the fortunate. If such a servant is +undesirable, she is not hired; if normal, in a biologically healthy +society she would have her own children. + +The female handicap incident to reproduction may be illustrated by the +case of Hambletonian 10 mentioned in Chapter II. We saw that a female +could not have borne the hundredth part of his colts. This simply means +that the effort or individual cost of impressing his characters upon the +new generation is less than one one-hundredth that required of a female. + +Among domestic animals this is made use of to multiply the better males +to the exclusion of the others, a valuable biological expedient which we +are denied in human groups because it would upset all our social +institutions. So we do the next best thing and make the males do more +than half in the extra-biological activities of society, since they are +by their structure prevented from having an equal share in the +reproductive burden. This is an absolutely necessary equation, and there +will always be some sort of division of labour on the basis of it. + +Since reproduction is a group, not an individual, necessity, whatever +economic burden it entails must eventually be assumed by society and +divided up among the individuals, like the cost of war or any other +group activity. Ideally, then, from the standpoint of democracy, every +individual, male or female, should bear his share as a matter of course. +This attitude toward reproduction, as an individual duty but a group +economic burden, would lead to the solution of most of the problems +involved. Negative eugenics should be an immediate assumption--if the +state must pay for offspring, the quality will immediately begin to be +considered. A poor race-contribution, not worth paying for, would +certainly be prevented as far as possible. + +Some well-meaning radical writers mistakenly suppose that the +emancipation of women means the withdrawal by the group of any interest +in, or any attempt to regulate, such things as the hours and conditions +of female labour. That would simply imply that the group takes no +interest in reproduction--in its own survival. For if the group does not +make some equation for the greater burden of reproduction upon women, +the inevitable result will be that that particular service will not be +rendered by those most desirable to be preserved. + +Given the fundamental assumption that the group is to survive--to be +perpetuated by the one possible means--if it withdraws all solicitude +about the handicap this entails to women as a whole, introducing a +spirit of laissez-faire competition between men and women, the women +with sense enough to see the point will not encumber themselves with +children. For each one of these who has no children, some other woman +must have six instead of three. And some people encourage this in the +name of democracy! + +The most involved problems must inevitably centre around the women who, +to quote Mrs. Hollingworth, "vary from the mode," but are yet +functional for sex. Some have no sex desires at all, some no craving for +or attachment to children, some neither of these. It is a question still +to be solved whether some of them ought, in the interest of the race, to +be encouraged to reproduce themselves. In less individualized primitive +society, seclusion, taboo and ignorance coerced them into reproduction. +Any type of control involving the inculcation of "moral" ideas is open +to the objection that it may work on those who should not reproduce +themselves as well as those who should. + +In a sense, this problem will tend to solve itself. With the +substitution of the more rationalized standards of self-interest and +group loyalty for the irrational taboo control of reproductive +activities, there will be as much freedom for women to choose whether +they will accept maternity as there is now, in the period of transition +from the old standards to the new. The chief difference will be that +many of the artificial forces which are acting as barriers to motherhood +at the present time--as for example the economic handicap involved--will +be removed, and woman's choice will therefore be more entirely in +harmony with her native instinctive tendencies. Thus those women endowed +with the most impelling desire for children will, as a rule, have the +largest number. In all probability their offspring will inherit the +same strong parental instinct. The stocks more poorly endowed with this +impulse will tend to die out by the very lack of any tendency to +self-perpetuation. It is only logical to conclude, therefore, that as we +set up the new forces of social control outlined in this chapter, we are +at the same time providing more scope for natural selection, and that +the problem of aberrant types consequently becomes only a transitory +one. + + + + +PART II + +THE INSTITUTIONALIZED SEX TABOO + +BY + +IVA LOWTHER PETERS, PH.D. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE PRIMITIVE ATTITUDE TOWARD SEX AND WOMANHOOD + + +Primitive social control; Its rigidity; Its necessity; Universality of +this control in the form of taboos; Connection between the universal +attitude of primitive peoples towards woman as shown in the +Institutionalized Sex Taboo and the magic-religious belief in Mana; +Relation of Mana to Taboo; Discussion of Sympathetic Magic and the +associated idea of danger from contact; Difficulties in the way of an +inclusive definition of Taboo; Its dual nature; Comparison of concepts +of Crawley, Frazer, Marett and others; Conclusion that Taboo is Negative +Mana; Contribution of modern psychology to the study of Taboo; Freud's +analogy between the dualistic attitude toward the tabooed object and the +ambivalence of the emotions; The understanding of this dualism together +with the primitive belief in Mana and Sympathetic Magic explains much in +the attitude of man toward woman; The vast amount of evidence in the +taboos of many peoples of dualism in the attitude toward woman. Possible +physiological explanation of this dualistic attitude of man toward woman +found in a period before self-control had in some measure replaced +social control, in the reaction of weakness and disgust following sex +festivals. + + +A study of the elaborate, standardized, and authoritative systems of +social control found among all primitive peoples gives a vivid +impression of the difficulty of the task of compelling man to die to +himself, that is, to become a socius. The rigors and rituals of +initiation ceremonies at adolescence impressed the duties of sociality +at that impressionable period. The individual who refused to bow his +head to the social yoke became a vagabond, an outcast, an excommunicate. +In view of the fierceness of the struggle for food and the attitude +toward the stranger among all primitives, the outcast's life chances +were unenviable. It was preferable to adapt one's self to the social +order. "Bad" traits were the more easily suppressed in return for the +re-enforcement of power which was the striking feature of group life; +power over enemies, power over nature, and a re-enforcement of the +emotional life of the individual which became the basis on which were +built up the magico-religious ceremonies of institutionalized religion. + +It is the purpose of this study to consider a phase of social life in +which there can be traced a persistence into modern times of a primitive +form of control which in a pre-rational stage of group life made +possible the comparatively harmonious interplay of antagonistic forces. +This form of control is called Taboo. A student of the phenomenon, a +recognized authority on its ethnological interpretation, says of it: "To +illustrate the continuity of culture and the identity of the elementary +human ideas in all ages, it is sufficient to point to the ease with +which the Polynesian word _tabu_ has passed into modern +language."[1, p.16] + +We shall attempt to show that at least one form of taboo, the +Institutionalized Sex Taboo, is co-extensive with human social +experience, and exists to-day at the base of family life, the socialized +form of sex relationship. The family as a social institution has been +scarcely touched until a very recent historical period by the +rationalizing process that has affected religious and political +institutions. Economic changes resultant upon the introduction of an +industrial era which showed the importance of women in diverse social +relations were causes of this new effort at adaptation to changing +conditions. It became apparent that taboos in the form of customs, +ceremonials, beliefs, and conventions, all electrically charged with +emotional content, have guarded the life of woman from change, and with +her the functions peculiar to family life. There has doubtless been +present in some of these taboos "a good hard common-sense element." But +there are also irrational elements whose persistence has resulted in +hardship, blind cruelty, and over-standardization. + +In order to comprehend the attitude of early man toward sex and +womanhood, and to understand the system of taboo control which grew out +of this attitude, it is only reasonable to suppose that the prehistoric +races, like the uncivilized peoples of the present time, were inclined +to explain all phenomena as the result of the action of spiritistic +forces partaking of both a magical and religious nature. This +supernatural principle which the primitive mind conceived as an +all-pervading, universal essence, is most widely known as _mana_, +although it has been discussed under other names.[A] + +Certain persons, animals and objects[B] are often held to be imbued to +an unusual degree with this _mana_, and hence are to be regarded as holy +and held in awe. Inasmuch as man may wish to use this power for his own +purposes, a ceremonial cult would naturally grow up by which this would +become possible. Otherwise, to come in contact with these objects +directly or indirectly, besides profaning their sanctity would be +exceedingly dangerous for the transgressor, because of this same power +of transmission of a dread and little understood force. Therefore, all +such persons, animals or objects are taboo and must be avoided. Under +these circumstances it can be seen that taboos are unanalyzed, +unrationalized "Don'ts," connected with the use and wont which have +crystallized around the wish of man to manipulate the mysterious and +often desirable features of his environment, notably those connected +with possession, food, and sex. + +[Footnote A: The Australians call it Arunkulta, the Iroquis Indians +Orenda and other North American tribes Wakonda, the Melanesians Mana.] + +[Footnote B: Dr F.B. Jevons[2] says: "These things ... are alike taboo: +the dead body; the new-born child; blood and the shedder of blood; the +divine being as well as the criminal; the sick, outcasts, and +foreigners; animals as well as men; women especially, the married woman +as well as the sacred virgin; food, clothes, vessels, property, house, +bed, canoes, the threshing floor, the winnowing fan, a name, a word, a +day; all are or may be taboo because dangerous. This short list does not +contain one-hundredth part of the things which are supposed to be +dangerous; but even if it were filled out and made tolerably complete, +it would, by itself, fail to give any idea of the actual extent and +importance of the institution of taboo."] + + +The idea of the transmission of _mana_ through contact is concomitant +with the notion of _sympathetic magic_, defined as the belief that the +qualities of one thing can be mysteriously transferred to another. The +most familiar illustration is that of the hunter who will not eat the +heart of the deer he has killed lest he become timid like that animal, +while to eat the heart of a lion would be to gain all the fierce courage +of that beast.[A] This belief becomes so elaborated that the qualities +of one object are finally thought to be transferred to another which has +never come into direct contact with the first, the transition being +accomplished through the agency of a third object which has been in +contact with both the others and thus acts as the conducting medium +through which the qualities of one pass into the other. + +[Footnote A: E.B. Tylor[3] has called attention to the belief that the +qualities of the eaten pass into the eater as an explanation of the food +taboos and prejudices of savage peoples.] + +Just as the holy thing, which is to be feared as the seat of a mystic, +supernatural force, is to be avoided lest harm befall from contact with +it, or lest it be denied by human touch and its divine essence be +affected, so the unclean thing is also made taboo lest it infect man +with its own evil nature. Even as the savage will not have his idol +polluted by contact with his own personality, however indirect, so he +would himself avoid pollution in similar fashion by shunning that which +is unclean. Here also the avoidance of the tabooed person or thing is +based on the principle of sympathetic magic understood as a method of +transference of qualities, and on belief in the possibility of infection +by contact. + +The dual nature of taboo as the avoidance of both the sacred and the +unclean is noted by authorities on the subject who differ in other +respects as to the definition of taboo, such as in the relation of taboo +to the magical ceremonies by which man undertook to mould his +environment to his wishes. Whether the tabooed object be regarded in one +light or the other, the breaking of taboo is associated with dread of +the unknown--besides the fear of infection with the qualities of the +tabooed object according to the laws of sympathetic magic. There is +also the fear of the mysterious and supernatural, whether conceived as +the mana force or as a principle of "bad magic." + +Dr. J.G. Frazer has collected into the many volumes of "The Golden +Bough" a mass of evidence concerning the taboos of primitive society. On +the basis of his definition of magic as "a misapplication of the ideas +of association by similarity and contiguity," Dr. Frazer divided magic +into "positive magic," or charms, and "negative magic," or taboo. +"Positive magic says, 'Do this in order that so and so may happen.' +Negative magic or taboo says 'Do not do this lest so and so should +happen.'"[4, p.111, v.I.] + +But Dr. Frazer's conclusion, which he himself considered only tentative, +was not long left unassailed. Prof. R.R. Marett in his essay "Is Taboo a +Negative Magic?"[5] called attention to the very evident fact that Dr. +Frazer's definition would not cover the characteristics of some of the +best known taboos, the food taboos of Prof. Tylor to which we have +previously alluded in this study, as a consequence of which "the flesh +of timid animals is avoided by warriors, but they love the meat of +tigers, boars, and stags, for their courage and speed."[3, p.131.] Are +not these food taboos rather, Dr. Marett asks, a "misapplication of the +ideas of association by similarity and contiguity" amounting to the +sympathetic taboos so carefully described by such writers on Magic as +MM. Hubert and Mauss of L'Année Sociologique? Still another kind of +taboos mentioned by Dr. Frazer but amplified by Mr. Crawley in "The +Mystic Rose," the taboos on knots at childbirth, marriage, and death, +are much better described by the term "sympathetic taboo." Moreover, if +taboo were a form of magic as defined by Dr. Frazer, it would be a +somewhat definite and measurable quantity; whereas the distinguishing +characteristic of taboo everywhere is the "infinite plus of awfulness" +always accompanying its violation. As Dr. Marett observes, there may be +certain definite results, such as prescribed punishment for violations +against which a legal code is in process of growth. There may be also +social "growlings," showing the opposition of public opinion to which +the savage is at least as keenly sensitive as the modern. But it is the +"infinite plus" always attached to the violation of taboo that puts it +into the realm of the mystical, the magical. It would seem that Dr. +Frazer's definition does not include enough. + +It is when we turn to the subject of this study that we see most clearly +the deficiencies in these explanations--to the "classic well-nigh +universal major taboo" of the woman shunned. Dr. Marett uses her as his +most telling argument against the inclusiveness of the concepts of Dr. +Frazer and of MM. Hubert and Mauss. He says: "It is difficult to +conceive of sympathy, and sympathy only, as the continuous, or even the +originally efficient cause of the avoidance." Mr Crawley had called +attention to the fact that savages fear womanly characteristics, that +is, effeminacy, which is identified with weakness. While noting with +great psychological insight the presence of other factors, such as the +dislike of the different, he had gone so far as to express the opinion +that the fear of effeminacy was probably the chief factor in the Sex +Taboo. This is probably the weakest point in Mr. Crawley's study, for he +shows so clearly the presence of other elements, notably mystery, the +element that made woman the potential witch against whom suspicion +concentrated in so tragical a fashion up to a late historical period. + +Because of the element of mystery present in taboo we are led to +conclude that taboo is more than negative magic if we accept so definite +a concept as "a false association of ideas." The presence of power in +the tabooed object turns our attention to _mana_ as giving us a better +understanding of why man must be wary. Mana must however be liberally +interpreted if we are to see to the bottom of the mystery. It must be +thought of as including good as well as evil power, as more than the +"black magic" of the witch-haunted England of the 17th century, as is +shown by the social position of the magicians who deal with the Mana of +the Pacific and with the Orenda of the Iroquois. It implies +"wonder-working," and may be shown in sheer luck, in individual cunning +and power, or in such a form as the "uncanny" psychic qualities ascribed +to women from the dawn of history. With this interpretation of mana in +mind, taboo may be conceived as negative mana; and to break taboo is to +set in motion against oneself mystic wonder-working power. + +Our study thus far has made it clear that there are mystic dangers to be +guarded against from human as well as extra-human sources. There is +weakness to be feared as well as power, as shown by the food and sex +taboos. And once again there is mystery in the different, the unusual, +the unlike, that causes avoidance and creates taboos. Man's dislike of +change from the old well-trodden way, no matter how irrational, accounts +for the persistence of many ancient folkways[6] whose origins are lost +in mystery.[A] Many of these old and persistent avoidances have been +expanded in the development of social relationships until we agree with +Mr. Crawley that taboo shows that "man seems to feel that he is treading +in slippery places." Might it not be within the range of possibility +that in the study of taboo we are groping with man through the first +blind processes of social control?[B] + +[Footnote A: Prof. Franz Boas explains this tendency: "The more +frequently an action is repeated, the more firmly it will become +established ... so that customary actions which are of frequent +repetition become entirely unconscious. Hand in hand with this decrease +of consciousness goes an increase in the emotional value of the omission +of these activities, and still more of the performance of acts contrary +to custom."[7]] + +[Footnote B: No study of the tabu-mana theory, however delimited its +field, can disregard the studies of religion and magic made by the +contributors to L'Année Sociologique, notably MM. Durkheim and +Levy-Bruhl, and in England by such writers as Sir Gilbert Murray, Miss +Harrison, Mr A.B. Cook, Mr F.M. Cornford, and others. In their studies +of "collective representations" these writers give us an account of the +development of the social obligation back of religion, law, and social +institutions. They posit the sacred as forbidden and carry origins back +to a pre-logical stage, giving as the origin of the collective emotion +that started the representations to working the re-enforcement of power +or emotion resulting from gregarious living. This study is concerned, +however, with a "social" rather than a "religious" taboo,--if such a +distinction can somewhat tentatively be made, with the admission that +the social scruple very easily takes on a religious colouring.] + +It is worthy of note that the most modern school of analytical +psychology has recently turned attention to the problem of taboo. Prof. +Sigmund Freud, protagonist psychoanalysis, in an essay, Totem und Tabu, +called attention to the analogy between the dualistic attitude toward +the tabooed object as both sacred and unclean and the ambivalent +attitude of the neurotic toward the salient objects in his environment. +We must agree that in addition to the dread of the tabooed person or +object there is often a feeling of fascination. This is of course +particularly prominent in the case of the woman tabooed because of the +strength of the sex instinct. As Freud has very justly said, the tabooed +object is very often in itself the object of supreme desire. This is +very obvious in the case of the food and sex taboos, which attempt to +inhibit two of the most powerful impulses of human nature. The two +conflicting streams of consciousness called ambivalence by the +psychologist may be observed in the attitude of the savage toward many +of his taboos. As the Austrian alienist cannily remarks, unless the +thing were desired there would be no necessity to impose taboo +restrictions concerning it. + +It is by a knowledge of the mana concept and the belief in sympathetic +magic, clarified by recognition of the ambivalent element in the +emotional reaction to the thing tabooed, that we can hope to understand +the almost universal custom of the "woman shunned" and the sex taboos of +primitive peoples. This dualism appears most strongly in the attitude +toward woman; for while she was the natural object of the powerful +sexual instinct she was quite as much the source of fear because she was +generally supposed to be endowed with spiritistic forces and in league +with supernatural powers. During the long period when the fact of +paternity was unrecognized, the power of reproduction which was thus +ascribed to woman alone made of her a mysterious being. Her fertility +could be explained only on the basis of her possession of an unusually +large amount of mana or creative force, or by the theory of impregnation +by demonic powers. As a matter of fact, both explanations were accepted +by primitive peoples, so that woman was regarded not only as imbued with +mana but also as being in direct contact with spirits. Many of the +devices for closing the reproductive organs which abounded among savage +tribes were imposed as a protection against spirits rather than against +the males of the human species. The tradition of impregnation by gods or +demons was not confined to savage tribes, but was wide-spread in the +days of Greece and Rome and lasted into biblical times, when we read of +the sons of heaven having intercourse with the daughters of men. + +In addition to this fear of the woman as in possession of and in league +with supernatural powers, there was an additional motive to avoidance in +the fear of transmission of her weakness through contact, a fear based +on a belief in sympathetic magic, and believed with all the "intensely +realized, living, and operative assurance" of which the untutored mind +is capable. Crawley masses an overwhelming amount of data on this point, +and both he and Frazer show the strength of these beliefs. Indeed, in +many cases violation proved to be "sure death," not by the hand of man, +but from sheer fright. As a result, just as woman was considered to have +both the tendency and power to impart her characteristics through +contact, so the sexual act, the acme of contact, became the most potent +influence for the emasculation of the male. + +If we wish for proof that the primitive attitude toward women was +essentially that which we have outlined, we have only to glance at the +typical taboos concerning woman found among ancient peoples and among +savage races of our own day. Nothing could be more indicative of the +belief that the power to bring forth children was a manifestation of the +possession of mana than the common avoidance of the pregnant woman. Her +mystic power is well illustrated by such beliefs as those described by +the traveller Im Thurn, who says that the Indians of Guiana believe that +if a pregnant woman eat of game caught by hounds, they will never be +able to hunt again. Similarly, Alfred Russell Wallace wrote of the +aborigines of the Amazon: "They believe that if a woman during her +pregnancy eats of any meat, any other animal partaking of it will +suffer; if a domestic animal or tame bird, it will die; if a dog, it +will be for the future incapable of hunting; and even a man will be +unable to shoot that particular kind of game for the future."[8] In +Fiji a pregnant wife may not wait upon her husband.[9] In the +Caroline Islands men may not eat with their wives when pregnant, but +small boys are allowed to do so.[10] + +The avoidance of the menstruous woman is an even more widespread custom +than the shunning of pregnancy, probably because this function was +interpreted as a symptom of demonic possession. Primitive man had no +reason to know that the phenomenon of menstruation was in any way +connected with reproduction. The typical explanation was probably very +much like that of the Zoroastrians, who believed that the menses were +caused by the evil god Ahriman. A woman during the period was unclean +and possessed by that demon. She must be kept confined and apart from +the faithful, whom her touch would defile, and from the fire, which her +very look would injure. To this day there is in the house of the Parsee +a room for the monthly seclusion of the women, bare of all comforts, and +from it neither sun, moon, stars, fire, water, nor any human being can +be seen.[11] + +All the ancient civilizations had such taboos upon the menstruous woman. +According to Pliny, the Romans held that nothing had such marvellous +efficacy as, or more deadly qualities than, the menstrual flow. The +Arabs thought that a great variety of natural powers attached +themselves to a woman during the menstrual period.[12, p.448] Rabbinic +laws demand that "a woman during all the days of her separation shall be +as if under a ban." The epithet Niddah, applied to a woman at that time, +means "to lay under a ban." The reconstruction of the ancient Assyrian +texts shows that the law of the unclean taboo on the woman in her +courses holds for them. Up to the present time the Semitic woman is +carefully segregated from the rest of the tribe, often for a long time, +and becomes taboo again on each successive occasion.[13] Peoples in the +eastern Mediterranean region will not permit a woman in her courses to +salt or pickle; whatever she might prepare would not keep. This belief +survives among the folk to-day in America, and was evidently brought +early in the history of the country, for it is common among pioneer +stock. + +There are very similar taboos among the savage races. Among the Tshi +peoples of West Africa women are not allowed to remain even in the town +but retire at the period to huts erected for the purpose in the +neighbouring bush, because they are supposed to be offensive to the +tribal deities at that time.[14] The Karoks of California have a +superstition like that of the Israelites. Every month the woman is +banished without the village to live in a booth by herself. She is not +permitted to partake of any meat, including fish. If a woman at this +time touches or even approaches any medicine which is about to be given +to a sick man, it will cause his death.[15] Amongst other Indian tribes +of North America women at menstruation are forbidden to touch men's +utensils, which would be so defiled by their touch that their subsequent +use would be attended by certain misfortune. The Canadian Dénés believe +that the very sight of a woman in this condition is dangerous to +society, so that she wears a special skin bonnet to hide her from the +public gaze.[16] In western Victoria a menstruous woman may not take +anyone's food or drink, and no one will touch food that has been touched +by her.[17] Amongst the Maoris, if a man ate food cooked by a menstrous +woman, he would be "tapu an inch thick."[18] Frazer quotes the case of +an Australian blackfellow who discovered that his wife had lain on his +blanket at her menstrual period, and who killed her and died of terror +himself within a fortnight.[19] Australian women at this time are +forbidden on pain of death to touch anything that men use or even to +walk on a path that men frequent.[20] Among the Baganda tribes a +menstruous woman is not permitted to come near her husband, cook his +food, touch any of his weapons, or sit on his mats, bed, or seat.[21] + +By some twist in the primitive way of thinking, some "false association +by similarity and contiguity," the function of childbirth, unlike that +of pregnancy, where the emphasis seems to have been placed in most cases +on the mana principle, was held to be unclean and contaminating, and was +followed by elaborate rites of purification. It may be that the pains of +delivery were ascribed to the machinations of demonic powers, or +possession by evil spirits,--we know that this has sometimes been the +case. The use of charms and amulets, and the chanting of sacred formulæ +at this dangerous time all point to such beliefs. At any rate, although +the birth of the child would seem in every respect except in the +presence of blood to be more closely connected with the phenomena of +pregnancy than with that of menstruation, as a matter of fact the taboos +on the woman in child-bed were intimately associated with those on +menstruous women. + +Among the ancients, the Zoroastrians considered the woman unclean at +childbirth as at menstruation.[22] In the Old Testament, ritual +uncleanness results from contact with a woman at childbirth.[23] + +Likewise among savage tribes the same customs concerning childbirth +prevail. Among the Australian aborigines women are secluded at childbirth +as at menstruation, and all vessels used by them during this seclusion +are burned.[20] The Ewe-speaking people think a mother and babe unclean +for forty days after childbirth.[24] At menstruation and childbirth +a Chippeway wife may not eat with her husband; she must cook +her food at a separate fire, since any one using her fire would fall +ill.[10, v. ii, p.457] The Alaskan explorer Dall found that among the +Kaniagmuts a woman was considered unclean for several days both after +delivery and menstruation; in either case no one may touch her and she +is fed with food at the end of a stick.[25] Amongst the tribes of the +Hindu Kush the mother is considered unclean for seven days after the +birth of her child, and no one will eat from her hand nor will she +suckle her infant during that period. In the Oxus valley north of the +Hindu Kush the period is extended to forty days.[26] + +This attitude which primitive man takes toward woman at the time of her +sexual crises--menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth--are but an +intensification of the feeling which he has toward her at all times. +Conflicting with his natural erotic inclinations are the emotions of awe +and fear which she inspires in him as the potential source of contagion, +for there is always some doubt as to her freedom from bad magic, and it +is much safer to regard her as unclean.[27] Thus the every-day life of +savage tribes is hedged in by all manner of restrictions concerning the +females of their group. The men have their own dwelling in many +instances, where no woman may enter. So, too, she may be barred out from +the temples and excluded from the religious ceremonies when men worship +their deity. There are people who will not permit the women of their +nation to touch the weapons, clothing, or any other possessions of the +men, or to cook their food, lest even this indirect contact result in +emasculation. The same idea of sympathetic magic is at the root of +taboos which forbid the wife to speak her husband's name, or even to use +the same dialect. With social intercourse debarred, and often no common +table even in family life, it is veritably true that men and women +belong to two castes. + +Of the primitive institution known as the "men's house," Hutton Webster +says: "Sexual separation is further secured and perpetuated by the +institution known as the men's house, of which examples are to be found +among primitive peoples throughout the world. It is usually the largest +building in a tribal settlement ... Here the most precious belongings of +the community, such as trophies and religious emblems, are preserved. +Within its precincts ... women and children ... seldom or never +enter ... Family huts serve as little more than resorts for the +women and children."[28] + +Many examples among uncivilized peoples bear out this description of +the institution of the men's house. Amongst the Indians of California +and in some Redskin tribes the men's clubhouse may never be entered by a +squaw under penalty of death. The Shastika Indians have a town lodge for +women, and another for men which the women may not enter.[15] Among the +Fijis women are not allowed to enter a _bure_ or club house, which is +used as a lounge by the chiefs. In the Solomon Islands women may not +enter the men's _tambu_ house, and on some of the islands are not even +permitted to cross the beach in front of it.[29] In the Marquesas +Islands the _ti_ where the men congregate and spend most of their time +is taboo to women, and protected by the penalty of death from the +pollution of a woman's presence.[30] + +Not only is woman barred from the men's club house, but she is also +often prohibited from association and social intercourse with the +opposite sex by many other regulations and customs. Thus no woman may +enter the house of a Maori chief,[31] while among the Zulus, even if a +man and wife are going to the same place they never walk together.[32] +Among the Baganda wives are kept apart from the men's quarters.[21] The +Ojibway Indian Peter Jones says of his people: "When travelling the men +always walk on before. It would be considered a great presumption for +the wife to walk by the side of her husband."[33] In many islands of the +South Seas the houses of important men are not accessible to their +wives, who live in separate huts. Among the Bedouins a wife may not sit +in any part of the tent except her own corner, while it is disgraceful +for a man to sit under the shadow of the women's _roffe_ (tent +covering).[34] Among the Hindus, no female may enter the men's +apartments. In the Society and Sandwich Islands the females were +humiliated by taboo, and in their domestic life the women lived almost +entirely by themselves. The wife could not eat the same food, could not +eat in the same place, could not cook by the same fire. It was said that +woman would pollute the food.[35] In Korea a large bell is tolled at +about 8 p.m. and 3 a.m. daily, and between these hours only are women +supposed to appear in the streets.[36] In the New Hebrides there is a +curious segregation of the sexes, with a dread among the men of eating +anything female.[37] + +Among many tribes this segregation of the women and the separation of +the sexes begin at an early age, most often at the approach of puberty, +which is earlier in primitive peoples than in our own race.[38] The boys +usually go about with the father, while the girls remain with the +mother. This is true in Patagonia, where the boys begin to go with the +father at ten, the daughters with the mother at nine.[39] In Korea boys +and girls are separated at seven. From that time the Korean girl is +absolutely secluded in the inner court of her father's home. Mrs Bishop +says: "Girl children are so successfully hidden away that ... I never +saw one girl who looked above the age of six ... except in the women's +rooms."[36] Among the northern Indian girls are from the age of eight or +nine prohibited from joining in the most innocent amusements with +children of the opposite sex, and are watched and guarded with such an +unremitting attention as cannot be exceeded by the most rigid discipline +of an English boarding-school.[40] Similar arrangements are reported +among the Hill Dyaks,[41] certain Victorian tribes,[17] and many others. +As already instanced, the separation of the sexes extends even to +brothers and sisters and other close relatives. Thus in Fiji brothers +and sisters are forbidden by national and religious custom to speak to +each other.[9] In Melanesia, according to Codrington, the boy begins to +avoid his mother when he puts on clothing, and his sister as soon as she +is tattooed.[42] In the exclusive Nanburi caste of Travancore brothers +and sisters are separated at an early age. + +Women are more often than not excluded also from religious worship on +account of the idea of their uncleanness. The Arabs in many cases will +not allow women religious instruction. The Ansayrees consider woman to +be an inferior being without a soul, and therefore exclude her from +religious services.[34] In the Sandwich Islands women were not allowed +to share in worship or festivals.[35] The Australians are very jealous +lest women should look into their sacred mysteries. It is death for a +woman to look into a Bora.[20] In Fiji women are kept away from worship +and excluded from all the temples.[9] The women of some of the Indian +hill-tribes may not sacrifice nor appear at shrines, nor take part in +religious festivals. In New Ireland women are not allowed to approach +the temples.[43] In the Marquesas Islands the Hoolah-hoolah ground, +where festivals are held, is taboo to women, who are killed if they +enter or even touch with their feet the shadow of the trees.[30] Women +are also excluded from the sacred festivals of the Ahts.[44] In the +Amazon region, the women are not even permitted to see the objects used +in important ceremonies. If any woman of the Uaupes tribe happens to see +the masks used in the tribal ceremony she is put to death.[45] + +Crawley has explained the taboos on the sexes eating together and on the +cooking of food by women for men as due to the superstitious belief +that food which has come in contact with or under the influence of the +female is capable of transmitting her properties. Some southern Arabs +would die rather than accept food from a woman.[12] Among the old +Semites it was not the custom for a man to eat with his wife and +children. Among the Motu of New Guinea when a man is helega, he may not +eat food that his wife has cooked.[46] South Australian boys during +initiation are forbidden to eat with the women, lest they "grow ugly or +become grey." + +It was probably some fear of the charm-weaving power of woman which lay +at the root of the rules which forbade her to speak her husband's name, +the implication being that she might use it in some incantation against +him. For instance, a Zulu woman was forbidden to speak her husband's +name; if she did so, she would be suspected of witchcraft.[47] Herodotus +tells us that no Ionian woman would ever mention the name of her +husband, nor may a Hindu woman do so.[48] + +Frazer says that the custom of the Kaffir woman of South Africa not to +speak the name of her own or husband's relations has given rise to an +almost entirely different language from that of the men through the +substitution of new words for the words thus banned. Once this "women's +speech" had arisen, it would of course not be used by the men because of +the universal contempt for woman and all that pertained to her. This may +have been the origin of the use of different dialects in some tribes, +such as the Japanese, the Arawaks, some Brazilian tribes, and +others.[49] + +Although the division of labour between the sexes had a natural +biological basis, and indeed had its beginning in the animal world long +before man as such came into existence, the idea of the uncleanness of +woman was carried over to her work, which became beneath the dignity of +man. As a result, there grew up a series of taboos which absolutely +fixed the sphere of woman's labour, and prohibited her from encroaching +on the pursuits of man lest they be degraded by her use, quite as much +as they barred man from her specific activities. In Nicaragua, for +example, it is a rule that the marketing shall be done by women. In +Samoa, where the manufacture of cloth is allotted to the women, it is +taboo for a man to engage in any part of the process.[30] Among the +Andamanese the performance of most of the domestic duties falls to the +lot of the women and children. Only in cases of stern necessity will the +husband procure wood or water.[50] An Eskimo even thinks it an indignity +to row in an _umiak_, the large boat used by women. + +They also distinguish very definitely between the offices of husband +and wife. For example, when a man has brought a seal to land, it would +be a stigma on his character to draw it out of the water, since that is +the duty of the female.[51] In the Marquesas Islands, the use of canoes +in all parts of the islands is rigorously prohibited to women, for whom +it is death even to be seen entering one when hauled on shore; while +Tapa-making, which belongs exclusively to women, is taboo to men.[30] +Among the Betchuanas of South Africa the men will not let women touch +the cattle.[52] The Baganda think that if a woman steps over a man's +weapons they will not aim straight or kill until they have been +purified.[21] Among many South African tribes, if a wife steps over her +husband's assegais, they are considered useless from that time and are +given to the boys to play with. This superstition rings many changes and +is current among the natives of all countries. + +The taboos which have thus been exemplified and reviewed are based on +the feeling that woman is possessed of a demonic power, or perhaps of a +_mana_ principle which may work injury; or else upon the fear that she +may contaminate man with her weakness. It is very probable that many of +these taboos originated even as far back as the stage of society in +which the line of descent was traced through the mother. There seems +little doubt that the framework of ancient society rested on the basis +of kinship, and that the structure of the ancient gens brought the +mother and child into the same gens. Under these circumstances the gens +of the mother would have some ascendancy in the ancient household. On +such an established fact rests the assumption of a matriarchate, or +period of Mutterrecht. The German scholar Bachofen in his monumental +work "Das Mutterrecht" discussed the traces of female "authority" among +the Lycians, Cretans, Athenians, Lemnians, Lesbians, and Asiatic +peoples. But it is now almost unanimously agreed that the matriarchal +period was not a time when women were in possession of political or +economic power, but was a method of tracing descent and heritage. It is +fairly well established that, in the transition from metronymic to +patronymic forms, authority did not pass from women to men, but from the +brothers and maternal uncles of the women of the group to the husbands +and sons. Such a method of tracing descent, while it doubtless had its +advantages in keeping the woman with her child with her blood kindred, +would not prevent her from occupying a degraded position through the +force of the taboos which we have described.[53] + +With the development of the patriarchal system and the custom of +marriage by capture or purchase, woman came to be regarded as a part of +man's property, and as inviolate as any other of his possessions. Under +these circumstances virginity came to be more and more of an asset, +since no man wished his property to be denied by the touch of another. +Elaborate methods for the preservation of chastity both before and after +marriage were developed, and in many instances went so far as to +consider a woman defiled if she were accidentally touched by any other +man than her husband. Here we have once more the working of sympathetic +magic, where the slightest contact works contamination. + +We have in other connections alluded to the seclusion of young girls in +Korea, among the Hindus, among the North American Indians, and in the +South Seas. One of the most beautiful examples of this custom is found +in New Britain. From puberty until marriage the native girls are +confined in houses with a bundle of dried grass across the entrance to +show that the house is strictly taboo. The interior of these houses is +divided into cells or cages in each of which a girl is confined. No +light and little or no air enters, and the atmosphere is hot and +stifling. + +The seclusion of women after marriage is common among many peoples. In +the form in which it affected western civilization it probably +originated among the Persians or some other people of central Asia, and +spread to the Arabs and Mohammedans. That it did not originate with the +Arabs is attested by students of their culture. It was common among the +Greeks, whose wives were secluded from other men than their husbands. In +modern Korea it is not even proper to ask after the women of the family. +Women have been put to death in that country when strange men have +accidentally touched their hands.[36, p.341] + +The saddest outcome of the idea of woman as property was the status of +widows. In uncivilized society a widow is considered dangerous because +the ghost of her husband is supposed to cling to her. Hence she must be +slain that his spirit may depart in peace with her, as well as with the +weapons and other possessions which are buried with him or burned upon +his funeral pyre. The Marathi proverb to the effect that "the husband is +the life of the woman" thus becomes literally true. + +The best known case of widow slaying is of course the custom of "suttee" +in India. The long struggle made against this custom by the British +government is a vivid illustration of the strength of these ancient +customs. The Laws of Manu indicate that the burning of widows was +practised by primitive Aryans. In the Fiji Islands, where a wife was +strangled on her husband's grave, the strangled women were called "the +carpeting of the grave."[54] In Arabia, as in many other countries, +while a widow may escape death, she is very often forced into the class +of vagabonds and dependents. One of the most telling appeals made by +missionaries is the condition of child widows in countries in which the +unfortunates cannot be killed, but where the almost universal stigma of +shame is attached to second marriages. A remarkable exception to this, +when in ancient Greece the dying husband sometimes bequeathed his widow +to a male friend, emphasized the idea of woman as property. + +Although the taboos which are based on the idea of ownership are +somewhat aside from the main theme of our discussion, they nevertheless +reinforce the other taboos of the seclusion and segregation of woman as +unclean. Moreover, as will be shown in a later chapter, the property +idea has certain implications which are important for the proper +understanding of the status of woman and the attitude toward her at the +present time. + +In the face of the primitive aversion to woman as the source of +contamination through sympathetic magic, or as the seat of some mystic +force, whether of good or evil, it may well be asked how man ever dared +let his sexual longings overcome his fears and risk the dangers of so +intimate a relationship. Only by some religious ceremonial, some act of +purification, could man hope to counteract these properties of woman; +and thus the marriage ritual came into existence. By the marriage +ceremonial, the breach of taboo was expiated, condoned, and socially +countenanced.[1, p.200] This was very evident in the marriage customs of +the Greeks, which were composed of purification rites and other +precautions.[55] The injunctions to the Hebrews given in Leviticus +illustrate the almost universal fact that even under the sanction of +marriage the sexual embrace was taboo at certain times, as for example +before the hunt or battle. + +We are now prepared to admit that throughout the ages there has existed +a strongly dualistic or "ambivalent" feeling in the mind of man toward +woman. On the one hand she is the object of erotic desire; on the other +hand she is the source of evil and danger. So firmly is the latter +feeling fixed that not even the sanction of the marriage ceremony can +completely remove it, as the taboos of intercourse within the marital +relationship show. + +There are certain psychological and physiological reasons for the +persistence of this dualistic attitude in the very nature of the sex act +itself. Until the climax of the sexual erethism, woman is for man the +acme of supreme desire; but with detumescence the emotions tend to +swing to the opposite pole, and excitement and longing are forgotten in +the mood of repugnance and exhaustion. This tendency would be very much +emphasized in those primitive tribes where the _corroboree_ with its +unlimited indulgence was common, and also among the ancients with their +orgiastic festivals. In the revulsion of feeling following these orgies +woman would be blamed for man's own folly. In this physiological swing +from desire to satiety, the apparent cause of man's weakness would be +looked upon as the source of the evil--a thing unclean. There would be +none of the ethical and altruistic element of modern "love" to protect +her. Students agree that these elements in the modern sentiment have +been evolved, "not from the sexual instinct, but from the companionship +of the battlefield."[56] It is therefore probable that in this +physiological result of uncontrolled sex passion we shall find the +source of the dualism of the attitude toward sex and womanhood present +in taboo. + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER I + +1. Crawley, A.E. The Mystic Rose. 492 pp. Macmillan. London, 1902. + +2. Jevons, F.B. History of Religion. 443 pp. Methuen & Co. London, 1896. + +3. Tylor, E.B. Early History of Mankind, 3d. ed. 388 pp. J. Murray. +London, 1878. + +4. Frazer, J.G. The Golden Bough: Part I, The Magic Art and the +Evolution of Kings. 2 vols. Macmillan. London, 1911. + +5. First published in Anthropological Essays presented to E.B. Tylor in +honour of his 75th birthday. Oct. 2, 1907. 416 pp. The Clarendon Press, +Oxford, 1907. + +6. Sumner, W.G. Folkways. 692 pp. Ginn & Co. Boston, 1907. + +7. Boas, Franz. The Mind of Primitive Man. 294 pp. Macmillan. N.Y., +1911. + +8. Wallace, Alfred Russel. Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio +Negro. 541 pp. Reeve & Co., London, 1853. + +9. Williams, Thomas, and Calvert, James. Fiji and the Fijians. 551 pp. +Appleton. N.Y., 1859. + +10. Ploss, Dr Hermann H. Das Weib. 2 vols. Th. Grieben's Verlag. +Leipzig, 1885. + +11. Greiger, Ostiranische Kultur. Erlangen, 1882. Quoted from Folkways +[6], p. 513. + +12. Robertson Smith, W. Religion of the Semites. 508 pp. A. & C. Black. +Edinburgh, 1894. + +13. Thompson, R.C. Semitic Magic. 286 pp. Luzac & Co. London, 1908. + +14. Ellis, A.B. Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast of West Africa. +343 pp. Chapman & Hall. London, 1887. + +15. Powers, Stephen. Tribes of California. Contributions to North +American Ethnology, Third Volume. Washington, 1877. + +16. Morice, Rev. Father A.G. The Canadian Dénés. Annual Archeological +Report, 1905. Toronto, 1906. Quoted from Frazer, Taboo and the Perils of +the Soul. + +17. Dawson, James. Australian Aborigines. 111 pp., with Appendix. George +Robertson. Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide, 1881. Citation from Latin +note to Chap. XII. + +18. Tregear, Edward. The Maoris of New Zealand. Journal of the +Anthropological Institute, v. xix, 1889. + +19. Armit, Capt. W.E. Customs of the Australian Aborigines. Jour. Anthr. +Inst., ix, 1880, p. 459. See also [18]. + +20. Ridley, W. Report on Australian Languages and Traditions. Jour. +Anthr. Inst., ii, 1872. + +21. Roscoe, Rev. John. Manners and Customs of the Baganda. Jour. Anthr, +Inst., xxxii, 1902. + +22. Zend-Avesta. Sacred Books of the East Series. Oxford 1880, 1883. + +23. Leviticus xii. + +24. Ellis, A.B. Ewe-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa. +Chapman & Hall. London, 1890. 331 pp. + +25. Dall, W.H. Alaska and Its Resources. 627 pp. Lee & Shepard. Boston, +1870. + +26. Biddulph, Maj. J. Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh. 164 pp. Gov't. +Printing Office. Calcutta, 1880. + +27. Frazer, J.G. The Golden Bough: Part II, Taboo and the Perils of the +Soul. 446 pp. Macmillan. London, 1911. + +28. Webster, Hutton. Primitive Secret Societies. 227 pp. Macmillan. +N.Y., 1908. + +29. Guppy, H.B. The Solomon Islands and Their Natives. 384 pp. Swan +Sonnenschein & Co. London, 1887. + +30. Melville, H. The Marquesas Islands. 285 pp. John Murray. London, +1846. + +31. Taylor, Rev. Richard. Te Ika A Maui, or New Zealand and Its +Inhabitants. 713 pp. 2d. ed. Macintosh. London, 1870. + +32. Shooter, Rev. Joseph. The Kaffirs of Natal and the Zulu Country. 403 +pp. E. Stanford. London, 1857. + +33. Jones, Rev. Peter. History of the Ojibway Indians. 217 pp. A.W. +Bennett. London, 1861. + +34. Featherman, A. Social History of the Races of Mankind. 5 vols. +Trübner & Co. London, 1881. + +35. Ellis, Rev. Wm. Polynesian Researches. 4 vols. G. Bohn. London, +1853. + +36. Bishop, Mrs Isabella Bird. Korea and Her Neighbours. 480 pp. Fleming +H. Revell Co. N.Y., 1898. + +37. Somerville, Lieut. Boyle T. The New Hebrides. Jour. Anthr. Inst., +xxiii, 1894. + +38. Hall, G. Stanley. Adolescence. 2 vols. Appleton, N.Y., 1904. + +39. Musters, G.C. At Home with the Patagoniana. 340 pp. J. Murray. +London, 1873. + +40. Hearne, Samuel. A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's +Bay to the Northern Ocean. Publications of the Champlain Society, No. 6. +London, 1795. + +41. Low, Hugh. Sarawak. 416 pp. Richard Bentley. London, 1848. + +42. Codrington, Rev. R.H. The Melanesians. 419 pp. Oxford, 1891. + +43. Romilly, Hugh Hastings. The Western Pacific and New Guinea, 2d. ed., +284 pp. John Murray. London, 1887. + +44. Sproat, G.M. Scenes and Studies of Savage Life. 317 pp. Smith, Elder +& Co. London, 1868. + +45. Wissler, Clark. The American Indian. 435 pp. D.C. McMurtrie. N.Y., +1917. + +46. Lawes, W.G. Ethnographical Notes on the Motu, Koitapu, and Koiari +Tribes of New Guinea. Jour. Anthr. Inst., viii, 1879. + +47. Callaway, Rev. Canon Henry. Religious System of the Amazulu. 448 pp. +Trübner & Co. London, 1870. + +48. Crooke, W. Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India. 2 vols. +Archibald Constable & Co. Westminster, 1896. + +49. Crawley, A.E. Sexual Taboo. Journ. Anthr. Inst., xxiv, 1895. + +50. Man, E.H. The Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands. Jour. +Anthr. Inst., xii, 1882. + +51. Crantz, David. History of Greenland. Trans, fr. the German, 2 vols. +Longmans, Green. London, 1820. + +52. Holub, E. Central South African Tribes. Jour. Anthr. Inst., x, 1881. + +53. Morgan, Lewis H. Ancient Society. 560 pp. Henry Holt & Co. N.Y., +1907. (First edition, 1877). + +54. Fison, Rev. Lorimer. Figian Burial Customs, jour. Anthr. Inst., x. +1881. + +55. Rohde, Erwin. Psyche. 711 pp. Freiburg und Leipzig, 1894. + +56. Benecke, E.F.M. Women in Greek Poetry. 256 pp. Swan Sonnenschein & +Co. London, 1896. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +FROM THE DAWN OF HISTORY: WOMAN AS SAINT AND WITCH + + +Taboos of first chapter indicate that in the early ages the fear of +contamination by woman predominated; Later, emphasis fell on her mystic +and uncanny power; Ancient fertility cults; Temple prostitution, +dedication of virgins, etc.; Ancient priestesses and prophetesses; +Medicine early developed by woman added to belief in her power; Woman's +psychic quality of intuition: its origin--theories--conclusion that this +quality is probably physiological in origin, but aggravated by taboo +repressions; Transformation in attitude toward woman in the early +Christian period; Psychological reasons for the persistence in religion +of a Mother Goddess; Development of the Christian concept; Preservation +of ancient women cults as demonology; Early Christian attitude toward +woman as unclean and in league with demons; Culmination of belief in +demonic power of woman in witchcraft persecutions; All women affected by +the belief in witches and in the uncleanness of woman; Gradual +development on the basis of the beliefs outlined of an ideally pure and +immaculate Model Woman. + +From the data of the preceding chapter, it is clear that the early ages +of human life there was a dualistic attitude toward woman. On the one +hand she was regarded as the possessor of the mystic _mana_ force, +while on the other she was the source of "bad magic" and likely to +contaminate man with her weaknesses. Altogether, the study of primitive +taboos would indicate that the latter conception predominated in savage +life, and that until the dawn of history woman was more often regarded +as a thing unclean than as the seat of a divine power. + +At the earliest beginnings of civilization man's emotions seem to have +swung to the opposite extreme, for emphasis fell on the mystic and +uncanny powers possessed by woman. Thus it was that in ancient nations +there was a deification of woman which found expression in the belief in +feminine deities and the establishment of priestess cults. Not until the +dawn of the Christian era was the emphasis once more focussed on woman +as a thing unclean. Then, her mystic power was ascribed to demon +communication, and stripped of her divinity, she became the witch to be +excommunicated and put to death. + +All the ancient world saw something supernatural, something demoniacal, +in generation. Sometimes the act was deified, as in the phallic +ceremonials connected with nature worship, where the procreative +principle in man became identified with the creative energy pervading +all nature, and was used as a magic charm at the time of springtime +planting to insure the fertility of the fields and abundant harvest,[1] +It was also an important part of the ritual in the Phrygian cults, the +cult of the Phoenician Astarte, and the Aphrodite cults. These mystery +religions were widely current in the Græco-Roman world in pre-Christian +times. The cult of Demeter and Dionysius in Greece and Thrace; Cybele +and Attis in Phrygia; Atagartes in Cilicia; Aphrodite and Adonis in +Syria; Ashtart and Eshmun (Adon) in Phoenicia; Ishtar and Tammuz in +Babylonia; Isis, Osiris and Serapis in Egypt, and Mithra in Persia--all +were developed along the same lines.[2] The custom of the sacrifice of +virginity to the gods, and the institution of temple prostitution, also +bear witness to the sacred atmosphere with which the sex act was +surrounded among the early historic peoples.[3] It was this idea of the +mysterious sanctity of sex which did much to raise woman to her position +as divinity and fertility goddess. + +The dedication of virgins to various deities, of which the classic +example is the institution of the Vestal Virgins at Rome, and the fact +that at Thebes and elsewhere even the male deities had their priestesses +as well as priests, are other indications that at this time woman was +regarded as divine or as capable of ministering to divinity. The +prophetic powers of woman were universally recognized. The oracles at +Delphi, Argos, Epirus, Thrace and Arcadia were feminine. Indeed the +Sibylline prophetesses were known throughout the Mediterranean basin.[A] + +[Footnote A: Farnell[4] found such decided traces of feminine divinity +as to incline him to agree with Bachofen that there was at +one time an age of Mutterrecht which had left its impress on +religion as well as on other aspects of social life. As we have +said before, it is now fairly well established that in the transition +from metronymic to patronymic forms, authority did not pass +from women to men but from the brothers and maternal uncles +of the women of the group to husbands and sons. This fact +does not, however, invalidate the significance of Farnell's data +for the support of the view herein advanced, i.e., that woman +was at one time universally considered to partake of the divine.] + +The widespread character of the woman-cult of priestesses and +prophetesses among the peoples from whom our culture is derived is +evidenced in literature and religion. That there had been cults of +ancient mothers who exerted moral influence and punished crime is shown +by the Eumenides and Erinyes of the Greeks. The power of old women as +law-givers survived in Rome in the legend of the Cumæan Sibyl.[5] An +index of the universality of the sibylline cult appears in the list of +races to which Varro and Lactantius say they belonged: Persian, Libyan, +Delphian, Cimmerian, Erythrian, Trojan, and Phrygian.[6] These sibyls +were believed to be inspired, and generations of Greek and Roman +philosophers never doubted their power. Their carmina were a court of +last resort, and their books were guarded by a sacred taboo. + +Among the Greeks and neighbouring nations the women of Thessaly had a +great reputation for their charms and incantations.[7] Among the writers +who speak of a belief in their power are: Plato, Aristophanes, Horace, +Ovid, Virgil, Tibullus, Seneca, Lucan, Menander, and Euripides. + +All of the northern European tribes believed in the foresight of future +events by women. Strabo says of the Cimbri that when they took the field +they were accompanied by venerable, hoary-headed prophetesses, clothed +in long, white robes. Scandinavians, Gauls, Germans, Danes and Britons +obeyed, esteemed and venerated females who dealt in charms and +incantations. These sacred women claimed to foretell the future and to +interpret dreams, and among Germans, Celts and Gauls they were the only +physicians and surgeons. The druidesses cured disease and were believed +to have power superior to that of the priests.[8] The Germans never +undertook any adventure without consulting their prophetesses.[9] The +Scandinavian name for women endowed with the gift of prophecy was +_fanae_, _fanes_. The English form is _fay_. The ceremonies of fays or +fairies, like those of the druidesses, were performed in secluded +woods.[A] + +[Footnote A: Joan of Arc was asked during her trial if she were a fay.] + +Magic and medicine went hand in hand in ancient times, and remained +together down to the middle ages. Old herbals largely compiled from the +lore of ancient women form a link in the chain of tradition, the first +ring of which may have been formed in Egypt or in Greece. There is no +doubt that women from an early date tried to cure disease. Homer makes +mention of Hecamede and her healing potions. There seems little doubt +that there were Greek women who applied themselves to a complete study +of medicine and contributed to the advance of medical science. This +traditional belief in the power of women to cure disease survives in the +folk to-day.[10] + +In view of the widespread veneration of a peculiar psychic quality of +woman, a power of prophecy and a property of divinity which has made her +an object of fear and worship, it may be well to review the modern +explanations of the origin of this unique feminine power. Herbert +Spencer was of the opinion that feminine penetration was an ability to +distinguish quickly the passing feelings of those around and was the +result of long ages of barbarism during which woman as the weaker sex +was obliged to resort to the arts of divination and to cunning to make +up for her lack of physical force and to protect herself and her +offspring.[11] In like vein Käthe Schirmacher, a German feminist, says: +"The celebrated intuition of woman is nothing but an astonishing +refinement of the senses through fear.... Waiting in fear was made the +life task of the sex."[12] + +Lester F. Ward had a somewhat different view.[13] He thought that +woman's psychic power came from the sympathy based on the maternal +instinct, which "though in itself an entirely different faculty, early +blended with or helped to create, the derivative reason-born faculty of +altruism." With Ward's view Olive Schreiner agrees, saying: "We have no +certain proof that it is so at present, but woman's long years of +servitude and physical subjection, and her experience as childbearer and +protector of infancy, may be found in the future to have endowed her ... +with an exceptional width of human sympathy and instinctive +comprehension."[14] + +In all probability Lombroso came nearer to the truth in his explanation +of feminine penetration. "That woman is more subject to hysteria is a +known fact," he says, "but few know how liable she is to hypnotic +phenomena, which easily opens up the unfoldment of spiritual +faculties.... The history of observation proves that hysteria and +hypnotism take the form of magic, sorcery, and divination or prophecy, +among savage peoples. 'Women,' say the Pishawar peoples, 'are all +witches; for several reasons they may not exert their inborn powers.' +... In the Slave Coast hysterical women are believed to be possessed +with spirits. The Fuegians believed that there had been a time when +women wielded the empire through her possession of the secrets of +sorcery."[8, pp.85f.] + +The history of modern spiritualism has so well confirmed this view of +Lombroso's that we are safe in accepting it as the partial explanation +of the attribute of a mysterious and uncanny power which man has always +given to the feminine nature. The power of prophecy and divination which +was possessed by women at the dawn of history and for some time +thereafter was probably not different in its essentials from the +manifestations of hysterical girls who have puzzled the wisest +physicians or the strange phenomena of those spiritualistic mediums who +have been the subject of research well into our own times.[15] + +If we wish to push our inquiry still further and ask why woman should be +so much more subject than man to hysterical seizures and to hypnotic +suggestion, we shall probably find that it is an essential part of her +femininity. Modern psychology and physiology have pointed out that the +menstrual cycle of woman has a vast influence not only on her emotional +nature but on her whole psychic life, so that there are times when she +is more nervously tense, more apt to become hysterical or to yield to +the influence of suggestion. Moreover, because of the emphasis on +chastity and the taboos with which she was surrounded, any neurotic +tendencies which might be inherent in her nature were sure to be +developed to the utmost. + +As Lombroso suggests, hysteria and other neurotic phenomena are classed +as evidence of spirit possession by the untutored mind. Thus it happened +that observing the strange psychic manifestations to which woman was +periodically subject, the ancient peoples endowed her with +spiritualistic forces which were sometimes held to be beneficent and at +other times malefic in character. Whatever the attitude at any time +whether her _mana_ were regarded as evil or benignant, the savage and +primitive felt that it was well to be on his guard in the presence of +power; so that the taboos previously outlined would hold through the +swing of man's mind from one extreme to the other. + +As goddess, priestess and prophetess, woman continued to play her rôle +in human affairs until the Christian period, when a remarkable +transformation took place. The philosophy of dualism that emanated from +Persia had affected all the religions of the Mediterranean Basin and had +worked its way into Christian beliefs by way of Gnosticism, +Manicheanism, and Neo-Platonism. Much of the writing of the church +fathers is concerned with the effort to harmonize conflicting beliefs +or to avoid the current heresies. To one who reads the fathers it +becomes evident to what extent the relation of man to woman figures in +these controversies.[16] + +The Manicheanism which held in essence Persian Mithraism and which had +so profound an influence on the writings of St. Augustine gave body and +soul to two distinct worlds and finally identified woman with the body. +But probably as a result of the teachings of Gnosticism with its +Neo-Platonic philosophy which never entirely rejected feminine +influence, some of this influence survived in the restatement of +religion for the folk. When the restatement was completed and was +spreading throughout Europe in the form which held for the next +millennium, it was found that the early goddesses had been accepted +among the saints, the priestesses and prophetesses were rejected as +witches, while the needs of men later raised the Blessed Virgin to a +place beside her son. + +Modern psychology has given us an explanation of the difficulty of +eradicating the worship of such a goddess as the Great Mother of Asia +Minor from the religion of even martial peoples who fear the +contamination of woman's weakness; or from a religion obsessed with +hatred of woman as unclean by men who made the suppression of bodily +passions the central notion of sanctity. The most persistent human +relationship, the one charged with a constant emotional value, is not +that of sex, which takes manifold forms, but that of the mother and +child. It is to the mother that the child looks for food, love, and +protection. It is to the child that the mother often turns from the +mate, either because of the predominance of mother love over sex or in +consolation for the loss of the love of the male. We have only recently +learned to evaluate the infantile patterns engraved in the neural tissue +during the years of childhood when the mother is the central figure of +the child's life. Whatever disillusionments may come about other women +later in life, the mother ideal thus established remains a constant part +of man's unconscious motivations. It is perhaps possible that this +infantile picture of a being all-wise, all-tender, all-sacrificing, has +within it enough emotional force to create the demand for a +mother-goddess in any religion. + +To arrive at the concept of the Madonna, a far-reaching process of +synthesis and reinterpretation must have been carried out before the +Bible could be brought into harmony with the demands made by a cult of a +mother goddess. Just as the views brought into the church by celibate +ideals spread among heathen people, so the church must have been in its +turn influenced by the heathen way of looking at things.[17] One of the +great difficulties was the reconciliation of the biological process of +procreation with divinity. But there had for ages been among primitive +peoples the belief that impregnation was caused by spirit possession or +by sorcery. This explanation had survived in a but slightly altered form +in the ancient mythologies, all of which contained traditions of heroes +and demi-gods who were born supernaturally of a divine father and a +human mother. In the myths of Buddha, Zoroaster, Pythagoras and Plato, +it was intimated that the father had been a god or spirit, and that the +mother had been, and moreover remained after the birth, an earthly +virgin. These old and precious notions of the supernatural origin of +great men were not willingly renounced by those who accepted the new +religion; nor was it necessary to make such a sacrifice, because men +thought that they could recognize in the Jewish traditions something +corresponding to the heathen legends.[18] + +The proper conditions for the development of a mother cult within +Christianity existed within the church by the end of the second century. +At the Council of Nicæa (325 A.D.) it was settled that the Son was of +the same nature as the Father. The question of the nature of Mary then +came to the fore. The eastern fathers, Athanasius, Ephraim Syrus, +Eusebius and Chrysostom, made frequent use in their writings of the +term Theotokos, Mother of God. When Nestorius attacked those who +worshipped the infant Christ as a god and Mary as the mother of God +rather than as the mother of Christ, a duel began between Cyril of +Alexandria and Nestorius "which in fierceness and importance can only be +compared with that between Arius and Athanasius."[19] + +In 431 A.D. the Universal Church Council at Ephesus assented to the +doctrine that Mary was the Mother of God. Thus Ephesus, home of the +great Diana, from primitive times the centre of the worship of a goddess +who united in herself the virtues of virginity and motherhood, could +boast of being the birthplace of the Madonna cult. And thus Mary, our +Lady of Sorrows, pure and undefiled, "the church's paradox," became the +ideal of man. She was "a woman, virgin and mother, sufficiently high to +be worshipped, yet sufficiently near to be reached by affection. ... If +we judge myths as artistic creations we must recognize that no god or +goddess has given its worshippers such an ideal as the Mary of Christian +art and poetry."[19: p.183] [20: v. ii., pp.220f.] + +Although Christianity thus took over and embodied in its doctrines the +cult of the mother-goddess, at the same time it condemned all the rites +which had accompanied the worship of the fertility goddesses in all the +pagan religions. The power of these rites was still believed in, but +they were supposed to be the work of demons, and we find them strictly +forbidden in the early ecclesiastical laws. The phallic ceremonials +which formed so large a part of heathen ritual became marks of the +devil, and the deities in whose honour they were performed, although +losing none of their power, were regarded as demonic rather than divine +in nature. Diana, goddess of the moon, for example, became identified +with Hecate of evil repute, chief of the witches. "In such a fashion the +religion of Greece, that of Egypt, of Phoenicia and Asia Minor, of +Assyria and of Persia, became mingled and confused in a simple +demonology."[21] + +In addition to the condemnation of Pagan deities and their ritualistic +worship, there was a force inherent in the very nature of Christianity +which worked toward the degradation of the sex life. After the death of +Christ, his followers had divorced their thoughts from all things +earthly and set about fitting themselves for their places in the other +world. The thought of the early Christian sects was obsessed by the idea +of the second coming of the Messiah. The end of the world was incipient, +therefore it behooved each and every one to purge himself from sin. This +emphasis on the spiritual as opposed to the fleshly became fixated +especially on the sex relationship, which came to be the symbol of the +lusts of the body which must be conquered by the high desires of the +soul. Consequently the feelings concerning this relation became +surcharged with all the emotion which modern psychology has taught us +always attaches to the conscious symbol of deeply underlying unconscious +complexes. In such a situation man, who had come to look with horror on +the being who reminded him that he was flesh as well as spirit saw in +her "the Devil's gateway," or "a fireship continually striving to get +along side the male man-of-war to blow him up into pieces."[22][A] + +[Footnote A: Dr Donaldson, translator of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, says: +"I used to believe ... that woman owes her present position to +Christianity ... but in the first three centuries I have not been able +to see that Christianity had any favourable effect on the position of +woman."] + +With the rejection of the idea of the sanctity of sex as embodied in the +phallic rituals of the pagan cults, the psychic power of woman became +once more a thing of fear rather than of worship, and her uncleanness +was emphasized again more than her holiness, even as in primitive times. +The power of woman to tell the course of future events which in other +days had made her revered as priestess and prophetess now made her hated +as a witch who had control of what the Middle Ages knew as the Black +Art.[23] The knowledge of medicine which she had acquired through the +ages was now thought to be utilized in the making of "witch's brew," and +the "ceremonies and charms whereby the influence of the gods might be +obtained to preserve or injure"[21: v.1, p.12] became incantations to the +evil one. In addition to her natural erotic attraction for the male, +woman was now accused of using charms to lure him to his destruction. +The asceticism of the church made it shameful to yield to her +allurements, and as a result woman came to be feared and loathed as the +arch-temptress who would destroy man's attempt to conform to celibate +ideals. This sex antagonism culminated in the witchcraft persecutions +which make so horrible a page of the world's history. + +Among the pagans, witches had shared with prophetesses and priestesses a +degree of reverence and veneration. Medea had taught Jason to tame the +brazen-footed bulls and dragons which guarded the Golden Fleece. Hecate +was skilled in spells and incantations. Horace frequently mentions with +respect Canidia, who was a powerful enchantress. Gauls, Britons and +Germans had obeyed and venerated women who dealt in charms and +incantations. The doctrines of Christianity had changed the veneration +into hatred and detestation without eradicating the belief in the power +of the witch. It was with the hosts of evil that she was now believed to +have her dealings, however. When this notion of the alliance between +demons and women had become a commonplace, "the whole tradition was +directed against woman as the Devil's instrument, basely seductive, +passionate and licentious by nature."[24] Man's fear of woman found a +frantic and absurd expression in her supposed devil-worship. As a +result, the superstitions about witchcraft became for centuries not only +a craze, but a theory held by intelligent people. + +Among the female demons who were especially feared were: Nahemah, the +princess of the Succubi; Lilith, queen of the Stryges; and the Lamiæ or +Vampires, who fed on the living flesh of men. Belief in the Vampires +still persists as a part of the folklore of Europe. Lilith tempted to +debauchery, and was variously known as child-strangler, child-stealer, +and a witch who changed true offspring for fairy or phantom children.[A] +The figure of the child-stealing witch occurs in an extremely ancient +apocryphal book called the Testament of Soloman, and dates probably from +the first or second century of the Christian Era.[25] + + +[Footnote A: The name of Lilith carries us as far back as Babylon, and +in her charms and conjurations we have revived in Europe the reflection +of old Babylonian charms.] + +Laws against the malefici (witches) were passed by Constantine. In the +Theodosian Code (_Lib. 9. Tit. 16. Leg. 3._) they are charged with +making attempts by their wicked arts upon the lives of innocent men, and +drawing others by magical potions (philtra et pharmaca) to commit +misdemeanours. They are further charged with disturbing the elements, +raising tempests, and practising abominable arts. The Council of +Laodicea (343-381. _Can_. 36) condemned them. The Council of Ancyra +forbade the use of medicine to work mischief. St. Basil's canons +condemned witchcraft. The fourth Council of Carthage censured +enchantment.[26] John of Salisbury tells of their feasts, to which they +took unbaptized children. William of Auverne describes the charms and +incantations which they used to turn a cane into a horse. William of +Malmesbury gives an account of two old women who transformed the +travellers who passed their door into horses, swine or other animals +which they sold. From some of the old Teuton laws we learn that it was +believed that witches could take a man's heart out of his body and fill +the cavity with straw or wood so that he would go on living. + +One of the famous witchcraft trials was that of the Lady Alice +Kyteler,[27] whose high rank could not save her from the accusation. It +was claimed that she used the ceremonies of the church, but with some +wicked changes. She extinguished the candles with the exclamation, "Fi! +Fi! Fi! Amen!" She was also accused of securing the love of her +husbands, who left much property to her, by magic charms. These claims +were typical of the accusations against witches in the trials which took +place. + +By the sixteenth century, the cumulative notion of witches had +penetrated both cultivated and uncultivated classes, and was embodied in +a great and increasing literature. "No comprehensive work on theology, +philosophy, history, law, medicine, or natural science could wholly +ignore it," says Burr, "and to lighter literature it afforded the most +telling illustrations for the pulpit, the most absorbing gossip for the +news-letter, the most edifying tales for the fireside."[28] + +As a result of this belief in the diabolic power of woman, judicial +murder of helpless women became an institution, which is thus +characterized by Sumner: "After the refined torture of the body and +nameless mental sufferings, women were executed in the most cruel +manner. These facts are so monstrous that all other aberrations of the +human race are small in comparison.... He who studies the witch trials +believes himself transferred into the midst of a race which has +smothered all its own nobler instincts, reason, justice, benevolence and +sympathy."[24] + +Any woman was suspect. Michelet, after a thirty years' study, wrote: +"Witches they are by nature. It is a gift peculiar to woman and her +temperament. By birth a fay, by the regular recurrence of her ecstasy +she becomes a sibyl. By her love she grows into an enchantress. By her +subtlety ... she becomes a witch and works her spells."[29] + +Just how many victims there were of the belief in the power of women as +witches will never be known. Scherr thinks that the persecutions cost +100,000 lives in Germany alone.[30] Lord Avebury quotes the estimate of +the inquisitor Sprenger, joint author of the "Witch Hammer," that during +the Christian period some 9,000,000 persons, mostly women, were burned +as witches.[31] Seven thousand victims are said to have been burned at +Treves, 600 by a single bishop of Bamburg, 800 in a single year in the +bishopric of Wurtzburg. At Toulouse 400 persons perished at a single +burning.[29: ch.1] [20: v.1. ch.1] One witch judge boasted that he +executed 900 witches in fifteen years. The last mass burning in Germany +was said to have taken place in 1678, when 97 persons were burned +together. The earliest recorded burning of a witch in England is in +Walter Mapes' _De Nugis Curialium_, in the reign of Henry II. An old +black letter tract gloats over the execution at Northampton, 1612, of a +number of persons convicted of witchcraft.[32] The last judicial +sentence was in 1736, when one Jane Wenham was found guilty of +conversing familiarly with the devil in the form of a cat.[33] + +The connection between the witchcraft delusion and the attitude toward +all women has already been implied.[34] The dualistic teaching of the +early church fathers, with its severance of matter and spirit and its +insistence on the ascetic ideal of life, had focussed on sexuality as +the outstanding manifestation of fleshly desires. The contact of the +sexes came to be looked upon as the supreme sin. Celibacy taught that +through the observance of the taboo on woman the man of God was to be +saved from pollution. Woman was the arch temptress who by the natural +forces of sex attraction, reinforced by her evil charms and +incantations, made it so difficult to attain the celibate ideal. From +her ancestress Eve woman was believed to inherit the natural propensity +to lure man to his undoing. Thus the old belief in the uncleanness of +woman was renewed in the minds of men with even greater intensity than +ever before, and in addition to a dangerous adventure, even within the +sanction of wedlock the sex act became a deed of shame. The following +quotations from the church fathers will illustrate this view: + +Jerome said, "Marriage is always a vice; all we can do is to excuse and +cleanse it. ... In Paradise Eve was a virgin. Virginity is natural +while wedlock only follows guilt."[35] + +Tertullian addressed women in these words: "Do you not know that you are +each an Eve? The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age. +... You are the devil's gateway. ... You destroy God's image, +Man."[35: Bk.1.] + +Thus woman became degraded beyond all previous thought in the teaching +of the early church. The child was looked upon as the result of an act +of sin, and came into the world tainted through its mother with sin. At +best marriage was a vice. All the church could do was to cleanse it as +much as possible by sacred rites, an attempt which harked back to the +origin of marriage as the ceremonial breaking of taboo. Peter Lombard's +Sentences affirmed marriage a sacrament. This was reaffirmed at Florence +in 1439. In 1565, the Council of Trent made the final declaration. But +not even this could wholly purify woman, and intercourse with her was +still regarded as a necessary evil, a concession that had to be +unwillingly made to the lusts of the flesh. + +Such accounts as we have of the lives of holy women indicate that they +shared in the beliefs of their times. In the account of the life of a +saint known as the Blessed Eugenia preserved in an old palimpsest[36] we +read that she adopted the costume of a monk,--"Being a woman by nature +in order that I might gain everlasting life." The same account tells of +another holy woman who passed as a eunuch, because she had been warned +that it was easier for the devil to tempt a woman. In another collection +of lives of saints is the story[37] of a holy woman who never allowed +herself to see the face of a man, even that of her own brother, lest +through her he might go in among women. Another holy virgin shut herself +up in a tomb because she did not wish to cause the spiritual downfall of +a young man who loved her. + +This long period of religious hatred of and contempt for woman included +the Crusades, the Age of Chivalry,[38] and lasted well into the +Renaissance.[39] Students of the first thousand years of the Christian +era like Donaldson,[22] McCabe,[40] and Benecke argue that the social +and intellectual position of women was probably lower than at any time +since the creation of the world. It was while the position of woman as +wife and mother was thus descending into the slough which has been +termed the Dark Age of Woman that the Apotheosis of the Blessed Virgin +was accomplished. The attitude toward human love, generation, the +relation of the earthly mother to the human child because of Eve's sin, +all made the Immaculate Conception a logical necessity. The doctrine of +the virgin birth disposed of sin through the paternal line. But if Mary +was conceived in sin or was not purified from sin, even that of the +first parent, how could she conceive in her body him who was without +sin? The controversy over the Immaculate Conception which began as early +as the seventh century lasted until Pius IX declared it to be an article +of Catholic belief in 1854. Thus not only Christ, but also his mother +became purged of the sin of conception by natural biological processes, +and the same immaculacy and freedom from contamination was accorded to +both. In this way the final step in the differentiation between earthly +motherhood and divine motherhood was completed. + +The worship of the virgin by men and women who looked upon the celibate +life as the perfect life, and upon the relationship of earthly +fatherhood and motherhood as contaminating, gave the world an ideal of +woman as "superhuman, immaculate, bowing in frightened awe before the +angel with the lily, standing mute and with downcast eyes before her +Divine Son."[41] With all its admitted beauty, this ideal represented +not the institution of the family, but the institution of the church. +Chivalry carried over from the church to the castle this concept of +womanhood and set it to the shaping of The Lady,[42] who was finally +given a rank in the ideals of knighthood only a little below that to +which Mary had been elevated by the ecclesiastical authorities. This +concept of the lady was the result of the necessity for a new social +standardization which must combine beauty, purity, meekness and angelic +goodness. Only by such a combination could religion and family life be +finally reconciled. By such a combination, earthly motherhood could be +made to approximate the divine motherhood. + +With the decline of the influence of chivalry, probably as the result of +industrial changes, The Lady was replaced by a feminine ideal which may +well be termed the "Model Woman." Although less ethereal than her +predecessor, The Lady, the Model Woman is quite as much an attempt to +reconcile the dualistic attitude, with its Divine Mother cult on the one +hand, and its belief in the essential evil of the procreative process +and the uncleanness of woman on the other, to human needs. The +characteristics of the Model Woman must approximate those of the Holy +Virgin as closely as possible. Her chastity before marriage is +imperative. Her calling must be the high art of motherhood. She must be +the incarnation of the maternal spirit of womanhood, but her purity must +remain unsullied by any trace of erotic passion. + +A voluminous literature which stated the virtues and duties of the +Model Woman blossomed out in the latter part of the eighteenth and first +half of the nineteenth century.[43] The Puritan ideals also embodied +this concept. It was by this attempt to make woman conform to a +standardized ideal that man sought to solve the conflict between his +natural human instincts and desires and the early Christian teaching +concerning the sex life and womanhood. + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER II + +1. Frazer, J.G. The Golden Bough. A Study in Magic and Religion. Part I. +The Magic Art. 2 vols. Macmillan. London, 1911. Part V. Spirits of the +Corn and of the Wild. 2 vols. London, 1912. + +2. Farnell, L.R. Evolution of Religion. 235 pp. Williams and Norgate. +London, 1905. Crown Theological Library, Vol 12. + +3. Frazer, J.G. Part IV. of The Golden Bough; Adonis, Attis, and Osiris. +Chaps. III and IV. Macmillan. London, 1907. + +---- Sumner, W.G. Folkways. 692 pp. Ginn & Co. Boston, 1907. Chap. XVI, +Sacral Harlotry. + +---- Lombroso, Cesare, and Lombroso-Ferrero, G. La donna delinquente. 508 +pp. Fratelli Bocca. Milano, 1915. + +4. Farnell, L.R. Sociological Hypotheses Concerning the Position of +Woman in Ancient Religion. Archiv für Religionswissenschaft. Siebenter +Band, 1904. + +5. Fowler, W. Warde. The Religious Experiences of the Roman People. 504 +pp. Macmillan. London, 1911. + +6. For a description of these sibyls with a list of the works in which +they are mentioned, see: + +---- Fullom, Steven Watson. The History of Woman. Third Ed. London, 1855. + +---- Rohmer, Sax. (Ward, A.S.) The Romance of Sorcery. 320 pp. E.P. +Dutton & Co., New York, 1914. + +7. Maury, L.F. La Magie et L'Astrologie dans l'Antiquité et au Moyen +Age. Quatrieme éd. 484 pp. Paris, 1877. + +8. Lombroso, Cesare. Priests and Women's Clothes. North American Review. +Vol. 192, 1910. + +9. For an extensive compilation of facts from ancient literature and +history concerning sacred women, see: + +---- Alexander, W. History of Women from the Earliest Antiquity to the +Present Time. 2 vols. W. Strahan. London, 1779. + +10. Mason, Otis T. Woman's Share in Primitive Culture. 295 pp. Appleton. +New York, 1894. + +---- Dyer, T.F.S. Plants in Witchcraft. Popular Science Monthly. Vol. 34, +1889, pp. 826-833. + +---- Donaldson, Rev. James. Woman, Her Position and Influence in Ancient +Greece and Rome. 278 pp. Longmans, Green. London, 1907. + +11. Spencer, Herbert. Study of Sociology. 431 pp. Appleton. N.Y., 1880. + +12. Schirmacher, Käthe. Das Rätsel: Weib. 160 pp. A Duncker. Weimar, +1911. + +13. Ward, Lester F. Psychic Factors in Civilization. 369 pp. Ginn & Co., +Boston and New York, 1906. Chap. XXVI. + +---- Pure Sociology. 607 pp. Macmillan. N.Y., 1903. + +14. Schreiner, Olive. Woman and Labour. 299 pp. Frederick A. Stokes Co. +N.Y., 1911. + +15. Hall, G. Stanley. Adolescence. 2 vols. Appleton. N.Y., 1904. + +---- Dupouy, Edmund. Psychologie morbide. Librairie des Sciences +Psychiques, 1907. + +16. The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Translation by the Rev. Alexander Roberts +and James Donaldson, LL.D., and others. American Reprint of the +Edinburgh Edition. Buffalo, 1889. + +17. Hatch, Edwin. Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian +Church. Ed. by A.M. Fairbairn. 4th ed. London, 1892. Hibbert Lectures, +1888. + +18. Gilbert, George Holley. The Greek Strain in Our Oldest Gospels. +North American Review. Vol. 192, 1910. + +19. Hirn, Yrjo. The Sacred Shrine. 574 pp. Macmillan. London, 1912. + +20. Lecky, W.E.H. Rationalism in Europe. 2 vols. Appleton. N.Y. and +London, 1910. Vol. II, pp. 220 f. + +21. Wright, Thomas. Narratives of Sorcery and Magic. 2 vols. R. Bentley. +London, 1851. + +22. Donaldson, Rev. James. The Position of Woman Among the Early +Christians. Contemporary Review. Vol. 56, 1889. + +23. Bingham, Joseph. Antiquities of the Christian Church. 2 vols. +London, 1846. + +24. Sumner, W.G. Witchcraft. Forum. Vol. 41, 1909, pp. 410-423. + +25. Gaster, M. Two Thousand Years of a Charm Against the Child-stealing +Witch. Folklore. Vol. XI, No. 2, June, 1900. + +26. For discussion of the dates of the Church Councils see Rev. Charles +J. Hefele, Councils of the Church. Trans, fr. the German by C.W. Bush, +1883. + +27. Alice Kyteler. A contemporary narrative of the Proceedings against +Dame Alice Kyteler, prosecuted for sorcery by Richard de Ledrede, Bishop +of Ossory, 1324. Edited by Thomas Wright. London, 1843. + +28. Burr, George L. The Literature of Witchcraft. Papers of the American +Historical Association. Vol IV, pp. 37-66. G.P. Putnam's Sons. N.Y., +1890. + +29. Michelet, J. La Sorcière. 488 pp. Paris, 1878. Trans. of +Introduction by L.J. Trotter. + +30. Scherr, Johannes. Deutsche Frauenwelt. Band II. + +31. Avebury, Right Hon. Lord (Sir John Lubbock). Marriage, Totemism and +Religion. 243 pp. Longmans, Green. London, 1911. Footnote, p. 127. + +32. Wood, Wm. Witchcraft. Cornhill Magazine. Vol. V, 1898. + +---- Lea, H.C. Superstition and Force. 407 pp. Philadelphia, 1866. + +33. Bragge, F. Jane Wenham. 36 pp. E. Curll. London 1712. + +34. Paulus, Nikolaus. Die Rolle der Frau in der Geschichte des +Hexenwahns. Historisches Jahrbuch. XXIX Band. München. Jahrgang 1918. + +35. Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian +Church. 2d. series. Vol. 6, Letter xxii, Ad Eustachium. + +36. Studia Sinaitica No. IX. Select Narratives of Holy Women from the +Syro-Antiochene or Sinai Palimpsest as written above the old Syriac +Gospels by John the Stylite, of Beth-Mari Ianun in A.D. 778. Edited by +Agnes Smith Lewis, M.R.A.S. London, 1900. + +37. Lady Meux Mss. No. VI. British Museum. The Book of Paradise, being +the Histories and Sayings of the Monks and Ascetics of the Egyptian +Desert by Palladius, Hieronymus and others. English Trans. by E.A. +Wallis Budge. (From the Syriac.) Vol. I. + +38. Gautier, Emile Théodore Léon. La Chevalerie. 850 pp. C. Delagrave. +Paris, 1890. + +39. Maulde la Clavière, R. de. The Women of the Renaissance. Trans. by +G.H. Ely. 510 pp. Swan Sonnenschein, 1900. + +40. McCabe, Joseph. Woman in Political Evolution. Watts & Co. London, +1909. + +41. Barnes, Earl. Woman in Modern Society. 257 pp. B.W. Huebsch. N.Y., +1913. + +42. Putnam, Emily James. The Lady. 323 pp. Sturgis & Walton Co. N.Y., +1910. + +43. Excellent examples of this literature are Kenrick's "The Whole Duty +of a Woman, or A Guide to the Female Sex," published some time in the +eighteenth century (a copy in the Galatea Collection, Boston Public +Library); and Duties of Young Women, by E.H. Chapin. 218 pp. G.W. +Briggs. Boston, 1848. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE DUALISM IN MODERN LIFE: THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO + +The taboo and modern institutions; Survival of ideas of the uncleanness +of woman; Taboo and the family; The "good" woman; The "bad" woman; +Increase in the number of women who do not fit into the ancient +classifications. + + +With the gradual accumulation of scientific knowledge and increasing +tendency of mankind toward a rationalistic view of most things, it might +be expected that the ancient attitude toward sex and womanhood would +have been replaced by a saner feeling. To some extent this has indeed +been the case. It is surprising, however, to note the traces which the +old taboos and superstitions have left upon our twentieth century social +life. Men and women are becoming conscious that they live in a world +formed out of the worlds that have passed away. The underlying principle +of this social phenomenon has been called the principle of "the +persistence of institutions."[1] Institutionalized habits, mosaics of +reactions to forgotten situations, fall like shadows on the life of +to-day. Memories of the woman shunned, of the remote woman goddess, and +of the witch, transmit the ancient forms by which woman has been +expected to shape her life. + +It may seem a far cry from the savage taboo to the institutional life of +the present; but the patterns of our social life, like the infantile +patterns on which adult life shapes itself, go back to an immemorial +past. Back in the early life of the peoples from which we spring is the +taboo, and in our own life there are customs so analogous to many of +these ancient prohibitions that they must be accounted survivals of old +social habits just as the vestigial structures within our bodies are the +remnants of our biological past. + +The modern preaching concerning woman's sphere, for example, is an +obvious descendant of the old taboos which enforced the division of +labour between the sexes. Just as it formerly was death for a woman to +approach her husband's weapons, so it has for a long time been +considered a disgrace for her to attempt to compete with man in his line +of work. Only under the pressure of modern industrialism and economic +necessity has this ancient taboo been broken down, and even now there is +some reluctance to recognize its passing. The exigencies of the world +war have probably done more than any other one thing to accelerate the +disappearance of this taboo on woman from the society of to-day. + +A modern institution reminiscent of the men's house of the savage races, +where no woman might intrude, is the men's club. This institution, as Mr +Webster has pointed out,[2] is a potent force for sexual solidarity and +consciousness of kind. The separate living and lack of club activity of +women has had much to do with a delay in the development of a sex +consciousness and loyalty. The development of women's organizations +along the lines of the men's clubs has been a powerful factor in +enabling them to overcome the force of the taboos which have lingered on +in social life. Only through united resistance could woman ever hope to +break down the barriers with which she was shut off from the fullness of +life. + +Perhaps the property taboo has been as persistent as any other of the +restrictions which have continued to surround woman through the ages. +Before marriage, the girl who is "well brought up" is still carefully +protected from contact with any male. The modern system of chaperonage +is the substitute for the old seclusion and isolation of the pubescent +girl. Even science was influenced by the old sympathetic magic view that +woman could be contaminated by the touch of any other man than her +husband, for the principle of telegony, that the father of one child +could pass on his characteristics to offspring by other fathers, +lingered in biological teaching until the very recent discoveries of the +physical basis of heredity in the chromosomes. Law-making was also +influenced by the idea of woman as property. For a long time there was a +hesitancy to prohibit wife-beating on account of the feeling that the +wife was the husband's possession, to be dealt with as he desired. The +laws of coverture also perpetuated the old property taboos, and gave to +the husband the right to dispose of his wife's property. + +The general attitude towards such sexual crises as menstruation and +pregnancy is still strongly reminiscent of the primitive belief that +woman is unclean at those times. Mothers still hesitate to enlighten +their daughters concerning these natural biological functions, and as a +result girls are unconsciously imbued with a feeling of shame concerning +them. Modern psychology has given many instances of the rebellion of +girls at the inception of menstruation, for which they have been ill +prepared. There is little doubt that this attitude has wrought untold +harm in the case of nervous and delicately balanced temperaments, and +has even been one of the predisposing factors of neurosis.[3] + +The old seclusion and avoidance of the pregnant woman still persists. +The embarrassment of any public appearance when pregnancy is evident, +the jokes and secrecy which surround this event, show how far we are +from rationalizing this function. + +Even medical men show the influence of old superstitions when they +refuse to alleviate the pains of childbirth on the grounds that they are +good for the mother. Authorities say that instruction in obstetrics is +sadly neglected. A recent United States report tells us that preventable +diseases of childbirth and pregnancy cause more deaths among women than +any other disease except tuberculosis.[4] + +The belief in the possession by woman of an uncanny psychic power which +made her the priestess and witch of other days, has crystallized into +the modern concept of womanly intuition. In our times, women "get +hunches," have "feelings in their bones," etc., about people, or about +things which are going to happen. They are often asked to decide on +business ventures or to pass opinions on persons whom they do not know. +There are shrewd business men who never enter into a serious negotiation +without getting their wives' intuitive opinion of the men with whom they +are dealing. The psychology of behaviour would explain these rapid fire +judgments of women as having basis in observation of unconscious +movements, while another psychological explanation would emphasize +sensitiveness to suggestion as a factor in the process. Yet in spite of +these rational explanations of woman's swift conclusions on matters of +importance, she is still accredited with a mysterious faculty of +intuition. + +A curious instance of the peculiar forms in which old taboos linger on +in modern life is the taboos on certain words and on discussion of +certain subjects. The ascetic idea of the uncleanness of the sex +relation is especially noticeable. A study of 150 girls made by the +writer in 1916-17 showed a taboo on thought and discussion among +well-bred girls of the following subjects, which they characterize as +"indelicate," "polluting," and "things completely outside the knowledge +of a lady." + +1. Things contrary to custom, often called "wicked" and "immoral." + +2. Things "disgusting," such as bodily functions, normal as well as +pathological, and all the implications of uncleanliness. + +3. Things uncanny, that "make your flesh creep," and things suspicious. + +4. Many forms of animal life which it is a commonplace that girls will +fear or which are considered unclean. + +5. Sex differences. + +6. Age differences. + +7. All matters relating to the double standard of morality. + +8. All matters connected with marriage, pregnancy, and childbirth. + +9. Allusions to any part of the body except head and hands. + +10. Politics. + +11. Religion. + +It will be noted that most of these taboo objects are obviously those +which the concept of the Model Woman has ruled out of the life of the +feminine half of the world. + +As might well be expected, it is in the marriage ceremony and the +customs of the family institution that the most direct continuation of +taboo may be found. The early ceremonials connected with marriage, as Mr +Crawley has shown, counteracted to some extent man's ancient fear of +woman as the embodiment of a weakness which would emasculate him. +Marriage acted as a bridge, by which the breach of taboo was expiated, +condoned, and socially countenanced. Modern convention in many forms +perpetuates this concept. Marriage, a conventionalized breach of taboo, +is the beginning of a new family. In all its forms, social, religious, +or legal, it is an accepted exception to the social injunctions which +keep men and women apart under other circumstances. + +The new family as a part of the social order comes into existence +through the social recognition of a relationship which is considered +especially dangerous and can only be recognized by the performance of +elaborate rites and ceremonies. It is taboo for men and women to have +contact with each other. Contact may occur only under ceremonial +conditions, guarded in turn by taboo, and therefore socially recognized. +The girl whose life from puberty on has been carefully guarded by +taboos, passes through the gateway of ceremonial into a new life, which +is quite as carefully guarded. These restrictions and elaborate rituals +which surround marriage and family life may appropriately be termed +institutional taboos. They include the property and division of labour +taboos in the survival forms already mentioned, as well as other +religious and social restrictions and prohibitions. + +The foundations of family life go far back of the changes of recent +centuries. The family has its source in the mating instinct, but this +instinct is combined with other individual instincts and social +relationships which become highly elaborated in the course of social +evolution. The household becomes a complex economic institution. While +the processes of change may have touched the surface of these relations, +the family itself has remained to the present an institution established +through the social sanctions of communities more primitive than our +own. The new family begins with the ceremonial breach of taboo,--the +taboo which enjoins the shunning of woman as a being both sacred and +unclean. Once married, the woman falls under the property taboo, and is +as restricted as ever she was before marriage, although perhaps in +slightly different ways. In ancient Rome, the wife was not mistress of +the hearth. She did not represent the ancestral gods, the lares and +penates, since she was not descended from them. In death as in life she +counted only as a part of her husband. Greek, Roman and Hindu law, all +derived from ancestor worship, agreed in considering the wife a +minor.[5] + +These practices are of the greatest significance in a consideration of +the modern institutional taboos which surround the family. Students +agree that our own mores are in large part derived from those of the +lowest class of freedmen in Rome at the time when Christianity took over +the control which had fallen from the hands of the Roman emperors. These +mores were inherited by the Bourgeoisie of the Middle Ages, and were +passed on by them as they acquired economic supremacy. Thus these +practices have come down to us unchanged in spirit even if somewhat +modified in form, to fit the changed environment of our times. + +The standardization of the family with its foundations embedded in a +series of institutional taboos, added its weight to the formulation of +the Model Woman type referred to at the close of the preceding chapter. +The model wife appears in the earliest literature. In _The Trojan +Women_, Hecuba tells how she behaved in wedlock. She stayed at home and +did not gossip. She was modest and silent before her husband. The +patient Penelope was another ideal wife. To her, her son Telemachus +says: + +"Your widowed hours apart, with female toil, And various labours of the +loom, beguile, There rule, from palace cares remote and free, That care +to man belongs, and most to me." + +The wifely type of the Hebrews is set forth in Proverbs xxxi, 10-31. Her +virtues consisted in rising while it was yet night, and not eating the +bread of idleness. In her relation to her husband, she must never +surprise him by unusual conduct, and must see that he was well fed. + +The Romans, Hindus, and Mohammedans demanded similar virtues in their +wives and mothers. The wives of the medieval period were to remain +little girls, most admired for their passive obedience. Gautier puts +into the mouth of a dutiful wife of the Age of Chivalry the following +soliloquy: + +"I will love no one but my husband. Even if he loves me no longer, I +will love him always. I will be humble and as a servitor. I will call +him my sire, or my baron, or domine..."[6] + +The modern feminine ideal combines the traits demanded by the worship of +the madonna and the virtues imposed by the institutional taboos which +surround the family. She is the virgin pure and undefiled before +marriage. She is the protecting mother and the obedient, faithful wife +afterward. In spite of various disrupting influences which are tending +to break down this concept, and which will presently be discussed, this +is still the ideal which governs the life of womankind. The average +mother educates her daughter to conform to this ideal woman type which +is the synthesized product of ages of taboo and religious mysticism. +Home training and social pressure unite to force woman into the mould +wrought out in the ages when she has been the object of superstitious +fear to man and also a part of his property to utilize as he willed. +Being thus the product of wholly irrational forces, it is little wonder +that only in recent years has she had any opportunity to show what she +in her inmost soul desired, and what capabilities were latent within her +personality. + +In sharp contrast to the woman who conforms to the standards thus +created for her, is the prostitute, who is the product of forces as +ancient as those which have shaped the family institution. In the +struggle between man's instinctive needs and his mystical ideal of +womanhood, there has come about a division of women into two +classes--the good and the bad. It is a demarcation as sharp as that +involved in the primitive taboos which set women apart as sacred or +unclean. In building up the Madonna concept and requiring the women of +his family to approximate this mother-goddess ideal, man made them into +beings too spiritual to satisfy his earthly needs. The wife and mother +must be pure, as he conceived purity, else she could not be respected. +The religious forces which had set up the worship of maternity had +condemned the sex relationship and caused a dissociation of two elements +of human nature which normally are in complete and intimate harmony. One +result of this divorce of two biologically concomitant functions was the +institution of prostitution. + +Prostitution is designed to furnish and regulate a supply of women +outside the mores of the family whose sex shall be for sale, not for +purposes of procreation but for purposes of indulgence. In the ancient +world, temple prostitution was common, the proceeds going to the god or +goddess; but the sense of pollution in the sex relation which came to be +so potent an element in the control of family life drove the prostitute +from the sanctuary to the stews and the brothel, where she lives to-day. +She has become the woman shunned, while the wife and mother who is the +centre of the family with its institutional taboos is the sacred woman, +loved and revered by men who condemn the prostitute for the very act for +which they seek her company. Such is the irrational situation which has +come to us as a heritage from the past. + +Among the chief causes which have impelled women into prostitution +rather than into family life are the following: (1) Slavery; (2) +poverty; (3) inclination. These causes have been expanded and re-grouped +by specialists, but the only addition which the writer sees as necessary +in consequence of the study of taboo is the fact that the way of the +woman transgressor is peculiarly hard because of the sex taboo, the +ignorance and narrowness of good women, and the economic limitations of +all women. Ignorance of the results of entrance into a life which +usually means abandonment of hope may be a contributing cause. Boredom +with the narrowness of family life and desire for adventure are also +influences. + +That sex desire leads directly to the life of the prostitute is +unlikely. The strongly sexed class comes into prostitution by the war of +irregular relationships with men to whom they have been attached, and +who have abandoned them or sold them out. Many authorities agree on the +frigidity of the prostitute. It is her protection from physical and +emotional exhaustion. This becomes evident when it is learned that these +women will receive thirty men a day, sometimes more. A certain original +lack of sensitiveness may be assumed, especially since the +investigations of prostitutes have shown a large proportion, perhaps +one-third, who are mentally inferior. It is an interesting fact that +those who are sensitive to their social isolation defend themselves by +dwelling on their social necessity. Either intuitively or by a trade +tradition, the prostitute feels that "she remains, while creeds and +civilizations rise and fall, blasted for the sins of the people." A +beautiful young prostitute who had been expelled from a high grade house +after the exposures of the Lexow Investigation, once said to the writer: +"It would never do for good women to know what beasts men are. We girls +have got to pay." + +The lady, dwelling on her pedestal of isolation, from which she commands +the veneration of the chivalrous gentleman and the adoration of the +poet, is the product of a leisure assured by property. At the end of the +social scale is the girl who wants to be a lady, who doesn't want to +work, and who, like the lady, has nothing to sell but herself. The life +of the prostitute is the nearest approach for the poor girl to the life +of a lady with its leisure, its fine clothes, and its excitement. So +long as we have a sex ethics into which are incorporated the taboo +concepts, the lady cannot exist without the prostitute. The restrictions +which surround the lady guard her from the passions of men. The +prostitute has been developed to satisfy masculine needs which it is not +permitted the lady to know exist. + +But in addition to the married woman who has fulfilled the destiny for +which she has been prepared and the prostitute who is regarded as a +social leper, there is a large and increasing number of unmarried women +who fall into neither of these classes. For a long time these +unfortunates were forced to take refuge in the homes of their luckier +sisters who had fulfilled their mission in life by marrying, or to adopt +the life of the religieuse. Economic changes have brought an alteration +in their status, however, and the work of the unattached woman is +bringing her a respect in the modern industrial world that the "old +maid" of the past could never hope to receive. + +Although at first often looked upon askance, the working woman by the +sheer force of her labours has finally won for herself a recognized +place in society. This was the first influence that worked against the +old taboos, and made possible the tentative gropings toward a new +standardization of women. The sheer weight of the number of unattached +women in present day life has made such a move a necessity. In England, +at the outbreak of the war, there were 1,200,000 more women than men. It +is estimated that at the end of the war at least 25% of English women +are doomed to celibacy and childlessness. In Germany, the industrial +census of 1907 showed that only 9-1/2 millions of women were married, or +about one-half the total number over eighteen years of age. In the +United States, married women constitute less than 60% of the women +fifteen years of age and over. + +The impossibility of a social system based on the old sex taboos under +the new conditions is obvious. There must be a revaluation of woman on +the basis of her mental and economic capacity instead of on the manner +in which she fits into a system of institutional taboos. But the old +concepts are still with us, and have shaped the early lives of working +women as well as the lives of those who have fitted into the old +grooves. Tenacious survivals surround them both, and are responsible for +many of the difficulties of mental and moral adjustment which make the +woman question a puzzle to both conservative and radical thinkers on the +subject. + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER III + +1. Davis, Michael M. Psychological Interpretations of Society. 260 pp. +Columbia University. Longmans. Green & Co. N.Y., 1909. + +2. Webster, Hutton. Primitive Secret Societies. 227 pp. Macmillan. N.Y., +1908. + +3. Blanchard, Phyllis. The Adolescent Girl. 243 pp. Kegan Paul & Co., +London, 1921. + +---- Peters, Iva L. A Questionnaire Study of Some of the Effects of +Social Restrictions on the American Girl. Pedagogical Seminary, +December, 1916, Vol. XXIII, pp. 550-569. + +4. Report of the U.S. Children's Bureau, 1917. + +5. Fowler, W. Warde. The Religious Experience of the Roman People. 504 +pp. Macmillan. London, 1911. + +---- Fustel de Coulanges, Numa Denis. The Ancient City. Trans. from the +latest French edition by Willard Small. 10th ed. Lee and Shepard. +Boston, 1901. 529 pp. + +6. Gautier, Emile Théodore Léon. La Chevalerie. 850 pp. C. Delagrave. +Paris, 1890. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +DYSGENIC INFLUENCES OF THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO + + +Taboo survivals act dysgenically within the family under present +conditions; Conventional education of girls a dysgenic influence; +Prostitution and the family; Influence of ancient standards of "good" +and "bad." The illegitimate child; Effect of fear, anger, etc., on +posterity; The attitude of economically independent women toward +marriage. + +It is evident that in the working of old taboos as they have been +preserved in our social institutions there are certain dysgenic +influences which may well be briefly enumerated. For surely the test of +the family institution is the way in which it fosters the production and +development of the coming generation. The studies made by the Galton +Laboratory in England and by the Children's Bureau in Washington combine +with our modern knowledge of heredity to show that it is possible to cut +down the potential heritage of children by bad matrimonial choices. If +we are to reach a solution of these population problems, we must learn +to approach the problem of the sex relation without that sense of +uncleanness which has led so many generations to regard marriage as +giving respectability to an otherwise wicked inclination. The task of +devising a sane approach is only just begun. But the menace of +prostitution and of the social diseases has become so great that society +is compelled from an instinct of sheer self-preservation to drag into +the open some of the iniquities which have hitherto existed under cover. + +In the first place, the education of girls, which has been almost +entirely determined by the standardized concepts of the ideal woman, has +left them totally unprepared for wifehood and motherhood, the very +calling which those ideals demand that they shall follow. The whole +education of the girl aims at the concealment of the physiological +nature of men and women. She enters marriage unprepared for the +realities of conjugal life, and hence incapable of understanding either +herself or her husband. When pregnancy comes to such a wife, the old +seclusion taboos fall upon her like a categorical imperative. She is +overwhelmed with embarrassment at a normal and natural biological +process which can hardly be classified as "romantic." Such an attitude +is neither conducive to the eugenic choice of a male nor to the proper +care of the child either before or after its birth. + +A second dysgenic influence which results from the taboo system of +sexual ethics is the institution of prostitution, the great agency for +the spread of venereal disease through the homes of the community, and +which takes such heavy toll from the next generation in lowered vitality +and defective organization. + +The 1911 report of the Committee on the Social Evil in Baltimore showed +that at the time there was in that city one prostitute to every 500 +inhabitants. As is the case everywhere, such statistics cover only +prostitutes who have been detected. Hospital and clinic reports for +Baltimore gave 9,450 acute cases of venereal disease in 1906 as compared +with 575 cases of measles, 1,172 cases of diphtheria, 577 of scarlet +fever, 175 of chickenpox, 58 of smallpox and 733 cases of tuberculosis. + +Statistics on the health of young men shown by the physical examinations +of the various draft boards throughout the country give us a more +complete estimate of the prevalence of venereal disease among the +prospective fathers of the next generation than any other figures for +the United States. In an article in the _New York Medical Journal_ for +February 2, 1918, Dr. Isaac W. Brewer of the Medical Reserve Corps +presents tables showing the percentage of rejections for various +disabilities among the applicants for enlistment in the regular army +from January 1, 1912, to December 31, 1915. Among 153,705 white and +11,092 coloured applicants, the rejection rate per 1,000 for venereal +disease was 196.7 for whites and 279.9 for coloured as against 91.3 for +whites and 75.0 for coloured for heart difficulties, next on the list. +In foreshadowing the results under the draft, Dr. Brewer says: "Venereal +disease is the greatest cause for rejection, and reports from the +cantonments where the National Army has assembled indicate that a large +number of the men had these diseases when they arrived at the camp. It +is probably true that venereal diseases cause the greatest amount of +sickness in our country." + +Statistics available for conditions among the American Expeditionary +Forces must be treated with great caution. Detection of these diseases +at certain stages is extremely difficult. Because of the courtesy +extended to our men by our allies, cases were treated in French and +English hospitals of which no record is available. But it is fairly safe +to say that there was no such prevalence of disease as was shown by the +Exner Report to have existed on the Mexican Border. It may even be +predicted that the education in hygienic measures which the men received +may in time affect favourably the health of the male population and +through them their wives and children. But all who came in contact with +this problem in the army know that it is a long way to the +understanding of the difficulties involved before we approach a +solution. We do know, on the basis of the work, of Neisser, Lesser, +Forel, Flexner and others, that regulation and supervision seem to +increase the incidence of disease. Among the reasons for this are: (1) +difficulties of diagnosis; (2) difficulties attendant on the +apprehension and examination of prostitutes; (3) the infrequency of +examination as compared with the number of clients of these women; and +perhaps as important as any of these reasons is the false sense of +security involved. + +The model woman of the past has known very little of the prostitute and +venereal disease. It is often stated that her moral safety has been +maintained at the expense of her fallen and unclean sister. But such +statements are not limited as they should be by the qualification that +her moral safety obtained in such a fashion is often at the expense of +her physical safety. If the assumption has a basis in fact that there is +a relation between prostitution and monogamic marriage, the complexity +of the problem becomes evident. It is further complicated by the +postponement of marriage from economic reasons, hesitation at the +assumption of family responsibilities at a time of life when ambition as +well as passion is strong, when the physiological functions are +stimulated by city life and there is constant opportunity for relief of +repression for a price. It is here that the demarcation between the +man's and the woman's world shows most clearly. It may well be that the +only solution of this problem is through the admission of a new +factor--the "good" woman whom taboo has kept in ignorance of a problem +that is her own. If it be true that the only solution for the double +standard whose evils show most plainly here is a new single standard +which has not yet been found, then it is high time that we find what +that standard is to be, for the sake of the future. + +The third dysgenic influence which works under cover of the +institutional taboo is akin to the first in its ancient standards of +"good" and "bad." We are only recently getting any standards for a good +mother except a man's choice and a wedding ring. Men's ideals of +attractiveness greatly complicate the eugenic situation. A good +matchmaker, with social backing and money, can make a moron more +attractive than a pushing, energetic girl with plenty of initiative, +whose contribution to her children would be equal or superior to that of +her mate. A timid, gentle, pretty moron, with the attainment of a girl +of twelve years, will make an excellent match, and bring into the world +children who give us one of the reasons why it is "three generations +from shirt-sleeves to shirt-sleeves." For such a girl, the slave to +convention, exactly fits the feminine ideal which man has built up for +himself. And she will be a good wife and mother in the conventional +sense all her life. This following of an ideal feminine type conceived +in irrational processes in former days inclines men to marry women with +inferior genetic possibilities because they meet the more insistent +surface requirements. The heritage of our children is thus cut down, and +many a potential mother of great men remains unwed. + +The same survival of ancient sex taboos is seen in the attitude toward +the illegitimate child. The marriage ceremony is by its origin and by +the forms of its perpetuation the only sanction for the breaking of the +taboo on contact between men and women. The illegitimate child, the +visible symbol of the sin of its parents, is the one on whom most +heavily falls the burden of the crime. Society has for the most part +been utterly indifferent to the eugenic value of the child and has +concerned itself chiefly with the manner of its birth. Only the +situation arising out of the war and the need of the nations for men has +been able to partially remedy this situation. + +The taboos on illegitimacy in the United States have been less affected +by the practical population problems growing out of war conditions than +those of other countries. As compared with the advanced stands of the +Scandinavian countries, the few laws of progressive states look +painfully inadequate. Miss Breckinridge writes:[1] + +"The humiliating and despised position of the illegitimate child need +hardly be pointed out. He was the son of nobody, filius nullius, without +name or kin so far as kinship meant rights of inheritance or of +succession. In reality this child of nobody did in a way belong to his +mother as the legitimate child never did in common law, for, while the +right of the unmarried mother to the custody of the child of her shame +was not so noble and dignified a thing as the right of the father to the +legitimate child, she had in fact a claim, at least so long as the child +was of tender years, not so different from his and as wide as the sky +from the impotence of the married mother. The contribution of the father +has been secured under conditions shockingly humiliating to her, in +amounts totally inadequate to her and the child's support. In Illinois, +$550 over 5 years; Tennessee, $40 the first year, $30 the second, $20 +the third. (See studies of the Boston Conference on Illegitimacy, +September, 1914, p. 47.) Moreover, the situation was so desperate that +physicians, social workers and relatives have conspired to save the +girl's respectability at the risk of the child's life and at the cost of +all spiritual and educative value of the experience of motherhood. This +has meant a greatly higher death rate among illegitimate infants, a +higher crime and a higher dependency rate." + +The fifth of the dysgenic influences which has been fostered by the +institutional taboo is uncovered by recent studies of the effect of +certain emotions on the human organism. The life of woman has long been +shadowed by the fact that she has been the weaker sex; that even when +strong she has been weighted by her child; and that throughout the +period of private property she has been the poor sex, dependent on some +male for her support. In an age of force, fear has been her strong +emotion. If she felt rage it must be suppressed. Disappointment and +discouragement had also to be borne in silence and with patience. Of +such a situation Davies says: + +"The power of the mind over the body is a scientific fact, as is +evidenced by hypnotic suggestion and in the emotional control over the +chemistry of health through the agency of the internal secretions. The +reproductive processes are very susceptible to chemic influences. Thus +the influences of the environment may in some degree carry through to +the offspring."[2] + +The studies of Drs Crile and Cannon show that the effects of fear on the +ganglionic cells are tremendous. Some of the cells are exhausted and +completely destroyed by intensity and duration of emotion. Cannon's +experiments on animals during fear, rage, anger, and hunger, show that +the entire nervous system is involved and that internal and external +functions change their normal nature and activity. The thyroid and +adrenal glands are deeply affected. In times of intense emotion, the +thyroid gland throws into the system products which cause a quickened +pulse, rapid respiration, trembling, arrest of digestion, etc. When the +subjects of experiments in the effect of the emotions of fear, rage, +etc., are examined, it is found that the physical development, +especially the sexual development, is retarded. Heredity, age, sex, the +nervous system of the subject, and the intensity and duration of the +shock must all have consideration. Griesinger, Amard and Daguin +emphasize especially the results of pain, anxiety and shock, claiming +that they are difficult or impossible to treat. + +To the bride brought up under the old taboos, the sex experiences of +early married life are apt to come as a shock, particularly when the +previous sex experiences of her mate have been gained with women of +another class. Indeed, so deeply has the sense of shame concerning the +sexual functions been impressed upon the feminine mind that many wives +never cease to feel a recurrent emotion of repugnance throughout the +marital relationship. Especially would this be intensified in the case +of sexual intercourse during the periods of gestation and lactation, +when the girl who had been taught that the sexual functions existed only +in the service of reproduction would see her most cherished illusions +rudely dispelled. The effect of this long continued emotional state with +its feeling of injury upon the metabolism of the female organism would +be apt to have a detrimental effect upon the embryo through the blood +supply, or upon the nursing infant through the mother's milk. There can +be no doubt that anxiety, terror, etc., affect the milk supply, and +therefore the life of the child. + +The sixth dysgenic effect of the control by taboos is the rebellion of +economically independent women who refuse motherhood under the only +conditions society leaves open to them. The statistics in existence, +though open to criticism, indicate that the most highly trained women in +America are not perpetuating themselves.[3] Of the situation in England, +Bertrand Russell said in 1917: "If an average sample were taken out of +the population of England, and their parents were examined, it would be +found that prudence, energy, intellect and enlightenment were less +common among the parents than in the population in general; while +shiftlessness, feeble-mindedness, stupidity and superstition were more +common than in the population in general ... Mutual liberty is making +the old form of marriage impossible while a new form is not yet +developed."[4] + +It must be admitted that to-day marriage and motherhood are subject to +economic penalties. Perhaps one of the best explanations of the strength +of the present struggle for economic independence among women is the +fact that a commercial world interested in exchange values had refused +to properly evaluate their social contribution. A new industrial system +had taken away one by one their "natural" occupations. In the modern +man's absorption in the life of a great industrial expansion, home life +has been less insistent in its claims. His slackening of interest and +attention, together with the discovery of her usefulness in industry, +may have given the woman of initiative her opportunity to slip away from +her ancient sphere into a world where her usefulness in other fields +than that of sex has made her a different creature from the model woman +of yesterday. These trained and educated women have hesitated to face +the renunciations involved in a return to the home. The result has been +one more factor in the lessening of eugenic motherhood, since it is +necessarily the less strong who lose footing and fall back on marriage +for support. These women wage-earners who live away from the traditions +of what a woman ought to be will have a great deal of influence in the +changed relations of the sexes. The answer to the question of their +relation to the family and to a saner parenthood is of vital importance +to society. + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER IV + +1. Breckinridge, Sophonisba P. Social Control of Child Welfare. +Publications of the American Sociological Society. Vol. XII, p. 23 f. + +2. Davies, G.R. Social Environment. 149 pp. A.C. McClurg & Co., Chicago, +1917. + +3. Popenoe, Paul. Eugenics and College Education. School and Society, +pp. 438-441. Vol. VI. No. 146. + +4. Russell, Bertrand. Why Men Fight. 272 pp. The Century Co., N.Y., +1917. + + + + +PART III + +THE SEX PROBLEM IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY + +BY + +PHYLLIS BLANCHARD, PH.D. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +SEX IN TERMS OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY + + +Bearing of modern psychology on the sex problem; Conditioning of the +sexual impulse; Vicarious expression of the sexual impulse; Unconscious +factors of the sex life; Taboo control has conditioned the natural +biological tendencies of individuals to conform to arbitrary standards +of masculinity and femininity; Conflict between individual desires and +social standards. + + +An adequate treatment of the sex problem in society must necessarily +involve a consideration of the sexual impulse in the individual members +of that society. Recent psychological research, with its laboratory +experiments and studies of pathology has added a great deal of +information at this point. The lately acquired knowledge of the warping +effect of the environment upon the native biological endowment of the +individual by means of the establishment of conditioned reflexes, the +discovery that any emotion which is denied its natural motor outlet +tends to seek expression through some vicarious activity, and the +realization of the fundamental importance of the unconscious factors in +shaping emotional reactions,--such formulations of behaviouristic and +analytic psychology have thrown a great deal of light upon the nature +of the individual sex life. + +There are certain modifications of the erotic life which are explicable +only when we recollect that under environmental influences situations +which originally did not call up an emotional response come later to do +so. This fact, which was first noted by Setchenov, was experimentally +demonstrated by Pavlov and his students.[7] They found that when some +irrelevant stimulus, such as a musical tone or a piece of coloured paper +was presented to a dog simultaneously with its food for a sufficiently +long period, the presentation of the tone or paper alone finally caused +the same flow of saliva that the food had originally evoked. The +irrelevant stimulus was named a _food sign_, and the involuntary motor +response of salivary secretion was called a _conditioned reflex_ to +differentiate it from the similar response to the biologically adequate +stimulus of food, which was termed an _unconditioned reflex_. + +"The significance of the conditioned reflex is simply this, that an +associated stimulus brings about a reaction; and this associated +stimulus may be from any receptor organ of the body; and it may be +formed of course not merely in the laboratory by specially devised +experiments, but by association in the ordinary environment."[1] Thus it +is evident that the formation of conditioned reflexes takes place in +all fields of animal and human activity. + +Watson has recently stated that a similar substitution of one stimulus +for another occurs in the case of an emotional reaction as well as at +the level of the simple physiological reflex response.[8] This means +that when an emotionally exciting object stimulates the subject +simultaneously with one not emotionally exciting, the latter may in time +(or even after one joint stimulation) arouse the same emotional response +as the former. Kempf considers this capacity of the emotion to become +thus conditioned to other than the original stimuli "of the utmost +importance in determining the selections and aversions throughout life, +such as mating, habitat, friends, enemies, vocations, professions, +religious and political preferences, etc."[5] + +Just as Pavlov and his followers found that almost anything could become +a food sign, so the study of neurotics has shown that the sexual emotion +can be fixed upon almost any love object. For example, a single +characteristic of a beloved person (e.g.,--eye colour, smile posture, +gestures) can become itself a stimulus to evoke the emotional response +originally associated only with that person. Then it happens that the +affection may centre upon anyone possessing similar traits. In most +psychological literature, this focussing of the emotion upon some +particular characteristic is termed _fetishism_, and the stimulus which +become capable of arousing the conditioned emotional response is called +an _erotic fetish_. In extreme cases of fetishism, the sexual emotions +can only be aroused in the presence of the particular fetish involved. +Krafft-Ebing[6] and other psychopathologists describe very abnormal +cases of erotic fetishism in which some inanimate object becomes +entirely dissociated from the person with whom it was originally +connected, so that it serves exclusively as a love object in itself, and +prevents a normal emotional reaction to members of the opposite sex. + +The development of romantic love has depended to a great extent upon the +establishment of a wide range of stimuli capable of arousing the erotic +impulses. As Finck has pointed out, this romantic sentiment is +inseparable from the ideals of personal beauty.[3] As criteria of beauty +he lists such characteristics as well-shaped waist, rounded bosom, full +and red underlip, small feet, etc., all of which have come to be +considered standards of loveliness because the erotic emotion has been +conditioned to respond to their stimulation. Literature is full of +references to such marks of beauty in its characters (_Jane Eyre_ is +almost the only well-known book with a plain heroine), and is therefore +one of the potent factors in establishing a conditioned emotional +reaction to these stimuli. + +The erotic impulse may have its responses conditioned in many other ways +than the building up of erotic fetishes. Kempf has observed that the +affective reactions of the individual are largely conditioned by the +unconscious attitudes of parents, friends, enemies and teachers. For +instance, one boy is conditioned to distrust his ability and another to +have confidence in his powers by the attitude of the parents. Similarly, +the daughter whose mother is abnormally prudish about sexual functions +will surely be conditioned to react in the same manner towards her own +sexual functions, unless conditioned to react differently by the +influence of another person.[5] Through the everyday associations in the +social milieu, therefore, the erotic impulse of an individual may become +modified in almost any manner. + +Just as an emotional reaction may become conditioned to almost any other +stimulus than the one which originally called it forth, so there is a +tendency for any emotion to seek a vicarious outlet whenever its natural +expression is inhibited. Were any member of the group to give free play +to his affective life he would inevitably interfere seriously with the +freedom of the other members. But the fear of arousing the disapproval +of his fellows, which is rooted in man's gregarious nature, inhibits the +tendency to self-indulgence. "A most important factor begins to exert +pressure upon the infant at birth and continues throughout its life," +says Kempf. "It is the incessant, continuous pressure of the herd ... to +conventionalize its methods of acquiring the gratification of its +needs."[5] The emotions thus denied a natural outlet seek other channels +of activity which have received the sanction of social approval. + +It is obvious that the rigid social regulations concerning sexual +activities must enforce repression of the erotic impulses more +frequently than any others. The love which is thus denied its biological +expression transmutes itself into many forms. It may reach out to +envelop all humanity, and find a suitable activity in social service. It +may be transformed into the love of God, and find an outlet in the +religious life of the individual. Or it may be expressed only in +language, in which case it may stop at the stage of erotic fantasy and +day-dream, or may result in some really great piece of poetry or prose. +This last outlet is so common that our language is full of symbolic +words and phrases which have a hidden erotic meaning attached to them. + +According to Watson, the phenomena seen in this tendency of emotions +inhibited at one point to seek other outlets are too complex to be +explained on the basis of conditioned reflex responses. All that we can +say at present is that too great emotional pressure is drained off +through whatever channel environmental and hereditary factors make +possible.[8] This vicarious mode of expression may become habitual, +however, and interfere with a return to natural activities in a manner +analogous to that in which the development of the erotic fetish often +prevents the normal reaction to the original stimulus. + +Because the conditioned emotional reactions and substitutions of +vicarious motor outlets take place at neurological and physiological +levels outside the realm of consciousness, they are called unconscious +activities of the organism. There are many other unconscious factors +which also modify the sex life of the human individual. The most +fundamental of these are the impressions and associations of the infancy +period, which may well be classed as conditioned reflex mechanisms, but +are sufficiently important to receive separate consideration. + +It is generally conceded by students of child psychology that the social +reactions of the child are conditioned by the home environment in which +the earliest and most formative years of its life are passed. It is not +surprising, therefore, that the ideal of the opposite sex which the boy +or girl forms at this time should approximate the mother or father, +since they are the persons best loved and most frequently seen. The +ideals thus established in early childhood are very often the +unconscious influences which determine the choice of a mate in adult +life. Or the devotion to the parent may be so intense as to prevent the +transference of the love-life to another person and thus entirely +prohibit the entrance upon the marital relation. Elida Evans has given +some very convincing cases in illustration of these points in her recent +book, "The Problem of the Nervous Child."[2] + +On the other hand, in those unfortunate cases where the father or mother +is the object of dislike, associations may be formed which will be so +persistent as to prevent the normal emotional reaction to the opposite +sex in later years. This, too, results in the avoidance of marriage and +the establishment of vicarious outlets for the sexual emotions, or less +often in homosexual attachments or perversions of the sex life. +Conditioned emotional reactions such as these play a dominant role in +the social problem of sex, as will become apparent in succeeding +chapters. + +In addition to the influences which naturally act to condition the +original sexual endowment of the individual, there are artificial forces +which still further qualify it. The system of taboo control which +society has always utilized in one form or another as a means of +regulating the reproductive activities of its members, has set up +arbitrary ideals of masculinity and femininity to which each man and +woman must conform or else forfeit social esteem. The feminine standard +thus enforced has been adequately described in Part II of this study. Dr +Hinkle has also described this approved feminine type, as well as the +contrasting masculine ideal which embodies the qualities of courage, +aggressiveness, and other traditional male characteristics. From her +psychoanalytic practice, Dr Hinkle concludes that men and women do not +in reality conform to these arbitrarily fixed types by native biological +endowment, but that they try to shape their reactions in harmony with +these socially approved standards in spite of their innate tendencies to +variation.[4] + +The same conclusion might be arrived at theoretically on the grounds of +the recent biological evidence of intersexuality discussed in Part I, +which implies that there are no absolute degrees of maleness and +femaleness. If there are no 100% males and females, it is obvious that +no men and women will entirely conform to ideals of masculine and +feminine perfection. + +In addition to the imposition of these arbitrary standards of +masculinity and femininity, society has forced upon its members +conformity to a uniform and institutionalized type of sexual +relationship. This institutionalized and inflexible type of sexual +activity, which is the only expression of the sexual emotion meeting +with social approval, not only makes no allowance for biological +variations, but takes even less into account the vastly complex and +exceedingly different conditionings of the emotional reactions of the +individual sex life. The resulting conflict between the individual +desires and the standards imposed by society has caused a great deal of +disharmony in the psychic life of its members. The increasing number of +divorces and the modern tendency to celibacy are symptomatic of the +cumulative effect of this fundamental psychic conflict. + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER I + +1. Burnham, W.H. Mental Hygiene and the Conditioned Reflex. Ped. Sem. +Vol. XXIV, Dec, 1917, pp. 449-488. + +2. Evans, Elida. The Problem of the Nervous Child. Kegan Paul & Co., +London, 1920. + +3. Finck, H.T. Romantic Love and Personal Beauty. Macmillan, N.Y., 1891. + +4. Hinkle, Beatrice M. On the Arbitrary Use of the Terms "Masculine" and +"Feminine." Psychoanalyt. Rev. Vol. VII, No. 1, Jan., 1920, pp. 15-30. + +5. Kempf, E.J. The Tonus of the Autonomic Segments as Causes of +Abnormal Behaviour. Jour. Nerv. & Ment. Disease, Jan., 1920, pp. 1-34. + +6. Krafft-Ebing, R. Psychopathia Sexualis. Fuchs, Stuttgart, 1907. + +7. Pavlov, J.P. L'excitation Psychique des Glandes Salivaires. Jour de +Psychologie, 1910, No. 2, pp. 97-114. + +8. Watson, J.B. Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviourist. +Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1919. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +HOW OUR INSTITUTIONS FIT INDIVIDUAL SEX PSYCHOLOGY + + +Social institutions controlling sex activities based on the assumption +that _all_ women are adapted to as well as specialized for reproduction; +Neurotic tendencies which unfit women for marriage--the desire for +domination; Sexual anæsthesia another neurotic trait which interferes +with marital harmony; The conditioning of the sexual impulse to the +parent ideal and the erotic fetish as factors which determine mating; +Homosexual tendencies and their part in the sex problem; The conflict +between the desire for marriage and egoistic ambitions; The social +regulations from the viewpoint of individual psychology. + + +The institutionalized forms of social control into which the old sex +taboos have developed impose upon all members of the group a uniform +type of sexual relationship. These socially enforced standards which +govern the sex life are based upon the assumption that men and women +conform closely to the masculine and feminine ideals of tradition. The +emphasis is much more strongly placed on feminine conformity, however; +a great many sexual activities are tolerated in the male that would be +unsparingly condemned in the female. Thus the sex problem becomes in +large measure a woman's problem, not only because of her peculiar +biological specialization for reproduction, which involves an enormous +responsibility but also because her life has for so many generations +been hedged in by rigid institutionalized taboos and prohibitions. + +The traditional conception of marriage and the family relation implies +that all women are adapted to as well as specialized for motherhood. In +reality, if the biological evidence of intersexuality be as conclusive +as now appears, there are many women who by their very nature are much +better adapted to the activities customarily considered as pre-eminently +masculine, although they are still specialized for childbearing. There +is no statistical evidence of any high correlation between the sexual +and maternal impulses. Indeed, a great many traits of human behaviour +seem to justify the inference that these two tendencies may often be +entirely dissociated in the individual life. Dr Blair Bell (as noted in +Part I, Chapter III) believes that it is possible to differentiate women +possessing a maternal impulse from those lacking such tendencies by the +very anatomical structure. It is obvious that a woman endowed with a +strong erotic nature requires a kind of sexual relationship different +from one whose interests are predominantly in her children. And both the +sexual and maternal types require different situations than the woman +who combines the two instincts in her own personality for a normal +expression of their emotional life. + +According to social tradition, sexual activity (at least in the case of +women) is to be exercised primarily for the reproduction of the group. +Thus the institutions of marriage and the family in their present form +provide only for the woman who possesses both the sexual and maternal +cravings. Contraceptive knowledge has enabled a small number of women +(which is rapidly growing larger) to fit into these institutions in +spite of their lack of a desire for motherhood. There have been a few +hardy theorists who have braved convention to the extent of suggesting +the deliberate adoption of unmarried motherhood by women who are +consumed by the maternal passion but have no strongly erotic nature. +Whether their problem will be solved in this manner, only the course of +social evolution in the future can show. + +Besides the differences in natural instinctive tendencies which make it +difficult for many women to fit into a uniform type of sexual +relationship, modern society, with its less rigid natural selection, +has permitted the survival of many neurotic temperaments which find +marriage a precarious venture. The neurotic constitution, as Adler[1,2] +has pointed out, is an expression of underlying structural or functional +organic deficiency. It is a physiological axiom that whenever one organ +of the body, because of injury, disease, etc., becomes incapable of +properly discharging its functions, its duties are taken over by some +other organ or group of organs. This process of organic compensation, +whereby deficiency in one part of the body is atoned for by additional +labours of other parts, necessarily involves the nervous mechanism in +ways which need not be discussed in detail here. + +In children the process of compensation, with its formation of new +nervous co-ordinations, is manifest in the inability to cope with their +companions who have a better biological endowment. This gives rise to a +feeling of inferiority from which the child tries to free itself by +every possible means, ordinarily by surpassing in the classroom the +playmates whom it cannot defeat on the playground. The feeling of +inferiority continues throughout life, however, although the mechanism +of physiological compensation may have become so perfected that the +functioning of the organism is quite adequate to the needs of the +environment. As a result, the ruling motive of the conduct becomes the +desire to release the personality from this torturing sense of inability +by a constant demonstration of the power to control circumstances or to +dominate associates. + +This abnormal will to power finds expression in the marital relationship +in the desire for supremacy over the mate. The domineering husband is a +familiar figure in daily life. The wife who finds it more difficult to +rule her husband by sheer mastery achieves the same ends by developing a +fit of hysterical weeping or having a nervous headache when denied her +own way in family affairs. + +By far the easiest way for the woman to satisfy her craving for power is +the development of an interesting illness which makes her the centre of +attention. The history of nervous disease furnishes many cases of +neurosis where this uncontrollable longing for domination is the chief +factor in the etiology of the illness. It is not at all unusual to meet +wives who hold their husbands subservient to every whim because of +"delicate nervous organizations" which are upset at the slightest +thwarting of their wishes so that they develop nervous headaches, +nervous indigestion, and many other kinds of sickness unless their +preferences meet with the utmost consideration. This tendency often +becomes a chronic invalidism, which, at the same time that it brings +the longed-for attention, incapacitates the individual for sexual and +maternal activities and makes the married life an abnormal and unhappy +one. + +Another more or less neurotic trait which acts as a cause of disharmony +in the marital relationship is the sexual anæsthesia which is not at all +uncommon in modern women. The absence of any erotic passion is held to +be a matter of physiological makeup by many authorities, but it is +probably more often due to the inhibition of natural tendencies in +accordance with concepts built up by social tradition. In order to +understand how social suggestion can have so powerful an effect upon the +reactions of the individual, we must revert once more to the principles +of behaviouristic psychology. + +According to Watson,[4] whenever the environmental factors are such that +a direct expression of an emotion cannot occur, the individual has to +have recourse to implicit motor attitudes. The best example in everyday +life is probably seen in the case of anger, which can seldom be +permitted to find an outlet in the natural act of striking, etc. It is +apparent, however, in the facial expression and in a certain muscular +posture which can best be described as a "defiant" attitude. Another +good example is the submissive attitude which often accompanies the +emotion of fear. It is manifest in shrinking, avoiding movements, +sometimes of the whole body, but more often of the eyes or some other +special organ. + +"In the sphere of love," Watson remarks, "there are numerous attitudes +as shown by the popular expressions lovelorn, lovesick, tenderness, +sympathy. More fundamental and prominent attitudes are those of shyness, +shame, embarrassment, jealousy, envy, hate, pride, suspicion, +resentment, anguish, and anxiety."[4] + +The significant fact is that these attitudes function by limiting the +range of stimuli to which the person is sensitive. The attitude of shame +concerning their sexual functions, which has been impressed upon women +as a result of ages of thinking in harmony with taboo standards, thus is +able to prevent the normal biological response to a situation which +should call out the emotions of love. In women who have an unstable +nervous system this shameful feeling often results in a definite +physiological shrinking from the physical manifestations of sexuality +and renders the individual insensitive to all erotic stimulation. + +This attitude of shame in connection with the love life came into +existence as a socially conditioned emotional reaction set up under the +influence of the traditional ideal of the "model woman" who was pictured +as a being of unearthly purity and immaculacy. It has been passed on +from generation to generation through an unconscious conditioning of the +daughter's attitude by suggestion and imitation to resemble that of the +mother. Thus it happens that although an increasing amount of liberty, +both social and economic, and a more rational and scientific +understanding of the womanly nature, have quite revoked this ideal in +theory, in actual practice it still continues to exert its inhibitory +and restrictive influence. + +Because the standardized family relationship involves so much more +radical a readjustment in the life of woman than of man, it has almost +always been the feminine partner who has taken refuge in neurotic +symptoms in order to escape the difficulties of the situation. After the +marriage ceremony, the man's life goes on much as before, so far as his +social activities are concerned, but woman takes up the new duties +connected with the care of the home and her child-bearing functions. +Moreover, the sexual life of woman is in many ways more complex than +that of man. She has been subjected to more repressions and inhibitions, +and as a result there has been more modification of her emotional +reactions in the field of love. This greater complexity of her love life +makes adaptation to marriage more problematical in the case of woman. + +Although the neurotic tendencies of modern women have been an important +factor for the production of disharmony in the family life, there are +certain variations of the individual sex life which are more universally +significant. The conditioned emotional reactions which environmental +influences have built up around the sexual impulse of each member of +society invariably determine the choice of the mate and give rise to +extremely complicated problems by the very nature of the selective +process. It is largely a matter of chance whether the mate chosen in +accordance with the ideals of romantic love and because of some +fascinating trait which acts as an erotic fetish or in conformity with a +parental fixation will prove a congenial companion through life. + +But the complexity of the situation lies in the fact that the erotic +impulses may become conditioned to respond to an indefinite number of +substituted stimuli. For example, the parental fixation may become +reconditioned by focussing upon some special characteristic of the +father or mother, which becomes an erotic fetish. If the mate is +selected on the basis of this fetishistic attraction, he (or she) may +prove to be so unlike the parent in other respects as to lose all the +affection which was originally inspired. A concrete illustration of +these conflicting emotional reactions is the case of the girl who +declared that she feared her fiancé as much as she loved him, but felt +that she must marry him nevertheless. An investigation showed that her +almost compulsive feeling about her lover was due to the fact that his +gestures and manner of regarding her, in fact his whole bearing, +reminded her of her dead father, while in other respects he was totally +repugnant to her because his character traits were so far removed from +those of her father ideal. + +The conflict between the parental ideal and other phases of the sexual +impulse is even more pronounced in men than in women, for two reasons. +In the first place, the mother plays by far the largest part in the life +of her children, so that the son's fixation upon her is necessarily more +intense than the daughter's affection for the father. Yet on the other +hand, the sexual desire of the male is more easily aroused than that of +the female, and is more apt to centre upon some member of the opposite +sex who possesses certain physical attractiveness but is not at all like +the mother ideal. Thus it happens that men often enshrine on their +hearthstone the woman who approximates the worshipped mother, while they +seek satisfaction for their erotic needs outside the home. In other +words, in the masculine psyche there is often a dissociation of the +sexual impulse in its direct manifestations and the sentiment of love in +its more idealistic aspects. This partially explains the fact that it +is possible for a man to be "unfaithful" to his wife while actually +loving her devotedly all the time. + +A different solution of the unconscious conflict between the mother +fixation and the sexual desires at lower levels is seen in those cases +in which the man impulsively marries the woman who has this transient +attraction for him. When the first passion of such an alliance has worn +away, there is no lasting bond to take its place, and the man must find +solace in some such way as an intimate friendship with a woman who +recalls the maternal impressions of his childhood. A famous example of +this is found in the beautiful affection of Auguste Comte for his +idolized Clotilde de Vaux. Although Comte was bound to a woman whom he +had married in the flush of erotic desire and whom he found entirety +uncongenial, Clotilde became the inspiration of his later life, and held +his affection without the aid of any material bond because she so +closely resembled the dead mother whom he adored.[3] + +It is evident that the selection of a mate who is erotically attractive, +but proves to be very similar to a parent who was disliked instead of +loved, is as unfortunate as the choice of a partner who is utterly +unlike a beloved father or mother. Indeed, when all the possible +complications are clearly visualized, taking into account the numerous +ways in which the sexual emotions can be modified, it is plain that +these unconscious factors which determine the choice of a mate are not +always conducive to a happy married life. + +Quite recently the tendency to homosexuality has been emphasized as an +important factor in the psychological problem of sex. At the +International Conference of Medical Women (New York, 1919) it was stated +that homosexual fixations among women are a frequent cause of female +celibacy and divorce. This view was upheld by such authorities as Dr. +Constance Long of England, and other prominent women physicians. +Although a certain percentage of female homosexuality is congenital, it +is probable that by far the largest part is due to a conditioning of the +sexual impulse by the substitution of members of the same sex as the +erotic stimulus in place of the normal response to the opposite sex. + +This substitution is facilitated by certain facts in the social life of +women. The frequent lack of opportunity to be with men during adolescent +school days, and a certain amount of taboo on male society for the +unmarried woman, are in direct favour of the establishment of homosexual +reactions. There is also an increasing sex antagonism, growing out of +woman's long struggle for the privilege of participating in activities +and sharing prerogatives formerly limited to men, which acts as an +inhibitory force to prevent the transference of the sexual emotion to +its normal object in the opposite sex. Moreover, the entrance of woman +into a manner of living and lines of activity which have heretofore been +exclusively masculine, has brought out certain character traits which in +other times would have been repressed as incompatible with the social +standards of feminine conduct, but which are conducive to the formation +of homosexual attachments, since the qualities admired in men can now be +found also in women. + +In this connection the term _homosexuality_ is used very loosely to +denote any type of emotional fixation upon members of the same sex which +is strong enough to prevent a normal love life with some individual of +the opposite sex. Among American women, at least, this tendency is +seldom expressed by any gross physical manifestations, but often becomes +an idealized and lofty sentiment of friendship. It is abnormal, however, +when it becomes so strong as to prevent a happy married life. + +The tendency of emotions to seek a vicarious outlet must also be +considered in any inclusive attempt to explain the homosexual attachment +of women. The woman who, on account of lack of attraction for men or for +any other reason, is denied the normal functioning of the love life in +marriage, is forced to find some other expression for her erotic +emotions, and it is only natural that she should find it in an affection +for other women. Again, the voluntary celibacy of a large class of +modern women, who prefer to retain their economic independence rather +than to enter into family life, also necessitates finding vicarious +emotional activities. Whenever their work throws a number of these women +into constant association, it is almost inevitable that homosexual +attachments will spring up. + +We meet all these types of homosexual fixations in daily life. The +college girl who is isolated from men for four years has her sworn +comrade among the girls, and is sure that she will never marry but will +love her chum always. Very often it is some time after she leaves +college before she begins to take an interest in male companionship. The +young professional woman looks up to the older woman in her line of work +with the same admiration for her courage and brilliancy that used to be +reserved for the husband alone in the days when women were permitted +only a strictly feminine education and occupation. The business woman +refuses to give up her high salaried position for marriage, and consoles +herself with her feminine friends. These are the common manifestations +characteristic of female homosexuality. As has been suggested, the term +is loosely applied to such cases as these, but the tendency of recent +psychological literature is to consider them as highly sublimated +expressions of this tendency. + +As has been intimated, the modern woman who has entered into the +economic competition is often reluctant to abandon this activity for the +responsibilities of wifehood and motherhood, which involve a withdrawal +from the business world. Just as the materialistic rewards of economic +activities often prove more attractive than the emotional satisfactions +of family life, so, too, the intellectual ambitions of the professional +woman may deter her from the exercise of her reproductive functions. +Thus the egoistic and individualistic tendencies which modern social +organization fosters in the personality of its feminine members makes +them unwilling to sacrifice their ambitious plans in the performance of +their natural biological functions. + +In the present speeding up of competition, the entrance upon family life +becomes almost as burdensome to man as to woman, although in a different +manner. Free as he is from the biological responsibilities connected +with childbearing which fall to a woman's lot, he finds the economic +responsibilities which the care of children entails equally grilling. +His choice of a profession can no longer be decided by his own +preferences, but must be determined by the economic returns. He can +never afford to sacrifice financial gain for personal recognition, +because of his obligation to provide for his family. Thus it happens +that marriage often presents a situation in which no outlet for personal +ambitions is possible and the egoistic desires and emotions must be +sternly repressed. There is therefore an increasing hesitancy on the +part of the men of to-day to assume responsibilities so grave and +involving so much personal sacrifice. + +It is evident from even such a casual inquiry as this, that there are +many facts of individual psychology which have not been taken into +account by society in the development of the mores which govern the +sexual relationships of its members. The traditional institution of the +family, which would shape all women into model wives and mothers, has +neglected to consider the fact that not all women are biologically +adapted for these particular activities. The choice of a mate which is +determined by irrational and unconscious motives may or may not prove to +be a wise selection, as we have seen in the course of our discussion. +Most significant of all for the social problem of sex, is the +overwhelming tendency to individuation which is making both men and +women frankly question whether marriage and parenthood are worth while +when they involve so much personal sacrifice. + +From the viewpoint of psychology, we may briefly summarize the whole +situation by saying that society has imposed upon its members a uniform +and inflexible type of sexual relationships and reproductive activities +with a total disregard of individual differences in its demand for +conformity to these traditions. When the infinite number of variations +and modifications possible in the sexual life of different individuals +is taken into consideration, it is obvious that there must be a certain +disharmony between personal inclinations and social standards. Because +the power of the group control is very great, its members usually +repress emotions which are not in accord with its regulations, and shape +their conduct to meet with its approval. If such a restriction of the +personality and emotional life of the individual is necessary for the +welfare of the whole race and for social progress, its existence is +entirely justified. It is our next task, therefore, to determine in what +respects a rigid and irrational social control is conducive to human +betterment, and wherein, if at all, it fails to achieve this purpose. + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER II + +1. Adler, Alfred. The Neurotic Constitution. Moffat, Yard, N.Y., 1917. +(Kegan Paul & Co., 1921.) + +2. Adler, Alfred. A Study of Organic Inferiority and Its Psychic +Compensation. Nervous & Mental Disease Pub. Co., N.Y., 1917. + +3. Blanchard, P. A Psychoanalytic Study of Auguste Comte. Am. Jour. +Psy., April, 1918. + +4. Watson, J.B. Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviourist. +Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1919. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +DYSGENIC NATURE OF CERTAIN FACTORS OF SEX PSYCHOLOGY AND NECESSITY FOR A +SOCIAL THERAPY + +Mating determined by unconscious psychological motives instead of +eugenic considerations; Some of the best male and female stock refusing +marriage and parenthood; The race is reproduced largely by the inferior +and average stocks and very little by the superior stock; As a +therapeutic measure, society should utilize psychological knowledge as a +new method of control; Romantic love and conjugal love--a new ideal of +love; The solution of the conflict between individual and group +interests. + + +From the viewpoint of group welfare, the present psychological situation +of human reproductive activities undoubtedly has its detrimental +aspects. As we have seen, the choice of a mate is determined by +irrational motives which lie far below the levels of consciousness. +These unconscious factors which govern sexual selection far outweigh the +more rational considerations of modern eugenic thought. The marks of +personal beauty around which romantic love centres and which therefore +play a prominent part in mating are not necessarily indicative of +physical and mental health that will insure the production of sound +offspring. The modern standards of beauty (at least in so far as +feminine loveliness is concerned) have gone far from the ancient Grecian +type of physical perfection. Influenced perhaps by the chivalric ideals +of "the lady," the demand is rather for a delicate and fragile +prettiness which has come to be regarded as the essence of femininity. +The robust, athletic girl must preserve this "feminine charm" in the +midst of her wholesome outdoor life, else she stands in great danger of +losing her erotic attraction. + +Surface indications of the truth of this statement are easily +discovered. The literature which before the war ran riot with athletic +heroines pictured them with wind-blown hair and flushed cheeks receiving +the offer of their male companion's heart and hand. The golf course or +the summer camp was simply a charming new setting for the development of +the eternal love theme. Even fashion has conspired to emphasize the +feminine charm of the girl who goes in for sports, as a glance at the +models of bathing costumes, silken sweaters, and graceful "sport" skirts +plainly reveals. + +Just as the love which is directed in accordance with an emotional +reaction conditioned to respond to some erotic fetishism or to a parent +ideal may be productive of individual unhappiness, so it is also +entirely a matter of chance whether or not it leads to a eugenic mating. +Like romantic love, it is quite as apt to focus upon a person who does +not conform to eugenic ideals as upon one who does. The mate selected +upon the basis of these unconscious motives is very likely to bequeath a +neurotic constitution or an otherwise impaired physical organism to the +offspring of the union, since those possibilities were not taken into +consideration in making the choice. + +It becomes apparent that while certain forces in the life of the +individual and in the social inheritance have united to condition the +emotional reactions of the sex life, these conditionings have not always +been for the benefit of the race. Indeed, it would almost seem that +society has been more concerned with the manner of expression of the +love life in the individual members than in its effects upon the next +generation. In its neglect or ignorance of the significance of +artificial modifications of the emotions, it has permitted certain +dysgenic influences to continue in the psychic life of generation after +generation, regarding with the utmost placidity a process of sexual +selection determined by irrational and irresponsible motives. + +The most potent dysgenic influence in the present phase of the sex +problem is the conflict between the interests of the individual and the +group regulations. The traditional type of marriage and family life has +a cramping effect upon the personal ambitions which lessens its +attractiveness materially. The enterprising young business or +professional man has no desire to restrict his opportunities by the +assumption of the responsibilities that accompany family life. He must +be free to stake all his resources on some favourable speculation +without the thought that he cannot take chances on impoverishing his +wife and children. Or if he has professional aspirations, he must be +able to take the long difficult pathway of scientific research with no +anxiety about the meagre salary that is insufficient for the support of +a home. Thus the most vital and aggressive male stocks as well as the +most highly intelligent tend to avoid the hampering effects of family +life, and their qualities are often lost to the next generation, since +even if they marry they will feel that they cannot afford offspring. + +As women enter more and more into the competition for economic and +social rewards, this becomes equally applicable in their case. Indeed, +it would be strange were there not an even greater tendency to shun the +ties of family life on the part of ambitious women than of men, since +it involves greater sacrifices in their case on account of their +biological specialization for motherhood. It appears, therefore, that we +are losing the best parental material for the coming generations on both +the paternal and maternal sides. Thus the conflict between the egoistic +desires and the social institution of the family is segregating just +those energetic, successful individuals from whom the race of the future +should spring if we hope to reproduce a social organism capable of +survival in the inter-group struggle. + +If it be true that the best stock, both male and female, for various +reasons refuses to assume the duty of reproduction, the group will +necessarily be replaced from individuals of average and inferior (but +not superior) eugenic value. Even within these limits there is at +present no conscious eugenic selection, and the irrational and +unconscious motives which govern sexual selection at the present time +may induce the choice of a mate from among the weaker individuals. Once +again it becomes a matter of chance whether or not the matings prove to +be for the welfare of the group and of the race. + +It might be contended that the very fact that certain individuals +withdraw from reproductive activities is sufficient proof of their lack +of normal emotional reactions adapting them to the performance of those +functions. But a clearer insight shows that the group standards permit +the exercise of the reproductive activities only in accord with +arbitrary regulations which have coalesced in the institutions of +marriage and the family. These institutions have been developed to fit a +definite ideal of manhood and womanhood which grew up out of a manner of +thinking in accord with taboo control and ignorant superstitions rather +than in harmony with the actual facts of the situation. Now that we are +facing reality and trying to rationalize our thinking, we find that the +variation from these masculine and feminine ideals does not necessarily +imply biological or psychological abnormality, since the ideals were +themselves established without reference to biological and psychological +data. + +The traditional marriage and family arrangement tends to enforce a +selection of individuals who conform most nearly to these artificial +types as parents for the succeeding generations. It is not at all +certain that such a selection is advantageous to the group. It would +seem rather that in so complex a social system as that of the present +day with its increasing division of labour on other than purely sexual +distinctions, we need a variety of types of individuals adapted to the +varied activities of modern life. + +If society is to successfully meet the present situation it must +utilize its psychological insight to remedy conditions which are +obviously dysgenic and detrimental to the welfare of the race. If the +egoistic and highly individualized modern man and woman are induced to +sacrifice personal ambitions in the interests of reproduction, for +instance, it will only be because society has learned to turn those same +egoistic impulses to its own ends. This will never be accomplished by +the forces of tradition or by any such superimposed method of control as +conscription for parenthood. There is too much of a spirit of freedom +and individual liberty in the social mind to-day for any such measure to +meet with success. The same spirit of freedom which formerly burst the +bonds of superstition and entered into the world of science is now as +impatient of restraint of its emotional life as it formerly was of +restriction of its intellectual search for the truth. + +Therefore society can no longer depend upon taboo standards crystallized +into institutionalized forms as a means of control. It must appeal to +more rational motives if it expects to have any degree of influence over +its most intelligent and energetic members. Only when the production of +eugenic offspring brings the same social approval and reward that is +meted out for other activities will the ineradicable and irrespressible +egoistic desires that now prevent individuals from assuming the +responsibilities of family life be enlisted in the very cause to which +they are now so hostile. When the same disapproval is manifested for the +shirking of reproductive activities by the eugenically fit that is now +directed toward lack of patriotism in other lines, the number of +voluntary celibates in society will be materialy decreased. + +The greatest triumph of society in the manipulation of the sexual and +reproductive life of its members will come when it is able to condition +the emotional reaction of the individual by the substitution of the +eugenic ideal for the parental fixation and to focus the sentiment of +romantic love upon eugenic traits. When this is accomplished, the +selection of the mate will at least be favourable for racial +regeneration even if individual disharmonies are not entirely +eliminated. That there are great difficulties in the way of this +accomplishment may be admitted at the outset. The conditioned responses +to be broken down and replaced are for the most part formed in early +childhood, and have had a long period in which to become firmly +impressed upon the organism. But psychological experiments have proven +that even the best established conditioned reactions can be broken down +and others substituted in their place, so that the situation is not so +hopeless. When we recollect that for ages the traditional ideals of +masculinity and femininity have been conditioning the emotional life of +men and women to respond to their requirements with a remarkable degree +of success, there is ground for the belief that the same forces of +suggestion and imitation may be turned to more rational ends and +utilized as an effective means of social therapy. + +If we are to have a more rationalized form of social control, then, it +will undoubtedly take into consideration the necessity of forming the +socially desirable conditionings of the emotional life. The importance +of the emotional reactions for social progress has been very well +summarized by Burgess, who says that emotion can be utilized for +breaking down old customs and establishing new ones, as well as for the +conservation of the mores. Society can largely determine around what +stimuli the emotions can be organized, this author continues, and the +group has indeed always sought to control the stimuli impinging upon its +members. One policy has been to eliminate objectionable stimuli, as in +the outlawing of the saloon. The other is to change the nature of the +affective response of the individual to certain stimuli in the +environment where the natural or organic responses would be at variance +with conduct considered socially desirable.[3] + +Modern psychological knowledge enables us to understand the mechanism +of this last method of social control as the building up of the +conditioned emotional response. If our civilization is to endure it must +learn to apply this method of control to the sex life of the individual +so that reproduction will fall to the lot of the most desirable eugenic +stock instead of being left to the workings of chance as it is at the +present time. + +From the viewpoint of individual psychology, one of the principal +problems of the erotic life is to find a smooth transition from the +romantic love of the courtship period to the less ethereal emotions of +the married state. Indirectly, this is also socially significant, +because of the overwhelming effect of the home environment in shaping +the reactions of the next generation. As a rule, only the children who +have grown up in a happy and wholesome atmosphere of sincere parental +comradeship and affection can have an entirely sane and healthy reaction +to their own erotic functions in later years. + +Although romantic love in its present expression may often lead to +uncongenial marriages and even involve dysgenic mating, its æsthetic and +refining influences are such as to make it desirable in spite of these +drawbacks. Its influence upon literature has been noted by Bloch[2] +while its potency in the formation of a deep and tender feeling between +men and women has been elaborately discussed by Finck.[4] Thus it is +evident that its individual and social advantages more than balance its +disadvantages. + +Unfortunately, with the entrance into the marital relationship and the +release of the erotic emotion into natural channels so that it no longer +seeks the vicarious outlets which were partly supplied in the +idealization of the lovers, there is a tendency for this romantic +element to fade from their affection. The conjugal affection which +replaces it is built on quite other foundations. It is not composed of +day dreams about the beloved, but is wrought out of mutual interests, of +joys and sorrows shared together, of the pleasure of unrestricted +companionship, and of the common care of offspring. The danger lies in +the possibility that these foundations for conjugal love will not have +been lain by the time that romantic sentiments begin to grow dim. It is +this crisis in the married life which seems disappointing in the +afterglow of the engagement and honeymoon. + +Of late there have been attempts to build up a new conception of love +which shall incorporate the best features of romantic love and at the +same time make the transition to the conjugal affection less difficult. +This new conception has grown up through the increasing freedom of +women and the constant association of the sexes in the educational and +business world as well as in the social life. This free companionship of +men and women has done much to destroy the illusions about each other +which were formerly supposed to be so necessary a component of romantic +love, but it has also created the basis for a broader sympathy and a +deeper comradeship which is easily carried over into the married +relation. + +The new ideal of love which is being thus developed combines complete +understanding and frankness with erotic attraction and the tenderness of +romanticism. It implies a type of marital relationship in which there is +preservation of the personality and at the same time a harmony and union +of interests that was often absent from the old-fashioned marriage, when +the wife was supposed to be more limited in her interests than her +husband. It may well be that the evolution of this new ideal of love, +which grants personal autonomy even within the marriage bond, will solve +a great deal of the present conflict between the individualistic +impulses and the exercise of the erotic functions as permitted by the +group. + +It is, of course, an open question as to how far the interests of the +individual and the group can be made to coincide. Group survival demands +that the most vital and intelligent members shall be those to carry on +the reproductive functions. Therefore from the social viewpoint, it is +quite justified in setting up the machinery of social approval and in +establishing emotional attitudes by this means that will insure that +this takes place. On the other hand, it may be that the individuals who +will be thus coerced will be as rebellious against new forms of social +control as they are restless under the present methods of restraint. + +If we free ourselves from a manner of thinking induced by inhibitions +developed through ages of taboo control, and look at the problem +rationally, we must admit that the chief interest of society would be in +the eugenic value of the children born into it. At the present time, +however, the emphasis seems to be chiefly upon the manner of birth, that +is, the principal concern is to have the parents married in the +customary orthodox fashion. Only in view of the necessities of the +recent war have the European nations been forced to wipe out the stain +of illegitimacy, and in America we are still blind to this necessity. +Only Scandinavia, under the leadership of such minds as Ellen Key's, was +roused to this inconsistency in the mores without external pressure, and +enacted legislation concerning illegitimacy which may well serve as a +model to the whole world. The main points of the Norwegian Castberg bill +are as follows: The child whose parents are unmarried has a right to +the surname of the father, and the right of inheritance from a +propertied father; the court has full power to clear up the paternity of +the child; the man is held responsible for the child's support even if +other men are known to have had intercourse with the mother. In order to +discourage immorality in women for the purpose of blackmailing wealthy +men, the mother is also compelled to contribute to the child's +support.[1] + +No psychologist of discernment, in insisting on eugenic standards rather +than a marriage certificate as the best criterion for parenthood would +encourage any tendency to promiscuous mating. The individual suffering +involved in such a system of sexual relationships would be too great to +permit its universal adoption even if it should be found to have no +deleterious social effects. But the very fact that transient mating does +involve so much human agony, especially on the part of the woman, is all +the more reason why it is needless to add artificial burdens to those +already compelled by the very nature of the emotional life. + +The study of child psychology, too, would tend to discourage any general +tendency to temporary sexual relationships. Modern research has shown +that nothing is more necessary for the normal development of the child's +emotional life than a happy home environment with the presence of both +father and mother. Only in these surroundings, with the love of both +parents as a part of the childhood experience, can the emotional +reactions of the child be properly conditioned to respond to the social +situations of adult life. + +In one respect, at least, society can do a great deal to better the +existing situation, and to solve the struggle between the individual and +group interests. At the same time that it endeavours to set up emotional +responses that shall be conducive to eugenic mating and to a happy love +life, as well as for the welfare of the child, it should also leave a +wide margin of personal liberty for the individuals concerned to work +out a type of sexual relationship which is in harmony with their natural +inclinations. The institution of monogamy is too deeply founded in the +needs of the individual and of the child to suffer from this increase in +freedom and responsibility. Were it so frail a thing as to need the +protection of the church and state as well as public opinion to insure +its survival, it would be so little adapted to the needs of humanity +that it might better disappear. + +There are no indications that there would be any wider deviation from +the monogamous relationship were variations frankly recognized that now +take place in secret. By its present attitude, society is not +accomplishing its purpose and preventing all sexual relationships except +those which conform to its institutionalized standards. It is merely +forcing what should be always the most dignified of human relationships +into the shamefulness of concealment and furtiveness. Moreover, because +it visits its wrath on the child born of unions which are not strictly +conventionalized, it prevents the birth of children from mothers who +might be of great eugenic value, but whom fear of social disapproval +keeps from the exercise of their maternal functions but not of their +sexual activities. + +In the final analysis, it will probably be demonstrated that for a +certain type of personality there can be no compromise which will +resolve the conflict between the egoistic inclinations and the interests +of the group. For those whose deepest desires are so out of harmony with +the social life of the times there is no alternative but to sacrifice +their personal desires or to forfeit the pleasure of feeling in complete +rapport with their fellows. In such natures, the ultimate course of +conduct will be determined by the relative strengths of the +individualistic and gregarious impulses, other things being equal. In +some instances this will mean the choice of a line of conduct out of +harmony with the general trend of group life; in others, it will mean +the repression of personal inclinations and conformity to social +standards. + +For the majority of people, however, it is likely that a more rational +form of social control, freed from the long ages of taboo restrictions, +and based upon accurate biological and psychological knowledge, will +solve the disharmony between the individual and the group to a great +extent. Such a rationalization will take into account the value of a new +ideal of love which shall be built up from a sane relationship between +the sexes and in accordance with eugenic standards. It will also grant a +great deal of personal autonomy in the determination of sexual +relationships in so far as this can be correlated with the welfare of +the children of the race. Last of all, it will attempt to condition the +emotional reactions to respond to stimuli which shall insure eugenic +mating naturally and without the intervention of legislation. + +Unless modern civilization can set up some such form of rational control +for the sexual and reproductive life of its members, the present +conflict between individuation and socialization will continue and the +dysgenic factors now operative in society will steadily increase. In the +end, this internal conflict may become so powerful as to act as an +irresistible disintegrating force that will shatter the fabric of modern +social organization. Only the evolution of a rationalized method of +control can avert this social catastrophe. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER III. + + +1. Anthony, Katharine. Feminism in Germany and Scandinavia. Henry Holt, +N.Y., 1915. + +2. Bloch, Ivan. Sexual Life of Our Time. Rebman, London, 1908. + +3. Burgess, E.W. The Function of Socialization in Social Evolution. +Univ. Chicago Press, 1916. + +4. Finck, H.T. Romantic Love and Personal Beauty. Macmillan, N.Y., 1891. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14325 *** diff --git a/14325-h/14325-h.htm b/14325-h/14325-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8131ba0 --- /dev/null +++ b/14325-h/14325-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5984 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Taboo and Genetics, by Melvin Moses Knight, Iva Lowther Peters, and Phyllis Mary Blanchard</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + } + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .note {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} /* footnote */ + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-left: 1em; font-size: smaller; float: right; clear: right;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + .poem .caesura {vertical-align: -200%;} + hr.full { width: 100%; + height: 5px; } + a:link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} + pre {font-size: 8pt;} + --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14325 ***</div> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Taboo and Genetics, by Melvin Moses Knight, +Iva Lowther Peters, and Phyllis Mary Blanchard</h1> +<table border=0 bgcolor="ccccff" cellpadding=10> + <tr> + <td valign="top"> + Transcriber's Note: + </td> + <td> + The irregular footnote markers in this text [numbers] refer to the reference book the author used, and not always to + the specific page numbers. These reference books are listed numerically + at the end of each chapter. The footnotes are marked with [letters] and + the referenced footnotes are contained within the text, near to the + footnote marker. Therefore, occasionally the numerical footnote markers + are out of sequence. + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<br> +<br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>TABOO AND GENETICS</h2> + +<h4>A STUDY OF THE BIOLOGICAL</h4> + +<h4>SOCIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL</h4> + +<h4>FOUNDATION OF THE FAMILY</h4> +<br> + + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h3>M. M. KNIGHT, PH.D.</h3> + +<h3>IVA LOWTHER PETERS, PH.D.</h3> + +<h3>PHYLLIS BLANCHARD, PH.D.</h3> + +<h5>Author of <i>The Adolescent Girl</i></h5> + +<br /> + +<h6>London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd.<br> +New York: Moffat, Yard & Co.</h6> +<br> +<h4>1921</h4> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>DEDICATED TO<br> +OUR FRIEND AND TEACHER,</h4> +<h3>FRANK HAMILTON HANKINS</h3> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> +<br> + +<p>Scientific discovery, especially in biology, during the past two decades +has made necessary an entire restatement of the sociological problem of +sex. Ward's so-called "gynæcocentric" theory, as sketched in Chapter 14 +of his <i>Pure Sociology</i>, has been almost a bible on the sex problem to +sociologists, in spite of the fact that modern laboratory +experimentation has disproved it in almost every detail. While a +comparatively small number of people read this theory from the original +source, it is still being scattered far and wide in the form of +quotations, paraphrases, and interpretations by more popular writers. It +is therefore necessary to gather together the biological data which are +available from technical experimentation and medical research, in order +that its social implications may be utilized to show the obsoleteness of +this older and unscientific statement of the sex problem in society.</p> + +<p>In order to have a thoroughly comprehensive survey of the institutions +connected with sexual relationships and the family and their entire +significance for human life, it is also necessary to approach them from +the ethnological and psychological points of view. The influence of the +primitive sex taboos on the evolution of the social mores and family +life has received too little attention in the whole literature of sexual +ethics and the sociology of sex. That these old customs have had an +inestimable influence upon the members of the group, modern psychology +has recently come to recognize. It therefore seems advantageous to +include these psychological findings in the same book with the +discussion of the sex taboos and other material with which it must so +largely deal.</p> + +<p>These fields—biology, ethnology, and psychology—are so complicated and +so far apart technically, although their social implications are so +closely interwoven, that it has seemed best to divide the treatment +between three different writers, each of whom has devoted much study to +his special phase of the subject. This leads to a very simple +arrangement of the material. The first part deals with the physical or +biological basis of the sex problem, which all societies from the most +primitive to the most advanced have had and still have to build upon. +The second part deals with the various ideas man has developed in his +quest for a satisfactory adaptation of this physical basis to his own +requirements. Part three attempts to analyze the effect of this long +history of social experimentation upon the human psyche in its modern +social milieu.</p> + +<p>In the social evolution of the human mind, the deepest desires of the +individual have been often necessarily sacrificed to the needs of the +group. Sometimes they have been unnecessarily sacrificed, since human +intelligence is, unfortunately, not omniscient. Nevertheless, the sum +total of human knowledge has now become great enough so that it is at +least well to pause and take account of its bearing on the age-old +problem of family life, in order that our evolution henceforth may be +guarded by rational control rather than trial and error in so far as is +possible. Such a summarization of our actual knowledge of the biology, +sociology and psychology of the foundations of the family institution +this book aims to present, and if it can at the same time suggest a +starting point for a more rationalized system of social control in this +field, its purpose will have been accomplished.</p> + +<p>THE AUTHORS.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + <p><a href='#PART_I'>PART I</a></p> + +<p><b>BY M. M. KNIGHT, PH.D.</b></p> + +<p><big>THE NEW BIOLOGY AND THE SEX PROBLEM IN SOCIETY</big></p> + + + <p><a href='#CHAPTER_I'>I. THE PROBLEM DEFINED</a></p> + +<p>What is sex? A sexual and mixed reproduction. Origin of sexual +reproduction. Advantage of sex in chance of survival. Germ and body +cells. Limitations of biology in social problems. Sex always present in +higher animals. Sex in mammals—the problem in the human species. +Application of the laboratory method.</p> + + <p><a href='#CHAPTER_II'>II. SEX IN TERMS OF INTERNAL SECRETIONS</a></p> + +<p>Continuity of germ plasm. The sex chromosome. The internal secretions +and the sex complex. The male and the female type of body. How removal +of sex glands affects body type. Sex determination. Share of the egg and +sperm in inheritance. The nature of sex—sexual selection of little +importance. The four main types of secretory systems. Sex and sex +instincts of rats modified by surgery. Dual basis for sex. Opposite sex +basis in every individual. The Free-Martin cattle. Partial reversal of +sex in human species.</p> + + <p><a href='#CHAPTER_III'>III. SEX AND SEX DIFFERENCES AS QUANTITATIVE</a></p> + +<p>Intersexes in moths. Bird intersexes. Higher metabolism of males. +Quantitative difference between sex factors. Old ideas of +intersexuality. Modern surgery and human intersexes. Quantitative theory +a Mendelian explanation. Peculiar complication in the case of man. +Chemical life-cycles of the sexes. Functional-reproductive period and +the sex problem. Relative significance of physiological sex differences.</p> + + + <p><a href='#CHAPTER_IV'>IV. SEX SPECIALIZATION AND GROUP SURVIVAL</a></p> + +<p>Adaptation and specialization. Reproduction a group—not an individual +problem. Conflict between specialization and adaptation. Intelligence +makes for economy in adjustment to environment. Reproduction, not +production, the chief factor in the sex problem.</p> + + <p><a href='#CHAPTER_V'>V. RACIAL DEGENERATION AND THE NECESSITY FOR RATIONALIZATION OF THE MORES</a></p> + +<p>Racial decay in modern society. Purely "moral" control dysgenic in +civilized society. New machinery for social control. Mistaken notion +that reproduction is an individual problem. Economic and other factors +in the group problem of reproduction.</p> +<br /> + + <p><a href='#PART_II'>PART II</a></p> + +<p><b>BY IVA LOWTHER PETERS, PH.D.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE INSTITUTIONALIZED SEX TABOO</b></p> + +<p><a href='#CHAPTER_I_P2'>I. THE PRIMITIVE ATTITUDE TOWARD SEX AND WOMANHOOD</a></p> + +<p>Primitive social control. Its rigidity. Its necessity. The universality +of this control in the form of taboos. Connection between the universal +attitude of primitive peoples toward woman as shown in the +Institutionalized Sex Taboo and the magico-religious belief in Mana. +Relation of Mana to Taboo. Discussion of Sympathetic Magic and the +associated idea of danger from contact. Difficulties in the way of an +inclusive definition of Taboo. Its dual nature. Comparison of concepts +of Crawley, Frazer, Marett, and others. Conclusion that Taboo is +Negative Mana. Contribution of modern psychology to the study of Taboo. +Freud's analogy between the dualistic attitude toward the tabooed object +and the ambivalence of the emotions. The understanding of this dualism +together with the primitive belief in Mana and Sympathetic Magic +explains much in the attitude of man toward woman. The vast amount of +evidence in the taboos of many peoples of dualism in the attitude toward +woman. Possible physiological explanation of this dualistic attitude of +man toward woman found in a period before self-control had in some +measure replaced social control, in the reaction of weakness and disgust +following sex festivals.</p> + + <p><a href='#CHAPTER_II_P2'>II. FROM THE DAWN OF HISTORY: WOMAN AS SAINT AND WITCH</a></p> + +<p>Taboos of first chapter indicate that in the early ages the fear of +contamination by woman predominated. Later emphasis fell on her mystic +and uncanny power. Ancient fertility cults. Temple prostitution, +dedication of virgins, etc. Ancient priestesses and prophetesses. +Medicine early developed by woman added to belief in her power. Woman's +psychic quality of intuition: its origin—theories—conclusion that this +quality is probably physiological in origin, but aggravated by taboo +repressions. Transformation in attitude toward woman in the early +Christian period. Psychological reasons for the persistence in religion +of a Mother Goddess. Development of the Christian concept. Preservation +of ancient woman cults as demonology. Early Christian attitude toward +woman as unclean and in league with demons. Culmination of belief in +demonic power of woman in witchcraft persecutions. All women affected by +the belief in witches and in the uncleanness of woman. Gradual +development on the basis of the beliefs outlined of an ideally pure and +immaculate Model Woman.</p> + +<p> <a href='#CHAPTER_III_P2'>III. THE DUALISM IN MODERN LIFE: THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO</a></p> + +<p>The Taboo and modern institutions. Survival of ideas of the uncleanness +of woman. Taboo and the family. The "good" woman. The "bad" woman. +Increase in the number of women who do not fit into the ancient +classifications.</p> + +<p> <a href='#CHAPTER_IV_P2'>IV. DYSGENIC INFLUENCES OF THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO</a></p> + +<p>Taboo survivals act dysgenically within the family under present +conditions. Conventional education of girls a dysgenic influence. +Prostitution and the family. Influence of ancient standards of "good" +and "bad." The illegitimate child. Effect of fear, anger, etc., on +posterity. The attitude of economically independent women toward +marriage.</p> +<br /> + + <p><a href='#PART_III'>PART III</a></p> + +<p><b>BY PHYLLIS BLANCHARD, PH.D.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE SEX PROBLEM IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY</b></p> + + <p><a href='#CHAPTER_I_P3'>I. SEX IN TERMS OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY</a></p> + +<p>Bearing of modern psychology on the sex problem. Conditioning of the +sexual impulse. Vicarious expression of the sexual impulse. Unconscious +factors of the sex life. Taboo control has conditioned the natural +biological tendencies of individuals to conform to arbitrary standards +of masculinity and femininity. Conflict between individual desires and +social standards.</p> + + <p><a href='#CHAPTER_II_P3'>II. HOW OUR INSTITUTIONS FIT INDIVIDUAL SEX PSYCHOLOGY</a></p> + +<p>Social institutions controlling sex activities based on the assumption +that <i>all</i> women are adapted to as well as specialized for reproduction. +Neurotic tendencies which unfit women for marriage—the desire for +domination. Sexual anæsthesia another neurotic trait which interferes +with marital harmony. The conditioning of the sexual impulse to the +parent ideal and the erotic fetish as factors which determine mating. +Homosexual tendencies and their part in the sex problem. The conflict +between the desire for marriage and egoistic ambitions. The social +regulations from the viewpoint of individual psychology.</p> +<br /> + + <p><a href='#CHAPTER_III_P3'>III. DYSGENIC NATURE OF CERTAIN FACTORS OF SEX PSYCHOLOGY AND NECESSITY FOR A SOCIAL THERAPY</a></p> + +<p>Mating determined by unconscious psychological motives instead of +eugenic considerations. Some of the best male and female stock refusing +marriage and parenthood. The race is reproduced largely by the inferior +and average stocks and very little by the superior stock. As a +therapeutic measure, society should utilize psychological knowledge as a +new method of control. Romantic love and conjugal love—a new ideal of +love. The solution of the conflict between individual and group +interests.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='PART_I'></a><h2>PART I</h2> + +<h3>THE NEW BIOLOGY AND THE SEX PROBLEM IN SOCIETY</h3> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h3>M. M. KNIGHT, PH.D.</h3> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='CHAPTER_I'></a><h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<center> +THE PROBLEM DEFINED</center><br> + +<center><blockquote>What is sex? Asexual and mixed reproduction; Origin of sexual +reproduction; Advantage of sex in chance of survival; Germ and body +cells; Limitations of biology in social problems; Sex always present in +higher animals; Sex in mammals; The sex problem in the human species; +Application of laboratory method.</blockquote> +</center> +<br> +<br /> + +<p>Sex, like all complicated phenomena, defies being crowded into a simple +definition. In an animal or plant individual it is expressed by and +linked with the ability to produce egg- or sperm-cells (ova or +spermatozoa). Sexual reproduction is simply the chain of events +following the union of the egg and sperm to produce a new individual. +Looked at from another angle, it is that sort of reproduction which +requires two differentiated individuals: the male, which produces +spermatoza, and the female, which produces ova. In the case of very +simple forms, it would be simply the union or conjugation of a male and +a female individual and the reproductive process involved. Where there +is no differentiation into male and female there is no sex.</p> + +<p>An individual which produces both sperm-and egg-cells within its body +is termed an hermaphrodite. Very few hermaphrodites exist among the +vertebrates, although they may be found in one or two species (e.g., the +hagfish). There are no truly hermaphroditic mammals, i.e., individuals +in which both the male and the female germ cells function, except +perhaps in rare instances.</p> + +<p>Sexless or asexual reproduction assumes various forms. What is usually +considered the most primitive of these is fission or simple division, in +which the cell divides into two equal, identical parts. There is of +course no suggestion of sex here. It is fairly safe to assume that life +began thus in the world, as neuter or sexless—i.e., with no suggestion +of either maleness or femaleness.<a name='FNanchor_A_1'></a><a href='#Footnote_A_1'><sup>[A]</sup></a></p> + +<a name='Footnote_A_1'></a><a href='#FNanchor_A_1'>[A]</a><div class='note'><p>This asexual type of reproduction has been misinterpreted +by a whole school of non-biological writers, who have followed the lead +of Lester F. Ward, in his classification of these neuter-organisms as +females. Ward says ("Pure Sociology," Ch. 14): "It does no violence to +language or science to say that life begins with the female organism and +is carried on a long distance by means of females alone. In all the +different forms of asexual reproduction from fission to parthenogenesis, +the female may in this sense be said to exist alone and perform all the +functions of life including reproduction. In a word, life begins as +female" (p. 313). Adding to this statement the assertion that the male +developed at first as a mere parasite, in the actual, physical sense, +Ward proceeds to build up his famous Gynæcocentric Theory, which is +familiar to all students of social science, and need not be elaborated +here. It is obvious that a thorough biological knowledge destroys the +fundamental concept on which this theory is founded, for there is no +doubt that life begins as neuter or sexless, and not as female.</p></div> + +<p>There are a number of other forms of asexual reproduction, or the +"vegetative type" (Abbott's term, which includes fission, budding, +polysporogonia and simple spore formation). Budding (as in yeast) and +spore formation are familiar to us in plants. Such forms are too distant +from man, in structure and function, for profitable direct comparison. +Especially is this true with respect to sex, which they do not possess.</p> + +<p>Parthenogenesis includes very diverse and anomalous cases. The term +signifies the ability of females to reproduce in such species for one or +a number of generations without males. Many forms of this class (or more +strictly, these classes) have apparently become specialized or +degenerated, having once been more truly sexual. Parthenogenesis +(division and development of an egg without the agency of male sperm) +has been brought about artificially by Jacques Loeb in species as +complicated as frogs.<a name='FNanchor_1_1'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_1'><sup>[1]</sup></a><a name='FNanchor_2_1'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_1'><sup>[2]</sup></a> All the frogs produced were males, so that +the race (of frogs) could not even be theoretically carried on by that +method.</p> + +<p>The origin of sexual reproduction in animals must have been something as +follows: The first method of reproduction was by a simple division of +the unicellular organism to form two new individuals. At times, a fusion +of two independent individuals occurred. This was known as conjugation, +and is seen among Paramecia and some other species to-day. Its value is +probably a reinvigoration of the vitality of the individual. Next there +was probably a tendency for the organism to break up into many parts +which subsequently united with each other. Gradually some of these +uniting cells came to contain more food material than the others. As a +result of their increased size, they possessed less power of motion than +the others, and in time lost their cilia (or flagella) entirely and were +brought into contact with the smaller cells only by the motion of the +latter. Finally, in colonial forms, most of the cells in the colony +ceased to have any share in reproduction, that function being relegated +to the activities of a few cells which broke away and united with others +similarly adrift. These cells functioning for reproduction continued to +differentiate more and more, until large ova and small, motile +spermtozoa were definitely developed.</p> + +<p>The clearest evidences as to the stages in the evolution of sexual +reproduction is found in the plant world among the green algæ.<a name='FNanchor_3_1'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_1'><sup>[3]</sup></a> In +the lower orders of one-celled algæ, reproduction takes place by simple +cell division. In some families, this simple division results in the +production of several new individuals instead of only two from each +parent cell. A slightly different condition is found in those orders +where the numerous cells thus produced by simple division of the parent +organism unite in pairs to produce new individuals after a brief +independent existence of their own. These free-swimming cells, which +apparently are formed only to reunite with each other, are called +zoöspores, while the organism which results from their fusion is known +as a zygospore. The zygospore thus formed slowly increases in size, +until it in its turn develops a new generation of zoöspores. In still +other forms, in place of the zoöspores, more highly differentiated +cells, known as eggs and sperms, are developed, and these unite to +produce the new individuals. Both eggs and sperms are believed to have +been derived from simpler ancestral types of ciliated cells which were +similar in structure and closely resembled zoöspores.<a name='FNanchor_A_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_A_2'><sup>[A]</sup></a></p> + +<a name='Footnote_A_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_A_2'>[A]</a><div class='note'><p> This evidence, which points to the conclusion that in the +early origin of sexual reproduction the males and females were +differentiated and developed from a uniform type of ancestral cell, +quite controverts Ward's point that the male originated as a kind of +parasite.</p></div> + +<p>Having once originated, the sexual type of reproduction possessed a +definite survival value which assured its continuation. Sex makes +possible a crossing of strains, which evidently possesses some great +advantage, since the few simple forms which have no such division of +reproductive functions have undergone no great development and all the +higher, more complicated animals are sexual. This crossing of strains +may make possible greater variety, it may help in crossing out or +weakening variations which are too far from the average, or both.</p> + +<p>Schäfer<a name='FNanchor_4_1'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_1'><sup>[4]</sup></a> thinks that an exchange of nuclear substance probably gives +a sort of chemical rejuvenation and very likely stimulates division. At +any rate, the groups in which the reproductive process became thus +partitioned between two kinds of individuals, male and female, not only +survived, but they underwent an amazing development compared with those +which remained sexless.</p> + +<p>There came a time in the evolution of the groups possessing sexual +reproduction, when increasing specialization necessitated the division +into reproductive and non-reproductive cells. When a simple cell +reproduces by dividing into two similar parts, each developing into a +new individual like the parent, this parent no longer exists as a cell, +but the material which composed it still exists in the new ones. The old +cell did not "die"—no body was left behind. Since this nuclear +substance exists in the new cells, and since these generations go on +indefinitely, the cells are in a sense "immortal" or deathless. In a +one-celled individual, there is no distinction between germinal and +bodily functions. In the more complicated organisms, however, there are +innumerable kinds of cells, a few (the germ cells) specialized for +reproduction, the others forming the body which eats, moves, sees, +feels, and in the case of man, <i>thinks</i>. But the germ-cells or germplasm +continue to be immortal or deathless in the same sense as in the +simplest organisms. The body, in a historical sense, grew up around the +germ-cells, taking over functions a little at a time, until in the +higher animals nutrition and other activities and a large part even of +the reproductive process itself is carried on by body-cells.</p> + +<p>When we think of a man or woman, we think of an individual only one of +whose innumerable activities—reproduction—is carried on by germ-cells, +and this one only at the very beginning of the life of a new individual. +Human societies, needless to remark, are not organized by germplasms, +but by brains and hands—composed of body cells. If these brains and +hands—if human bodies—did not wear out or become destroyed, we should +not need to trouble ourselves so much about the germplasm, whose sole +function in human society is to replace them.</p> + +<p>Since the individual human bodies and minds which seek after the things +to which we mortals attach value—moral worth, esthetic and other +pleasure, achievement and the like—do have to be replaced every few +years, the germplasms from which new individuals must come have always +been and always will be of fundamental importance. It is always the +<i>product</i> of the germplasm which concerns us, and we are interested in +the germ-cells themselves only in relation to their capacity to produce +individuals of value to society.</p> + +<p>So let us not go erring about in the philosophical ether, imagining that +because the <i>amoeba</i> may not be specialized for anything over and above +nutrition and reproduction that these are necessarily the "main +business" or "chief ends" of human societies. Better say that although +we have become developed and specialized for a million other activities +we are still bound by those fundamental necessities. As to "Nature's +purposes" about which the older sex literature has had so much to say, +the idea is essentially religious rather than scientific. If such +"purposes" indeed exist in the universe, man evidently does not feel +particularly bound by them. We do not hesitate to put a cornfield where +"Nature" had a forest, or to replace a barren hillside by the sea with a +city.</p> + +<p>Necessities and possibilities, not "purposes" in nature, claim our +attention—reproduction being one of those embarrassing necessities, +viewed through the eyes of man, the one evaluating animal in the world. +Thus in reasoning from biology to social problems, it is fundamental to +remember that man as an animal is tremendously differentiated in +functions, and that most of the activities we look upon as distinctively +human depend upon the body rather than the germ-cells.</p> + +<p>It follows that biology is the foundation rather than the house, if we +may use so crude a figure. The solidity of the foundation is very +important, but it does not dictate the details as to how the +superstructure shall be arranged.</p> + +<p>Civilization would not be civilization if we had to spend most of our +time thinking about the biological basis. If we wish to think of +"Nature's" proscriptions or plans as controlling animal life, the +anthropomorphism is substantially harmless. But man keeps out of the way +of most of such proscriptions, has plans of his own, and has acquired +considerable skill in varying his projects without running foul of such +biological prohibitions.</p> + +<p>It is time to abandon the notion that biology prescribes in detail how +we shall run society. True, this foundation has never received a surplus +of intelligent consideration. Sometimes human societies have built so +foolishly upon it that the result has been collapse. Somebody is always +digging around it in quest of evidence of some vanished idyllic state of +things which, having had and discarded, we should return to. This little +excursion into biology is made in the full consciousness that social +mandates are not to be found there. Human projects are the primary +material of social science. It is indispensable to check these against +biological fact, in order to ascertain which are feasible and which are +not. The biological basis may <i>help</i> in explaining old social structures +or in planning new ones; but much wild social theory has been born of a +failure to appreciate the limitations of such material.</p> + +<p>All the so-called higher animals, mammals and others, are divided into +two sexes, male and female. Besides the differentiation of germ-cells +there are rather obvious differences in the bodies of the two sexes. In +common with many other mammals, the human male has a larger and stronger +body, on an average, than has the human female. This is true also of the +anthropoid apes, the species which most resemble man physically and are +commonly supposed to be his nearest blood relatives in the animal +kingdom. It has been true of man himself as far back as we have any +records.</p> + +<p>Such differences are only superficial—the real ones go deeper. We are +not so much interested in how they originated in the world as in how +they <i>do</i> come about in the individual. At least, we can come a good +deal nearer ascertaining the latter than the former. In either case, our +real purpose is to determine as nearly as possible what the unlikeness +really consists of and so help people to sensibly make up their minds +what can be done about it.</p> + +<p>To define sex with rigid accuracy as the term applies to human beings, +it is necessary to tell what it is in mammals, since man is a mammal. +The presence of distinct body-cells is not peculiar to mammals, but +there is one respect in which these latter are quite different from +non-mammals: A mammalian individual, beginning like a non-mammal with a +fertilized egg, has a period of intra-maternal development which a +non-mammal has not. That is, a non-mammalian is a fertilized egg <i>plus</i> +its parental (or extra-parental) environment; but a mammalian individual +is a fertilized egg, <i>plus its intra-maternal environment</i>, plus its +non-parental environment.</p> + +<p>Here in a nutshell is the biological basis of sex problem in human +society. Human individuals do wear out and have to be replaced by +reproduction. In the reproductive process, the female, as in mammals +generally, is specialized to provide an intra-maternal environment +(approximately nine months in the human species) for each new +individual, and lactation or suckling afterward. The biological phase of +the sex problem in society consists in studying the nature of that +specialization. From the purely sociological standpoint, the sex problem +concerns the customs and institutions which have grown up or may grow +up to meet the need of society for reproduction.</p> + +<p>The point which most concerns us is in how far biological data can be +applied to the sex problem in society. Systematic dissections or +breeding experiments upon human beings, thought out in advance and under +control in a laboratory, are subject to obvious limitations. Surgical +operations, where careful data are kept, often answer the same purpose +as concerns some details; but these alone would give us a fragmentary +record of how a fertilized egg becomes a conscious human being of one +sex or the other. The practice of medicine often throws light on +important points. Observation of abnormal cases plays its part in adding +to our knowledge. Carefully compiled records of what does occur in +inheritance, while lacking many of the checks of planned and controlled +experiments, to some extent take the place of the systematic breeding +possible with animals. At best, however, the limitations in +experimentation with human subjects would give us a rather disconnected +record were it not for the data of experimental biology.</p> + +<p>How may such biological material be safely used? Indiscriminately +employed, it is worse than useless—it can be confusing or actually +misleading. It is probably never safe to say, or even to infer directly, +that because of this or that animal structure or behaviour we should do +thus and so in human society. On this point sociology—especially the +sociology of sex—must frankly admit its mistakes and break with much of +its cherished past.</p> + +<p>The social problem of sex consists of fitting the best possible +institutions on to the biological foundation <i>as we find it in the human +species</i>. Hence all our reasoning about which institution or custom is +preferable must refer directly to the human bodies which compose +society. We can use laboratory evidence about the bodies of other +animals to help us in understanding the physical structure and functions +of the human body; but we must stop trying to apply the sex-ways of +birds, spiders or even cows (which are at least mammals) to human +society, which is not made up of any of these.</p> + +<p>It is possible to be quite sure that some facts carefully observed about +mammals in a biological laboratory apply to similar structures in man, +also a mammal. Because of this relationship, the data from medicine and +surgery are priceless. Thus we are enabled to check up our systematic +experimental knowledge of animals by an ascertained fact here and there +in the human material, and to get a fairly exact idea of how great the +correspondence actually is. Gaps thus filled in are narrow enough, and +our certainty of the ground on either side sufficiently great, to give +a good deal of justifiable assurance.</p> + +<p>If we use our general biological evidence in this way, merely to help in +clearing up points about <i>human</i> biology, we need not be entirely +limited to mammals. Some sex phenomena are quite general, and may be +drawn from the sexual species most convenient to study and control in +experiments. When we get away from mammalian forms, however, we must be +very sure that the cases used for illustrations are of general +application, are similar in respect to the points compared, or that any +vital differences are understood and conscientiously pointed out.</p> + +<p>Too much stress cannot be laid upon the point that such animal data, +carefully checked up with the human material, cannot safely be used for +any other purpose than to discover what the facts are about the human +body. When the discussion of human social institutions is taken up in +Part II, the obvious assumption will always be that these rest upon +human biology, and that we must not let our minds wander into vague +analogies concerning birds, spiders or crustacea.</p> +<br /> + +<p>BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER I</p> + +<a name='Footnote_1_1'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_1'>1.</a><div class='note'> Loeb, Jacques. Artificial Parthenogenesis and Fertilization. Chicago, +1913.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_2_1'></a><a href='#FNanchor_2_1'>2.</a><div class='note'><p> Loeb, Jacques. The Organism as a Whole. N.Y., 1916, p. 125—brief +summary of results of [1].</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_3_1'></a><a href='#FNanchor_3_1'>3.</a><div class='note'><p> Bower, Kerr & Agar. Sex and Heredity. N.Y., 1919, 119 pp.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_4_1'></a><a href='#FNanchor_4_1'>4.</a><div class='note'><p> Schäfer, E.A. Nature, Origin and Maintenance of Life. Science, n.s., +Vol. 36, pp. 306 f., 1912.</p></div> + +5. <p> Guyer, M.F. Being Well-Born. Indianapolis, 1916; p. 123.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='CHAPTER_II'></a><h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<center>SEX IN TERMS OF INTERNAL SECRETIONS</center> +<br /> + +<center><blockquote>Continuity of germplasm; The sex chromosome; The internal secretions and +the sex complex; The male and the female type of body; How removal of +sex glands affects body type; Sex determination; Share of egg and sperm +in heredity; Nature of sex—sexual selection of little importance; The +four main types of secretory systems; Sex and sex-instincts of rats +modified by surgery; Dual basis for sex; Opposite-sex basis in every +individual; The Free-Martin cattle; Partial reversal of sex in man.</blockquote></center><br> +<br /> + +<p>In Chapter I, the "immortality" of the protoplasm in the germ cells of +higher animals, as well as in simpler forms without distinct bodies, was +mentioned. In these higher animals this protoplasm is known as +<i>germplasm</i>, that in body cells as <i>somatoplasm</i>.</p> + +<p>All that is really meant by "immortality" in a germplasm is continuity. +That is, while an individual may consist of a colony of millions of +cells, all of these spring from one cell and it a germ cell—the +fertilized ovum. This first divides to form a new group of germ cells, +which are within the embryo or new body when it begins to develop, and +so on through indefinite generations. Thus the germ cells in an +individual living to-day are the lineal descendants, by simple division, +of the germ cells in his ancestors as many generations, or thousands of +generations, ago as we care to imagine. All the complicated body +specializations and sex phenomena may be regarded as super-imposed upon +or grouped around this succession of germ cells, continuous by simple +division.</p> + +<p>The type of body in each generation depends upon this germplasm, but the +germplasm is not supposed to be in any way modified by the body (except, +of course, that severe enough accidents might damage it). Thus we +resemble our parents only because the germplasm which directs our +development is a split-off portion of the same continuous line of germ +cells which directed their development, that of their fathers, and so on +back. This now universally accepted theory is called the "continuity of +the germplasm."</p> + +<p>It will be seen at once that this seems to preclude any possibility of a +child's inheriting from its parents anything which these did not +themselves inherit. The bodies of each generation are, so to speak, mere +"buds" from the continuous lines of germplasm. If we <i>develop</i> our +muscles or our musical talent, this development is of the body and dies +with it, though the physical basis or capacity we ourselves inherited +is still in the germplasm and is therefore passed along to our +children. We may also furnish our children an environment which will +stimulate their desire and lend opportunity for similar or greater +advancement than our own. This is <i>social inheritance</i>, or the product +of <i>environment</i>—easy to confuse with that of <i>heredity</i> and very +difficult to separate, especially in the case of mental traits.</p> + +<p>It will likewise become clear as we proceed that there is no mechanism +or relationship known to biology which could account for what is +popularly termed "pre-natal influence." A developing embryo has its own +circulation, so insulated from that of the mother that only a few of the +most virulent and insidious disease germs can ever pass the barrier. The +general health of the mother is of utmost importance to the vitality, +chances of life, constitution and immunity from disease of the unborn +child. Especially must she be free from diseases which may be +communicated to the child either before or at the time of birth. This +applies particularly to gonorrhoea, one of the most widely prevalent as +well as most ancient of maladies, and syphilis, another disastrous and +very common plague which is directly communicable. As to "birthmarks" +and the like being directly caused by things the mother has seen or +thought about, such beliefs seem to be founded on a few remarkable pure +coincidences and a great deal of folk-lore.</p> + +<p>Reproduction in its simplest form is, then, simply the division of one +cell into two parts, each of which develops into a replica of the +original. Division is also the first stage in reproduction in the most +complicated animal bodies. To get an idea of what takes place in such a +division we must remember that a cell consists of three distinct parts: +(a) the protoplasm or cytoplasm, (b) the nucleus, and (c) a small body +known as the centrosome which need not be discussed here.</p> + +<p>When a cell division takes place, the nucleus breaks up into a number of +thread-like portions which are known as chromosomes. There are supposed +to be 24 pairs, or 48, in the human cell. All the evidence indicates +that these chromosomes carry the "factors" in inheritance which produces +the characters or characteristics of the individual body.</p> + +<p>In mitosis or ordinary cell division, these chromosomes split +lengthwise, so that the new cells always have the same number as the +original one. When the germ-cells of the male and female make the +division which marks the first step in reproduction, however, the +process is different. Half the chromatin material passes into each of +the two cells formed. This is called <i>maturation</i>, or the maturation +division, and the new cells have only half the original number of +chromosomes. Each of these divides again by mitosis (the chromosomes +splitting lengthwise), the half or haploid number remaining. The result +is the <i>gametes</i> (literally "marrying cells"—from the Greek <i>gamé</i>, +signifying marriage). Those from the male are called sperms or +spermatozoa and those from the female eggs or ova. (The divisions to +form ova present certain complications which need not be taken up in +detail here.) Of the 24 chromosomes in each sperm or egg we are here +concerned with only one, known as the sex chromosome because, in +addition to transmitting other characteristics, it determines the sex of +the new individual.</p> + +<p>Neither the ovum nor the spermatozoon (the human race is referred to) is +capable alone of developing into a new individual. They must join in the +process known as fertilization. The sperm penetrates the egg (within the +body of the female) and the 24 chromosomes from each source, male and +female, are re-grouped in a new nucleus with 48 chromosomes—the full +number.</p> + +<p>The chances are half and half that the new individual thus begun will be +of a given sex, for the following reason: There is a structural +difference, supposed to be fundamentally chemical, between the cells of +a female body and those of a male. The result is that the gametes (sperm +and eggs) they respectively produce in maturation are not exactly alike +as to chromosome composition. All the eggs contain what is known as the +"X" type of sex chromosome. But only half the male sperm have this +type—in the other half is found one of somewhat different type, known +as "Y." (This, again, is for the human species—in some animals the +mechanism and arrangement is somewhat different.) If a sperm and egg +both carrying the X-type of chromosome unite in fertilization, the +resulting embryo is a female. If an X unites with a Y, the result is a +male. Since each combination happens in about half the cases, the race +is about half male and half female.</p> + +<p>Thus sex is inherited, like other characters, by the action of the +chromatin material of the cell nucleus. As Goldschmidt<a name='FNanchor_1_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_2'><sup>[1]</sup></a> remarks, this +theory of the visible mechanism of sex distribution "is to-day so far +proven that the demonstration stands on the level of an experimental +proof in physics or chemistry." But why and how does this nuclear +material determine sex? In other words, what is the nature of the +process of differentiation into male and female which it sets in motion?</p> + +<p>To begin with, we must give some account of the difference between the +cells of male and female origin, an unlikeness capable of producing the +two distinct types of gametes, not only in external appearance, but in +chromosome makeup as well. It is due to the presence in the bodies of +higher animals of a considerable number of glands, such as the thyroid +in the throat and the suprarenals just over the kidneys. These pour +secretions into the blood stream, determining its chemical quality and +hence how it will influence the growth or, when grown, the stable +structure of other organs and cells. They are called endocrine glands or +organs, and their chemical contributions to the blood are known as +<i>hormones</i>.</p> + +<p>Sometimes those which do nothing but furnish these secretions are spoken +of as "ductless glands," from their structure. The hormones (endocrine +or internal secretions) do not come from the ductless glands alone—but +the liver and other glands contribute hormones to the blood stream, in +addition to their other functions. Some authorities think that "every +cell in the body is an organ of internal secretion",<a name='FNanchor_2_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_2'><sup>[2]</sup></a> and that thus +each influences all the others. The sex glands are especially important +as endocrine organs; in fact the somatic cells are organized around the +germ cells, as pointed out above. Hence the sex glands may be considered +as the keys or central factors in the two chemical systems, the male and +the female type.</p> + +<p>These various hormones or chemical controllers in the blood interact in +a nicely balanced chemical system. Taken as a whole this is often +called the "secretory balance" or "internal secretory balance." This +balance is literally the key to the sex differences we see, because it +lies back of them; i.e., there are two general types of secretory +balance, one for males and one for females. Not only are the secretions +from the male and the female sex glands themselves quite unlike, but the +whole chemical system, balance or "complex" involved is different. +Because of this dual basis for metabolism or body chemistry, centering in +the sex glands, no organ or cell in a male body can be exactly like the +corresponding one in a female body.</p> + +<p>In highly organized forms like the mammals (including man), sex is +linked up with <i>all</i> the internal secretions, and hence is of the whole +body.<a name='FNanchor_3_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_2'><sup>[3]</sup></a> As Bell <a name='FNanchor_2_2a'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_2'><sup>[2, p.5]</sup></a> states it: "We must focus at one and the +same time the two essential processes of life—the individual metabolism +and the reproductive metabolism. They are interdependent. Indeed, the +individual metabolism is the reproductive metabolism."</p> + +<p>Here, then, is the reason men have larger, differently formed bodies +than women—why they have heavier bones, tend to grow beards, and so on. +The sex glands are only part of what we may call a well-organized +chemical laboratory, delivering various products to the blood, but +always in the same general proportions for a given sex. The ingredients +which come from the sex glands are also qualitatively different, as has +been repeatedly proved by injections and otherwise.</p> + +<p>Each of these sex types, male and female, varies somewhat within itself, +as is true of everything living. The two are not so far apart but that +they may overlap occasionally in some details. For instance, some women +are larger than are some men—have lower pitched voices, etc. The whole +bodily metabolism, resting as it does upon a chemical complex, is +obviously more like the male average in some women than it is in others, +and <i>vice versa</i>. But the average physical make-up which we find +associated with the male and female sex glands, respectively, is +distinctive in each case, and a vast majority of individuals of each sex +conform nearly enough to the average so that classification presents no +difficulty.</p> + +<p>The extreme as well as the average body types existing in the presence +of the respective types of sex-glands are different. For example, we +find an occasional hen with male spurs, comb or wattles, though she is a +normal female in every other respect, and lays eggs.<a name='FNanchor_4_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_2'><sup>[4]</sup></a> But we never +find a functional female (which lays eggs) with <i>all</i> the typical +characteristics of the male body. Body variation can go only so far in +the presence of each type of primary sexuality (i.e., sex-glands).</p> + +<p>The bodily peculiarities of each sex, as distinguished from the +sex-glands or gonads themselves, are known as <i>secondary</i> sex +characters. To put our statement in the paragraph above in another form, +the primary and secondary sex do not always correspond in all details. +We shall find as we proceed that our original tentative definition of +sex as the ability to produce in the one case sperm, in the other eggs, +is sometimes difficult to apply. What shall we say of a sterile +individual, which produces neither? The problem is especially +embarrassing when the primary and secondary sex do not correspond, as is +sometimes the case.</p> + +<p>Even in a fully grown animal, to remove or exchange the sex glands (by +surgery) modifies the bodily type. One of the most familiar cases of +removal is the gelding or desexed horse. His appearance and disposition +are different from the stallion, especially if the operation takes place +while he is very young. The reason he resembles a normal male in many +respects is simply that sexuality in such highly-organized mammals is of +the whole body, not of the sex-glands or organs alone.</p> + +<p>Suppose this horse was desexed at two years old. Nearly three years had +elapsed since he was a fertilized egg. During the eleven months or so he +spent within his mother, he developed a very complicated body. Beginning +as a male, with a male-type metabolism (that is, as the result of a +union between an X and a Y chromosome, not two X's), all his glands, as +well as the body structures they control, developed in its presence. Not +only the sex glands, but the liver, suprarenals, thyroid—the whole body +in fact—became adjusted to the male type. He had long before birth what +we call a male sex complex. Complex it is, but it is, nevertheless, easy +enough to imagine its nature for illustrative purposes. It is simply all +the endocrine or hormone-producing organs organized into a balanced +chemical system—adjusted to each other.</p> + +<p>When the horse had had this body and this gland system for nearly three +years (eleven months within his mother's body and twenty-four outside), +it had become pretty well organised and fixed. When a single chemical +element (the hormones from the sex-glands) was withdrawn, the system +(thus stereotyped in a developed body and glands) was modified but not +entirely upset. The sex complex remained male in many respects. It had +come to depend upon the other chemical plants, so to speak, quite as +much as upon the sex glands. The later the castration is performed—the +more fixed the body and gland type has become—the closer the horse will +resemble a normal male. Much laboratory experimentation now goes to +show that some accident while this horse was still a fertilized egg or +a very small embryo might have upset this male type of body +chemistry—perhaps even caused him to develop into a female instead, if +it took place early enough. This is well illustrated by the so-called +"Free-Martin" cattle, to be described later.</p> + +<p>For a long time a controversy raged as to whether sex is determined at +the time of fertilization, before or after. Biologists now generally +prefer to say that a fertilized egg is "predisposed" to maleness or +femaleness, instead of "determined." The word "determined" suggests +finality, whereas the embryo appears to have in the beginning only a +strong tendency or predisposition toward one sex type or the other. It +is now quite commonly believed that this predisposition arises from the +<i>quantity</i> rather than the quality or kind of factors in the chemical +impetus in the nuclei of the conjugating gametes. A later chapter will +be devoted to explaining the quantitative theory of sex.</p> + +<p>Hence the modern theory of "sex determination" has become:</p> + +<p>1. That the chemical factors which give rise to one sex or the other are +present in the sperm and ovum <i>before</i> fertilization;</p> + +<p>2. That a tendency or predisposition toward maleness or femaleness +arises at the time of fertilization, depending upon which type of sperm +unites with the uniform type of egg (in some species the sperm is +uniform while the egg varies);</p> + +<p>3. That this predisposition is:</p> + +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>a. Weaker at first, before it builds up much of a body and gland system to fix it;</span><br /> + +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>b. Increasingly stronger as the new body becomes organized and developed;</span><br /> + +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>c. Liable to partial or complete upset in the very early stages;</span><br /> + +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>d. Probably quantitative—stronger in some cases than in others.</span><br /> + +<p>The new definition is, then, really a combination and amplification of +the three older points of view.</p> + +<p>The term "sex determination" does not mean to the biologist the changing +or determining of the sex at will on the part of the experimenter. This +might be done by what is known as "selective fertilization" artificially +with only the kind of sperm (X or Y as to chromosomes) which would +produce the desired result. There is as yet no way to thus select the +sperm of higher animals. It has been authoritatively claimed that +feeding with certain chemicals, and other methods to be discussed later, +has affected the sex of offspring. These experiments (and +controversies) need not detain us, since they are not applicable to the +human species.</p> + +<p>Let us consider this fertilized egg—the contributions of the father and +the mother. The total length of the spermatozoon is only about 1/300 of +an inch, and 4/5 of this is the tail. This tail does not enter the egg, +and has no other known function than that of a propeller. Its movement +has been studied and found to be about 1/8 of an inch per minute. Only +the head and neck enter the egg. This head consists almost entirely of +the nuclear material which is supposed to determine the characters of +the future individual.</p> + +<p>The ovum or egg contributed by the mother is much larger—nearly round +in shape and about 1/120 of an inch in diameter. Besides its nucleus, it +contains a considerable amount of what used to be considered as "stored +nutritive material" for the early development of the individual.</p> + +<p>In ancient times the female was quite commonly supposed to be a mere +medium of development for the male seed. Thus the Laws of Manu stated +that woman was the soil in which the male seed was planted. In the Greek +<i>Eumenides</i>, Orestes' mother did not generate him, but only received and +nursed the germ. These quaint ideas of course originated merely from +observation of the fact that the woman carries the young until birth, +and must not lead us to imagine that the ancients actually separated the +germ and somatic cells in their thinking.</p> + +<p>A modern version of this old belief was the idea advanced by Harvey that +the ovum consisted of fluid in which the embryo appeared by spontaneous +generation. Loeuwenhoek's development of the microscope in the 17th +century led immediately to the discovery of the spermatozoon by one of +his students. At the time, the "preformation theory" was probably the +most widely accepted—i.e., that the adult form exists in miniature in +the egg or germ, development being merely an unfolding of these +preformed parts. With the discovery of the spermatozoon the +preformationists were divided into two schools, one (the ovists) holding +that the ovum was the container of the miniature individual, the other +(animalculists) according this function to the spermatozoon. According +to the ovists, the ovum needed merely the stimulation of the +spermatozoon to cause its contained individual to undergo development, +while the animalculists looked upon the spermatozoon as the essential +embryo container, the ovum serving merely as a suitable food supply or +growing place.</p> + +<p>This nine-lived notion of male supremacy in inheritance was rather +reinforced than removed by the breeding of domestic animals in the +still more recent past. Attention has been focused on a few great males. +For example, the breed of American trotting horses all goes back to one +sire—Hambletonian 10. The great Orloff Stud Book, registering over a +million individuals, is in the beginning founded on a single horse—a +male. It is not strange that we still find among some breeders vestiges +of the ancient belief that the male predominates in inheritance. A +superior male can impress his characters in a single year upon 100 times +as <i>many</i> colts as a female of equal quality could produce in her +lifetime. So slight an incident in his life is this reproductive process +for each individual that he could if he devoted his life solely to +reproduction stamp his characters upon a thousand times as many colts as +could a female. Thus under artificial breeding conditions, the good +males do have a tremendously disproportionate share in improving the +whole breed of horses, though each single horse gets his qualities +equally from his male and female parents.</p> + +<p>Though Mendel knew an astonishing amount about inheritance a +half-century ago, it is worth noting that the foundation upon which +rests our present knowledge of sex has been discovered less than twenty +years before—the reference is, of course, to the chromosomes as the +carriers of inheritance. While from the standpoint of biology the +opinions of two decades ago about sex literally belong to a different +age, some of them have been so persistent in sociological thought and +writings that they must be briefly reviewed in order that the reader may +be on his guard against them. Books which still have a wide circulation +deal with the sex problem in terms of a biology now no more tenable than +the flatness of the earth.</p> + +<p>On the one hand were the ancient traditions of male predominance in +inheritance, reinforced by the peculiar emphasis which animal breeding +places upon males. On the other hand, biologists like Andrew Wilson<a name='FNanchor_5_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_5_2'><sup>[5]</sup></a> +had argued as early as the seventies of the past century for female +predominance, from the general evidence of spiders, birds, etc. Lester +F. Ward crystallized the arguments for this view in an article entitled +"Our Better Halves" in <i>The Forum</i> in 1888. This philosophy of sex, +which he christened the "Gynæcocentric Theory," is best known as +expanded into the fourteenth chapter of his "Pure Sociology," published +fifteen years later. Its publication at this late date gave it an +unfortunate vitality long after its main tenets had been disproved in +the biological laboratory. Germ-cell and body-cell functions were not +separated. Arguments from social structures, from cosmic, natural and +human history, much of it deduced by analogy, were jumbled together in +a fashion which seems amazing to us now, though common enough thirty +years ago. It was not a wild hypothesis in 1888, its real date, but its +repeated republication (in the original and in the works of other +writers who accepted it as authoritative) since 1903 has done much to +discredit sociology with biologists and, what is more serious, to muddle +ideas about sex and society.</p> + +<p>In 1903, Weismann's theory of the continuity of the germplasm was ten +years old. De Vries' experiments in variation and Mendel's rediscovered +work on plant hybridization had hopelessly undermined the older notion +that the evolution or progress of species has taken place through the +inheritance of acquired characters—that is, that the individuals +developed or adapted themselves to suit their surroundings and that +these body-modifications were inherited by their offspring. As pointed +out in Chapter I, biologists have accepted Weismann's theory of a +continuous germplasm, and that this germplasm, not the body, is the +carrier of inheritance. Nobody has so far produced evidence of any trace +of any biological mechanism whereby development of part of the body—say +the biceps of the brain—of the individual could possibly produce such a +specific modification of the germplasm he carries as to result in the +inheritance of a similar development by his offspring.</p> + +<p>Mendel's experiments had shown that the characters we inherit are units +or combinations of units, very difficult to permanently change or +modify. They combine with each other in all sorts of complicated ways. +Sometimes one will "dominate" another, causing it to disappear for a +generation or more; but it is not broken up. These characters have a +remarkable way of becoming "segregated" once more—that is, of appearing +intact later on.</p> + +<p>While it follows from Weismann's theory that an adaptation acquired by +an individual during his lifetime cannot be transmitted to his +offspring, it remained for De Vries to show authoritatively that +evolution can, and does, take place without this. Once this was +established, biologists cheerfully abandoned the earlier notion. Lester +Ward and the biologists of his day in general not only believed in the +transmission of acquired characters, but they filled the obvious gaps +which occurred in trying to apply this theory to the observed facts by +placing a fantastic emphasis upon sexual selection. That is, much +progress was accounted for through the selection by the females of the +superior males. This, as a prime factor in evolution, has since been +almost "wholly discredited" (Kellogg's phrase) by the careful +experiments of Mayer, Soule, Douglass, Dürigen, Morgan and others. The +belief in sexual selection involved a long string of corollaries, of +which biology has about purged itself, but they hang on tenaciously in +sociological and popular literature. For instance, Ward believed in the +tendency of opposites to mate (tall men with short women, blonds with +brunettes, etc.), although Karl Pearson had published a statistical +refutation in his <i>Grammar of Science</i>, which had run through two +editions when the <i>Pure Sociology</i> appeared. The greater variability of +males than females, another gynæcocentric dogma had also been attacked +by Pearson on statistical evidence in 1897 (in the well-known essay on +Variation in Man and Woman, in <i>Chances of Death</i>) and has become +increasingly unacceptable through the researches of Mrs. +Hollingworth<a name='FNanchor_6_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_6_2'><sup>[6, </sup></a><a name='FNanchor_7_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_7_2'><sup>7, </sup></a><a name='FNanchor_8_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_8_2'><sup>8]</sup></a>. The idea of a vanished age of mother-rule in human +society, so essential to the complete theory, has long since been +modified by anthropologists.</p> + +<p>De Vries' experiments showed that a moderately simple fact practically +makes all these complicated theories unnecessary. No two living things +are exactly alike—that is, all living matter is more or less variable. +Some variations are more fortunate than others, and these variants are +the ones which survive—the ones best adapted to their environment. +Given this fact of the constant variation of living matter, natural +selection (i.e., survival of the fittest and elimination of the unfit) +is the mechanism of evolution or progress which best accounts for the +observed facts. Such variation is called "chance variation," not because +it takes place by "chance" in the properly accepted sense of the term, +but because it is so tremendously varied—is evidently due to such +complicated and little-understood circumstances—that it can best be +studied mathematically, using statistical applications of the "theory of +probabilities."</p> + +<p>The fine-spun, elaborate theories about sex, so current twenty years +ago, have fallen into almost complete desuetude among scientists. With +the discovery of the place of the chromosomes in inheritance, biologists +began to give their almost undivided attention to a rigid laboratory +examination of the cell. This has included sex phenomena since McClung +and Sutton pointed out the function of the sex chromosome in 1902 and +1903. Present-day "theories" are little more than working hypotheses, +developed, not in a library or study, but with one eye glued to a +high-power microscope.</p> + +<p>Besides its faulty foundation as to facts, the old gynæcocentric theory +involved a method of treatment by historical analogy which biologists +have almost entirely discarded. Anyone interested in the relative value +of different kinds of biological data for social problems would do well +to read the opening chapter of Prof. Morgan's "Critique of the Theory of +Evolution"<a name='FNanchor_9_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_9_2'><sup>[9]</sup></a> , for even a summary of which space is lacking here. +College reference shelves are still stocked with books on sex sociology +which are totally oblivious of present-day biology. For example, Mrs +Gilman (Man-Made World), Mrs Hartley (Truth About Woman) and the +Nearings (Woman and Social Progress) adhere to Ward's theory in +substantially its primitive form, and not even sociologists like +Professor Thomas (Sex and Society) have been able to entirely break away +from it.</p> + +<p>The old question of male and female predominance in inheritance has been +to a considerable extent cleared up, to the discomfiture of both sides +to the controversy. Most exhaustive experiments failed to trace any +characters to any other part of either sperm or egg than the nucleus. +Transmission of characteristics seemed to be absolutely equal by the two +parents. The male nucleus enters the egg practically naked. Hence if the +characters are transmitted equally, there is certainly ground for +supposing that only the nucleus of the egg has such functions, and that +the remainder merely provides material for early development. Yet this +does not seem to be strictly true.</p> + +<p>Parthenogenesis (development of eggs without agency of male sperm) +proves that in many simple forms the female nucleus alone possesses all +the essential determiners for a new individual. Boveri's classic +experiment<a name='FNanchor_10_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_10_2'><sup>[10]</sup></a> proved the same thing for the male nucleus. He removed +the nuclei from sea-urchin eggs and replaced them with male nuclei. +Normal individuals developed. To make things still more certain, he +replaced the female nucleus with a male one from a different variety of +sea-urchin. The resulting individual exhibited the characteristics of +the <i>male nucleus</i> only—none of those of the species represented by the +egg. Here, then, was inheritance definitely traced to the nucleus. If +this nucleus is a male the characters are those of the male line; if a +female those of the female line, and in sexual reproduction where the +two are fused, half and half.</p> + +<p>Yet the fact remained that all efforts to develop the spermatozoon alone +(without the agency of any egg material at all) into an individual had +signally failed. Conklin<a name='FNanchor_11_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_11_2'><sup>[11]</sup></a> had found out in 1904 and 1905 that the egg +cytoplasm in Ascidians is not only composed of different materials, but +that these give rise to definite structures in the embryo later on. So a +good many biologists believed, and still believe<a name='FNanchor_12_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_12_2'><sup>[12,</sup></a> <a name='FNanchor_13_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_13_2'><sup>13,</sup></a> <a name='FNanchor_14_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_14_2'><sup>14]</sup></a> that the egg +is, before fertilization, a sort of "rough preformation of the future +embryo" and that the Mendelian factors in the nuclei "only impress the +individual (and variety) characters upon this rough block."</p> + +<p>If we look at these views from one angle, the apparent conflict +disappears, as Professor Conklin<a name='FNanchor_15_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_15_2'><sup>[15]</sup></a> points out. We can still presume +that all the factors of inheritance are carried in the nucleus. But +instead of commencing the life history of the individual at +fertilization, we must date it back to the beginning of the development +of the egg in the ovary. Whatever rude characters the egg possesses at +the time of fertilization were developed under the influence of the +nucleus, which in turn got them half and half from its male and female +parents. These characters carried by the female across one generation +are so rudimentary that they are completely covered up, in the +developing embryo, by those of the new nucleus formed by the union of +the sperm with the egg in fertilization.</p> + +<p>In case fertilization does not take place, this rude beginning in the +egg is lost. Since no characteristic sex is assumed until after +fertilization, we may say that life begins as neuter in the individual, +as it is presumed to have done in the world. It will occur to those +inclined to speculation or philosophic analysis that by the word +"neuter" we may mean any one or all of three things: (a) neither male +nor female; (b) both male and female, as yet undifferentiated, or (c) +potentially either male or female. Clearly, the above explanation +assumes a certain <i>germinal</i> specialization of the female to +reproduction, in addition to the body specialization for the +intra-parental environment (in mammals).</p> + +<p>A tremendous amount of laboratory experimentation upon animals has been +done in late years to determine the nature of sex. For example, +Goodale<a name='FNanchor_16_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_16_2'><sup>[16]</sup></a> castrated a brown leghorn cockerel twenty-three days old +and dropped pieces of the ovary of a female bird of the same brood and +strain into the abdominal cavity. These adhered and built up circulatory +systems, as an autopsy later showed. This cockerel, whose male sex +glands had been exchanged for female ones, developed the female body, +and colouration so completely that expert breeders of the strain +pronounced it a female. He found that simply removing the female sex +glands invariably led to the development of spurs and male plumage. But +simple removal of the male sex glands did not alter plumage. To make +sure, he replaced the male sex glands with female, and found that the +former male developed female plumage.</p> + +<p>This obviously signifies that in birds the female is an inhibited +male.<a name='FNanchor_4_2a'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_2'><sup>[4, p.49.]</sup></a> Either sex when castrated has male feathers—the male has +them either with or without testes, unless they are <i>inhibited</i> by the +presence of (transplanted) ovaries. It will be remembered that the +sociological theory of sex held by Ward, Mrs. Hartley and a host of +others was founded on the supposition that evolution or development of a +species is chiefly due to selection by the females of the better males, +a conclusion based almost entirely on bird evidence. Ward<a name='FNanchor_17_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_17_2'><sup>[17]</sup></a> states +that "the change or progress, as it may be called, has been wholly in +the male, the female remaining unchanged"; also that "the male side of +nature shot up and blossomed out in an unnatural, fantastic way...." +Speaking of the highly-coloured males, especially among birds, the same +writer states that "the <i>normal colour</i> (italics ours) is that of the +young and the female, and the colour of the male is the result of his +excessive variability." Goodale's results completely refute this idea, +and should bury for ever the well-known sociological notion of "male +afflorescence."</p> + +<p>The general doctrine of a stable, "race-type" female and a highly +variable male has been widely circulated. In tracing it back through +voluminous literature, it appears to have been founded on an article +published by W.I. Brooks in the <i>Popular Science Monthly</i> for June, +1879, fourteen years before Weissmann's enunciation of the theory of +continuity of the germ-plasm. Like Wallace, Brooks continued to study +and experiment till the last, and finally withdrew from his earlier +position on sexual selection. However, this has not prevented others +from continuing to quote his discarded views—innocently, of course.</p> + +<p>Havelock Ellis<a name='FNanchor_18_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_18_2'><sup>[18]</sup></a> and G. Stanley Hall<a name='FNanchor_19_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_19_2'><sup>[19]</sup></a> have applied the idea of a +"race-type" female with peculiar insistence to the human race. Goodale +has finally killed the bird evidence upon which earlier workers so +largely founded this doctrine, by showing that the "race type" toward +which birds tend unless inhibited by the female ovarian secretion is the +male type, not the female. There is a great difference in the way the +internal secretions act in birds and in man, as will be pointed out +later. It is so important that such a major point as general variability +must be supported and corroborated by mammalian evidence to prove +anything positively for man. As already noted, the statistical studies +of Pearson and Mrs. Hollingworth <i>et al.</i> have yielded uniformly +negative results.</p> + +<p>In the utilization of data gathered from non-human species, certain +differences in the systems of internal secretion must be taken into +account. Birds differ from the human species as to internal secretory +action in two vital particulars: (a) In the higher mammals, sex depends +upon a "complex" of all the glands interacting, instead of upon the sex +glands alone as in birds; (b) The male bird instead of the female is +homogametic for sex—i.e., the sperm instead of the eggs is uniform as +to the sex chromosome.</p> + +<p>Insects are (in some cases at least) like birds as to the odd +chromosome—the opposite of man. But as to secondary sex-characters they +differ from both. These characters do not depend upon any condition of +the sex organs, but are determined directly by the chemical factors +which determine sex itself.<a name='FNanchor_20_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_20_2'><sup>[20]</sup></a> </p> + +<p>In crustacea, the male is an inhibited female (the exact opposite of +birds), as shown by the experiments of Giard and Geoffrey Smith on +crabs. A parasite, <i>Sacculina neglecta</i>, sometimes drives root-like +growths into the spider crab, causing slow castration. The females thus +desexed do not assume the male type of body, but castrated males vary so +far toward the female type that some lay eggs<a name='FNanchor_3_2a'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_2'><sup>[3, p.143;</sup></a> <a name='FNanchor_20_2a'></a><a href='#Footnote_20_2'><sup>20]</sup></a>. It is the +discovery of such distinctions which makes it necessary to re-examine +all the older biological evidence on the sex problem, and to discard +most of it as insufficiently exact.</p> + +<p>The work of Steinach<a name='FNanchor_12_2a'></a><a href='#Footnote_12_2'><sup>[12, pp.225f.]</sup></a> on rats is another well-known example +of changing sex characters by surgery. Steinach found that an ovary +transplanted into a male body changed its characteristics and instincts +into the female type. The growth of the male sex organs he found to be +definitely inhibited by the ovaries. He went so far as to transplant the +whole uterus and tube into the male body, where it developed normally. +One of the most interesting of his results is the observation of how the +instincts were changed along with the type of body. The feminized males +behaved like normal females toward the other males and toward females. +Likewise they were treated as normal females by the males.</p> + +<p>It would be impossible to give here any just idea of the vast amount of +rigid scientific experimentation which has been carried on in this +field, or the certainty of many of the results. Sex is really known, +about as well as anything can be known, to arise from the chemical +causes discussed above. That is, the endocrine explanation is the +correct one.</p> + +<p>One of the most significant results of the transplantation experiments +is the evidence that <i>each individual carries the fundamental bases for +both sexes</i>. When Goodale changed a male bird into a female as to +secondary characters and instincts by replacing one secretion with +another, he was faced with the following problem: How can a single +secretion be responsible for innumerable changes as to feather length, +form and colouring, as to spurs, comb and almost an endless array of +other details? To suppose that a secretion could be so complicated in +its action as to determine each one of a thousand different items of +structure, colour and behaviour would be preposterous. Besides, we know +that some of these internal secretions are <i>not</i> excessively +complicated—for instance adrenalin (the suprarenal secretion) can be +compounded in the laboratory. We may say that it cannot possibly be that +the ovarian or testicular secretion is composed of enough different +chemical substances to produce each different effect.</p> + +<p>There remains only the supposition that the female already possesses the +genetic basis for becoming a male, and <i>vice versa</i>. This is in accord +with the observed facts. In countless experiments it is shown that the +transformed female becomes like the male of her own strain and brood—to +state it simply, like the male she would have been if she had not been a +female. If we think of this basis as single, then it must <i>exhibit</i> +itself in one way in the presence of the male secretions, in another way +under the influence of the female secretions. In this way a very simple +chemical agent in the secretion might account for the whole +difference—merely causing a genetic basis already present to express +itself in the one or the other manner.</p> + +<p>This may be illustrated by the familiar case of the crustacea <i>Artemia +salina</i> and <i>Artemia Milhausenii</i>. These are so unlike that they were +long supposed to be different species; but it was later discovered that +the genetic basis is exactly the same. One lives in 4 to 8% salt water, +the other in 25% or over. If, however, the fresh-water variety is put in +the saltier water with the salt-water variety, all develop exactly +alike, into the salt-water kind. Likewise, if the salt-water variety is +developed in fresh water, it assumes all the characteristics of the +fresh-water kind. Thus the addition or subtraction of a single chemical +agent—common salt—makes all the difference.</p> + +<p>If this basis for sex is single, it is represented by the male plumage +in domestic birds, the secretions from the sex-glands acting as +modifiers. But a great deal of evidence has been produced to show that +the genetic basis, in man and some other forms at least, is double. That +is, we must think of two genetic bases existing in each individual—each +representing one of the two types of secondary sex characters. The +primary sex (i.e., the sex glands) would then determine which is to +express itself. In the domestic birds described above, the male type of +body appears in the absence of the ovarian secretion, and the female +type in its presence. In man and the more highly organized mammals, we +must use "secretions" in the plural, since a number of them, from +different glands, act together in a "complex." Goodale, experimenting +with birds, was unable to definitely decide whether the basis for sex +was single or double in that material, though he favoured the latter +explanation.</p> + +<p>Dr Bell, the English gynecologist, using human surgical cases as a +basis, commits himself strongly to the dual basis.<a name='FNanchor_2_2b'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_2'><sup>[2, p.13.]</sup></a> "Every +fertilized ovum," he says, "is potentially bisexual," but has "a +predominating tendency ... toward masculinity or femininity." But "at +the same time," he remarks, "it is equally obvious that latent traits of +the opposite sex are always present." After discussing mental traits +observed in each sex which normally belong to the other, he concludes as +follows: "If further evidence of this bisexuality, which exists in +everyone, were required, it is to be found in the embryological remains +of the latent sex, which always exist in the genital ducts."</p> + +<p>In some lower forms, dual sexuality is apparent until the animal is +fairly well developed. In frogs, for example, the sex glands of both +sexes contain eggs in early life, and it is not possible to tell them +apart with certainty, until they are about four months old.<a name='FNanchor_12_2b'></a><a href='#Footnote_12_2'><sup>[12, p.125.]</sup></a> +Then the eggs gradually disappear in the male.</p> + +<p>However, we need not depend upon non-mammalian evidence for either the +secretory explanation or the dual basis. An ideal case would be to +observe the effects of circulating the blood of one sex in a developing +embryo of the other. This blood-transfusion occurs in nature in the +"Free-Martin" cattle.<a name='FNanchor_21_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_21_2'><sup>[21]</sup></a> </p> + +<p>Two embryos (twins) begin to develop in separate membranes or chorions. +At an early stage in this development, however, the arteries and veins +of the two become connected, so that the blood of each may circulate +through the body of the other. "If both are males or both are females no +harm results from this...," since the chemical balance which determines +the bodily form in each case is of the same type. But if one is a male +and the other a female, the male secretory balance dominates the female +in a very peculiar fashion. The female reproductive system is largely +suppressed. She even develops certain male organs, and her general +bodily appearance is so decidedly masculine that until Dr Lillie worked +out the case she had always been supposed to be a non-functional male. +She is sterile. The blood transfusion not only alters the sex-type of +her body, but it actually modifies the sex glands themselves, so that +the ovary resembles a testicle, though dissection proves the contrary.</p> + +<p>Why does not the female become a true, functional male? Perhaps she does +in some cases. Such a one would not be investigated, since there would +be no visible peculiarity. In all the cases examined, the embryo had +begun its female development and specialization under the influence of +a predisposition of the female type in the fertilized egg, before the +transfusion began. There is no absolutely convincing mammalian evidence +of the complete upset of this predisposition, so all one can say is that +it is theoretically possible. Cases of partial reversal, sometimes +called "intersexes," are common enough. In birds and insects, where the +material is less expensive and experimentation simpler, males have been +produced from female-predisposed fertilized eggs and <i>vice versa</i>, as we +shall see in the next chapter.</p> + +<p>Dr Bell<a name='FNanchor_2_2c'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_2'><sup>[2, pp.133f.]</sup></a> points out that the so-called human "hermaphrodites" +are simply partial reversals of the sex type from that originally fixed +in the fertilized egg. As has been remarked earlier in these pages, +there is rarely if ever true hermaphroditism in higher animals—i.e., +cases of <i>two functional sexes</i> in the same individual. In fact, the +pathological cases in the human species called by that name are probably +not capable of reproduction at all.<a name='FNanchor_A_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_A_3'><sup>[A]</sup></a></p> + +<a name='Footnote_A_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_A_3'>[A]</a><div class='note'><p> <i>Note on human hermaphroditism</i>: This subject has been +treated in a considerable medical literature. See, for example, Alienist +and Neurologist for August, 1916, and New York Medical Journal for Oct. +23, 1915. It has been claimed that both human and higher mammalian +"hermaphrodites" have actually functioned for both sexes. Obviously, +absolute certainty about cause and effect in such cases, where human +beings are concerned, is next to impossible, because of lack of +scientific, laboratory control. If a case of complete functional +hermaphroditism in the human species could be established beyond +question, it would indicate that the male secretory balance in man does +not inhibit the female organs to the same extent that it apparently does +in the Free-Martin cattle. If established, the idea of "male dominance" +in the human species would be undermined in a new place. Such cases, if +they occur at all, are exceedingly rare, but are of theoretical +interest. We must not rush to conclusions, as the earlier sociologists +used to do. Such a case would require careful analysis. Its very +uniqueness would suggest that it may not be due to the ordinary causes +of hermaphroditism, but might arise from some obscure and unusual cause +such as the fusion of two embryos at a very early stage. The +biochemistry involved is so intricate and so little understood that any +deduction from the known facts would be purely speculative.</p></div> +<br /> + +<p>Like the Free-Martin cattle, some accident has resulted in a mixture of +male and female characteristics. This accident occurs after a certain +amount of embryonic development has taken place under the influence of +the original predisposition of the fertilized egg. The delicate +secretory balance, so complex in man, is upset. With partially developed +organs of one type and with a blood-chemistry of the opposite one, some +curious results follow, as the illustrative plates in Dr Bell's book +show.</p> + +<p>It should be remembered that sex in higher mammals is of the whole body, +and depends upon all the secretions. Hence an accident to one of the +other glands may upset the balance as well as one to the sex glands +themselves. For example, 15% of Neugebauer's<a name='FNanchor_22_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_22_2'><sup>[22]</sup></a> cases of female tubular +partial hermaphroditism had abnormal growths in the suprarenals.</p> + +<p>Thus in the human species, it is possible for one type of sex glands to +exist in the opposite type of body, as we saw it to be in +cattle—though it apparently could not occur unless compensated for in +some way by the other secretions. This is a very great departure from +birds, rats and guinea pigs, whose bodies change over their sex type +when the gonads are transplanted. Birds take on the male appearance when +the sex glands are removed (or retain it, if they are males). This is +not true of man. The chemical life processes of the two sexes after +puberty in the human species are quite characteristic. The male and +female types are both very different from the infantile. When it becomes +necessary to desex men, the resulting condition is <i>infantile</i>, not +female.<a name='FNanchor_23_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_23_2'><sup>[23]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The desexed man is of course the eunuch of ancient literature. If +desexed near maturity, he might look like a normal man in many respects; +but if the operation were performed before puberty, his development is +simply arrested and remains infantile—incomplete. Only in 1878 was the +practice of desexing boys to get the famous adult male soprano voices +for the Sistine Choir discontinued.</p> + +<p>Removal of the ovaries in women likewise produces an infantile +condition, which is pronounced only in case the operation takes place +very young. <a name='FNanchor_24_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_24_2'><sup>[24]</sup></a> From his clinical experience, Dr Bell <a name='FNanchor_2_2d'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_2'><sup>[2, p.160]</sup></a> +concludes that no very definite modifications can be produced in an +adult woman by withdrawal of the ovarian secretion alone. "There must +be," he says, "some gross change in those parts of the endocritic +system, especially apart from the genital glands, which normally produce +masculinity—potentiality that appears to be concentrated in the +suprarenals, the pituitary and probably in the pineal."</p> + +<p>What, then, do we mean by "male" and "female" in man? Take Dr Russell +Andrews' patient: photographs<a name='FNanchor_2_2e'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_2'><sup>[2, plate opposite p.243]</sup></a> show a rounded +bodily outline, hairless face, well-developed mammæ—the female sex +characteristics in every respect which the ordinary person could detect. +Yet an operation proved that the sex glands themselves were male.</p> + +<p>Presumably extreme cases like the above are rare. Obviously operations +cannot be performed on all those with female-type bodies who do not bear +children, to determine the primary sex, and conversely with men. This +does, however, point the obvious question: Are not some we classify as +men <i>more male</i> or masculine than others—some we classify as women +<i>more feminine</i> than others? Bearing in mind the fact that the genetic +basis for both sexes exists in each individual, are not some women more +masculine than others, some men more feminine than others? However much +we may object to stating it just that way, the biological fact remains +thus. The Greeks called these intermediate types <i>urnings</i>—modern +biology knows them as "intersexes."</p> + +<p>Only within the past few years have the general phenomena of +intersexuality been cleared up to any considerable extent—naturally on +the basis of the secretory explanation of sex. This secretory or +endocrine idea has also given us an entirely new view of sex +differences. These are best discussed as functional rather than as +structural. To correlate this material, we must next give a rude sketch +of the quantitative theory of sex.</p><br /> + +<p>BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER II</p> + +<a name='Footnote_1_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_2'>1.</a><div class='note'> Goldschmidt, R. Intersexuality and the Endocrine Aspect of Sex. +Endocrinology, Vol. I, p. 434, 1917.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_2_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_2_2'>2.</a><div class='note'> Bell, Dr Blair. The Sex Complex. London, 1916, p. 98.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_3_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_3_2'>3.</a><div class='note'> Paton, D. Noël. Regulators of Metabolism. London, 1913, p. 146.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_4_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_4_2'>4.</a><div class='note'> Goodale, H.D. Gonadectomy...Carnegie Pub. 243, 1916, pp. 43f.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_5_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_5_2'>5.</a><div class='note'> Wilson, Andrew. Polity of a Pond (essay). Humboldt Lib. of Sc., +No. 88—reprint, dated 1888.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_6_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_6_2'>6.</a><div class='note'> Hollingworth, L.S. Variability as Related to Sex Differences in +Achievement. Am. Jour, of Sociol., XIX., 1914, pp. 510-530.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_7_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_7_2'>7.</a><div class='note'> Lowie, R.H. & Hollingworth, L.S. Science and Feminism. Sci. Mthly., +Sept., 1916, pp. 277-284.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_8_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_8_2'>8.</a><div class='note'> Montague, Helen & Hollingworth, L.S. Comparative Variability of the +Sexes at Birth. Am. J. of Sociol. XX, 335-70. 1915.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_9_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_9_2'>9.</a><div class='note'> Morgan, T.H. A Critique of the Theory of Evolution. N.Y., 1916, +pp. 1-27.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_10_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_10_2'>10.</a><div class='note'> Loeb, Jacques. Artificial Parthenogenesis and Fertilization. +Chicago, 1913, pp. 3, 51f., 240f, 303.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_11_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_11_2'>11.</a><div class='note'> Conklin, E.G. Organ-Forming Substances in the Eggs of Ascidians. +U. of Pa. Contrib. from the Zool. Lab. Vol. 12. 1905, pp. 205-230.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_12_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_12_2'>12.</a><div class='note'> Loeb, J. The Organism as a Whole. N.Y., 1916, pp. 138f, 151-2.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_13_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_13_2'>13.</a><div class='note'> Guyer, M.F. Being Well-Born. Indianapolis, 1916, p. 51.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_14_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_14_2'>14.</a><div class='note'> Tower, W.L. (et al.). Heredity and Eugenics. Chicago, 1912, +pp. 164, 254-5.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_15_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_15_2'>15.</a><div class='note'> Conklin, E.G. Share of Egg and Sperm in Heredity. Proc. Nat. Acad. +of Sc., Feb., 1917.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_16_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_16_2'>16.</a><div class='note'> Goodale, H.D. A Feminized Cockerel. Jour. Exp. Zool. Vol. 20, +pp. 421-8.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_17_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_17_2'>17.</a><div class='note'> Ward, Lester F. Pure Sociology. N.Y., 1903, pp. 322f.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_18_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_18_2'>18.</a><div class='note'> Ellis, Havelock. Man and Woman, 4th Ed. London, 1904. Ch. XVI.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_19_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_19_2'>19.</a><div class='note'> Hall, G. Stanley. Adolescence. N.Y., 1907. Vol. II, pp. 561-2.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_20_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_20_2'>20.</a><div class='note'> Morgan, T.H. Heredity and Sex. N.Y., 1913, pp. 155f.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_21_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_21_2'>21.</a><div class='note'> Lillie, F.R. Theory of the Free Martin. Science, n.s., Vol. XLIII, +pp. 611-13.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_22_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_22_2'>22.</a><div class='note'> Neugebauer, F.L. Hermaphrodismus, Leipzig, 1908.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_23_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_23_2'>23.</a><div class='note'> Vincent, S. Internal Secretions and the Ductless Glands. London, +1912, p. 69.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_24_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_24_2'>24.</a><div class='note'> Marshall, F.H. Physiology of Reproduction. London, 1910, p. 314.</div> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='CHAPTER_III'></a><h2>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<center>SEX AND SEX DIFFERENCES AS QUANTITATIVE</center> +<br> +<center><blockquote>Intersexes in moths; Bird intersexes; Higher metabolism of males; +Quantitative difference between sex factors; Old ideas of +intersexuality; Modern surgery and human intersexes; Quantitative theory +a Mendelian explanation; Peculiar complication in the case of man; +Chemical life cycles of the sexes; Functional-reproductive period and +the sex problem; Relative significance of physiological sex differences.</blockquote></center><br> +<br /> + +<p>Crossing European and Japanese gypsy moths, Goldschmidt <a name='FNanchor_1_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_3'><sup>[1, </sup></a><a name='FNanchor_2_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_3'><sup>2, </sup></a><a name='FNanchor_3_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_3'><sup>3, </sup></a><a name='FNanchor_4_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_3'><sup>4]</sup></a> +noticed that the sex types secured were not pure—i.e., that certain +crosses produced females which bore a distinctly greater resemblance to +the male type than others, and <i>vice versa</i>. One of these hybrids of +"intersexes," as he calls them, would always possess some female and +some male sexual characters. He found that he could separate the males +and females, respectively, into seven distinct grades with respect to +their modification toward the opposite-sex type, and could produce any +one of these grades at will by breeding.</p> + +<p>For example, the seven grades of females were roughly as follows: +(1) Pure females; (2) Females with feathered antennæ like males and +producing fewer than the normal number of eggs; (3) Appearance of the +brown (male) patches on the white female wings; ripe eggs in abdomen, +but only hairs in the egg-sponge laid; instincts still female; +(4) Instincts less female; whole sections of wings with male colouration, +interspersed with cuneiform female sectors; abdomen smaller, males less +attracted; reproduction impossible; (5) Male colouration over almost the +entire wing; abdomen almost male, with few ripe eggs; instincts +intermediate between male and female; (6) Like males, but with +rudimentary ovaries and show female traits in some other organs; +(7) Males with a few traces of female origin, notably wing-shape.</p> + +<p>The males showed the same graded approach to the female type. Their +instincts likewise became more and more female as the type was modified +in that direction. That is, a moth would be 12% or 35% female, and so +on.</p> + +<p>Goldschmidt watched the crosses which produced seven different grades of +maleness in his females. The moth material, like the birds and mammals, +suggested a dual basis for sex in each individual. The grades of +maleness and femaleness made it seem probable that the factor which +determines sex must be stronger in some instances than in others, i.e., +that the difference between two of these grades of female is originally +quantitative, not qualitative—in amount rather than in kind.</p> + +<p>Mating European moths with European, or Japanese with Japanese, produced +pure, uniform sex-types, male and female. But a cross of European with +Japanese strains resulted in intersexes. Goldschmidt concluded that +(1) all individuals carried the genetic basis for both sexes; and +(2) that these basic factors were two chemicals of enzyme nature. One +of these he called Andrase, enzyme producing maleness, the other Gynase, +enzyme producing femaleness. Further, (3) since each chemical sex +determiner is present in both individuals in every cross, there must be +two chemical "doses" of maleness and two of femaleness struggling for +mastery in each fertilized egg. (4) If the total dose of maleness +exceeds the total dose of femaleness, the sex will be male, and +<i>vice versa</i>. (5) These quantities get fixed by natural selection +in a single race which always lives in the same environment, i.e., the +doses of maleness and femaleness in a given sex always bear practically +the same relation to each other. Hence the types are fixed and uniform. +(6) But different races are likely to have a different strength of +chemical sex-doses, so that when they are crossed, the ratios of +maleness to femaleness are upset. Often they are almost exactly equal, +which produces a type half male and half female—or 2/3, or 1/3, etc. +The proof of this theory is that it solved the problems. Goldschmidt +was able to work out the strengths of the doses of each sex in his +various individuals, and thereby to predict the exact grade of +intersexuality which would result from a given cross.</p> + +<p>Riddle's work on pigeons <a name='FNanchor_5_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_5_3'><sup>[5, </sup></a><a name='FNanchor_6_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_6_3'><sup>6]</sup></a> brings us much nearer to man, and +suggests the results noted by both Goldschmidt and Lillie. As in the +Free-Martin cattle, there is an apparent reversal of the sex +predisposition of the fertilized egg. As in the gypsy moths, different +grades of intersexes were observed. In the pigeons, it was found that +more yolk material tended to produce a larger proportion of females. The +most minute quantitative measurements were made of this factor, to +eliminate any possibility of error.</p> + +<p>The chromosome mechanisms practically force us to suppose that about +half the eggs are originally predisposed to maleness, half to +femaleness. A pigeon's clutch normally consists of two eggs, one with a +large yolk and one with a small yolk. But the half-and-half numerical +relation of males to females varies considerably—i.e., not all the +large-yolked eggs produce females or all the small-yolked ones males.</p> + +<p>Wild pigeons begin the season by throwing a predominance of males, and +the first eggs of the clutches also tend to produce males all along. In +both cases, the male-producing eggs were found to be the ones with the +smaller yolks. Family crosses also produce small yolks, which hatch out +nearly all males. Some pairs of birds, however, have nearly all female +offspring. Riddle investigated a large number of these cases and found +the amount of yolk material to be large. In other words, there seems to +be a definite relation between the amount of yolk and sex.</p> + +<p>A great number of clever experiments were carried out to find out if +eggs originally predisposed to one sex were actually used to produce the +other. Selective fertilization with different kinds of sperm was +impossible, since in these birds there is only one type of sperm—two of +eggs—as to the sex chromosome. For instance, by overworking females at +egg-production, the same birds which had been producing more males than +females were made to reverse that relation.</p> + +<p>One of the interesting results of the experiments was the production of +a number of intersexual types of various grades. This was easily +verifiable by colour and other characteristics. To make sure that the +instincts were correspondingly modified, behaviour was registered on +moving-picture films. Where the first egg of a clutch (the one with a +small, normally male-producing yolk) produces a female, she is usually +found to be more masculine than her sister from the second egg with the +larger yolk. This is true both as to appearance and as to behaviour. +Some of these were quite nearly males in appearance and behaviour, +though they laid eggs.</p> + +<p>Testicular and ovarian extracts were injected. The more feminine birds +were often killed by the testicular extract, the more masculine by the +ovarian extract. Finally, to make assurance doubly sure, some females +which should theoretically have been the most feminine were dissected +and shown to be so. That is, out-crosses which produced a predominance +of females in the fall were mated with females which had been overworked +at egg production until they threw nearly all females. Dissecting the +females thus produced, they were shown to have <i>right ovaries</i>, which +means <i>double femaleness</i>, since normally the pigeon is functional only +in the left ovary, like other birds. The right one usually degenerates +before or at hatching and is wholly absent in the week-old squab.</p> + +<p>In pigeons, Riddle thinks the "developmental energy" of the eggs is in +an inverse ratio to their size. The last and largest eggs of the season +develop least and produce most females. The second egg of a clutch is +larger than the first, but develops less and the bird produced is +shorter-lived. Overworking and other conditions tending to produce large +eggs and females also throw white mutants and show other signs of +weakness. Old females lay larger eggs than do young ones. These eggs +produce more females. They store more material, have a lower metabolism +and less oxidizing capacity than do the earlier male-producing eggs.</p> + +<p>It would be unsafe to draw specific conclusions about mammals from these +bird and insect experiments. Both the secretory action and the +chromosome mechanisms are different. The quantitative nature of sex, and +also the existence of intersexual types, between males and females, +would seem to be general phenomena, requiring rather slight +corroboration from the mammals themselves. We have such mammalian cases +as the Free-Martin cattle, and some convincing evidence of +intersexuality in the human species itself, which will be reviewed +presently.</p> + +<p>The notion of more "developmental energy" or a higher metabolism in +males is borne out in the human species. Benedict and Emmes <a name='FNanchor_7_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_7_3'><sup>[7]</sup></a> have +shown by very careful measurements that the basal metabolism of men is +about 6% higher than that of women. Riddle cites the work of Thury and +Russell on cattle to show that a higher water value (as he found in the +pigeon eggs), associated with increased metabolism, helps to produce +males.</p> + +<p>In males, the secretion of the sex glands alone seems to be of +particular importance, again suggesting this idea of "strength" which +comes up over and over again. Removal of these glands modifies the male +body much more profoundly than it does the female. <a name='FNanchor_8_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_8_3'><sup>[8]</sup></a> It is quite +generally supposed that the action of this one secretion may have much +to do with the superior size and vigour of males. For example, Paton +says <a name='FNanchor_9_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_9_3'><sup>[9]</sup></a>: "The evidence thus seems conclusive that in the male the gonad, +by producing an internal secretion, exercises a direct and specific +influence upon the whole soma, increasing the activity of growth, +moulding the whole course of development, and so modifying the +metabolism of nerve and muscle that the whole character of the animal is +altered." It used to be said that the male was more "katabolic," the +female more "anabolic." These expressions are objectionable, inasmuch as +they hint that in a mature organism, with metabolism rather stable, +tearing down, or katabolism, could go on faster than building up, or +anabolism, or that one of two phases of the same process might go on +faster than the other. It seems safer to say merely that a lower +metabolism in the female is accompanied by a tendency to store +materials.</p> + +<p>A long time will doubtless be required to work out the details of +differences in metabolism in the two sexes. Some of the main facts are +known, however, and the general effects of the two diverse chemical +systems upon the life cycles of the sexes are quite obvious. What we +call the "quantitative theory of sex" has, besides a place in exact +science, an interesting relation to the history of biological thought, +especially as applied to society. It is thus in order to state as +clearly as possible what it now is; then, so that no one may confuse it +with what it is not, to run over some of the old ideas which resemble +it.</p> + +<p>Experiments with transplanted sex glands, with sex-gland extracts +(testicular and ovarian) and the observation of infusions of a male-type +blood-stream into a female body, as occurs in nature in some cattle and +in the so-called human "hermaphrodites," indicate a gross chemical +difference between the respective determiners for femaleness and for +maleness. So the chemicals involved, though not yet isolated, must be +presumed to be <i>qualitatively</i> different, since they produce such +different results.</p> + +<p>But such experiments also indicate that both determiners must be present +in some proportions in every individual of either sex. The basis for +both sexes being present, the one which shall predominate or be +expressed in the individual must depend upon the <i>quantitative</i> relation +between the determiners which come together at fertilization. The +quantitative theory merely means that this predominance of one factor or +the other (maleness or femaleness—Gynase or Andrase) is more pronounced +in some cases than in others.</p> + +<p>In brief, then, the quantitative theory of sex is merely the most +reasonable explanation of the known fact that intersexes exist—that is, +females with some male characteristics, or with all their characters +more like the female type than the average, and <i>vice versa</i>. Laboratory +biology has established the phenomena of intersexuality beyond question, +and the word "inter-sex" has become a scientific term. But the fact that +this word and the idea it represents are new to <i>exact science</i> does not +mean that it is new in the world.</p> + +<p>Intersexes in the human species—not only the extreme pathological cases +represented by the so-called "hermaphrodites," but also merely masculine +women and effeminate men—have been the subject of serious remarks as +well as literary gibes from the earliest times. The Greeks called these +people <i>urnings</i>. Schopenhauer was interested in the vast ancient +literature and philosophy on this subject. The 19th century produced a +copious psychological treatment of warped or reversed sexual impulses by +such men as Moll, Krafft-Ebing and Havelock Ellis. Otto Weiniger<a name='FNanchor_10_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_10_3'><sup>[10]</sup></a> +collected a mass of this philosophy, literature, psychology, folklore +and gossip, tied it together with such biological facts as were then +known (1901) and wove around it a theory of sex <i>attraction</i>.<a name='FNanchor_A_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_A_4'><sup>[A]</sup></a> The +same material was popularized by Leland<a name='FNanchor_11_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_11_3'><sup>[11]</sup></a>, Carpenter<a name='FNanchor_12_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_12_3'><sup>[12]</sup></a> and W.L. +George<a name='FNanchor_13_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_13_3'><sup>[13]</sup></a> to support quite different views.</p> + +<a name='Footnote_A_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_A_4'>[A]</a><div class='note'><p> NOTE: Weiniger thought he could pick, merely by observing +physical type, people who would be sexually attracted to each other. +There is much ground for scepticism about this. To begin with, the +biological experiments indicate that intersexes are peculiarly likely to +appear where two or more races are mixed. So far, there is no exact +knowledge about the amount or kind of sex difference in each race. As +Bateson remarks (Biol. Fact & the Struct. of Society, p.13), one +unversed in the breeds even of poultry would experience great difficulty +and make many mistakes in sorting a miscellaneous group of cocks and +hens into pairs according to breed. If this is true in dealing with pure +breeds, "in man, as individuals pure-bred in any respect are very rare, +the operation would be far more difficult." In the human species sexual +attraction also obviously depends upon many factors which are not purely +biological; it is rather a complicated sentiment than an instinct.</p></div> + +<p>George's statement that "there are no men and ... no women; there are +only sexual majorities"[p.61, op. cit.] has been widely quoted. The +feminists, he adds, "base themselves on Weininger's theory, according to +which the male principle may be found in woman, and the female principle +in man." Unfortunately, George does not make clear what he means by +"principle," so his theory, if he has one, is impossible to appraise in +biological terms. From the embryonic idea expressed above, he deduces a +very positive social philosophy of sex. The feminists, he says, +"recognize no masculine or feminine '<i>spheres</i>' and ... propose to +identify absolutely the conditions of the sexes." So, while George seems +to think much more highly of women than does Weininger, their +philosophies come together, for quite different reasons, on the +practical procedure of disregarding reproduction and letting the race go +hang<a name='FNanchor_10_3a'></a><a href='#Footnote_10_3'><sup>[10, p.345]</sup></a>. Weininger seems to recognize the dual basis for sex; +George evidently does not quite follow him. Both entirely misconceived +the real issues involved, as well as the kind of evidence required to +settle them, as we shall see later in discussing adaptation and +specialization.</p> + +<p>Dr Blair Bell<a name='FNanchor_14_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_14_3'><sup>[14,</sup></a> <a name='FNanchor_15_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_15_3'><sup>15]</sup></a> has collected a mass of evidence on intersexes in +the human species. This includes his own surgical and other cases, as +well as many treated by his colleagues, and a very considerable review +of the medical literature. He not only believes in degrees of femininity +in women, but has worked out classifications which he claims to have +found of great practical value in surgery.<a name='FNanchor_14_3a'></a><a href='#Footnote_14_3'><sup>[14, pp.166-7]</sup></a> As noted above, +Riddle discovered that his more feminine female pigeons were often +killed by a dose of testicular extract which was practically harmless to +a partially masculinized female. Sex in the human species being a matter +of all the glands organized into a complex, the quantitative "strength" +of that complex would be useful to know before removing any one +secretion from it. Dr Bell states that the oöphorectomy operation +(removal of ovaries) may be performed upon a masculine type of woman +with "little disturbance of the metabolism..." But he thinks that the +degree of masculinity should always be carefully observed before +undertaking such operations, which in some cases have most undesirable +effects.</p> + +<p>At one end of the scale, this surgeon places the typically feminine +woman in all her characteristics—with well-formed breasts, menstruating +freely and feminine in instincts—he says "mind." The intermediate +grades consist, he says, of women whose metabolism leans toward the +masculine type. Some have sexual desires but no maternal impulse. Others +desire maternity but take no interest in sex activity, or positively +shun it. The physical manifestations of masculine glandular activity +take the form of pitch of voice, skin texture, shape and weight of +bones, etc. Some of the inter-grades are a little hard to define—the +human species is such an inextricable mixture of races, etc.; but Dr +Bell does not hesitate to describe the characteristically masculine +woman of the extreme type, who "shuns both sexual relations and +maternity...(She) is on the fringe of femininity. These women are +usually flat-breasted and plain. Even though they menstruate, their +metabolism is often for the most part masculine in character: +indications of this are seen in the bones which are heavy, in the skin +which is coarse, and in the aggressive character of the mind...If a +woman have well-developed genitalia, and secondary characteristics, she +usually is normal in her instincts. A feebly menstruating woman with +flat breasts and coarse skin cannot be expected to have strong +reproductive instincts, since she is largely masculine in type..."</p> + +<p>The glandular and quantitative explanation of sex, instead of being +abstruse and complicated, brings the subject in line with the known +facts about inheritance generally. The dual basis for femaleness and +maleness in each individual simply means that both factors are present, +but that only one expresses itself fully. The presence of such a dual +basis is proved by the fact that in castration and transplantation +experiments both are exhibited by the same individual in a single +lifetime. In the case of the Free-Martin cattle, even the female +sex-glands are modified toward the male type to such an extent that they +were long mistaken for testes. The same applies to some glands found in +human "hermaphrodites," as Dr Bell's plates show.</p> + +<p>The peculiar complication of the chemical complex determining sex in +these mammalian forms, involving all the glands and hence the entire +body, makes it problematical whether a complete (functional) reversal is +possible, at least after any development whatever of the embryo has +taken place. On the other hand, the fact that such complete +transformations have not so far been observed by no means proves their +non-existence. Their being functional, and hence to all external +appearances normal, would cause such animals to escape observation.</p> + +<p>Latent traits of the opposite sex of course immediately suggest +recessive or unexpressed characters in the well-known Mendelian +inheritance phenomena. In the bird-castration cases, we saw that to +remove the inhibiting sex glands caused previously latent characters to +act like dominant or expressed ones. The case of horns in sheep, +investigated by Professor Wood<a name='FNanchor_16_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_16_3'><sup>[16]</sup></a>, is so similar that it seems worth +summarizing, by way of illustration.</p> + +<p>Both sexes in Dorset sheep have well-developed horns; in the Suffolk +breed both sexes are hornless. If the breeds are crossed, all the rams +in the first (hybrid) generation have horns and all the ewes are +hornless. If these hybrids are mated, the resulting male offspring +averages three horned to one hornless; but the females are the reverse +of this ratio—one horned to three hornless. This is an example of +Mendel's principle of segregation—factors may be mixed in breeding, but +they do not lose their identity, and hence tend to be sorted out or +segregated again in succeeding generations.</p> + +<p>In the horned Dorsets, we must suppose that both males and females carry +a dual factor for horns—technically, are <i>homozygous</i> for horns. The +hornless Suffolks, on the contrary, are homozygous for <i>absence</i> of +horns. Thus the dual factor in the zygotes or fertilized eggs at the +basis of the first filial (hybrid) generation consists of a single +factor for horns and a single factor for their absence. If we represent +horns by <i>H</i> and absence of horns by <i>A</i>, Dorsets have a factor <i>HH</i>, +Suffolks <i>AA</i> and the hybrids <i>HA</i>.</p> + +<p>All the males in this generation have horns, which means that a single +"dose" of the factor <i>H</i> will produce horns in a male, or that they are +<i>dominant</i> in males. But a single dose will not produce horns in a +female—that is, horns are <i>recessive</i> in females—the factor is present +but unexpressed.</p> + +<p>Mating two <i>HA</i> hybrids, the <i>H</i> and <i>A</i> of course split apart in the +formation of the gametes, as the <i>HH</i> and <i>AA</i> did in the previous +generation; so that we get an equal number of single <i>H</i> and <i>A</i> +factors. In reuniting in fertilized eggs, the chance is just half and +half that an <i>H</i> will unite with another <i>H</i> or with an <i>A</i>—that an +<i>A</i> will unite with an <i>H</i> or another <i>A</i>. Thus we have two chances of +getting <i>HA</i> to each chance of getting either <i>AA</i> or <i>HH</i>. Half the +zygotes will be <i>HA</i>, one-fourth <i>HH</i> and one-fourth <i>AA</i>.</p> + +<p>If we consider four average males, one will have two <i>A's</i> (absence of +the factor for horns) and will thus be hornless. One will have two +<i>H's</i>, or the double factor for horns, and hence will exhibit horns—as +will also the two <i>HA's</i> since a single dose of horns expresses them in +a male. So we have the three-to-one Mendelian ratio.</p> + +<p>But four females with exactly the same factors will express them as +follows: The one <i>HH</i> (double factor for horns) proves sufficient to +express horns, even in a female. The <i>AA</i>, lacking the factor entirely, +cannot have horns. Nor will the two <i>HA</i> females have horns, a single +dose being insufficient to express them in a female. Again we get our +three-to-one Mendelian ratio, but this time it is three hornless to one +horned.</p> + +<p>Especially Goldschmidt's carefully graded experiments point to a similar +difference in the strength of the dose or doses of the sex factors. +Instead of the two doses of horns required to express them in the +presence of the female secretory balance in Professor Wood's sheep, +Goldschmidt found it took six doses of maleness to completely express it +on a female basis in his moths. But even with three doses, the female +was incapable of reproduction. A single dose in excess of the ordinary +combination to produce normal females modified the type of body, also +reducing the number of eggs.</p> + +<p>In the case of the horns, only two types were possible, absence or +presence of the character. Likewise there are only two types of primary +sex, i.e., of sex glands proper. But seven different types or grades of +body for each sex were found to exhibit themselves in the moths. In more +complicated bodies, we should of course expect many more, and where many +races (instead of two) are mixed, as in man, a classification merely on +the basis of physical characteristics would be much more complicated. +Indeed, we may well be sceptical as to the possibilities of cataloguing +differences of the sort between men and women by body type alone.</p> + +<p>In society, however, we are much more interested in the mental than the +purely physical qualities of the two types of bodies, especially since +the use of machines has so largely replaced brute strength with skill. +Most employments do not even require a muscular skill beyond that +possessed by ordinary individuals of both sexes.</p> + +<p>Even this ignores the primary consideration in the sex problem in +society, the first of the following two parts into which the whole +problem may be divided: (1) <i>How to guarantee the survival of the group +through reproduction</i> of a sufficient number of capable individuals; and +(2) How to make the most economical use of the remaining energies, first +in winning nutrition and protection from the environment, second in +pursuing the distinctly human values over and above survival. The sex +problem as a whole is concerned with adjusting two different general +types of individuals, male and female, to the complicated business of +such group life or society. The differences between these two sex-types +being fundamentally functional, the best way to get at them is to trace +the respective and unlike life cycles.</p> + +<p>We have already shown in rude outline how a difference (apparently +chemical) between two fertilized eggs starts them along two different +lines of development in the embryonic stage. One develops the +characteristic male primary and secondary sex characters, the other the +female. Throughout the embryonic or intra-maternal stage this +differentiation goes on, becoming more and more fixed as it expresses +itself in physical structures. Childhood is only a continuation of this +development—physically separate from the mother after the period of +lactation. Until puberty, when sex ceases to be merely potential and +becomes functional (about 12-14 in girls and 14-16 boys), the +differences in metabolism are not very marked. Neither are they in old +age, after sex has ceased to be functional. It is during the period when +sex is functional (about 35 years in women and considerably longer in +men) that the gross physiological differences manifest themselves.</p> + +<p>Before puberty in both sexes, calcium or lime salts are retained in the +tissues and go to build up the bony skeleton. (A mere sketch of calcium +metabolism is all that can be given here—for details consult such works +as and <a name='FNanchor_17_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_17_3'>17</a> in bibliography; summary in <a name='FNanchor_14_3b'></a><a href='#Footnote_14_3'>14; pp. 34f. & 161f.</a>) Note that +puberty comes earlier in girls than in boys, and that the skeleton +therefore remains lighter. During the reproductive period in women these +salts are heavily drawn upon for the use of the reproductive system. The +male reproductive system draws upon them as well, though the drain is +very slight as compared to that in women. In old age these salts produce +senility through deposit in the tissues, especially in the arteries.</p> + +<p>At the pubertal age in girls begins the phenomenon known as +menstruation, in which there is a large excretion of calcium salts. In +pregnancy these are needed for building the skeleton of the foetus, and +at delivery go to the breasts to assist in lactation. Bell states that +there is a noticeable connection between early menstruation and short +stature, and <i>vice versa</i>. What is commonly known as menstruation lasts +only a few days, and is merely the critical period in a monthly cycle or +periodicity which goes with the female sex specialization. This period +involves the gradual preparation of the uterus or womb for a guest, +together with the maturing of the ova. Then the Graafian follicles +containing the ova break and these latter enter the uterus for +fertilization.</p> + +<p>If fertilization takes place, the fertilized egg buries itself in the +wall and development of the embryo proceeds. Menstruation stops, the +calcium salts being required for the growing embryo. There is likely to +be no menstruation for a considerable time after delivery if the child +is nursed, as is normal. This gives the uterus time for devolution to +the normal, before a surplus of calcium salts sets the periodicity going +again. If the egg which passes from the ovary to the uterus is not +fertilized, it is excreted, the uterus goes through another monthly +cycle of preparation for the period of intra-maternal environment, and +so on indefinitely until the climacteric.</p> + +<p>This climacteric or decay of sexuality is a rather critical time, +especially in women. It marks the period at which the metabolism can no +longer support the strain of reproduction. A surplus of calcium brings +on senility, as noted above. Withdrawal of the interests which centre in +sex, together with the marked accompanying physical changes, involves a +shift of mental attitude which is also frequently serious. A British +coroner stated in the <i>British Medical Journal</i> in 1900 (Vol. 2, p.792) +that a majority of 200 cases of female suicide occurred at this period, +while in the case of younger women suicide is peculiarly likely to occur +during menstruation. Krugelstein and Lombroso, respectively, remark the +same tendencies.<a name='FNanchor_18_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_18_3'><sup>[18]</sup></a>.</p> + +<p>It is a matter of almost everyday observation that men and women in the +neighbourhood of fifty suddenly find themselves disoriented in the +world. Tolstoi, for example, who had written passionately of passion in +his earlier years, suddenly awoke, according to his "Confessions," from +what seemed to him afterward to have been a bad dream. In this case, the +result was a new version of religion as a new anchorage for the man's +life. It may be pacifism, prohibition, philanthropy, or any one of a +very large number of different interests—but there must usually be +something to furnish zest to a life which has ceased to be a sufficient +excuse for itself.</p> + +<p>If freed from worry about economic realities, it is not infrequently +possible for the first time for these people to "balance" their +lives—to find in abstraction a rounded perfection for which earlier in +life we seek in vain as strugglers in a world of change. Thus old people +are often highly conservative, i.e., impatient of change in their social +environment, involving re-orientation; they wish the rules of the game +let alone, so they can pursue the new realities they have created for +themselves.</p> + +<p>Socially, the old are of course a very important factor since a changed +metabolism sets them somewhat outside the passionate interests which +drive people forward, often in wrong directions, in the prime of life. +Hence in a sense the old can judge calmly, as outsiders. Like youth +before it has yet come in contact with complicated reality, they often +see men and women as "each chasing his separate phantom."</p> + +<p>While such conservatism, in so far as it is judicial, is of value to +society, looking at it from the viewpoint of biology we see also some +bad features. <i>Senex</i>, the old man, often says to younger people, "These +things you pursue are valueless—I too have sought them, later abandoned +the search and now see my folly;" not realizing that if his blood were +to resume its former chemical character he would return to the quest.</p> + +<p>Elderly people, then, biological neuters, come especially within the +problem of the economical use of the social as distinguished from the +biological capacities of the race. They affect the sex problem proper, +which applies to a younger age-class, only through their opinions. Some +of these opinions are hangovers from the time in their own lives when +they had stronger sexual interests, and some are peculiar to people of +their readjusted glandular activity. Their reproductive contribution to +society has been made.</p> + +<p>Pre-pubertal childhood and youth, on the contrary, has its biological +contributions to society still before it. The glandular activity of boys +and girls is perhaps not so unlike as to justify society in giving them +a different kind of education and preparation for group life. The excuse +for two sorts of training is that the two sexes will not do the same +work after puberty. Hence the question of youthful training is +sociological almost entirely—not biological—or rather, it rests upon +the biology, not of childhood but of the reproductive period, which +society anticipates.</p> + +<p>Instead of scattering attention over the whole history of the universe, +then, or even over the general field of biology, in dealing with sex as +a social problem, the emphasis must be upon the human life cycle during +the functional-reproductive period. Other biological data than that +which concerns this period is merely introductory or explanatory. The +extent to which the sociological problem involved is linked up with +general biological considerations like natural selection, adaptation and +specialization will be summarized in a separate chapter.</p> + +<p>Earlier female maturity and puberty, as well as lighter structure, have +already been accounted for by the metabolism, especially of the calcium +salts. These have also been shown to be the key fact in the monthly +periodicity of the mammalian female. Nearly all of the anatomical and +physiological sex differences catalogued by such pioneer workers as +Ellis, Ploss, Thomas and Bucura are simply what we should expect from +the less active and in some ways peculiar metabolism of woman.</p> + +<p>Among such differences are the size and shape of bones and other body +structures, the more plentiful hæmoglobin in male blood during the +reproductive period, and such blood peculiarities as the production of +more carbonic acid or the higher specific gravity in the male. The +greater percentage of fat as compared with muscle in women<a name='FNanchor_19_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_19_3'><sup>[19]</sup></a>, if it is +generally true, is what we should expect from a lower metabolism and a +tendency to store materials. The long list of diseases which are more or +less sex-limited <a name='FNanchor_20_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_20_3'><sup>[20;</sup></a> <a name='FNanchor_14_3e'></a><a href='#Footnote_14_3'><sup>14, pp.160f.;</sup></a> <a name='FNanchor_18_3a'></a><a href='#Footnote_18_3'><sup>18]</sup></a> are largely endocrine. Even those +which do not primarily concern the internal secretory system would be +expected to work somewhat differently in the presence of unlike blood +streams. As to the greater average weight of the male brain, this is +true of the whole body. Brain weight, either absolute or relative to +body weight, is not positively known to be in any way correlated (in +normal people) with mental capacity.</p> + +<p>A library might be stocked with the vast literature devoted to +summarizing and cataloguing sex differences; and most of it would be +useless from the standpoint of sociology. Unaccompanied by the +criticisms a biologist would have to make on the method of their +ascertainment and validity, not to mention their significance, such +lists can easily do—and probably have done—more harm than good. One +simple and reasonable criterion would reduce this catalogue to fairly +modest proportions, so far as social science is concerned: <i>Which ones +have an obvious or even probable social significance?</i> Over and above +that, while such contrasts may be of speculative interest, they lead +imaginative people to argue from them by analogy and thus cloud the real +issues.</p> + +<p>What are the outstandingly significant sex differences which application +of the above criterion leaves? (1) A less active and more uneven +metabolism of woman; (2) Associated with this, less physical strength on +the average—hence an inferior adaptability to some kinds of work, +resulting in a narrower range of choice of occupation, disadvantageous +in competitive society; (3) But the one fundamental difference, to which +all the others are as nothing, is the specialization of the mammalian +female body and metabolism to furnish the intra-maternal environment +(approximately nine months in the human species) for the early +development of the young and lactation for some months afterward.</p> + +<p>This last may be said to include the former two, which were arbitrarily +placed first because they are always in evidence, whether reproduction +is undertaken or not. This takes us out of cell and endocrine biology +and into the general problem in group adjustment to environment which +that specialization entails.</p> +<br /> + +<p>BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER III</p> + +<a name='Footnote_1_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_3'>1.</a><div class='note'> Goldschmidt, R. Experimental Intersexuality and the Sex Problem. +Amer. Naturalist, 1916. Vol. 50, pp. 705f.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_2_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_2_3'>2.</a><div class='note'> Goldschmidt, R. Preliminary Report on Further Experiments in +Inheritance and Determination of Sex. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sc, 1916. +Vol. II, No. 1, pp. 53f.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_3_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_3_3'>3.</a><div class='note'> Goldschmidt, R. A Case of Facultative Parthenogenesis. Biol. +Bulletin, 1917. Vol. XXXII, No. 1, p. 38.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_4_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_4_3'>4.</a><div class='note'> Goldschmidt, R. Intersexuality and the Endocrine Aspect of Sex. +Endocrinology, Vol. I, p. 434. 1917. Fine summary of the work done on +moths, birds and various forms by many biologists.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_5_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_5_3'>5.</a><div class='note'> Riddle, Dr Oscar. Quantitative Basis of Sex as indicated +by the Sex-Behaviour of Doves from a Sex-Controlled Series. Science, n.s., Vol. 39, p. 440, 1914.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_6_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_6_3'>6.</a><div class='note'> Riddle, Dr Oscar. Sex Control and Known Correlations in Pegeons. +Amer. Nat. Vol. L, pp. 385-410.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_7_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_7_3'>7.</a><div class='note'> Benedict, F.G. & Emmes, L.E. A Comparison of the Basal Metabolism of +Men and Women. Jour. Biol. Chem. Vol. 20. No. 3. 1914.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_8_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_8_3'>8.</a><div class='note'> Schäfer, Sir E.A. Endocrine Glands and Internal Secretions. Stanford +University, 1914, p. 91.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_9_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_9_3'>9.</a><div class='note'> Paton, D. Noël. Regulators of Metabolism. London, 1913, p. 146.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_10_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_10_3'>10.</a><div class='note'> Weininger, Otto. Sex and Character. London & N.Y., 1906. Eng. trans. +of Geschlecht u. Charakter, Vienna & Leipzig, 1901 & 1903.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_11_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_11_3'>11.</a><div class='note'> Leland, C.G. The Alternate Sex. London, 1904.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_12_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_12_3'>12.</a><div class='note'> Carpenter, Edw. Love's Coming of Age. London, 1906.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_13_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_13_3'>13.</a><div class='note'> George, W.L. The Intelligence of Woman, Boston, 1916.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_14_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_14_3'>14.</a><div class='note'> Bell, Dr Blair. The Sex Complex, London, 1916.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_15_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_15_3'>15.</a><div class='note'> Bell, Dr. Blair. Gynæcology. London, 1919.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_16_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_16_3'>16.</a><div class='note'> Bateson, W. Mendel's Principles of Heredity. 1909, pp. 169-70.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_17_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_17_3'>17.</a><div class='note'> Marshall, F.H. A Physiology of Reproduction. London, 1910.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_18_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_18_3'>18.</a><div class='note'> Ellis, Havelock. Man and Woman. 1904 ed., pp. 284f</div> + +<a name='Footnote_19_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_19_3'>19.</a><div class='note'> Thomas, W.I. Sex and Society. 1907, p. 19.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_20_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_20_3'>20.</a><div class='note'> Schäfer, Sir Edw. An Introduction to the Study of Internal +Secretions. London, 1916, pp. 106f.</div> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='CHAPTER_IV'></a><h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<center>SEX SPECIALIZATION AND GROUP SURVIVAL</center> +<br> +<center><blockquote>Adaptation and specialization; Reproduction a group not an individual +problem; Conflict between specialization and adaptation; Intelligence +makes for economy in adjustment to environment; Reproduction, not +production, the chief factor in the sex problem.</blockquote></center><br> +<br /> + +<p>From the facts briefly stated in the preceding chapters it is quite +evident that the general superiority of man over woman or <i>vice versa</i> +cannot be proven by biology. Such an idea arises from a careless and +unscientific use of language. Superiority is a term which, when used to +express the rather exact ideas of biology, is employed in a carefully +limited and specific, not in a general, sense. That is, superiority, +even if an apparently general idea like survival value is referred to, +always implies a given, understood environment where such is not +specifically mentioned. Wolves, for example, might be found to possess +superior chances for survival over foxes, beaver or partridges in a +given environment. A biologist would probably use more exact and less +ambiguous terms to express such a fact, and say that wolves were the +best <i>adapted</i> to the given surroundings. If all these animals continued +to live side by side in the given environment, they could be compared +only as to specific details—size, strength, cunning, fleetness in +running, swimming or flying, concealment from enemies, etc. Then the +biologist would probably make his meaning perfectly clear by stating +that one is <i>specialized</i> in one direction or another.</p> + +<p>Especially is general superiority a vague idea when the things compared +are different but mutually necessary or complementary. If their +functions overlap to some extent (i.e., if certain acts can be performed +by either), we may say that one is better adapted to a certain activity +than the other. Thus it may be that women are generally better adapted +to caring for young children than are men, or that men are on the whole +better adapted to riveting boiler plates, erecting skyscrapers, or +sailing ships. Where their activities do not overlap at all, even the +word adaptation hardly applies. For example, women are not better +"adapted" to furnishing the intra-maternal environment for the young, +since men are not adapted to it at all. It is a case of female +<i>specialization</i>.</p> + +<p>Men being neither specialized nor adapted, to any extent whatever, to +this particular activity, any attempt at comparison is obviously +fruitless, since one term is always zero. This specialization, +absolutely necessary to the survival of human groups, is either present +or it is absent in a given individual. Any attempt to formulate a +general proposition about superiority either attaches purely arbitrary +values to different kinds of activity or is absurd from the standpoint +of the most elementary logic.</p> + +<p>From the standpoint of biology, reproduction is not an individual but a +group problem, however many problems of detail it may give rise to in +individual lives. Sex involves the division of the reproductive process, +without the exercise of which any human group would perish very shortly, +into two complementary, mutually necessary but unequal parts. (This +statement applies only to the reproductive process, as obviously the +male and female gametes contribute equally to the formation of the new +individual). Neither part (the male or the female) of this process is +more necessary than the other, both being <i>absolutely</i> necessary. But +the female specialization for furnishing the intra-maternal environment +makes her share more burdensome.</p> + +<p>Biologically considered, not even two individuals (male and female), +together with their offspring, can be more than an arbitrary "unit" as +concerns sex, since inbreeding eventually impoverishes the stock. Hence +outcrosses are necessary. To intelligibly consider the sex problem in +the human species, then, we must always predicate a considerable <i>group</i> +of people, with such organization and division of activities as to +guarantee that all the processes necessary to survival will be carried +on. Sex is a group problem. Considering the mutual interdependence and +the diversity of activities in human society, to make the generalization +that one sex is superior to the other is on a par with saying that roots +and branches are superior to trunks and leaves. It is sheer foolishness. +Yet oceans of ink have flowed in attempts to establish one or the other +of two equally absurd propositions.</p> + +<p>Since the specialization to furnish the intra-maternal environment for +the young makes the female part of the reproductive process essentially +and unavoidably more burdensome than the male, it results that an +economical division of the extra-reproductive activities of any group +must throw an unequal share upon the males. This specialization to carry +the young during the embryonic period is thus at the base of the +division of labour between the sexes. It is the chief factor involved in +the problems of sex, and gives rise, directly or indirectly, to most of +the others.</p> + +<p>But the sex problem as a whole is one of adaptation as well as of +specialization. An incident of the female specialization is a type of +body on the average smaller, weaker and less well adapted to some other +activities than is the male body, even when reproduction is not +undertaken. A great complication is added by the fact that some women, +and also some men, are better adapted than others to nonreproductive +activities. This is another way of saying that the type of body +associated with either type of sex glands varies a good deal, for +reasons and in respects already pointed out.</p> + +<p>The most important fact about this reproductive specialization is that +beyond fertilization it is <i>exclusive</i> in the female. Since the males +cannot furnish the intra-parental environment for the young, the entire +burden must fall on half the group. If this aggregation is to even hold +its own numerically, its women must have, on an average, two children +each, <i>plus about one more</i> for unavoidable waste—death in infancy or +childhood, sterility, obvious unfitness for reproduction, etc., i.e., +<i>three</i> in all. If one woman has less than her three children, then +another must have more than three, or the group number will decrease. +<i>Group survival is the fundamental postulate in a problem of this kind.</i></p> + +<p>The above figure is for civilized society. In primitive groups, the +terrific wastage makes a much higher birth-rate necessary, several times +as high in many cases. If we suppose such a group, where child +mortality, lack of sanitation, etc., necessitates an average of eight +children per woman (instead of three), the biological origin of the +division of labour between the sexes is much more clearly seen than it +is in civilized societies.</p> + +<p>If men are better hunters or fighters than women, the latter could +nevertheless hunt and fight—it is a question of superior or inferior +adaptation to particular activities. But it is more than that. <i>Only</i> +the women are biologically specialized to the chief reproductive burden +(intra-parental environment and lactation). If half the women should +withdraw from child-bearing, the remainder would be obliged to average +<i>sixteen</i> apiece. But even this is not all. Unfortunately, the half of +the women who would be found best adapted to hunting and fighting would +be the more vigorous half. The new generation would thus be born from +the leftovers, and would be poor quality. Such a division of labour +within a group would be fatally foolish and entirely uncalled for—since +there are plenty of men adapted to hunting and fighting, but entirely +unspecialized to child-bearing and nursing.</p> + +<p>Group survival being the fundamental thing, the group is obliged to +develop a division of labour which directs the activities of the +individuals composing it to providing for its necessities, regardless +of any interference with their own desires. That is, if group survival +requires that woman use her specialization to child-bearing instead of +any adaptation she may possess in other directions, one of two things +inevitably result: (1) Either the group finds or evolves some social +control machinery which meets the necessity, or (2) it must give way to +some other group which can do so. In either case, the result is a +division of labour, which we see more clearly in primitive peoples. The +less efficient group is not necessarily exterminated, but if it loses +out in the competition until some other group is able to conquer it and +impose <i>its</i> division of labour the result is of course the extinction +of the conquered group as an integral part of society. This is simply +natural selection working on groups. Natural selection works chiefly in +this manner on the human species, <i>because that species lives in +groups</i>. Such group control of the component individuals as has been +described has led to a division of labour between the sexes in every +primitive society. All this means is that the group adopting such a +division has greater survival value, and hence is more likely to be +represented in later ages.</p> + +<p>It must not be supposed that such systems of control were always +logically thought out or deliberately planned. Even animals which live +in herds or colonies have divisions of labour.</p> + +<p>Through an infinite slaughter of the least fit, such groups arrive at +some kind of instinctive adjustment to produce and protect the young. +The crudest human intelligence must have eliminated much of the waste +involved, by comprehending obvious cause-and-effect relations which +animals have to arrive at through trial and error methods.</p> + +<p>For example, an intelligence capable of employing artificial weapons is +also able to see that the wielder of these for group defence cannot be +encumbered with baggage or children when the group is in movement. Hence +women became the burden bearers, and took care of the children, even +after the nursing period. War parties could not generally be mixed, for +the obvious reasons that such women as did not have young children would +be pregnant a good deal of the time, or likely to become so. Moreover, a +hunter and fighter must not have his courage, ferocity and physical +initiative undermined by unsuitable employments and associations.</p> + +<p>In a semi-settled group, the hunter and warrior cannot be relied upon to +keep hearth-fires burning or tend crops, even though he may occasionally +have time for such activities. These duties are therefore relegated to +the women, whose child-bearing functions impose upon them a more +sedentary existence. Women must reproduce practically up to their full +capacity to fill up the gaps made by war, accident and disease as well +as death from old age. To this biological service which they alone can +perform are added those which lie nearest it and interfere least with +carrying it out.</p> + +<p>We must therefore keep in view <i>all</i> the activities of any group in +which the sex problem is being studied. There is a certain tendency to +disregard the female specialization to child-bearing, and to regard the +sex question as one merely of adaptation to extra-biological services. +In every group which has survived, some machinery—a "crust of custom," +reinforced by more arbitrary laws or regulations—has sought to +guarantee reproduction by keeping women out of lines of endeavour which +might endanger that fundamental group necessity. Primitive societies +which got stabilized within a given territory and found their birth-rate +dangerously <i>high</i> could always keep it down by exposing or destroying +some of the unfit children, or a certain per cent of the female +children, or both.</p> + +<p>In primitive groups, the individual was practically <i>nil</i>. But modern +civilized society is able to survive without the rigid control of +individual activities which the old economy entailed. Man comes to +choose more and more for himself individually instead of for the group, +uniformity weakens and individualism becomes more pronounced. As +control of environment becomes more complete and easy, natural selection +grows harder to detect. We turn our interests and activities toward the +search for what we want and take survival largely for granted—something +the savage cannot do. Natural selection becomes unreal to us, because +the things we do to survive are so intricately mixed up with those we do +for other reasons. Natural selection in gregarious animals operates upon +groups rather than upon individuals. Arrangement of these groups is +often very intricate. Some have territorial boundaries and some have +not. Often they overlap, identical individuals belonging to several. +Hence it is not strange that natural selection phenomena often escape +attention.</p> + +<p>But this must not lead us to suppose that natural selection is wholly +inoperative in civilized society. We see some nations outbreeding +others, or dominating them through superior organization. Within +nations, some racial and religious groups outbreed others and thus +gradually supplant them—<i>for the future is to those who furnish its +populations</i>.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='CHAPTER_V'></a><h2>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<center>RACIAL DEGENERATION AND THE NECESSITY FOR RATIONALIZATION OF THE MORES</center> +<br> +<center><blockquote>Racial decay in modern society; Purely "moral" control dysgenic in +civilized society; New machinery for social control; Mistaken notion +that reproduction is an individual problem; Economic and other factors +in the group problem of reproduction.</blockquote></center><br> +<br /> + +<p>From the discussion in the preceding chapter, it becomes apparent that +for the half of the female element in a savage society possessing the +most vigor and initiative to turn away from reproduction would in the +long run be fatal to the group. Yet this is what occurs in large measure +in modern civilized society. Reproduction is a biological function. It +is non-competitive, as far as the individual is concerned, and offers no +material rewards. The breakdown of the group's control over the detailed +conduct and behaviour of its members is accompanied by an increasing +stress upon material rewards to individuals. So with growing +individualism, in the half of the race which can both bear children and +compete in the social activities offering rewards, i.e., the women who +are specialized to the former and adapted to the latter, there is a +growing tendency among the most successful, individualized strains, to +choose the social and eschew the biological functions.</p> + +<p>Racial degeneration is the result. Recorded history is one succession of +barbarous races, under strong, primitive breeding conditions, swamping +their more civilized, individualized neighbours, adopting the dysgenic +ways of civilization and then being swamped in their turn by barbarians. +This is especially pronounced in our own times because popularized +biological and medical knowledge makes it possible for a tremendous +class of the most successful and enlightened to avoid reproduction +without foregoing sex activity.</p> + +<p>In primitive groups, a "moral" control which kept all women at +reproduction was neither eugenic nor dysgenic unless accompanied by +systematic destruction of the least fit children. By "moral" control is +meant the use of taboo, prejudice, religious abhorrence for certain acts +and the like. The carefully nurtured moral ideas about sex and +reproduction simply represent the system of coercion which groups have +found most effective in enforcing the division of reproductive and other +activities among the individual members. When this social machinery grew +up, to regulate sexual activity was in general to regulate +reproduction. The natural sex desire proved sufficiently powerful and +general to still seek its object, even with the group handicaps and +regulations imposed to meet the reproductive necessity. But +contraceptive knowledge, etc., has now become so general that to +regulate sex activity is no longer to regulate reproduction. The taboo +or "moral" method of regulation has become peculiarly degenerating to +race quality, because the most intelligent, rationalized individuals are +least affected by it.</p> + +<p>There is no turning back to control by ignorance. Even theoretically, +the only way to stop such a disastrous selection of the unfit would be +to rationalize reproduction—so that <i>nobody</i> shall reproduce the +species through sheer ignorance of how to evade or avoid it. This done, +some type of social control must be found which will enable civilized +societies to breed from their best instead of their worst stock. Under +the old scheme, already half broken down, natural selection favours +primitive rather than civilized societies through decreased birth-rates +and survival of the unfit in the latter. Even this is true only where +the savage groups are not interfered with by the civilized, a condition +rapidly disappearing through modern occidental imperialism and the +inoculation of primitive peoples with "civilized" diseases such as +syphilis, rum-drinking and rampant individualism.</p> + +<p>To continually encourage the racially most desirable women to disregard +their sexual specialization and exploit their social-competitive +adaptation must, obviously destroy the group which pursues such a +policy. The only way to make such a course democratic is to carefully +instruct all women, rich and poor, wise and ignorant, in the methods of +avoiding reproduction and to inject the virus of individualism in all +alike. Then the group can get its population supply only by a new system +of control. To remove any economic handicaps to child-bearing is +certainly not out of harmony with our ideas of justice.</p> + +<p>In removing the economic handicaps at present connected with the +reproductive function in women, care must also be taken that the very +measures which insure this do not themselves become dysgenic influences. +Such schemes as maternity insurance, pensions for mothers, and most of +the propositions along this line, may offer an inducement to women of +the poorer classes to assume the burdens connected with their +specialization for child-bearing. But their more fortunate sisters, who +find themselves so well adapted to modern conditions that they are even +moderately successful in the competition for material rewards, will +hardly find recompense thus for turning from their social to their +biological functions. To these highly individualized modern women must +be presented more cogent reasons for taking upon themselves the burden +of reproducing the group.</p> + +<p>It is obvious that from just this energetic female stock we should +obtain a large part of the next generation if we are at all concerned +over the welfare of the group and its chances of survival. One +suggestion is that we may be able to turn their very individualism to +account and use it as a potent factor in the social control of their +reproductive activities. If we can demonstrate on the basis of sound +biological data that the bearing of children is necessary for the full +and complete development of the individual woman, physically and +mentally, we shall have gone a long way toward securing voluntary +motherhood. Only such argument will induce the highly individualized, +who may also be the most vital, woman to turn of her own accord from +competitive social activities to the performance of the biological +function for which she is specialized. This is especially true, as has +been intimated above, since contraceptive knowledge now permits the +exercise of sexual functions without the natural consequences, and the +avoidance of motherhood no longer involves the denial of expression to +the sexual urge.</p> + +<p>Even if we are able to utilize this method of control, it will not +obtain the requisite number of offspring to maintain the eugenic quality +of the group, since the bearing of one or two children would be all that +individual development would require. If the group must have on the +average three children from each of its women in order to replace +itself, the larger part of the reproductive activities will still be +confined to the more ignorant, or if they also make use of contraceptive +knowledge, the group will simply die out from the effects of its own +democratic enlightenment. Thus it becomes apparent that we must find +some more potent force than this narrow form of self-interest to +accomplish the social purposes of reproduction. When reproduction is +generally understood to be as thoroughly a matter of group survival as +for example the defensive side in a war of extermination, the same +sentiment of group loyalty which now takes such forms as patriotism can +be appealed to. If the human race is unsocial it will perish anyway. If +it has not become unsocial—and it does not display any such tendency, +but only the use of such impulses in mistaken directions—then a group +necessity like reproduction can be met. Whatever is required of the +individual will become "moral" and "patriotic"—i.e., it will be +wreathed in the imperishable sentiments which group themselves around +socially necessary and hence socially approved acts everywhere and +always.</p> + +<p>In whatever races finally survive, the women of good stock as well as +poor—perhaps eventually the good even more than the poor—will +reproduce themselves. Because of our ideals of individual liberty, this +may not be achieved by taboo, ignorance or conscription for motherhood. +But when it is found to be the personal interest to bear children, both +as a means of complete physical and mental development and as a way of +winning social approval and esteem, it will become as imperative for +woman to fulfil the biological function to which she is specialized as +it was under the old system of moral and taboo control. The increasing +emphasis on the necessity of motherhood for the maintenance of a normal, +health personality, and the growing tendency to look upon this function +as the greatest service which woman can render to society, are manifest +signs that this time is approaching. There is little doubt that woman +will be as amenable to these newer and more rationalized mores as human +nature has always been to the irrationally formed customs and traditions +of the past.</p> + +<p>To ignore the female specialization involved in furnishing the +intramaternal environment for three children, on an average, to the +group, is simply foolish. If undertaken at maturity—say from +twenty-two to twenty-five years of age—and a two-year interval left +between the three in the interest of both mother and children, it puts +woman in an entirely different relation toward extra-reproductive +activities than man. It does imply a division of labour.</p> + +<p>In general, it would seem socially expedient to encourage each woman to +have her own three children, instead of shifting the burden upon the +shoulders of some other. If such activities of nursing and caring for +the very young can be pooled, so much the better. Doubtless some women +who find them distasteful would be much more useful to society at other +work. But let us not disregard fundamentals. It is obviously +advantageous for children of normal, able parents to be cared for in the +home environment. In a <i>biologically healthy</i> society the presumption +must be that the average woman has some three children of her own. Since +this obviously includes nurses and governesses, we see at once the +futility of the oft-proposed class solution of hiring single women to +care for the children of the fortunate. If such a servant is +undesirable, she is not hired; if normal, in a biologically healthy +society she would have her own children.</p> + +<p>The female handicap incident to reproduction may be illustrated by the +case of Hambletonian 10 mentioned in Chapter II. We saw that a female +could not have borne the hundredth part of his colts. This simply means +that the effort or individual cost of impressing his characters upon the +new generation is less than one one-hundredth that required of a female.</p> + +<p>Among domestic animals this is made use of to multiply the better males +to the exclusion of the others, a valuable biological expedient which we +are denied in human groups because it would upset all our social +institutions. So we do the next best thing and make the males do more +than half in the extra-biological activities of society, since they are +by their structure prevented from having an equal share in the +reproductive burden. This is an absolutely necessary equation, and there +will always be some sort of division of labour on the basis of it.</p> + +<p>Since reproduction is a group, not an individual, necessity, whatever +economic burden it entails must eventually be assumed by society and +divided up among the individuals, like the cost of war or any other +group activity. Ideally, then, from the standpoint of democracy, every +individual, male or female, should bear his share as a matter of course. +This attitude toward reproduction, as an individual duty but a group +economic burden, would lead to the solution of most of the problems +involved. Negative eugenics should be an immediate assumption—if the +state must pay for offspring, the quality will immediately begin to be +considered. A poor race-contribution, not worth paying for, would +certainly be prevented as far as possible.</p> + +<p>Some well-meaning radical writers mistakenly suppose that the +emancipation of women means the withdrawal by the group of any interest +in, or any attempt to regulate, such things as the hours and conditions +of female labour. That would simply imply that the group takes no +interest in reproduction—in its own survival. For if the group does not +make some equation for the greater burden of reproduction upon women, +the inevitable result will be that that particular service will not be +rendered by those most desirable to be preserved.</p> + +<p>Given the fundamental assumption that the group is to survive—to be +perpetuated by the one possible means—if it withdraws all solicitude +about the handicap this entails to women as a whole, introducing a +spirit of laissez-faire competition between men and women, the women +with sense enough to see the point will not encumber themselves with +children. For each one of these who has no children, some other woman +must have six instead of three. And some people encourage this in the +name of democracy!</p> + +<p>The most involved problems must inevitably centre around the women who, +to quote Mrs. Hollingworth, "vary from the mode," but are yet +functional for sex. Some have no sex desires at all, some no craving for +or attachment to children, some neither of these. It is a question still +to be solved whether some of them ought, in the interest of the race, to +be encouraged to reproduce themselves. In less individualized primitive +society, seclusion, taboo and ignorance coerced them into reproduction. +Any type of control involving the inculcation of "moral" ideas is open +to the objection that it may work on those who should not reproduce +themselves as well as those who should.</p> + +<p>In a sense, this problem will tend to solve itself. With the +substitution of the more rationalized standards of self-interest and +group loyalty for the irrational taboo control of reproductive +activities, there will be as much freedom for women to choose whether +they will accept maternity as there is now, in the period of transition +from the old standards to the new. The chief difference will be that +many of the artificial forces which are acting as barriers to motherhood +at the present time—as for example the economic handicap involved—will +be removed, and woman's choice will therefore be more entirely in +harmony with her native instinctive tendencies. Thus those women endowed +with the most impelling desire for children will, as a rule, have the +largest number. In all probability their offspring will inherit the +same strong parental instinct. The stocks more poorly endowed with this +impulse will tend to die out by the very lack of any tendency to +self-perpetuation. It is only logical to conclude, therefore, that as we +set up the new forces of social control outlined in this chapter, we are +at the same time providing more scope for natural selection, and that +the problem of aberrant types consequently becomes only a transitory +one.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='PART_II'></a><h2>PART II</h2> + +<h3>THE INSTITUTIONALIZED SEX TABOO</h3> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h3>IVA LOWTHER PETERS, PH.D.</h3> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='CHAPTER_I_P2'></a><h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<center>THE PRIMITIVE ATTITUDE TOWARD SEX AND WOMANHOOD</center> +<br /> + +<center><blockquote>Primitive social control; Its rigidity; Its necessity; Universality of +this control in the form of taboos; Connection between the universal +attitude of primitive peoples towards woman as shown in the +Institutionalized Sex Taboo and the magic-religious belief in Mana; +Relation of Mana to Taboo; Discussion of Sympathetic Magic and the +associated idea of danger from contact; Difficulties in the way of an +inclusive definition of Taboo; Its dual nature; Comparison of concepts +of Crawley, Frazer, Marett and others; Conclusion that Taboo is Negative +Mana; Contribution of modern psychology to the study of Taboo; Freud's +analogy between the dualistic attitude toward the tabooed object and the +ambivalence of the emotions; The understanding of this dualism together +with the primitive belief in Mana and Sympathetic Magic explains much in +the attitude of man toward woman; The vast amount of evidence in the +taboos of many peoples of dualism in the attitude toward woman. Possible +physiological explanation of this dualistic attitude of man toward woman +found in a period before self-control had in some measure replaced +social control, in the reaction of weakness and disgust following sex +festivals.</blockquote></center><br> +<br /> + +<p>A study of the elaborate, standardized, and authoritative systems of +social control found among all primitive peoples gives a vivid +impression of the difficulty of the task of compelling man to die to +himself, that is, to become a socius. The rigors and rituals of +initiation ceremonies at adolescence impressed the duties of sociality +at that impressionable period. The individual who refused to bow his +head to the social yoke became a vagabond, an outcast, an excommunicate. +In view of the fierceness of the struggle for food and the attitude +toward the stranger among all primitives, the outcast's life chances +were unenviable. It was preferable to adapt one's self to the social +order. "Bad" traits were the more easily suppressed in return for the +re-enforcement of power which was the striking feature of group life; +power over enemies, power over nature, and a re-enforcement of the +emotional life of the individual which became the basis on which were +built up the magico-religious ceremonies of institutionalized religion.</p> + +<p>It is the purpose of this study to consider a phase of social life in +which there can be traced a persistence into modern times of a primitive +form of control which in a pre-rational stage of group life made +possible the comparatively harmonious interplay of antagonistic forces. +This form of control is called Taboo. A student of the phenomenon, a +recognized authority on its ethnological interpretation, says of it: "To +illustrate the continuity of culture and the identity of the elementary +human ideas in all ages, it is sufficient to point to the ease with +which the Polynesian word <i>tabu</i> has passed into modern +language." <a name='FNanchor_1_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_4'><sup>[1, p.16]</sup></a></p> + +<p>We shall attempt to show that at least one form of taboo, the +Institutionalized Sex Taboo, is co-extensive with human social +experience, and exists to-day at the base of family life, the socialized +form of sex relationship. The family as a social institution has been +scarcely touched until a very recent historical period by the +rationalizing process that has affected religious and political +institutions. Economic changes resultant upon the introduction of an +industrial era which showed the importance of women in diverse social +relations were causes of this new effort at adaptation to changing +conditions. It became apparent that taboos in the form of customs, +ceremonials, beliefs, and conventions, all electrically charged with +emotional content, have guarded the life of woman from change, and with +her the functions peculiar to family life. There has doubtless been +present in some of these taboos "a good hard common-sense element." But +there are also irrational elements whose persistence has resulted in +hardship, blind cruelty, and over-standardization.</p> + +<p>In order to comprehend the attitude of early man toward sex and +womanhood, and to understand the system of taboo control which grew out +of this attitude, it is only reasonable to suppose that the prehistoric +races, like the uncivilized peoples of the present time, were inclined +to explain all phenomena as the result of the action of spiritistic +forces partaking of both a magical and religious nature. This +supernatural principle which the primitive mind conceived as an +all-pervading, universal essence, is most widely known as <i>mana</i>, +although it has been discussed under other names.<a name='FNanchor_A_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_A_5'><sup>[A]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Certain persons, animals and objects<a name='FNanchor_B_6'></a><a href='#Footnote_B_6'><sup>[B]</sup></a> are often held to be imbued to +an unusual degree with this <i>mana</i>, and hence are to be regarded as holy +and held in awe. Inasmuch as man may wish to use this power for his own +purposes, a ceremonial cult would naturally grow up by which this would +become possible. Otherwise, to come in contact with these objects +directly or indirectly, besides profaning their sanctity would be +exceedingly dangerous for the transgressor, because of this same power +of transmission of a dread and little understood force. Therefore, all +such persons, animals or objects are taboo and must be avoided. Under +these circumstances it can be seen that taboos are unanalyzed, +unrationalized "Don'ts," connected with the use and wont which have +crystallized around the wish of man to manipulate the mysterious and +often desirable features of his environment, notably those connected +with possession, food, and sex.</p> + +<a name='Footnote_A_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_A_5'>[A]</a><div class='note'><p> The Australians call it Arunkulta, the Iroquis Indians +Orenda and other North American tribes Wakonda, the Melanesians Mana.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_B_6'></a><a href='#FNanchor_B_6'>[B]</a><div class='note'><p> Dr F.B. Jevons <a name='FNanchor_2_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_4'><sup>[2]</sup></a> says: "These things ... are alike taboo: +the dead body; the new-born child; blood and the shedder of blood; the +divine being as well as the criminal; the sick, outcasts, and +foreigners; animals as well as men; women especially, the married woman +as well as the sacred virgin; food, clothes, vessels, property, house, +bed, canoes, the threshing floor, the winnowing fan, a name, a word, a +day; all are or may be taboo because dangerous. This short list does not +contain one-hundredth part of the things which are supposed to be +dangerous; but even if it were filled out and made tolerably complete, +it would, by itself, fail to give any idea of the actual extent and +importance of the institution of taboo."</p></div> +<br /> + +<p>The idea of the transmission of <i>mana</i> through contact is concomitant +with the notion of <i>sympathetic magic</i>, defined as the belief that the +qualities of one thing can be mysteriously transferred to another. The +most familiar illustration is that of the hunter who will not eat the +heart of the deer he has killed lest he become timid like that animal, +while to eat the heart of a lion would be to gain all the fierce courage +of that beast.<a name='FNanchor_A_7'></a><a href='#Footnote_A_7'><sup>[A]</sup></a> This belief becomes so elaborated that the qualities +of one object are finally thought to be transferred to another which has +never come into direct contact with the first, the transition being +accomplished through the agency of a third object which has been in +contact with both the others and thus acts as the conducting medium +through which the qualities of one pass into the other.</p> + +<a name='Footnote_A_7'></a><a href='#FNanchor_A_7'>[A]</a><div class='note'><p> E.B. Tylor <a name='FNanchor_3_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_4'><sup>[3]</sup></a> has called attention to the belief that the +qualities of the eaten pass into the eater as an explanation of the food +taboos and prejudices of savage peoples.</p></div> + +<p>Just as the holy thing, which is to be feared as the seat of a mystic, +supernatural force, is to be avoided lest harm befall from contact with +it, or lest it be denied by human touch and its divine essence be +affected, so the unclean thing is also made taboo lest it infect man +with its own evil nature. Even as the savage will not have his idol +polluted by contact with his own personality, however indirect, so he +would himself avoid pollution in similar fashion by shunning that which +is unclean. Here also the avoidance of the tabooed person or thing is +based on the principle of sympathetic magic understood as a method of +transference of qualities, and on belief in the possibility of infection +by contact.</p> + +<p>The dual nature of taboo as the avoidance of both the sacred and the +unclean is noted by authorities on the subject who differ in other +respects as to the definition of taboo, such as in the relation of taboo +to the magical ceremonies by which man undertook to mould his +environment to his wishes. Whether the tabooed object be regarded in one +light or the other, the breaking of taboo is associated with dread of +the unknown—besides the fear of infection with the qualities of the +tabooed object according to the laws of sympathetic magic. There is +also the fear of the mysterious and supernatural, whether conceived as +the mana force or as a principle of "bad magic."</p> + +<p>Dr. J.G. Frazer has collected into the many volumes of "The Golden +Bough" a mass of evidence concerning the taboos of primitive society. On +the basis of his definition of magic as "a misapplication of the ideas +of association by similarity and contiguity," Dr. Frazer divided magic +into "positive magic," or charms, and "negative magic," or taboo. +"Positive magic says, 'Do this in order that so and so may happen.' +Negative magic or taboo says 'Do not do this lest so and so should +happen.'" <a name='FNanchor_4_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_4'><sup>[4, p.111, v.I.]</sup></a></p> + +<p>But Dr. Frazer's conclusion, which he himself considered only tentative, +was not long left unassailed. Prof. R.R. Marett in his essay "Is Taboo a +Negative Magic?" <a name='FNanchor_5_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_5_4'><sup>[5]</sup></a> called attention to the very evident fact that Dr. +Frazer's definition would not cover the characteristics of some of the +best known taboos, the food taboos of Prof. Tylor to which we have +previously alluded in this study, as a consequence of which "the flesh +of timid animals is avoided by warriors, but they love the meat of +tigers, boars, and stags, for their courage and speed." <a name='FNanchor_3_4b'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_4'><sup>[3, p.131.]</sup></a> Are +not these food taboos rather, Dr. Marett asks, a "misapplication of the +ideas of association by similarity and contiguity" amounting to the +sympathetic taboos so carefully described by such writers on Magic as +MM. Hubert and Mauss of L'Année Sociologique? Still another kind of +taboos mentioned by Dr. Frazer but amplified by Mr. Crawley in "The +Mystic Rose," the taboos on knots at childbirth, marriage, and death, +are much better described by the term "sympathetic taboo." Moreover, if +taboo were a form of magic as defined by Dr. Frazer, it would be a +somewhat definite and measurable quantity; whereas the distinguishing +characteristic of taboo everywhere is the "infinite plus of awfulness" +always accompanying its violation. As Dr. Marett observes, there may be +certain definite results, such as prescribed punishment for violations +against which a legal code is in process of growth. There may be also +social "growlings," showing the opposition of public opinion to which +the savage is at least as keenly sensitive as the modern. But it is the +"infinite plus" always attached to the violation of taboo that puts it +into the realm of the mystical, the magical. It would seem that Dr. +Frazer's definition does not include enough.</p> + +<p>It is when we turn to the subject of this study that we see most clearly +the deficiencies in these explanations—to the "classic well-nigh +universal major taboo" of the woman shunned. Dr. Marett uses her as his +most telling argument against the inclusiveness of the concepts of Dr. +Frazer and of MM. Hubert and Mauss. He says: "It is difficult to +conceive of sympathy, and sympathy only, as the continuous, or even the +originally efficient cause of the avoidance." Mr Crawley had called +attention to the fact that savages fear womanly characteristics, that +is, effeminacy, which is identified with weakness. While noting with +great psychological insight the presence of other factors, such as the +dislike of the different, he had gone so far as to express the opinion +that the fear of effeminacy was probably the chief factor in the Sex +Taboo. This is probably the weakest point in Mr. Crawley's study, for he +shows so clearly the presence of other elements, notably mystery, the +element that made woman the potential witch against whom suspicion +concentrated in so tragical a fashion up to a late historical period.</p> + +<p>Because of the element of mystery present in taboo we are led to +conclude that taboo is more than negative magic if we accept so definite +a concept as "a false association of ideas." The presence of power in +the tabooed object turns our attention to <i>mana</i> as giving us a better +understanding of why man must be wary. Mana must however be liberally +interpreted if we are to see to the bottom of the mystery. It must be +thought of as including good as well as evil power, as more than the +"black magic" of the witch-haunted England of the 17th century, as is +shown by the social position of the magicians who deal with the Mana of +the Pacific and with the Orenda of the Iroquois. It implies +"wonder-working," and may be shown in sheer luck, in individual cunning +and power, or in such a form as the "uncanny" psychic qualities ascribed +to women from the dawn of history. With this interpretation of mana in +mind, taboo may be conceived as negative mana; and to break taboo is to +set in motion against oneself mystic wonder-working power.</p> + +<p>Our study thus far has made it clear that there are mystic dangers to be +guarded against from human as well as extra-human sources. There is +weakness to be feared as well as power, as shown by the food and sex +taboos. And once again there is mystery in the different, the unusual, +the unlike, that causes avoidance and creates taboos. Man's dislike of +change from the old well-trodden way, no matter how irrational, accounts +for the persistence of many ancient folkways<a name='FNanchor_6_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_6_4'><sup>[6]</sup></a> whose origins are lost +in mystery.<a name='FNanchor_A_8'></a><a href='#Footnote_A_8'><sup>[A]</sup></a> Many of these old and persistent avoidances have been +expanded in the development of social relationships until we agree with +Mr. Crawley that taboo shows that "man seems to feel that he is treading +in slippery places." Might it not be within the range of possibility +that in the study of taboo we are groping with man through the first +blind processes of social control?<a name='FNanchor_B_9'></a><a href='#Footnote_B_9'><sup>[B]</sup></a></p> + +<a name='Footnote_A_8'></a><a href='#FNanchor_A_8'>[A]</a><div class='note'><p> Prof. Franz Boas explains this tendency: "The more +frequently an action is repeated, the more firmly it will become +established ... so that customary actions which are of frequent +repetition become entirely unconscious. Hand in hand with this decrease +of consciousness goes an increase in the emotional value of the omission +of these activities, and still more of the performance of acts contrary +to custom." <a name='FNanchor_7_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_7_4'><sup>[7]</sup></a></p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_B_9'></a><a href='#FNanchor_B_9'>[B]</a><div class='note'><p> No study of the tabu-mana theory, however delimited its +field, can disregard the studies of religion and magic made by the +contributors to L'Année Sociologique, notably MM. Durkheim and +Levy-Bruhl, and in England by such writers as Sir Gilbert Murray, Miss +Harrison, Mr A.B. Cook, Mr F.M. Cornford, and others. In their studies +of "collective representations" these writers give us an account of the +development of the social obligation back of religion, law, and social +institutions. They posit the sacred as forbidden and carry origins back +to a pre-logical stage, giving as the origin of the collective emotion +that started the representations to working the re-enforcement of power +or emotion resulting from gregarious living. This study is concerned, +however, with a "social" rather than a "religious" taboo,—if such a +distinction can somewhat tentatively be made, with the admission that +the social scruple very easily takes on a religious colouring.</p></div> + +<p>It is worthy of note that the most modern school of analytical +psychology has recently turned attention to the problem of taboo. Prof. +Sigmund Freud, protagonist psychoanalysis, in an essay, Totem und Tabu, +called attention to the analogy between the dualistic attitude toward +the tabooed object as both sacred and unclean and the ambivalent +attitude of the neurotic toward the salient objects in his environment. +We must agree that in addition to the dread of the tabooed person or +object there is often a feeling of fascination. This is of course +particularly prominent in the case of the woman tabooed because of the +strength of the sex instinct. As Freud has very justly said, the tabooed +object is very often in itself the object of supreme desire. This is +very obvious in the case of the food and sex taboos, which attempt to +inhibit two of the most powerful impulses of human nature. The two +conflicting streams of consciousness called ambivalence by the +psychologist may be observed in the attitude of the savage toward many +of his taboos. As the Austrian alienist cannily remarks, unless the +thing were desired there would be no necessity to impose taboo +restrictions concerning it.</p> + +<p>It is by a knowledge of the mana concept and the belief in sympathetic +magic, clarified by recognition of the ambivalent element in the +emotional reaction to the thing tabooed, that we can hope to understand +the almost universal custom of the "woman shunned" and the sex taboos of +primitive peoples. This dualism appears most strongly in the attitude +toward woman; for while she was the natural object of the powerful +sexual instinct she was quite as much the source of fear because she was +generally supposed to be endowed with spiritistic forces and in league +with supernatural powers. During the long period when the fact of +paternity was unrecognized, the power of reproduction which was thus +ascribed to woman alone made of her a mysterious being. Her fertility +could be explained only on the basis of her possession of an unusually +large amount of mana or creative force, or by the theory of impregnation +by demonic powers. As a matter of fact, both explanations were accepted +by primitive peoples, so that woman was regarded not only as imbued with +mana but also as being in direct contact with spirits. Many of the +devices for closing the reproductive organs which abounded among savage +tribes were imposed as a protection against spirits rather than against +the males of the human species. The tradition of impregnation by gods or +demons was not confined to savage tribes, but was wide-spread in the +days of Greece and Rome and lasted into biblical times, when we read of +the sons of heaven having intercourse with the daughters of men.</p> + +<p>In addition to this fear of the woman as in possession of and in league +with supernatural powers, there was an additional motive to avoidance in +the fear of transmission of her weakness through contact, a fear based +on a belief in sympathetic magic, and believed with all the "intensely +realized, living, and operative assurance" of which the untutored mind +is capable. Crawley masses an overwhelming amount of data on this point, +and both he and Frazer show the strength of these beliefs. Indeed, in +many cases violation proved to be "sure death," not by the hand of man, +but from sheer fright. As a result, just as woman was considered to have +both the tendency and power to impart her characteristics through +contact, so the sexual act, the acme of contact, became the most potent +influence for the emasculation of the male.</p> + +<p>If we wish for proof that the primitive attitude toward women was +essentially that which we have outlined, we have only to glance at the +typical taboos concerning woman found among ancient peoples and among +savage races of our own day. Nothing could be more indicative of the +belief that the power to bring forth children was a manifestation of the +possession of mana than the common avoidance of the pregnant woman. Her +mystic power is well illustrated by such beliefs as those described by +the traveller Im Thurn, who says that the Indians of Guiana believe that +if a pregnant woman eat of game caught by hounds, they will never be +able to hunt again. Similarly, Alfred Russell Wallace wrote of the +aborigines of the Amazon: "They believe that if a woman during her +pregnancy eats of any meat, any other animal partaking of it will +suffer; if a domestic animal or tame bird, it will die; if a dog, it +will be for the future incapable of hunting; and even a man will be +unable to shoot that particular kind of game for the future." <a name='FNanchor_8_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_8_4'><sup>[8]</sup></a> In +Fiji a pregnant wife may not wait upon her husband. <a name='FNanchor_9_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_9_4'><sup>[9]</sup></a> In the +Caroline Islands men may not eat with their wives when pregnant, but +small boys are allowed to do so. <a name='FNanchor_10_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_10_4'><sup>[10]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The avoidance of the menstruous woman is an even more widespread custom +than the shunning of pregnancy, probably because this function was +interpreted as a symptom of demonic possession. Primitive man had no +reason to know that the phenomenon of menstruation was in any way +connected with reproduction. The typical explanation was probably very +much like that of the Zoroastrians, who believed that the menses were +caused by the evil god Ahriman. A woman during the period was unclean +and possessed by that demon. She must be kept confined and apart from +the faithful, whom her touch would defile, and from the fire, which her +very look would injure. To this day there is in the house of the Parsee +a room for the monthly seclusion of the women, bare of all comforts, and +from it neither sun, moon, stars, fire, water, nor any human being can +be seen. <a name='FNanchor_11_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_11_4'><sup>[11]</sup></a></p> + +<p>All the ancient civilizations had such taboos upon the menstruous woman. +According to Pliny, the Romans held that nothing had such marvellous +efficacy as, or more deadly qualities than, the menstrual flow. The +Arabs thought that a great variety of natural powers attached +themselves to a woman during the menstrual period. <a name='FNanchor_12_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_12_4'><sup>[12, p.448]</sup></a> Rabbinic +laws demand that "a woman during all the days of her separation shall be +as if under a ban." The epithet Niddah, applied to a woman at that time, +means "to lay under a ban." The reconstruction of the ancient Assyrian +texts shows that the law of the unclean taboo on the woman in her +courses holds for them. Up to the present time the Semitic woman is +carefully segregated from the rest of the tribe, often for a long time, +and becomes taboo again on each successive occasion. <a name='FNanchor_13_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_13_4'><sup>[13]</sup></a> Peoples in the +eastern Mediterranean region will not permit a woman in her courses to +salt or pickle; whatever she might prepare would not keep. This belief +survives among the folk to-day in America, and was evidently brought +early in the history of the country, for it is common among pioneer +stock.</p> + +<p>There are very similar taboos among the savage races. Among the Tshi +peoples of West Africa women are not allowed to remain even in the town +but retire at the period to huts erected for the purpose in the +neighbouring bush, because they are supposed to be offensive to the +tribal deities at that time. <a name='FNanchor_14_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_14_4'><sup>[14]</sup></a> The Karoks of California have a +superstition like that of the Israelites. Every month the woman is +banished without the village to live in a booth by herself. She is not +permitted to partake of any meat, including fish. If a woman at this +time touches or even approaches any medicine which is about to be given +to a sick man, it will cause his death. <a name='FNanchor_15_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_15_4'><sup>[15]</sup></a> Amongst other Indian tribes +of North America women at menstruation are forbidden to touch men's +utensils, which would be so defiled by their touch that their subsequent +use would be attended by certain misfortune. The Canadian Dénés believe +that the very sight of a woman in this condition is dangerous to +society, so that she wears a special skin bonnet to hide her from the +public gaze. <a name='FNanchor_16_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_16_4'><sup>[16]</sup></a> In western Victoria a menstruous woman may not take +anyone's food or drink, and no one will touch food that has been touched +by her. <a name='FNanchor_17_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_17_4'><sup>[17]</sup></a> Amongst the Maoris, if a man ate food cooked by a menstrous +woman, he would be "tapu an inch thick." <a name='FNanchor_18_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_18_4'><sup>[18]</sup></a> Frazer quotes the case of +an Australian blackfellow who discovered that his wife had lain on his +blanket at her menstrual period, and who killed her and died of terror +himself within a fortnight. <a name='FNanchor_19_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_19_4'><sup>[19]</sup></a> Australian women at this time are +forbidden on pain of death to touch anything that men use or even to +walk on a path that men frequent. <a name='FNanchor_20_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_20_4'><sup>[20]</sup></a> Among the Baganda tribes a +menstruous woman is not permitted to come near her husband, cook his +food, touch any of his weapons, or sit on his mats, bed, or seat. <a name='FNanchor_21_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_21_4'><sup>[21]</sup></a></p> + +<p>By some twist in the primitive way of thinking, some "false association +by similarity and contiguity," the function of childbirth, unlike that +of pregnancy, where the emphasis seems to have been placed in most cases +on the mana principle, was held to be unclean and contaminating, and was +followed by elaborate rites of purification. It may be that the pains of +delivery were ascribed to the machinations of demonic powers, or +possession by evil spirits,—we know that this has sometimes been the +case. The use of charms and amulets, and the chanting of sacred formulæ +at this dangerous time all point to such beliefs. At any rate, although +the birth of the child would seem in every respect except in the +presence of blood to be more closely connected with the phenomena of +pregnancy than with that of menstruation, as a matter of fact the taboos +on the woman in child-bed were intimately associated with those on +menstruous women.</p> + +<p>Among the ancients, the Zoroastrians considered the woman unclean at +childbirth as at menstruation. <a name='FNanchor_22_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_22_4'><sup>[22]</sup></a> In the Old Testament, ritual +uncleanness results from contact with a woman at childbirth. <a name='FNanchor_23_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_23_4'><sup>[23]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Likewise among savage tribes the same customs concerning childbirth +prevail. Among the Australian aborigines women are secluded at childbirth +as at menstruation, and all vessels used by them during this seclusion +are burned. <a name='FNanchor_20_4b'></a><a href='#Footnote_20_4'><sup>[20]</sup></a> The Ewe-speaking people think a mother and babe unclean +for forty days after childbirth. <a name='FNanchor_24_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_24_4'><sup>[24]</sup></a> At menstruation and childbirth a +Chippeway wife may not eat with her husband; she must cook her food at a +separate fire, since any one using her fire would fall +ill. <a name='FNanchor_10_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_10_4'><sup>[10, v. ii, p.457]</sup></a> The Alaskan explorer Dall found that among the +Kaniagmuts a woman was considered unclean for several days both after +delivery and menstruation; in either case no one may touch her and she +is fed with food at the end of a stick. <a name='FNanchor_25_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_25_4'><sup>[25]</sup></a> Amongst the tribes of the +Hindu Kush the mother is considered unclean for seven days after the +birth of her child, and no one will eat from her hand nor will she +suckle her infant during that period. In the Oxus valley north of the +Hindu Kush the period is extended to forty days. <a name='FNanchor_26_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_26_4'><sup>[26]</sup></a></p> + +<p>This attitude which primitive man takes toward woman at the time of her +sexual crises—menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth—are but an +intensification of the feeling which he has toward her at all times. +Conflicting with his natural erotic inclinations are the emotions of awe +and fear which she inspires in him as the potential source of contagion, +for there is always some doubt as to her freedom from bad magic, and it +is much safer to regard her as unclean. <a name='FNanchor_27_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_27_4'><sup>[27]</sup></a> Thus the every-day life of +savage tribes is hedged in by all manner of restrictions concerning the +females of their group. The men have their own dwelling in many +instances, where no woman may enter. So, too, she may be barred out from +the temples and excluded from the religious ceremonies when men worship +their deity. There are people who will not permit the women of their +nation to touch the weapons, clothing, or any other possessions of the +men, or to cook their food, lest even this indirect contact result in +emasculation. The same idea of sympathetic magic is at the root of +taboos which forbid the wife to speak her husband's name, or even to use +the same dialect. With social intercourse debarred, and often no common +table even in family life, it is veritably true that men and women +belong to two castes.</p> + +<p>Of the primitive institution known as the "men's house," Hutton Webster +says: "Sexual separation is further secured and perpetuated by the +institution known as the men's house, of which examples are to be found +among primitive peoples throughout the world. It is usually the largest +building in a tribal settlement ... Here the most precious belongings of +the community, such as trophies and religious emblems, are preserved. +Within its precincts ... women and children ... seldom or never +enter ... Family huts serve as little more than resorts for the +women and children." <a name='FNanchor_28_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_28_4'><sup>[28]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Many examples among uncivilized peoples bear out this description of +the institution of the men's house. Amongst the Indians of California +and in some Redskin tribes the men's clubhouse may never be entered by a +squaw under penalty of death. The Shastika Indians have a town lodge for +women, and another for men which the women may not enter. <a name='FNanchor_15_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_15_4'><sup>[15]</sup></a>Among the +Fijis women are not allowed to enter a <i>bure</i> or club house, which is +used as a lounge by the chiefs. In the Solomon Islands women may not +enter the men's <i>tambu</i> house, and on some of the islands are not even +permitted to cross the beach in front of it. <a name='FNanchor_29_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_29_4'><sup>[29]</sup></a> In the Marquesas +Islands the <i>ti</i> where the men congregate and spend most of their time +is taboo to women, and protected by the penalty of death from the +pollution of a woman's presence. <a name='FNanchor_30_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_30_4'><sup>[30]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Not only is woman barred from the men's club house, but she is also +often prohibited from association and social intercourse with the +opposite sex by many other regulations and customs. Thus no woman may +enter the house of a Maori chief,<a name='FNanchor_31_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_31_4'><sup>[31]</sup></a> while among the Zulus, even if a +man and wife are going to the same place they never walk together.<a name='FNanchor_32_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_32_4'><sup>[32]</sup></a> +Among the Baganda wives are kept apart from the men's quarters.<a name='FNanchor_21_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_21_4'><sup>[21]</sup></a> The +Ojibway Indian Peter Jones says of his people: "When travelling the men +always walk on before. It would be considered a great presumption for +the wife to walk by the side of her husband."<a name='FNanchor_33_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_33_4'><sup>[33]</sup></a> In many islands of the +South Seas the houses of important men are not accessible to their +wives, who live in separate huts. Among the Bedouins a wife may not sit +in any part of the tent except her own corner, while it is disgraceful +for a man to sit under the shadow of the women's <i>roffe</i> (tent +covering).<a name='FNanchor_34_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_34_4'><sup>[34]</sup></a> Among the Hindus, no female may enter the men's +apartments. In the Society and Sandwich Islands the females were +humiliated by taboo, and in their domestic life the women lived almost +entirely by themselves. The wife could not eat the same food, could not +eat in the same place, could not cook by the same fire. It was said that +woman would pollute the food.<a name='FNanchor_35_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_35_4'><sup>[35]</sup></a> In Korea a large bell is tolled at +about 8 p.m. and 3 a.m. daily, and between these hours only are women +supposed to appear in the streets.<a name='FNanchor_36_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_36_4'><sup>[36]</sup></a> In the New Hebrides there is a +curious segregation of the sexes, with a dread among the men of eating +anything female.<a name='FNanchor_37_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_37_4'><sup>[37]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Among many tribes this segregation of the women and the separation of +the sexes begin at an early age, most often at the approach of puberty, +which is earlier in primitive peoples than in our own race.<a name='FNanchor_38_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_38_4'><sup>[38]</sup></a> The boys +usually go about with the father, while the girls remain with the +mother. This is true in Patagonia, where the boys begin to go with the +father at ten, the daughters with the mother at nine.<a name='FNanchor_39_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_39_4'><sup>[39]</sup></a> In Korea boys +and girls are separated at seven. From that time the Korean girl is +absolutely secluded in the inner court of her father's home. Mrs Bishop +says: "Girl children are so successfully hidden away that ... I never +saw one girl who looked above the age of six ... except in the women's +rooms."<a name='FNanchor_36_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_36_4'><sup>[36]</sup></a> Among the northern Indian girls are from the age of eight or +nine prohibited from joining in the most innocent amusements with +children of the opposite sex, and are watched and guarded with such an +unremitting attention as cannot be exceeded by the most rigid discipline +of an English boarding-school.<a name='FNanchor_40_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_40_4'><sup>[40]</sup></a> Similar arrangements are reported +among the Hill Dyaks,<a name='FNanchor_41_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_41_4'><sup>[41]</sup></a> certain Victorian tribes,<a name='FNanchor_17_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_17_4'><sup>[17]</sup></a> and many others. +As already instanced, the separation of the sexes extends even to +brothers and sisters and other close relatives. Thus in Fiji brothers +and sisters are forbidden by national and religious custom to speak to +each other.<a name='FNanchor_9_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_9_4'><sup>[9]</sup></a> In Melanesia, according to Codrington, the boy begins to +avoid his mother when he puts on clothing, and his sister as soon as she +is tattooed.<a name='FNanchor_42_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_42_4'><sup>[42]</sup></a> In the exclusive Nanburi caste of Travancore brothers +and sisters are separated at an early age.</p> + +<p>Women are more often than not excluded also from religious worship on +account of the idea of their uncleanness. The Arabs in many cases will +not allow women religious instruction. The Ansayrees consider woman to +be an inferior being without a soul, and therefore exclude her from +religious services.<a name='FNanchor_34_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_34_4'><sup>[34]</sup></a> In the Sandwich Islands women were not allowed +to share in worship or festivals.<a name='FNanchor_35_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_35_4'><sup>[35]</sup></a> The Australians are very jealous +lest women should look into their sacred mysteries. It is death for a +woman to look into a Bora.<a name='FNanchor_20_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_20_4'><sup>[20]</sup></a> In Fiji women are kept away from worship +and excluded from all the temples.<a name='FNanchor_9_4b'></a><a href='#Footnote_9_4'><sup>[9]</sup></a> The women of some of the Indian +hill-tribes may not sacrifice nor appear at shrines, nor take part in +religious festivals. In New Ireland women are not allowed to approach +the temples.<a name='FNanchor_43_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_43_4'><sup>[43]</sup></a> In the Marquesas Islands the Hoolah-hoolah ground, +where festivals are held, is taboo to women, who are killed if they +enter or even touch with their feet the shadow of the trees.<a name='FNanchor_30_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_30_4'><sup>[30]</sup></a> Women +are also excluded from the sacred festivals of the Ahts.<a name='FNanchor_44_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_44_4'><sup>[44]</sup></a> In the +Amazon region, the women are not even permitted to see the objects used +in important ceremonies. If any woman of the Uaupes tribe happens to see +the masks used in the tribal ceremony she is put to death.<a name='FNanchor_45_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_45_4'><sup>[45]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Crawley has explained the taboos on the sexes eating together and on the +cooking of food by women for men as due to the superstitious belief +that food which has come in contact with or under the influence of the +female is capable of transmitting her properties. Some southern Arabs +would die rather than accept food from a woman.<a name='FNanchor_12_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_12_4'><sup>[12]</sup></a> Among the old +Semites it was not the custom for a man to eat with his wife and +children. Among the Motu of New Guinea when a man is helega, he may not +eat food that his wife has cooked.<a name='FNanchor_46_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_46_4'><sup>[46]</sup></a> South Australian boys during +initiation are forbidden to eat with the women, lest they "grow ugly or +become grey."</p> + +<p>It was probably some fear of the charm-weaving power of woman which lay +at the root of the rules which forbade her to speak her husband's name, +the implication being that she might use it in some incantation against +him. For instance, a Zulu woman was forbidden to speak her husband's +name; if she did so, she would be suspected of witchcraft.<a name='FNanchor_47_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_47_4'><sup>[47]</sup></a> Herodotus +tells us that no Ionian woman would ever mention the name of her +husband, nor may a Hindu woman do so.<a name='FNanchor_48_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_48_4'><sup>[48]</sup></a> </p> + +<p>Frazer says that the custom of the Kaffir woman of South Africa not to +speak the name of her own or husband's relations has given rise to an +almost entirely different language from that of the men through the +substitution of new words for the words thus banned. Once this "women's +speech" had arisen, it would of course not be used by the men because of +the universal contempt for woman and all that pertained to her. This may +have been the origin of the use of different dialects in some tribes, +such as the Japanese, the Arawaks, some Brazilian tribes, and +others.<a name='FNanchor_49_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_49_4'><sup>[49]</sup></a> </p> + +<p>Although the division of labour between the sexes had a natural +biological basis, and indeed had its beginning in the animal world long +before man as such came into existence, the idea of the uncleanness of +woman was carried over to her work, which became beneath the dignity of +man. As a result, there grew up a series of taboos which absolutely +fixed the sphere of woman's labour, and prohibited her from encroaching +on the pursuits of man lest they be degraded by her use, quite as much +as they barred man from her specific activities. In Nicaragua, for +example, it is a rule that the marketing shall be done by women. In +Samoa, where the manufacture of cloth is allotted to the women, it is +taboo for a man to engage in any part of the process.<a name='FNanchor_30_4b'></a><a href='#Footnote_30_4'><sup>[30]</sup></a> Among the +Andamanese the performance of most of the domestic duties falls to the +lot of the women and children. Only in cases of stern necessity will the +husband procure wood or water.<a name='FNanchor_50_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_50_4'><sup>[50]</sup></a> An Eskimo even thinks it an indignity +to row in an <i>umiak</i>, the large boat used by women.</p> + +<p>They also distinguish very definitely between the offices of husband +and wife. For example, when a man has brought a seal to land, it would +be a stigma on his character to draw it out of the water, since that is +the duty of the female.<a name='FNanchor_51_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_51_4'><sup>[51]</sup></a> In the Marquesas Islands, the use of canoes +in all parts of the islands is rigorously prohibited to women, for whom +it is death even to be seen entering one when hauled on shore; while +Tapa-making, which belongs exclusively to women, is taboo to men.<a name='FNanchor_30_4c'></a><a href='#Footnote_30_4'><sup>[30]</sup></a> +Among the Betchuanas of South Africa the men will not let women touch +the cattle.<a name='FNanchor_52_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_52_4'><sup>[52]</sup></a> The Baganda think that if a woman steps over a man's +weapons they will not aim straight or kill until they have been +purified.<a name='FNanchor_21_4b'></a><a href='#Footnote_21_4'><sup>[21]</sup></a> Among many South African tribes, if a wife steps over her +husband's assegais, they are considered useless from that time and are +given to the boys to play with. This superstition rings many changes and +is current among the natives of all countries.</p> + +<p>The taboos which have thus been exemplified and reviewed are based on +the feeling that woman is possessed of a demonic power, or perhaps of a +<i>mana</i> principle which may work injury; or else upon the fear that she +may contaminate man with her weakness. It is very probable that many of +these taboos originated even as far back as the stage of society in +which the line of descent was traced through the mother. There seems +little doubt that the framework of ancient society rested on the basis +of kinship, and that the structure of the ancient gens brought the +mother and child into the same gens. Under these circumstances the gens +of the mother would have some ascendancy in the ancient household. On +such an established fact rests the assumption of a matriarchate, or +period of Mutterrecht. The German scholar Bachofen in his monumental +work "Das Mutterrecht" discussed the traces of female "authority" among +the Lycians, Cretans, Athenians, Lemnians, Lesbians, and Asiatic +peoples. But it is now almost unanimously agreed that the matriarchal +period was not a time when women were in possession of political or +economic power, but was a method of tracing descent and heritage. It is +fairly well established that, in the transition from metronymic to +patronymic forms, authority did not pass from women to men, but from the +brothers and maternal uncles of the women of the group to the husbands +and sons. Such a method of tracing descent, while it doubtless had its +advantages in keeping the woman with her child with her blood kindred, +would not prevent her from occupying a degraded position through the +force of the taboos which we have described.<a name='FNanchor_53_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_53_4'><sup>[53]</sup></a></p> + +<p>With the development of the patriarchal system and the custom of +marriage by capture or purchase, woman came to be regarded as a part of +man's property, and as inviolate as any other of his possessions. Under +these circumstances virginity came to be more and more of an asset, +since no man wished his property to be denied by the touch of another. +Elaborate methods for the preservation of chastity both before and after +marriage were developed, and in many instances went so far as to +consider a woman defiled if she were accidentally touched by any other +man than her husband. Here we have once more the working of sympathetic +magic, where the slightest contact works contamination.</p> + +<p>We have in other connections alluded to the seclusion of young girls in +Korea, among the Hindus, among the North American Indians, and in the +South Seas. One of the most beautiful examples of this custom is found +in New Britain. From puberty until marriage the native girls are +confined in houses with a bundle of dried grass across the entrance to +show that the house is strictly taboo. The interior of these houses is +divided into cells or cages in each of which a girl is confined. No +light and little or no air enters, and the atmosphere is hot and +stifling.</p> + +<p>The seclusion of women after marriage is common among many peoples. In +the form in which it affected western civilization it probably +originated among the Persians or some other people of central Asia, and +spread to the Arabs and Mohammedans. That it did not originate with the +Arabs is attested by students of their culture. It was common among the +Greeks, whose wives were secluded from other men than their husbands. In +modern Korea it is not even proper to ask after the women of the family. +Women have been put to death in that country when strange men have +accidentally touched their hands.<a name='FNanchor_36_4b'></a><a href='#Footnote_36_4'><sup>[36, p.341]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The saddest outcome of the idea of woman as property was the status of +widows. In uncivilized society a widow is considered dangerous because +the ghost of her husband is supposed to cling to her. Hence she must be +slain that his spirit may depart in peace with her, as well as with the +weapons and other possessions which are buried with him or burned upon +his funeral pyre. The Marathi proverb to the effect that "the husband is +the life of the woman" thus becomes literally true.</p> + +<p>The best known case of widow slaying is of course the custom of "suttee" +in India. The long struggle made against this custom by the British +government is a vivid illustration of the strength of these ancient +customs. The Laws of Manu indicate that the burning of widows was +practised by primitive Aryans. In the Fiji Islands, where a wife was +strangled on her husband's grave, the strangled women were called "the +carpeting of the grave."<a name='FNanchor_54_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_54_4'><sup>[54]</sup></a> In Arabia, as in many other countries, +while a widow may escape death, she is very often forced into the class +of vagabonds and dependents. One of the most telling appeals made by +missionaries is the condition of child widows in countries in which the +unfortunates cannot be killed, but where the almost universal stigma of +shame is attached to second marriages. A remarkable exception to this, +when in ancient Greece the dying husband sometimes bequeathed his widow +to a male friend, emphasized the idea of woman as property.</p> + +<p>Although the taboos which are based on the idea of ownership are +somewhat aside from the main theme of our discussion, they nevertheless +reinforce the other taboos of the seclusion and segregation of woman as +unclean. Moreover, as will be shown in a later chapter, the property +idea has certain implications which are important for the proper +understanding of the status of woman and the attitude toward her at the +present time.</p> + +<p>In the face of the primitive aversion to woman as the source of +contamination through sympathetic magic, or as the seat of some mystic +force, whether of good or evil, it may well be asked how man ever dared +let his sexual longings overcome his fears and risk the dangers of so +intimate a relationship. Only by some religious ceremonial, some act of +purification, could man hope to counteract these properties of woman; +and thus the marriage ritual came into existence. By the marriage +ceremonial, the breach of taboo was expiated, condoned, and socially +countenanced.<a name='FNanchor_1_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_4'><sup>[1, p.200]</sup></a> This was very evident in the marriage customs of +the Greeks, which were composed of purification rites and other +precautions.<a name='FNanchor_55_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_55_4'><sup>[55]</sup></a> The injunctions to the Hebrews given in Leviticus +illustrate the almost universal fact that even under the sanction of +marriage the sexual embrace was taboo at certain times, as for example +before the hunt or battle.</p> + +<p>We are now prepared to admit that throughout the ages there has existed +a strongly dualistic or "ambivalent" feeling in the mind of man toward +woman. On the one hand she is the object of erotic desire; on the other +hand she is the source of evil and danger. So firmly is the latter +feeling fixed that not even the sanction of the marriage ceremony can +completely remove it, as the taboos of intercourse within the marital +relationship show.</p> + +<p>There are certain psychological and physiological reasons for the +persistence of this dualistic attitude in the very nature of the sex act +itself. Until the climax of the sexual erethism, woman is for man the +acme of supreme desire; but with detumescence the emotions tend to +swing to the opposite pole, and excitement and longing are forgotten in +the mood of repugnance and exhaustion. This tendency would be very much +emphasized in those primitive tribes where the <i>corroboree</i> with its +unlimited indulgence was common, and also among the ancients with their +orgiastic festivals. In the revulsion of feeling following these orgies +woman would be blamed for man's own folly. In this physiological swing +from desire to satiety, the apparent cause of man's weakness would be +looked upon as the source of the evil—a thing unclean. There would be +none of the ethical and altruistic element of modern "love" to protect +her. Students agree that these elements in the modern sentiment have +been evolved, "not from the sexual instinct, but from the companionship +of the battlefield."<a name='FNanchor_56_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_56_4'><sup>[56]</sup></a> It is therefore probable that in this +physiological result of uncontrolled sex passion we shall find the +source of the dualism of the attitude toward sex and womanhood present +in taboo.</p><br /> + +<p>BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER I</p> + +<a name='Footnote_1_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_4'>1.</a><div class='note'> Crawley, A.E. The Mystic Rose. 492 pp. Macmillan. London, 1902.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_2_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_2_4'>2.</a><div class='note'> Jevons, F.B. History of Religion. 443 pp. Methuen & Co. London, 1896.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_3_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_3_4'>3.</a><div class='note'> Tylor, E.B. Early History of Mankind, 3d. ed. 388 pp. J. Murray. +London, 1878.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_4_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_4_4'>4.</a><div class='note'> Frazer, J.G. The Golden Bough: Part I, The Magic Art and the +Evolution of Kings. 2 vols. Macmillan. London, 1911.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_5_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_5_4'>5.</a><div class='note'> First published in Anthropological Essays presented to E.B. Tylor in +honour of his 75th birthday. Oct. 2, 1907. 416 pp. The Clarendon Press, +Oxford, 1907.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_6_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_6_4'>6.</a><div class='note'> Sumner, W.G. Folkways. 692 pp. Ginn & Co. Boston, 1907.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_7_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_7_4'>7.</a><div class='note'> Boas, Franz. The Mind of Primitive Man. 294 pp. Macmillan. N.Y., 1911.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_8_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_8_4'>8.</a><div class='note'> Wallace, Alfred Russel. Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro. 541 pp. Reeve & Co., London, 1853.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_9_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_9_4'>9.</a><div class='note'> Williams, Thomas, and Calvert, James. Fiji and the Fijians. 551 pp. Appleton. N.Y., 1859.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_10_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_10_4'>10.</a><div class='note'> Ploss, Dr Hermann H. Das Weib. 2 vols. Th. Grieben's Verlag. Leipzig, 1885.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_11_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_11_4'>11.</a><div class='note'> Greiger, Ostiranische Kultur. Erlangen, 1882. Quoted from Folkways +<a name='FNanchor_6_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_6_4'><sup>[6]</sup></a>, p. 513.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_12_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_12_4'>12.</a><div class='note'> Robertson Smith, W. Religion of the Semites. 508 pp. A. & C. Black. Edinburgh, 1894.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_13_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_13_4'>13.</a><div class='note'> Thompson, R.C. Semitic Magic. 286 pp. Luzac & Co. London, 1908.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_14_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_14_4'>14.</a><div class='note'> Ellis, A.B. Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast of West Africa. +343 pp. Chapman & Hall. London, 1887.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_15_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_15_4'>15.</a><div class='note'> Powers, Stephen. Tribes of California. Contributions to North +American Ethnology, Third Volume. Washington, 1877.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_16_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_16_4'>16.</a><div class='note'> Morice, Rev. Father A.G. The Canadian Dénés. Annual Archeological +Report, 1905. Toronto, 1906. Quoted from Frazer, Taboo and the Perils of +the Soul.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_17_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_17_4'>17.</a><div class='note'> Dawson, James. Australian Aborigines. 111 pp., with Appendix. George +Robertson. Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide, 1881. Citation from Latin vote to Chap. XII.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_18_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_18_4'>18.</a><div class='note'> Tregear, Edward. The Maoris of New Zealand. Journal of the +Anthropological Institute, v. xix, 1889.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_19_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_19_4'>19.</a><div class='note'> Armit, Capt. W.E. Customs of the Australian Aborigines. Jour. Anthr. +Inst., ix, 1880, p. 459. See also <a name='FNanchor_18_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_18_4'><sup>[18]</sup></a>.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_20_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_20_4'>20.</a><div class='note'> Ridley, W. Report on Australian Languages and Traditions. Jour. Anthr. Inst., ii, 1872.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_21_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_21_4'>21.</a><div class='note'> Roscoe, Rev. John. Manners and Customs of the Baganda. Jour. Anthr, +Inst., xxxii, 1902.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_22_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_22_4'>22.</a><div class='note'> Zend-Avesta. Sacred Books of the East Series. Oxford 1880, 1883.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_23_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_23_4'>23.</a><div class='note'> Leviticus xii.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_24_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_24_4'>24.</a><div class='note'> Ellis, A.B. Ewe-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa. +Chapman & Hall. London, 1890. 331 pp.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_25_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_25_4'>25.</a><div class='note'> Dall, W.H. Alaska and Its Resources. 627 pp. Lee & Shepard. Boston, 1870.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_26_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_26_4'>26.</a><div class='note'> Biddulph, Maj. J. Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh. 164 pp. Gov't. Printing Office. Calcutta, 1880.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_27_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_27_4'>27.</a><div class='note'> Frazer, J.G. The Golden Bough: Part II, Taboo and the Perils of the Soul. 446 pp. Macmillan. London, 1911.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_28_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_28_4'>28.</a><div class='note'> Webster, Hutton. Primitive Secret Societies. 227 pp. Macmillan. N.Y., 1908.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_29_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_29_4'>29.</a><div class='note'> Guppy, H.B. The Solomon Islands and Their Natives. 384 pp. Swan Sonnenschein & Co. London, 1887.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_30_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_30_4'>30.</a><div class='note'> Melville, H. The Marquesas Islands. 285 pp. John Murray. London, 1846.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_31_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_31_4'>31.</a><div class='note'> Taylor, Rev. Richard. Te Ika A Maui, or New Zealand and Its Inhabitants. 713 pp. 2d. ed. Macintosh. London, 1870.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_32_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_32_4'>32.</a><div class='note'> Shooter, Rev. Joseph. The Kaffirs of Natal and the Zulu Country. 403 pp. E. Stanford. London, 1857.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_33_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_33_4'>33.</a><div class='note'> Jones, Rev. Peter. History of the Ojibway Indians. 217 pp. A.W. Bennett. London, 1861.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_34_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_34_4'>34.</a><div class='note'> Featherman, A. Social History of the Races of Mankind. 5 vols. Trübner & Co. London, 1881.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_35_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_35_4'>35.</a><div class='note'> Ellis, Rev. Wm. Polynesian Researches. 4 vols. G. Bohn. London, 1853.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_36_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_36_4'>36.</a><div class='note'> Bishop, Mrs Isabella Bird. Korea and Her Neighbours. 480 pp. Fleming H. Revell Co. N.Y., 1898.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_37_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_37_4'>37.</a><div class='note'> Somerville, Lieut. Boyle T. The New Hebrides. Jour. Anthr. Inst., xxiii, 1894.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_38_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_38_4'>38.</a><div class='note'> Hall, G. Stanley. Adolescence. 2 vols. Appleton, N.Y., 1904.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_39_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_39_4'>39.</a><div class='note'> Musters, G.C. At Home with the Patagoniana. 340 pp. J. Murray. London, 1873.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_40_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_40_4'>40.</a><div class='note'> Hearne, Samuel. A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's +Bay to the Northern Ocean. Publications of the Champlain Society, No. 6. London, 1795.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_41_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_41_4'>41.</a><div class='note'> Low, Hugh. Sarawak. 416 pp. Richard Bentley. London, 1848.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_42_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_42_4'>42.</a><div class='note'> Codrington, Rev. R.H. The Melanesians. 419 pp. Oxford, 1891.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_43_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_43_4'>43.</a><div class='note'> Romilly, Hugh Hastings. The Western Pacific and New Guinea, 2d. ed., 284 pp. John Murray. London, 1887.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_44_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_44_4'>44.</a><div class='note'> Sproat, G.M. Scenes and Studies of Savage Life. 317 pp. Smith, Elder & Co. London, 1868.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_45_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_45_4'>45.</a><div class='note'> Wissler, Clark. The American Indian. 435 pp. D.C. McMurtrie. N.Y., 1917.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_46_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_46_4'>46.</a><div class='note'> Lawes, W.G. Ethnographical Notes on the Motu, Koitapu, and Koiari Tribes of New Guinea. Jour. Anthr. Inst., viii, 1879.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_47_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_47_4'>47.</a><div class='note'> Callaway, Rev. Canon Henry. Religious System of the Amazulu. 448 pp. Trübner & Co. London, 1870.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_48_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_48_4'>48.</a><div class='note'> Crooke, W. Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India. 2 vols. Archibald Constable & Co. Westminster, 1896.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_49_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_49_4'>49.</a><div class='note'> Crawley, A.E. Sexual Taboo. Journ. Anthr. Inst., xxiv, 1895.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_50_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_50_4'>50.</a><div class='note'> Man, E.H. The Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands. Jour. Anthr. Inst., xii, 1882.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_51_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_51_4'>51.</a><div class='note'> Crantz, David. History of Greenland. Trans, fr. the German, 2 vols. Longmans, Green. London, 1820.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_52_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_52_4'>52.</a><div class='note'> Holub, E. Central South African Tribes. Jour. Anthr. Inst., x, 1881.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_53_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_53_4'>53.</a><div class='note'> Morgan, Lewis H. Ancient Society. 560 pp. Henry Holt & Co. N.Y., 1907. (First edition, 1877).</div> + +<a name='Footnote_54_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_54_4'>54.</a><div class='note'> Fison, Rev. Lorimer. Figian Burial Customs, jour. Anthr. Inst., x. 1881.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_55_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_55_4'>55.</a><div class='note'> Rohde, Erwin. Psyche. 711 pp. Freiburg und Leipzig, 1894.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_56_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_56_4'>56.</a><div class='note'> Benecke, E.F.M. Women in Greek Poetry. 256 pp. Swan Sonnenschein & Co. London, 1896.</div> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='CHAPTER_II_P2'></a><h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<center>FROM THE DAWN OF HISTORY: WOMAN AS SAINT AND WITCH</center> +<br /> + +<center><blockquote>Taboos of first chapter indicate that in the early ages the fear of +contamination by woman predominated; Later, emphasis fell on her mystic +and uncanny power; Ancient fertility cults; Temple prostitution, +dedication of virgins, etc.; Ancient priestesses and prophetesses; +Medicine early developed by woman added to belief in her power; Woman's +psychic quality of intuition: its origin—theories—conclusion that this +quality is probably physiological in origin, but aggravated by taboo +repressions; Transformation in attitude toward woman in the early +Christian period; Psychological reasons for the persistence in religion +of a Mother Goddess; Development of the Christian concept; Preservation +of ancient women cults as demonology; Early Christian attitude toward +woman as unclean and in league with demons; Culmination of belief in +demonic power of woman in witchcraft persecutions; All women affected by +the belief in witches and in the uncleanness of woman; Gradual +development on the basis of the beliefs outlined of an ideally pure and +immaculate Model Woman.</blockquote></center> +<br><br> +<p>From the data of the preceding chapter, it is clear that the early ages +of human life there was a dualistic attitude toward woman. On the one +hand she was regarded as the possessor of the mystic <i>mana</i> force, +while on the other she was the source of "bad magic" and likely to +contaminate man with her weaknesses. Altogether, the study of primitive +taboos would indicate that the latter conception predominated in savage +life, and that until the dawn of history woman was more often regarded +as a thing unclean than as the seat of a divine power.</p> + +<p>At the earliest beginnings of civilization man's emotions seem to have +swung to the opposite extreme, for emphasis fell on the mystic and +uncanny powers possessed by woman. Thus it was that in ancient nations +there was a deification of woman which found expression in the belief in +feminine deities and the establishment of priestess cults. Not until the +dawn of the Christian era was the emphasis once more focussed on woman +as a thing unclean. Then, her mystic power was ascribed to demon +communication, and stripped of her divinity, she became the witch to be +excommunicated and put to death.</p> + +<p>All the ancient world saw something supernatural, something demoniacal, +in generation. Sometimes the act was deified, as in the phallic +ceremonials connected with nature worship, where the procreative +principle in man became identified with the creative energy pervading +all nature, and was used as a magic charm at the time of springtime +planting to insure the fertility of the fields and abundant harvest,<a name='FNanchor_1_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_5'><sup>[1]</sup></a> +It was also an important part of the ritual in the Phrygian cults, the +cult of the Phoenician Astarte, and the Aphrodite cults. These mystery +religions were widely current in the Græco-Roman world in pre-Christian +times. The cult of Demeter and Dionysius in Greece and Thrace; Cybele +and Attis in Phrygia; Atagartes in Cilicia; Aphrodite and Adonis in +Syria; Ashtart and Eshmun (Adon) in Phoenicia; Ishtar and Tammuz in +Babylonia; Isis, Osiris and Serapis in Egypt, and Mithra in Persia—all +were developed along the same lines.<a name='FNanchor_2_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_5'><sup>[2]</sup></a> The custom of the sacrifice of +virginity to the gods, and the institution of temple prostitution, also +bear witness to the sacred atmosphere with which the sex act was +surrounded among the early historic peoples.<a name='FNanchor_3_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_5'><sup>[3]</sup></a> It was this idea of the +mysterious sanctity of sex which did much to raise woman to her position +as divinity and fertility goddess.</p> + +<p>The dedication of virgins to various deities, of which the classic +example is the institution of the Vestal Virgins at Rome, and the fact +that at Thebes and elsewhere even the male deities had their priestesses +as well as priests, are other indications that at this time woman was +regarded as divine or as capable of ministering to divinity. The +prophetic powers of woman were universally recognized. The oracles at +Delphi, Argos, Epirus, Thrace and Arcadia were feminine. Indeed the +Sibylline prophetesses were known throughout the Mediterranean basin.<a name='FNanchor_A_10'></a><a href='#Footnote_A_10'><sup>[A]</sup></a></p> + +<a name='Footnote_A_10'></a><a href='#FNanchor_A_10'>[A]</a><div class='note'><p> Farnell<a name='FNanchor_4_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_5'><sup>[4]</sup></a> found such decided traces of feminine divinity +as to incline him to agree with Bachofen that there was at +one time an age of Mutterrecht which had left its impress on +religion as well as on other aspects of social life. As we have +said before, it is now fairly well established that in the transition +from metronymic to patronymic forms, authority did not pass +from women to men but from the brothers and maternal uncles +of the women of the group to husbands and sons. This fact +does not, however, invalidate the significance of Farnell's data +for the support of the view herein advanced, i.e., that woman +was at one time universally considered to partake of the divine.</p></div> + +<p>The widespread character of the woman-cult of priestesses and +prophetesses among the peoples from whom our culture is derived is +evidenced in literature and religion. That there had been cults of +ancient mothers who exerted moral influence and punished crime is shown +by the Eumenides and Erinyes of the Greeks. The power of old women as +law-givers survived in Rome in the legend of the Cumæan Sibyl.<a name='FNanchor_5_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_5_5'><sup>[5]</sup></a> An +index of the universality of the sibylline cult appears in the list of +races to which Varro and Lactantius say they belonged: Persian, Libyan, +Delphian, Cimmerian, Erythrian, Trojan, and Phrygian.<a name='FNanchor_6_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_6_5'><sup>[6]</sup></a> These sibyls +were believed to be inspired, and generations of Greek and Roman +philosophers never doubted their power. Their carmina were a court of +last resort, and their books were guarded by a sacred taboo.</p> + +<p>Among the Greeks and neighbouring nations the women of Thessaly had a +great reputation for their charms and incantations.<a name='FNanchor_7_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_7_5'><sup>[7]</sup></a> Among the writers +who speak of a belief in their power are: Plato, Aristophanes, Horace, +Ovid, Virgil, Tibullus, Seneca, Lucan, Menander, and Euripides.</p> + +<p>All of the northern European tribes believed in the foresight of future +events by women. Strabo says of the Cimbri that when they took the field +they were accompanied by venerable, hoary-headed prophetesses, clothed +in long, white robes. Scandinavians, Gauls, Germans, Danes and Britons +obeyed, esteemed and venerated females who dealt in charms and +incantations. These sacred women claimed to foretell the future and to +interpret dreams, and among Germans, Celts and Gauls they were the only +physicians and surgeons. The druidesses cured disease and were believed +to have power superior to that of the priests.<a name='FNanchor_8_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_8_5'><sup>[8]</sup></a> The Germans never +undertook any adventure without consulting their prophetesses.<a name='FNanchor_9_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_9_5'><sup>[9]</sup></a> The +Scandinavian name for women endowed with the gift of prophecy was +<i>fanae</i>, <i>fanes</i>. The English form is <i>fay</i>. The ceremonies of fays or +fairies, like those of the druidesses, were performed in secluded +woods.<a name='FNanchor_A_11'></a><a href='#Footnote_A_11'><sup>[A]</sup></a></p> + +<a name='Footnote_A_11'></a><a href='#FNanchor_A_11'>[A]</a><div class='note'><p> Joan of Arc was asked during her trial if she were a fay.</p></div> + +<p>Magic and medicine went hand in hand in ancient times, and remained +together down to the middle ages. Old herbals largely compiled from the +lore of ancient women form a link in the chain of tradition, the first +ring of which may have been formed in Egypt or in Greece. There is no +doubt that women from an early date tried to cure disease. Homer makes +mention of Hecamede and her healing potions. There seems little doubt +that there were Greek women who applied themselves to a complete study +of medicine and contributed to the advance of medical science. This +traditional belief in the power of women to cure disease survives in the +folk to-day.<a name='FNanchor_10_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_10_5'><sup>[10]</sup></a></p> + +<p>In view of the widespread veneration of a peculiar psychic quality of +woman, a power of prophecy and a property of divinity which has made her +an object of fear and worship, it may be well to review the modern +explanations of the origin of this unique feminine power. Herbert +Spencer was of the opinion that feminine penetration was an ability to +distinguish quickly the passing feelings of those around and was the +result of long ages of barbarism during which woman as the weaker sex +was obliged to resort to the arts of divination and to cunning to make +up for her lack of physical force and to protect herself and her +offspring.<a name='FNanchor_11_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_11_5'><sup>[11]</sup></a> In like vein Käthe Schirmacher, a German feminist, says: +"The celebrated intuition of woman is nothing but an astonishing +refinement of the senses through fear.... Waiting in fear was made the +life task of the sex."<a name='FNanchor_12_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_12_5'><sup>[12]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Lester F. Ward had a somewhat different view.<a name='FNanchor_13_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_13_5'><sup>[13]</sup></a> He thought that +woman's psychic power came from the sympathy based on the maternal +instinct, which "though in itself an entirely different faculty, early +blended with or helped to create, the derivative reason-born faculty of +altruism." With Ward's view Olive Schreiner agrees, saying: "We have no +certain proof that it is so at present, but woman's long years of +servitude and physical subjection, and her experience as childbearer and +protector of infancy, may be found in the future to have endowed her ... +with an exceptional width of human sympathy and instinctive +comprehension."<a name='FNanchor_14_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_14_5'><sup>[14]</sup></a></p> + +<p>In all probability Lombroso came nearer to the truth in his explanation +of feminine penetration. "That woman is more subject to hysteria is a +known fact," he says, "but few know how liable she is to hypnotic +phenomena, which easily opens up the unfoldment of spiritual +faculties.... The history of observation proves that hysteria and +hypnotism take the form of magic, sorcery, and divination or prophecy, +among savage peoples. 'Women,' say the Pishawar peoples, 'are all +witches; for several reasons they may not exert their inborn powers.' +... In the Slave Coast hysterical women are believed to be possessed +with spirits. The Fuegians believed that there had been a time when +women wielded the empire through her possession of the secrets of +sorcery."<a name='FNanchor_8_5a'></a><a href='#Footnote_8_5'><sup>[8, pp.85f.]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The history of modern spiritualism has so well confirmed this view of +Lombroso's that we are safe in accepting it as the partial explanation +of the attribute of a mysterious and uncanny power which man has always +given to the feminine nature. The power of prophecy and divination which +was possessed by women at the dawn of history and for some time +thereafter was probably not different in its essentials from the +manifestations of hysterical girls who have puzzled the wisest +physicians or the strange phenomena of those spiritualistic mediums who +have been the subject of research well into our own times.<a name='FNanchor_15_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_15_5'><sup>[15]</sup></a></p> + +<p>If we wish to push our inquiry still further and ask why woman should be +so much more subject than man to hysterical seizures and to hypnotic +suggestion, we shall probably find that it is an essential part of her +femininity. Modern psychology and physiology have pointed out that the +menstrual cycle of woman has a vast influence not only on her emotional +nature but on her whole psychic life, so that there are times when she +is more nervously tense, more apt to become hysterical or to yield to +the influence of suggestion. Moreover, because of the emphasis on +chastity and the taboos with which she was surrounded, any neurotic +tendencies which might be inherent in her nature were sure to be +developed to the utmost.</p> + +<p>As Lombroso suggests, hysteria and other neurotic phenomena are classed +as evidence of spirit possession by the untutored mind. Thus it happened +that observing the strange psychic manifestations to which woman was +periodically subject, the ancient peoples endowed her with +spiritualistic forces which were sometimes held to be beneficent and at +other times malefic in character. Whatever the attitude at any time +whether her <i>mana</i> were regarded as evil or benignant, the savage and +primitive felt that it was well to be on his guard in the presence of +power; so that the taboos previously outlined would hold through the +swing of man's mind from one extreme to the other.</p> + +<p>As goddess, priestess and prophetess, woman continued to play her rôle +in human affairs until the Christian period, when a remarkable +transformation took place. The philosophy of dualism that emanated from +Persia had affected all the religions of the Mediterranean Basin and had +worked its way into Christian beliefs by way of Gnosticism, +Manicheanism, and Neo-Platonism. Much of the writing of the church +fathers is concerned with the effort to harmonize conflicting beliefs +or to avoid the current heresies. To one who reads the fathers it +becomes evident to what extent the relation of man to woman figures in +these controversies.<a name='FNanchor_16_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_16_5'><sup>[16]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The Manicheanism which held in essence Persian Mithraism and which had +so profound an influence on the writings of St. Augustine gave body and +soul to two distinct worlds and finally identified woman with the body. +But probably as a result of the teachings of Gnosticism with its +Neo-Platonic philosophy which never entirely rejected feminine +influence, some of this influence survived in the restatement of +religion for the folk. When the restatement was completed and was +spreading throughout Europe in the form which held for the next +millennium, it was found that the early goddesses had been accepted +among the saints, the priestesses and prophetesses were rejected as +witches, while the needs of men later raised the Blessed Virgin to a +place beside her son.</p> + +<p>Modern psychology has given us an explanation of the difficulty of +eradicating the worship of such a goddess as the Great Mother of Asia +Minor from the religion of even martial peoples who fear the +contamination of woman's weakness; or from a religion obsessed with +hatred of woman as unclean by men who made the suppression of bodily +passions the central notion of sanctity. The most persistent human +relationship, the one charged with a constant emotional value, is not +that of sex, which takes manifold forms, but that of the mother and +child. It is to the mother that the child looks for food, love, and +protection. It is to the child that the mother often turns from the +mate, either because of the predominance of mother love over sex or in +consolation for the loss of the love of the male. We have only recently +learned to evaluate the infantile patterns engraved in the neural tissue +during the years of childhood when the mother is the central figure of +the child's life. Whatever disillusionments may come about other women +later in life, the mother ideal thus established remains a constant part +of man's unconscious motivations. It is perhaps possible that this +infantile picture of a being all-wise, all-tender, all-sacrificing, has +within it enough emotional force to create the demand for a +mother-goddess in any religion.</p> + +<p>To arrive at the concept of the Madonna, a far-reaching process of +synthesis and reinterpretation must have been carried out before the +Bible could be brought into harmony with the demands made by a cult of a +mother goddess. Just as the views brought into the church by celibate +ideals spread among heathen people, so the church must have been in its +turn influenced by the heathen way of looking at things.<a name='FNanchor_17_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_17_5'><sup>[17]</sup></a> One of the +great difficulties was the reconciliation of the biological process of +procreation with divinity. But there had for ages been among primitive +peoples the belief that impregnation was caused by spirit possession or +by sorcery. This explanation had survived in a but slightly altered form +in the ancient mythologies, all of which contained traditions of heroes +and demi-gods who were born supernaturally of a divine father and a +human mother. In the myths of Buddha, Zoroaster, Pythagoras and Plato, +it was intimated that the father had been a god or spirit, and that the +mother had been, and moreover remained after the birth, an earthly +virgin. These old and precious notions of the supernatural origin of +great men were not willingly renounced by those who accepted the new +religion; nor was it necessary to make such a sacrifice, because men +thought that they could recognize in the Jewish traditions something +corresponding to the heathen legends.<a name='FNanchor_18_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_18_5'><sup>[18]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The proper conditions for the development of a mother cult within +Christianity existed within the church by the end of the second century. +At the Council of Nicæa (325 A.D.) it was settled that the Son was of +the same nature as the Father. The question of the nature of Mary then +came to the fore. The eastern fathers, Athanasius, Ephraim Syrus, +Eusebius and Chrysostom, made frequent use in their writings of the +term Theotokos, Mother of God. When Nestorius attacked those who +worshipped the infant Christ as a god and Mary as the mother of God +rather than as the mother of Christ, a duel began between Cyril of +Alexandria and Nestorius "which in fierceness and importance can only be +compared with that between Arius and Athanasius."<a name='FNanchor_19_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_19_5'><sup>[19]</sup></a></p> + +<p>In 431 A.D. the Universal Church Council at Ephesus assented to the +doctrine that Mary was the Mother of God. Thus Ephesus, home of the +great Diana, from primitive times the centre of the worship of a goddess +who united in herself the virtues of virginity and motherhood, could +boast of being the birthplace of the Madonna cult. And thus Mary, our +Lady of Sorrows, pure and undefiled, "the church's paradox," became the +ideal of man. She was "a woman, virgin and mother, sufficiently high to +be worshipped, yet sufficiently near to be reached by affection. ... If +we judge myths as artistic creations we must recognize that no god or +goddess has given its worshippers such an ideal as the Mary of Christian +art and poetry."<a name='FNanchor_19_5a'></a><a href='#Footnote_19_5'><sup>[19: p.183]</sup></a> <a name='FNanchor_20_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_20_5'><sup>[20: v. ii., pp.220f.]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Although Christianity thus took over and embodied in its doctrines the +cult of the mother-goddess, at the same time it condemned all the rites +which had accompanied the worship of the fertility goddesses in all the +pagan religions. The power of these rites was still believed in, but +they were supposed to be the work of demons, and we find them strictly +forbidden in the early ecclesiastical laws. The phallic ceremonials +which formed so large a part of heathen ritual became marks of the +devil, and the deities in whose honour they were performed, although +losing none of their power, were regarded as demonic rather than divine +in nature. Diana, goddess of the moon, for example, became identified +with Hecate of evil repute, chief of the witches. "In such a fashion the +religion of Greece, that of Egypt, of Phoenicia and Asia Minor, of +Assyria and of Persia, became mingled and confused in a simple +demonology."<a name='FNanchor_21_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_21_5'><sup>[21]</sup></a></p> + +<p>In addition to the condemnation of Pagan deities and their ritualistic +worship, there was a force inherent in the very nature of Christianity +which worked toward the degradation of the sex life. After the death of +Christ, his followers had divorced their thoughts from all things +earthly and set about fitting themselves for their places in the other +world. The thought of the early Christian sects was obsessed by the idea +of the second coming of the Messiah. The end of the world was incipient, +therefore it behooved each and every one to purge himself from sin. This +emphasis on the spiritual as opposed to the fleshly became fixated +especially on the sex relationship, which came to be the symbol of the +lusts of the body which must be conquered by the high desires of the +soul. Consequently the feelings concerning this relation became +surcharged with all the emotion which modern psychology has taught us +always attaches to the conscious symbol of deeply underlying unconscious +complexes. In such a situation man, who had come to look with horror on +the being who reminded him that he was flesh as well as spirit saw in +her "the Devil's gateway," or "a fireship continually striving to get +along side the male man-of-war to blow him up into pieces."<a name='FNanchor_22_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_22_5'><sup>[22]</sup></a><a name='FNanchor_A_12'></a><a href='#Footnote_A_12'><sup>[A]</sup></a></p> + +<a name='Footnote_A_12'></a><a href='#FNanchor_A_12'>[A]</a><div class='note'><p> Dr Donaldson, translator of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, says: +"I used to believe ... that woman owes her present position to +Christianity ... but in the first three centuries I have not been able +to see that Christianity had any favourable effect on the position of +woman."</p></div> + +<p>With the rejection of the idea of the sanctity of sex as embodied in the +phallic rituals of the pagan cults, the psychic power of woman became +once more a thing of fear rather than of worship, and her uncleanness +was emphasized again more than her holiness, even as in primitive times. +The power of woman to tell the course of future events which in other +days had made her revered as priestess and prophetess now made her hated +as a witch who had control of what the Middle Ages knew as the Black +Art.<a name='FNanchor_23_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_23_5'><sup>[23]</sup></a> The knowledge of medicine which she had acquired through the +ages was now thought to be utilized in the making of "witch's brew," and +the "ceremonies and charms whereby the influence of the gods might be +obtained to preserve or injure"<a name='FNanchor_21_5a'></a><a href='#Footnote_21_5'><sup>[21: v.1, p.12]</sup></a> became incantations to the +evil one. In addition to her natural erotic attraction for the male, +woman was now accused of using charms to lure him to his destruction. +The asceticism of the church made it shameful to yield to her +allurements, and as a result woman came to be feared and loathed as the +arch-temptress who would destroy man's attempt to conform to celibate +ideals. This sex antagonism culminated in the witchcraft persecutions +which make so horrible a page of the world's history.</p> + +<p>Among the pagans, witches had shared with prophetesses and priestesses a +degree of reverence and veneration. Medea had taught Jason to tame the +brazen-footed bulls and dragons which guarded the Golden Fleece. Hecate +was skilled in spells and incantations. Horace frequently mentions with +respect Canidia, who was a powerful enchantress. Gauls, Britons and +Germans had obeyed and venerated women who dealt in charms and +incantations. The doctrines of Christianity had changed the veneration +into hatred and detestation without eradicating the belief in the power +of the witch. It was with the hosts of evil that she was now believed to +have her dealings, however. When this notion of the alliance between +demons and women had become a commonplace, "the whole tradition was +directed against woman as the Devil's instrument, basely seductive, +passionate and licentious by nature."<a name='FNanchor_24_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_24_5'><sup>[24]</sup></a> Man's fear of woman found a +frantic and absurd expression in her supposed devil-worship. As a +result, the superstitions about witchcraft became for centuries not only +a craze, but a theory held by intelligent people.</p> + +<p>Among the female demons who were especially feared were: Nahemah, the +princess of the Succubi; Lilith, queen of the Stryges; and the Lamiæ or +Vampires, who fed on the living flesh of men. Belief in the Vampires +still persists as a part of the folklore of Europe. Lilith tempted to +debauchery, and was variously known as child-strangler, child-stealer, +and a witch who changed true offspring for fairy or phantom children.<a name='FNanchor_A_13'></a><a href='#Footnote_A_13'><sup>[A]</sup></a> +The figure of the child-stealing witch occurs in an extremely ancient +apocryphal book called the Testament of Soloman, and dates probably from +the first or second century of the Christian Era.<a name='FNanchor_25_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_25_5'><sup>[25]</sup></a></p> + + +<a name='Footnote_A_13'></a><a href='#FNanchor_A_13'>[A]</a><div class='note'><p> The name of Lilith carries us as far back as Babylon, and +in her charms and conjurations we have revived in Europe the reflection +of old Babylonian charms.</p></div> + +<p>Laws against the malefici (witches) were passed by Constantine. In the +Theodosian Code (<i>Lib. 9. Tit. 16. Leg. 3.</i>) they are charged with +making attempts by their wicked arts upon the lives of innocent men, and +drawing others by magical potions (philtra et pharmaca) to commit +misdemeanours. They are further charged with disturbing the elements, +raising tempests, and practising abominable arts. The Council of +Laodicea (343-381. <i>Can</i>. 36) condemned them. The Council of Ancyra +forbade the use of medicine to work mischief. St. Basil's canons +condemned witchcraft. The fourth Council of Carthage censured +enchantment.<a name='FNanchor_26_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_26_5'><sup>[26]</sup></a> John of Salisbury tells of their feasts, to which they +took unbaptized children. William of Auverne describes the charms and +incantations which they used to turn a cane into a horse. William of +Malmesbury gives an account of two old women who transformed the +travellers who passed their door into horses, swine or other animals +which they sold. From some of the old Teuton laws we learn that it was +believed that witches could take a man's heart out of his body and fill +the cavity with straw or wood so that he would go on living.</p> + +<p>One of the famous witchcraft trials was that of the Lady Alice +Kyteler,<a name='FNanchor_27_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_27_5'><sup>[27]</sup></a> whose high rank could not save her from the accusation. It +was claimed that she used the ceremonies of the church, but with some +wicked changes. She extinguished the candles with the exclamation, "Fi! +Fi! Fi! Amen!" She was also accused of securing the love of her +husbands, who left much property to her, by magic charms. These claims +were typical of the accusations against witches in the trials which took +place.</p> + +<p>By the sixteenth century, the cumulative notion of witches had +penetrated both cultivated and uncultivated classes, and was embodied in +a great and increasing literature. "No comprehensive work on theology, +philosophy, history, law, medicine, or natural science could wholly +ignore it," says Burr, "and to lighter literature it afforded the most +telling illustrations for the pulpit, the most absorbing gossip for the +news-letter, the most edifying tales for the fireside."<a name='FNanchor_28_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_28_5'><sup>[28]</sup></a></p> + +<p>As a result of this belief in the diabolic power of woman, judicial +murder of helpless women became an institution, which is thus +characterized by Sumner: "After the refined torture of the body and +nameless mental sufferings, women were executed in the most cruel +manner. These facts are so monstrous that all other aberrations of the +human race are small in comparison.... He who studies the witch trials +believes himself transferred into the midst of a race which has +smothered all its own nobler instincts, reason, justice, benevolence and +sympathy."<a name='FNanchor_24_5a'></a><a href='#Footnote_24_5'><sup>[24]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Any woman was suspect. Michelet, after a thirty years' study, wrote: +"Witches they are by nature. It is a gift peculiar to woman and her +temperament. By birth a fay, by the regular recurrence of her ecstasy +she becomes a sibyl. By her love she grows into an enchantress. By her +subtlety ... she becomes a witch and works her spells."<a name='FNanchor_29_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_29_5'><sup>[29]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Just how many victims there were of the belief in the power of women as +witches will never be known. Scherr thinks that the persecutions cost +100,000 lives in Germany alone.<a name='FNanchor_30_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_30_5'><sup>[30]</sup></a> Lord Avebury quotes the estimate of +the inquisitor Sprenger, joint author of the "Witch Hammer," that during +the Christian period some 9,000,000 persons, mostly women, were burned +as witches.<a name='FNanchor_31_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_31_5'><sup>[31]</sup></a> Seven thousand victims are said to have been burned at +Treves, 600 by a single bishop of Bamburg, 800 in a single year in the +bishopric of Wurtzburg. At Toulouse 400 persons perished at a single +burning.<a name='FNanchor_29_5a'></a><a href='#Footnote_29_5'><sup>[29: ch.1]</sup></a> <a name='FNanchor_20_5a'></a><a href='#Footnote_20_5'><sup>[20: v.1. ch.1]</sup></a> One witch judge boasted that he +executed 900 witches in fifteen years. The last mass burning in Germany +was said to have taken place in 1678, when 97 persons were burned +together. The earliest recorded burning of a witch in England is in +Walter Mapes' <i>De Nugis Curialium</i>, in the reign of Henry II. An old +black letter tract gloats over the execution at Northampton, 1612, of a +number of persons convicted of witchcraft.<a name='FNanchor_32_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_32_5'><sup>[32]</sup></a> The last judicial +sentence was in 1736, when one Jane Wenham was found guilty of +conversing familiarly with the devil in the form of a cat.<a name='FNanchor_33_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_33_5'><sup>[33]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The connection between the witchcraft delusion and the attitude toward +all women has already been implied.<a name='FNanchor_34_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_34_5'><sup>[34]</sup></a> The dualistic teaching of the +early church fathers, with its severance of matter and spirit and its +insistence on the ascetic ideal of life, had focussed on sexuality as +the outstanding manifestation of fleshly desires. The contact of the +sexes came to be looked upon as the supreme sin. Celibacy taught that +through the observance of the taboo on woman the man of God was to be +saved from pollution. Woman was the arch temptress who by the natural +forces of sex attraction, reinforced by her evil charms and +incantations, made it so difficult to attain the celibate ideal. From +her ancestress Eve woman was believed to inherit the natural propensity +to lure man to his undoing. Thus the old belief in the uncleanness of +woman was renewed in the minds of men with even greater intensity than +ever before, and in addition to a dangerous adventure, even within the +sanction of wedlock the sex act became a deed of shame. The following +quotations from the church fathers will illustrate this view:</p> + +<p>Jerome said, "Marriage is always a vice; all we can do is to excuse and +cleanse it. ... In Paradise Eve was a virgin. Virginity is natural +while wedlock only follows guilt."<a name='FNanchor_35_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_35_5'><sup>[35]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Tertullian addressed women in these words: "Do you not know that you are +each an Eve? The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age. +... You are the devil's gateway. ... You destroy God's image, +Man."<a name='FNanchor_35_5a'></a><a href='#Footnote_35_5'><sup>[35: Bk.1.]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Thus woman became degraded beyond all previous thought in the teaching +of the early church. The child was looked upon as the result of an act +of sin, and came into the world tainted through its mother with sin. At +best marriage was a vice. All the church could do was to cleanse it as +much as possible by sacred rites, an attempt which harked back to the +origin of marriage as the ceremonial breaking of taboo. Peter Lombard's +Sentences affirmed marriage a sacrament. This was reaffirmed at Florence +in 1439. In 1565, the Council of Trent made the final declaration. But +not even this could wholly purify woman, and intercourse with her was +still regarded as a necessary evil, a concession that had to be +unwillingly made to the lusts of the flesh.</p> + +<p>Such accounts as we have of the lives of holy women indicate that they +shared in the beliefs of their times. In the account of the life of a +saint known as the Blessed Eugenia preserved in an old palimpsest<a name='FNanchor_36_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_36_5'><sup>[36]</sup></a> we +read that she adopted the costume of a monk,—"Being a woman by nature +in order that I might gain everlasting life." The same account tells of +another holy woman who passed as a eunuch, because she had been warned +that it was easier for the devil to tempt a woman. In another collection +of lives of saints is the story<a name='FNanchor_37_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_37_5'><sup>[37]</sup></a> of a holy woman who never allowed +herself to see the face of a man, even that of her own brother, lest +through her he might go in among women. Another holy virgin shut herself +up in a tomb because she did not wish to cause the spiritual downfall of +a young man who loved her.</p> + +<p>This long period of religious hatred of and contempt for woman included +the Crusades, the Age of Chivalry,<a name='FNanchor_38_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_38_5'><sup>[38]</sup></a> and lasted well into the +Renaissance.<a name='FNanchor_39_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_39_5'><sup>[39]</sup></a> Students of the first thousand years of the Christian +era like Donaldson,<a name='FNanchor_22_5a'></a><a href='#Footnote_22_5'><sup>[22]</sup></a> McCabe,<a name='FNanchor_40_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_40_5'><sup>[40]</sup></a> and Benecke argue that the social +and intellectual position of women was probably lower than at any time +since the creation of the world. It was while the position of woman as +wife and mother was thus descending into the slough which has been +termed the Dark Age of Woman that the Apotheosis of the Blessed Virgin +was accomplished. The attitude toward human love, generation, the +relation of the earthly mother to the human child because of Eve's sin, +all made the Immaculate Conception a logical necessity. The doctrine of +the virgin birth disposed of sin through the paternal line. But if Mary +was conceived in sin or was not purified from sin, even that of the +first parent, how could she conceive in her body him who was without +sin? The controversy over the Immaculate Conception which began as early +as the seventh century lasted until Pius IX declared it to be an article +of Catholic belief in 1854. Thus not only Christ, but also his mother +became purged of the sin of conception by natural biological processes, +and the same immaculacy and freedom from contamination was accorded to +both. In this way the final step in the differentiation between earthly +motherhood and divine motherhood was completed.</p> + +<p>The worship of the virgin by men and women who looked upon the celibate +life as the perfect life, and upon the relationship of earthly +fatherhood and motherhood as contaminating, gave the world an ideal of +woman as "superhuman, immaculate, bowing in frightened awe before the +angel with the lily, standing mute and with downcast eyes before her +Divine Son."<a name='FNanchor_41_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_41_5'><sup>[41]</sup></a> With all its admitted beauty, this ideal represented +not the institution of the family, but the institution of the church. +Chivalry carried over from the church to the castle this concept of +womanhood and set it to the shaping of The Lady,<a name='FNanchor_42_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_42_5'><sup>[42]</sup></a> who was finally +given a rank in the ideals of knighthood only a little below that to +which Mary had been elevated by the ecclesiastical authorities. This +concept of the lady was the result of the necessity for a new social +standardization which must combine beauty, purity, meekness and angelic +goodness. Only by such a combination could religion and family life be +finally reconciled. By such a combination, earthly motherhood could be +made to approximate the divine motherhood.</p> + +<p>With the decline of the influence of chivalry, probably as the result of +industrial changes, The Lady was replaced by a feminine ideal which may +well be termed the "Model Woman." Although less ethereal than her +predecessor, The Lady, the Model Woman is quite as much an attempt to +reconcile the dualistic attitude, with its Divine Mother cult on the one +hand, and its belief in the essential evil of the procreative process +and the uncleanness of woman on the other, to human needs. The +characteristics of the Model Woman must approximate those of the Holy +Virgin as closely as possible. Her chastity before marriage is +imperative. Her calling must be the high art of motherhood. She must be +the incarnation of the maternal spirit of womanhood, but her purity must +remain unsullied by any trace of erotic passion.</p> + +<p>A voluminous literature which stated the virtues and duties of the +Model Woman blossomed out in the latter part of the eighteenth and first +half of the nineteenth century.<a name='FNanchor_43_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_43_5'><sup>[43]</sup></a> The Puritan ideals also embodied +this concept. It was by this attempt to make woman conform to a +standardized ideal that man sought to solve the conflict between his +natural human instincts and desires and the early Christian teaching +concerning the sex life and womanhood.</p> +<br /> + +<p>BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER II</p> + +<a name='Footnote_1_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_5'>1.</a><div class='note'>1. Frazer, J.G. The Golden Bough. A Study in Magic and Religion. Part I. +The Magic Art. 2 vols. Macmillan. London, 1911. Part V. Spirits of the +Corn and of the Wild. 2 vols. London, 1912.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_2_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_2_5'>2.</a><div class='note'> Farnell, L.R. Evolution of Religion. 235 pp. Williams and Norgate. +London, 1905. Crown Theological Library, Vol 12.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_3_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_3_5'>3.</a><div class='note'> Frazer, J.G. Part IV. of The Golden Bough; Adonis, Attis, and Osiris. +Chaps. III and IV. Macmillan. London, 1907.</div> + +<p>—— Sumner, W.G. Folkways. 692 pp. Ginn & Co. Boston, 1907. Chap. XVI, Sacral Harlotry.</p> + +<p>—— Lombroso, Cesare, and Lombroso-Ferrero, G. La donna delinquente. 508 pp. Fratelli Bocca. Milano, 1915.</p> + +<a name='Footnote_4_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_4_5'>4.</a><div class='note'> Farnell, L.R. Sociological Hypotheses Concerning the Position of +Woman in Ancient Religion. Archiv für Religionswissenschaft. Siebenter Band, 1904.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_5_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_5_5'>5.</a><div class='note'> Fowler, W. Warde. The Religious Experiences of the Roman People. 504 pp. Macmillan. London, 1911.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_6_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_6_5'>6.</a><div class='note'> For a description of these sibyls with a list of the works in which they are mentioned, see:</div> + +<p>—— Fullom, Steven Watson. The History of Woman. Third Ed. London, 1855.</p> + +<p>—— Rohmer, Sax. (Ward, A.S.) The Romance of Sorcery. 320 pp. E.P. Dutton & Co., New York, 1914.</p> + +<a name='Footnote_7_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_7_5'>7.</a><div class='note'> Maury, L.F. La Magie et L'Astrologie dans l'Antiquité et au Moyen +Age. Quatrieme éd. 484 pp. Paris, 1877.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_8_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_8_5'>8.</a><div class='note'> Lombroso, Cesare. Priests and Women's Clothes. North American Review. Vol. 192, 1910.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_9_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_9_5'>9.</a><div class='note'> For an extensive compilation of facts from ancient literature and history concerning sacred women, see:</div> + +<p>—— Alexander, W. History of Women from the Earliest Antiquity to the Present Time. 2 vols. W. Strahan. London, 1779.</p> + +<a name='Footnote_10_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_10_5'>10.</a><div class='note'> Mason, Otis T. Woman's Share in Primitive Culture. 295 pp. Appleton. New York, 1894.</div> + +<p>—— Dyer, T.F.S. Plants in Witchcraft. Popular Science Monthly. Vol. 34, 1889, pp. 826-833.</p> + +<p>—— Donaldson, Rev. James. Woman, Her Position and Influence in Ancient Greece and Rome. 278 pp. Longmans, Green. London, 1907.</p> + +<a name='Footnote_11_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_11_5'>11.</a><div class='note'> Spencer, Herbert. Study of Sociology. 431 pp. Appleton. N.Y., 1880.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_12_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_12_5'>12.</a><div class='note'> Schirmacher, Käthe. Das Rätsel: Weib. 160 pp. A Duncker. Weimar, +1911.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_13_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_13_5'>13.</a><div class='note'> Ward, Lester F. Psychic Factors in Civilization. 369 pp. Ginn & Co., +Boston and New York, 1906. Chap. XXVI.</div> + +<p>—— Pure Sociology. 607 pp. Macmillan. N.Y., 1903.</p> + +<a name='Footnote_14_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_14_5'>14.</a><div class='note'> Schreiner, Olive. Woman and Labour. 299 pp. Frederick A. Stokes Co. N.Y., 1911.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_15_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_15_5'>15.</a><div class='note'> Hall, G. Stanley. Adolescence. 2 vols. Appleton. N.Y., 1904.</div> + +<p>—— Dupouy, Edmund. Psychologie morbide. Librairie des Sciences Psychiques, 1907.</p> + +<a name='Footnote_16_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_16_5'>16.</a><div class='note'> The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Translation by the Rev. Alexander Roberts +and James Donaldson, LL.D., and others. American Reprint of the +Edinburgh Edition. Buffalo, 1889.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_17_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_17_5'>17.</a><div class='note'> Hatch, Edwin. Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian +Church. Ed. by A.M. Fairbairn. 4th ed. London, 1892. Hibbert Lectures, 1888.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_18_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_18_5'>18.</a><div class='note'> Gilbert, George Holley. The Greek Strain in Our Oldest Gospels. +North American Review. Vol. 192, 1910.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_19_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_19_5'>19.</a><div class='note'> Hirn, Yrjo. The Sacred Shrine. 574 pp. Macmillan. London, 1912.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_20_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_20_5'>20.</a><div class='note'> Lecky, W.E.H. Rationalism in Europe. 2 vols. Appleton. N.Y. and London, 1910. Vol. II, pp. 220 f.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_21_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_21_5'>21.</a><div class='note'> Wright, Thomas. Narratives of Sorcery and Magic. 2 vols. R. Bentley. London, 1851.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_22_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_22_5'>22.</a><div class='note'> Donaldson, Rev. James. The Position of Woman Among the Early Christians. Contemporary Review. Vol. 56, 1889.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_23_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_23_5'>23.</a><div class='note'> Bingham, Joseph. Antiquities of the Christian Church. 2 vols. London, 1846.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_24_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_24_5'>24.</a><div class='note'> Sumner, W.G. Witchcraft. Forum. Vol. 41, 1909, pp. 410-423.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_25_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_25_5'>25.</a><div class='note'> Gaster, M. Two Thousand Years of a Charm Against the Child-stealing Witch. Folklore. Vol. XI, No. 2, June, 1900.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_26_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_26_5'>26.</a><div class='note'> For discussion of the dates of the Church Councils see Rev. Charles +J. Hefele, Councils of the Church. Trans, fr. the German by C.W. Bush, 1883.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_27_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_27_5'>27.</a><div class='note'> Alice Kyteler. A contemporary narrative of the Proceedings against +Dame Alice Kyteler, prosecuted for sorcery by Richard de Ledrede, Bishop +of Ossory, 1324. Edited by Thomas Wright. London, 1843.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_28_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_28_5'>28.</a><div class='note'> Burr, George L. The Literature of Witchcraft. Papers of the American +Historical Association. Vol IV, pp. 37-66. G.P. Putnam's Sons. N.Y., 1890.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_29_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_29_5'>29.</a><div class='note'> Michelet, J. La Sorcière. 488 pp. Paris, 1878. Trans. of Introduction by L.J. Trotter.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_30_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_30_5'>30.</a><div class='note'> Scherr, Johannes. Deutsche Frauenwelt. Band II.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_31_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_31_5'>31.</a><div class='note'> Avebury, Right Hon. Lord (Sir John Lubbock). Marriage, Totemism and +Religion. 243 pp. Longmans, Green. London, 1911. Footnote, p. 127.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_32_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_32_5'>32.</a><div class='note'> Wood, Wm. Witchcraft. Cornhill Magazine. Vol. V, 1898.</div> + +<p>—— Lea, H.C. Superstition and Force. 407 pp. Philadelphia, 1866.</p> + +<a name='Footnote_33_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_33_5'>33.</a><div class='note'> Bragge, F. Jane Wenham. 36 pp. E. Curll. London 1712.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_34_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_34_5'>34.</a><div class='note'> Paulus, Nikolaus. Die Rolle der Frau in der Geschichte des +Hexenwahns. Historisches Jahrbuch. XXIX Band. München. Jahrgang 1918.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_35_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_35_5'>35.</a><div class='note'> Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian +Church. 2d. series. Vol. 6, Letter xxii, Ad Eustachium.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_36_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_36_5'>36.</a><div class='note'> Studia Sinaitica No. IX. Select Narratives of Holy Women from the +Syro-Antiochene or Sinai Palimpsest as written above the old Syriac +Gospels by John the Stylite, of Beth-Mari Ianun in A.D. 778. Edited by +Agnes Smith Lewis, M.R.A.S. London, 1900.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_37_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_37_5'>37.</a><div class='note'> Lady Meux Mss. No. VI. British Museum. The Book of Paradise, being +the Histories and Sayings of the Monks and Ascetics of the Egyptian +Desert by Palladius, Hieronymus and others. English Trans. by E.A. +Wallis Budge. (From the Syriac.) Vol. I.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_38_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_38_5'>38.</a><div class='note'> Gautier, Emile Théodore Léon. La Chevalerie. 850 pp. C. Delagrave. Paris, 1890.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_39_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_39_5'>39.</a><div class='note'> Maulde la Clavière, R. de. The Women of the Renaissance. Trans. by +G.H. Ely. 510 pp. Swan Sonnenschein, 1900.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_40_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_40_5'>40.</a><div class='note'> McCabe, Joseph. Woman in Political Evolution. Watts & Co. London, +1909.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_41_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_41_5'>41.</a><div class='note'> Barnes, Earl. Woman in Modern Society. 257 pp. B.W. Huebsch. N.Y., +1913.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_42_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_42_5'>42.</a><div class='note'> Putnam, Emily James. The Lady. 323 pp. Sturgis & Walton Co. N.Y., +1910.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_43_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_43_5'>43.</a><div class='note'> Excellent examples of this literature are Kenrick's "The Whole Duty +of a Woman, or A Guide to the Female Sex," published some time in the +eighteenth century (a copy in the Galatea Collection, Boston Public +Library); and Duties of Young Women, by E.H. Chapin. 218 pp. G.W. +Briggs. Boston, 1848.</div> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='CHAPTER_III_P2'></a><h2>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<center>THE DUALISM IN MODERN LIFE: THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO</center> +<br> +<center><blockquote>The taboo and modern institutions; Survival of ideas of the uncleanness +of woman; Taboo and the family; The "good" woman; The "bad" woman; +Increase in the number of women who do not fit into the ancient +classifications.</blockquote></center><br> +<br /> + +<p>With the gradual accumulation of scientific knowledge and increasing +tendency of mankind toward a rationalistic view of most things, it might +be expected that the ancient attitude toward sex and womanhood would +have been replaced by a saner feeling. To some extent this has indeed +been the case. It is surprising, however, to note the traces which the +old taboos and superstitions have left upon our twentieth century social +life. Men and women are becoming conscious that they live in a world +formed out of the worlds that have passed away. The underlying principle +of this social phenomenon has been called the principle of "the +persistence of institutions."<a name='FNanchor_1_6'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_6'><sup>[1]</sup></a> Institutionalized habits, mosaics of +reactions to forgotten situations, fall like shadows on the life of +to-day. Memories of the woman shunned, of the remote woman goddess, and +of the witch, transmit the ancient forms by which woman has been +expected to shape her life.</p> + +<p>It may seem a far cry from the savage taboo to the institutional life of +the present; but the patterns of our social life, like the infantile +patterns on which adult life shapes itself, go back to an immemorial +past. Back in the early life of the peoples from which we spring is the +taboo, and in our own life there are customs so analogous to many of +these ancient prohibitions that they must be accounted survivals of old +social habits just as the vestigial structures within our bodies are the +remnants of our biological past.</p> + +<p>The modern preaching concerning woman's sphere, for example, is an +obvious descendant of the old taboos which enforced the division of +labour between the sexes. Just as it formerly was death for a woman to +approach her husband's weapons, so it has for a long time been +considered a disgrace for her to attempt to compete with man in his line +of work. Only under the pressure of modern industrialism and economic +necessity has this ancient taboo been broken down, and even now there is +some reluctance to recognize its passing. The exigencies of the world +war have probably done more than any other one thing to accelerate the +disappearance of this taboo on woman from the society of to-day.</p> + +<p>A modern institution reminiscent of the men's house of the savage races, +where no woman might intrude, is the men's club. This institution, as Mr +Webster has pointed out,<a name='FNanchor_2_6'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_6'><sup>[2]</sup></a> is a potent force for sexual solidarity and +consciousness of kind. The separate living and lack of club activity of +women has had much to do with a delay in the development of a sex +consciousness and loyalty. The development of women's organizations +along the lines of the men's clubs has been a powerful factor in +enabling them to overcome the force of the taboos which have lingered on +in social life. Only through united resistance could woman ever hope to +break down the barriers with which she was shut off from the fullness of +life.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the property taboo has been as persistent as any other of the +restrictions which have continued to surround woman through the ages. +Before marriage, the girl who is "well brought up" is still carefully +protected from contact with any male. The modern system of chaperonage +is the substitute for the old seclusion and isolation of the pubescent +girl. Even science was influenced by the old sympathetic magic view that +woman could be contaminated by the touch of any other man than her +husband, for the principle of telegony, that the father of one child +could pass on his characteristics to offspring by other fathers, +lingered in biological teaching until the very recent discoveries of the +physical basis of heredity in the chromosomes. Law-making was also +influenced by the idea of woman as property. For a long time there was a +hesitancy to prohibit wife-beating on account of the feeling that the +wife was the husband's possession, to be dealt with as he desired. The +laws of coverture also perpetuated the old property taboos, and gave to +the husband the right to dispose of his wife's property.</p> + +<p>The general attitude towards such sexual crises as menstruation and +pregnancy is still strongly reminiscent of the primitive belief that +woman is unclean at those times. Mothers still hesitate to enlighten +their daughters concerning these natural biological functions, and as a +result girls are unconsciously imbued with a feeling of shame concerning +them. Modern psychology has given many instances of the rebellion of +girls at the inception of menstruation, for which they have been ill +prepared. There is little doubt that this attitude has wrought untold +harm in the case of nervous and delicately balanced temperaments, and +has even been one of the predisposing factors of neurosis.<a name='FNanchor_3_6'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_6'><sup>[3]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The old seclusion and avoidance of the pregnant woman still persists. +The embarrassment of any public appearance when pregnancy is evident, +the jokes and secrecy which surround this event, show how far we are +from rationalizing this function.</p> + +<p>Even medical men show the influence of old superstitions when they +refuse to alleviate the pains of childbirth on the grounds that they are +good for the mother. Authorities say that instruction in obstetrics is +sadly neglected. A recent United States report tells us that preventable +diseases of childbirth and pregnancy cause more deaths among women than +any other disease except tuberculosis.<a name='FNanchor_4_6'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_6'><sup>[4]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The belief in the possession by woman of an uncanny psychic power which +made her the priestess and witch of other days, has crystallized into +the modern concept of womanly intuition. In our times, women "get +hunches," have "feelings in their bones," etc., about people, or about +things which are going to happen. They are often asked to decide on +business ventures or to pass opinions on persons whom they do not know. +There are shrewd business men who never enter into a serious negotiation +without getting their wives' intuitive opinion of the men with whom they +are dealing. The psychology of behaviour would explain these rapid fire +judgments of women as having basis in observation of unconscious +movements, while another psychological explanation would emphasize +sensitiveness to suggestion as a factor in the process. Yet in spite of +these rational explanations of woman's swift conclusions on matters of +importance, she is still accredited with a mysterious faculty of +intuition.</p> + +<p>A curious instance of the peculiar forms in which old taboos linger on +in modern life is the taboos on certain words and on discussion of +certain subjects. The ascetic idea of the uncleanness of the sex +relation is especially noticeable. A study of 150 girls made by the +writer in 1916-17 showed a taboo on thought and discussion among +well-bred girls of the following subjects, which they characterize as +"indelicate," "polluting," and "things completely outside the knowledge +of a lady."</p> + +<p>1. Things contrary to custom, often called "wicked" and "immoral."</p> + +<p>2. Things "disgusting," such as bodily functions, normal as well as +pathological, and all the implications of uncleanliness.</p> + +<p>3. Things uncanny, that "make your flesh creep," and things suspicious.</p> + +<p>4. Many forms of animal life which it is a commonplace that girls will +fear or which are considered unclean.</p> + +<p>5. Sex differences.</p> + +<p>6. Age differences.</p> + +<p>7. All matters relating to the double standard of morality.</p> + +<p>8. All matters connected with marriage, pregnancy, and childbirth.</p> + +<p>9. Allusions to any part of the body except head and hands.</p> + +<p>10. Politics.</p> + +<p>11. Religion.</p> + +<p>It will be noted that most of these taboo objects are obviously those +which the concept of the Model Woman has ruled out of the life of the +feminine half of the world.</p> + +<p>As might well be expected, it is in the marriage ceremony and the +customs of the family institution that the most direct continuation of +taboo may be found. The early ceremonials connected with marriage, as Mr +Crawley has shown, counteracted to some extent man's ancient fear of +woman as the embodiment of a weakness which would emasculate him. +Marriage acted as a bridge, by which the breach of taboo was expiated, +condoned, and socially countenanced. Modern convention in many forms +perpetuates this concept. Marriage, a conventionalized breach of taboo, +is the beginning of a new family. In all its forms, social, religious, +or legal, it is an accepted exception to the social injunctions which +keep men and women apart under other circumstances.</p> + +<p>The new family as a part of the social order comes into existence +through the social recognition of a relationship which is considered +especially dangerous and can only be recognized by the performance of +elaborate rites and ceremonies. It is taboo for men and women to have +contact with each other. Contact may occur only under ceremonial +conditions, guarded in turn by taboo, and therefore socially recognized. +The girl whose life from puberty on has been carefully guarded by +taboos, passes through the gateway of ceremonial into a new life, which +is quite as carefully guarded. These restrictions and elaborate rituals +which surround marriage and family life may appropriately be termed +institutional taboos. They include the property and division of labour +taboos in the survival forms already mentioned, as well as other +religious and social restrictions and prohibitions.</p> + +<p>The foundations of family life go far back of the changes of recent +centuries. The family has its source in the mating instinct, but this +instinct is combined with other individual instincts and social +relationships which become highly elaborated in the course of social +evolution. The household becomes a complex economic institution. While +the processes of change may have touched the surface of these relations, +the family itself has remained to the present an institution established +through the social sanctions of communities more primitive than our +own. The new family begins with the ceremonial breach of taboo,—the +taboo which enjoins the shunning of woman as a being both sacred and +unclean. Once married, the woman falls under the property taboo, and is +as restricted as ever she was before marriage, although perhaps in +slightly different ways. In ancient Rome, the wife was not mistress of +the hearth. She did not represent the ancestral gods, the lares and +penates, since she was not descended from them. In death as in life she +counted only as a part of her husband. Greek, Roman and Hindu law, all +derived from ancestor worship, agreed in considering the wife a +minor.<a name='FNanchor_5_6'></a><a href='#Footnote_5_6'><sup>[5]</sup></a></p> + +<p>These practices are of the greatest significance in a consideration of +the modern institutional taboos which surround the family. Students +agree that our own mores are in large part derived from those of the +lowest class of freedmen in Rome at the time when Christianity took over +the control which had fallen from the hands of the Roman emperors. These +mores were inherited by the Bourgeoisie of the Middle Ages, and were +passed on by them as they acquired economic supremacy. Thus these +practices have come down to us unchanged in spirit even if somewhat +modified in form, to fit the changed environment of our times.</p> + +<p>The standardization of the family with its foundations embedded in a +series of institutional taboos, added its weight to the formulation of +the Model Woman type referred to at the close of the preceding chapter. +The model wife appears in the earliest literature. In <i>The Trojan +Women</i>, Hecuba tells how she behaved in wedlock. She stayed at home and +did not gossip. She was modest and silent before her husband. The +patient Penelope was another ideal wife. To her, her son Telemachus +says:</p> + +<p>"Your widowed hours apart, with female toil, And various labours of the +loom, beguile, There rule, from palace cares remote and free, That care +to man belongs, and most to me."</p> + +<p>The wifely type of the Hebrews is set forth in Proverbs xxxi, 10-31. Her +virtues consisted in rising while it was yet night, and not eating the +bread of idleness. In her relation to her husband, she must never +surprise him by unusual conduct, and must see that he was well fed.</p> + +<p>The Romans, Hindus, and Mohammedans demanded similar virtues in their +wives and mothers. The wives of the medieval period were to remain +little girls, most admired for their passive obedience. Gautier puts +into the mouth of a dutiful wife of the Age of Chivalry the following +soliloquy:</p> + +<p>"I will love no one but my husband. Even if he loves me no longer, I +will love him always. I will be humble and as a servitor. I will call +him my sire, or my baron, or domine..."<a name='FNanchor_6_6'></a><a href='#Footnote_6_6'><sup>[6]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The modern feminine ideal combines the traits demanded by the worship of +the madonna and the virtues imposed by the institutional taboos which +surround the family. She is the virgin pure and undefiled before +marriage. She is the protecting mother and the obedient, faithful wife +afterward. In spite of various disrupting influences which are tending +to break down this concept, and which will presently be discussed, this +is still the ideal which governs the life of womankind. The average +mother educates her daughter to conform to this ideal woman type which +is the synthesized product of ages of taboo and religious mysticism. +Home training and social pressure unite to force woman into the mould +wrought out in the ages when she has been the object of superstitious +fear to man and also a part of his property to utilize as he willed. +Being thus the product of wholly irrational forces, it is little wonder +that only in recent years has she had any opportunity to show what she +in her inmost soul desired, and what capabilities were latent within her +personality.</p> + +<p>In sharp contrast to the woman who conforms to the standards thus +created for her, is the prostitute, who is the product of forces as +ancient as those which have shaped the family institution. In the +struggle between man's instinctive needs and his mystical ideal of +womanhood, there has come about a division of women into two +classes—the good and the bad. It is a demarcation as sharp as that +involved in the primitive taboos which set women apart as sacred or +unclean. In building up the Madonna concept and requiring the women of +his family to approximate this mother-goddess ideal, man made them into +beings too spiritual to satisfy his earthly needs. The wife and mother +must be pure, as he conceived purity, else she could not be respected. +The religious forces which had set up the worship of maternity had +condemned the sex relationship and caused a dissociation of two elements +of human nature which normally are in complete and intimate harmony. One +result of this divorce of two biologically concomitant functions was the +institution of prostitution.</p> + +<p>Prostitution is designed to furnish and regulate a supply of women +outside the mores of the family whose sex shall be for sale, not for +purposes of procreation but for purposes of indulgence. In the ancient +world, temple prostitution was common, the proceeds going to the god or +goddess; but the sense of pollution in the sex relation which came to be +so potent an element in the control of family life drove the prostitute +from the sanctuary to the stews and the brothel, where she lives to-day. +She has become the woman shunned, while the wife and mother who is the +centre of the family with its institutional taboos is the sacred woman, +loved and revered by men who condemn the prostitute for the very act for +which they seek her company. Such is the irrational situation which has +come to us as a heritage from the past.</p> + +<p>Among the chief causes which have impelled women into prostitution +rather than into family life are the following: (1) Slavery; (2) +poverty; (3) inclination. These causes have been expanded and re-grouped +by specialists, but the only addition which the writer sees as necessary +in consequence of the study of taboo is the fact that the way of the +woman transgressor is peculiarly hard because of the sex taboo, the +ignorance and narrowness of good women, and the economic limitations of +all women. Ignorance of the results of entrance into a life which +usually means abandonment of hope may be a contributing cause. Boredom +with the narrowness of family life and desire for adventure are also +influences.</p> + +<p>That sex desire leads directly to the life of the prostitute is +unlikely. The strongly sexed class comes into prostitution by the war of +irregular relationships with men to whom they have been attached, and +who have abandoned them or sold them out. Many authorities agree on the +frigidity of the prostitute. It is her protection from physical and +emotional exhaustion. This becomes evident when it is learned that these +women will receive thirty men a day, sometimes more. A certain original +lack of sensitiveness may be assumed, especially since the +investigations of prostitutes have shown a large proportion, perhaps +one-third, who are mentally inferior. It is an interesting fact that +those who are sensitive to their social isolation defend themselves by +dwelling on their social necessity. Either intuitively or by a trade +tradition, the prostitute feels that "she remains, while creeds and +civilizations rise and fall, blasted for the sins of the people." A +beautiful young prostitute who had been expelled from a high grade house +after the exposures of the Lexow Investigation, once said to the writer: +"It would never do for good women to know what beasts men are. We girls +have got to pay."</p> + +<p>The lady, dwelling on her pedestal of isolation, from which she commands +the veneration of the chivalrous gentleman and the adoration of the +poet, is the product of a leisure assured by property. At the end of the +social scale is the girl who wants to be a lady, who doesn't want to +work, and who, like the lady, has nothing to sell but herself. The life +of the prostitute is the nearest approach for the poor girl to the life +of a lady with its leisure, its fine clothes, and its excitement. So +long as we have a sex ethics into which are incorporated the taboo +concepts, the lady cannot exist without the prostitute. The restrictions +which surround the lady guard her from the passions of men. The +prostitute has been developed to satisfy masculine needs which it is not +permitted the lady to know exist.</p> + +<p>But in addition to the married woman who has fulfilled the destiny for +which she has been prepared and the prostitute who is regarded as a +social leper, there is a large and increasing number of unmarried women +who fall into neither of these classes. For a long time these +unfortunates were forced to take refuge in the homes of their luckier +sisters who had fulfilled their mission in life by marrying, or to adopt +the life of the religieuse. Economic changes have brought an alteration +in their status, however, and the work of the unattached woman is +bringing her a respect in the modern industrial world that the "old +maid" of the past could never hope to receive.</p> + +<p>Although at first often looked upon askance, the working woman by the +sheer force of her labours has finally won for herself a recognized +place in society. This was the first influence that worked against the +old taboos, and made possible the tentative gropings toward a new +standardization of women. The sheer weight of the number of unattached +women in present day life has made such a move a necessity. In England, +at the outbreak of the war, there were 1,200,000 more women than men. It +is estimated that at the end of the war at least 25% of English women +are doomed to celibacy and childlessness. In Germany, the industrial +census of 1907 showed that only 9-1/2 millions of women were married, or +about one-half the total number over eighteen years of age. In the +United States, married women constitute less than 60% of the women +fifteen years of age and over.</p> + +<p>The impossibility of a social system based on the old sex taboos under +the new conditions is obvious. There must be a revaluation of woman on +the basis of her mental and economic capacity instead of on the manner +in which she fits into a system of institutional taboos. But the old +concepts are still with us, and have shaped the early lives of working +women as well as the lives of those who have fitted into the old +grooves. Tenacious survivals surround them both, and are responsible for +many of the difficulties of mental and moral adjustment which make the +woman question a puzzle to both conservative and radical thinkers on the +subject.</p><br> + +<p>BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER III</p> + +<a name='Footnote_1_6'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_6'>1.</a><div class='note'> Davis, Michael M. Psychological Interpretations of Society. 260 pp. +Columbia University. Longmans. Green & Co. N.Y., 1909.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_2_6'></a><a href='#FNanchor_2_6'>2.</a><div class='note'> Webster, Hutton. Primitive Secret Societies. 227 pp. Macmillan. N.Y., 1908.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_3_6'></a><a href='#FNanchor_3_6'>3.</a><div class='note'> Blanchard, Phyllis. The Adolescent Girl. 243 pp. Kegan Paul & Co., London, 1921.</div> + +<p>—— Peters, Iva L. A Questionnaire Study of Some of the Effects of +Social Restrictions on the American Girl. Pedagogical Seminary, +December, 1916, Vol. XXIII, pp. 550-569.</p> + +<a name='Footnote_4_6'></a><a href='#FNanchor_4_6'>4.</a><div class='note'> Report of the U.S. Children's Bureau, 1917.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_5_6'></a><a href='#FNanchor_5_6'>5.</a><div class='note'> Fowler, W. Warde. The Religious Experience of the Roman People. 504 +pp. Macmillan. London, 1911.</div> + +<p>—— Fustel de Coulanges, Numa Denis. The Ancient City. Trans. from the +latest French edition by Willard Small. 10th ed. Lee and Shepard. +Boston, 1901. 529 pp.</p> + +<a name='Footnote_6_6'></a><a href='#FNanchor_6_6'>6.</a><div class='note'> Gautier, Emile Théodore Léon. La Chevalerie. 850 pp. C. Delagrave. +Paris, 1890.</div> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='CHAPTER_IV_P2'></a><h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<center>DYSGENIC INFLUENCES OF THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO</center> +<br /> + +<center><blockquote>Taboo survivals act dysgenically within the family under present +conditions; Conventional education of girls a dysgenic influence; +Prostitution and the family; Influence of ancient standards of "good" +and "bad." The illegitimate child; Effect of fear, anger, etc., on +posterity; The attitude of economically independent women toward +marriage.</blockquote></center><br><br /> + +<p>It is evident that in the working of old taboos as they have been +preserved in our social institutions there are certain dysgenic +influences which may well be briefly enumerated. For surely the test of +the family institution is the way in which it fosters the production and +development of the coming generation. The studies made by the Galton +Laboratory in England and by the Children's Bureau in Washington combine +with our modern knowledge of heredity to show that it is possible to cut +down the potential heritage of children by bad matrimonial choices. If +we are to reach a solution of these population problems, we must learn +to approach the problem of the sex relation without that sense of +uncleanness which has led so many generations to regard marriage as +giving respectability to an otherwise wicked inclination. The task of +devising a sane approach is only just begun. But the menace of +prostitution and of the social diseases has become so great that society +is compelled from an instinct of sheer self-preservation to drag into +the open some of the iniquities which have hitherto existed under cover.</p> + +<p>In the first place, the education of girls, which has been almost +entirely determined by the standardized concepts of the ideal woman, has +left them totally unprepared for wifehood and motherhood, the very +calling which those ideals demand that they shall follow. The whole +education of the girl aims at the concealment of the physiological +nature of men and women. She enters marriage unprepared for the +realities of conjugal life, and hence incapable of understanding either +herself or her husband. When pregnancy comes to such a wife, the old +seclusion taboos fall upon her like a categorical imperative. She is +overwhelmed with embarrassment at a normal and natural biological +process which can hardly be classified as "romantic." Such an attitude +is neither conducive to the eugenic choice of a male nor to the proper +care of the child either before or after its birth.</p> + +<p>A second dysgenic influence which results from the taboo system of +sexual ethics is the institution of prostitution, the great agency for +the spread of venereal disease through the homes of the community, and +which takes such heavy toll from the next generation in lowered vitality +and defective organization.</p> + +<p>The 1911 report of the Committee on the Social Evil in Baltimore showed +that at the time there was in that city one prostitute to every 500 +inhabitants. As is the case everywhere, such statistics cover only +prostitutes who have been detected. Hospital and clinic reports for +Baltimore gave 9,450 acute cases of venereal disease in 1906 as compared +with 575 cases of measles, 1,172 cases of diphtheria, 577 of scarlet +fever, 175 of chickenpox, 58 of smallpox and 733 cases of tuberculosis.</p> + +<p>Statistics on the health of young men shown by the physical examinations +of the various draft boards throughout the country give us a more +complete estimate of the prevalence of venereal disease among the +prospective fathers of the next generation than any other figures for +the United States. In an article in the <i>New York Medical Journal</i> for +February 2, 1918, Dr. Isaac W. Brewer of the Medical Reserve Corps +presents tables showing the percentage of rejections for various +disabilities among the applicants for enlistment in the regular army +from January 1, 1912, to December 31, 1915. Among 153,705 white and +11,092 coloured applicants, the rejection rate per 1,000 for venereal +disease was 196.7 for whites and 279.9 for coloured as against 91.3 for +whites and 75.0 for coloured for heart difficulties, next on the list. +In foreshadowing the results under the draft, Dr. Brewer says: "Venereal +disease is the greatest cause for rejection, and reports from the +cantonments where the National Army has assembled indicate that a large +number of the men had these diseases when they arrived at the camp. It +is probably true that venereal diseases cause the greatest amount of +sickness in our country."</p> + +<p>Statistics available for conditions among the American Expeditionary +Forces must be treated with great caution. Detection of these diseases +at certain stages is extremely difficult. Because of the courtesy +extended to our men by our allies, cases were treated in French and +English hospitals of which no record is available. But it is fairly safe +to say that there was no such prevalence of disease as was shown by the +Exner Report to have existed on the Mexican Border. It may even be +predicted that the education in hygienic measures which the men received +may in time affect favourably the health of the male population and +through them their wives and children. But all who came in contact with +this problem in the army know that it is a long way to the +understanding of the difficulties involved before we approach a +solution. We do know, on the basis of the work, of Neisser, Lesser, +Forel, Flexner and others, that regulation and supervision seem to +increase the incidence of disease. Among the reasons for this are: (1) +difficulties of diagnosis; (2) difficulties attendant on the +apprehension and examination of prostitutes; (3) the infrequency of +examination as compared with the number of clients of these women; and +perhaps as important as any of these reasons is the false sense of +security involved.</p> + +<p>The model woman of the past has known very little of the prostitute and +venereal disease. It is often stated that her moral safety has been +maintained at the expense of her fallen and unclean sister. But such +statements are not limited as they should be by the qualification that +her moral safety obtained in such a fashion is often at the expense of +her physical safety. If the assumption has a basis in fact that there is +a relation between prostitution and monogamic marriage, the complexity +of the problem becomes evident. It is further complicated by the +postponement of marriage from economic reasons, hesitation at the +assumption of family responsibilities at a time of life when ambition as +well as passion is strong, when the physiological functions are +stimulated by city life and there is constant opportunity for relief of +repression for a price. It is here that the demarcation between the +man's and the woman's world shows most clearly. It may well be that the +only solution of this problem is through the admission of a new +factor—the "good" woman whom taboo has kept in ignorance of a problem +that is her own. If it be true that the only solution for the double +standard whose evils show most plainly here is a new single standard +which has not yet been found, then it is high time that we find what +that standard is to be, for the sake of the future.</p> + +<p>The third dysgenic influence which works under cover of the +institutional taboo is akin to the first in its ancient standards of +"good" and "bad." We are only recently getting any standards for a good +mother except a man's choice and a wedding ring. Men's ideals of +attractiveness greatly complicate the eugenic situation. A good +matchmaker, with social backing and money, can make a moron more +attractive than a pushing, energetic girl with plenty of initiative, +whose contribution to her children would be equal or superior to that of +her mate. A timid, gentle, pretty moron, with the attainment of a girl +of twelve years, will make an excellent match, and bring into the world +children who give us one of the reasons why it is "three generations +from shirt-sleeves to shirt-sleeves." For such a girl, the slave to +convention, exactly fits the feminine ideal which man has built up for +himself. And she will be a good wife and mother in the conventional +sense all her life. This following of an ideal feminine type conceived +in irrational processes in former days inclines men to marry women with +inferior genetic possibilities because they meet the more insistent +surface requirements. The heritage of our children is thus cut down, and +many a potential mother of great men remains unwed.</p> + +<p>The same survival of ancient sex taboos is seen in the attitude toward +the illegitimate child. The marriage ceremony is by its origin and by +the forms of its perpetuation the only sanction for the breaking of the +taboo on contact between men and women. The illegitimate child, the +visible symbol of the sin of its parents, is the one on whom most +heavily falls the burden of the crime. Society has for the most part +been utterly indifferent to the eugenic value of the child and has +concerned itself chiefly with the manner of its birth. Only the +situation arising out of the war and the need of the nations for men has +been able to partially remedy this situation.</p> + +<p>The taboos on illegitimacy in the United States have been less affected +by the practical population problems growing out of war conditions than +those of other countries. As compared with the advanced stands of the +Scandinavian countries, the few laws of progressive states look +painfully inadequate. Miss Breckinridge writes:<a name='FNanchor_1_7'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_7'><sup>[1]</sup></a></p> + +<p>"The humiliating and despised position of the illegitimate child need +hardly be pointed out. He was the son of nobody, filius nullius, without +name or kin so far as kinship meant rights of inheritance or of +succession. In reality this child of nobody did in a way belong to his +mother as the legitimate child never did in common law, for, while the +right of the unmarried mother to the custody of the child of her shame +was not so noble and dignified a thing as the right of the father to the +legitimate child, she had in fact a claim, at least so long as the child +was of tender years, not so different from his and as wide as the sky +from the impotence of the married mother. The contribution of the father +has been secured under conditions shockingly humiliating to her, in +amounts totally inadequate to her and the child's support. In Illinois, +$550 over 5 years; Tennessee, $40 the first year, $30 the second, $20 +the third. (See studies of the Boston Conference on Illegitimacy, +September, 1914, p. 47.) Moreover, the situation was so desperate that +physicians, social workers and relatives have conspired to save the +girl's respectability at the risk of the child's life and at the cost of +all spiritual and educative value of the experience of motherhood. This +has meant a greatly higher death rate among illegitimate infants, a +higher crime and a higher dependency rate."</p> + +<p>The fifth of the dysgenic influences which has been fostered by the +institutional taboo is uncovered by recent studies of the effect of +certain emotions on the human organism. The life of woman has long been +shadowed by the fact that she has been the weaker sex; that even when +strong she has been weighted by her child; and that throughout the +period of private property she has been the poor sex, dependent on some +male for her support. In an age of force, fear has been her strong +emotion. If she felt rage it must be suppressed. Disappointment and +discouragement had also to be borne in silence and with patience. Of +such a situation Davies says:</p> + +<p>"The power of the mind over the body is a scientific fact, as is +evidenced by hypnotic suggestion and in the emotional control over the +chemistry of health through the agency of the internal secretions. The +reproductive processes are very susceptible to chemic influences. Thus +the influences of the environment may in some degree carry through to +the offspring."<a name='FNanchor_2_7'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_7'><sup>[2]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The studies of Drs Crile and Cannon show that the effects of fear on the +ganglionic cells are tremendous. Some of the cells are exhausted and +completely destroyed by intensity and duration of emotion. Cannon's +experiments on animals during fear, rage, anger, and hunger, show that +the entire nervous system is involved and that internal and external +functions change their normal nature and activity. The thyroid and +adrenal glands are deeply affected. In times of intense emotion, the +thyroid gland throws into the system products which cause a quickened +pulse, rapid respiration, trembling, arrest of digestion, etc. When the +subjects of experiments in the effect of the emotions of fear, rage, +etc., are examined, it is found that the physical development, +especially the sexual development, is retarded. Heredity, age, sex, the +nervous system of the subject, and the intensity and duration of the +shock must all have consideration. Griesinger, Amard and Daguin +emphasize especially the results of pain, anxiety and shock, claiming +that they are difficult or impossible to treat.</p> + +<p>To the bride brought up under the old taboos, the sex experiences of +early married life are apt to come as a shock, particularly when the +previous sex experiences of her mate have been gained with women of +another class. Indeed, so deeply has the sense of shame concerning the +sexual functions been impressed upon the feminine mind that many wives +never cease to feel a recurrent emotion of repugnance throughout the +marital relationship. Especially would this be intensified in the case +of sexual intercourse during the periods of gestation and lactation, +when the girl who had been taught that the sexual functions existed only +in the service of reproduction would see her most cherished illusions +rudely dispelled. The effect of this long continued emotional state with +its feeling of injury upon the metabolism of the female organism would +be apt to have a detrimental effect upon the embryo through the blood +supply, or upon the nursing infant through the mother's milk. There can +be no doubt that anxiety, terror, etc., affect the milk supply, and +therefore the life of the child.</p> + +<p>The sixth dysgenic effect of the control by taboos is the rebellion of +economically independent women who refuse motherhood under the only +conditions society leaves open to them. The statistics in existence, +though open to criticism, indicate that the most highly trained women in +America are not perpetuating themselves.<a name='FNanchor_3_7'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_7'><sup>[3]</sup></a> Of the situation in England, +Bertrand Russell said in 1917: "If an average sample were taken out of +the population of England, and their parents were examined, it would be +found that prudence, energy, intellect and enlightenment were less +common among the parents than in the population in general; while +shiftlessness, feeble-mindedness, stupidity and superstition were more +common than in the population in general ... Mutual liberty is making +the old form of marriage impossible while a new form is not yet +developed."<a name='FNanchor_4_7'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_7'><sup>[4]</sup></a></p> + +<p>It must be admitted that to-day marriage and motherhood are subject to +economic penalties. Perhaps one of the best explanations of the strength +of the present struggle for economic independence among women is the +fact that a commercial world interested in exchange values had refused +to properly evaluate their social contribution. A new industrial system +had taken away one by one their "natural" occupations. In the modern +man's absorption in the life of a great industrial expansion, home life +has been less insistent in its claims. His slackening of interest and +attention, together with the discovery of her usefulness in industry, +may have given the woman of initiative her opportunity to slip away from +her ancient sphere into a world where her usefulness in other fields +than that of sex has made her a different creature from the model woman +of yesterday. These trained and educated women have hesitated to face +the renunciations involved in a return to the home. The result has been +one more factor in the lessening of eugenic motherhood, since it is +necessarily the less strong who lose footing and fall back on marriage +for support. These women wage-earners who live away from the traditions +of what a woman ought to be will have a great deal of influence in the +changed relations of the sexes. The answer to the question of their +relation to the family and to a saner parenthood is of vital importance +to society.</p><br> + +<p>BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER IV</p> + +<a name='Footnote_1_7'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_7'>1.</a><div class='note'> Breckinridge, Sophonisba P. Social Control of Child Welfare. +Publications of the American Sociological Society. Vol. XII, p. 23 f.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_2_7'></a><a href='#FNanchor_2_7'>2.</a><div class='note'> Davies, G.R. Social Environment. 149 pp. A.C. McClurg & Co., Chicago, 1917.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_3_7'></a><a href='#FNanchor_3_7'>3.</a><div class='note'> Popenoe, Paul. Eugenics and College Education. School and Society, pp. 438-441. Vol. VI. No. 146.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_4_7'></a><a href='#FNanchor_4_7'>4.</a><div class='note'> Russell, Bertrand. Why Men Fight. 272 pp. The Century Co., N.Y., 1917.</div> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='PART_III'></a><h2>PART III</h2> + +<h3>THE SEX PROBLEM IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY</h3> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h3>PHYLLIS BLANCHARD, PH.D.</h3> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='CHAPTER_I_P3'></a><h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<center>SEX IN TERMS OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY</center> +<br /> + +<center><blockquote>Bearing of modern psychology on the sex problem; Conditioning of the +sexual impulse; Vicarious expression of the sexual impulse; Unconscious +factors of the sex life; Taboo control has conditioned the natural +biological tendencies of individuals to conform to arbitrary standards +of masculinity and femininity; Conflict between individual desires and +social standards.</blockquote></center><br> +<br /> + +<p>An adequate treatment of the sex problem in society must necessarily +involve a consideration of the sexual impulse in the individual members +of that society. Recent psychological research, with its laboratory +experiments and studies of pathology has added a great deal of +information at this point. The lately acquired knowledge of the warping +effect of the environment upon the native biological endowment of the +individual by means of the establishment of conditioned reflexes, the +discovery that any emotion which is denied its natural motor outlet +tends to seek expression through some vicarious activity, and the +realization of the fundamental importance of the unconscious factors in +shaping emotional reactions,—such formulations of behaviouristic and +analytic psychology have thrown a great deal of light upon the nature +of the individual sex life.</p> + +<p>There are certain modifications of the erotic life which are explicable +only when we recollect that under environmental influences situations +which originally did not call up an emotional response come later to do +so. This fact, which was first noted by Setchenov, was experimentally +demonstrated by Pavlov and his students.<a name='FNanchor_7_8'></a><a href='#Footnote_7_8'><sup>[7]</sup></a> They found that when some +irrelevant stimulus, such as a musical tone or a piece of coloured paper +was presented to a dog simultaneously with its food for a sufficiently +long period, the presentation of the tone or paper alone finally caused +the same flow of saliva that the food had originally evoked. The +irrelevant stimulus was named a <i>food sign</i>, and the involuntary motor +response of salivary secretion was called a <i>conditioned reflex</i> to +differentiate it from the similar response to the biologically adequate +stimulus of food, which was termed an <i>unconditioned reflex</i>.</p> + +<p>"The significance of the conditioned reflex is simply this, that an +associated stimulus brings about a reaction; and this associated +stimulus may be from any receptor organ of the body; and it may be +formed of course not merely in the laboratory by specially devised +experiments, but by association in the ordinary environment."<a name='FNanchor_1_8'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_8'><sup>[1]</sup></a> Thus it +is evident that the formation of conditioned reflexes takes place in +all fields of animal and human activity.</p> + +<p>Watson has recently stated that a similar substitution of one stimulus +for another occurs in the case of an emotional reaction as well as at +the level of the simple physiological reflex response.<a name='FNanchor_8_8'></a><a href='#Footnote_8_8'><sup>[8]</sup></a> This means +that when an emotionally exciting object stimulates the subject +simultaneously with one not emotionally exciting, the latter may in time +(or even after one joint stimulation) arouse the same emotional response +as the former. Kempf considers this capacity of the emotion to become +thus conditioned to other than the original stimuli "of the utmost +importance in determining the selections and aversions throughout life, +such as mating, habitat, friends, enemies, vocations, professions, +religious and political preferences, etc."<a name='FNanchor_5_8'></a><a href='#Footnote_5_8'><sup>[5]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Just as Pavlov and his followers found that almost anything could become +a food sign, so the study of neurotics has shown that the sexual emotion +can be fixed upon almost any love object. For example, a single +characteristic of a beloved person (e.g.,—eye colour, smile posture, +gestures) can become itself a stimulus to evoke the emotional response +originally associated only with that person. Then it happens that the +affection may centre upon anyone possessing similar traits. In most +psychological literature, this focussing of the emotion upon some +particular characteristic is termed <i>fetishism</i>, and the stimulus which +become capable of arousing the conditioned emotional response is called +an <i>erotic fetish</i>. In extreme cases of fetishism, the sexual emotions +can only be aroused in the presence of the particular fetish involved. +Krafft-Ebing<a name='FNanchor_6_8'></a><a href='#Footnote_6_8'><sup>[6]</sup></a> and other psychopathologists describe very abnormal +cases of erotic fetishism in which some inanimate object becomes +entirely dissociated from the person with whom it was originally +connected, so that it serves exclusively as a love object in itself, and +prevents a normal emotional reaction to members of the opposite sex.</p> + +<p>The development of romantic love has depended to a great extent upon the +establishment of a wide range of stimuli capable of arousing the erotic +impulses. As Finck has pointed out, this romantic sentiment is +inseparable from the ideals of personal beauty.<a name='FNanchor_3_8'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_8'><sup>[3]</sup></a> As criteria of beauty +he lists such characteristics as well-shaped waist, rounded bosom, full +and red underlip, small feet, etc., all of which have come to be +considered standards of loveliness because the erotic emotion has been +conditioned to respond to their stimulation. Literature is full of +references to such marks of beauty in its characters (<i>Jane Eyre</i> is +almost the only well-known book with a plain heroine), and is therefore +one of the potent factors in establishing a conditioned emotional +reaction to these stimuli.</p> + +<p>The erotic impulse may have its responses conditioned in many other ways +than the building up of erotic fetishes. Kempf has observed that the +affective reactions of the individual are largely conditioned by the +unconscious attitudes of parents, friends, enemies and teachers. For +instance, one boy is conditioned to distrust his ability and another to +have confidence in his powers by the attitude of the parents. Similarly, +the daughter whose mother is abnormally prudish about sexual functions +will surely be conditioned to react in the same manner towards her own +sexual functions, unless conditioned to react differently by the +influence of another person.<a name='FNanchor_5_8a'></a><a href='#Footnote_5_8'><sup>[5]</sup></a> Through the everyday associations in the +social milieu, therefore, the erotic impulse of an individual may become +modified in almost any manner.</p> + +<p>Just as an emotional reaction may become conditioned to almost any other +stimulus than the one which originally called it forth, so there is a +tendency for any emotion to seek a vicarious outlet whenever its natural +expression is inhibited. Were any member of the group to give free play +to his affective life he would inevitably interfere seriously with the +freedom of the other members. But the fear of arousing the disapproval +of his fellows, which is rooted in man's gregarious nature, inhibits the +tendency to self-indulgence. "A most important factor begins to exert +pressure upon the infant at birth and continues throughout its life," +says Kempf. "It is the incessant, continuous pressure of the herd ... to +conventionalize its methods of acquiring the gratification of its +needs."<a name='FNanchor_5_8b'></a><a href='#Footnote_5_8'><sup>[5]</sup></a> The emotions thus denied a natural outlet seek other channels +of activity which have received the sanction of social approval.</p> + +<p>It is obvious that the rigid social regulations concerning sexual +activities must enforce repression of the erotic impulses more +frequently than any others. The love which is thus denied its biological +expression transmutes itself into many forms. It may reach out to +envelop all humanity, and find a suitable activity in social service. It +may be transformed into the love of God, and find an outlet in the +religious life of the individual. Or it may be expressed only in +language, in which case it may stop at the stage of erotic fantasy and +day-dream, or may result in some really great piece of poetry or prose. +This last outlet is so common that our language is full of symbolic +words and phrases which have a hidden erotic meaning attached to them.</p> + +<p>According to Watson, the phenomena seen in this tendency of emotions +inhibited at one point to seek other outlets are too complex to be +explained on the basis of conditioned reflex responses. All that we can +say at present is that too great emotional pressure is drained off +through whatever channel environmental and hereditary factors make +possible.<a name='FNanchor_8_8a'></a><a href='#Footnote_8_8'><sup>[8]</sup></a> This vicarious mode of expression may become habitual, +however, and interfere with a return to natural activities in a manner +analogous to that in which the development of the erotic fetish often +prevents the normal reaction to the original stimulus.</p> + +<p>Because the conditioned emotional reactions and substitutions of +vicarious motor outlets take place at neurological and physiological +levels outside the realm of consciousness, they are called unconscious +activities of the organism. There are many other unconscious factors +which also modify the sex life of the human individual. The most +fundamental of these are the impressions and associations of the infancy +period, which may well be classed as conditioned reflex mechanisms, but +are sufficiently important to receive separate consideration.</p> + +<p>It is generally conceded by students of child psychology that the social +reactions of the child are conditioned by the home environment in which +the earliest and most formative years of its life are passed. It is not +surprising, therefore, that the ideal of the opposite sex which the boy +or girl forms at this time should approximate the mother or father, +since they are the persons best loved and most frequently seen. The +ideals thus established in early childhood are very often the +unconscious influences which determine the choice of a mate in adult +life. Or the devotion to the parent may be so intense as to prevent the +transference of the love-life to another person and thus entirely +prohibit the entrance upon the marital relation. Elida Evans has given +some very convincing cases in illustration of these points in her recent +book, "The Problem of the Nervous Child."<a name='FNanchor_2_8'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_8'><sup>[2]</sup></a></p> + +<p>On the other hand, in those unfortunate cases where the father or mother +is the object of dislike, associations may be formed which will be so +persistent as to prevent the normal emotional reaction to the opposite +sex in later years. This, too, results in the avoidance of marriage and +the establishment of vicarious outlets for the sexual emotions, or less +often in homosexual attachments or perversions of the sex life. +Conditioned emotional reactions such as these play a dominant role in +the social problem of sex, as will become apparent in succeeding +chapters.</p> + +<p>In addition to the influences which naturally act to condition the +original sexual endowment of the individual, there are artificial forces +which still further qualify it. The system of taboo control which +society has always utilized in one form or another as a means of +regulating the reproductive activities of its members, has set up +arbitrary ideals of masculinity and femininity to which each man and +woman must conform or else forfeit social esteem. The feminine standard +thus enforced has been adequately described in Part II of this study. Dr +Hinkle has also described this approved feminine type, as well as the +contrasting masculine ideal which embodies the qualities of courage, +aggressiveness, and other traditional male characteristics. From her +psychoanalytic practice, Dr Hinkle concludes that men and women do not +in reality conform to these arbitrarily fixed types by native biological +endowment, but that they try to shape their reactions in harmony with +these socially approved standards in spite of their innate tendencies to +variation.<a name='FNanchor_4_8'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_8'><sup>[4]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The same conclusion might be arrived at theoretically on the grounds of +the recent biological evidence of intersexuality discussed in Part I, +which implies that there are no absolute degrees of maleness and +femaleness. If there are no 100% males and females, it is obvious that +no men and women will entirely conform to ideals of masculine and +feminine perfection.</p> + +<p>In addition to the imposition of these arbitrary standards of +masculinity and femininity, society has forced upon its members +conformity to a uniform and institutionalized type of sexual +relationship. This institutionalized and inflexible type of sexual +activity, which is the only expression of the sexual emotion meeting +with social approval, not only makes no allowance for biological +variations, but takes even less into account the vastly complex and +exceedingly different conditionings of the emotional reactions of the +individual sex life. The resulting conflict between the individual +desires and the standards imposed by society has caused a great deal of +disharmony in the psychic life of its members. The increasing number of +divorces and the modern tendency to celibacy are symptomatic of the +cumulative effect of this fundamental psychic conflict.</p> + +<br /> + +<p>BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER I</p> + +<a name='Footnote_1_8'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_8'>1.</a><div class='note'> Burnham, W.H. Mental Hygiene and the Conditioned Reflex. Ped. Sem. +Vol. XXIV, Dec, 1917, pp. 449-488.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_2_8'></a><a href='#FNanchor_2_8'>2.</a><div class='note'> Evans, Elida. The Problem of the Nervous Child. Kegan Paul & Co., +London, 1920.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_3_8'></a><a href='#FNanchor_3_8'>3.</a><div class='note'> Finck, H.T. Romantic Love and Personal Beauty. Macmillan, N.Y., 1891.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_4_8'></a><a href='#FNanchor_4_8'>4.</a><div class='note'> Hinkle, Beatrice M. On the Arbitrary Use of the Terms "Masculine" and +"Feminine." Psychoanalyt. Rev. Vol. VII, No. 1, Jan., 1920, pp. 15-30.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_5_8'></a><a href='#FNanchor_5_8'>5.</a><div class='note'> Kempf, E.J. The Tonus of the Autonomic Segments as Causes of +Abnormal Behaviour. Jour. Nerv. & Ment. Disease, Jan., 1920, pp. 1-34.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_6_8'></a><a href='#FNanchor_6_8'>6.</a><div class='note'> Krafft-Ebing, R. Psychopathia Sexualis. Fuchs, Stuttgart, 1907.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_7_8'></a><a href='#FNanchor_7_8'>7.</a><div class='note'> Pavlov, J.P. L'excitation Psychique des Glandes Salivaires. Jour de +Psychologie, 1910, No. 2, pp. 97-114.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_8_8'></a><a href='#FNanchor_8_8'>8.</a><div class='note'> Watson, J.B. Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviourist. +Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1919.</div> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='CHAPTER_II_P3'></a><h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<center>HOW OUR INSTITUTIONS FIT INDIVIDUAL SEX PSYCHOLOGY</center> +<br /> + +<center><blockquote>Social institutions controlling sex activities based on the assumption +that <i>all</i> women are adapted to as well as specialized for reproduction; +Neurotic tendencies which unfit women for marriage—the desire for +domination; Sexual anæsthesia another neurotic trait which interferes +with marital harmony; The conditioning of the sexual impulse to the +parent ideal and the erotic fetish as factors which determine mating; +Homosexual tendencies and their part in the sex problem; The conflict +between the desire for marriage and egoistic ambitions; The social +regulations from the viewpoint of individual psychology.</blockquote></center><br> +<br /> + +<p>The institutionalized forms of social control into which the old sex +taboos have developed impose upon all members of the group a uniform +type of sexual relationship. These socially enforced standards which +govern the sex life are based upon the assumption that men and women +conform closely to the masculine and feminine ideals of tradition. The +emphasis is much more strongly placed on feminine conformity, however; +a great many sexual activities are tolerated in the male that would be +unsparingly condemned in the female. Thus the sex problem becomes in +large measure a woman's problem, not only because of her peculiar +biological specialization for reproduction, which involves an enormous +responsibility but also because her life has for so many generations +been hedged in by rigid institutionalized taboos and prohibitions.</p> + +<p>The traditional conception of marriage and the family relation implies +that all women are adapted to as well as specialized for motherhood. In +reality, if the biological evidence of intersexuality be as conclusive +as now appears, there are many women who by their very nature are much +better adapted to the activities customarily considered as pre-eminently +masculine, although they are still specialized for childbearing. There +is no statistical evidence of any high correlation between the sexual +and maternal impulses. Indeed, a great many traits of human behaviour +seem to justify the inference that these two tendencies may often be +entirely dissociated in the individual life. Dr Blair Bell (as noted in +Part I, Chapter III) believes that it is possible to differentiate women +possessing a maternal impulse from those lacking such tendencies by the +very anatomical structure. It is obvious that a woman endowed with a +strong erotic nature requires a kind of sexual relationship different +from one whose interests are predominantly in her children. And both the +sexual and maternal types require different situations than the woman +who combines the two instincts in her own personality for a normal +expression of their emotional life.</p> + +<p>According to social tradition, sexual activity (at least in the case of +women) is to be exercised primarily for the reproduction of the group. +Thus the institutions of marriage and the family in their present form +provide only for the woman who possesses both the sexual and maternal +cravings. Contraceptive knowledge has enabled a small number of women +(which is rapidly growing larger) to fit into these institutions in +spite of their lack of a desire for motherhood. There have been a few +hardy theorists who have braved convention to the extent of suggesting +the deliberate adoption of unmarried motherhood by women who are +consumed by the maternal passion but have no strongly erotic nature. +Whether their problem will be solved in this manner, only the course of +social evolution in the future can show.</p> + +<p>Besides the differences in natural instinctive tendencies which make it +difficult for many women to fit into a uniform type of sexual +relationship, modern society, with its less rigid natural selection, +has permitted the survival of many neurotic temperaments which find +marriage a precarious venture. The neurotic constitution, as Adler<a name='FNanchor_1_9'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_9'><sup>[1,</sup></a><a name='FNanchor_2_9'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_9'><sup>2]</sup></a> +has pointed out, is an expression of underlying structural or functional +organic deficiency. It is a physiological axiom that whenever one organ +of the body, because of injury, disease, etc., becomes incapable of +properly discharging its functions, its duties are taken over by some +other organ or group of organs. This process of organic compensation, +whereby deficiency in one part of the body is atoned for by additional +labours of other parts, necessarily involves the nervous mechanism in +ways which need not be discussed in detail here.</p> + +<p>In children the process of compensation, with its formation of new +nervous co-ordinations, is manifest in the inability to cope with their +companions who have a better biological endowment. This gives rise to a +feeling of inferiority from which the child tries to free itself by +every possible means, ordinarily by surpassing in the classroom the +playmates whom it cannot defeat on the playground. The feeling of +inferiority continues throughout life, however, although the mechanism +of physiological compensation may have become so perfected that the +functioning of the organism is quite adequate to the needs of the +environment. As a result, the ruling motive of the conduct becomes the +desire to release the personality from this torturing sense of inability +by a constant demonstration of the power to control circumstances or to +dominate associates.</p> + +<p>This abnormal will to power finds expression in the marital relationship +in the desire for supremacy over the mate. The domineering husband is a +familiar figure in daily life. The wife who finds it more difficult to +rule her husband by sheer mastery achieves the same ends by developing a +fit of hysterical weeping or having a nervous headache when denied her +own way in family affairs.</p> + +<p>By far the easiest way for the woman to satisfy her craving for power is +the development of an interesting illness which makes her the centre of +attention. The history of nervous disease furnishes many cases of +neurosis where this uncontrollable longing for domination is the chief +factor in the etiology of the illness. It is not at all unusual to meet +wives who hold their husbands subservient to every whim because of +"delicate nervous organizations" which are upset at the slightest +thwarting of their wishes so that they develop nervous headaches, +nervous indigestion, and many other kinds of sickness unless their +preferences meet with the utmost consideration. This tendency often +becomes a chronic invalidism, which, at the same time that it brings +the longed-for attention, incapacitates the individual for sexual and +maternal activities and makes the married life an abnormal and unhappy +one.</p> + +<p>Another more or less neurotic trait which acts as a cause of disharmony +in the marital relationship is the sexual anæsthesia which is not at all +uncommon in modern women. The absence of any erotic passion is held to +be a matter of physiological makeup by many authorities, but it is +probably more often due to the inhibition of natural tendencies in +accordance with concepts built up by social tradition. In order to +understand how social suggestion can have so powerful an effect upon the +reactions of the individual, we must revert once more to the principles +of behaviouristic psychology.</p> + +<p>According to Watson,<a name='FNanchor_4_9'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_9'><sup>[4]</sup></a> whenever the environmental factors are such that +a direct expression of an emotion cannot occur, the individual has to +have recourse to implicit motor attitudes. The best example in everyday +life is probably seen in the case of anger, which can seldom be +permitted to find an outlet in the natural act of striking, etc. It is +apparent, however, in the facial expression and in a certain muscular +posture which can best be described as a "defiant" attitude. Another +good example is the submissive attitude which often accompanies the +emotion of fear. It is manifest in shrinking, avoiding movements, +sometimes of the whole body, but more often of the eyes or some other +special organ.</p> + +<p>"In the sphere of love," Watson remarks, "there are numerous attitudes +as shown by the popular expressions lovelorn, lovesick, tenderness, +sympathy. More fundamental and prominent attitudes are those of shyness, +shame, embarrassment, jealousy, envy, hate, pride, suspicion, +resentment, anguish, and anxiety."<a name='FNanchor_4_9a'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_9'><sup>[4]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The significant fact is that these attitudes function by limiting the +range of stimuli to which the person is sensitive. The attitude of shame +concerning their sexual functions, which has been impressed upon women +as a result of ages of thinking in harmony with taboo standards, thus is +able to prevent the normal biological response to a situation which +should call out the emotions of love. In women who have an unstable +nervous system this shameful feeling often results in a definite +physiological shrinking from the physical manifestations of sexuality +and renders the individual insensitive to all erotic stimulation.</p> + +<p>This attitude of shame in connection with the love life came into +existence as a socially conditioned emotional reaction set up under the +influence of the traditional ideal of the "model woman" who was pictured +as a being of unearthly purity and immaculacy. It has been passed on +from generation to generation through an unconscious conditioning of the +daughter's attitude by suggestion and imitation to resemble that of the +mother. Thus it happens that although an increasing amount of liberty, +both social and economic, and a more rational and scientific +understanding of the womanly nature, have quite revoked this ideal in +theory, in actual practice it still continues to exert its inhibitory +and restrictive influence.</p> + +<p>Because the standardized family relationship involves so much more +radical a readjustment in the life of woman than of man, it has almost +always been the feminine partner who has taken refuge in neurotic +symptoms in order to escape the difficulties of the situation. After the +marriage ceremony, the man's life goes on much as before, so far as his +social activities are concerned, but woman takes up the new duties +connected with the care of the home and her child-bearing functions. +Moreover, the sexual life of woman is in many ways more complex than +that of man. She has been subjected to more repressions and inhibitions, +and as a result there has been more modification of her emotional +reactions in the field of love. This greater complexity of her love life +makes adaptation to marriage more problematical in the case of woman.</p> + +<p>Although the neurotic tendencies of modern women have been an important +factor for the production of disharmony in the family life, there are +certain variations of the individual sex life which are more universally +significant. The conditioned emotional reactions which environmental +influences have built up around the sexual impulse of each member of +society invariably determine the choice of the mate and give rise to +extremely complicated problems by the very nature of the selective +process. It is largely a matter of chance whether the mate chosen in +accordance with the ideals of romantic love and because of some +fascinating trait which acts as an erotic fetish or in conformity with a +parental fixation will prove a congenial companion through life.</p> + +<p>But the complexity of the situation lies in the fact that the erotic +impulses may become conditioned to respond to an indefinite number of +substituted stimuli. For example, the parental fixation may become +reconditioned by focussing upon some special characteristic of the +father or mother, which becomes an erotic fetish. If the mate is +selected on the basis of this fetishistic attraction, he (or she) may +prove to be so unlike the parent in other respects as to lose all the +affection which was originally inspired. A concrete illustration of +these conflicting emotional reactions is the case of the girl who +declared that she feared her fiancé as much as she loved him, but felt +that she must marry him nevertheless. An investigation showed that her +almost compulsive feeling about her lover was due to the fact that his +gestures and manner of regarding her, in fact his whole bearing, +reminded her of her dead father, while in other respects he was totally +repugnant to her because his character traits were so far removed from +those of her father ideal.</p> + +<p>The conflict between the parental ideal and other phases of the sexual +impulse is even more pronounced in men than in women, for two reasons. +In the first place, the mother plays by far the largest part in the life +of her children, so that the son's fixation upon her is necessarily more +intense than the daughter's affection for the father. Yet on the other +hand, the sexual desire of the male is more easily aroused than that of +the female, and is more apt to centre upon some member of the opposite +sex who possesses certain physical attractiveness but is not at all like +the mother ideal. Thus it happens that men often enshrine on their +hearthstone the woman who approximates the worshipped mother, while they +seek satisfaction for their erotic needs outside the home. In other +words, in the masculine psyche there is often a dissociation of the +sexual impulse in its direct manifestations and the sentiment of love in +its more idealistic aspects. This partially explains the fact that it +is possible for a man to be "unfaithful" to his wife while actually +loving her devotedly all the time.</p> + +<p>A different solution of the unconscious conflict between the mother +fixation and the sexual desires at lower levels is seen in those cases +in which the man impulsively marries the woman who has this transient +attraction for him. When the first passion of such an alliance has worn +away, there is no lasting bond to take its place, and the man must find +solace in some such way as an intimate friendship with a woman who +recalls the maternal impressions of his childhood. A famous example of +this is found in the beautiful affection of Auguste Comte for his +idolized Clotilde de Vaux. Although Comte was bound to a woman whom he +had married in the flush of erotic desire and whom he found entirety +uncongenial, Clotilde became the inspiration of his later life, and held +his affection without the aid of any material bond because she so +closely resembled the dead mother whom he adored.<a name='FNanchor_3_9'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_9'><sup>[3]</sup></a></p> + +<p>It is evident that the selection of a mate who is erotically attractive, +but proves to be very similar to a parent who was disliked instead of +loved, is as unfortunate as the choice of a partner who is utterly +unlike a beloved father or mother. Indeed, when all the possible +complications are clearly visualized, taking into account the numerous +ways in which the sexual emotions can be modified, it is plain that +these unconscious factors which determine the choice of a mate are not +always conducive to a happy married life.</p> + +<p>Quite recently the tendency to homosexuality has been emphasized as an +important factor in the psychological problem of sex. At the +International Conference of Medical Women (New York, 1919) it was stated +that homosexual fixations among women are a frequent cause of female +celibacy and divorce. This view was upheld by such authorities as Dr. +Constance Long of England, and other prominent women physicians. +Although a certain percentage of female homosexuality is congenital, it +is probable that by far the largest part is due to a conditioning of the +sexual impulse by the substitution of members of the same sex as the +erotic stimulus in place of the normal response to the opposite sex.</p> + +<p>This substitution is facilitated by certain facts in the social life of +women. The frequent lack of opportunity to be with men during adolescent +school days, and a certain amount of taboo on male society for the +unmarried woman, are in direct favour of the establishment of homosexual +reactions. There is also an increasing sex antagonism, growing out of +woman's long struggle for the privilege of participating in activities +and sharing prerogatives formerly limited to men, which acts as an +inhibitory force to prevent the transference of the sexual emotion to +its normal object in the opposite sex. Moreover, the entrance of woman +into a manner of living and lines of activity which have heretofore been +exclusively masculine, has brought out certain character traits which in +other times would have been repressed as incompatible with the social +standards of feminine conduct, but which are conducive to the formation +of homosexual attachments, since the qualities admired in men can now be +found also in women.</p> + +<p>In this connection the term <i>homosexuality</i> is used very loosely to +denote any type of emotional fixation upon members of the same sex which +is strong enough to prevent a normal love life with some individual of +the opposite sex. Among American women, at least, this tendency is +seldom expressed by any gross physical manifestations, but often becomes +an idealized and lofty sentiment of friendship. It is abnormal, however, +when it becomes so strong as to prevent a happy married life.</p> + +<p>The tendency of emotions to seek a vicarious outlet must also be +considered in any inclusive attempt to explain the homosexual attachment +of women. The woman who, on account of lack of attraction for men or for +any other reason, is denied the normal functioning of the love life in +marriage, is forced to find some other expression for her erotic +emotions, and it is only natural that she should find it in an affection +for other women. Again, the voluntary celibacy of a large class of +modern women, who prefer to retain their economic independence rather +than to enter into family life, also necessitates finding vicarious +emotional activities. Whenever their work throws a number of these women +into constant association, it is almost inevitable that homosexual +attachments will spring up.</p> + +<p>We meet all these types of homosexual fixations in daily life. The +college girl who is isolated from men for four years has her sworn +comrade among the girls, and is sure that she will never marry but will +love her chum always. Very often it is some time after she leaves +college before she begins to take an interest in male companionship. The +young professional woman looks up to the older woman in her line of work +with the same admiration for her courage and brilliancy that used to be +reserved for the husband alone in the days when women were permitted +only a strictly feminine education and occupation. The business woman +refuses to give up her high salaried position for marriage, and consoles +herself with her feminine friends. These are the common manifestations +characteristic of female homosexuality. As has been suggested, the term +is loosely applied to such cases as these, but the tendency of recent +psychological literature is to consider them as highly sublimated +expressions of this tendency.</p> + +<p>As has been intimated, the modern woman who has entered into the +economic competition is often reluctant to abandon this activity for the +responsibilities of wifehood and motherhood, which involve a withdrawal +from the business world. Just as the materialistic rewards of economic +activities often prove more attractive than the emotional satisfactions +of family life, so, too, the intellectual ambitions of the professional +woman may deter her from the exercise of her reproductive functions. +Thus the egoistic and individualistic tendencies which modern social +organization fosters in the personality of its feminine members makes +them unwilling to sacrifice their ambitious plans in the performance of +their natural biological functions.</p> + +<p>In the present speeding up of competition, the entrance upon family life +becomes almost as burdensome to man as to woman, although in a different +manner. Free as he is from the biological responsibilities connected +with childbearing which fall to a woman's lot, he finds the economic +responsibilities which the care of children entails equally grilling. +His choice of a profession can no longer be decided by his own +preferences, but must be determined by the economic returns. He can +never afford to sacrifice financial gain for personal recognition, +because of his obligation to provide for his family. Thus it happens +that marriage often presents a situation in which no outlet for personal +ambitions is possible and the egoistic desires and emotions must be +sternly repressed. There is therefore an increasing hesitancy on the +part of the men of to-day to assume responsibilities so grave and +involving so much personal sacrifice.</p> + +<p>It is evident from even such a casual inquiry as this, that there are +many facts of individual psychology which have not been taken into +account by society in the development of the mores which govern the +sexual relationships of its members. The traditional institution of the +family, which would shape all women into model wives and mothers, has +neglected to consider the fact that not all women are biologically +adapted for these particular activities. The choice of a mate which is +determined by irrational and unconscious motives may or may not prove to +be a wise selection, as we have seen in the course of our discussion. +Most significant of all for the social problem of sex, is the +overwhelming tendency to individuation which is making both men and +women frankly question whether marriage and parenthood are worth while +when they involve so much personal sacrifice.</p> + +<p>From the viewpoint of psychology, we may briefly summarize the whole +situation by saying that society has imposed upon its members a uniform +and inflexible type of sexual relationships and reproductive activities +with a total disregard of individual differences in its demand for +conformity to these traditions. When the infinite number of variations +and modifications possible in the sexual life of different individuals +is taken into consideration, it is obvious that there must be a certain +disharmony between personal inclinations and social standards. Because +the power of the group control is very great, its members usually +repress emotions which are not in accord with its regulations, and shape +their conduct to meet with its approval. If such a restriction of the +personality and emotional life of the individual is necessary for the +welfare of the whole race and for social progress, its existence is +entirely justified. It is our next task, therefore, to determine in what +respects a rigid and irrational social control is conducive to human +betterment, and wherein, if at all, it fails to achieve this purpose.</p> +<br /> + +<p>BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER II</p> + +<a name='Footnote_1_9'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_9'>1.</a><div class='note'> Adler, Alfred. The Neurotic Constitution. Moffat, Yard, N.Y., 1917. +(Kegan Paul & Co., 1921.)</div> + +<a name='Footnote_2_9'></a><a href='#FNanchor_2_9'>2.</a><div class='note'> Adler, Alfred. A Study of Organic Inferiority and Its Psychic +Compensation. Nervous & Mental Disease Pub. Co., N.Y., 1917.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_3_9'></a><a href='#FNanchor_3_9'>3.</a><div class='note'> Blanchard, P. A Psychoanalytic Study of Auguste Comte. Am. Jour. +Psy., April, 1918.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_4_9'></a><a href='#FNanchor_4_9'>4.</a><div class='note'> Watson, J.B. Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviourist. +Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1919.</div> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='CHAPTER_III_P3'></a><h2>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<center>DYSGENIC NATURE OF CERTAIN FACTORS OF SEX PSYCHOLOGY AND NECESSITY FOR A SOCIAL THERAPY</center> + +<center><blockquote>Mating determined by unconscious psychological motives instead of +eugenic considerations; Some of the best male and female stock refusing +marriage and parenthood; The race is reproduced largely by the inferior +and average stocks and very little by the superior stock; As a +therapeutic measure, society should utilize psychological knowledge as a +new method of control; Romantic love and conjugal love—a new ideal of +love; The solution of the conflict between individual and group +interests.</blockquote></center><br> +<br /> + +<p>From the viewpoint of group welfare, the present psychological situation +of human reproductive activities undoubtedly has its detrimental +aspects. As we have seen, the choice of a mate is determined by +irrational motives which lie far below the levels of consciousness. +These unconscious factors which govern sexual selection far outweigh the +more rational considerations of modern eugenic thought. The marks of +personal beauty around which romantic love centres and which therefore +play a prominent part in mating are not necessarily indicative of +physical and mental health that will insure the production of sound +offspring. The modern standards of beauty (at least in so far as +feminine loveliness is concerned) have gone far from the ancient Grecian +type of physical perfection. Influenced perhaps by the chivalric ideals +of "the lady," the demand is rather for a delicate and fragile +prettiness which has come to be regarded as the essence of femininity. +The robust, athletic girl must preserve this "feminine charm" in the +midst of her wholesome outdoor life, else she stands in great danger of +losing her erotic attraction.</p> + +<p>Surface indications of the truth of this statement are easily +discovered. The literature which before the war ran riot with athletic +heroines pictured them with wind-blown hair and flushed cheeks receiving +the offer of their male companion's heart and hand. The golf course or +the summer camp was simply a charming new setting for the development of +the eternal love theme. Even fashion has conspired to emphasize the +feminine charm of the girl who goes in for sports, as a glance at the +models of bathing costumes, silken sweaters, and graceful "sport" skirts +plainly reveals.</p> + +<p>Just as the love which is directed in accordance with an emotional +reaction conditioned to respond to some erotic fetishism or to a parent +ideal may be productive of individual unhappiness, so it is also +entirely a matter of chance whether or not it leads to a eugenic mating. +Like romantic love, it is quite as apt to focus upon a person who does +not conform to eugenic ideals as upon one who does. The mate selected +upon the basis of these unconscious motives is very likely to bequeath a +neurotic constitution or an otherwise impaired physical organism to the +offspring of the union, since those possibilities were not taken into +consideration in making the choice.</p> + +<p>It becomes apparent that while certain forces in the life of the +individual and in the social inheritance have united to condition the +emotional reactions of the sex life, these conditionings have not always +been for the benefit of the race. Indeed, it would almost seem that +society has been more concerned with the manner of expression of the +love life in the individual members than in its effects upon the next +generation. In its neglect or ignorance of the significance of +artificial modifications of the emotions, it has permitted certain +dysgenic influences to continue in the psychic life of generation after +generation, regarding with the utmost placidity a process of sexual +selection determined by irrational and irresponsible motives.</p> + +<p>The most potent dysgenic influence in the present phase of the sex +problem is the conflict between the interests of the individual and the +group regulations. The traditional type of marriage and family life has +a cramping effect upon the personal ambitions which lessens its +attractiveness materially. The enterprising young business or +professional man has no desire to restrict his opportunities by the +assumption of the responsibilities that accompany family life. He must +be free to stake all his resources on some favourable speculation +without the thought that he cannot take chances on impoverishing his +wife and children. Or if he has professional aspirations, he must be +able to take the long difficult pathway of scientific research with no +anxiety about the meagre salary that is insufficient for the support of +a home. Thus the most vital and aggressive male stocks as well as the +most highly intelligent tend to avoid the hampering effects of family +life, and their qualities are often lost to the next generation, since +even if they marry they will feel that they cannot afford offspring.</p> + +<p>As women enter more and more into the competition for economic and +social rewards, this becomes equally applicable in their case. Indeed, +it would be strange were there not an even greater tendency to shun the +ties of family life on the part of ambitious women than of men, since +it involves greater sacrifices in their case on account of their +biological specialization for motherhood. It appears, therefore, that we +are losing the best parental material for the coming generations on both +the paternal and maternal sides. Thus the conflict between the egoistic +desires and the social institution of the family is segregating just +those energetic, successful individuals from whom the race of the future +should spring if we hope to reproduce a social organism capable of +survival in the inter-group struggle.</p> + +<p>If it be true that the best stock, both male and female, for various +reasons refuses to assume the duty of reproduction, the group will +necessarily be replaced from individuals of average and inferior (but +not superior) eugenic value. Even within these limits there is at +present no conscious eugenic selection, and the irrational and +unconscious motives which govern sexual selection at the present time +may induce the choice of a mate from among the weaker individuals. Once +again it becomes a matter of chance whether or not the matings prove to +be for the welfare of the group and of the race.</p> + +<p>It might be contended that the very fact that certain individuals +withdraw from reproductive activities is sufficient proof of their lack +of normal emotional reactions adapting them to the performance of those +functions. But a clearer insight shows that the group standards permit +the exercise of the reproductive activities only in accord with +arbitrary regulations which have coalesced in the institutions of +marriage and the family. These institutions have been developed to fit a +definite ideal of manhood and womanhood which grew up out of a manner of +thinking in accord with taboo control and ignorant superstitions rather +than in harmony with the actual facts of the situation. Now that we are +facing reality and trying to rationalize our thinking, we find that the +variation from these masculine and feminine ideals does not necessarily +imply biological or psychological abnormality, since the ideals were +themselves established without reference to biological and psychological +data.</p> + +<p>The traditional marriage and family arrangement tends to enforce a +selection of individuals who conform most nearly to these artificial +types as parents for the succeeding generations. It is not at all +certain that such a selection is advantageous to the group. It would +seem rather that in so complex a social system as that of the present +day with its increasing division of labour on other than purely sexual +distinctions, we need a variety of types of individuals adapted to the +varied activities of modern life.</p> + +<p>If society is to successfully meet the present situation it must +utilize its psychological insight to remedy conditions which are +obviously dysgenic and detrimental to the welfare of the race. If the +egoistic and highly individualized modern man and woman are induced to +sacrifice personal ambitions in the interests of reproduction, for +instance, it will only be because society has learned to turn those same +egoistic impulses to its own ends. This will never be accomplished by +the forces of tradition or by any such superimposed method of control as +conscription for parenthood. There is too much of a spirit of freedom +and individual liberty in the social mind to-day for any such measure to +meet with success. The same spirit of freedom which formerly burst the +bonds of superstition and entered into the world of science is now as +impatient of restraint of its emotional life as it formerly was of +restriction of its intellectual search for the truth.</p> + +<p>Therefore society can no longer depend upon taboo standards crystallized +into institutionalized forms as a means of control. It must appeal to +more rational motives if it expects to have any degree of influence over +its most intelligent and energetic members. Only when the production of +eugenic offspring brings the same social approval and reward that is +meted out for other activities will the ineradicable and irrespressible +egoistic desires that now prevent individuals from assuming the +responsibilities of family life be enlisted in the very cause to which +they are now so hostile. When the same disapproval is manifested for the +shirking of reproductive activities by the eugenically fit that is now +directed toward lack of patriotism in other lines, the number of +voluntary celibates in society will be materialy decreased.</p> + +<p>The greatest triumph of society in the manipulation of the sexual and +reproductive life of its members will come when it is able to condition +the emotional reaction of the individual by the substitution of the +eugenic ideal for the parental fixation and to focus the sentiment of +romantic love upon eugenic traits. When this is accomplished, the +selection of the mate will at least be favourable for racial +regeneration even if individual disharmonies are not entirely +eliminated. That there are great difficulties in the way of this +accomplishment may be admitted at the outset. The conditioned responses +to be broken down and replaced are for the most part formed in early +childhood, and have had a long period in which to become firmly +impressed upon the organism. But psychological experiments have proven +that even the best established conditioned reactions can be broken down +and others substituted in their place, so that the situation is not so +hopeless. When we recollect that for ages the traditional ideals of +masculinity and femininity have been conditioning the emotional life of +men and women to respond to their requirements with a remarkable degree +of success, there is ground for the belief that the same forces of +suggestion and imitation may be turned to more rational ends and +utilized as an effective means of social therapy.</p> + +<p>If we are to have a more rationalized form of social control, then, it +will undoubtedly take into consideration the necessity of forming the +socially desirable conditionings of the emotional life. The importance +of the emotional reactions for social progress has been very well +summarized by Burgess, who says that emotion can be utilized for +breaking down old customs and establishing new ones, as well as for the +conservation of the mores. Society can largely determine around what +stimuli the emotions can be organized, this author continues, and the +group has indeed always sought to control the stimuli impinging upon its +members. One policy has been to eliminate objectionable stimuli, as in +the outlawing of the saloon. The other is to change the nature of the +affective response of the individual to certain stimuli in the +environment where the natural or organic responses would be at variance +with conduct considered socially desirable.<a name='FNanchor_3_10'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_10'><sup>[3]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Modern psychological knowledge enables us to understand the mechanism +of this last method of social control as the building up of the +conditioned emotional response. If our civilization is to endure it must +learn to apply this method of control to the sex life of the individual +so that reproduction will fall to the lot of the most desirable eugenic +stock instead of being left to the workings of chance as it is at the +present time.</p> + +<p>From the viewpoint of individual psychology, one of the principal +problems of the erotic life is to find a smooth transition from the +romantic love of the courtship period to the less ethereal emotions of +the married state. Indirectly, this is also socially significant, +because of the overwhelming effect of the home environment in shaping +the reactions of the next generation. As a rule, only the children who +have grown up in a happy and wholesome atmosphere of sincere parental +comradeship and affection can have an entirely sane and healthy reaction +to their own erotic functions in later years.</p> + +<p>Although romantic love in its present expression may often lead to +uncongenial marriages and even involve dysgenic mating, its æsthetic and +refining influences are such as to make it desirable in spite of these +drawbacks. Its influence upon literature has been noted by Bloch<a name='FNanchor_2_10'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_10'><sup>[2]</sup></a> +while its potency in the formation of a deep and tender feeling between +men and women has been elaborately discussed by Finck.<a name='FNanchor_4_10'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_10'><sup>[4]</sup></a> Thus it is +evident that its individual and social advantages more than balance its +disadvantages.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, with the entrance into the marital relationship and the +release of the erotic emotion into natural channels so that it no longer +seeks the vicarious outlets which were partly supplied in the +idealization of the lovers, there is a tendency for this romantic +element to fade from their affection. The conjugal affection which +replaces it is built on quite other foundations. It is not composed of +day dreams about the beloved, but is wrought out of mutual interests, of +joys and sorrows shared together, of the pleasure of unrestricted +companionship, and of the common care of offspring. The danger lies in +the possibility that these foundations for conjugal love will not have +been lain by the time that romantic sentiments begin to grow dim. It is +this crisis in the married life which seems disappointing in the +afterglow of the engagement and honeymoon.</p> + +<p>Of late there have been attempts to build up a new conception of love +which shall incorporate the best features of romantic love and at the +same time make the transition to the conjugal affection less difficult. +This new conception has grown up through the increasing freedom of +women and the constant association of the sexes in the educational and +business world as well as in the social life. This free companionship of +men and women has done much to destroy the illusions about each other +which were formerly supposed to be so necessary a component of romantic +love, but it has also created the basis for a broader sympathy and a +deeper comradeship which is easily carried over into the married +relation.</p> + +<p>The new ideal of love which is being thus developed combines complete +understanding and frankness with erotic attraction and the tenderness of +romanticism. It implies a type of marital relationship in which there is +preservation of the personality and at the same time a harmony and union +of interests that was often absent from the old-fashioned marriage, when +the wife was supposed to be more limited in her interests than her +husband. It may well be that the evolution of this new ideal of love, +which grants personal autonomy even within the marriage bond, will solve +a great deal of the present conflict between the individualistic +impulses and the exercise of the erotic functions as permitted by the +group.</p> + +<p>It is, of course, an open question as to how far the interests of the +individual and the group can be made to coincide. Group survival demands +that the most vital and intelligent members shall be those to carry on +the reproductive functions. Therefore from the social viewpoint, it is +quite justified in setting up the machinery of social approval and in +establishing emotional attitudes by this means that will insure that +this takes place. On the other hand, it may be that the individuals who +will be thus coerced will be as rebellious against new forms of social +control as they are restless under the present methods of restraint.</p> + +<p>If we free ourselves from a manner of thinking induced by inhibitions +developed through ages of taboo control, and look at the problem +rationally, we must admit that the chief interest of society would be in +the eugenic value of the children born into it. At the present time, +however, the emphasis seems to be chiefly upon the manner of birth, that +is, the principal concern is to have the parents married in the +customary orthodox fashion. Only in view of the necessities of the +recent war have the European nations been forced to wipe out the stain +of illegitimacy, and in America we are still blind to this necessity. +Only Scandinavia, under the leadership of such minds as Ellen Key's, was +roused to this inconsistency in the mores without external pressure, and +enacted legislation concerning illegitimacy which may well serve as a +model to the whole world. The main points of the Norwegian Castberg bill +are as follows: The child whose parents are unmarried has a right to +the surname of the father, and the right of inheritance from a +propertied father; the court has full power to clear up the paternity of +the child; the man is held responsible for the child's support even if +other men are known to have had intercourse with the mother. In order to +discourage immorality in women for the purpose of blackmailing wealthy +men, the mother is also compelled to contribute to the child's +support.<a name='FNanchor_1_10'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_10'><sup>[1]</sup></a></p> + +<p>No psychologist of discernment, in insisting on eugenic standards rather +than a marriage certificate as the best criterion for parenthood would +encourage any tendency to promiscuous mating. The individual suffering +involved in such a system of sexual relationships would be too great to +permit its universal adoption even if it should be found to have no +deleterious social effects. But the very fact that transient mating does +involve so much human agony, especially on the part of the woman, is all +the more reason why it is needless to add artificial burdens to those +already compelled by the very nature of the emotional life.</p> + +<p>The study of child psychology, too, would tend to discourage any general +tendency to temporary sexual relationships. Modern research has shown +that nothing is more necessary for the normal development of the child's +emotional life than a happy home environment with the presence of both +father and mother. Only in these surroundings, with the love of both +parents as a part of the childhood experience, can the emotional +reactions of the child be properly conditioned to respond to the social +situations of adult life.</p> + +<p>In one respect, at least, society can do a great deal to better the +existing situation, and to solve the struggle between the individual and +group interests. At the same time that it endeavours to set up emotional +responses that shall be conducive to eugenic mating and to a happy love +life, as well as for the welfare of the child, it should also leave a +wide margin of personal liberty for the individuals concerned to work +out a type of sexual relationship which is in harmony with their natural +inclinations. The institution of monogamy is too deeply founded in the +needs of the individual and of the child to suffer from this increase in +freedom and responsibility. Were it so frail a thing as to need the +protection of the church and state as well as public opinion to insure +its survival, it would be so little adapted to the needs of humanity +that it might better disappear.</p> + +<p>There are no indications that there would be any wider deviation from +the monogamous relationship were variations frankly recognized that now +take place in secret. By its present attitude, society is not +accomplishing its purpose and preventing all sexual relationships except +those which conform to its institutionalized standards. It is merely +forcing what should be always the most dignified of human relationships +into the shamefulness of concealment and furtiveness. Moreover, because +it visits its wrath on the child born of unions which are not strictly +conventionalized, it prevents the birth of children from mothers who +might be of great eugenic value, but whom fear of social disapproval +keeps from the exercise of their maternal functions but not of their +sexual activities.</p> + +<p>In the final analysis, it will probably be demonstrated that for a +certain type of personality there can be no compromise which will +resolve the conflict between the egoistic inclinations and the interests +of the group. For those whose deepest desires are so out of harmony with +the social life of the times there is no alternative but to sacrifice +their personal desires or to forfeit the pleasure of feeling in complete +rapport with their fellows. In such natures, the ultimate course of +conduct will be determined by the relative strengths of the +individualistic and gregarious impulses, other things being equal. In +some instances this will mean the choice of a line of conduct out of +harmony with the general trend of group life; in others, it will mean +the repression of personal inclinations and conformity to social +standards.</p> + +<p>For the majority of people, however, it is likely that a more rational +form of social control, freed from the long ages of taboo restrictions, +and based upon accurate biological and psychological knowledge, will +solve the disharmony between the individual and the group to a great +extent. Such a rationalization will take into account the value of a new +ideal of love which shall be built up from a sane relationship between +the sexes and in accordance with eugenic standards. It will also grant a +great deal of personal autonomy in the determination of sexual +relationships in so far as this can be correlated with the welfare of +the children of the race. Last of all, it will attempt to condition the +emotional reactions to respond to stimuli which shall insure eugenic +mating naturally and without the intervention of legislation.</p> + +<p>Unless modern civilization can set up some such form of rational control +for the sexual and reproductive life of its members, the present +conflict between individuation and socialization will continue and the +dysgenic factors now operative in society will steadily increase. In the +end, this internal conflict may become so powerful as to act as an +irresistible disintegrating force that will shatter the fabric of modern +social organization. Only the evolution of a rationalized method of +control can avert this social catastrophe.</p><br /> + + + + +<p>BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER III.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='Footnote_1_10'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_10'>1.</a><div class='note'> Anthony, Katharine. Feminism in Germany and Scandinavia. Henry Holt, +N.Y., 1915.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_2_10'></a><a href='#FNanchor_2_10'>2.</a><div class='note'> Bloch, Ivan. Sexual Life of Our Time. Rebman, London, 1908.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_3_10'></a><a href='#FNanchor_3_10'>3.</a><div class='note'> Burgess, E.W. The Function of Socialization in Social Evolution. +Univ. Chicago Press, 1916.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_4_10'></a><a href='#FNanchor_4_10'>4.</a><div class='note'> Finck, H.T. Romantic Love and Personal Beauty. Macmillan, N.Y., 1891.</div> + +<br> +<br> +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14325 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2bacc58 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #14325 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14325) diff --git a/old/14325-8.txt b/old/14325-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4f7b95d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14325-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6376 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Taboo and Genetics, by Melvin Moses Knight, +Iva Lowther Peters, and Phyllis Mary Blanchard + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Taboo and Genetics + +Author: Melvin Moses Knight, Iva Lowther Peters, and Phyllis Mary Blanchard + +Release Date: December 11, 2004 [eBook #14325] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TABOO AND GENETICS*** + + +E-text prepared by Michael Ciesielski, Dave Macfarlane, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +Transcriber's note: The irregular footnote markers in this text [numbers] + refer to the reference book the author used, and not + always to the specific page numbers. These reference + books are listed numerically at the end of each + chapter. The footnotes are marked with [letters] and + the referenced footnotes are contained within the + text, near to the footnote marker. Therefore, + occasionally the numerical footnote markers are out + of sequence. Words that were italicized are now + marked by an underscore (_). + + + + + +TABOO AND GENETICS + +A Study of the Biological, Sociological and Psychological Foundation of +the Family + +by + +M. M. KNIGHT, PH.D. + +IVA LOWTHER PETERS, PH.D. + +PHYLLIS BLANCHARD, PH.D. + +Author of _The Adolescent Girl_ + +London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd. +New York: Moffat, Yard & Co. + +1921 + + + + + + + +DEDICATED TO +OUR FRIEND AND TEACHER, +FRANK HAMILTON HANKINS + + + + +PREFACE + + +Scientific discovery, especially in biology, during the past two decades +has made necessary an entire restatement of the sociological problem of +sex. Ward's so-called "gynæcocentric" theory, as sketched in Chapter 14 +of his _Pure Sociology_, has been almost a bible on the sex problem to +sociologists, in spite of the fact that modern laboratory +experimentation has disproved it in almost every detail. While a +comparatively small number of people read this theory from the original +source, it is still being scattered far and wide in the form of +quotations, paraphrases, and interpretations by more popular writers. It +is therefore necessary to gather together the biological data which are +available from technical experimentation and medical research, in order +that its social implications may be utilized to show the obsoleteness of +this older and unscientific statement of the sex problem in society. + +In order to have a thoroughly comprehensive survey of the institutions +connected with sexual relationships and the family and their entire +significance for human life, it is also necessary to approach them from +the ethnological and psychological points of view. The influence of the +primitive sex taboos on the evolution of the social mores and family +life has received too little attention in the whole literature of sexual +ethics and the sociology of sex. That these old customs have had an +inestimable influence upon the members of the group, modern psychology +has recently come to recognize. It therefore seems advantageous to +include these psychological findings in the same book with the +discussion of the sex taboos and other material with which it must so +largely deal. + +These fields--biology, ethnology, and psychology--are so complicated and +so far apart technically, although their social implications are so +closely interwoven, that it has seemed best to divide the treatment +between three different writers, each of whom has devoted much study to +his special phase of the subject. This leads to a very simple +arrangement of the material. The first part deals with the physical or +biological basis of the sex problem, which all societies from the most +primitive to the most advanced have had and still have to build upon. +The second part deals with the various ideas man has developed in his +quest for a satisfactory adaptation of this physical basis to his own +requirements. Part three attempts to analyze the effect of this long +history of social experimentation upon the human psyche in its modern +social milieu. + +In the social evolution of the human mind, the deepest desires of the +individual have been often necessarily sacrificed to the needs of the +group. Sometimes they have been unnecessarily sacrificed, since human +intelligence is, unfortunately, not omniscient. Nevertheless, the sum +total of human knowledge has now become great enough so that it is at +least well to pause and take account of its bearing on the age-old +problem of family life, in order that our evolution henceforth may be +guarded by rational control rather than trial and error in so far as is +possible. Such a summarization of our actual knowledge of the biology, +sociology and psychology of the foundations of the family institution +this book aims to present, and if it can at the same time suggest a +starting point for a more rationalized system of social control in this +field, its purpose will have been accomplished. + +THE AUTHORS. + + + + +CONTENTS + +PART I + +BY M. M. KNIGHT, PH.D. + +THE NEW BIOLOGY AND THE SEX PROBLEM IN SOCIETY + +CHAPTER + +I. THE PROBLEM DEFINED + +What is sex? A sexual and mixed reproduction. Origin of sexual +reproduction. Advantage of sex in chance of survival. Germ and body +cells. Limitations of biology in social problems. Sex always present in +higher animals. Sex in mammals--the problem in the human species. +Application of the laboratory method. + +II. SEX IN TERMS OF INTERNAL SECRETIONS + +Continuity of germ plasm. The sex chromosome. The internal secretions +and the sex complex. The male and the female type of body. How removal +of sex glands affects body type. Sex determination. Share of the egg and +sperm in inheritance. The nature of sex--sexual selection of little +importance. The four main types of secretory systems. Sex and sex +instincts of rats modified by surgery. Dual basis for sex. Opposite sex +basis in every individual. The Free-Martin cattle. Partial reversal of +sex in human species. + +III. SEX AND SEX DIFFERENCES AS QUANTITATIVE + +Intersexes in moths. Bird intersexes. Higher metabolism of males. +Quantitative difference between sex factors. Old ideas of +intersexuality. Modern surgery and human intersexes. Quantitative theory +a Mendelian explanation. Peculiar complication in the case of man. +Chemical life-cycles of the sexes. Functional-reproductive period and +the sex problem. Relative significance of physiological sex differences. + + +IV. SEX SPECIALIZATION AND GROUP SURVIVAL + +Adaptation and specialization. Reproduction a group--not an individual +problem. Conflict between specialization and adaptation. Intelligence +makes for economy in adjustment to environment. Reproduction, not +production, the chief factor in the sex problem. + +V. RACIAL DEGENERATION AND THE NECESSITY FOR RATIONALIZATION OF THE MORES + +Racial decay in modern society. Purely "moral" control dysgenic in +civilized society. New machinery for social control. Mistaken notion +that reproduction is an individual problem. Economic and other factors +in the group problem of reproduction. + + +PART II + +BY IVA LOWTHER PETERS, PH.D. + +THE INSTITUTIONALIZED SEX TABOO + +I. THE PRIMITIVE ATTITUDE TOWARD SEX AND WOMANHOOD + +Primitive social control. Its rigidity. Its necessity. The universality +of this control in the form of taboos. Connection between the universal +attitude of primitive peoples toward woman as shown in the +Institutionalized Sex Taboo and the magico-religious belief in Mana. +Relation of Mana to Taboo. Discussion of Sympathetic Magic and the +associated idea of danger from contact. Difficulties in the way of an +inclusive definition of Taboo. Its dual nature. Comparison of concepts +of Crawley, Frazer, Marett, and others. Conclusion that Taboo is +Negative Mana. Contribution of modern psychology to the study of Taboo. +Freud's analogy between the dualistic attitude toward the tabooed object +and the ambivalence of the emotions. The understanding of this dualism +together with the primitive belief in Mana and Sympathetic Magic +explains much in the attitude of man toward woman. The vast amount of +evidence in the taboos of many peoples of dualism in the attitude toward +woman. Possible physiological explanation of this dualistic attitude of +man toward woman found in a period before self-control had in some +measure replaced social control, in the reaction of weakness and disgust +following sex festivals. + +II. FROM THE DAWN OF HISTORY: WOMAN AS SAINT AND WITCH + +Taboos of first chapter indicate that in the early ages the fear of +contamination by woman predominated. Later emphasis fell on her mystic +and uncanny power. Ancient fertility cults. Temple prostitution, +dedication of virgins, etc. Ancient priestesses and prophetesses. +Medicine early developed by woman added to belief in her power. Woman's +psychic quality of intuition: its origin--theories--conclusion that this +quality is probably physiological in origin, but aggravated by taboo +repressions. Transformation in attitude toward woman in the early +Christian period. Psychological reasons for the persistence in religion +of a Mother Goddess. Development of the Christian concept. Preservation +of ancient woman cults as demonology. Early Christian attitude toward +woman as unclean and in league with demons. Culmination of belief in +demonic power of woman in witchcraft persecutions. All women affected by +the belief in witches and in the uncleanness of woman. Gradual +development on the basis of the beliefs outlined of an ideally pure and +immaculate Model Woman. + +III. THE DUALISM IN MODERN LIFE: THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO + +The Taboo and modern institutions. Survival of ideas of the uncleanness +of woman. Taboo and the family. The "good" woman. The "bad" woman. +Increase in the number of women who do not fit into the ancient +classifications. + +IV. DYSGENIC INFLUENCES OF THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO + +Taboo survivals act dysgenically within the family under present +conditions. Conventional education of girls a dysgenic influence. +Prostitution and the family. Influence of ancient standards of "good" +and "bad." The illegitimate child. Effect of fear, anger, etc., on +posterity. The attitude of economically independent women toward +marriage. + + +PART III + +BY PHYLLIS BLANCHARD, PH.D. + +THE SEX PROBLEM IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY + +I. SEX IN TERMS OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY + +Bearing of modern psychology on the sex problem. Conditioning of the +sexual impulse. Vicarious expression of the sexual impulse. Unconscious +factors of the sex life. Taboo control has conditioned the natural +biological tendencies of individuals to conform to arbitrary standards +of masculinity and femininity. Conflict between individual desires and +social standards. + +II. HOW OUR INSTITUTIONS FIT INDIVIDUAL SEX PSYCHOLOGY + +Social institutions controlling sex activities based on the assumption +that _all_ women are adapted to as well as specialized for reproduction. +Neurotic tendencies which unfit women for marriage--the desire for +domination. Sexual anæsthesia another neurotic trait which interferes +with marital harmony. The conditioning of the sexual impulse to the +parent ideal and the erotic fetish as factors which determine mating. +Homosexual tendencies and their part in the sex problem. The conflict +between the desire for marriage and egoistic ambitions. The social +regulations from the viewpoint of individual psychology. + + +III. DYSGENIC NATURE OF CERTAIN FACTORS OF SEX PSYCHOLOGY AND NECESSITY + FOR A SOCIAL THERAPY + +Mating determined by unconscious psychological motives instead of +eugenic considerations. Some of the best male and female stock refusing +marriage and parenthood. The race is reproduced largely by the inferior +and average stocks and very little by the superior stock. As a +therapeutic measure, society should utilize psychological knowledge as a +new method of control. Romantic love and conjugal love--a new ideal of +love. The solution of the conflict between individual and group +interests. + + + + +PART I + +THE NEW BIOLOGY AND THE SEX PROBLEM IN SOCIETY + +BY + +M. M. KNIGHT, PH.D. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE PROBLEM DEFINED + +What is sex? Asexual and mixed reproduction; Origin of sexual +reproduction; Advantage of sex in chance of survival; Germ and body +cells; Limitations of biology in social problems; Sex always present in +higher animals; Sex in mammals; The sex problem in the human species; +Application of laboratory method. + + +Sex, like all complicated phenomena, defies being crowded into a simple +definition. In an animal or plant individual it is expressed by and +linked with the ability to produce egg- or sperm-cells (ova or +spermatozoa). Sexual reproduction is simply the chain of events +following the union of the egg and sperm to produce a new individual. +Looked at from another angle, it is that sort of reproduction which +requires two differentiated individuals: the male, which produces +spermatoza, and the female, which produces ova. In the case of very +simple forms, it would be simply the union or conjugation of a male and +a female individual and the reproductive process involved. Where there +is no differentiation into male and female there is no sex. + +An individual which produces both sperm-and egg-cells within its body +is termed an hermaphrodite. Very few hermaphrodites exist among the +vertebrates, although they may be found in one or two species (e.g., the +hagfish). There are no truly hermaphroditic mammals, i.e., individuals +in which both the male and the female germ cells function, except +perhaps in rare instances. + +Sexless or asexual reproduction assumes various forms. What is usually +considered the most primitive of these is fission or simple division, in +which the cell divides into two equal, identical parts. There is of +course no suggestion of sex here. It is fairly safe to assume that life +began thus in the world, as neuter or sexless--i.e., with no suggestion +of either maleness or femaleness.[A] + +[Footnote A: This asexual type of reproduction has been misinterpreted +by a whole school of non-biological writers, who have followed the lead +of Lester F. Ward, in his classification of these neuter-organisms as +females. Ward says ("Pure Sociology," Ch. 14): "It does no violence to +language or science to say that life begins with the female organism and +is carried on a long distance by means of females alone. In all the +different forms of asexual reproduction from fission to parthenogenesis, +the female may in this sense be said to exist alone and perform all the +functions of life including reproduction. In a word, life begins as +female" (p. 313). Adding to this statement the assertion that the male +developed at first as a mere parasite, in the actual, physical sense, +Ward proceeds to build up his famous Gynæcocentric Theory, which is +familiar to all students of social science, and need not be elaborated +here. It is obvious that a thorough biological knowledge destroys the +fundamental concept on which this theory is founded, for there is no +doubt that life begins as neuter or sexless, and not as female.] + +There are a number of other forms of asexual reproduction, or the +"vegetative type" (Abbott's term, which includes fission, budding, +polysporogonia and simple spore formation). Budding (as in yeast) and +spore formation are familiar to us in plants. Such forms are too distant +from man, in structure and function, for profitable direct comparison. +Especially is this true with respect to sex, which they do not possess. + +Parthenogenesis includes very diverse and anomalous cases. The term +signifies the ability of females to reproduce in such species for one or +a number of generations without males. Many forms of this class (or more +strictly, these classes) have apparently become specialized or +degenerated, having once been more truly sexual. Parthenogenesis +(division and development of an egg without the agency of male sperm) +has been brought about artificially by Jacques Loeb in species as +complicated as frogs.[1,2] All the frogs produced were males, so that +the race (of frogs) could not even be theoretically carried on by that +method. + +The origin of sexual reproduction in animals must have been something as +follows: The first method of reproduction was by a simple division of +the unicellular organism to form two new individuals. At times, a fusion +of two independent individuals occurred. This was known as conjugation, +and is seen among Paramecia and some other species to-day. Its value is +probably a reinvigoration of the vitality of the individual. Next there +was probably a tendency for the organism to break up into many parts +which subsequently united with each other. Gradually some of these +uniting cells came to contain more food material than the others. As a +result of their increased size, they possessed less power of motion than +the others, and in time lost their cilia (or flagella) entirely and were +brought into contact with the smaller cells only by the motion of the +latter. Finally, in colonial forms, most of the cells in the colony +ceased to have any share in reproduction, that function being relegated +to the activities of a few cells which broke away and united with others +similarly adrift. These cells functioning for reproduction continued to +differentiate more and more, until large ova and small, motile +spermtozoa were definitely developed. + +The clearest evidences as to the stages in the evolution of sexual +reproduction is found in the plant world among the green algæ.[3] In +the lower orders of one-celled algæ, reproduction takes place by simple +cell division. In some families, this simple division results in the +production of several new individuals instead of only two from each +parent cell. A slightly different condition is found in those orders +where the numerous cells thus produced by simple division of the parent +organism unite in pairs to produce new individuals after a brief +independent existence of their own. These free-swimming cells, which +apparently are formed only to reunite with each other, are called +zoöspores, while the organism which results from their fusion is known +as a zygospore. The zygospore thus formed slowly increases in size, +until it in its turn develops a new generation of zoöspores. In still +other forms, in place of the zoöspores, more highly differentiated +cells, known as eggs and sperms, are developed, and these unite to +produce the new individuals. Both eggs and sperms are believed to have +been derived from simpler ancestral types of ciliated cells which were +similar in structure and closely resembled zoöspores.[A] + +[Footnote A: This evidence, which points to the conclusion that in the +early origin of sexual reproduction the males and females were +differentiated and developed from a uniform type of ancestral cell, +quite controverts Ward's point that the male originated as a kind of +parasite.] + +Having once originated, the sexual type of reproduction possessed a +definite survival value which assured its continuation. Sex makes +possible a crossing of strains, which evidently possesses some great +advantage, since the few simple forms which have no such division of +reproductive functions have undergone no great development and all the +higher, more complicated animals are sexual. This crossing of strains +may make possible greater variety, it may help in crossing out or +weakening variations which are too far from the average, or both. + +Schäfer[4] thinks that an exchange of nuclear substance probably gives +a sort of chemical rejuvenation and very likely stimulates division. At +any rate, the groups in which the reproductive process became thus +partitioned between two kinds of individuals, male and female, not only +survived, but they underwent an amazing development compared with those +which remained sexless. + +There came a time in the evolution of the groups possessing sexual +reproduction, when increasing specialization necessitated the division +into reproductive and non-reproductive cells. When a simple cell +reproduces by dividing into two similar parts, each developing into a +new individual like the parent, this parent no longer exists as a cell, +but the material which composed it still exists in the new ones. The old +cell did not "die"--no body was left behind. Since this nuclear +substance exists in the new cells, and since these generations go on +indefinitely, the cells are in a sense "immortal" or deathless. In a +one-celled individual, there is no distinction between germinal and +bodily functions. In the more complicated organisms, however, there are +innumerable kinds of cells, a few (the germ cells) specialized for +reproduction, the others forming the body which eats, moves, sees, +feels, and in the case of man, _thinks_. But the germ-cells or germplasm +continue to be immortal or deathless in the same sense as in the +simplest organisms. The body, in a historical sense, grew up around the +germ-cells, taking over functions a little at a time, until in the +higher animals nutrition and other activities and a large part even of +the reproductive process itself is carried on by body-cells. + +When we think of a man or woman, we think of an individual only one of +whose innumerable activities--reproduction--is carried on by germ-cells, +and this one only at the very beginning of the life of a new individual. +Human societies, needless to remark, are not organized by germplasms, +but by brains and hands--composed of body cells. If these brains and +hands--if human bodies--did not wear out or become destroyed, we should +not need to trouble ourselves so much about the germplasm, whose sole +function in human society is to replace them. + +Since the individual human bodies and minds which seek after the things +to which we mortals attach value--moral worth, esthetic and other +pleasure, achievement and the like--do have to be replaced every few +years, the germplasms from which new individuals must come have always +been and always will be of fundamental importance. It is always the +_product_ of the germplasm which concerns us, and we are interested in +the germ-cells themselves only in relation to their capacity to produce +individuals of value to society. + +So let us not go erring about in the philosophical ether, imagining that +because the _amoeba_ may not be specialized for anything over and above +nutrition and reproduction that these are necessarily the "main +business" or "chief ends" of human societies. Better say that although +we have become developed and specialized for a million other activities +we are still bound by those fundamental necessities. As to "Nature's +purposes" about which the older sex literature has had so much to say, +the idea is essentially religious rather than scientific. If such +"purposes" indeed exist in the universe, man evidently does not feel +particularly bound by them. We do not hesitate to put a cornfield where +"Nature" had a forest, or to replace a barren hillside by the sea with a +city. + +Necessities and possibilities, not "purposes" in nature, claim our +attention--reproduction being one of those embarrassing necessities, +viewed through the eyes of man, the one evaluating animal in the world. +Thus in reasoning from biology to social problems, it is fundamental to +remember that man as an animal is tremendously differentiated in +functions, and that most of the activities we look upon as distinctively +human depend upon the body rather than the germ-cells. + +It follows that biology is the foundation rather than the house, if we +may use so crude a figure. The solidity of the foundation is very +important, but it does not dictate the details as to how the +superstructure shall be arranged. + +Civilization would not be civilization if we had to spend most of our +time thinking about the biological basis. If we wish to think of +"Nature's" proscriptions or plans as controlling animal life, the +anthropomorphism is substantially harmless. But man keeps out of the way +of most of such proscriptions, has plans of his own, and has acquired +considerable skill in varying his projects without running foul of such +biological prohibitions. + +It is time to abandon the notion that biology prescribes in detail how +we shall run society. True, this foundation has never received a surplus +of intelligent consideration. Sometimes human societies have built so +foolishly upon it that the result has been collapse. Somebody is always +digging around it in quest of evidence of some vanished idyllic state of +things which, having had and discarded, we should return to. This little +excursion into biology is made in the full consciousness that social +mandates are not to be found there. Human projects are the primary +material of social science. It is indispensable to check these against +biological fact, in order to ascertain which are feasible and which are +not. The biological basis may _help_ in explaining old social structures +or in planning new ones; but much wild social theory has been born of a +failure to appreciate the limitations of such material. + +All the so-called higher animals, mammals and others, are divided into +two sexes, male and female. Besides the differentiation of germ-cells +there are rather obvious differences in the bodies of the two sexes. In +common with many other mammals, the human male has a larger and stronger +body, on an average, than has the human female. This is true also of the +anthropoid apes, the species which most resemble man physically and are +commonly supposed to be his nearest blood relatives in the animal +kingdom. It has been true of man himself as far back as we have any +records. + +Such differences are only superficial--the real ones go deeper. We are +not so much interested in how they originated in the world as in how +they _do_ come about in the individual. At least, we can come a good +deal nearer ascertaining the latter than the former. In either case, our +real purpose is to determine as nearly as possible what the unlikeness +really consists of and so help people to sensibly make up their minds +what can be done about it. + +To define sex with rigid accuracy as the term applies to human beings, +it is necessary to tell what it is in mammals, since man is a mammal. +The presence of distinct body-cells is not peculiar to mammals, but +there is one respect in which these latter are quite different from +non-mammals: A mammalian individual, beginning like a non-mammal with a +fertilized egg, has a period of intra-maternal development which a +non-mammal has not. That is, a non-mammalian is a fertilized egg _plus_ +its parental (or extra-parental) environment; but a mammalian individual +is a fertilized egg, _plus its intra-maternal environment_, plus its +non-parental environment. + +Here in a nutshell is the biological basis of sex problem in human +society. Human individuals do wear out and have to be replaced by +reproduction. In the reproductive process, the female, as in mammals +generally, is specialized to provide an intra-maternal environment +(approximately nine months in the human species) for each new +individual, and lactation or suckling afterward. The biological phase of +the sex problem in society consists in studying the nature of that +specialization. From the purely sociological standpoint, the sex problem +concerns the customs and institutions which have grown up or may grow +up to meet the need of society for reproduction. + +The point which most concerns us is in how far biological data can be +applied to the sex problem in society. Systematic dissections or +breeding experiments upon human beings, thought out in advance and under +control in a laboratory, are subject to obvious limitations. Surgical +operations, where careful data are kept, often answer the same purpose +as concerns some details; but these alone would give us a fragmentary +record of how a fertilized egg becomes a conscious human being of one +sex or the other. The practice of medicine often throws light on +important points. Observation of abnormal cases plays its part in adding +to our knowledge. Carefully compiled records of what does occur in +inheritance, while lacking many of the checks of planned and controlled +experiments, to some extent take the place of the systematic breeding +possible with animals. At best, however, the limitations in +experimentation with human subjects would give us a rather disconnected +record were it not for the data of experimental biology. + +How may such biological material be safely used? Indiscriminately +employed, it is worse than useless--it can be confusing or actually +misleading. It is probably never safe to say, or even to infer directly, +that because of this or that animal structure or behaviour we should do +thus and so in human society. On this point sociology--especially the +sociology of sex--must frankly admit its mistakes and break with much of +its cherished past. + +The social problem of sex consists of fitting the best possible +institutions on to the biological foundation _as we find it in the human +species_. Hence all our reasoning about which institution or custom is +preferable must refer directly to the human bodies which compose +society. We can use laboratory evidence about the bodies of other +animals to help us in understanding the physical structure and functions +of the human body; but we must stop trying to apply the sex-ways of +birds, spiders or even cows (which are at least mammals) to human +society, which is not made up of any of these. + +It is possible to be quite sure that some facts carefully observed about +mammals in a biological laboratory apply to similar structures in man, +also a mammal. Because of this relationship, the data from medicine and +surgery are priceless. Thus we are enabled to check up our systematic +experimental knowledge of animals by an ascertained fact here and there +in the human material, and to get a fairly exact idea of how great the +correspondence actually is. Gaps thus filled in are narrow enough, and +our certainty of the ground on either side sufficiently great, to give +a good deal of justifiable assurance. + +If we use our general biological evidence in this way, merely to help in +clearing up points about _human_ biology, we need not be entirely +limited to mammals. Some sex phenomena are quite general, and may be +drawn from the sexual species most convenient to study and control in +experiments. When we get away from mammalian forms, however, we must be +very sure that the cases used for illustrations are of general +application, are similar in respect to the points compared, or that any +vital differences are understood and conscientiously pointed out. + +Too much stress cannot be laid upon the point that such animal data, +carefully checked up with the human material, cannot safely be used for +any other purpose than to discover what the facts are about the human +body. When the discussion of human social institutions is taken up in +Part II, the obvious assumption will always be that these rest upon +human biology, and that we must not let our minds wander into vague +analogies concerning birds, spiders or crustacea. + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER I + +1. Loeb, Jacques. Artificial Parthenogenesis and Fertilization. Chicago, +1913. + +2. Loeb, Jacques. The Organism as a Whole. N.Y., 1916, p. 125--brief +summary of results of [1]. + +3. Bower, Kerr & Agar. Sex and Heredity. N.Y., 1919, 119 pp. + +4. Schäfer, E.A. Nature, Origin and Maintenance of Life. Science, n.s., +Vol. 36, pp. 306 f., 1912. + +5. Guyer, M.F. Being Well-Born. Indianapolis, 1916; p. 123. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +SEX IN TERMS OF INTERNAL SECRETIONS + + +Continuity of germplasm; The sex chromosome; The internal secretions and +the sex complex; The male and the female type of body; How removal of +sex glands affects body type; Sex determination; Share of egg and sperm +in heredity; Nature of sex--sexual selection of little importance; The +four main types of secretory systems; Sex and sex-instincts of rats +modified by surgery; Dual basis for sex; Opposite-sex basis in every +individual; The Free-Martin cattle; Partial reversal of sex in man. + + +In Chapter I, the "immortality" of the protoplasm in the germ cells of +higher animals, as well as in simpler forms without distinct bodies, was +mentioned. In these higher animals this protoplasm is known as +_germplasm_, that in body cells as _somatoplasm_. + +All that is really meant by "immortality" in a germplasm is continuity. +That is, while an individual may consist of a colony of millions of +cells, all of these spring from one cell and it a germ cell--the +fertilized ovum. This first divides to form a new group of germ cells, +which are within the embryo or new body when it begins to develop, and +so on through indefinite generations. Thus the germ cells in an +individual living to-day are the lineal descendants, by simple division, +of the germ cells in his ancestors as many generations, or thousands of +generations, ago as we care to imagine. All the complicated body +specializations and sex phenomena may be regarded as super-imposed upon +or grouped around this succession of germ cells, continuous by simple +division. + +The type of body in each generation depends upon this germplasm, but the +germplasm is not supposed to be in any way modified by the body (except, +of course, that severe enough accidents might damage it). Thus we +resemble our parents only because the germplasm which directs our +development is a split-off portion of the same continuous line of germ +cells which directed their development, that of their fathers, and so on +back. This now universally accepted theory is called the "continuity of +the germplasm." + +It will be seen at once that this seems to preclude any possibility of a +child's inheriting from its parents anything which these did not +themselves inherit. The bodies of each generation are, so to speak, mere +"buds" from the continuous lines of germplasm. If we _develop_ our +muscles or our musical talent, this development is of the body and dies +with it, though the physical basis or capacity we ourselves inherited +is still in the germplasm and is therefore passed along to our +children. We may also furnish our children an environment which will +stimulate their desire and lend opportunity for similar or greater +advancement than our own. This is _social inheritance_, or the product +of _environment_--easy to confuse with that of _heredity_ and very +difficult to separate, especially in the case of mental traits. + +It will likewise become clear as we proceed that there is no mechanism +or relationship known to biology which could account for what is +popularly termed "pre-natal influence." A developing embryo has its own +circulation, so insulated from that of the mother that only a few of the +most virulent and insidious disease germs can ever pass the barrier. The +general health of the mother is of utmost importance to the vitality, +chances of life, constitution and immunity from disease of the unborn +child. Especially must she be free from diseases which may be +communicated to the child either before or at the time of birth. This +applies particularly to gonorrhoea, one of the most widely prevalent as +well as most ancient of maladies, and syphilis, another disastrous and +very common plague which is directly communicable. As to "birthmarks" +and the like being directly caused by things the mother has seen or +thought about, such beliefs seem to be founded on a few remarkable pure +coincidences and a great deal of folk-lore. + +Reproduction in its simplest form is, then, simply the division of one +cell into two parts, each of which develops into a replica of the +original. Division is also the first stage in reproduction in the most +complicated animal bodies. To get an idea of what takes place in such a +division we must remember that a cell consists of three distinct parts: +(a) the protoplasm or cytoplasm, (b) the nucleus, and (c) a small body +known as the centrosome which need not be discussed here. + +When a cell division takes place, the nucleus breaks up into a number of +thread-like portions which are known as chromosomes. There are supposed +to be 24 pairs, or 48, in the human cell. All the evidence indicates +that these chromosomes carry the "factors" in inheritance which produces +the characters or characteristics of the individual body. + +In mitosis or ordinary cell division, these chromosomes split +lengthwise, so that the new cells always have the same number as the +original one. When the germ-cells of the male and female make the +division which marks the first step in reproduction, however, the +process is different. Half the chromatin material passes into each of +the two cells formed. This is called _maturation_, or the maturation +division, and the new cells have only half the original number of +chromosomes. Each of these divides again by mitosis (the chromosomes +splitting lengthwise), the half or haploid number remaining. The result +is the _gametes_ (literally "marrying cells"--from the Greek _gamé_, +signifying marriage). Those from the male are called sperms or +spermatozoa and those from the female eggs or ova. (The divisions to +form ova present certain complications which need not be taken up in +detail here.) Of the 24 chromosomes in each sperm or egg we are here +concerned with only one, known as the sex chromosome because, in +addition to transmitting other characteristics, it determines the sex of +the new individual. + +Neither the ovum nor the spermatozoon (the human race is referred to) is +capable alone of developing into a new individual. They must join in the +process known as fertilization. The sperm penetrates the egg (within the +body of the female) and the 24 chromosomes from each source, male and +female, are re-grouped in a new nucleus with 48 chromosomes--the full +number. + +The chances are half and half that the new individual thus begun will be +of a given sex, for the following reason: There is a structural +difference, supposed to be fundamentally chemical, between the cells of +a female body and those of a male. The result is that the gametes (sperm +and eggs) they respectively produce in maturation are not exactly alike +as to chromosome composition. All the eggs contain what is known as the +"X" type of sex chromosome. But only half the male sperm have this +type--in the other half is found one of somewhat different type, known +as "Y." (This, again, is for the human species--in some animals the +mechanism and arrangement is somewhat different.) If a sperm and egg +both carrying the X-type of chromosome unite in fertilization, the +resulting embryo is a female. If an X unites with a Y, the result is a +male. Since each combination happens in about half the cases, the race +is about half male and half female. + +Thus sex is inherited, like other characters, by the action of the +chromatin material of the cell nucleus. As Goldschmidt[1] remarks, this +theory of the visible mechanism of sex distribution "is to-day so far +proven that the demonstration stands on the level of an experimental +proof in physics or chemistry." But why and how does this nuclear +material determine sex? In other words, what is the nature of the +process of differentiation into male and female which it sets in motion? + +To begin with, we must give some account of the difference between the +cells of male and female origin, an unlikeness capable of producing the +two distinct types of gametes, not only in external appearance, but in +chromosome makeup as well. It is due to the presence in the bodies of +higher animals of a considerable number of glands, such as the thyroid +in the throat and the suprarenals just over the kidneys. These pour +secretions into the blood stream, determining its chemical quality and +hence how it will influence the growth or, when grown, the stable +structure of other organs and cells. They are called endocrine glands or +organs, and their chemical contributions to the blood are known as +_hormones_. + +Sometimes those which do nothing but furnish these secretions are spoken +of as "ductless glands," from their structure. The hormones (endocrine +or internal secretions) do not come from the ductless glands alone--but +the liver and other glands contribute hormones to the blood stream, in +addition to their other functions. Some authorities think that "every +cell in the body is an organ of internal secretion",[2] and that thus +each influences all the others. The sex glands are especially important +as endocrine organs; in fact the somatic cells are organized around the +germ cells, as pointed out above. Hence the sex glands may be considered +as the keys or central factors in the two chemical systems, the male and +the female type. + +These various hormones or chemical controllers in the blood interact in +a nicely balanced chemical system. Taken as a whole this is often +called the "secretory balance" or "internal secretory balance." This +balance is literally the key to the sex differences we see, because it +lies back of them; i.e., there are two general types of secretory +balance, one for males and one for females. Not only are the secretions +from the male and the female sex glands themselves quite unlike, but the +whole chemical system, balance or "complex" involved is different. +Because of this dual basis for metabolism or body chemistry, centering in +the sex glands, no organ or cell in a male body can be exactly like the +corresponding one in a female body. + +In highly organized forms like the mammals (including man), sex is +linked up with _all_ the internal secretions, and hence is of the whole +body.[3] As Bell [2, p.5] states it: "We must focus at one and the +same time the two essential processes of life--the individual metabolism +and the reproductive metabolism. They are interdependent. Indeed, the +individual metabolism is the reproductive metabolism." + +Here, then, is the reason men have larger, differently formed bodies +than women--why they have heavier bones, tend to grow beards, and so on. +The sex glands are only part of what we may call a well-organized +chemical laboratory, delivering various products to the blood, but +always in the same general proportions for a given sex. The ingredients +which come from the sex glands are also qualitatively different, as has +been repeatedly proved by injections and otherwise. + +Each of these sex types, male and female, varies somewhat within itself, +as is true of everything living. The two are not so far apart but that +they may overlap occasionally in some details. For instance, some women +are larger than are some men--have lower pitched voices, etc. The whole +bodily metabolism, resting as it does upon a chemical complex, is +obviously more like the male average in some women than it is in others, +and _vice versa_. But the average physical make-up which we find +associated with the male and female sex glands, respectively, is +distinctive in each case, and a vast majority of individuals of each sex +conform nearly enough to the average so that classification presents no +difficulty. + +The extreme as well as the average body types existing in the presence +of the respective types of sex-glands are different. For example, we +find an occasional hen with male spurs, comb or wattles, though she is a +normal female in every other respect, and lays eggs.[4] But we never +find a functional female (which lays eggs) with _all_ the typical +characteristics of the male body. Body variation can go only so far in +the presence of each type of primary sexuality (i.e., sex-glands). + +The bodily peculiarities of each sex, as distinguished from the +sex-glands or gonads themselves, are known as _secondary_ sex +characters. To put our statement in the paragraph above in another form, +the primary and secondary sex do not always correspond in all details. +We shall find as we proceed that our original tentative definition of +sex as the ability to produce in the one case sperm, in the other eggs, +is sometimes difficult to apply. What shall we say of a sterile +individual, which produces neither? The problem is especially +embarrassing when the primary and secondary sex do not correspond, as is +sometimes the case. + +Even in a fully grown animal, to remove or exchange the sex glands (by +surgery) modifies the bodily type. One of the most familiar cases of +removal is the gelding or desexed horse. His appearance and disposition +are different from the stallion, especially if the operation takes place +while he is very young. The reason he resembles a normal male in many +respects is simply that sexuality in such highly-organized mammals is of +the whole body, not of the sex-glands or organs alone. + +Suppose this horse was desexed at two years old. Nearly three years had +elapsed since he was a fertilized egg. During the eleven months or so he +spent within his mother, he developed a very complicated body. Beginning +as a male, with a male-type metabolism (that is, as the result of a +union between an X and a Y chromosome, not two X's), all his glands, as +well as the body structures they control, developed in its presence. Not +only the sex glands, but the liver, suprarenals, thyroid--the whole body +in fact--became adjusted to the male type. He had long before birth what +we call a male sex complex. Complex it is, but it is, nevertheless, easy +enough to imagine its nature for illustrative purposes. It is simply all +the endocrine or hormone-producing organs organized into a balanced +chemical system--adjusted to each other. + +When the horse had had this body and this gland system for nearly three +years (eleven months within his mother's body and twenty-four outside), +it had become pretty well organised and fixed. When a single chemical +element (the hormones from the sex-glands) was withdrawn, the system +(thus stereotyped in a developed body and glands) was modified but not +entirely upset. The sex complex remained male in many respects. It had +come to depend upon the other chemical plants, so to speak, quite as +much as upon the sex glands. The later the castration is performed--the +more fixed the body and gland type has become--the closer the horse will +resemble a normal male. Much laboratory experimentation now goes to +show that some accident while this horse was still a fertilized egg or +a very small embryo might have upset this male type of body +chemistry--perhaps even caused him to develop into a female instead, if +it took place early enough. This is well illustrated by the so-called +"Free-Martin" cattle, to be described later. + +For a long time a controversy raged as to whether sex is determined at +the time of fertilization, before or after. Biologists now generally +prefer to say that a fertilized egg is "predisposed" to maleness or +femaleness, instead of "determined." The word "determined" suggests +finality, whereas the embryo appears to have in the beginning only a +strong tendency or predisposition toward one sex type or the other. It +is now quite commonly believed that this predisposition arises from the +_quantity_ rather than the quality or kind of factors in the chemical +impetus in the nuclei of the conjugating gametes. A later chapter will +be devoted to explaining the quantitative theory of sex. + +Hence the modern theory of "sex determination" has become: + +1. That the chemical factors which give rise to one sex or the other are +present in the sperm and ovum _before_ fertilization; + +2. That a tendency or predisposition toward maleness or femaleness +arises at the time of fertilization, depending upon which type of sperm +unites with the uniform type of egg (in some species the sperm is +uniform while the egg varies); + +3. That this predisposition is: + + a. Weaker at first, before it builds up much of a body and gland system + to fix it; + + b. Increasingly stronger as the new body becomes organized and + developed; + + c. Liable to partial or complete upset in the very early stages; + + d. Probably quantitative--stronger in some cases than in others. + +The new definition is, then, really a combination and amplification of +the three older points of view. + +The term "sex determination" does not mean to the biologist the changing +or determining of the sex at will on the part of the experimenter. This +might be done by what is known as "selective fertilization" artificially +with only the kind of sperm (X or Y as to chromosomes) which would +produce the desired result. There is as yet no way to thus select the +sperm of higher animals. It has been authoritatively claimed that +feeding with certain chemicals, and other methods to be discussed later, +has affected the sex of offspring. These experiments (and +controversies) need not detain us, since they are not applicable to the +human species. + +Let us consider this fertilized egg--the contributions of the father and +the mother. The total length of the spermatozoon is only about 1/300 of +an inch, and 4/5 of this is the tail. This tail does not enter the egg, +and has no other known function than that of a propeller. Its movement +has been studied and found to be about 1/8 of an inch per minute. Only +the head and neck enter the egg. This head consists almost entirely of +the nuclear material which is supposed to determine the characters of +the future individual. + +The ovum or egg contributed by the mother is much larger--nearly round +in shape and about 1/120 of an inch in diameter. Besides its nucleus, it +contains a considerable amount of what used to be considered as "stored +nutritive material" for the early development of the individual. + +In ancient times the female was quite commonly supposed to be a mere +medium of development for the male seed. Thus the Laws of Manu stated +that woman was the soil in which the male seed was planted. In the Greek +_Eumenides_, Orestes' mother did not generate him, but only received and +nursed the germ. These quaint ideas of course originated merely from +observation of the fact that the woman carries the young until birth, +and must not lead us to imagine that the ancients actually separated the +germ and somatic cells in their thinking. + +A modern version of this old belief was the idea advanced by Harvey that +the ovum consisted of fluid in which the embryo appeared by spontaneous +generation. Loeuwenhoek's development of the microscope in the 17th +century led immediately to the discovery of the spermatozoon by one of +his students. At the time, the "preformation theory" was probably the +most widely accepted--i.e., that the adult form exists in miniature in +the egg or germ, development being merely an unfolding of these +preformed parts. With the discovery of the spermatozoon the +preformationists were divided into two schools, one (the ovists) holding +that the ovum was the container of the miniature individual, the other +(animalculists) according this function to the spermatozoon. According +to the ovists, the ovum needed merely the stimulation of the +spermatozoon to cause its contained individual to undergo development, +while the animalculists looked upon the spermatozoon as the essential +embryo container, the ovum serving merely as a suitable food supply or +growing place. + +This nine-lived notion of male supremacy in inheritance was rather +reinforced than removed by the breeding of domestic animals in the +still more recent past. Attention has been focused on a few great males. +For example, the breed of American trotting horses all goes back to one +sire--Hambletonian 10. The great Orloff Stud Book, registering over a +million individuals, is in the beginning founded on a single horse--a +male. It is not strange that we still find among some breeders vestiges +of the ancient belief that the male predominates in inheritance. A +superior male can impress his characters in a single year upon 100 times +as _many_ colts as a female of equal quality could produce in her +lifetime. So slight an incident in his life is this reproductive process +for each individual that he could if he devoted his life solely to +reproduction stamp his characters upon a thousand times as many colts as +could a female. Thus under artificial breeding conditions, the good +males do have a tremendously disproportionate share in improving the +whole breed of horses, though each single horse gets his qualities +equally from his male and female parents. + +Though Mendel knew an astonishing amount about inheritance a +half-century ago, it is worth noting that the foundation upon which +rests our present knowledge of sex has been discovered less than twenty +years before--the reference is, of course, to the chromosomes as the +carriers of inheritance. While from the standpoint of biology the +opinions of two decades ago about sex literally belong to a different +age, some of them have been so persistent in sociological thought and +writings that they must be briefly reviewed in order that the reader may +be on his guard against them. Books which still have a wide circulation +deal with the sex problem in terms of a biology now no more tenable than +the flatness of the earth. + +On the one hand were the ancient traditions of male predominance in +inheritance, reinforced by the peculiar emphasis which animal breeding +places upon males. On the other hand, biologists like Andrew Wilson[5] +had argued as early as the seventies of the past century for female +predominance, from the general evidence of spiders, birds, etc. Lester +F. Ward crystallized the arguments for this view in an article entitled +"Our Better Halves" in _The Forum_ in 1888. This philosophy of sex, +which he christened the "Gynæcocentric Theory," is best known as +expanded into the fourteenth chapter of his "Pure Sociology," published +fifteen years later. Its publication at this late date gave it an +unfortunate vitality long after its main tenets had been disproved in +the biological laboratory. Germ-cell and body-cell functions were not +separated. Arguments from social structures, from cosmic, natural and +human history, much of it deduced by analogy, were jumbled together in +a fashion which seems amazing to us now, though common enough thirty +years ago. It was not a wild hypothesis in 1888, its real date, but its +repeated republication (in the original and in the works of other +writers who accepted it as authoritative) since 1903 has done much to +discredit sociology with biologists and, what is more serious, to muddle +ideas about sex and society. + +In 1903, Weismann's theory of the continuity of the germplasm was ten +years old. De Vries' experiments in variation and Mendel's rediscovered +work on plant hybridization had hopelessly undermined the older notion +that the evolution or progress of species has taken place through the +inheritance of acquired characters--that is, that the individuals +developed or adapted themselves to suit their surroundings and that +these body-modifications were inherited by their offspring. As pointed +out in Chapter I, biologists have accepted Weismann's theory of a +continuous germplasm, and that this germplasm, not the body, is the +carrier of inheritance. Nobody has so far produced evidence of any trace +of any biological mechanism whereby development of part of the body--say +the biceps of the brain--of the individual could possibly produce such a +specific modification of the germplasm he carries as to result in the +inheritance of a similar development by his offspring. + +Mendel's experiments had shown that the characters we inherit are units +or combinations of units, very difficult to permanently change or +modify. They combine with each other in all sorts of complicated ways. +Sometimes one will "dominate" another, causing it to disappear for a +generation or more; but it is not broken up. These characters have a +remarkable way of becoming "segregated" once more--that is, of appearing +intact later on. + +While it follows from Weismann's theory that an adaptation acquired by +an individual during his lifetime cannot be transmitted to his +offspring, it remained for De Vries to show authoritatively that +evolution can, and does, take place without this. Once this was +established, biologists cheerfully abandoned the earlier notion. Lester +Ward and the biologists of his day in general not only believed in the +transmission of acquired characters, but they filled the obvious gaps +which occurred in trying to apply this theory to the observed facts by +placing a fantastic emphasis upon sexual selection. That is, much +progress was accounted for through the selection by the females of the +superior males. This, as a prime factor in evolution, has since been +almost "wholly discredited" (Kellogg's phrase) by the careful +experiments of Mayer, Soule, Douglass, Dürigen, Morgan and others. The +belief in sexual selection involved a long string of corollaries, of +which biology has about purged itself, but they hang on tenaciously in +sociological and popular literature. For instance, Ward believed in the +tendency of opposites to mate (tall men with short women, blonds with +brunettes, etc.), although Karl Pearson had published a statistical +refutation in his _Grammar of Science_, which had run through two +editions when the _Pure Sociology_ appeared. The greater variability of +males than females, another gynæcocentric dogma had also been attacked +by Pearson on statistical evidence in 1897 (in the well-known essay on +Variation in Man and Woman, in _Chances of Death_) and has become +increasingly unacceptable through the researches of Mrs. +Hollingworth[6,7,8]. The idea of a vanished age of mother-rule in human +society, so essential to the complete theory, has long since been +modified by anthropologists. + +De Vries' experiments showed that a moderately simple fact practically +makes all these complicated theories unnecessary. No two living things +are exactly alike--that is, all living matter is more or less variable. +Some variations are more fortunate than others, and these variants are +the ones which survive--the ones best adapted to their environment. +Given this fact of the constant variation of living matter, natural +selection (i.e., survival of the fittest and elimination of the unfit) +is the mechanism of evolution or progress which best accounts for the +observed facts. Such variation is called "chance variation," not because +it takes place by "chance" in the properly accepted sense of the term, +but because it is so tremendously varied--is evidently due to such +complicated and little-understood circumstances--that it can best be +studied mathematically, using statistical applications of the "theory of +probabilities." + +The fine-spun, elaborate theories about sex, so current twenty years +ago, have fallen into almost complete desuetude among scientists. With +the discovery of the place of the chromosomes in inheritance, biologists +began to give their almost undivided attention to a rigid laboratory +examination of the cell. This has included sex phenomena since McClung +and Sutton pointed out the function of the sex chromosome in 1902 and +1903. Present-day "theories" are little more than working hypotheses, +developed, not in a library or study, but with one eye glued to a +high-power microscope. + +Besides its faulty foundation as to facts, the old gynæcocentric theory +involved a method of treatment by historical analogy which biologists +have almost entirely discarded. Anyone interested in the relative value +of different kinds of biological data for social problems would do well +to read the opening chapter of Prof. Morgan's "Critique of the Theory of +Evolution"[9], for even a summary of which space is lacking here. +College reference shelves are still stocked with books on sex sociology +which are totally oblivious of present-day biology. For example, Mrs +Gilman (Man-Made World), Mrs Hartley (Truth About Woman) and the +Nearings (Woman and Social Progress) adhere to Ward's theory in +substantially its primitive form, and not even sociologists like +Professor Thomas (Sex and Society) have been able to entirely break away +from it. + +The old question of male and female predominance in inheritance has been +to a considerable extent cleared up, to the discomfiture of both sides +to the controversy. Most exhaustive experiments failed to trace any +characters to any other part of either sperm or egg than the nucleus. +Transmission of characteristics seemed to be absolutely equal by the two +parents. The male nucleus enters the egg practically naked. Hence if the +characters are transmitted equally, there is certainly ground for +supposing that only the nucleus of the egg has such functions, and that +the remainder merely provides material for early development. Yet this +does not seem to be strictly true. + +Parthenogenesis (development of eggs without agency of male sperm) +proves that in many simple forms the female nucleus alone possesses all +the essential determiners for a new individual. Boveri's classic +experiment[10] proved the same thing for the male nucleus. He removed +the nuclei from sea-urchin eggs and replaced them with male nuclei. +Normal individuals developed. To make things still more certain, he +replaced the female nucleus with a male one from a different variety of +sea-urchin. The resulting individual exhibited the characteristics of +the _male nucleus_ only--none of those of the species represented by the +egg. Here, then, was inheritance definitely traced to the nucleus. If +this nucleus is a male the characters are those of the male line; if a +female those of the female line, and in sexual reproduction where the +two are fused, half and half. + +Yet the fact remained that all efforts to develop the spermatozoon alone +(without the agency of any egg material at all) into an individual had +signally failed. Conklin[11] had found out in 1904 and 1905 that the egg +cytoplasm in Ascidians is not only composed of different materials, but +that these give rise to definite structures in the embryo later on. So a +good many biologists believed, and still believe[12,13,14] that the egg +is, before fertilization, a sort of "rough preformation of the future +embryo" and that the Mendelian factors in the nuclei "only impress the +individual (and variety) characters upon this rough block." + +If we look at these views from one angle, the apparent conflict +disappears, as Professor Conklin[15] points out. We can still presume +that all the factors of inheritance are carried in the nucleus. But +instead of commencing the life history of the individual at +fertilization, we must date it back to the beginning of the development +of the egg in the ovary. Whatever rude characters the egg possesses at +the time of fertilization were developed under the influence of the +nucleus, which in turn got them half and half from its male and female +parents. These characters carried by the female across one generation +are so rudimentary that they are completely covered up, in the +developing embryo, by those of the new nucleus formed by the union of +the sperm with the egg in fertilization. + +In case fertilization does not take place, this rude beginning in the +egg is lost. Since no characteristic sex is assumed until after +fertilization, we may say that life begins as neuter in the individual, +as it is presumed to have done in the world. It will occur to those +inclined to speculation or philosophic analysis that by the word +"neuter" we may mean any one or all of three things: (a) neither male +nor female; (b) both male and female, as yet undifferentiated, or (c) +potentially either male or female. Clearly, the above explanation +assumes a certain _germinal_ specialization of the female to +reproduction, in addition to the body specialization for the +intra-parental environment (in mammals). + +A tremendous amount of laboratory experimentation upon animals has been +done in late years to determine the nature of sex. For example, +Goodale[16] castrated a brown leghorn cockerel twenty-three days old +and dropped pieces of the ovary of a female bird of the same brood and +strain into the abdominal cavity. These adhered and built up circulatory +systems, as an autopsy later showed. This cockerel, whose male sex +glands had been exchanged for female ones, developed the female body, +and colouration so completely that expert breeders of the strain +pronounced it a female. He found that simply removing the female sex +glands invariably led to the development of spurs and male plumage. But +simple removal of the male sex glands did not alter plumage. To make +sure, he replaced the male sex glands with female, and found that the +former male developed female plumage. + +This obviously signifies that in birds the female is an inhibited +male.[4, p.49.] Either sex when castrated has male feathers--the male has +them either with or without testes, unless they are _inhibited_ by the +presence of (transplanted) ovaries. It will be remembered that the +sociological theory of sex held by Ward, Mrs. Hartley and a host of +others was founded on the supposition that evolution or development of a +species is chiefly due to selection by the females of the better males, +a conclusion based almost entirely on bird evidence. Ward[17] states +that "the change or progress, as it may be called, has been wholly in +the male, the female remaining unchanged"; also that "the male side of +nature shot up and blossomed out in an unnatural, fantastic way...." +Speaking of the highly-coloured males, especially among birds, the same +writer states that "the _normal colour_ (italics ours) is that of the +young and the female, and the colour of the male is the result of his +excessive variability." Goodale's results completely refute this idea, +and should bury for ever the well-known sociological notion of "male +afflorescence." + +The general doctrine of a stable, "race-type" female and a highly +variable male has been widely circulated. In tracing it back through +voluminous literature, it appears to have been founded on an article +published by W.I. Brooks in the _Popular Science Monthly_ for June, +1879, fourteen years before Weissmann's enunciation of the theory of +continuity of the germ-plasm. Like Wallace, Brooks continued to study +and experiment till the last, and finally withdrew from his earlier +position on sexual selection. However, this has not prevented others +from continuing to quote his discarded views--innocently, of course. + +Havelock Ellis[18] and G. Stanley Hall[19] have applied the idea of a +"race-type" female with peculiar insistence to the human race. Goodale +has finally killed the bird evidence upon which earlier workers so +largely founded this doctrine, by showing that the "race type" toward +which birds tend unless inhibited by the female ovarian secretion is the +male type, not the female. There is a great difference in the way the +internal secretions act in birds and in man, as will be pointed out +later. It is so important that such a major point as general variability +must be supported and corroborated by mammalian evidence to prove +anything positively for man. As already noted, the statistical studies +of Pearson and Mrs. Hollingworth _et al._ have yielded uniformly +negative results. + +In the utilization of data gathered from non-human species, certain +differences in the systems of internal secretion must be taken into +account. Birds differ from the human species as to internal secretory +action in two vital particulars: (a) In the higher mammals, sex depends +upon a "complex" of all the glands interacting, instead of upon the sex +glands alone as in birds; (b) The male bird instead of the female is +homogametic for sex--i.e., the sperm instead of the eggs is uniform as +to the sex chromosome. + +Insects are (in some cases at least) like birds as to the odd +chromosome--the opposite of man. But as to secondary sex-characters they +differ from both. These characters do not depend upon any condition of +the sex organs, but are determined directly by the chemical factors +which determine sex itself.[20] + +In crustacea, the male is an inhibited female (the exact opposite of +birds), as shown by the experiments of Giard and Geoffrey Smith on +crabs. A parasite, _Sacculina neglecta_, sometimes drives root-like +growths into the spider crab, causing slow castration. The females thus +desexed do not assume the male type of body, but castrated males vary so +far toward the female type that some lay eggs[3, p.143; 20]. It is the +discovery of such distinctions which makes it necessary to re-examine +all the older biological evidence on the sex problem, and to discard +most of it as insufficiently exact. + +The work of Steinach[12, pp.225f.] on rats is another well-known example +of changing sex characters by surgery. Steinach found that an ovary +transplanted into a male body changed its characteristics and instincts +into the female type. The growth of the male sex organs he found to be +definitely inhibited by the ovaries. He went so far as to transplant the +whole uterus and tube into the male body, where it developed normally. +One of the most interesting of his results is the observation of how the +instincts were changed along with the type of body. The feminized males +behaved like normal females toward the other males and toward females. +Likewise they were treated as normal females by the males. + +It would be impossible to give here any just idea of the vast amount of +rigid scientific experimentation which has been carried on in this +field, or the certainty of many of the results. Sex is really known, +about as well as anything can be known, to arise from the chemical +causes discussed above. That is, the endocrine explanation is the +correct one. + +One of the most significant results of the transplantation experiments +is the evidence that _each individual carries the fundamental bases for +both sexes_. When Goodale changed a male bird into a female as to +secondary characters and instincts by replacing one secretion with +another, he was faced with the following problem: How can a single +secretion be responsible for innumerable changes as to feather length, +form and colouring, as to spurs, comb and almost an endless array of +other details? To suppose that a secretion could be so complicated in +its action as to determine each one of a thousand different items of +structure, colour and behaviour would be preposterous. Besides, we know +that some of these internal secretions are _not_ excessively +complicated--for instance adrenalin (the suprarenal secretion) can be +compounded in the laboratory. We may say that it cannot possibly be that +the ovarian or testicular secretion is composed of enough different +chemical substances to produce each different effect. + +There remains only the supposition that the female already possesses the +genetic basis for becoming a male, and _vice versa_. This is in accord +with the observed facts. In countless experiments it is shown that the +transformed female becomes like the male of her own strain and brood--to +state it simply, like the male she would have been if she had not been a +female. If we think of this basis as single, then it must _exhibit_ +itself in one way in the presence of the male secretions, in another way +under the influence of the female secretions. In this way a very simple +chemical agent in the secretion might account for the whole +difference--merely causing a genetic basis already present to express +itself in the one or the other manner. + +This may be illustrated by the familiar case of the crustacea _Artemia +salina_ and _Artemia Milhausenii_. These are so unlike that they were +long supposed to be different species; but it was later discovered that +the genetic basis is exactly the same. One lives in 4 to 8% salt water, +the other in 25% or over. If, however, the fresh-water variety is put in +the saltier water with the salt-water variety, all develop exactly +alike, into the salt-water kind. Likewise, if the salt-water variety is +developed in fresh water, it assumes all the characteristics of the +fresh-water kind. Thus the addition or subtraction of a single chemical +agent--common salt--makes all the difference. + +If this basis for sex is single, it is represented by the male plumage +in domestic birds, the secretions from the sex-glands acting as +modifiers. But a great deal of evidence has been produced to show that +the genetic basis, in man and some other forms at least, is double. That +is, we must think of two genetic bases existing in each individual--each +representing one of the two types of secondary sex characters. The +primary sex (i.e., the sex glands) would then determine which is to +express itself. In the domestic birds described above, the male type of +body appears in the absence of the ovarian secretion, and the female +type in its presence. In man and the more highly organized mammals, we +must use "secretions" in the plural, since a number of them, from +different glands, act together in a "complex." Goodale, experimenting +with birds, was unable to definitely decide whether the basis for sex +was single or double in that material, though he favoured the latter +explanation. + +Dr Bell, the English gynecologist, using human surgical cases as a +basis, commits himself strongly to the dual basis.[2, p.13.] "Every +fertilized ovum," he says, "is potentially bisexual," but has "a +predominating tendency ... toward masculinity or femininity." But "at +the same time," he remarks, "it is equally obvious that latent traits of +the opposite sex are always present." After discussing mental traits +observed in each sex which normally belong to the other, he concludes as +follows: "If further evidence of this bisexuality, which exists in +everyone, were required, it is to be found in the embryological remains +of the latent sex, which always exist in the genital ducts." + +In some lower forms, dual sexuality is apparent until the animal is +fairly well developed. In frogs, for example, the sex glands of both +sexes contain eggs in early life, and it is not possible to tell them +apart with certainty, until they are about four months old.[12, p.125.] +Then the eggs gradually disappear in the male. + +However, we need not depend upon non-mammalian evidence for either the +secretory explanation or the dual basis. An ideal case would be to +observe the effects of circulating the blood of one sex in a developing +embryo of the other. This blood-transfusion occurs in nature in the +"Free-Martin" cattle.[21] + +Two embryos (twins) begin to develop in separate membranes or chorions. +At an early stage in this development, however, the arteries and veins +of the two become connected, so that the blood of each may circulate +through the body of the other. "If both are males or both are females no +harm results from this...," since the chemical balance which determines +the bodily form in each case is of the same type. But if one is a male +and the other a female, the male secretory balance dominates the female +in a very peculiar fashion. The female reproductive system is largely +suppressed. She even develops certain male organs, and her general +bodily appearance is so decidedly masculine that until Dr Lillie worked +out the case she had always been supposed to be a non-functional male. +She is sterile. The blood transfusion not only alters the sex-type of +her body, but it actually modifies the sex glands themselves, so that +the ovary resembles a testicle, though dissection proves the contrary. + +Why does not the female become a true, functional male? Perhaps she does +in some cases. Such a one would not be investigated, since there would +be no visible peculiarity. In all the cases examined, the embryo had +begun its female development and specialization under the influence of +a predisposition of the female type in the fertilized egg, before the +transfusion began. There is no absolutely convincing mammalian evidence +of the complete upset of this predisposition, so all one can say is that +it is theoretically possible. Cases of partial reversal, sometimes +called "intersexes," are common enough. In birds and insects, where the +material is less expensive and experimentation simpler, males have been +produced from female-predisposed fertilized eggs and _vice versa_, as we +shall see in the next chapter. + +Dr Bell[2, pp.133f.] points out that the so-called human "hermaphrodites" +are simply partial reversals of the sex type from that originally fixed +in the fertilized egg. As has been remarked earlier in these pages, +there is rarely if ever true hermaphroditism in higher animals--i.e., +cases of _two functional sexes_ in the same individual. In fact, the +pathological cases in the human species called by that name are probably +not capable of reproduction at all.[A] + +[Footnote A: _Note on human hermaphroditism_: This subject has been +treated in a considerable medical literature. See, for example, Alienist +and Neurologist for August, 1916, and New York Medical Journal for Oct. +23, 1915. It has been claimed that both human and higher mammalian +"hermaphrodites" have actually functioned for both sexes. Obviously, +absolute certainty about cause and effect in such cases, where human +beings are concerned, is next to impossible, because of lack of +scientific, laboratory control. If a case of complete functional +hermaphroditism in the human species could be established beyond +question, it would indicate that the male secretory balance in man does +not inhibit the female organs to the same extent that it apparently does +in the Free-Martin cattle. If established, the idea of "male dominance" +in the human species would be undermined in a new place. Such cases, if +they occur at all, are exceedingly rare, but are of theoretical +interest. We must not rush to conclusions, as the earlier sociologists +used to do. Such a case would require careful analysis. Its very +uniqueness would suggest that it may not be due to the ordinary causes +of hermaphroditism, but might arise from some obscure and unusual cause +such as the fusion of two embryos at a very early stage. The +biochemistry involved is so intricate and so little understood that any +deduction from the known facts would be purely speculative.] + + +Like the Free-Martin cattle, some accident has resulted in a mixture of +male and female characteristics. This accident occurs after a certain +amount of embryonic development has taken place under the influence of +the original predisposition of the fertilized egg. The delicate +secretory balance, so complex in man, is upset. With partially developed +organs of one type and with a blood-chemistry of the opposite one, some +curious results follow, as the illustrative plates in Dr Bell's book +show. + +It should be remembered that sex in higher mammals is of the whole body, +and depends upon all the secretions. Hence an accident to one of the +other glands may upset the balance as well as one to the sex glands +themselves. For example, 15% of Neugebauer's[22] cases of female tubular +partial hermaphroditism had abnormal growths in the suprarenals. + +Thus in the human species, it is possible for one type of sex glands to +exist in the opposite type of body, as we saw it to be in +cattle--though it apparently could not occur unless compensated for in +some way by the other secretions. This is a very great departure from +birds, rats and guinea pigs, whose bodies change over their sex type +when the gonads are transplanted. Birds take on the male appearance when +the sex glands are removed (or retain it, if they are males). This is +not true of man. The chemical life processes of the two sexes after +puberty in the human species are quite characteristic. The male and +female types are both very different from the infantile. When it becomes +necessary to desex men, the resulting condition is _infantile_, not +female.[23] + +The desexed man is of course the eunuch of ancient literature. If +desexed near maturity, he might look like a normal man in many respects; +but if the operation were performed before puberty, his development is +simply arrested and remains infantile--incomplete. Only in 1878 was the +practice of desexing boys to get the famous adult male soprano voices +for the Sistine Choir discontinued. + +Removal of the ovaries in women likewise produces an infantile +condition, which is pronounced only in case the operation takes place +very young. [24] From his clinical experience, Dr Bell [2, p.160] +concludes that no very definite modifications can be produced in an +adult woman by withdrawal of the ovarian secretion alone. "There must +be," he says, "some gross change in those parts of the endocritic +system, especially apart from the genital glands, which normally produce +masculinity--potentiality that appears to be concentrated in the +suprarenals, the pituitary and probably in the pineal." + +What, then, do we mean by "male" and "female" in man? Take Dr Russell +Andrews' patient: photographs[2, plate opposite p.243] show a rounded +bodily outline, hairless face, well-developed mammæ--the female sex +characteristics in every respect which the ordinary person could detect. +Yet an operation proved that the sex glands themselves were male. + +Presumably extreme cases like the above are rare. Obviously operations +cannot be performed on all those with female-type bodies who do not bear +children, to determine the primary sex, and conversely with men. This +does, however, point the obvious question: Are not some we classify as +men _more male_ or masculine than others--some we classify as women +_more feminine_ than others? Bearing in mind the fact that the genetic +basis for both sexes exists in each individual, are not some women more +masculine than others, some men more feminine than others? However much +we may object to stating it just that way, the biological fact remains +thus. The Greeks called these intermediate types _urnings_--modern +biology knows them as "intersexes." + +Only within the past few years have the general phenomena of +intersexuality been cleared up to any considerable extent--naturally on +the basis of the secretory explanation of sex. This secretory or +endocrine idea has also given us an entirely new view of sex +differences. These are best discussed as functional rather than as +structural. To correlate this material, we must next give a rude sketch +of the quantitative theory of sex. + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER II + +1. Goldschmidt, R. Intersexuality and the Endocrine Aspect of Sex. +Endocrinology, Vol. I, p. 434, 1917. + +2. Bell, Dr Blair. The Sex Complex. London, 1916, p. 98. + +3. Paton, D. Noël. Regulators of Metabolism. London, 1913, p. 146. + +4. Goodale, H.D. Gonadectomy...Carnegie Pub. 243, 1916, pp. 43f. + +5. Wilson, Andrew. Polity of a Pond (essay). Humboldt Lib. of Sc., +No. 88--reprint, dated 1888. + +6. Hollingworth, L.S. Variability as Related to Sex Differences in +Achievement. Am. Jour, of Sociol., XIX., 1914, pp. 510-530. + +7. Lowie, R.H. & Hollingworth, L.S. Science and Feminism. Sci. Mthly., +Sept., 1916, pp. 277-284. + +8. Montague, Helen & Hollingworth, L.S. Comparative Variability of the +Sexes at Birth. Am. J. of Sociol. XX, 335-70. 1915. + +9. Morgan, T.H. A Critique of the Theory of Evolution. N.Y., 1916, +pp. 1-27. + +10. Loeb, Jacques. Artificial Parthenogenesis and Fertilization. +Chicago, 1913, pp. 3, 51f., 240f, 303. + +11. Conklin, E.G. Organ-Forming Substances in the Eggs of Ascidians. +U. of Pa. Contrib. from the Zool. Lab. Vol. 12. 1905, pp. 205-230. + +12. Loeb, J. The Organism as a Whole. N.Y., 1916, pp. 138f, 151-2. + +13. Guyer, M.F. Being Well-Born. Indianapolis, 1916, p. 51. + +14. Tower, W.L. (et al.). Heredity and Eugenics. Chicago, 1912, +pp. 164, 254-5. + +15. Conklin, E.G. Share of Egg and Sperm in Heredity. Proc. Nat. Acad. +of Sc., Feb., 1917. + +16. Goodale, H.D. A Feminized Cockerel. Jour. Exp. Zool. Vol. 20, +pp. 421-8. + +17. Ward, Lester F. Pure Sociology. N.Y., 1903, pp. 322f. + +18. Ellis, Havelock. Man and Woman, 4th Ed. London, 1904. Ch. XVI. + +19. Hall, G. Stanley. Adolescence. N.Y., 1907. Vol. II, pp. 561-2. + +20. Morgan, T.H. Heredity and Sex. N.Y., 1913, pp. 155f. + +21. Lillie, F.R. Theory of the Free Martin. Science, n.s., Vol. XLIII, +pp. 611-13. + +22. Neugebauer, F.L. Hermaphrodismus, Leipzig, 1908. + +23. Vincent, S. Internal Secretions and the Ductless Glands. London, +1912, p. 69. + +24. Marshall, F.H. Physiology of Reproduction. London, 1910, p. 314. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +SEX AND SEX DIFFERENCES AS QUANTITATIVE + +Intersexes in moths; Bird intersexes; Higher metabolism of males; +Quantitative difference between sex factors; Old ideas of +intersexuality; Modern surgery and human intersexes; Quantitative theory +a Mendelian explanation; Peculiar complication in the case of man; +Chemical life cycles of the sexes; Functional-reproductive period and +the sex problem; Relative significance of physiological sex differences. + + +Crossing European and Japanese gypsy moths, Goldschmidt [1,2,3,4] +noticed that the sex types secured were not pure--i.e., that certain +crosses produced females which bore a distinctly greater resemblance to +the male type than others, and _vice versa_. One of these hybrids of +"intersexes," as he calls them, would always possess some female and +some male sexual characters. He found that he could separate the males +and females, respectively, into seven distinct grades with respect to +their modification toward the opposite-sex type, and could produce any +one of these grades at will by breeding. + +For example, the seven grades of females were roughly as follows: +(1) Pure females; (2) Females with feathered antennæ like males and +producing fewer than the normal number of eggs; (3) Appearance of the +brown (male) patches on the white female wings; ripe eggs in abdomen, +but only hairs in the egg-sponge laid; instincts still female; +(4) Instincts less female; whole sections of wings with male colouration, +interspersed with cuneiform female sectors; abdomen smaller, males less +attracted; reproduction impossible; (5) Male colouration over almost the +entire wing; abdomen almost male, with few ripe eggs; instincts +intermediate between male and female; (6) Like males, but with +rudimentary ovaries and show female traits in some other organs; +(7) Males with a few traces of female origin, notably wing-shape. + +The males showed the same graded approach to the female type. Their +instincts likewise became more and more female as the type was modified +in that direction. That is, a moth would be 12% or 35% female, and so +on. + +Goldschmidt watched the crosses which produced seven different grades of +maleness in his females. The moth material, like the birds and mammals, +suggested a dual basis for sex in each individual. The grades of +maleness and femaleness made it seem probable that the factor which +determines sex must be stronger in some instances than in others, i.e., +that the difference between two of these grades of female is originally +quantitative, not qualitative--in amount rather than in kind. + +Mating European moths with European, or Japanese with Japanese, produced +pure, uniform sex-types, male and female. But a cross of European with +Japanese strains resulted in intersexes. Goldschmidt concluded that +(1) all individuals carried the genetic basis for both sexes; and +(2) that these basic factors were two chemicals of enzyme nature. One +of these he called Andrase, enzyme producing maleness, the other Gynase, +enzyme producing femaleness. Further, (3) since each chemical sex +determiner is present in both individuals in every cross, there must be +two chemical "doses" of maleness and two of femaleness struggling for +mastery in each fertilized egg. (4) If the total dose of maleness +exceeds the total dose of femaleness, the sex will be male, and +_vice versa_. (5) These quantities get fixed by natural selection +in a single race which always lives in the same environment, i.e., the +doses of maleness and femaleness in a given sex always bear practically +the same relation to each other. Hence the types are fixed and uniform. +(6) But different races are likely to have a different strength of +chemical sex-doses, so that when they are crossed, the ratios of +maleness to femaleness are upset. Often they are almost exactly equal, +which produces a type half male and half female--or 2/3, or 1/3, etc. +The proof of this theory is that it solved the problems. Goldschmidt +was able to work out the strengths of the doses of each sex in his +various individuals, and thereby to predict the exact grade of +intersexuality which would result from a given cross. + +Riddle's work on pigeons [5,6] brings us much nearer to man, and +suggests the results noted by both Goldschmidt and Lillie. As in the +Free-Martin cattle, there is an apparent reversal of the sex +predisposition of the fertilized egg. As in the gypsy moths, different +grades of intersexes were observed. In the pigeons, it was found that +more yolk material tended to produce a larger proportion of females. The +most minute quantitative measurements were made of this factor, to +eliminate any possibility of error. + +The chromosome mechanisms practically force us to suppose that about +half the eggs are originally predisposed to maleness, half to +femaleness. A pigeon's clutch normally consists of two eggs, one with a +large yolk and one with a small yolk. But the half-and-half numerical +relation of males to females varies considerably--i.e., not all the +large-yolked eggs produce females or all the small-yolked ones males. + +Wild pigeons begin the season by throwing a predominance of males, and +the first eggs of the clutches also tend to produce males all along. In +both cases, the male-producing eggs were found to be the ones with the +smaller yolks. Family crosses also produce small yolks, which hatch out +nearly all males. Some pairs of birds, however, have nearly all female +offspring. Riddle investigated a large number of these cases and found +the amount of yolk material to be large. In other words, there seems to +be a definite relation between the amount of yolk and sex. + +A great number of clever experiments were carried out to find out if +eggs originally predisposed to one sex were actually used to produce the +other. Selective fertilization with different kinds of sperm was +impossible, since in these birds there is only one type of sperm--two of +eggs--as to the sex chromosome. For instance, by overworking females at +egg-production, the same birds which had been producing more males than +females were made to reverse that relation. + +One of the interesting results of the experiments was the production of +a number of intersexual types of various grades. This was easily +verifiable by colour and other characteristics. To make sure that the +instincts were correspondingly modified, behaviour was registered on +moving-picture films. Where the first egg of a clutch (the one with a +small, normally male-producing yolk) produces a female, she is usually +found to be more masculine than her sister from the second egg with the +larger yolk. This is true both as to appearance and as to behaviour. +Some of these were quite nearly males in appearance and behaviour, +though they laid eggs. + +Testicular and ovarian extracts were injected. The more feminine birds +were often killed by the testicular extract, the more masculine by the +ovarian extract. Finally, to make assurance doubly sure, some females +which should theoretically have been the most feminine were dissected +and shown to be so. That is, out-crosses which produced a predominance +of females in the fall were mated with females which had been overworked +at egg production until they threw nearly all females. Dissecting the +females thus produced, they were shown to have _right ovaries_, which +means _double femaleness_, since normally the pigeon is functional only +in the left ovary, like other birds. The right one usually degenerates +before or at hatching and is wholly absent in the week-old squab. + +In pigeons, Riddle thinks the "developmental energy" of the eggs is in +an inverse ratio to their size. The last and largest eggs of the season +develop least and produce most females. The second egg of a clutch is +larger than the first, but develops less and the bird produced is +shorter-lived. Overworking and other conditions tending to produce large +eggs and females also throw white mutants and show other signs of +weakness. Old females lay larger eggs than do young ones. These eggs +produce more females. They store more material, have a lower metabolism +and less oxidizing capacity than do the earlier male-producing eggs. + +It would be unsafe to draw specific conclusions about mammals from these +bird and insect experiments. Both the secretory action and the +chromosome mechanisms are different. The quantitative nature of sex, and +also the existence of intersexual types, between males and females, +would seem to be general phenomena, requiring rather slight +corroboration from the mammals themselves. We have such mammalian cases +as the Free-Martin cattle, and some convincing evidence of +intersexuality in the human species itself, which will be reviewed +presently. + +The notion of more "developmental energy" or a higher metabolism in +males is borne out in the human species. Benedict and Emmes[7] have +shown by very careful measurements that the basal metabolism of men is +about 6% higher than that of women. Riddle cites the work of Thury and +Russell on cattle to show that a higher water value (as he found in the +pigeon eggs), associated with increased metabolism, helps to produce +males. + +In males, the secretion of the sex glands alone seems to be of +particular importance, again suggesting this idea of "strength" which +comes up over and over again. Removal of these glands modifies the male +body much more profoundly than it does the female.[8] It is quite +generally supposed that the action of this one secretion may have much +to do with the superior size and vigour of males. For example, Paton +says[9]: "The evidence thus seems conclusive that in the male the gonad, +by producing an internal secretion, exercises a direct and specific +influence upon the whole soma, increasing the activity of growth, +moulding the whole course of development, and so modifying the +metabolism of nerve and muscle that the whole character of the animal is +altered." It used to be said that the male was more "katabolic," the +female more "anabolic." These expressions are objectionable, inasmuch as +they hint that in a mature organism, with metabolism rather stable, +tearing down, or katabolism, could go on faster than building up, or +anabolism, or that one of two phases of the same process might go on +faster than the other. It seems safer to say merely that a lower +metabolism in the female is accompanied by a tendency to store +materials. + +A long time will doubtless be required to work out the details of +differences in metabolism in the two sexes. Some of the main facts are +known, however, and the general effects of the two diverse chemical +systems upon the life cycles of the sexes are quite obvious. What we +call the "quantitative theory of sex" has, besides a place in exact +science, an interesting relation to the history of biological thought, +especially as applied to society. It is thus in order to state as +clearly as possible what it now is; then, so that no one may confuse it +with what it is not, to run over some of the old ideas which resemble +it. + +Experiments with transplanted sex glands, with sex-gland extracts +(testicular and ovarian) and the observation of infusions of a male-type +blood-stream into a female body, as occurs in nature in some cattle and +in the so-called human "hermaphrodites," indicate a gross chemical +difference between the respective determiners for femaleness and for +maleness. So the chemicals involved, though not yet isolated, must be +presumed to be _qualitatively_ different, since they produce such +different results. + +But such experiments also indicate that both determiners must be present +in some proportions in every individual of either sex. The basis for +both sexes being present, the one which shall predominate or be +expressed in the individual must depend upon the _quantitative_ relation +between the determiners which come together at fertilization. The +quantitative theory merely means that this predominance of one factor or +the other (maleness or femaleness--Gynase or Andrase) is more pronounced +in some cases than in others. + +In brief, then, the quantitative theory of sex is merely the most +reasonable explanation of the known fact that intersexes exist--that is, +females with some male characteristics, or with all their characters +more like the female type than the average, and _vice versa_. Laboratory +biology has established the phenomena of intersexuality beyond question, +and the word "inter-sex" has become a scientific term. But the fact that +this word and the idea it represents are new to _exact science_ does not +mean that it is new in the world. + +Intersexes in the human species--not only the extreme pathological cases +represented by the so-called "hermaphrodites," but also merely masculine +women and effeminate men--have been the subject of serious remarks as +well as literary gibes from the earliest times. The Greeks called these +people _urnings_. Schopenhauer was interested in the vast ancient +literature and philosophy on this subject. The 19th century produced a +copious psychological treatment of warped or reversed sexual impulses by +such men as Moll, Krafft-Ebing and Havelock Ellis. Otto Weiniger[10] +collected a mass of this philosophy, literature, psychology, folklore +and gossip, tied it together with such biological facts as were then +known (1901) and wove around it a theory of sex _attraction_.[A] The +same material was popularized by Leland[11], Carpenter[12] and W.L. +George[13] to support quite different views. + +[Footnote A: NOTE: Weiniger thought he could pick, merely by observing +physical type, people who would be sexually attracted to each other. +There is much ground for scepticism about this. To begin with, the +biological experiments indicate that intersexes are peculiarly likely to +appear where two or more races are mixed. So far, there is no exact +knowledge about the amount or kind of sex difference in each race. As +Bateson remarks (Biol. Fact & the Struct. of Society, p.13), one +unversed in the breeds even of poultry would experience great difficulty +and make many mistakes in sorting a miscellaneous group of cocks and +hens into pairs according to breed. If this is true in dealing with pure +breeds, "in man, as individuals pure-bred in any respect are very rare, +the operation would be far more difficult." In the human species sexual +attraction also obviously depends upon many factors which are not purely +biological; it is rather a complicated sentiment than an instinct.] + +George's statement that "there are no men and ... no women; there are +only sexual majorities"[p.61, op. cit.] has been widely quoted. The +feminists, he adds, "base themselves on Weininger's theory, according to +which the male principle may be found in woman, and the female principle +in man." Unfortunately, George does not make clear what he means by +"principle," so his theory, if he has one, is impossible to appraise in +biological terms. From the embryonic idea expressed above, he deduces a +very positive social philosophy of sex. The feminists, he says, +"recognize no masculine or feminine '_spheres_' and ... propose to +identify absolutely the conditions of the sexes." So, while George seems +to think much more highly of women than does Weininger, their +philosophies come together, for quite different reasons, on the +practical procedure of disregarding reproduction and letting the race go +hang[10, p.345]. Weininger seems to recognize the dual basis for sex; +George evidently does not quite follow him. Both entirely misconceived +the real issues involved, as well as the kind of evidence required to +settle them, as we shall see later in discussing adaptation and +specialization. + +Dr Blair Bell[14,15] has collected a mass of evidence on intersexes in +the human species. This includes his own surgical and other cases, as +well as many treated by his colleagues, and a very considerable review +of the medical literature. He not only believes in degrees of femininity +in women, but has worked out classifications which he claims to have +found of great practical value in surgery.[14, pp.166-7] As noted above, +Riddle discovered that his more feminine female pigeons were often +killed by a dose of testicular extract which was practically harmless to +a partially masculinized female. Sex in the human species being a matter +of all the glands organized into a complex, the quantitative "strength" +of that complex would be useful to know before removing any one +secretion from it. Dr Bell states that the oöphorectomy operation +(removal of ovaries) may be performed upon a masculine type of woman +with "little disturbance of the metabolism..." But he thinks that the +degree of masculinity should always be carefully observed before +undertaking such operations, which in some cases have most undesirable +effects. + +At one end of the scale, this surgeon places the typically feminine +woman in all her characteristics--with well-formed breasts, menstruating +freely and feminine in instincts--he says "mind." The intermediate +grades consist, he says, of women whose metabolism leans toward the +masculine type. Some have sexual desires but no maternal impulse. Others +desire maternity but take no interest in sex activity, or positively +shun it. The physical manifestations of masculine glandular activity +take the form of pitch of voice, skin texture, shape and weight of +bones, etc. Some of the inter-grades are a little hard to define--the +human species is such an inextricable mixture of races, etc.; but Dr +Bell does not hesitate to describe the characteristically masculine +woman of the extreme type, who "shuns both sexual relations and +maternity...(She) is on the fringe of femininity. These women are +usually flat-breasted and plain. Even though they menstruate, their +metabolism is often for the most part masculine in character: +indications of this are seen in the bones which are heavy, in the skin +which is coarse, and in the aggressive character of the mind...If a +woman have well-developed genitalia, and secondary characteristics, she +usually is normal in her instincts. A feebly menstruating woman with +flat breasts and coarse skin cannot be expected to have strong +reproductive instincts, since she is largely masculine in type..." + +The glandular and quantitative explanation of sex, instead of being +abstruse and complicated, brings the subject in line with the known +facts about inheritance generally. The dual basis for femaleness and +maleness in each individual simply means that both factors are present, +but that only one expresses itself fully. The presence of such a dual +basis is proved by the fact that in castration and transplantation +experiments both are exhibited by the same individual in a single +lifetime. In the case of the Free-Martin cattle, even the female +sex-glands are modified toward the male type to such an extent that they +were long mistaken for testes. The same applies to some glands found in +human "hermaphrodites," as Dr Bell's plates show. + +The peculiar complication of the chemical complex determining sex in +these mammalian forms, involving all the glands and hence the entire +body, makes it problematical whether a complete (functional) reversal is +possible, at least after any development whatever of the embryo has +taken place. On the other hand, the fact that such complete +transformations have not so far been observed by no means proves their +non-existence. Their being functional, and hence to all external +appearances normal, would cause such animals to escape observation. + +Latent traits of the opposite sex of course immediately suggest +recessive or unexpressed characters in the well-known Mendelian +inheritance phenomena. In the bird-castration cases, we saw that to +remove the inhibiting sex glands caused previously latent characters to +act like dominant or expressed ones. The case of horns in sheep, +investigated by Professor Wood[16], is so similar that it seems worth +summarizing, by way of illustration. + +Both sexes in Dorset sheep have well-developed horns; in the Suffolk +breed both sexes are hornless. If the breeds are crossed, all the rams +in the first (hybrid) generation have horns and all the ewes are +hornless. If these hybrids are mated, the resulting male offspring +averages three horned to one hornless; but the females are the reverse +of this ratio--one horned to three hornless. This is an example of +Mendel's principle of segregation--factors may be mixed in breeding, but +they do not lose their identity, and hence tend to be sorted out or +segregated again in succeeding generations. + +In the horned Dorsets, we must suppose that both males and females carry +a dual factor for horns--technically, are _homozygous_ for horns. The +hornless Suffolks, on the contrary, are homozygous for _absence_ of +horns. Thus the dual factor in the zygotes or fertilized eggs at the +basis of the first filial (hybrid) generation consists of a single +factor for horns and a single factor for their absence. If we represent +horns by _H_ and absence of horns by _A_, Dorsets have a factor _HH_, +Suffolks _AA_ and the hybrids _HA_. + +All the males in this generation have horns, which means that a single +"dose" of the factor _H_ will produce horns in a male, or that they are +_dominant_ in males. But a single dose will not produce horns in a +female--that is, horns are _recessive_ in females--the factor is present +but unexpressed. + +Mating two _HA_ hybrids, the _H_ and _A_ of course split apart in the +formation of the gametes, as the _HH_ and _AA_ did in the previous +generation; so that we get an equal number of single _H_ and _A_ +factors. In reuniting in fertilized eggs, the chance is just half and +half that an _H_ will unite with another _H_ or with an _A_--that an +_A_ will unite with an _H_ or another _A_. Thus we have two chances of +getting _HA_ to each chance of getting either _AA_ or _HH_. Half the +zygotes will be _HA_, one-fourth _HH_ and one-fourth _AA_. + +If we consider four average males, one will have two _A's_ (absence of +the factor for horns) and will thus be hornless. One will have two +_H's_, or the double factor for horns, and hence will exhibit horns--as +will also the two _HA's_ since a single dose of horns expresses them in +a male. So we have the three-to-one Mendelian ratio. + +But four females with exactly the same factors will express them as +follows: The one _HH_ (double factor for horns) proves sufficient to +express horns, even in a female. The _AA_, lacking the factor entirely, +cannot have horns. Nor will the two _HA_ females have horns, a single +dose being insufficient to express them in a female. Again we get our +three-to-one Mendelian ratio, but this time it is three hornless to one +horned. + +Especially Goldschmidt's carefully graded experiments point to a similar +difference in the strength of the dose or doses of the sex factors. +Instead of the two doses of horns required to express them in the +presence of the female secretory balance in Professor Wood's sheep, +Goldschmidt found it took six doses of maleness to completely express it +on a female basis in his moths. But even with three doses, the female +was incapable of reproduction. A single dose in excess of the ordinary +combination to produce normal females modified the type of body, also +reducing the number of eggs. + +In the case of the horns, only two types were possible, absence or +presence of the character. Likewise there are only two types of primary +sex, i.e., of sex glands proper. But seven different types or grades of +body for each sex were found to exhibit themselves in the moths. In more +complicated bodies, we should of course expect many more, and where many +races (instead of two) are mixed, as in man, a classification merely on +the basis of physical characteristics would be much more complicated. +Indeed, we may well be sceptical as to the possibilities of cataloguing +differences of the sort between men and women by body type alone. + +In society, however, we are much more interested in the mental than the +purely physical qualities of the two types of bodies, especially since +the use of machines has so largely replaced brute strength with skill. +Most employments do not even require a muscular skill beyond that +possessed by ordinary individuals of both sexes. + +Even this ignores the primary consideration in the sex problem in +society, the first of the following two parts into which the whole +problem may be divided: (1) _How to guarantee the survival of the group +through reproduction_ of a sufficient number of capable individuals; and +(2) How to make the most economical use of the remaining energies, first +in winning nutrition and protection from the environment, second in +pursuing the distinctly human values over and above survival. The sex +problem as a whole is concerned with adjusting two different general +types of individuals, male and female, to the complicated business of +such group life or society. The differences between these two sex-types +being fundamentally functional, the best way to get at them is to trace +the respective and unlike life cycles. + +We have already shown in rude outline how a difference (apparently +chemical) between two fertilized eggs starts them along two different +lines of development in the embryonic stage. One develops the +characteristic male primary and secondary sex characters, the other the +female. Throughout the embryonic or intra-maternal stage this +differentiation goes on, becoming more and more fixed as it expresses +itself in physical structures. Childhood is only a continuation of this +development--physically separate from the mother after the period of +lactation. Until puberty, when sex ceases to be merely potential and +becomes functional (about 12-14 in girls and 14-16 boys), the +differences in metabolism are not very marked. Neither are they in old +age, after sex has ceased to be functional. It is during the period when +sex is functional (about 35 years in women and considerably longer in +men) that the gross physiological differences manifest themselves. + +Before puberty in both sexes, calcium or lime salts are retained in the +tissues and go to build up the bony skeleton. (A mere sketch of calcium +metabolism is all that can be given here--for details consult such works +as 15 and 17 in bibliography; summary in 14; pp. 34f. & 161f.) Note that +puberty comes earlier in girls than in boys, and that the skeleton +therefore remains lighter. During the reproductive period in women these +salts are heavily drawn upon for the use of the reproductive system. The +male reproductive system draws upon them as well, though the drain is +very slight as compared to that in women. In old age these salts produce +senility through deposit in the tissues, especially in the arteries. + +At the pubertal age in girls begins the phenomenon known as +menstruation, in which there is a large excretion of calcium salts. In +pregnancy these are needed for building the skeleton of the foetus, and +at delivery go to the breasts to assist in lactation. Bell states that +there is a noticeable connection between early menstruation and short +stature, and _vice versa_. What is commonly known as menstruation lasts +only a few days, and is merely the critical period in a monthly cycle or +periodicity which goes with the female sex specialization. This period +involves the gradual preparation of the uterus or womb for a guest, +together with the maturing of the ova. Then the Graafian follicles +containing the ova break and these latter enter the uterus for +fertilization. + +If fertilization takes place, the fertilized egg buries itself in the +wall and development of the embryo proceeds. Menstruation stops, the +calcium salts being required for the growing embryo. There is likely to +be no menstruation for a considerable time after delivery if the child +is nursed, as is normal. This gives the uterus time for devolution to +the normal, before a surplus of calcium salts sets the periodicity going +again. If the egg which passes from the ovary to the uterus is not +fertilized, it is excreted, the uterus goes through another monthly +cycle of preparation for the period of intra-maternal environment, and +so on indefinitely until the climacteric. + +This climacteric or decay of sexuality is a rather critical time, +especially in women. It marks the period at which the metabolism can no +longer support the strain of reproduction. A surplus of calcium brings +on senility, as noted above. Withdrawal of the interests which centre in +sex, together with the marked accompanying physical changes, involves a +shift of mental attitude which is also frequently serious. A British +coroner stated in the _British Medical Journal_ in 1900 (Vol. 2, p.792) +that a majority of 200 cases of female suicide occurred at this period, +while in the case of younger women suicide is peculiarly likely to occur +during menstruation. Krugelstein and Lombroso, respectively, remark the +same tendencies.[18] + +It is a matter of almost everyday observation that men and women in the +neighbourhood of fifty suddenly find themselves disoriented in the +world. Tolstoi, for example, who had written passionately of passion in +his earlier years, suddenly awoke, according to his "Confessions," from +what seemed to him afterward to have been a bad dream. In this case, the +result was a new version of religion as a new anchorage for the man's +life. It may be pacifism, prohibition, philanthropy, or any one of a +very large number of different interests--but there must usually be +something to furnish zest to a life which has ceased to be a sufficient +excuse for itself. + +If freed from worry about economic realities, it is not infrequently +possible for the first time for these people to "balance" their +lives--to find in abstraction a rounded perfection for which earlier in +life we seek in vain as strugglers in a world of change. Thus old people +are often highly conservative, i.e., impatient of change in their social +environment, involving re-orientation; they wish the rules of the game +let alone, so they can pursue the new realities they have created for +themselves. + +Socially, the old are of course a very important factor since a changed +metabolism sets them somewhat outside the passionate interests which +drive people forward, often in wrong directions, in the prime of life. +Hence in a sense the old can judge calmly, as outsiders. Like youth +before it has yet come in contact with complicated reality, they often +see men and women as "each chasing his separate phantom." + +While such conservatism, in so far as it is judicial, is of value to +society, looking at it from the viewpoint of biology we see also some +bad features. _Senex_, the old man, often says to younger people, "These +things you pursue are valueless--I too have sought them, later abandoned +the search and now see my folly;" not realizing that if his blood were +to resume its former chemical character he would return to the quest. + +Elderly people, then, biological neuters, come especially within the +problem of the economical use of the social as distinguished from the +biological capacities of the race. They affect the sex problem proper, +which applies to a younger age-class, only through their opinions. Some +of these opinions are hangovers from the time in their own lives when +they had stronger sexual interests, and some are peculiar to people of +their readjusted glandular activity. Their reproductive contribution to +society has been made. + +Pre-pubertal childhood and youth, on the contrary, has its biological +contributions to society still before it. The glandular activity of boys +and girls is perhaps not so unlike as to justify society in giving them +a different kind of education and preparation for group life. The excuse +for two sorts of training is that the two sexes will not do the same +work after puberty. Hence the question of youthful training is +sociological almost entirely--not biological--or rather, it rests upon +the biology, not of childhood but of the reproductive period, which +society anticipates. + +Instead of scattering attention over the whole history of the universe, +then, or even over the general field of biology, in dealing with sex as +a social problem, the emphasis must be upon the human life cycle during +the functional-reproductive period. Other biological data than that +which concerns this period is merely introductory or explanatory. The +extent to which the sociological problem involved is linked up with +general biological considerations like natural selection, adaptation and +specialization will be summarized in a separate chapter. + +Earlier female maturity and puberty, as well as lighter structure, have +already been accounted for by the metabolism, especially of the calcium +salts. These have also been shown to be the key fact in the monthly +periodicity of the mammalian female. Nearly all of the anatomical and +physiological sex differences catalogued by such pioneer workers as +Ellis, Ploss, Thomas and Bucura are simply what we should expect from +the less active and in some ways peculiar metabolism of woman. + +Among such differences are the size and shape of bones and other body +structures, the more plentiful hæmoglobin in male blood during the +reproductive period, and such blood peculiarities as the production of +more carbonic acid or the higher specific gravity in the male. The +greater percentage of fat as compared with muscle in women[19], if it is +generally true, is what we should expect from a lower metabolism and a +tendency to store materials. The long list of diseases which are more or +less sex-limited [20; 14, pp.160f.; 18] are largely endocrine. Even those +which do not primarily concern the internal secretory system would be +expected to work somewhat differently in the presence of unlike blood +streams. As to the greater average weight of the male brain, this is +true of the whole body. Brain weight, either absolute or relative to +body weight, is not positively known to be in any way correlated (in +normal people) with mental capacity. + +A library might be stocked with the vast literature devoted to +summarizing and cataloguing sex differences; and most of it would be +useless from the standpoint of sociology. Unaccompanied by the +criticisms a biologist would have to make on the method of their +ascertainment and validity, not to mention their significance, such +lists can easily do--and probably have done--more harm than good. One +simple and reasonable criterion would reduce this catalogue to fairly +modest proportions, so far as social science is concerned: _Which ones +have an obvious or even probable social significance?_ Over and above +that, while such contrasts may be of speculative interest, they lead +imaginative people to argue from them by analogy and thus cloud the real +issues. + +What are the outstandingly significant sex differences which application +of the above criterion leaves? (1) A less active and more uneven +metabolism of woman; (2) Associated with this, less physical strength on +the average--hence an inferior adaptability to some kinds of work, +resulting in a narrower range of choice of occupation, disadvantageous +in competitive society; (3) But the one fundamental difference, to which +all the others are as nothing, is the specialization of the mammalian +female body and metabolism to furnish the intra-maternal environment +(approximately nine months in the human species) for the early +development of the young and lactation for some months afterward. + +This last may be said to include the former two, which were arbitrarily +placed first because they are always in evidence, whether reproduction +is undertaken or not. This takes us out of cell and endocrine biology +and into the general problem in group adjustment to environment which +that specialization entails. + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER III + +1. Goldschmidt, R. Experimental Intersexuality and the Sex Problem. +Amer. Naturalist, 1916. Vol. 50, pp. 705f. + +2. Goldschmidt, R. Preliminary Report on Further Experiments in +Inheritance and Determination of Sex. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sc, 1916. +Vol. II, No. 1, pp. 53f. + +3. Goldschmidt, R. A Case of Facultative Parthenogenesis. Biol. +Bulletin, 1917. Vol. XXXII, No. 1, p. 38. + +4. Goldschmidt, R. Intersexuality and the Endocrine Aspect of Sex. +Endocrinology, Vol. I, p. 434. 1917. Fine summary of the work done on +moths, birds and various forms by many biologists. + +5. Riddle, Dr Oscar. Quantitative Basis of Sex as indicated +by the Sex-Behaviour of Doves from a Sex-Controlled Series. Science, +n.s., Vol. 39, p. 440, 1914. + +6. Riddle, Dr Oscar. Sex Control and Known Correlations in Pegeons. +Amer. Nat. Vol. L, pp. 385-410. + +7. Benedict, F.G. & Emmes, L.E. A Comparison of the Basal Metabolism of +Men and Women. Jour. Biol. Chem. Vol. 20. No. 3. 1914. + +8. Schäfer, Sir E.A. Endocrine Glands and Internal Secretions. Stanford +University, 1914, p. 91. + +9. Paton, D. Noël. Regulators of Metabolism. London, 1913, p. 146. + +10. Weininger, Otto. Sex and Character. London & N.Y., 1906. Eng. trans. +of Geschlecht u. Charakter, Vienna & Leipzig, 1901 & 1903. + +11. Leland, C.G. The Alternate Sex. London, 1904. + +12. Carpenter, Edw. Love's Coming of Age. London, 1906. + +13. George, W.L. The Intelligence of Woman, Boston, 1916. + +14. Bell, Dr Blair. The Sex Complex, London, 1916. + +15. Bell, Dr. Blair. Gynæcology. London, 1919. + +16. Bateson, W. Mendel's Principles of Heredity. 1909, pp. 169-70. + +17. Marshall, F.H. A Physiology of Reproduction. London, 1910. + +18. Ellis, Havelock. Man and Woman. 1904 ed., pp. 284f + +19. Thomas, W.I. Sex and Society. 1907, p. 19. + +20. Schäfer, Sir Edw. An Introduction to the Study of Internal +Secretions. London, 1916, pp. 106f. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +SEX SPECIALIZATION AND GROUP SURVIVAL + +Adaptation and specialization; Reproduction a group not an individual +problem; Conflict between specialization and adaptation; Intelligence +makes for economy in adjustment to environment; Reproduction, not +production, the chief factor in the sex problem. + + +From the facts briefly stated in the preceding chapters it is quite +evident that the general superiority of man over woman or _vice versa_ +cannot be proven by biology. Such an idea arises from a careless and +unscientific use of language. Superiority is a term which, when used to +express the rather exact ideas of biology, is employed in a carefully +limited and specific, not in a general, sense. That is, superiority, +even if an apparently general idea like survival value is referred to, +always implies a given, understood environment where such is not +specifically mentioned. Wolves, for example, might be found to possess +superior chances for survival over foxes, beaver or partridges in a +given environment. A biologist would probably use more exact and less +ambiguous terms to express such a fact, and say that wolves were the +best _adapted_ to the given surroundings. If all these animals continued +to live side by side in the given environment, they could be compared +only as to specific details--size, strength, cunning, fleetness in +running, swimming or flying, concealment from enemies, etc. Then the +biologist would probably make his meaning perfectly clear by stating +that one is _specialized_ in one direction or another. + +Especially is general superiority a vague idea when the things compared +are different but mutually necessary or complementary. If their +functions overlap to some extent (i.e., if certain acts can be performed +by either), we may say that one is better adapted to a certain activity +than the other. Thus it may be that women are generally better adapted +to caring for young children than are men, or that men are on the whole +better adapted to riveting boiler plates, erecting skyscrapers, or +sailing ships. Where their activities do not overlap at all, even the +word adaptation hardly applies. For example, women are not better +"adapted" to furnishing the intra-maternal environment for the young, +since men are not adapted to it at all. It is a case of female +_specialization_. + +Men being neither specialized nor adapted, to any extent whatever, to +this particular activity, any attempt at comparison is obviously +fruitless, since one term is always zero. This specialization, +absolutely necessary to the survival of human groups, is either present +or it is absent in a given individual. Any attempt to formulate a +general proposition about superiority either attaches purely arbitrary +values to different kinds of activity or is absurd from the standpoint +of the most elementary logic. + +From the standpoint of biology, reproduction is not an individual but a +group problem, however many problems of detail it may give rise to in +individual lives. Sex involves the division of the reproductive process, +without the exercise of which any human group would perish very shortly, +into two complementary, mutually necessary but unequal parts. (This +statement applies only to the reproductive process, as obviously the +male and female gametes contribute equally to the formation of the new +individual). Neither part (the male or the female) of this process is +more necessary than the other, both being _absolutely_ necessary. But +the female specialization for furnishing the intra-maternal environment +makes her share more burdensome. + +Biologically considered, not even two individuals (male and female), +together with their offspring, can be more than an arbitrary "unit" as +concerns sex, since inbreeding eventually impoverishes the stock. Hence +outcrosses are necessary. To intelligibly consider the sex problem in +the human species, then, we must always predicate a considerable _group_ +of people, with such organization and division of activities as to +guarantee that all the processes necessary to survival will be carried +on. Sex is a group problem. Considering the mutual interdependence and +the diversity of activities in human society, to make the generalization +that one sex is superior to the other is on a par with saying that roots +and branches are superior to trunks and leaves. It is sheer foolishness. +Yet oceans of ink have flowed in attempts to establish one or the other +of two equally absurd propositions. + +Since the specialization to furnish the intra-maternal environment for +the young makes the female part of the reproductive process essentially +and unavoidably more burdensome than the male, it results that an +economical division of the extra-reproductive activities of any group +must throw an unequal share upon the males. This specialization to carry +the young during the embryonic period is thus at the base of the +division of labour between the sexes. It is the chief factor involved in +the problems of sex, and gives rise, directly or indirectly, to most of +the others. + +But the sex problem as a whole is one of adaptation as well as of +specialization. An incident of the female specialization is a type of +body on the average smaller, weaker and less well adapted to some other +activities than is the male body, even when reproduction is not +undertaken. A great complication is added by the fact that some women, +and also some men, are better adapted than others to nonreproductive +activities. This is another way of saying that the type of body +associated with either type of sex glands varies a good deal, for +reasons and in respects already pointed out. + +The most important fact about this reproductive specialization is that +beyond fertilization it is _exclusive_ in the female. Since the males +cannot furnish the intra-parental environment for the young, the entire +burden must fall on half the group. If this aggregation is to even hold +its own numerically, its women must have, on an average, two children +each, _plus about one more_ for unavoidable waste--death in infancy or +childhood, sterility, obvious unfitness for reproduction, etc., i.e., +_three_ in all. If one woman has less than her three children, then +another must have more than three, or the group number will decrease. +_Group survival is the fundamental postulate in a problem of this kind._ + +The above figure is for civilized society. In primitive groups, the +terrific wastage makes a much higher birth-rate necessary, several times +as high in many cases. If we suppose such a group, where child +mortality, lack of sanitation, etc., necessitates an average of eight +children per woman (instead of three), the biological origin of the +division of labour between the sexes is much more clearly seen than it +is in civilized societies. + +If men are better hunters or fighters than women, the latter could +nevertheless hunt and fight--it is a question of superior or inferior +adaptation to particular activities. But it is more than that. _Only_ +the women are biologically specialized to the chief reproductive burden +(intra-parental environment and lactation). If half the women should +withdraw from child-bearing, the remainder would be obliged to average +_sixteen_ apiece. But even this is not all. Unfortunately, the half of +the women who would be found best adapted to hunting and fighting would +be the more vigorous half. The new generation would thus be born from +the leftovers, and would be poor quality. Such a division of labour +within a group would be fatally foolish and entirely uncalled for--since +there are plenty of men adapted to hunting and fighting, but entirely +unspecialized to child-bearing and nursing. + +Group survival being the fundamental thing, the group is obliged to +develop a division of labour which directs the activities of the +individuals composing it to providing for its necessities, regardless +of any interference with their own desires. That is, if group survival +requires that woman use her specialization to child-bearing instead of +any adaptation she may possess in other directions, one of two things +inevitably result: (1) Either the group finds or evolves some social +control machinery which meets the necessity, or (2) it must give way to +some other group which can do so. In either case, the result is a +division of labour, which we see more clearly in primitive peoples. The +less efficient group is not necessarily exterminated, but if it loses +out in the competition until some other group is able to conquer it and +impose _its_ division of labour the result is of course the extinction +of the conquered group as an integral part of society. This is simply +natural selection working on groups. Natural selection works chiefly in +this manner on the human species, _because that species lives in +groups_. Such group control of the component individuals as has been +described has led to a division of labour between the sexes in every +primitive society. All this means is that the group adopting such a +division has greater survival value, and hence is more likely to be +represented in later ages. + +It must not be supposed that such systems of control were always +logically thought out or deliberately planned. Even animals which live +in herds or colonies have divisions of labour. + +Through an infinite slaughter of the least fit, such groups arrive at +some kind of instinctive adjustment to produce and protect the young. +The crudest human intelligence must have eliminated much of the waste +involved, by comprehending obvious cause-and-effect relations which +animals have to arrive at through trial and error methods. + +For example, an intelligence capable of employing artificial weapons is +also able to see that the wielder of these for group defence cannot be +encumbered with baggage or children when the group is in movement. Hence +women became the burden bearers, and took care of the children, even +after the nursing period. War parties could not generally be mixed, for +the obvious reasons that such women as did not have young children would +be pregnant a good deal of the time, or likely to become so. Moreover, a +hunter and fighter must not have his courage, ferocity and physical +initiative undermined by unsuitable employments and associations. + +In a semi-settled group, the hunter and warrior cannot be relied upon to +keep hearth-fires burning or tend crops, even though he may occasionally +have time for such activities. These duties are therefore relegated to +the women, whose child-bearing functions impose upon them a more +sedentary existence. Women must reproduce practically up to their full +capacity to fill up the gaps made by war, accident and disease as well +as death from old age. To this biological service which they alone can +perform are added those which lie nearest it and interfere least with +carrying it out. + +We must therefore keep in view _all_ the activities of any group in +which the sex problem is being studied. There is a certain tendency to +disregard the female specialization to child-bearing, and to regard the +sex question as one merely of adaptation to extra-biological services. +In every group which has survived, some machinery--a "crust of custom," +reinforced by more arbitrary laws or regulations--has sought to +guarantee reproduction by keeping women out of lines of endeavour which +might endanger that fundamental group necessity. Primitive societies +which got stabilized within a given territory and found their birth-rate +dangerously _high_ could always keep it down by exposing or destroying +some of the unfit children, or a certain per cent of the female +children, or both. + +In primitive groups, the individual was practically _nil_. But modern +civilized society is able to survive without the rigid control of +individual activities which the old economy entailed. Man comes to +choose more and more for himself individually instead of for the group, +uniformity weakens and individualism becomes more pronounced. As +control of environment becomes more complete and easy, natural selection +grows harder to detect. We turn our interests and activities toward the +search for what we want and take survival largely for granted--something +the savage cannot do. Natural selection becomes unreal to us, because +the things we do to survive are so intricately mixed up with those we do +for other reasons. Natural selection in gregarious animals operates upon +groups rather than upon individuals. Arrangement of these groups is +often very intricate. Some have territorial boundaries and some have +not. Often they overlap, identical individuals belonging to several. +Hence it is not strange that natural selection phenomena often escape +attention. + +But this must not lead us to suppose that natural selection is wholly +inoperative in civilized society. We see some nations outbreeding +others, or dominating them through superior organization. Within +nations, some racial and religious groups outbreed others and thus +gradually supplant them--_for the future is to those who furnish its +populations_. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +RACIAL DEGENERATION AND THE NECESSITY FOR RATIONALIZATION OF THE MORES + +Racial decay in modern society; Purely "moral" control dysgenic in +civilized society; New machinery for social control; Mistaken notion +that reproduction is an individual problem; Economic and other factors +in the group problem of reproduction. + + +From the discussion in the preceding chapter, it becomes apparent that +for the half of the female element in a savage society possessing the +most vigor and initiative to turn away from reproduction would in the +long run be fatal to the group. Yet this is what occurs in large measure +in modern civilized society. Reproduction is a biological function. It +is non-competitive, as far as the individual is concerned, and offers no +material rewards. The breakdown of the group's control over the detailed +conduct and behaviour of its members is accompanied by an increasing +stress upon material rewards to individuals. So with growing +individualism, in the half of the race which can both bear children and +compete in the social activities offering rewards, i.e., the women who +are specialized to the former and adapted to the latter, there is a +growing tendency among the most successful, individualized strains, to +choose the social and eschew the biological functions. + +Racial degeneration is the result. Recorded history is one succession of +barbarous races, under strong, primitive breeding conditions, swamping +their more civilized, individualized neighbours, adopting the dysgenic +ways of civilization and then being swamped in their turn by barbarians. +This is especially pronounced in our own times because popularized +biological and medical knowledge makes it possible for a tremendous +class of the most successful and enlightened to avoid reproduction +without foregoing sex activity. + +In primitive groups, a "moral" control which kept all women at +reproduction was neither eugenic nor dysgenic unless accompanied by +systematic destruction of the least fit children. By "moral" control is +meant the use of taboo, prejudice, religious abhorrence for certain acts +and the like. The carefully nurtured moral ideas about sex and +reproduction simply represent the system of coercion which groups have +found most effective in enforcing the division of reproductive and other +activities among the individual members. When this social machinery grew +up, to regulate sexual activity was in general to regulate +reproduction. The natural sex desire proved sufficiently powerful and +general to still seek its object, even with the group handicaps and +regulations imposed to meet the reproductive necessity. But +contraceptive knowledge, etc., has now become so general that to +regulate sex activity is no longer to regulate reproduction. The taboo +or "moral" method of regulation has become peculiarly degenerating to +race quality, because the most intelligent, rationalized individuals are +least affected by it. + +There is no turning back to control by ignorance. Even theoretically, +the only way to stop such a disastrous selection of the unfit would be +to rationalize reproduction--so that _nobody_ shall reproduce the +species through sheer ignorance of how to evade or avoid it. This done, +some type of social control must be found which will enable civilized +societies to breed from their best instead of their worst stock. Under +the old scheme, already half broken down, natural selection favours +primitive rather than civilized societies through decreased birth-rates +and survival of the unfit in the latter. Even this is true only where +the savage groups are not interfered with by the civilized, a condition +rapidly disappearing through modern occidental imperialism and the +inoculation of primitive peoples with "civilized" diseases such as +syphilis, rum-drinking and rampant individualism. + +To continually encourage the racially most desirable women to disregard +their sexual specialization and exploit their social-competitive +adaptation must, obviously destroy the group which pursues such a +policy. The only way to make such a course democratic is to carefully +instruct all women, rich and poor, wise and ignorant, in the methods of +avoiding reproduction and to inject the virus of individualism in all +alike. Then the group can get its population supply only by a new system +of control. To remove any economic handicaps to child-bearing is +certainly not out of harmony with our ideas of justice. + +In removing the economic handicaps at present connected with the +reproductive function in women, care must also be taken that the very +measures which insure this do not themselves become dysgenic influences. +Such schemes as maternity insurance, pensions for mothers, and most of +the propositions along this line, may offer an inducement to women of +the poorer classes to assume the burdens connected with their +specialization for child-bearing. But their more fortunate sisters, who +find themselves so well adapted to modern conditions that they are even +moderately successful in the competition for material rewards, will +hardly find recompense thus for turning from their social to their +biological functions. To these highly individualized modern women must +be presented more cogent reasons for taking upon themselves the burden +of reproducing the group. + +It is obvious that from just this energetic female stock we should +obtain a large part of the next generation if we are at all concerned +over the welfare of the group and its chances of survival. One +suggestion is that we may be able to turn their very individualism to +account and use it as a potent factor in the social control of their +reproductive activities. If we can demonstrate on the basis of sound +biological data that the bearing of children is necessary for the full +and complete development of the individual woman, physically and +mentally, we shall have gone a long way toward securing voluntary +motherhood. Only such argument will induce the highly individualized, +who may also be the most vital, woman to turn of her own accord from +competitive social activities to the performance of the biological +function for which she is specialized. This is especially true, as has +been intimated above, since contraceptive knowledge now permits the +exercise of sexual functions without the natural consequences, and the +avoidance of motherhood no longer involves the denial of expression to +the sexual urge. + +Even if we are able to utilize this method of control, it will not +obtain the requisite number of offspring to maintain the eugenic quality +of the group, since the bearing of one or two children would be all that +individual development would require. If the group must have on the +average three children from each of its women in order to replace +itself, the larger part of the reproductive activities will still be +confined to the more ignorant, or if they also make use of contraceptive +knowledge, the group will simply die out from the effects of its own +democratic enlightenment. Thus it becomes apparent that we must find +some more potent force than this narrow form of self-interest to +accomplish the social purposes of reproduction. When reproduction is +generally understood to be as thoroughly a matter of group survival as +for example the defensive side in a war of extermination, the same +sentiment of group loyalty which now takes such forms as patriotism can +be appealed to. If the human race is unsocial it will perish anyway. If +it has not become unsocial--and it does not display any such tendency, +but only the use of such impulses in mistaken directions--then a group +necessity like reproduction can be met. Whatever is required of the +individual will become "moral" and "patriotic"--i.e., it will be +wreathed in the imperishable sentiments which group themselves around +socially necessary and hence socially approved acts everywhere and +always. + +In whatever races finally survive, the women of good stock as well as +poor--perhaps eventually the good even more than the poor--will +reproduce themselves. Because of our ideals of individual liberty, this +may not be achieved by taboo, ignorance or conscription for motherhood. +But when it is found to be the personal interest to bear children, both +as a means of complete physical and mental development and as a way of +winning social approval and esteem, it will become as imperative for +woman to fulfil the biological function to which she is specialized as +it was under the old system of moral and taboo control. The increasing +emphasis on the necessity of motherhood for the maintenance of a normal, +health personality, and the growing tendency to look upon this function +as the greatest service which woman can render to society, are manifest +signs that this time is approaching. There is little doubt that woman +will be as amenable to these newer and more rationalized mores as human +nature has always been to the irrationally formed customs and traditions +of the past. + +To ignore the female specialization involved in furnishing the +intramaternal environment for three children, on an average, to the +group, is simply foolish. If undertaken at maturity--say from +twenty-two to twenty-five years of age--and a two-year interval left +between the three in the interest of both mother and children, it puts +woman in an entirely different relation toward extra-reproductive +activities than man. It does imply a division of labour. + +In general, it would seem socially expedient to encourage each woman to +have her own three children, instead of shifting the burden upon the +shoulders of some other. If such activities of nursing and caring for +the very young can be pooled, so much the better. Doubtless some women +who find them distasteful would be much more useful to society at other +work. But let us not disregard fundamentals. It is obviously +advantageous for children of normal, able parents to be cared for in the +home environment. In a _biologically healthy_ society the presumption +must be that the average woman has some three children of her own. Since +this obviously includes nurses and governesses, we see at once the +futility of the oft-proposed class solution of hiring single women to +care for the children of the fortunate. If such a servant is +undesirable, she is not hired; if normal, in a biologically healthy +society she would have her own children. + +The female handicap incident to reproduction may be illustrated by the +case of Hambletonian 10 mentioned in Chapter II. We saw that a female +could not have borne the hundredth part of his colts. This simply means +that the effort or individual cost of impressing his characters upon the +new generation is less than one one-hundredth that required of a female. + +Among domestic animals this is made use of to multiply the better males +to the exclusion of the others, a valuable biological expedient which we +are denied in human groups because it would upset all our social +institutions. So we do the next best thing and make the males do more +than half in the extra-biological activities of society, since they are +by their structure prevented from having an equal share in the +reproductive burden. This is an absolutely necessary equation, and there +will always be some sort of division of labour on the basis of it. + +Since reproduction is a group, not an individual, necessity, whatever +economic burden it entails must eventually be assumed by society and +divided up among the individuals, like the cost of war or any other +group activity. Ideally, then, from the standpoint of democracy, every +individual, male or female, should bear his share as a matter of course. +This attitude toward reproduction, as an individual duty but a group +economic burden, would lead to the solution of most of the problems +involved. Negative eugenics should be an immediate assumption--if the +state must pay for offspring, the quality will immediately begin to be +considered. A poor race-contribution, not worth paying for, would +certainly be prevented as far as possible. + +Some well-meaning radical writers mistakenly suppose that the +emancipation of women means the withdrawal by the group of any interest +in, or any attempt to regulate, such things as the hours and conditions +of female labour. That would simply imply that the group takes no +interest in reproduction--in its own survival. For if the group does not +make some equation for the greater burden of reproduction upon women, +the inevitable result will be that that particular service will not be +rendered by those most desirable to be preserved. + +Given the fundamental assumption that the group is to survive--to be +perpetuated by the one possible means--if it withdraws all solicitude +about the handicap this entails to women as a whole, introducing a +spirit of laissez-faire competition between men and women, the women +with sense enough to see the point will not encumber themselves with +children. For each one of these who has no children, some other woman +must have six instead of three. And some people encourage this in the +name of democracy! + +The most involved problems must inevitably centre around the women who, +to quote Mrs. Hollingworth, "vary from the mode," but are yet +functional for sex. Some have no sex desires at all, some no craving for +or attachment to children, some neither of these. It is a question still +to be solved whether some of them ought, in the interest of the race, to +be encouraged to reproduce themselves. In less individualized primitive +society, seclusion, taboo and ignorance coerced them into reproduction. +Any type of control involving the inculcation of "moral" ideas is open +to the objection that it may work on those who should not reproduce +themselves as well as those who should. + +In a sense, this problem will tend to solve itself. With the +substitution of the more rationalized standards of self-interest and +group loyalty for the irrational taboo control of reproductive +activities, there will be as much freedom for women to choose whether +they will accept maternity as there is now, in the period of transition +from the old standards to the new. The chief difference will be that +many of the artificial forces which are acting as barriers to motherhood +at the present time--as for example the economic handicap involved--will +be removed, and woman's choice will therefore be more entirely in +harmony with her native instinctive tendencies. Thus those women endowed +with the most impelling desire for children will, as a rule, have the +largest number. In all probability their offspring will inherit the +same strong parental instinct. The stocks more poorly endowed with this +impulse will tend to die out by the very lack of any tendency to +self-perpetuation. It is only logical to conclude, therefore, that as we +set up the new forces of social control outlined in this chapter, we are +at the same time providing more scope for natural selection, and that +the problem of aberrant types consequently becomes only a transitory +one. + + + + +PART II + +THE INSTITUTIONALIZED SEX TABOO + +BY + +IVA LOWTHER PETERS, PH.D. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE PRIMITIVE ATTITUDE TOWARD SEX AND WOMANHOOD + + +Primitive social control; Its rigidity; Its necessity; Universality of +this control in the form of taboos; Connection between the universal +attitude of primitive peoples towards woman as shown in the +Institutionalized Sex Taboo and the magic-religious belief in Mana; +Relation of Mana to Taboo; Discussion of Sympathetic Magic and the +associated idea of danger from contact; Difficulties in the way of an +inclusive definition of Taboo; Its dual nature; Comparison of concepts +of Crawley, Frazer, Marett and others; Conclusion that Taboo is Negative +Mana; Contribution of modern psychology to the study of Taboo; Freud's +analogy between the dualistic attitude toward the tabooed object and the +ambivalence of the emotions; The understanding of this dualism together +with the primitive belief in Mana and Sympathetic Magic explains much in +the attitude of man toward woman; The vast amount of evidence in the +taboos of many peoples of dualism in the attitude toward woman. Possible +physiological explanation of this dualistic attitude of man toward woman +found in a period before self-control had in some measure replaced +social control, in the reaction of weakness and disgust following sex +festivals. + + +A study of the elaborate, standardized, and authoritative systems of +social control found among all primitive peoples gives a vivid +impression of the difficulty of the task of compelling man to die to +himself, that is, to become a socius. The rigors and rituals of +initiation ceremonies at adolescence impressed the duties of sociality +at that impressionable period. The individual who refused to bow his +head to the social yoke became a vagabond, an outcast, an excommunicate. +In view of the fierceness of the struggle for food and the attitude +toward the stranger among all primitives, the outcast's life chances +were unenviable. It was preferable to adapt one's self to the social +order. "Bad" traits were the more easily suppressed in return for the +re-enforcement of power which was the striking feature of group life; +power over enemies, power over nature, and a re-enforcement of the +emotional life of the individual which became the basis on which were +built up the magico-religious ceremonies of institutionalized religion. + +It is the purpose of this study to consider a phase of social life in +which there can be traced a persistence into modern times of a primitive +form of control which in a pre-rational stage of group life made +possible the comparatively harmonious interplay of antagonistic forces. +This form of control is called Taboo. A student of the phenomenon, a +recognized authority on its ethnological interpretation, says of it: "To +illustrate the continuity of culture and the identity of the elementary +human ideas in all ages, it is sufficient to point to the ease with +which the Polynesian word _tabu_ has passed into modern +language."[1, p.16] + +We shall attempt to show that at least one form of taboo, the +Institutionalized Sex Taboo, is co-extensive with human social +experience, and exists to-day at the base of family life, the socialized +form of sex relationship. The family as a social institution has been +scarcely touched until a very recent historical period by the +rationalizing process that has affected religious and political +institutions. Economic changes resultant upon the introduction of an +industrial era which showed the importance of women in diverse social +relations were causes of this new effort at adaptation to changing +conditions. It became apparent that taboos in the form of customs, +ceremonials, beliefs, and conventions, all electrically charged with +emotional content, have guarded the life of woman from change, and with +her the functions peculiar to family life. There has doubtless been +present in some of these taboos "a good hard common-sense element." But +there are also irrational elements whose persistence has resulted in +hardship, blind cruelty, and over-standardization. + +In order to comprehend the attitude of early man toward sex and +womanhood, and to understand the system of taboo control which grew out +of this attitude, it is only reasonable to suppose that the prehistoric +races, like the uncivilized peoples of the present time, were inclined +to explain all phenomena as the result of the action of spiritistic +forces partaking of both a magical and religious nature. This +supernatural principle which the primitive mind conceived as an +all-pervading, universal essence, is most widely known as _mana_, +although it has been discussed under other names.[A] + +Certain persons, animals and objects[B] are often held to be imbued to +an unusual degree with this _mana_, and hence are to be regarded as holy +and held in awe. Inasmuch as man may wish to use this power for his own +purposes, a ceremonial cult would naturally grow up by which this would +become possible. Otherwise, to come in contact with these objects +directly or indirectly, besides profaning their sanctity would be +exceedingly dangerous for the transgressor, because of this same power +of transmission of a dread and little understood force. Therefore, all +such persons, animals or objects are taboo and must be avoided. Under +these circumstances it can be seen that taboos are unanalyzed, +unrationalized "Don'ts," connected with the use and wont which have +crystallized around the wish of man to manipulate the mysterious and +often desirable features of his environment, notably those connected +with possession, food, and sex. + +[Footnote A: The Australians call it Arunkulta, the Iroquis Indians +Orenda and other North American tribes Wakonda, the Melanesians Mana.] + +[Footnote B: Dr F.B. Jevons[2] says: "These things ... are alike taboo: +the dead body; the new-born child; blood and the shedder of blood; the +divine being as well as the criminal; the sick, outcasts, and +foreigners; animals as well as men; women especially, the married woman +as well as the sacred virgin; food, clothes, vessels, property, house, +bed, canoes, the threshing floor, the winnowing fan, a name, a word, a +day; all are or may be taboo because dangerous. This short list does not +contain one-hundredth part of the things which are supposed to be +dangerous; but even if it were filled out and made tolerably complete, +it would, by itself, fail to give any idea of the actual extent and +importance of the institution of taboo."] + + +The idea of the transmission of _mana_ through contact is concomitant +with the notion of _sympathetic magic_, defined as the belief that the +qualities of one thing can be mysteriously transferred to another. The +most familiar illustration is that of the hunter who will not eat the +heart of the deer he has killed lest he become timid like that animal, +while to eat the heart of a lion would be to gain all the fierce courage +of that beast.[A] This belief becomes so elaborated that the qualities +of one object are finally thought to be transferred to another which has +never come into direct contact with the first, the transition being +accomplished through the agency of a third object which has been in +contact with both the others and thus acts as the conducting medium +through which the qualities of one pass into the other. + +[Footnote A: E.B. Tylor[3] has called attention to the belief that the +qualities of the eaten pass into the eater as an explanation of the food +taboos and prejudices of savage peoples.] + +Just as the holy thing, which is to be feared as the seat of a mystic, +supernatural force, is to be avoided lest harm befall from contact with +it, or lest it be denied by human touch and its divine essence be +affected, so the unclean thing is also made taboo lest it infect man +with its own evil nature. Even as the savage will not have his idol +polluted by contact with his own personality, however indirect, so he +would himself avoid pollution in similar fashion by shunning that which +is unclean. Here also the avoidance of the tabooed person or thing is +based on the principle of sympathetic magic understood as a method of +transference of qualities, and on belief in the possibility of infection +by contact. + +The dual nature of taboo as the avoidance of both the sacred and the +unclean is noted by authorities on the subject who differ in other +respects as to the definition of taboo, such as in the relation of taboo +to the magical ceremonies by which man undertook to mould his +environment to his wishes. Whether the tabooed object be regarded in one +light or the other, the breaking of taboo is associated with dread of +the unknown--besides the fear of infection with the qualities of the +tabooed object according to the laws of sympathetic magic. There is +also the fear of the mysterious and supernatural, whether conceived as +the mana force or as a principle of "bad magic." + +Dr. J.G. Frazer has collected into the many volumes of "The Golden +Bough" a mass of evidence concerning the taboos of primitive society. On +the basis of his definition of magic as "a misapplication of the ideas +of association by similarity and contiguity," Dr. Frazer divided magic +into "positive magic," or charms, and "negative magic," or taboo. +"Positive magic says, 'Do this in order that so and so may happen.' +Negative magic or taboo says 'Do not do this lest so and so should +happen.'"[4, p.111, v.I.] + +But Dr. Frazer's conclusion, which he himself considered only tentative, +was not long left unassailed. Prof. R.R. Marett in his essay "Is Taboo a +Negative Magic?"[5] called attention to the very evident fact that Dr. +Frazer's definition would not cover the characteristics of some of the +best known taboos, the food taboos of Prof. Tylor to which we have +previously alluded in this study, as a consequence of which "the flesh +of timid animals is avoided by warriors, but they love the meat of +tigers, boars, and stags, for their courage and speed."[3, p.131.] Are +not these food taboos rather, Dr. Marett asks, a "misapplication of the +ideas of association by similarity and contiguity" amounting to the +sympathetic taboos so carefully described by such writers on Magic as +MM. Hubert and Mauss of L'Année Sociologique? Still another kind of +taboos mentioned by Dr. Frazer but amplified by Mr. Crawley in "The +Mystic Rose," the taboos on knots at childbirth, marriage, and death, +are much better described by the term "sympathetic taboo." Moreover, if +taboo were a form of magic as defined by Dr. Frazer, it would be a +somewhat definite and measurable quantity; whereas the distinguishing +characteristic of taboo everywhere is the "infinite plus of awfulness" +always accompanying its violation. As Dr. Marett observes, there may be +certain definite results, such as prescribed punishment for violations +against which a legal code is in process of growth. There may be also +social "growlings," showing the opposition of public opinion to which +the savage is at least as keenly sensitive as the modern. But it is the +"infinite plus" always attached to the violation of taboo that puts it +into the realm of the mystical, the magical. It would seem that Dr. +Frazer's definition does not include enough. + +It is when we turn to the subject of this study that we see most clearly +the deficiencies in these explanations--to the "classic well-nigh +universal major taboo" of the woman shunned. Dr. Marett uses her as his +most telling argument against the inclusiveness of the concepts of Dr. +Frazer and of MM. Hubert and Mauss. He says: "It is difficult to +conceive of sympathy, and sympathy only, as the continuous, or even the +originally efficient cause of the avoidance." Mr Crawley had called +attention to the fact that savages fear womanly characteristics, that +is, effeminacy, which is identified with weakness. While noting with +great psychological insight the presence of other factors, such as the +dislike of the different, he had gone so far as to express the opinion +that the fear of effeminacy was probably the chief factor in the Sex +Taboo. This is probably the weakest point in Mr. Crawley's study, for he +shows so clearly the presence of other elements, notably mystery, the +element that made woman the potential witch against whom suspicion +concentrated in so tragical a fashion up to a late historical period. + +Because of the element of mystery present in taboo we are led to +conclude that taboo is more than negative magic if we accept so definite +a concept as "a false association of ideas." The presence of power in +the tabooed object turns our attention to _mana_ as giving us a better +understanding of why man must be wary. Mana must however be liberally +interpreted if we are to see to the bottom of the mystery. It must be +thought of as including good as well as evil power, as more than the +"black magic" of the witch-haunted England of the 17th century, as is +shown by the social position of the magicians who deal with the Mana of +the Pacific and with the Orenda of the Iroquois. It implies +"wonder-working," and may be shown in sheer luck, in individual cunning +and power, or in such a form as the "uncanny" psychic qualities ascribed +to women from the dawn of history. With this interpretation of mana in +mind, taboo may be conceived as negative mana; and to break taboo is to +set in motion against oneself mystic wonder-working power. + +Our study thus far has made it clear that there are mystic dangers to be +guarded against from human as well as extra-human sources. There is +weakness to be feared as well as power, as shown by the food and sex +taboos. And once again there is mystery in the different, the unusual, +the unlike, that causes avoidance and creates taboos. Man's dislike of +change from the old well-trodden way, no matter how irrational, accounts +for the persistence of many ancient folkways[6] whose origins are lost +in mystery.[A] Many of these old and persistent avoidances have been +expanded in the development of social relationships until we agree with +Mr. Crawley that taboo shows that "man seems to feel that he is treading +in slippery places." Might it not be within the range of possibility +that in the study of taboo we are groping with man through the first +blind processes of social control?[B] + +[Footnote A: Prof. Franz Boas explains this tendency: "The more +frequently an action is repeated, the more firmly it will become +established ... so that customary actions which are of frequent +repetition become entirely unconscious. Hand in hand with this decrease +of consciousness goes an increase in the emotional value of the omission +of these activities, and still more of the performance of acts contrary +to custom."[7]] + +[Footnote B: No study of the tabu-mana theory, however delimited its +field, can disregard the studies of religion and magic made by the +contributors to L'Année Sociologique, notably MM. Durkheim and +Levy-Bruhl, and in England by such writers as Sir Gilbert Murray, Miss +Harrison, Mr A.B. Cook, Mr F.M. Cornford, and others. In their studies +of "collective representations" these writers give us an account of the +development of the social obligation back of religion, law, and social +institutions. They posit the sacred as forbidden and carry origins back +to a pre-logical stage, giving as the origin of the collective emotion +that started the representations to working the re-enforcement of power +or emotion resulting from gregarious living. This study is concerned, +however, with a "social" rather than a "religious" taboo,--if such a +distinction can somewhat tentatively be made, with the admission that +the social scruple very easily takes on a religious colouring.] + +It is worthy of note that the most modern school of analytical +psychology has recently turned attention to the problem of taboo. Prof. +Sigmund Freud, protagonist psychoanalysis, in an essay, Totem und Tabu, +called attention to the analogy between the dualistic attitude toward +the tabooed object as both sacred and unclean and the ambivalent +attitude of the neurotic toward the salient objects in his environment. +We must agree that in addition to the dread of the tabooed person or +object there is often a feeling of fascination. This is of course +particularly prominent in the case of the woman tabooed because of the +strength of the sex instinct. As Freud has very justly said, the tabooed +object is very often in itself the object of supreme desire. This is +very obvious in the case of the food and sex taboos, which attempt to +inhibit two of the most powerful impulses of human nature. The two +conflicting streams of consciousness called ambivalence by the +psychologist may be observed in the attitude of the savage toward many +of his taboos. As the Austrian alienist cannily remarks, unless the +thing were desired there would be no necessity to impose taboo +restrictions concerning it. + +It is by a knowledge of the mana concept and the belief in sympathetic +magic, clarified by recognition of the ambivalent element in the +emotional reaction to the thing tabooed, that we can hope to understand +the almost universal custom of the "woman shunned" and the sex taboos of +primitive peoples. This dualism appears most strongly in the attitude +toward woman; for while she was the natural object of the powerful +sexual instinct she was quite as much the source of fear because she was +generally supposed to be endowed with spiritistic forces and in league +with supernatural powers. During the long period when the fact of +paternity was unrecognized, the power of reproduction which was thus +ascribed to woman alone made of her a mysterious being. Her fertility +could be explained only on the basis of her possession of an unusually +large amount of mana or creative force, or by the theory of impregnation +by demonic powers. As a matter of fact, both explanations were accepted +by primitive peoples, so that woman was regarded not only as imbued with +mana but also as being in direct contact with spirits. Many of the +devices for closing the reproductive organs which abounded among savage +tribes were imposed as a protection against spirits rather than against +the males of the human species. The tradition of impregnation by gods or +demons was not confined to savage tribes, but was wide-spread in the +days of Greece and Rome and lasted into biblical times, when we read of +the sons of heaven having intercourse with the daughters of men. + +In addition to this fear of the woman as in possession of and in league +with supernatural powers, there was an additional motive to avoidance in +the fear of transmission of her weakness through contact, a fear based +on a belief in sympathetic magic, and believed with all the "intensely +realized, living, and operative assurance" of which the untutored mind +is capable. Crawley masses an overwhelming amount of data on this point, +and both he and Frazer show the strength of these beliefs. Indeed, in +many cases violation proved to be "sure death," not by the hand of man, +but from sheer fright. As a result, just as woman was considered to have +both the tendency and power to impart her characteristics through +contact, so the sexual act, the acme of contact, became the most potent +influence for the emasculation of the male. + +If we wish for proof that the primitive attitude toward women was +essentially that which we have outlined, we have only to glance at the +typical taboos concerning woman found among ancient peoples and among +savage races of our own day. Nothing could be more indicative of the +belief that the power to bring forth children was a manifestation of the +possession of mana than the common avoidance of the pregnant woman. Her +mystic power is well illustrated by such beliefs as those described by +the traveller Im Thurn, who says that the Indians of Guiana believe that +if a pregnant woman eat of game caught by hounds, they will never be +able to hunt again. Similarly, Alfred Russell Wallace wrote of the +aborigines of the Amazon: "They believe that if a woman during her +pregnancy eats of any meat, any other animal partaking of it will +suffer; if a domestic animal or tame bird, it will die; if a dog, it +will be for the future incapable of hunting; and even a man will be +unable to shoot that particular kind of game for the future."[8] In +Fiji a pregnant wife may not wait upon her husband.[9] In the +Caroline Islands men may not eat with their wives when pregnant, but +small boys are allowed to do so.[10] + +The avoidance of the menstruous woman is an even more widespread custom +than the shunning of pregnancy, probably because this function was +interpreted as a symptom of demonic possession. Primitive man had no +reason to know that the phenomenon of menstruation was in any way +connected with reproduction. The typical explanation was probably very +much like that of the Zoroastrians, who believed that the menses were +caused by the evil god Ahriman. A woman during the period was unclean +and possessed by that demon. She must be kept confined and apart from +the faithful, whom her touch would defile, and from the fire, which her +very look would injure. To this day there is in the house of the Parsee +a room for the monthly seclusion of the women, bare of all comforts, and +from it neither sun, moon, stars, fire, water, nor any human being can +be seen.[11] + +All the ancient civilizations had such taboos upon the menstruous woman. +According to Pliny, the Romans held that nothing had such marvellous +efficacy as, or more deadly qualities than, the menstrual flow. The +Arabs thought that a great variety of natural powers attached +themselves to a woman during the menstrual period.[12, p.448] Rabbinic +laws demand that "a woman during all the days of her separation shall be +as if under a ban." The epithet Niddah, applied to a woman at that time, +means "to lay under a ban." The reconstruction of the ancient Assyrian +texts shows that the law of the unclean taboo on the woman in her +courses holds for them. Up to the present time the Semitic woman is +carefully segregated from the rest of the tribe, often for a long time, +and becomes taboo again on each successive occasion.[13] Peoples in the +eastern Mediterranean region will not permit a woman in her courses to +salt or pickle; whatever she might prepare would not keep. This belief +survives among the folk to-day in America, and was evidently brought +early in the history of the country, for it is common among pioneer +stock. + +There are very similar taboos among the savage races. Among the Tshi +peoples of West Africa women are not allowed to remain even in the town +but retire at the period to huts erected for the purpose in the +neighbouring bush, because they are supposed to be offensive to the +tribal deities at that time.[14] The Karoks of California have a +superstition like that of the Israelites. Every month the woman is +banished without the village to live in a booth by herself. She is not +permitted to partake of any meat, including fish. If a woman at this +time touches or even approaches any medicine which is about to be given +to a sick man, it will cause his death.[15] Amongst other Indian tribes +of North America women at menstruation are forbidden to touch men's +utensils, which would be so defiled by their touch that their subsequent +use would be attended by certain misfortune. The Canadian Dénés believe +that the very sight of a woman in this condition is dangerous to +society, so that she wears a special skin bonnet to hide her from the +public gaze.[16] In western Victoria a menstruous woman may not take +anyone's food or drink, and no one will touch food that has been touched +by her.[17] Amongst the Maoris, if a man ate food cooked by a menstrous +woman, he would be "tapu an inch thick."[18] Frazer quotes the case of +an Australian blackfellow who discovered that his wife had lain on his +blanket at her menstrual period, and who killed her and died of terror +himself within a fortnight.[19] Australian women at this time are +forbidden on pain of death to touch anything that men use or even to +walk on a path that men frequent.[20] Among the Baganda tribes a +menstruous woman is not permitted to come near her husband, cook his +food, touch any of his weapons, or sit on his mats, bed, or seat.[21] + +By some twist in the primitive way of thinking, some "false association +by similarity and contiguity," the function of childbirth, unlike that +of pregnancy, where the emphasis seems to have been placed in most cases +on the mana principle, was held to be unclean and contaminating, and was +followed by elaborate rites of purification. It may be that the pains of +delivery were ascribed to the machinations of demonic powers, or +possession by evil spirits,--we know that this has sometimes been the +case. The use of charms and amulets, and the chanting of sacred formulæ +at this dangerous time all point to such beliefs. At any rate, although +the birth of the child would seem in every respect except in the +presence of blood to be more closely connected with the phenomena of +pregnancy than with that of menstruation, as a matter of fact the taboos +on the woman in child-bed were intimately associated with those on +menstruous women. + +Among the ancients, the Zoroastrians considered the woman unclean at +childbirth as at menstruation.[22] In the Old Testament, ritual +uncleanness results from contact with a woman at childbirth.[23] + +Likewise among savage tribes the same customs concerning childbirth +prevail. Among the Australian aborigines women are secluded at childbirth +as at menstruation, and all vessels used by them during this seclusion +are burned.[20] The Ewe-speaking people think a mother and babe unclean +for forty days after childbirth.[24] At menstruation and childbirth +a Chippeway wife may not eat with her husband; she must cook +her food at a separate fire, since any one using her fire would fall +ill.[10, v. ii, p.457] The Alaskan explorer Dall found that among the +Kaniagmuts a woman was considered unclean for several days both after +delivery and menstruation; in either case no one may touch her and she +is fed with food at the end of a stick.[25] Amongst the tribes of the +Hindu Kush the mother is considered unclean for seven days after the +birth of her child, and no one will eat from her hand nor will she +suckle her infant during that period. In the Oxus valley north of the +Hindu Kush the period is extended to forty days.[26] + +This attitude which primitive man takes toward woman at the time of her +sexual crises--menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth--are but an +intensification of the feeling which he has toward her at all times. +Conflicting with his natural erotic inclinations are the emotions of awe +and fear which she inspires in him as the potential source of contagion, +for there is always some doubt as to her freedom from bad magic, and it +is much safer to regard her as unclean.[27] Thus the every-day life of +savage tribes is hedged in by all manner of restrictions concerning the +females of their group. The men have their own dwelling in many +instances, where no woman may enter. So, too, she may be barred out from +the temples and excluded from the religious ceremonies when men worship +their deity. There are people who will not permit the women of their +nation to touch the weapons, clothing, or any other possessions of the +men, or to cook their food, lest even this indirect contact result in +emasculation. The same idea of sympathetic magic is at the root of +taboos which forbid the wife to speak her husband's name, or even to use +the same dialect. With social intercourse debarred, and often no common +table even in family life, it is veritably true that men and women +belong to two castes. + +Of the primitive institution known as the "men's house," Hutton Webster +says: "Sexual separation is further secured and perpetuated by the +institution known as the men's house, of which examples are to be found +among primitive peoples throughout the world. It is usually the largest +building in a tribal settlement ... Here the most precious belongings of +the community, such as trophies and religious emblems, are preserved. +Within its precincts ... women and children ... seldom or never +enter ... Family huts serve as little more than resorts for the +women and children."[28] + +Many examples among uncivilized peoples bear out this description of +the institution of the men's house. Amongst the Indians of California +and in some Redskin tribes the men's clubhouse may never be entered by a +squaw under penalty of death. The Shastika Indians have a town lodge for +women, and another for men which the women may not enter.[15] Among the +Fijis women are not allowed to enter a _bure_ or club house, which is +used as a lounge by the chiefs. In the Solomon Islands women may not +enter the men's _tambu_ house, and on some of the islands are not even +permitted to cross the beach in front of it.[29] In the Marquesas +Islands the _ti_ where the men congregate and spend most of their time +is taboo to women, and protected by the penalty of death from the +pollution of a woman's presence.[30] + +Not only is woman barred from the men's club house, but she is also +often prohibited from association and social intercourse with the +opposite sex by many other regulations and customs. Thus no woman may +enter the house of a Maori chief,[31] while among the Zulus, even if a +man and wife are going to the same place they never walk together.[32] +Among the Baganda wives are kept apart from the men's quarters.[21] The +Ojibway Indian Peter Jones says of his people: "When travelling the men +always walk on before. It would be considered a great presumption for +the wife to walk by the side of her husband."[33] In many islands of the +South Seas the houses of important men are not accessible to their +wives, who live in separate huts. Among the Bedouins a wife may not sit +in any part of the tent except her own corner, while it is disgraceful +for a man to sit under the shadow of the women's _roffe_ (tent +covering).[34] Among the Hindus, no female may enter the men's +apartments. In the Society and Sandwich Islands the females were +humiliated by taboo, and in their domestic life the women lived almost +entirely by themselves. The wife could not eat the same food, could not +eat in the same place, could not cook by the same fire. It was said that +woman would pollute the food.[35] In Korea a large bell is tolled at +about 8 p.m. and 3 a.m. daily, and between these hours only are women +supposed to appear in the streets.[36] In the New Hebrides there is a +curious segregation of the sexes, with a dread among the men of eating +anything female.[37] + +Among many tribes this segregation of the women and the separation of +the sexes begin at an early age, most often at the approach of puberty, +which is earlier in primitive peoples than in our own race.[38] The boys +usually go about with the father, while the girls remain with the +mother. This is true in Patagonia, where the boys begin to go with the +father at ten, the daughters with the mother at nine.[39] In Korea boys +and girls are separated at seven. From that time the Korean girl is +absolutely secluded in the inner court of her father's home. Mrs Bishop +says: "Girl children are so successfully hidden away that ... I never +saw one girl who looked above the age of six ... except in the women's +rooms."[36] Among the northern Indian girls are from the age of eight or +nine prohibited from joining in the most innocent amusements with +children of the opposite sex, and are watched and guarded with such an +unremitting attention as cannot be exceeded by the most rigid discipline +of an English boarding-school.[40] Similar arrangements are reported +among the Hill Dyaks,[41] certain Victorian tribes,[17] and many others. +As already instanced, the separation of the sexes extends even to +brothers and sisters and other close relatives. Thus in Fiji brothers +and sisters are forbidden by national and religious custom to speak to +each other.[9] In Melanesia, according to Codrington, the boy begins to +avoid his mother when he puts on clothing, and his sister as soon as she +is tattooed.[42] In the exclusive Nanburi caste of Travancore brothers +and sisters are separated at an early age. + +Women are more often than not excluded also from religious worship on +account of the idea of their uncleanness. The Arabs in many cases will +not allow women religious instruction. The Ansayrees consider woman to +be an inferior being without a soul, and therefore exclude her from +religious services.[34] In the Sandwich Islands women were not allowed +to share in worship or festivals.[35] The Australians are very jealous +lest women should look into their sacred mysteries. It is death for a +woman to look into a Bora.[20] In Fiji women are kept away from worship +and excluded from all the temples.[9] The women of some of the Indian +hill-tribes may not sacrifice nor appear at shrines, nor take part in +religious festivals. In New Ireland women are not allowed to approach +the temples.[43] In the Marquesas Islands the Hoolah-hoolah ground, +where festivals are held, is taboo to women, who are killed if they +enter or even touch with their feet the shadow of the trees.[30] Women +are also excluded from the sacred festivals of the Ahts.[44] In the +Amazon region, the women are not even permitted to see the objects used +in important ceremonies. If any woman of the Uaupes tribe happens to see +the masks used in the tribal ceremony she is put to death.[45] + +Crawley has explained the taboos on the sexes eating together and on the +cooking of food by women for men as due to the superstitious belief +that food which has come in contact with or under the influence of the +female is capable of transmitting her properties. Some southern Arabs +would die rather than accept food from a woman.[12] Among the old +Semites it was not the custom for a man to eat with his wife and +children. Among the Motu of New Guinea when a man is helega, he may not +eat food that his wife has cooked.[46] South Australian boys during +initiation are forbidden to eat with the women, lest they "grow ugly or +become grey." + +It was probably some fear of the charm-weaving power of woman which lay +at the root of the rules which forbade her to speak her husband's name, +the implication being that she might use it in some incantation against +him. For instance, a Zulu woman was forbidden to speak her husband's +name; if she did so, she would be suspected of witchcraft.[47] Herodotus +tells us that no Ionian woman would ever mention the name of her +husband, nor may a Hindu woman do so.[48] + +Frazer says that the custom of the Kaffir woman of South Africa not to +speak the name of her own or husband's relations has given rise to an +almost entirely different language from that of the men through the +substitution of new words for the words thus banned. Once this "women's +speech" had arisen, it would of course not be used by the men because of +the universal contempt for woman and all that pertained to her. This may +have been the origin of the use of different dialects in some tribes, +such as the Japanese, the Arawaks, some Brazilian tribes, and +others.[49] + +Although the division of labour between the sexes had a natural +biological basis, and indeed had its beginning in the animal world long +before man as such came into existence, the idea of the uncleanness of +woman was carried over to her work, which became beneath the dignity of +man. As a result, there grew up a series of taboos which absolutely +fixed the sphere of woman's labour, and prohibited her from encroaching +on the pursuits of man lest they be degraded by her use, quite as much +as they barred man from her specific activities. In Nicaragua, for +example, it is a rule that the marketing shall be done by women. In +Samoa, where the manufacture of cloth is allotted to the women, it is +taboo for a man to engage in any part of the process.[30] Among the +Andamanese the performance of most of the domestic duties falls to the +lot of the women and children. Only in cases of stern necessity will the +husband procure wood or water.[50] An Eskimo even thinks it an indignity +to row in an _umiak_, the large boat used by women. + +They also distinguish very definitely between the offices of husband +and wife. For example, when a man has brought a seal to land, it would +be a stigma on his character to draw it out of the water, since that is +the duty of the female.[51] In the Marquesas Islands, the use of canoes +in all parts of the islands is rigorously prohibited to women, for whom +it is death even to be seen entering one when hauled on shore; while +Tapa-making, which belongs exclusively to women, is taboo to men.[30] +Among the Betchuanas of South Africa the men will not let women touch +the cattle.[52] The Baganda think that if a woman steps over a man's +weapons they will not aim straight or kill until they have been +purified.[21] Among many South African tribes, if a wife steps over her +husband's assegais, they are considered useless from that time and are +given to the boys to play with. This superstition rings many changes and +is current among the natives of all countries. + +The taboos which have thus been exemplified and reviewed are based on +the feeling that woman is possessed of a demonic power, or perhaps of a +_mana_ principle which may work injury; or else upon the fear that she +may contaminate man with her weakness. It is very probable that many of +these taboos originated even as far back as the stage of society in +which the line of descent was traced through the mother. There seems +little doubt that the framework of ancient society rested on the basis +of kinship, and that the structure of the ancient gens brought the +mother and child into the same gens. Under these circumstances the gens +of the mother would have some ascendancy in the ancient household. On +such an established fact rests the assumption of a matriarchate, or +period of Mutterrecht. The German scholar Bachofen in his monumental +work "Das Mutterrecht" discussed the traces of female "authority" among +the Lycians, Cretans, Athenians, Lemnians, Lesbians, and Asiatic +peoples. But it is now almost unanimously agreed that the matriarchal +period was not a time when women were in possession of political or +economic power, but was a method of tracing descent and heritage. It is +fairly well established that, in the transition from metronymic to +patronymic forms, authority did not pass from women to men, but from the +brothers and maternal uncles of the women of the group to the husbands +and sons. Such a method of tracing descent, while it doubtless had its +advantages in keeping the woman with her child with her blood kindred, +would not prevent her from occupying a degraded position through the +force of the taboos which we have described.[53] + +With the development of the patriarchal system and the custom of +marriage by capture or purchase, woman came to be regarded as a part of +man's property, and as inviolate as any other of his possessions. Under +these circumstances virginity came to be more and more of an asset, +since no man wished his property to be denied by the touch of another. +Elaborate methods for the preservation of chastity both before and after +marriage were developed, and in many instances went so far as to +consider a woman defiled if she were accidentally touched by any other +man than her husband. Here we have once more the working of sympathetic +magic, where the slightest contact works contamination. + +We have in other connections alluded to the seclusion of young girls in +Korea, among the Hindus, among the North American Indians, and in the +South Seas. One of the most beautiful examples of this custom is found +in New Britain. From puberty until marriage the native girls are +confined in houses with a bundle of dried grass across the entrance to +show that the house is strictly taboo. The interior of these houses is +divided into cells or cages in each of which a girl is confined. No +light and little or no air enters, and the atmosphere is hot and +stifling. + +The seclusion of women after marriage is common among many peoples. In +the form in which it affected western civilization it probably +originated among the Persians or some other people of central Asia, and +spread to the Arabs and Mohammedans. That it did not originate with the +Arabs is attested by students of their culture. It was common among the +Greeks, whose wives were secluded from other men than their husbands. In +modern Korea it is not even proper to ask after the women of the family. +Women have been put to death in that country when strange men have +accidentally touched their hands.[36, p.341] + +The saddest outcome of the idea of woman as property was the status of +widows. In uncivilized society a widow is considered dangerous because +the ghost of her husband is supposed to cling to her. Hence she must be +slain that his spirit may depart in peace with her, as well as with the +weapons and other possessions which are buried with him or burned upon +his funeral pyre. The Marathi proverb to the effect that "the husband is +the life of the woman" thus becomes literally true. + +The best known case of widow slaying is of course the custom of "suttee" +in India. The long struggle made against this custom by the British +government is a vivid illustration of the strength of these ancient +customs. The Laws of Manu indicate that the burning of widows was +practised by primitive Aryans. In the Fiji Islands, where a wife was +strangled on her husband's grave, the strangled women were called "the +carpeting of the grave."[54] In Arabia, as in many other countries, +while a widow may escape death, she is very often forced into the class +of vagabonds and dependents. One of the most telling appeals made by +missionaries is the condition of child widows in countries in which the +unfortunates cannot be killed, but where the almost universal stigma of +shame is attached to second marriages. A remarkable exception to this, +when in ancient Greece the dying husband sometimes bequeathed his widow +to a male friend, emphasized the idea of woman as property. + +Although the taboos which are based on the idea of ownership are +somewhat aside from the main theme of our discussion, they nevertheless +reinforce the other taboos of the seclusion and segregation of woman as +unclean. Moreover, as will be shown in a later chapter, the property +idea has certain implications which are important for the proper +understanding of the status of woman and the attitude toward her at the +present time. + +In the face of the primitive aversion to woman as the source of +contamination through sympathetic magic, or as the seat of some mystic +force, whether of good or evil, it may well be asked how man ever dared +let his sexual longings overcome his fears and risk the dangers of so +intimate a relationship. Only by some religious ceremonial, some act of +purification, could man hope to counteract these properties of woman; +and thus the marriage ritual came into existence. By the marriage +ceremonial, the breach of taboo was expiated, condoned, and socially +countenanced.[1, p.200] This was very evident in the marriage customs of +the Greeks, which were composed of purification rites and other +precautions.[55] The injunctions to the Hebrews given in Leviticus +illustrate the almost universal fact that even under the sanction of +marriage the sexual embrace was taboo at certain times, as for example +before the hunt or battle. + +We are now prepared to admit that throughout the ages there has existed +a strongly dualistic or "ambivalent" feeling in the mind of man toward +woman. On the one hand she is the object of erotic desire; on the other +hand she is the source of evil and danger. So firmly is the latter +feeling fixed that not even the sanction of the marriage ceremony can +completely remove it, as the taboos of intercourse within the marital +relationship show. + +There are certain psychological and physiological reasons for the +persistence of this dualistic attitude in the very nature of the sex act +itself. Until the climax of the sexual erethism, woman is for man the +acme of supreme desire; but with detumescence the emotions tend to +swing to the opposite pole, and excitement and longing are forgotten in +the mood of repugnance and exhaustion. This tendency would be very much +emphasized in those primitive tribes where the _corroboree_ with its +unlimited indulgence was common, and also among the ancients with their +orgiastic festivals. In the revulsion of feeling following these orgies +woman would be blamed for man's own folly. In this physiological swing +from desire to satiety, the apparent cause of man's weakness would be +looked upon as the source of the evil--a thing unclean. There would be +none of the ethical and altruistic element of modern "love" to protect +her. Students agree that these elements in the modern sentiment have +been evolved, "not from the sexual instinct, but from the companionship +of the battlefield."[56] It is therefore probable that in this +physiological result of uncontrolled sex passion we shall find the +source of the dualism of the attitude toward sex and womanhood present +in taboo. + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER I + +1. Crawley, A.E. The Mystic Rose. 492 pp. Macmillan. London, 1902. + +2. Jevons, F.B. History of Religion. 443 pp. Methuen & Co. London, 1896. + +3. Tylor, E.B. Early History of Mankind, 3d. ed. 388 pp. J. Murray. +London, 1878. + +4. Frazer, J.G. The Golden Bough: Part I, The Magic Art and the +Evolution of Kings. 2 vols. Macmillan. London, 1911. + +5. First published in Anthropological Essays presented to E.B. Tylor in +honour of his 75th birthday. Oct. 2, 1907. 416 pp. The Clarendon Press, +Oxford, 1907. + +6. Sumner, W.G. Folkways. 692 pp. Ginn & Co. Boston, 1907. + +7. Boas, Franz. The Mind of Primitive Man. 294 pp. Macmillan. N.Y., +1911. + +8. Wallace, Alfred Russel. Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio +Negro. 541 pp. Reeve & Co., London, 1853. + +9. Williams, Thomas, and Calvert, James. Fiji and the Fijians. 551 pp. +Appleton. N.Y., 1859. + +10. Ploss, Dr Hermann H. Das Weib. 2 vols. Th. Grieben's Verlag. +Leipzig, 1885. + +11. Greiger, Ostiranische Kultur. Erlangen, 1882. Quoted from Folkways +[6], p. 513. + +12. Robertson Smith, W. Religion of the Semites. 508 pp. A. & C. Black. +Edinburgh, 1894. + +13. Thompson, R.C. Semitic Magic. 286 pp. Luzac & Co. London, 1908. + +14. Ellis, A.B. Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast of West Africa. +343 pp. Chapman & Hall. London, 1887. + +15. Powers, Stephen. Tribes of California. Contributions to North +American Ethnology, Third Volume. Washington, 1877. + +16. Morice, Rev. Father A.G. The Canadian Dénés. Annual Archeological +Report, 1905. Toronto, 1906. Quoted from Frazer, Taboo and the Perils of +the Soul. + +17. Dawson, James. Australian Aborigines. 111 pp., with Appendix. George +Robertson. Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide, 1881. Citation from Latin +note to Chap. XII. + +18. Tregear, Edward. The Maoris of New Zealand. Journal of the +Anthropological Institute, v. xix, 1889. + +19. Armit, Capt. W.E. Customs of the Australian Aborigines. Jour. Anthr. +Inst., ix, 1880, p. 459. See also [18]. + +20. Ridley, W. Report on Australian Languages and Traditions. Jour. +Anthr. Inst., ii, 1872. + +21. Roscoe, Rev. John. Manners and Customs of the Baganda. Jour. Anthr, +Inst., xxxii, 1902. + +22. Zend-Avesta. Sacred Books of the East Series. Oxford 1880, 1883. + +23. Leviticus xii. + +24. Ellis, A.B. Ewe-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa. +Chapman & Hall. London, 1890. 331 pp. + +25. Dall, W.H. Alaska and Its Resources. 627 pp. Lee & Shepard. Boston, +1870. + +26. Biddulph, Maj. J. Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh. 164 pp. Gov't. +Printing Office. Calcutta, 1880. + +27. Frazer, J.G. The Golden Bough: Part II, Taboo and the Perils of the +Soul. 446 pp. Macmillan. London, 1911. + +28. Webster, Hutton. Primitive Secret Societies. 227 pp. Macmillan. +N.Y., 1908. + +29. Guppy, H.B. The Solomon Islands and Their Natives. 384 pp. Swan +Sonnenschein & Co. London, 1887. + +30. Melville, H. The Marquesas Islands. 285 pp. John Murray. London, +1846. + +31. Taylor, Rev. Richard. Te Ika A Maui, or New Zealand and Its +Inhabitants. 713 pp. 2d. ed. Macintosh. London, 1870. + +32. Shooter, Rev. Joseph. The Kaffirs of Natal and the Zulu Country. 403 +pp. E. Stanford. London, 1857. + +33. Jones, Rev. Peter. History of the Ojibway Indians. 217 pp. A.W. +Bennett. London, 1861. + +34. Featherman, A. Social History of the Races of Mankind. 5 vols. +Trübner & Co. London, 1881. + +35. Ellis, Rev. Wm. Polynesian Researches. 4 vols. G. Bohn. London, +1853. + +36. Bishop, Mrs Isabella Bird. Korea and Her Neighbours. 480 pp. Fleming +H. Revell Co. N.Y., 1898. + +37. Somerville, Lieut. Boyle T. The New Hebrides. Jour. Anthr. Inst., +xxiii, 1894. + +38. Hall, G. Stanley. Adolescence. 2 vols. Appleton, N.Y., 1904. + +39. Musters, G.C. At Home with the Patagoniana. 340 pp. J. Murray. +London, 1873. + +40. Hearne, Samuel. A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's +Bay to the Northern Ocean. Publications of the Champlain Society, No. 6. +London, 1795. + +41. Low, Hugh. Sarawak. 416 pp. Richard Bentley. London, 1848. + +42. Codrington, Rev. R.H. The Melanesians. 419 pp. Oxford, 1891. + +43. Romilly, Hugh Hastings. The Western Pacific and New Guinea, 2d. ed., +284 pp. John Murray. London, 1887. + +44. Sproat, G.M. Scenes and Studies of Savage Life. 317 pp. Smith, Elder +& Co. London, 1868. + +45. Wissler, Clark. The American Indian. 435 pp. D.C. McMurtrie. N.Y., +1917. + +46. Lawes, W.G. Ethnographical Notes on the Motu, Koitapu, and Koiari +Tribes of New Guinea. Jour. Anthr. Inst., viii, 1879. + +47. Callaway, Rev. Canon Henry. Religious System of the Amazulu. 448 pp. +Trübner & Co. London, 1870. + +48. Crooke, W. Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India. 2 vols. +Archibald Constable & Co. Westminster, 1896. + +49. Crawley, A.E. Sexual Taboo. Journ. Anthr. Inst., xxiv, 1895. + +50. Man, E.H. The Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands. Jour. +Anthr. Inst., xii, 1882. + +51. Crantz, David. History of Greenland. Trans, fr. the German, 2 vols. +Longmans, Green. London, 1820. + +52. Holub, E. Central South African Tribes. Jour. Anthr. Inst., x, 1881. + +53. Morgan, Lewis H. Ancient Society. 560 pp. Henry Holt & Co. N.Y., +1907. (First edition, 1877). + +54. Fison, Rev. Lorimer. Figian Burial Customs, jour. Anthr. Inst., x. +1881. + +55. Rohde, Erwin. Psyche. 711 pp. Freiburg und Leipzig, 1894. + +56. Benecke, E.F.M. Women in Greek Poetry. 256 pp. Swan Sonnenschein & +Co. London, 1896. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +FROM THE DAWN OF HISTORY: WOMAN AS SAINT AND WITCH + + +Taboos of first chapter indicate that in the early ages the fear of +contamination by woman predominated; Later, emphasis fell on her mystic +and uncanny power; Ancient fertility cults; Temple prostitution, +dedication of virgins, etc.; Ancient priestesses and prophetesses; +Medicine early developed by woman added to belief in her power; Woman's +psychic quality of intuition: its origin--theories--conclusion that this +quality is probably physiological in origin, but aggravated by taboo +repressions; Transformation in attitude toward woman in the early +Christian period; Psychological reasons for the persistence in religion +of a Mother Goddess; Development of the Christian concept; Preservation +of ancient women cults as demonology; Early Christian attitude toward +woman as unclean and in league with demons; Culmination of belief in +demonic power of woman in witchcraft persecutions; All women affected by +the belief in witches and in the uncleanness of woman; Gradual +development on the basis of the beliefs outlined of an ideally pure and +immaculate Model Woman. + +From the data of the preceding chapter, it is clear that the early ages +of human life there was a dualistic attitude toward woman. On the one +hand she was regarded as the possessor of the mystic _mana_ force, +while on the other she was the source of "bad magic" and likely to +contaminate man with her weaknesses. Altogether, the study of primitive +taboos would indicate that the latter conception predominated in savage +life, and that until the dawn of history woman was more often regarded +as a thing unclean than as the seat of a divine power. + +At the earliest beginnings of civilization man's emotions seem to have +swung to the opposite extreme, for emphasis fell on the mystic and +uncanny powers possessed by woman. Thus it was that in ancient nations +there was a deification of woman which found expression in the belief in +feminine deities and the establishment of priestess cults. Not until the +dawn of the Christian era was the emphasis once more focussed on woman +as a thing unclean. Then, her mystic power was ascribed to demon +communication, and stripped of her divinity, she became the witch to be +excommunicated and put to death. + +All the ancient world saw something supernatural, something demoniacal, +in generation. Sometimes the act was deified, as in the phallic +ceremonials connected with nature worship, where the procreative +principle in man became identified with the creative energy pervading +all nature, and was used as a magic charm at the time of springtime +planting to insure the fertility of the fields and abundant harvest,[1] +It was also an important part of the ritual in the Phrygian cults, the +cult of the Phoenician Astarte, and the Aphrodite cults. These mystery +religions were widely current in the Græco-Roman world in pre-Christian +times. The cult of Demeter and Dionysius in Greece and Thrace; Cybele +and Attis in Phrygia; Atagartes in Cilicia; Aphrodite and Adonis in +Syria; Ashtart and Eshmun (Adon) in Phoenicia; Ishtar and Tammuz in +Babylonia; Isis, Osiris and Serapis in Egypt, and Mithra in Persia--all +were developed along the same lines.[2] The custom of the sacrifice of +virginity to the gods, and the institution of temple prostitution, also +bear witness to the sacred atmosphere with which the sex act was +surrounded among the early historic peoples.[3] It was this idea of the +mysterious sanctity of sex which did much to raise woman to her position +as divinity and fertility goddess. + +The dedication of virgins to various deities, of which the classic +example is the institution of the Vestal Virgins at Rome, and the fact +that at Thebes and elsewhere even the male deities had their priestesses +as well as priests, are other indications that at this time woman was +regarded as divine or as capable of ministering to divinity. The +prophetic powers of woman were universally recognized. The oracles at +Delphi, Argos, Epirus, Thrace and Arcadia were feminine. Indeed the +Sibylline prophetesses were known throughout the Mediterranean basin.[A] + +[Footnote A: Farnell[4] found such decided traces of feminine divinity +as to incline him to agree with Bachofen that there was at +one time an age of Mutterrecht which had left its impress on +religion as well as on other aspects of social life. As we have +said before, it is now fairly well established that in the transition +from metronymic to patronymic forms, authority did not pass +from women to men but from the brothers and maternal uncles +of the women of the group to husbands and sons. This fact +does not, however, invalidate the significance of Farnell's data +for the support of the view herein advanced, i.e., that woman +was at one time universally considered to partake of the divine.] + +The widespread character of the woman-cult of priestesses and +prophetesses among the peoples from whom our culture is derived is +evidenced in literature and religion. That there had been cults of +ancient mothers who exerted moral influence and punished crime is shown +by the Eumenides and Erinyes of the Greeks. The power of old women as +law-givers survived in Rome in the legend of the Cumæan Sibyl.[5] An +index of the universality of the sibylline cult appears in the list of +races to which Varro and Lactantius say they belonged: Persian, Libyan, +Delphian, Cimmerian, Erythrian, Trojan, and Phrygian.[6] These sibyls +were believed to be inspired, and generations of Greek and Roman +philosophers never doubted their power. Their carmina were a court of +last resort, and their books were guarded by a sacred taboo. + +Among the Greeks and neighbouring nations the women of Thessaly had a +great reputation for their charms and incantations.[7] Among the writers +who speak of a belief in their power are: Plato, Aristophanes, Horace, +Ovid, Virgil, Tibullus, Seneca, Lucan, Menander, and Euripides. + +All of the northern European tribes believed in the foresight of future +events by women. Strabo says of the Cimbri that when they took the field +they were accompanied by venerable, hoary-headed prophetesses, clothed +in long, white robes. Scandinavians, Gauls, Germans, Danes and Britons +obeyed, esteemed and venerated females who dealt in charms and +incantations. These sacred women claimed to foretell the future and to +interpret dreams, and among Germans, Celts and Gauls they were the only +physicians and surgeons. The druidesses cured disease and were believed +to have power superior to that of the priests.[8] The Germans never +undertook any adventure without consulting their prophetesses.[9] The +Scandinavian name for women endowed with the gift of prophecy was +_fanae_, _fanes_. The English form is _fay_. The ceremonies of fays or +fairies, like those of the druidesses, were performed in secluded +woods.[A] + +[Footnote A: Joan of Arc was asked during her trial if she were a fay.] + +Magic and medicine went hand in hand in ancient times, and remained +together down to the middle ages. Old herbals largely compiled from the +lore of ancient women form a link in the chain of tradition, the first +ring of which may have been formed in Egypt or in Greece. There is no +doubt that women from an early date tried to cure disease. Homer makes +mention of Hecamede and her healing potions. There seems little doubt +that there were Greek women who applied themselves to a complete study +of medicine and contributed to the advance of medical science. This +traditional belief in the power of women to cure disease survives in the +folk to-day.[10] + +In view of the widespread veneration of a peculiar psychic quality of +woman, a power of prophecy and a property of divinity which has made her +an object of fear and worship, it may be well to review the modern +explanations of the origin of this unique feminine power. Herbert +Spencer was of the opinion that feminine penetration was an ability to +distinguish quickly the passing feelings of those around and was the +result of long ages of barbarism during which woman as the weaker sex +was obliged to resort to the arts of divination and to cunning to make +up for her lack of physical force and to protect herself and her +offspring.[11] In like vein Käthe Schirmacher, a German feminist, says: +"The celebrated intuition of woman is nothing but an astonishing +refinement of the senses through fear.... Waiting in fear was made the +life task of the sex."[12] + +Lester F. Ward had a somewhat different view.[13] He thought that +woman's psychic power came from the sympathy based on the maternal +instinct, which "though in itself an entirely different faculty, early +blended with or helped to create, the derivative reason-born faculty of +altruism." With Ward's view Olive Schreiner agrees, saying: "We have no +certain proof that it is so at present, but woman's long years of +servitude and physical subjection, and her experience as childbearer and +protector of infancy, may be found in the future to have endowed her ... +with an exceptional width of human sympathy and instinctive +comprehension."[14] + +In all probability Lombroso came nearer to the truth in his explanation +of feminine penetration. "That woman is more subject to hysteria is a +known fact," he says, "but few know how liable she is to hypnotic +phenomena, which easily opens up the unfoldment of spiritual +faculties.... The history of observation proves that hysteria and +hypnotism take the form of magic, sorcery, and divination or prophecy, +among savage peoples. 'Women,' say the Pishawar peoples, 'are all +witches; for several reasons they may not exert their inborn powers.' +... In the Slave Coast hysterical women are believed to be possessed +with spirits. The Fuegians believed that there had been a time when +women wielded the empire through her possession of the secrets of +sorcery."[8, pp.85f.] + +The history of modern spiritualism has so well confirmed this view of +Lombroso's that we are safe in accepting it as the partial explanation +of the attribute of a mysterious and uncanny power which man has always +given to the feminine nature. The power of prophecy and divination which +was possessed by women at the dawn of history and for some time +thereafter was probably not different in its essentials from the +manifestations of hysterical girls who have puzzled the wisest +physicians or the strange phenomena of those spiritualistic mediums who +have been the subject of research well into our own times.[15] + +If we wish to push our inquiry still further and ask why woman should be +so much more subject than man to hysterical seizures and to hypnotic +suggestion, we shall probably find that it is an essential part of her +femininity. Modern psychology and physiology have pointed out that the +menstrual cycle of woman has a vast influence not only on her emotional +nature but on her whole psychic life, so that there are times when she +is more nervously tense, more apt to become hysterical or to yield to +the influence of suggestion. Moreover, because of the emphasis on +chastity and the taboos with which she was surrounded, any neurotic +tendencies which might be inherent in her nature were sure to be +developed to the utmost. + +As Lombroso suggests, hysteria and other neurotic phenomena are classed +as evidence of spirit possession by the untutored mind. Thus it happened +that observing the strange psychic manifestations to which woman was +periodically subject, the ancient peoples endowed her with +spiritualistic forces which were sometimes held to be beneficent and at +other times malefic in character. Whatever the attitude at any time +whether her _mana_ were regarded as evil or benignant, the savage and +primitive felt that it was well to be on his guard in the presence of +power; so that the taboos previously outlined would hold through the +swing of man's mind from one extreme to the other. + +As goddess, priestess and prophetess, woman continued to play her rôle +in human affairs until the Christian period, when a remarkable +transformation took place. The philosophy of dualism that emanated from +Persia had affected all the religions of the Mediterranean Basin and had +worked its way into Christian beliefs by way of Gnosticism, +Manicheanism, and Neo-Platonism. Much of the writing of the church +fathers is concerned with the effort to harmonize conflicting beliefs +or to avoid the current heresies. To one who reads the fathers it +becomes evident to what extent the relation of man to woman figures in +these controversies.[16] + +The Manicheanism which held in essence Persian Mithraism and which had +so profound an influence on the writings of St. Augustine gave body and +soul to two distinct worlds and finally identified woman with the body. +But probably as a result of the teachings of Gnosticism with its +Neo-Platonic philosophy which never entirely rejected feminine +influence, some of this influence survived in the restatement of +religion for the folk. When the restatement was completed and was +spreading throughout Europe in the form which held for the next +millennium, it was found that the early goddesses had been accepted +among the saints, the priestesses and prophetesses were rejected as +witches, while the needs of men later raised the Blessed Virgin to a +place beside her son. + +Modern psychology has given us an explanation of the difficulty of +eradicating the worship of such a goddess as the Great Mother of Asia +Minor from the religion of even martial peoples who fear the +contamination of woman's weakness; or from a religion obsessed with +hatred of woman as unclean by men who made the suppression of bodily +passions the central notion of sanctity. The most persistent human +relationship, the one charged with a constant emotional value, is not +that of sex, which takes manifold forms, but that of the mother and +child. It is to the mother that the child looks for food, love, and +protection. It is to the child that the mother often turns from the +mate, either because of the predominance of mother love over sex or in +consolation for the loss of the love of the male. We have only recently +learned to evaluate the infantile patterns engraved in the neural tissue +during the years of childhood when the mother is the central figure of +the child's life. Whatever disillusionments may come about other women +later in life, the mother ideal thus established remains a constant part +of man's unconscious motivations. It is perhaps possible that this +infantile picture of a being all-wise, all-tender, all-sacrificing, has +within it enough emotional force to create the demand for a +mother-goddess in any religion. + +To arrive at the concept of the Madonna, a far-reaching process of +synthesis and reinterpretation must have been carried out before the +Bible could be brought into harmony with the demands made by a cult of a +mother goddess. Just as the views brought into the church by celibate +ideals spread among heathen people, so the church must have been in its +turn influenced by the heathen way of looking at things.[17] One of the +great difficulties was the reconciliation of the biological process of +procreation with divinity. But there had for ages been among primitive +peoples the belief that impregnation was caused by spirit possession or +by sorcery. This explanation had survived in a but slightly altered form +in the ancient mythologies, all of which contained traditions of heroes +and demi-gods who were born supernaturally of a divine father and a +human mother. In the myths of Buddha, Zoroaster, Pythagoras and Plato, +it was intimated that the father had been a god or spirit, and that the +mother had been, and moreover remained after the birth, an earthly +virgin. These old and precious notions of the supernatural origin of +great men were not willingly renounced by those who accepted the new +religion; nor was it necessary to make such a sacrifice, because men +thought that they could recognize in the Jewish traditions something +corresponding to the heathen legends.[18] + +The proper conditions for the development of a mother cult within +Christianity existed within the church by the end of the second century. +At the Council of Nicæa (325 A.D.) it was settled that the Son was of +the same nature as the Father. The question of the nature of Mary then +came to the fore. The eastern fathers, Athanasius, Ephraim Syrus, +Eusebius and Chrysostom, made frequent use in their writings of the +term Theotokos, Mother of God. When Nestorius attacked those who +worshipped the infant Christ as a god and Mary as the mother of God +rather than as the mother of Christ, a duel began between Cyril of +Alexandria and Nestorius "which in fierceness and importance can only be +compared with that between Arius and Athanasius."[19] + +In 431 A.D. the Universal Church Council at Ephesus assented to the +doctrine that Mary was the Mother of God. Thus Ephesus, home of the +great Diana, from primitive times the centre of the worship of a goddess +who united in herself the virtues of virginity and motherhood, could +boast of being the birthplace of the Madonna cult. And thus Mary, our +Lady of Sorrows, pure and undefiled, "the church's paradox," became the +ideal of man. She was "a woman, virgin and mother, sufficiently high to +be worshipped, yet sufficiently near to be reached by affection. ... If +we judge myths as artistic creations we must recognize that no god or +goddess has given its worshippers such an ideal as the Mary of Christian +art and poetry."[19: p.183] [20: v. ii., pp.220f.] + +Although Christianity thus took over and embodied in its doctrines the +cult of the mother-goddess, at the same time it condemned all the rites +which had accompanied the worship of the fertility goddesses in all the +pagan religions. The power of these rites was still believed in, but +they were supposed to be the work of demons, and we find them strictly +forbidden in the early ecclesiastical laws. The phallic ceremonials +which formed so large a part of heathen ritual became marks of the +devil, and the deities in whose honour they were performed, although +losing none of their power, were regarded as demonic rather than divine +in nature. Diana, goddess of the moon, for example, became identified +with Hecate of evil repute, chief of the witches. "In such a fashion the +religion of Greece, that of Egypt, of Phoenicia and Asia Minor, of +Assyria and of Persia, became mingled and confused in a simple +demonology."[21] + +In addition to the condemnation of Pagan deities and their ritualistic +worship, there was a force inherent in the very nature of Christianity +which worked toward the degradation of the sex life. After the death of +Christ, his followers had divorced their thoughts from all things +earthly and set about fitting themselves for their places in the other +world. The thought of the early Christian sects was obsessed by the idea +of the second coming of the Messiah. The end of the world was incipient, +therefore it behooved each and every one to purge himself from sin. This +emphasis on the spiritual as opposed to the fleshly became fixated +especially on the sex relationship, which came to be the symbol of the +lusts of the body which must be conquered by the high desires of the +soul. Consequently the feelings concerning this relation became +surcharged with all the emotion which modern psychology has taught us +always attaches to the conscious symbol of deeply underlying unconscious +complexes. In such a situation man, who had come to look with horror on +the being who reminded him that he was flesh as well as spirit saw in +her "the Devil's gateway," or "a fireship continually striving to get +along side the male man-of-war to blow him up into pieces."[22][A] + +[Footnote A: Dr Donaldson, translator of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, says: +"I used to believe ... that woman owes her present position to +Christianity ... but in the first three centuries I have not been able +to see that Christianity had any favourable effect on the position of +woman."] + +With the rejection of the idea of the sanctity of sex as embodied in the +phallic rituals of the pagan cults, the psychic power of woman became +once more a thing of fear rather than of worship, and her uncleanness +was emphasized again more than her holiness, even as in primitive times. +The power of woman to tell the course of future events which in other +days had made her revered as priestess and prophetess now made her hated +as a witch who had control of what the Middle Ages knew as the Black +Art.[23] The knowledge of medicine which she had acquired through the +ages was now thought to be utilized in the making of "witch's brew," and +the "ceremonies and charms whereby the influence of the gods might be +obtained to preserve or injure"[21: v.1, p.12] became incantations to the +evil one. In addition to her natural erotic attraction for the male, +woman was now accused of using charms to lure him to his destruction. +The asceticism of the church made it shameful to yield to her +allurements, and as a result woman came to be feared and loathed as the +arch-temptress who would destroy man's attempt to conform to celibate +ideals. This sex antagonism culminated in the witchcraft persecutions +which make so horrible a page of the world's history. + +Among the pagans, witches had shared with prophetesses and priestesses a +degree of reverence and veneration. Medea had taught Jason to tame the +brazen-footed bulls and dragons which guarded the Golden Fleece. Hecate +was skilled in spells and incantations. Horace frequently mentions with +respect Canidia, who was a powerful enchantress. Gauls, Britons and +Germans had obeyed and venerated women who dealt in charms and +incantations. The doctrines of Christianity had changed the veneration +into hatred and detestation without eradicating the belief in the power +of the witch. It was with the hosts of evil that she was now believed to +have her dealings, however. When this notion of the alliance between +demons and women had become a commonplace, "the whole tradition was +directed against woman as the Devil's instrument, basely seductive, +passionate and licentious by nature."[24] Man's fear of woman found a +frantic and absurd expression in her supposed devil-worship. As a +result, the superstitions about witchcraft became for centuries not only +a craze, but a theory held by intelligent people. + +Among the female demons who were especially feared were: Nahemah, the +princess of the Succubi; Lilith, queen of the Stryges; and the Lamiæ or +Vampires, who fed on the living flesh of men. Belief in the Vampires +still persists as a part of the folklore of Europe. Lilith tempted to +debauchery, and was variously known as child-strangler, child-stealer, +and a witch who changed true offspring for fairy or phantom children.[A] +The figure of the child-stealing witch occurs in an extremely ancient +apocryphal book called the Testament of Soloman, and dates probably from +the first or second century of the Christian Era.[25] + + +[Footnote A: The name of Lilith carries us as far back as Babylon, and +in her charms and conjurations we have revived in Europe the reflection +of old Babylonian charms.] + +Laws against the malefici (witches) were passed by Constantine. In the +Theodosian Code (_Lib. 9. Tit. 16. Leg. 3._) they are charged with +making attempts by their wicked arts upon the lives of innocent men, and +drawing others by magical potions (philtra et pharmaca) to commit +misdemeanours. They are further charged with disturbing the elements, +raising tempests, and practising abominable arts. The Council of +Laodicea (343-381. _Can_. 36) condemned them. The Council of Ancyra +forbade the use of medicine to work mischief. St. Basil's canons +condemned witchcraft. The fourth Council of Carthage censured +enchantment.[26] John of Salisbury tells of their feasts, to which they +took unbaptized children. William of Auverne describes the charms and +incantations which they used to turn a cane into a horse. William of +Malmesbury gives an account of two old women who transformed the +travellers who passed their door into horses, swine or other animals +which they sold. From some of the old Teuton laws we learn that it was +believed that witches could take a man's heart out of his body and fill +the cavity with straw or wood so that he would go on living. + +One of the famous witchcraft trials was that of the Lady Alice +Kyteler,[27] whose high rank could not save her from the accusation. It +was claimed that she used the ceremonies of the church, but with some +wicked changes. She extinguished the candles with the exclamation, "Fi! +Fi! Fi! Amen!" She was also accused of securing the love of her +husbands, who left much property to her, by magic charms. These claims +were typical of the accusations against witches in the trials which took +place. + +By the sixteenth century, the cumulative notion of witches had +penetrated both cultivated and uncultivated classes, and was embodied in +a great and increasing literature. "No comprehensive work on theology, +philosophy, history, law, medicine, or natural science could wholly +ignore it," says Burr, "and to lighter literature it afforded the most +telling illustrations for the pulpit, the most absorbing gossip for the +news-letter, the most edifying tales for the fireside."[28] + +As a result of this belief in the diabolic power of woman, judicial +murder of helpless women became an institution, which is thus +characterized by Sumner: "After the refined torture of the body and +nameless mental sufferings, women were executed in the most cruel +manner. These facts are so monstrous that all other aberrations of the +human race are small in comparison.... He who studies the witch trials +believes himself transferred into the midst of a race which has +smothered all its own nobler instincts, reason, justice, benevolence and +sympathy."[24] + +Any woman was suspect. Michelet, after a thirty years' study, wrote: +"Witches they are by nature. It is a gift peculiar to woman and her +temperament. By birth a fay, by the regular recurrence of her ecstasy +she becomes a sibyl. By her love she grows into an enchantress. By her +subtlety ... she becomes a witch and works her spells."[29] + +Just how many victims there were of the belief in the power of women as +witches will never be known. Scherr thinks that the persecutions cost +100,000 lives in Germany alone.[30] Lord Avebury quotes the estimate of +the inquisitor Sprenger, joint author of the "Witch Hammer," that during +the Christian period some 9,000,000 persons, mostly women, were burned +as witches.[31] Seven thousand victims are said to have been burned at +Treves, 600 by a single bishop of Bamburg, 800 in a single year in the +bishopric of Wurtzburg. At Toulouse 400 persons perished at a single +burning.[29: ch.1] [20: v.1. ch.1] One witch judge boasted that he +executed 900 witches in fifteen years. The last mass burning in Germany +was said to have taken place in 1678, when 97 persons were burned +together. The earliest recorded burning of a witch in England is in +Walter Mapes' _De Nugis Curialium_, in the reign of Henry II. An old +black letter tract gloats over the execution at Northampton, 1612, of a +number of persons convicted of witchcraft.[32] The last judicial +sentence was in 1736, when one Jane Wenham was found guilty of +conversing familiarly with the devil in the form of a cat.[33] + +The connection between the witchcraft delusion and the attitude toward +all women has already been implied.[34] The dualistic teaching of the +early church fathers, with its severance of matter and spirit and its +insistence on the ascetic ideal of life, had focussed on sexuality as +the outstanding manifestation of fleshly desires. The contact of the +sexes came to be looked upon as the supreme sin. Celibacy taught that +through the observance of the taboo on woman the man of God was to be +saved from pollution. Woman was the arch temptress who by the natural +forces of sex attraction, reinforced by her evil charms and +incantations, made it so difficult to attain the celibate ideal. From +her ancestress Eve woman was believed to inherit the natural propensity +to lure man to his undoing. Thus the old belief in the uncleanness of +woman was renewed in the minds of men with even greater intensity than +ever before, and in addition to a dangerous adventure, even within the +sanction of wedlock the sex act became a deed of shame. The following +quotations from the church fathers will illustrate this view: + +Jerome said, "Marriage is always a vice; all we can do is to excuse and +cleanse it. ... In Paradise Eve was a virgin. Virginity is natural +while wedlock only follows guilt."[35] + +Tertullian addressed women in these words: "Do you not know that you are +each an Eve? The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age. +... You are the devil's gateway. ... You destroy God's image, +Man."[35: Bk.1.] + +Thus woman became degraded beyond all previous thought in the teaching +of the early church. The child was looked upon as the result of an act +of sin, and came into the world tainted through its mother with sin. At +best marriage was a vice. All the church could do was to cleanse it as +much as possible by sacred rites, an attempt which harked back to the +origin of marriage as the ceremonial breaking of taboo. Peter Lombard's +Sentences affirmed marriage a sacrament. This was reaffirmed at Florence +in 1439. In 1565, the Council of Trent made the final declaration. But +not even this could wholly purify woman, and intercourse with her was +still regarded as a necessary evil, a concession that had to be +unwillingly made to the lusts of the flesh. + +Such accounts as we have of the lives of holy women indicate that they +shared in the beliefs of their times. In the account of the life of a +saint known as the Blessed Eugenia preserved in an old palimpsest[36] we +read that she adopted the costume of a monk,--"Being a woman by nature +in order that I might gain everlasting life." The same account tells of +another holy woman who passed as a eunuch, because she had been warned +that it was easier for the devil to tempt a woman. In another collection +of lives of saints is the story[37] of a holy woman who never allowed +herself to see the face of a man, even that of her own brother, lest +through her he might go in among women. Another holy virgin shut herself +up in a tomb because she did not wish to cause the spiritual downfall of +a young man who loved her. + +This long period of religious hatred of and contempt for woman included +the Crusades, the Age of Chivalry,[38] and lasted well into the +Renaissance.[39] Students of the first thousand years of the Christian +era like Donaldson,[22] McCabe,[40] and Benecke argue that the social +and intellectual position of women was probably lower than at any time +since the creation of the world. It was while the position of woman as +wife and mother was thus descending into the slough which has been +termed the Dark Age of Woman that the Apotheosis of the Blessed Virgin +was accomplished. The attitude toward human love, generation, the +relation of the earthly mother to the human child because of Eve's sin, +all made the Immaculate Conception a logical necessity. The doctrine of +the virgin birth disposed of sin through the paternal line. But if Mary +was conceived in sin or was not purified from sin, even that of the +first parent, how could she conceive in her body him who was without +sin? The controversy over the Immaculate Conception which began as early +as the seventh century lasted until Pius IX declared it to be an article +of Catholic belief in 1854. Thus not only Christ, but also his mother +became purged of the sin of conception by natural biological processes, +and the same immaculacy and freedom from contamination was accorded to +both. In this way the final step in the differentiation between earthly +motherhood and divine motherhood was completed. + +The worship of the virgin by men and women who looked upon the celibate +life as the perfect life, and upon the relationship of earthly +fatherhood and motherhood as contaminating, gave the world an ideal of +woman as "superhuman, immaculate, bowing in frightened awe before the +angel with the lily, standing mute and with downcast eyes before her +Divine Son."[41] With all its admitted beauty, this ideal represented +not the institution of the family, but the institution of the church. +Chivalry carried over from the church to the castle this concept of +womanhood and set it to the shaping of The Lady,[42] who was finally +given a rank in the ideals of knighthood only a little below that to +which Mary had been elevated by the ecclesiastical authorities. This +concept of the lady was the result of the necessity for a new social +standardization which must combine beauty, purity, meekness and angelic +goodness. Only by such a combination could religion and family life be +finally reconciled. By such a combination, earthly motherhood could be +made to approximate the divine motherhood. + +With the decline of the influence of chivalry, probably as the result of +industrial changes, The Lady was replaced by a feminine ideal which may +well be termed the "Model Woman." Although less ethereal than her +predecessor, The Lady, the Model Woman is quite as much an attempt to +reconcile the dualistic attitude, with its Divine Mother cult on the one +hand, and its belief in the essential evil of the procreative process +and the uncleanness of woman on the other, to human needs. The +characteristics of the Model Woman must approximate those of the Holy +Virgin as closely as possible. Her chastity before marriage is +imperative. Her calling must be the high art of motherhood. She must be +the incarnation of the maternal spirit of womanhood, but her purity must +remain unsullied by any trace of erotic passion. + +A voluminous literature which stated the virtues and duties of the +Model Woman blossomed out in the latter part of the eighteenth and first +half of the nineteenth century.[43] The Puritan ideals also embodied +this concept. It was by this attempt to make woman conform to a +standardized ideal that man sought to solve the conflict between his +natural human instincts and desires and the early Christian teaching +concerning the sex life and womanhood. + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER II + +1. Frazer, J.G. The Golden Bough. A Study in Magic and Religion. Part I. +The Magic Art. 2 vols. Macmillan. London, 1911. Part V. Spirits of the +Corn and of the Wild. 2 vols. London, 1912. + +2. Farnell, L.R. Evolution of Religion. 235 pp. Williams and Norgate. +London, 1905. Crown Theological Library, Vol 12. + +3. Frazer, J.G. Part IV. of The Golden Bough; Adonis, Attis, and Osiris. +Chaps. III and IV. Macmillan. London, 1907. + +---- Sumner, W.G. Folkways. 692 pp. Ginn & Co. Boston, 1907. Chap. XVI, +Sacral Harlotry. + +---- Lombroso, Cesare, and Lombroso-Ferrero, G. La donna delinquente. 508 +pp. Fratelli Bocca. Milano, 1915. + +4. Farnell, L.R. Sociological Hypotheses Concerning the Position of +Woman in Ancient Religion. Archiv für Religionswissenschaft. Siebenter +Band, 1904. + +5. Fowler, W. Warde. The Religious Experiences of the Roman People. 504 +pp. Macmillan. London, 1911. + +6. For a description of these sibyls with a list of the works in which +they are mentioned, see: + +---- Fullom, Steven Watson. The History of Woman. Third Ed. London, 1855. + +---- Rohmer, Sax. (Ward, A.S.) The Romance of Sorcery. 320 pp. E.P. +Dutton & Co., New York, 1914. + +7. Maury, L.F. La Magie et L'Astrologie dans l'Antiquité et au Moyen +Age. Quatrieme éd. 484 pp. Paris, 1877. + +8. Lombroso, Cesare. Priests and Women's Clothes. North American Review. +Vol. 192, 1910. + +9. For an extensive compilation of facts from ancient literature and +history concerning sacred women, see: + +---- Alexander, W. History of Women from the Earliest Antiquity to the +Present Time. 2 vols. W. Strahan. London, 1779. + +10. Mason, Otis T. Woman's Share in Primitive Culture. 295 pp. Appleton. +New York, 1894. + +---- Dyer, T.F.S. Plants in Witchcraft. Popular Science Monthly. Vol. 34, +1889, pp. 826-833. + +---- Donaldson, Rev. James. Woman, Her Position and Influence in Ancient +Greece and Rome. 278 pp. Longmans, Green. London, 1907. + +11. Spencer, Herbert. Study of Sociology. 431 pp. Appleton. N.Y., 1880. + +12. Schirmacher, Käthe. Das Rätsel: Weib. 160 pp. A Duncker. Weimar, +1911. + +13. Ward, Lester F. Psychic Factors in Civilization. 369 pp. Ginn & Co., +Boston and New York, 1906. Chap. XXVI. + +---- Pure Sociology. 607 pp. Macmillan. N.Y., 1903. + +14. Schreiner, Olive. Woman and Labour. 299 pp. Frederick A. Stokes Co. +N.Y., 1911. + +15. Hall, G. Stanley. Adolescence. 2 vols. Appleton. N.Y., 1904. + +---- Dupouy, Edmund. Psychologie morbide. Librairie des Sciences +Psychiques, 1907. + +16. The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Translation by the Rev. Alexander Roberts +and James Donaldson, LL.D., and others. American Reprint of the +Edinburgh Edition. Buffalo, 1889. + +17. Hatch, Edwin. Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian +Church. Ed. by A.M. Fairbairn. 4th ed. London, 1892. Hibbert Lectures, +1888. + +18. Gilbert, George Holley. The Greek Strain in Our Oldest Gospels. +North American Review. Vol. 192, 1910. + +19. Hirn, Yrjo. The Sacred Shrine. 574 pp. Macmillan. London, 1912. + +20. Lecky, W.E.H. Rationalism in Europe. 2 vols. Appleton. N.Y. and +London, 1910. Vol. II, pp. 220 f. + +21. Wright, Thomas. Narratives of Sorcery and Magic. 2 vols. R. Bentley. +London, 1851. + +22. Donaldson, Rev. James. The Position of Woman Among the Early +Christians. Contemporary Review. Vol. 56, 1889. + +23. Bingham, Joseph. Antiquities of the Christian Church. 2 vols. +London, 1846. + +24. Sumner, W.G. Witchcraft. Forum. Vol. 41, 1909, pp. 410-423. + +25. Gaster, M. Two Thousand Years of a Charm Against the Child-stealing +Witch. Folklore. Vol. XI, No. 2, June, 1900. + +26. For discussion of the dates of the Church Councils see Rev. Charles +J. Hefele, Councils of the Church. Trans, fr. the German by C.W. Bush, +1883. + +27. Alice Kyteler. A contemporary narrative of the Proceedings against +Dame Alice Kyteler, prosecuted for sorcery by Richard de Ledrede, Bishop +of Ossory, 1324. Edited by Thomas Wright. London, 1843. + +28. Burr, George L. The Literature of Witchcraft. Papers of the American +Historical Association. Vol IV, pp. 37-66. G.P. Putnam's Sons. N.Y., +1890. + +29. Michelet, J. La Sorcière. 488 pp. Paris, 1878. Trans. of +Introduction by L.J. Trotter. + +30. Scherr, Johannes. Deutsche Frauenwelt. Band II. + +31. Avebury, Right Hon. Lord (Sir John Lubbock). Marriage, Totemism and +Religion. 243 pp. Longmans, Green. London, 1911. Footnote, p. 127. + +32. Wood, Wm. Witchcraft. Cornhill Magazine. Vol. V, 1898. + +---- Lea, H.C. Superstition and Force. 407 pp. Philadelphia, 1866. + +33. Bragge, F. Jane Wenham. 36 pp. E. Curll. London 1712. + +34. Paulus, Nikolaus. Die Rolle der Frau in der Geschichte des +Hexenwahns. Historisches Jahrbuch. XXIX Band. München. Jahrgang 1918. + +35. Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian +Church. 2d. series. Vol. 6, Letter xxii, Ad Eustachium. + +36. Studia Sinaitica No. IX. Select Narratives of Holy Women from the +Syro-Antiochene or Sinai Palimpsest as written above the old Syriac +Gospels by John the Stylite, of Beth-Mari Ianun in A.D. 778. Edited by +Agnes Smith Lewis, M.R.A.S. London, 1900. + +37. Lady Meux Mss. No. VI. British Museum. The Book of Paradise, being +the Histories and Sayings of the Monks and Ascetics of the Egyptian +Desert by Palladius, Hieronymus and others. English Trans. by E.A. +Wallis Budge. (From the Syriac.) Vol. I. + +38. Gautier, Emile Théodore Léon. La Chevalerie. 850 pp. C. Delagrave. +Paris, 1890. + +39. Maulde la Clavière, R. de. The Women of the Renaissance. Trans. by +G.H. Ely. 510 pp. Swan Sonnenschein, 1900. + +40. McCabe, Joseph. Woman in Political Evolution. Watts & Co. London, +1909. + +41. Barnes, Earl. Woman in Modern Society. 257 pp. B.W. Huebsch. N.Y., +1913. + +42. Putnam, Emily James. The Lady. 323 pp. Sturgis & Walton Co. N.Y., +1910. + +43. Excellent examples of this literature are Kenrick's "The Whole Duty +of a Woman, or A Guide to the Female Sex," published some time in the +eighteenth century (a copy in the Galatea Collection, Boston Public +Library); and Duties of Young Women, by E.H. Chapin. 218 pp. G.W. +Briggs. Boston, 1848. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE DUALISM IN MODERN LIFE: THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO + +The taboo and modern institutions; Survival of ideas of the uncleanness +of woman; Taboo and the family; The "good" woman; The "bad" woman; +Increase in the number of women who do not fit into the ancient +classifications. + + +With the gradual accumulation of scientific knowledge and increasing +tendency of mankind toward a rationalistic view of most things, it might +be expected that the ancient attitude toward sex and womanhood would +have been replaced by a saner feeling. To some extent this has indeed +been the case. It is surprising, however, to note the traces which the +old taboos and superstitions have left upon our twentieth century social +life. Men and women are becoming conscious that they live in a world +formed out of the worlds that have passed away. The underlying principle +of this social phenomenon has been called the principle of "the +persistence of institutions."[1] Institutionalized habits, mosaics of +reactions to forgotten situations, fall like shadows on the life of +to-day. Memories of the woman shunned, of the remote woman goddess, and +of the witch, transmit the ancient forms by which woman has been +expected to shape her life. + +It may seem a far cry from the savage taboo to the institutional life of +the present; but the patterns of our social life, like the infantile +patterns on which adult life shapes itself, go back to an immemorial +past. Back in the early life of the peoples from which we spring is the +taboo, and in our own life there are customs so analogous to many of +these ancient prohibitions that they must be accounted survivals of old +social habits just as the vestigial structures within our bodies are the +remnants of our biological past. + +The modern preaching concerning woman's sphere, for example, is an +obvious descendant of the old taboos which enforced the division of +labour between the sexes. Just as it formerly was death for a woman to +approach her husband's weapons, so it has for a long time been +considered a disgrace for her to attempt to compete with man in his line +of work. Only under the pressure of modern industrialism and economic +necessity has this ancient taboo been broken down, and even now there is +some reluctance to recognize its passing. The exigencies of the world +war have probably done more than any other one thing to accelerate the +disappearance of this taboo on woman from the society of to-day. + +A modern institution reminiscent of the men's house of the savage races, +where no woman might intrude, is the men's club. This institution, as Mr +Webster has pointed out,[2] is a potent force for sexual solidarity and +consciousness of kind. The separate living and lack of club activity of +women has had much to do with a delay in the development of a sex +consciousness and loyalty. The development of women's organizations +along the lines of the men's clubs has been a powerful factor in +enabling them to overcome the force of the taboos which have lingered on +in social life. Only through united resistance could woman ever hope to +break down the barriers with which she was shut off from the fullness of +life. + +Perhaps the property taboo has been as persistent as any other of the +restrictions which have continued to surround woman through the ages. +Before marriage, the girl who is "well brought up" is still carefully +protected from contact with any male. The modern system of chaperonage +is the substitute for the old seclusion and isolation of the pubescent +girl. Even science was influenced by the old sympathetic magic view that +woman could be contaminated by the touch of any other man than her +husband, for the principle of telegony, that the father of one child +could pass on his characteristics to offspring by other fathers, +lingered in biological teaching until the very recent discoveries of the +physical basis of heredity in the chromosomes. Law-making was also +influenced by the idea of woman as property. For a long time there was a +hesitancy to prohibit wife-beating on account of the feeling that the +wife was the husband's possession, to be dealt with as he desired. The +laws of coverture also perpetuated the old property taboos, and gave to +the husband the right to dispose of his wife's property. + +The general attitude towards such sexual crises as menstruation and +pregnancy is still strongly reminiscent of the primitive belief that +woman is unclean at those times. Mothers still hesitate to enlighten +their daughters concerning these natural biological functions, and as a +result girls are unconsciously imbued with a feeling of shame concerning +them. Modern psychology has given many instances of the rebellion of +girls at the inception of menstruation, for which they have been ill +prepared. There is little doubt that this attitude has wrought untold +harm in the case of nervous and delicately balanced temperaments, and +has even been one of the predisposing factors of neurosis.[3] + +The old seclusion and avoidance of the pregnant woman still persists. +The embarrassment of any public appearance when pregnancy is evident, +the jokes and secrecy which surround this event, show how far we are +from rationalizing this function. + +Even medical men show the influence of old superstitions when they +refuse to alleviate the pains of childbirth on the grounds that they are +good for the mother. Authorities say that instruction in obstetrics is +sadly neglected. A recent United States report tells us that preventable +diseases of childbirth and pregnancy cause more deaths among women than +any other disease except tuberculosis.[4] + +The belief in the possession by woman of an uncanny psychic power which +made her the priestess and witch of other days, has crystallized into +the modern concept of womanly intuition. In our times, women "get +hunches," have "feelings in their bones," etc., about people, or about +things which are going to happen. They are often asked to decide on +business ventures or to pass opinions on persons whom they do not know. +There are shrewd business men who never enter into a serious negotiation +without getting their wives' intuitive opinion of the men with whom they +are dealing. The psychology of behaviour would explain these rapid fire +judgments of women as having basis in observation of unconscious +movements, while another psychological explanation would emphasize +sensitiveness to suggestion as a factor in the process. Yet in spite of +these rational explanations of woman's swift conclusions on matters of +importance, she is still accredited with a mysterious faculty of +intuition. + +A curious instance of the peculiar forms in which old taboos linger on +in modern life is the taboos on certain words and on discussion of +certain subjects. The ascetic idea of the uncleanness of the sex +relation is especially noticeable. A study of 150 girls made by the +writer in 1916-17 showed a taboo on thought and discussion among +well-bred girls of the following subjects, which they characterize as +"indelicate," "polluting," and "things completely outside the knowledge +of a lady." + +1. Things contrary to custom, often called "wicked" and "immoral." + +2. Things "disgusting," such as bodily functions, normal as well as +pathological, and all the implications of uncleanliness. + +3. Things uncanny, that "make your flesh creep," and things suspicious. + +4. Many forms of animal life which it is a commonplace that girls will +fear or which are considered unclean. + +5. Sex differences. + +6. Age differences. + +7. All matters relating to the double standard of morality. + +8. All matters connected with marriage, pregnancy, and childbirth. + +9. Allusions to any part of the body except head and hands. + +10. Politics. + +11. Religion. + +It will be noted that most of these taboo objects are obviously those +which the concept of the Model Woman has ruled out of the life of the +feminine half of the world. + +As might well be expected, it is in the marriage ceremony and the +customs of the family institution that the most direct continuation of +taboo may be found. The early ceremonials connected with marriage, as Mr +Crawley has shown, counteracted to some extent man's ancient fear of +woman as the embodiment of a weakness which would emasculate him. +Marriage acted as a bridge, by which the breach of taboo was expiated, +condoned, and socially countenanced. Modern convention in many forms +perpetuates this concept. Marriage, a conventionalized breach of taboo, +is the beginning of a new family. In all its forms, social, religious, +or legal, it is an accepted exception to the social injunctions which +keep men and women apart under other circumstances. + +The new family as a part of the social order comes into existence +through the social recognition of a relationship which is considered +especially dangerous and can only be recognized by the performance of +elaborate rites and ceremonies. It is taboo for men and women to have +contact with each other. Contact may occur only under ceremonial +conditions, guarded in turn by taboo, and therefore socially recognized. +The girl whose life from puberty on has been carefully guarded by +taboos, passes through the gateway of ceremonial into a new life, which +is quite as carefully guarded. These restrictions and elaborate rituals +which surround marriage and family life may appropriately be termed +institutional taboos. They include the property and division of labour +taboos in the survival forms already mentioned, as well as other +religious and social restrictions and prohibitions. + +The foundations of family life go far back of the changes of recent +centuries. The family has its source in the mating instinct, but this +instinct is combined with other individual instincts and social +relationships which become highly elaborated in the course of social +evolution. The household becomes a complex economic institution. While +the processes of change may have touched the surface of these relations, +the family itself has remained to the present an institution established +through the social sanctions of communities more primitive than our +own. The new family begins with the ceremonial breach of taboo,--the +taboo which enjoins the shunning of woman as a being both sacred and +unclean. Once married, the woman falls under the property taboo, and is +as restricted as ever she was before marriage, although perhaps in +slightly different ways. In ancient Rome, the wife was not mistress of +the hearth. She did not represent the ancestral gods, the lares and +penates, since she was not descended from them. In death as in life she +counted only as a part of her husband. Greek, Roman and Hindu law, all +derived from ancestor worship, agreed in considering the wife a +minor.[5] + +These practices are of the greatest significance in a consideration of +the modern institutional taboos which surround the family. Students +agree that our own mores are in large part derived from those of the +lowest class of freedmen in Rome at the time when Christianity took over +the control which had fallen from the hands of the Roman emperors. These +mores were inherited by the Bourgeoisie of the Middle Ages, and were +passed on by them as they acquired economic supremacy. Thus these +practices have come down to us unchanged in spirit even if somewhat +modified in form, to fit the changed environment of our times. + +The standardization of the family with its foundations embedded in a +series of institutional taboos, added its weight to the formulation of +the Model Woman type referred to at the close of the preceding chapter. +The model wife appears in the earliest literature. In _The Trojan +Women_, Hecuba tells how she behaved in wedlock. She stayed at home and +did not gossip. She was modest and silent before her husband. The +patient Penelope was another ideal wife. To her, her son Telemachus +says: + +"Your widowed hours apart, with female toil, And various labours of the +loom, beguile, There rule, from palace cares remote and free, That care +to man belongs, and most to me." + +The wifely type of the Hebrews is set forth in Proverbs xxxi, 10-31. Her +virtues consisted in rising while it was yet night, and not eating the +bread of idleness. In her relation to her husband, she must never +surprise him by unusual conduct, and must see that he was well fed. + +The Romans, Hindus, and Mohammedans demanded similar virtues in their +wives and mothers. The wives of the medieval period were to remain +little girls, most admired for their passive obedience. Gautier puts +into the mouth of a dutiful wife of the Age of Chivalry the following +soliloquy: + +"I will love no one but my husband. Even if he loves me no longer, I +will love him always. I will be humble and as a servitor. I will call +him my sire, or my baron, or domine..."[6] + +The modern feminine ideal combines the traits demanded by the worship of +the madonna and the virtues imposed by the institutional taboos which +surround the family. She is the virgin pure and undefiled before +marriage. She is the protecting mother and the obedient, faithful wife +afterward. In spite of various disrupting influences which are tending +to break down this concept, and which will presently be discussed, this +is still the ideal which governs the life of womankind. The average +mother educates her daughter to conform to this ideal woman type which +is the synthesized product of ages of taboo and religious mysticism. +Home training and social pressure unite to force woman into the mould +wrought out in the ages when she has been the object of superstitious +fear to man and also a part of his property to utilize as he willed. +Being thus the product of wholly irrational forces, it is little wonder +that only in recent years has she had any opportunity to show what she +in her inmost soul desired, and what capabilities were latent within her +personality. + +In sharp contrast to the woman who conforms to the standards thus +created for her, is the prostitute, who is the product of forces as +ancient as those which have shaped the family institution. In the +struggle between man's instinctive needs and his mystical ideal of +womanhood, there has come about a division of women into two +classes--the good and the bad. It is a demarcation as sharp as that +involved in the primitive taboos which set women apart as sacred or +unclean. In building up the Madonna concept and requiring the women of +his family to approximate this mother-goddess ideal, man made them into +beings too spiritual to satisfy his earthly needs. The wife and mother +must be pure, as he conceived purity, else she could not be respected. +The religious forces which had set up the worship of maternity had +condemned the sex relationship and caused a dissociation of two elements +of human nature which normally are in complete and intimate harmony. One +result of this divorce of two biologically concomitant functions was the +institution of prostitution. + +Prostitution is designed to furnish and regulate a supply of women +outside the mores of the family whose sex shall be for sale, not for +purposes of procreation but for purposes of indulgence. In the ancient +world, temple prostitution was common, the proceeds going to the god or +goddess; but the sense of pollution in the sex relation which came to be +so potent an element in the control of family life drove the prostitute +from the sanctuary to the stews and the brothel, where she lives to-day. +She has become the woman shunned, while the wife and mother who is the +centre of the family with its institutional taboos is the sacred woman, +loved and revered by men who condemn the prostitute for the very act for +which they seek her company. Such is the irrational situation which has +come to us as a heritage from the past. + +Among the chief causes which have impelled women into prostitution +rather than into family life are the following: (1) Slavery; (2) +poverty; (3) inclination. These causes have been expanded and re-grouped +by specialists, but the only addition which the writer sees as necessary +in consequence of the study of taboo is the fact that the way of the +woman transgressor is peculiarly hard because of the sex taboo, the +ignorance and narrowness of good women, and the economic limitations of +all women. Ignorance of the results of entrance into a life which +usually means abandonment of hope may be a contributing cause. Boredom +with the narrowness of family life and desire for adventure are also +influences. + +That sex desire leads directly to the life of the prostitute is +unlikely. The strongly sexed class comes into prostitution by the war of +irregular relationships with men to whom they have been attached, and +who have abandoned them or sold them out. Many authorities agree on the +frigidity of the prostitute. It is her protection from physical and +emotional exhaustion. This becomes evident when it is learned that these +women will receive thirty men a day, sometimes more. A certain original +lack of sensitiveness may be assumed, especially since the +investigations of prostitutes have shown a large proportion, perhaps +one-third, who are mentally inferior. It is an interesting fact that +those who are sensitive to their social isolation defend themselves by +dwelling on their social necessity. Either intuitively or by a trade +tradition, the prostitute feels that "she remains, while creeds and +civilizations rise and fall, blasted for the sins of the people." A +beautiful young prostitute who had been expelled from a high grade house +after the exposures of the Lexow Investigation, once said to the writer: +"It would never do for good women to know what beasts men are. We girls +have got to pay." + +The lady, dwelling on her pedestal of isolation, from which she commands +the veneration of the chivalrous gentleman and the adoration of the +poet, is the product of a leisure assured by property. At the end of the +social scale is the girl who wants to be a lady, who doesn't want to +work, and who, like the lady, has nothing to sell but herself. The life +of the prostitute is the nearest approach for the poor girl to the life +of a lady with its leisure, its fine clothes, and its excitement. So +long as we have a sex ethics into which are incorporated the taboo +concepts, the lady cannot exist without the prostitute. The restrictions +which surround the lady guard her from the passions of men. The +prostitute has been developed to satisfy masculine needs which it is not +permitted the lady to know exist. + +But in addition to the married woman who has fulfilled the destiny for +which she has been prepared and the prostitute who is regarded as a +social leper, there is a large and increasing number of unmarried women +who fall into neither of these classes. For a long time these +unfortunates were forced to take refuge in the homes of their luckier +sisters who had fulfilled their mission in life by marrying, or to adopt +the life of the religieuse. Economic changes have brought an alteration +in their status, however, and the work of the unattached woman is +bringing her a respect in the modern industrial world that the "old +maid" of the past could never hope to receive. + +Although at first often looked upon askance, the working woman by the +sheer force of her labours has finally won for herself a recognized +place in society. This was the first influence that worked against the +old taboos, and made possible the tentative gropings toward a new +standardization of women. The sheer weight of the number of unattached +women in present day life has made such a move a necessity. In England, +at the outbreak of the war, there were 1,200,000 more women than men. It +is estimated that at the end of the war at least 25% of English women +are doomed to celibacy and childlessness. In Germany, the industrial +census of 1907 showed that only 9-1/2 millions of women were married, or +about one-half the total number over eighteen years of age. In the +United States, married women constitute less than 60% of the women +fifteen years of age and over. + +The impossibility of a social system based on the old sex taboos under +the new conditions is obvious. There must be a revaluation of woman on +the basis of her mental and economic capacity instead of on the manner +in which she fits into a system of institutional taboos. But the old +concepts are still with us, and have shaped the early lives of working +women as well as the lives of those who have fitted into the old +grooves. Tenacious survivals surround them both, and are responsible for +many of the difficulties of mental and moral adjustment which make the +woman question a puzzle to both conservative and radical thinkers on the +subject. + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER III + +1. Davis, Michael M. Psychological Interpretations of Society. 260 pp. +Columbia University. Longmans. Green & Co. N.Y., 1909. + +2. Webster, Hutton. Primitive Secret Societies. 227 pp. Macmillan. N.Y., +1908. + +3. Blanchard, Phyllis. The Adolescent Girl. 243 pp. Kegan Paul & Co., +London, 1921. + +---- Peters, Iva L. A Questionnaire Study of Some of the Effects of +Social Restrictions on the American Girl. Pedagogical Seminary, +December, 1916, Vol. XXIII, pp. 550-569. + +4. Report of the U.S. Children's Bureau, 1917. + +5. Fowler, W. Warde. The Religious Experience of the Roman People. 504 +pp. Macmillan. London, 1911. + +---- Fustel de Coulanges, Numa Denis. The Ancient City. Trans. from the +latest French edition by Willard Small. 10th ed. Lee and Shepard. +Boston, 1901. 529 pp. + +6. Gautier, Emile Théodore Léon. La Chevalerie. 850 pp. C. Delagrave. +Paris, 1890. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +DYSGENIC INFLUENCES OF THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO + + +Taboo survivals act dysgenically within the family under present +conditions; Conventional education of girls a dysgenic influence; +Prostitution and the family; Influence of ancient standards of "good" +and "bad." The illegitimate child; Effect of fear, anger, etc., on +posterity; The attitude of economically independent women toward +marriage. + +It is evident that in the working of old taboos as they have been +preserved in our social institutions there are certain dysgenic +influences which may well be briefly enumerated. For surely the test of +the family institution is the way in which it fosters the production and +development of the coming generation. The studies made by the Galton +Laboratory in England and by the Children's Bureau in Washington combine +with our modern knowledge of heredity to show that it is possible to cut +down the potential heritage of children by bad matrimonial choices. If +we are to reach a solution of these population problems, we must learn +to approach the problem of the sex relation without that sense of +uncleanness which has led so many generations to regard marriage as +giving respectability to an otherwise wicked inclination. The task of +devising a sane approach is only just begun. But the menace of +prostitution and of the social diseases has become so great that society +is compelled from an instinct of sheer self-preservation to drag into +the open some of the iniquities which have hitherto existed under cover. + +In the first place, the education of girls, which has been almost +entirely determined by the standardized concepts of the ideal woman, has +left them totally unprepared for wifehood and motherhood, the very +calling which those ideals demand that they shall follow. The whole +education of the girl aims at the concealment of the physiological +nature of men and women. She enters marriage unprepared for the +realities of conjugal life, and hence incapable of understanding either +herself or her husband. When pregnancy comes to such a wife, the old +seclusion taboos fall upon her like a categorical imperative. She is +overwhelmed with embarrassment at a normal and natural biological +process which can hardly be classified as "romantic." Such an attitude +is neither conducive to the eugenic choice of a male nor to the proper +care of the child either before or after its birth. + +A second dysgenic influence which results from the taboo system of +sexual ethics is the institution of prostitution, the great agency for +the spread of venereal disease through the homes of the community, and +which takes such heavy toll from the next generation in lowered vitality +and defective organization. + +The 1911 report of the Committee on the Social Evil in Baltimore showed +that at the time there was in that city one prostitute to every 500 +inhabitants. As is the case everywhere, such statistics cover only +prostitutes who have been detected. Hospital and clinic reports for +Baltimore gave 9,450 acute cases of venereal disease in 1906 as compared +with 575 cases of measles, 1,172 cases of diphtheria, 577 of scarlet +fever, 175 of chickenpox, 58 of smallpox and 733 cases of tuberculosis. + +Statistics on the health of young men shown by the physical examinations +of the various draft boards throughout the country give us a more +complete estimate of the prevalence of venereal disease among the +prospective fathers of the next generation than any other figures for +the United States. In an article in the _New York Medical Journal_ for +February 2, 1918, Dr. Isaac W. Brewer of the Medical Reserve Corps +presents tables showing the percentage of rejections for various +disabilities among the applicants for enlistment in the regular army +from January 1, 1912, to December 31, 1915. Among 153,705 white and +11,092 coloured applicants, the rejection rate per 1,000 for venereal +disease was 196.7 for whites and 279.9 for coloured as against 91.3 for +whites and 75.0 for coloured for heart difficulties, next on the list. +In foreshadowing the results under the draft, Dr. Brewer says: "Venereal +disease is the greatest cause for rejection, and reports from the +cantonments where the National Army has assembled indicate that a large +number of the men had these diseases when they arrived at the camp. It +is probably true that venereal diseases cause the greatest amount of +sickness in our country." + +Statistics available for conditions among the American Expeditionary +Forces must be treated with great caution. Detection of these diseases +at certain stages is extremely difficult. Because of the courtesy +extended to our men by our allies, cases were treated in French and +English hospitals of which no record is available. But it is fairly safe +to say that there was no such prevalence of disease as was shown by the +Exner Report to have existed on the Mexican Border. It may even be +predicted that the education in hygienic measures which the men received +may in time affect favourably the health of the male population and +through them their wives and children. But all who came in contact with +this problem in the army know that it is a long way to the +understanding of the difficulties involved before we approach a +solution. We do know, on the basis of the work, of Neisser, Lesser, +Forel, Flexner and others, that regulation and supervision seem to +increase the incidence of disease. Among the reasons for this are: (1) +difficulties of diagnosis; (2) difficulties attendant on the +apprehension and examination of prostitutes; (3) the infrequency of +examination as compared with the number of clients of these women; and +perhaps as important as any of these reasons is the false sense of +security involved. + +The model woman of the past has known very little of the prostitute and +venereal disease. It is often stated that her moral safety has been +maintained at the expense of her fallen and unclean sister. But such +statements are not limited as they should be by the qualification that +her moral safety obtained in such a fashion is often at the expense of +her physical safety. If the assumption has a basis in fact that there is +a relation between prostitution and monogamic marriage, the complexity +of the problem becomes evident. It is further complicated by the +postponement of marriage from economic reasons, hesitation at the +assumption of family responsibilities at a time of life when ambition as +well as passion is strong, when the physiological functions are +stimulated by city life and there is constant opportunity for relief of +repression for a price. It is here that the demarcation between the +man's and the woman's world shows most clearly. It may well be that the +only solution of this problem is through the admission of a new +factor--the "good" woman whom taboo has kept in ignorance of a problem +that is her own. If it be true that the only solution for the double +standard whose evils show most plainly here is a new single standard +which has not yet been found, then it is high time that we find what +that standard is to be, for the sake of the future. + +The third dysgenic influence which works under cover of the +institutional taboo is akin to the first in its ancient standards of +"good" and "bad." We are only recently getting any standards for a good +mother except a man's choice and a wedding ring. Men's ideals of +attractiveness greatly complicate the eugenic situation. A good +matchmaker, with social backing and money, can make a moron more +attractive than a pushing, energetic girl with plenty of initiative, +whose contribution to her children would be equal or superior to that of +her mate. A timid, gentle, pretty moron, with the attainment of a girl +of twelve years, will make an excellent match, and bring into the world +children who give us one of the reasons why it is "three generations +from shirt-sleeves to shirt-sleeves." For such a girl, the slave to +convention, exactly fits the feminine ideal which man has built up for +himself. And she will be a good wife and mother in the conventional +sense all her life. This following of an ideal feminine type conceived +in irrational processes in former days inclines men to marry women with +inferior genetic possibilities because they meet the more insistent +surface requirements. The heritage of our children is thus cut down, and +many a potential mother of great men remains unwed. + +The same survival of ancient sex taboos is seen in the attitude toward +the illegitimate child. The marriage ceremony is by its origin and by +the forms of its perpetuation the only sanction for the breaking of the +taboo on contact between men and women. The illegitimate child, the +visible symbol of the sin of its parents, is the one on whom most +heavily falls the burden of the crime. Society has for the most part +been utterly indifferent to the eugenic value of the child and has +concerned itself chiefly with the manner of its birth. Only the +situation arising out of the war and the need of the nations for men has +been able to partially remedy this situation. + +The taboos on illegitimacy in the United States have been less affected +by the practical population problems growing out of war conditions than +those of other countries. As compared with the advanced stands of the +Scandinavian countries, the few laws of progressive states look +painfully inadequate. Miss Breckinridge writes:[1] + +"The humiliating and despised position of the illegitimate child need +hardly be pointed out. He was the son of nobody, filius nullius, without +name or kin so far as kinship meant rights of inheritance or of +succession. In reality this child of nobody did in a way belong to his +mother as the legitimate child never did in common law, for, while the +right of the unmarried mother to the custody of the child of her shame +was not so noble and dignified a thing as the right of the father to the +legitimate child, she had in fact a claim, at least so long as the child +was of tender years, not so different from his and as wide as the sky +from the impotence of the married mother. The contribution of the father +has been secured under conditions shockingly humiliating to her, in +amounts totally inadequate to her and the child's support. In Illinois, +$550 over 5 years; Tennessee, $40 the first year, $30 the second, $20 +the third. (See studies of the Boston Conference on Illegitimacy, +September, 1914, p. 47.) Moreover, the situation was so desperate that +physicians, social workers and relatives have conspired to save the +girl's respectability at the risk of the child's life and at the cost of +all spiritual and educative value of the experience of motherhood. This +has meant a greatly higher death rate among illegitimate infants, a +higher crime and a higher dependency rate." + +The fifth of the dysgenic influences which has been fostered by the +institutional taboo is uncovered by recent studies of the effect of +certain emotions on the human organism. The life of woman has long been +shadowed by the fact that she has been the weaker sex; that even when +strong she has been weighted by her child; and that throughout the +period of private property she has been the poor sex, dependent on some +male for her support. In an age of force, fear has been her strong +emotion. If she felt rage it must be suppressed. Disappointment and +discouragement had also to be borne in silence and with patience. Of +such a situation Davies says: + +"The power of the mind over the body is a scientific fact, as is +evidenced by hypnotic suggestion and in the emotional control over the +chemistry of health through the agency of the internal secretions. The +reproductive processes are very susceptible to chemic influences. Thus +the influences of the environment may in some degree carry through to +the offspring."[2] + +The studies of Drs Crile and Cannon show that the effects of fear on the +ganglionic cells are tremendous. Some of the cells are exhausted and +completely destroyed by intensity and duration of emotion. Cannon's +experiments on animals during fear, rage, anger, and hunger, show that +the entire nervous system is involved and that internal and external +functions change their normal nature and activity. The thyroid and +adrenal glands are deeply affected. In times of intense emotion, the +thyroid gland throws into the system products which cause a quickened +pulse, rapid respiration, trembling, arrest of digestion, etc. When the +subjects of experiments in the effect of the emotions of fear, rage, +etc., are examined, it is found that the physical development, +especially the sexual development, is retarded. Heredity, age, sex, the +nervous system of the subject, and the intensity and duration of the +shock must all have consideration. Griesinger, Amard and Daguin +emphasize especially the results of pain, anxiety and shock, claiming +that they are difficult or impossible to treat. + +To the bride brought up under the old taboos, the sex experiences of +early married life are apt to come as a shock, particularly when the +previous sex experiences of her mate have been gained with women of +another class. Indeed, so deeply has the sense of shame concerning the +sexual functions been impressed upon the feminine mind that many wives +never cease to feel a recurrent emotion of repugnance throughout the +marital relationship. Especially would this be intensified in the case +of sexual intercourse during the periods of gestation and lactation, +when the girl who had been taught that the sexual functions existed only +in the service of reproduction would see her most cherished illusions +rudely dispelled. The effect of this long continued emotional state with +its feeling of injury upon the metabolism of the female organism would +be apt to have a detrimental effect upon the embryo through the blood +supply, or upon the nursing infant through the mother's milk. There can +be no doubt that anxiety, terror, etc., affect the milk supply, and +therefore the life of the child. + +The sixth dysgenic effect of the control by taboos is the rebellion of +economically independent women who refuse motherhood under the only +conditions society leaves open to them. The statistics in existence, +though open to criticism, indicate that the most highly trained women in +America are not perpetuating themselves.[3] Of the situation in England, +Bertrand Russell said in 1917: "If an average sample were taken out of +the population of England, and their parents were examined, it would be +found that prudence, energy, intellect and enlightenment were less +common among the parents than in the population in general; while +shiftlessness, feeble-mindedness, stupidity and superstition were more +common than in the population in general ... Mutual liberty is making +the old form of marriage impossible while a new form is not yet +developed."[4] + +It must be admitted that to-day marriage and motherhood are subject to +economic penalties. Perhaps one of the best explanations of the strength +of the present struggle for economic independence among women is the +fact that a commercial world interested in exchange values had refused +to properly evaluate their social contribution. A new industrial system +had taken away one by one their "natural" occupations. In the modern +man's absorption in the life of a great industrial expansion, home life +has been less insistent in its claims. His slackening of interest and +attention, together with the discovery of her usefulness in industry, +may have given the woman of initiative her opportunity to slip away from +her ancient sphere into a world where her usefulness in other fields +than that of sex has made her a different creature from the model woman +of yesterday. These trained and educated women have hesitated to face +the renunciations involved in a return to the home. The result has been +one more factor in the lessening of eugenic motherhood, since it is +necessarily the less strong who lose footing and fall back on marriage +for support. These women wage-earners who live away from the traditions +of what a woman ought to be will have a great deal of influence in the +changed relations of the sexes. The answer to the question of their +relation to the family and to a saner parenthood is of vital importance +to society. + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER IV + +1. Breckinridge, Sophonisba P. Social Control of Child Welfare. +Publications of the American Sociological Society. Vol. XII, p. 23 f. + +2. Davies, G.R. Social Environment. 149 pp. A.C. McClurg & Co., Chicago, +1917. + +3. Popenoe, Paul. Eugenics and College Education. School and Society, +pp. 438-441. Vol. VI. No. 146. + +4. Russell, Bertrand. Why Men Fight. 272 pp. The Century Co., N.Y., +1917. + + + + +PART III + +THE SEX PROBLEM IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY + +BY + +PHYLLIS BLANCHARD, PH.D. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +SEX IN TERMS OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY + + +Bearing of modern psychology on the sex problem; Conditioning of the +sexual impulse; Vicarious expression of the sexual impulse; Unconscious +factors of the sex life; Taboo control has conditioned the natural +biological tendencies of individuals to conform to arbitrary standards +of masculinity and femininity; Conflict between individual desires and +social standards. + + +An adequate treatment of the sex problem in society must necessarily +involve a consideration of the sexual impulse in the individual members +of that society. Recent psychological research, with its laboratory +experiments and studies of pathology has added a great deal of +information at this point. The lately acquired knowledge of the warping +effect of the environment upon the native biological endowment of the +individual by means of the establishment of conditioned reflexes, the +discovery that any emotion which is denied its natural motor outlet +tends to seek expression through some vicarious activity, and the +realization of the fundamental importance of the unconscious factors in +shaping emotional reactions,--such formulations of behaviouristic and +analytic psychology have thrown a great deal of light upon the nature +of the individual sex life. + +There are certain modifications of the erotic life which are explicable +only when we recollect that under environmental influences situations +which originally did not call up an emotional response come later to do +so. This fact, which was first noted by Setchenov, was experimentally +demonstrated by Pavlov and his students.[7] They found that when some +irrelevant stimulus, such as a musical tone or a piece of coloured paper +was presented to a dog simultaneously with its food for a sufficiently +long period, the presentation of the tone or paper alone finally caused +the same flow of saliva that the food had originally evoked. The +irrelevant stimulus was named a _food sign_, and the involuntary motor +response of salivary secretion was called a _conditioned reflex_ to +differentiate it from the similar response to the biologically adequate +stimulus of food, which was termed an _unconditioned reflex_. + +"The significance of the conditioned reflex is simply this, that an +associated stimulus brings about a reaction; and this associated +stimulus may be from any receptor organ of the body; and it may be +formed of course not merely in the laboratory by specially devised +experiments, but by association in the ordinary environment."[1] Thus it +is evident that the formation of conditioned reflexes takes place in +all fields of animal and human activity. + +Watson has recently stated that a similar substitution of one stimulus +for another occurs in the case of an emotional reaction as well as at +the level of the simple physiological reflex response.[8] This means +that when an emotionally exciting object stimulates the subject +simultaneously with one not emotionally exciting, the latter may in time +(or even after one joint stimulation) arouse the same emotional response +as the former. Kempf considers this capacity of the emotion to become +thus conditioned to other than the original stimuli "of the utmost +importance in determining the selections and aversions throughout life, +such as mating, habitat, friends, enemies, vocations, professions, +religious and political preferences, etc."[5] + +Just as Pavlov and his followers found that almost anything could become +a food sign, so the study of neurotics has shown that the sexual emotion +can be fixed upon almost any love object. For example, a single +characteristic of a beloved person (e.g.,--eye colour, smile posture, +gestures) can become itself a stimulus to evoke the emotional response +originally associated only with that person. Then it happens that the +affection may centre upon anyone possessing similar traits. In most +psychological literature, this focussing of the emotion upon some +particular characteristic is termed _fetishism_, and the stimulus which +become capable of arousing the conditioned emotional response is called +an _erotic fetish_. In extreme cases of fetishism, the sexual emotions +can only be aroused in the presence of the particular fetish involved. +Krafft-Ebing[6] and other psychopathologists describe very abnormal +cases of erotic fetishism in which some inanimate object becomes +entirely dissociated from the person with whom it was originally +connected, so that it serves exclusively as a love object in itself, and +prevents a normal emotional reaction to members of the opposite sex. + +The development of romantic love has depended to a great extent upon the +establishment of a wide range of stimuli capable of arousing the erotic +impulses. As Finck has pointed out, this romantic sentiment is +inseparable from the ideals of personal beauty.[3] As criteria of beauty +he lists such characteristics as well-shaped waist, rounded bosom, full +and red underlip, small feet, etc., all of which have come to be +considered standards of loveliness because the erotic emotion has been +conditioned to respond to their stimulation. Literature is full of +references to such marks of beauty in its characters (_Jane Eyre_ is +almost the only well-known book with a plain heroine), and is therefore +one of the potent factors in establishing a conditioned emotional +reaction to these stimuli. + +The erotic impulse may have its responses conditioned in many other ways +than the building up of erotic fetishes. Kempf has observed that the +affective reactions of the individual are largely conditioned by the +unconscious attitudes of parents, friends, enemies and teachers. For +instance, one boy is conditioned to distrust his ability and another to +have confidence in his powers by the attitude of the parents. Similarly, +the daughter whose mother is abnormally prudish about sexual functions +will surely be conditioned to react in the same manner towards her own +sexual functions, unless conditioned to react differently by the +influence of another person.[5] Through the everyday associations in the +social milieu, therefore, the erotic impulse of an individual may become +modified in almost any manner. + +Just as an emotional reaction may become conditioned to almost any other +stimulus than the one which originally called it forth, so there is a +tendency for any emotion to seek a vicarious outlet whenever its natural +expression is inhibited. Were any member of the group to give free play +to his affective life he would inevitably interfere seriously with the +freedom of the other members. But the fear of arousing the disapproval +of his fellows, which is rooted in man's gregarious nature, inhibits the +tendency to self-indulgence. "A most important factor begins to exert +pressure upon the infant at birth and continues throughout its life," +says Kempf. "It is the incessant, continuous pressure of the herd ... to +conventionalize its methods of acquiring the gratification of its +needs."[5] The emotions thus denied a natural outlet seek other channels +of activity which have received the sanction of social approval. + +It is obvious that the rigid social regulations concerning sexual +activities must enforce repression of the erotic impulses more +frequently than any others. The love which is thus denied its biological +expression transmutes itself into many forms. It may reach out to +envelop all humanity, and find a suitable activity in social service. It +may be transformed into the love of God, and find an outlet in the +religious life of the individual. Or it may be expressed only in +language, in which case it may stop at the stage of erotic fantasy and +day-dream, or may result in some really great piece of poetry or prose. +This last outlet is so common that our language is full of symbolic +words and phrases which have a hidden erotic meaning attached to them. + +According to Watson, the phenomena seen in this tendency of emotions +inhibited at one point to seek other outlets are too complex to be +explained on the basis of conditioned reflex responses. All that we can +say at present is that too great emotional pressure is drained off +through whatever channel environmental and hereditary factors make +possible.[8] This vicarious mode of expression may become habitual, +however, and interfere with a return to natural activities in a manner +analogous to that in which the development of the erotic fetish often +prevents the normal reaction to the original stimulus. + +Because the conditioned emotional reactions and substitutions of +vicarious motor outlets take place at neurological and physiological +levels outside the realm of consciousness, they are called unconscious +activities of the organism. There are many other unconscious factors +which also modify the sex life of the human individual. The most +fundamental of these are the impressions and associations of the infancy +period, which may well be classed as conditioned reflex mechanisms, but +are sufficiently important to receive separate consideration. + +It is generally conceded by students of child psychology that the social +reactions of the child are conditioned by the home environment in which +the earliest and most formative years of its life are passed. It is not +surprising, therefore, that the ideal of the opposite sex which the boy +or girl forms at this time should approximate the mother or father, +since they are the persons best loved and most frequently seen. The +ideals thus established in early childhood are very often the +unconscious influences which determine the choice of a mate in adult +life. Or the devotion to the parent may be so intense as to prevent the +transference of the love-life to another person and thus entirely +prohibit the entrance upon the marital relation. Elida Evans has given +some very convincing cases in illustration of these points in her recent +book, "The Problem of the Nervous Child."[2] + +On the other hand, in those unfortunate cases where the father or mother +is the object of dislike, associations may be formed which will be so +persistent as to prevent the normal emotional reaction to the opposite +sex in later years. This, too, results in the avoidance of marriage and +the establishment of vicarious outlets for the sexual emotions, or less +often in homosexual attachments or perversions of the sex life. +Conditioned emotional reactions such as these play a dominant role in +the social problem of sex, as will become apparent in succeeding +chapters. + +In addition to the influences which naturally act to condition the +original sexual endowment of the individual, there are artificial forces +which still further qualify it. The system of taboo control which +society has always utilized in one form or another as a means of +regulating the reproductive activities of its members, has set up +arbitrary ideals of masculinity and femininity to which each man and +woman must conform or else forfeit social esteem. The feminine standard +thus enforced has been adequately described in Part II of this study. Dr +Hinkle has also described this approved feminine type, as well as the +contrasting masculine ideal which embodies the qualities of courage, +aggressiveness, and other traditional male characteristics. From her +psychoanalytic practice, Dr Hinkle concludes that men and women do not +in reality conform to these arbitrarily fixed types by native biological +endowment, but that they try to shape their reactions in harmony with +these socially approved standards in spite of their innate tendencies to +variation.[4] + +The same conclusion might be arrived at theoretically on the grounds of +the recent biological evidence of intersexuality discussed in Part I, +which implies that there are no absolute degrees of maleness and +femaleness. If there are no 100% males and females, it is obvious that +no men and women will entirely conform to ideals of masculine and +feminine perfection. + +In addition to the imposition of these arbitrary standards of +masculinity and femininity, society has forced upon its members +conformity to a uniform and institutionalized type of sexual +relationship. This institutionalized and inflexible type of sexual +activity, which is the only expression of the sexual emotion meeting +with social approval, not only makes no allowance for biological +variations, but takes even less into account the vastly complex and +exceedingly different conditionings of the emotional reactions of the +individual sex life. The resulting conflict between the individual +desires and the standards imposed by society has caused a great deal of +disharmony in the psychic life of its members. The increasing number of +divorces and the modern tendency to celibacy are symptomatic of the +cumulative effect of this fundamental psychic conflict. + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER I + +1. Burnham, W.H. Mental Hygiene and the Conditioned Reflex. Ped. Sem. +Vol. XXIV, Dec, 1917, pp. 449-488. + +2. Evans, Elida. The Problem of the Nervous Child. Kegan Paul & Co., +London, 1920. + +3. Finck, H.T. Romantic Love and Personal Beauty. Macmillan, N.Y., 1891. + +4. Hinkle, Beatrice M. On the Arbitrary Use of the Terms "Masculine" and +"Feminine." Psychoanalyt. Rev. Vol. VII, No. 1, Jan., 1920, pp. 15-30. + +5. Kempf, E.J. The Tonus of the Autonomic Segments as Causes of +Abnormal Behaviour. Jour. Nerv. & Ment. Disease, Jan., 1920, pp. 1-34. + +6. Krafft-Ebing, R. Psychopathia Sexualis. Fuchs, Stuttgart, 1907. + +7. Pavlov, J.P. L'excitation Psychique des Glandes Salivaires. Jour de +Psychologie, 1910, No. 2, pp. 97-114. + +8. Watson, J.B. Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviourist. +Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1919. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +HOW OUR INSTITUTIONS FIT INDIVIDUAL SEX PSYCHOLOGY + + +Social institutions controlling sex activities based on the assumption +that _all_ women are adapted to as well as specialized for reproduction; +Neurotic tendencies which unfit women for marriage--the desire for +domination; Sexual anæsthesia another neurotic trait which interferes +with marital harmony; The conditioning of the sexual impulse to the +parent ideal and the erotic fetish as factors which determine mating; +Homosexual tendencies and their part in the sex problem; The conflict +between the desire for marriage and egoistic ambitions; The social +regulations from the viewpoint of individual psychology. + + +The institutionalized forms of social control into which the old sex +taboos have developed impose upon all members of the group a uniform +type of sexual relationship. These socially enforced standards which +govern the sex life are based upon the assumption that men and women +conform closely to the masculine and feminine ideals of tradition. The +emphasis is much more strongly placed on feminine conformity, however; +a great many sexual activities are tolerated in the male that would be +unsparingly condemned in the female. Thus the sex problem becomes in +large measure a woman's problem, not only because of her peculiar +biological specialization for reproduction, which involves an enormous +responsibility but also because her life has for so many generations +been hedged in by rigid institutionalized taboos and prohibitions. + +The traditional conception of marriage and the family relation implies +that all women are adapted to as well as specialized for motherhood. In +reality, if the biological evidence of intersexuality be as conclusive +as now appears, there are many women who by their very nature are much +better adapted to the activities customarily considered as pre-eminently +masculine, although they are still specialized for childbearing. There +is no statistical evidence of any high correlation between the sexual +and maternal impulses. Indeed, a great many traits of human behaviour +seem to justify the inference that these two tendencies may often be +entirely dissociated in the individual life. Dr Blair Bell (as noted in +Part I, Chapter III) believes that it is possible to differentiate women +possessing a maternal impulse from those lacking such tendencies by the +very anatomical structure. It is obvious that a woman endowed with a +strong erotic nature requires a kind of sexual relationship different +from one whose interests are predominantly in her children. And both the +sexual and maternal types require different situations than the woman +who combines the two instincts in her own personality for a normal +expression of their emotional life. + +According to social tradition, sexual activity (at least in the case of +women) is to be exercised primarily for the reproduction of the group. +Thus the institutions of marriage and the family in their present form +provide only for the woman who possesses both the sexual and maternal +cravings. Contraceptive knowledge has enabled a small number of women +(which is rapidly growing larger) to fit into these institutions in +spite of their lack of a desire for motherhood. There have been a few +hardy theorists who have braved convention to the extent of suggesting +the deliberate adoption of unmarried motherhood by women who are +consumed by the maternal passion but have no strongly erotic nature. +Whether their problem will be solved in this manner, only the course of +social evolution in the future can show. + +Besides the differences in natural instinctive tendencies which make it +difficult for many women to fit into a uniform type of sexual +relationship, modern society, with its less rigid natural selection, +has permitted the survival of many neurotic temperaments which find +marriage a precarious venture. The neurotic constitution, as Adler[1,2] +has pointed out, is an expression of underlying structural or functional +organic deficiency. It is a physiological axiom that whenever one organ +of the body, because of injury, disease, etc., becomes incapable of +properly discharging its functions, its duties are taken over by some +other organ or group of organs. This process of organic compensation, +whereby deficiency in one part of the body is atoned for by additional +labours of other parts, necessarily involves the nervous mechanism in +ways which need not be discussed in detail here. + +In children the process of compensation, with its formation of new +nervous co-ordinations, is manifest in the inability to cope with their +companions who have a better biological endowment. This gives rise to a +feeling of inferiority from which the child tries to free itself by +every possible means, ordinarily by surpassing in the classroom the +playmates whom it cannot defeat on the playground. The feeling of +inferiority continues throughout life, however, although the mechanism +of physiological compensation may have become so perfected that the +functioning of the organism is quite adequate to the needs of the +environment. As a result, the ruling motive of the conduct becomes the +desire to release the personality from this torturing sense of inability +by a constant demonstration of the power to control circumstances or to +dominate associates. + +This abnormal will to power finds expression in the marital relationship +in the desire for supremacy over the mate. The domineering husband is a +familiar figure in daily life. The wife who finds it more difficult to +rule her husband by sheer mastery achieves the same ends by developing a +fit of hysterical weeping or having a nervous headache when denied her +own way in family affairs. + +By far the easiest way for the woman to satisfy her craving for power is +the development of an interesting illness which makes her the centre of +attention. The history of nervous disease furnishes many cases of +neurosis where this uncontrollable longing for domination is the chief +factor in the etiology of the illness. It is not at all unusual to meet +wives who hold their husbands subservient to every whim because of +"delicate nervous organizations" which are upset at the slightest +thwarting of their wishes so that they develop nervous headaches, +nervous indigestion, and many other kinds of sickness unless their +preferences meet with the utmost consideration. This tendency often +becomes a chronic invalidism, which, at the same time that it brings +the longed-for attention, incapacitates the individual for sexual and +maternal activities and makes the married life an abnormal and unhappy +one. + +Another more or less neurotic trait which acts as a cause of disharmony +in the marital relationship is the sexual anæsthesia which is not at all +uncommon in modern women. The absence of any erotic passion is held to +be a matter of physiological makeup by many authorities, but it is +probably more often due to the inhibition of natural tendencies in +accordance with concepts built up by social tradition. In order to +understand how social suggestion can have so powerful an effect upon the +reactions of the individual, we must revert once more to the principles +of behaviouristic psychology. + +According to Watson,[4] whenever the environmental factors are such that +a direct expression of an emotion cannot occur, the individual has to +have recourse to implicit motor attitudes. The best example in everyday +life is probably seen in the case of anger, which can seldom be +permitted to find an outlet in the natural act of striking, etc. It is +apparent, however, in the facial expression and in a certain muscular +posture which can best be described as a "defiant" attitude. Another +good example is the submissive attitude which often accompanies the +emotion of fear. It is manifest in shrinking, avoiding movements, +sometimes of the whole body, but more often of the eyes or some other +special organ. + +"In the sphere of love," Watson remarks, "there are numerous attitudes +as shown by the popular expressions lovelorn, lovesick, tenderness, +sympathy. More fundamental and prominent attitudes are those of shyness, +shame, embarrassment, jealousy, envy, hate, pride, suspicion, +resentment, anguish, and anxiety."[4] + +The significant fact is that these attitudes function by limiting the +range of stimuli to which the person is sensitive. The attitude of shame +concerning their sexual functions, which has been impressed upon women +as a result of ages of thinking in harmony with taboo standards, thus is +able to prevent the normal biological response to a situation which +should call out the emotions of love. In women who have an unstable +nervous system this shameful feeling often results in a definite +physiological shrinking from the physical manifestations of sexuality +and renders the individual insensitive to all erotic stimulation. + +This attitude of shame in connection with the love life came into +existence as a socially conditioned emotional reaction set up under the +influence of the traditional ideal of the "model woman" who was pictured +as a being of unearthly purity and immaculacy. It has been passed on +from generation to generation through an unconscious conditioning of the +daughter's attitude by suggestion and imitation to resemble that of the +mother. Thus it happens that although an increasing amount of liberty, +both social and economic, and a more rational and scientific +understanding of the womanly nature, have quite revoked this ideal in +theory, in actual practice it still continues to exert its inhibitory +and restrictive influence. + +Because the standardized family relationship involves so much more +radical a readjustment in the life of woman than of man, it has almost +always been the feminine partner who has taken refuge in neurotic +symptoms in order to escape the difficulties of the situation. After the +marriage ceremony, the man's life goes on much as before, so far as his +social activities are concerned, but woman takes up the new duties +connected with the care of the home and her child-bearing functions. +Moreover, the sexual life of woman is in many ways more complex than +that of man. She has been subjected to more repressions and inhibitions, +and as a result there has been more modification of her emotional +reactions in the field of love. This greater complexity of her love life +makes adaptation to marriage more problematical in the case of woman. + +Although the neurotic tendencies of modern women have been an important +factor for the production of disharmony in the family life, there are +certain variations of the individual sex life which are more universally +significant. The conditioned emotional reactions which environmental +influences have built up around the sexual impulse of each member of +society invariably determine the choice of the mate and give rise to +extremely complicated problems by the very nature of the selective +process. It is largely a matter of chance whether the mate chosen in +accordance with the ideals of romantic love and because of some +fascinating trait which acts as an erotic fetish or in conformity with a +parental fixation will prove a congenial companion through life. + +But the complexity of the situation lies in the fact that the erotic +impulses may become conditioned to respond to an indefinite number of +substituted stimuli. For example, the parental fixation may become +reconditioned by focussing upon some special characteristic of the +father or mother, which becomes an erotic fetish. If the mate is +selected on the basis of this fetishistic attraction, he (or she) may +prove to be so unlike the parent in other respects as to lose all the +affection which was originally inspired. A concrete illustration of +these conflicting emotional reactions is the case of the girl who +declared that she feared her fiancé as much as she loved him, but felt +that she must marry him nevertheless. An investigation showed that her +almost compulsive feeling about her lover was due to the fact that his +gestures and manner of regarding her, in fact his whole bearing, +reminded her of her dead father, while in other respects he was totally +repugnant to her because his character traits were so far removed from +those of her father ideal. + +The conflict between the parental ideal and other phases of the sexual +impulse is even more pronounced in men than in women, for two reasons. +In the first place, the mother plays by far the largest part in the life +of her children, so that the son's fixation upon her is necessarily more +intense than the daughter's affection for the father. Yet on the other +hand, the sexual desire of the male is more easily aroused than that of +the female, and is more apt to centre upon some member of the opposite +sex who possesses certain physical attractiveness but is not at all like +the mother ideal. Thus it happens that men often enshrine on their +hearthstone the woman who approximates the worshipped mother, while they +seek satisfaction for their erotic needs outside the home. In other +words, in the masculine psyche there is often a dissociation of the +sexual impulse in its direct manifestations and the sentiment of love in +its more idealistic aspects. This partially explains the fact that it +is possible for a man to be "unfaithful" to his wife while actually +loving her devotedly all the time. + +A different solution of the unconscious conflict between the mother +fixation and the sexual desires at lower levels is seen in those cases +in which the man impulsively marries the woman who has this transient +attraction for him. When the first passion of such an alliance has worn +away, there is no lasting bond to take its place, and the man must find +solace in some such way as an intimate friendship with a woman who +recalls the maternal impressions of his childhood. A famous example of +this is found in the beautiful affection of Auguste Comte for his +idolized Clotilde de Vaux. Although Comte was bound to a woman whom he +had married in the flush of erotic desire and whom he found entirety +uncongenial, Clotilde became the inspiration of his later life, and held +his affection without the aid of any material bond because she so +closely resembled the dead mother whom he adored.[3] + +It is evident that the selection of a mate who is erotically attractive, +but proves to be very similar to a parent who was disliked instead of +loved, is as unfortunate as the choice of a partner who is utterly +unlike a beloved father or mother. Indeed, when all the possible +complications are clearly visualized, taking into account the numerous +ways in which the sexual emotions can be modified, it is plain that +these unconscious factors which determine the choice of a mate are not +always conducive to a happy married life. + +Quite recently the tendency to homosexuality has been emphasized as an +important factor in the psychological problem of sex. At the +International Conference of Medical Women (New York, 1919) it was stated +that homosexual fixations among women are a frequent cause of female +celibacy and divorce. This view was upheld by such authorities as Dr. +Constance Long of England, and other prominent women physicians. +Although a certain percentage of female homosexuality is congenital, it +is probable that by far the largest part is due to a conditioning of the +sexual impulse by the substitution of members of the same sex as the +erotic stimulus in place of the normal response to the opposite sex. + +This substitution is facilitated by certain facts in the social life of +women. The frequent lack of opportunity to be with men during adolescent +school days, and a certain amount of taboo on male society for the +unmarried woman, are in direct favour of the establishment of homosexual +reactions. There is also an increasing sex antagonism, growing out of +woman's long struggle for the privilege of participating in activities +and sharing prerogatives formerly limited to men, which acts as an +inhibitory force to prevent the transference of the sexual emotion to +its normal object in the opposite sex. Moreover, the entrance of woman +into a manner of living and lines of activity which have heretofore been +exclusively masculine, has brought out certain character traits which in +other times would have been repressed as incompatible with the social +standards of feminine conduct, but which are conducive to the formation +of homosexual attachments, since the qualities admired in men can now be +found also in women. + +In this connection the term _homosexuality_ is used very loosely to +denote any type of emotional fixation upon members of the same sex which +is strong enough to prevent a normal love life with some individual of +the opposite sex. Among American women, at least, this tendency is +seldom expressed by any gross physical manifestations, but often becomes +an idealized and lofty sentiment of friendship. It is abnormal, however, +when it becomes so strong as to prevent a happy married life. + +The tendency of emotions to seek a vicarious outlet must also be +considered in any inclusive attempt to explain the homosexual attachment +of women. The woman who, on account of lack of attraction for men or for +any other reason, is denied the normal functioning of the love life in +marriage, is forced to find some other expression for her erotic +emotions, and it is only natural that she should find it in an affection +for other women. Again, the voluntary celibacy of a large class of +modern women, who prefer to retain their economic independence rather +than to enter into family life, also necessitates finding vicarious +emotional activities. Whenever their work throws a number of these women +into constant association, it is almost inevitable that homosexual +attachments will spring up. + +We meet all these types of homosexual fixations in daily life. The +college girl who is isolated from men for four years has her sworn +comrade among the girls, and is sure that she will never marry but will +love her chum always. Very often it is some time after she leaves +college before she begins to take an interest in male companionship. The +young professional woman looks up to the older woman in her line of work +with the same admiration for her courage and brilliancy that used to be +reserved for the husband alone in the days when women were permitted +only a strictly feminine education and occupation. The business woman +refuses to give up her high salaried position for marriage, and consoles +herself with her feminine friends. These are the common manifestations +characteristic of female homosexuality. As has been suggested, the term +is loosely applied to such cases as these, but the tendency of recent +psychological literature is to consider them as highly sublimated +expressions of this tendency. + +As has been intimated, the modern woman who has entered into the +economic competition is often reluctant to abandon this activity for the +responsibilities of wifehood and motherhood, which involve a withdrawal +from the business world. Just as the materialistic rewards of economic +activities often prove more attractive than the emotional satisfactions +of family life, so, too, the intellectual ambitions of the professional +woman may deter her from the exercise of her reproductive functions. +Thus the egoistic and individualistic tendencies which modern social +organization fosters in the personality of its feminine members makes +them unwilling to sacrifice their ambitious plans in the performance of +their natural biological functions. + +In the present speeding up of competition, the entrance upon family life +becomes almost as burdensome to man as to woman, although in a different +manner. Free as he is from the biological responsibilities connected +with childbearing which fall to a woman's lot, he finds the economic +responsibilities which the care of children entails equally grilling. +His choice of a profession can no longer be decided by his own +preferences, but must be determined by the economic returns. He can +never afford to sacrifice financial gain for personal recognition, +because of his obligation to provide for his family. Thus it happens +that marriage often presents a situation in which no outlet for personal +ambitions is possible and the egoistic desires and emotions must be +sternly repressed. There is therefore an increasing hesitancy on the +part of the men of to-day to assume responsibilities so grave and +involving so much personal sacrifice. + +It is evident from even such a casual inquiry as this, that there are +many facts of individual psychology which have not been taken into +account by society in the development of the mores which govern the +sexual relationships of its members. The traditional institution of the +family, which would shape all women into model wives and mothers, has +neglected to consider the fact that not all women are biologically +adapted for these particular activities. The choice of a mate which is +determined by irrational and unconscious motives may or may not prove to +be a wise selection, as we have seen in the course of our discussion. +Most significant of all for the social problem of sex, is the +overwhelming tendency to individuation which is making both men and +women frankly question whether marriage and parenthood are worth while +when they involve so much personal sacrifice. + +From the viewpoint of psychology, we may briefly summarize the whole +situation by saying that society has imposed upon its members a uniform +and inflexible type of sexual relationships and reproductive activities +with a total disregard of individual differences in its demand for +conformity to these traditions. When the infinite number of variations +and modifications possible in the sexual life of different individuals +is taken into consideration, it is obvious that there must be a certain +disharmony between personal inclinations and social standards. Because +the power of the group control is very great, its members usually +repress emotions which are not in accord with its regulations, and shape +their conduct to meet with its approval. If such a restriction of the +personality and emotional life of the individual is necessary for the +welfare of the whole race and for social progress, its existence is +entirely justified. It is our next task, therefore, to determine in what +respects a rigid and irrational social control is conducive to human +betterment, and wherein, if at all, it fails to achieve this purpose. + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER II + +1. Adler, Alfred. The Neurotic Constitution. Moffat, Yard, N.Y., 1917. +(Kegan Paul & Co., 1921.) + +2. Adler, Alfred. A Study of Organic Inferiority and Its Psychic +Compensation. Nervous & Mental Disease Pub. Co., N.Y., 1917. + +3. Blanchard, P. A Psychoanalytic Study of Auguste Comte. Am. Jour. +Psy., April, 1918. + +4. Watson, J.B. Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviourist. +Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1919. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +DYSGENIC NATURE OF CERTAIN FACTORS OF SEX PSYCHOLOGY AND NECESSITY FOR A +SOCIAL THERAPY + +Mating determined by unconscious psychological motives instead of +eugenic considerations; Some of the best male and female stock refusing +marriage and parenthood; The race is reproduced largely by the inferior +and average stocks and very little by the superior stock; As a +therapeutic measure, society should utilize psychological knowledge as a +new method of control; Romantic love and conjugal love--a new ideal of +love; The solution of the conflict between individual and group +interests. + + +From the viewpoint of group welfare, the present psychological situation +of human reproductive activities undoubtedly has its detrimental +aspects. As we have seen, the choice of a mate is determined by +irrational motives which lie far below the levels of consciousness. +These unconscious factors which govern sexual selection far outweigh the +more rational considerations of modern eugenic thought. The marks of +personal beauty around which romantic love centres and which therefore +play a prominent part in mating are not necessarily indicative of +physical and mental health that will insure the production of sound +offspring. The modern standards of beauty (at least in so far as +feminine loveliness is concerned) have gone far from the ancient Grecian +type of physical perfection. Influenced perhaps by the chivalric ideals +of "the lady," the demand is rather for a delicate and fragile +prettiness which has come to be regarded as the essence of femininity. +The robust, athletic girl must preserve this "feminine charm" in the +midst of her wholesome outdoor life, else she stands in great danger of +losing her erotic attraction. + +Surface indications of the truth of this statement are easily +discovered. The literature which before the war ran riot with athletic +heroines pictured them with wind-blown hair and flushed cheeks receiving +the offer of their male companion's heart and hand. The golf course or +the summer camp was simply a charming new setting for the development of +the eternal love theme. Even fashion has conspired to emphasize the +feminine charm of the girl who goes in for sports, as a glance at the +models of bathing costumes, silken sweaters, and graceful "sport" skirts +plainly reveals. + +Just as the love which is directed in accordance with an emotional +reaction conditioned to respond to some erotic fetishism or to a parent +ideal may be productive of individual unhappiness, so it is also +entirely a matter of chance whether or not it leads to a eugenic mating. +Like romantic love, it is quite as apt to focus upon a person who does +not conform to eugenic ideals as upon one who does. The mate selected +upon the basis of these unconscious motives is very likely to bequeath a +neurotic constitution or an otherwise impaired physical organism to the +offspring of the union, since those possibilities were not taken into +consideration in making the choice. + +It becomes apparent that while certain forces in the life of the +individual and in the social inheritance have united to condition the +emotional reactions of the sex life, these conditionings have not always +been for the benefit of the race. Indeed, it would almost seem that +society has been more concerned with the manner of expression of the +love life in the individual members than in its effects upon the next +generation. In its neglect or ignorance of the significance of +artificial modifications of the emotions, it has permitted certain +dysgenic influences to continue in the psychic life of generation after +generation, regarding with the utmost placidity a process of sexual +selection determined by irrational and irresponsible motives. + +The most potent dysgenic influence in the present phase of the sex +problem is the conflict between the interests of the individual and the +group regulations. The traditional type of marriage and family life has +a cramping effect upon the personal ambitions which lessens its +attractiveness materially. The enterprising young business or +professional man has no desire to restrict his opportunities by the +assumption of the responsibilities that accompany family life. He must +be free to stake all his resources on some favourable speculation +without the thought that he cannot take chances on impoverishing his +wife and children. Or if he has professional aspirations, he must be +able to take the long difficult pathway of scientific research with no +anxiety about the meagre salary that is insufficient for the support of +a home. Thus the most vital and aggressive male stocks as well as the +most highly intelligent tend to avoid the hampering effects of family +life, and their qualities are often lost to the next generation, since +even if they marry they will feel that they cannot afford offspring. + +As women enter more and more into the competition for economic and +social rewards, this becomes equally applicable in their case. Indeed, +it would be strange were there not an even greater tendency to shun the +ties of family life on the part of ambitious women than of men, since +it involves greater sacrifices in their case on account of their +biological specialization for motherhood. It appears, therefore, that we +are losing the best parental material for the coming generations on both +the paternal and maternal sides. Thus the conflict between the egoistic +desires and the social institution of the family is segregating just +those energetic, successful individuals from whom the race of the future +should spring if we hope to reproduce a social organism capable of +survival in the inter-group struggle. + +If it be true that the best stock, both male and female, for various +reasons refuses to assume the duty of reproduction, the group will +necessarily be replaced from individuals of average and inferior (but +not superior) eugenic value. Even within these limits there is at +present no conscious eugenic selection, and the irrational and +unconscious motives which govern sexual selection at the present time +may induce the choice of a mate from among the weaker individuals. Once +again it becomes a matter of chance whether or not the matings prove to +be for the welfare of the group and of the race. + +It might be contended that the very fact that certain individuals +withdraw from reproductive activities is sufficient proof of their lack +of normal emotional reactions adapting them to the performance of those +functions. But a clearer insight shows that the group standards permit +the exercise of the reproductive activities only in accord with +arbitrary regulations which have coalesced in the institutions of +marriage and the family. These institutions have been developed to fit a +definite ideal of manhood and womanhood which grew up out of a manner of +thinking in accord with taboo control and ignorant superstitions rather +than in harmony with the actual facts of the situation. Now that we are +facing reality and trying to rationalize our thinking, we find that the +variation from these masculine and feminine ideals does not necessarily +imply biological or psychological abnormality, since the ideals were +themselves established without reference to biological and psychological +data. + +The traditional marriage and family arrangement tends to enforce a +selection of individuals who conform most nearly to these artificial +types as parents for the succeeding generations. It is not at all +certain that such a selection is advantageous to the group. It would +seem rather that in so complex a social system as that of the present +day with its increasing division of labour on other than purely sexual +distinctions, we need a variety of types of individuals adapted to the +varied activities of modern life. + +If society is to successfully meet the present situation it must +utilize its psychological insight to remedy conditions which are +obviously dysgenic and detrimental to the welfare of the race. If the +egoistic and highly individualized modern man and woman are induced to +sacrifice personal ambitions in the interests of reproduction, for +instance, it will only be because society has learned to turn those same +egoistic impulses to its own ends. This will never be accomplished by +the forces of tradition or by any such superimposed method of control as +conscription for parenthood. There is too much of a spirit of freedom +and individual liberty in the social mind to-day for any such measure to +meet with success. The same spirit of freedom which formerly burst the +bonds of superstition and entered into the world of science is now as +impatient of restraint of its emotional life as it formerly was of +restriction of its intellectual search for the truth. + +Therefore society can no longer depend upon taboo standards crystallized +into institutionalized forms as a means of control. It must appeal to +more rational motives if it expects to have any degree of influence over +its most intelligent and energetic members. Only when the production of +eugenic offspring brings the same social approval and reward that is +meted out for other activities will the ineradicable and irrespressible +egoistic desires that now prevent individuals from assuming the +responsibilities of family life be enlisted in the very cause to which +they are now so hostile. When the same disapproval is manifested for the +shirking of reproductive activities by the eugenically fit that is now +directed toward lack of patriotism in other lines, the number of +voluntary celibates in society will be materialy decreased. + +The greatest triumph of society in the manipulation of the sexual and +reproductive life of its members will come when it is able to condition +the emotional reaction of the individual by the substitution of the +eugenic ideal for the parental fixation and to focus the sentiment of +romantic love upon eugenic traits. When this is accomplished, the +selection of the mate will at least be favourable for racial +regeneration even if individual disharmonies are not entirely +eliminated. That there are great difficulties in the way of this +accomplishment may be admitted at the outset. The conditioned responses +to be broken down and replaced are for the most part formed in early +childhood, and have had a long period in which to become firmly +impressed upon the organism. But psychological experiments have proven +that even the best established conditioned reactions can be broken down +and others substituted in their place, so that the situation is not so +hopeless. When we recollect that for ages the traditional ideals of +masculinity and femininity have been conditioning the emotional life of +men and women to respond to their requirements with a remarkable degree +of success, there is ground for the belief that the same forces of +suggestion and imitation may be turned to more rational ends and +utilized as an effective means of social therapy. + +If we are to have a more rationalized form of social control, then, it +will undoubtedly take into consideration the necessity of forming the +socially desirable conditionings of the emotional life. The importance +of the emotional reactions for social progress has been very well +summarized by Burgess, who says that emotion can be utilized for +breaking down old customs and establishing new ones, as well as for the +conservation of the mores. Society can largely determine around what +stimuli the emotions can be organized, this author continues, and the +group has indeed always sought to control the stimuli impinging upon its +members. One policy has been to eliminate objectionable stimuli, as in +the outlawing of the saloon. The other is to change the nature of the +affective response of the individual to certain stimuli in the +environment where the natural or organic responses would be at variance +with conduct considered socially desirable.[3] + +Modern psychological knowledge enables us to understand the mechanism +of this last method of social control as the building up of the +conditioned emotional response. If our civilization is to endure it must +learn to apply this method of control to the sex life of the individual +so that reproduction will fall to the lot of the most desirable eugenic +stock instead of being left to the workings of chance as it is at the +present time. + +From the viewpoint of individual psychology, one of the principal +problems of the erotic life is to find a smooth transition from the +romantic love of the courtship period to the less ethereal emotions of +the married state. Indirectly, this is also socially significant, +because of the overwhelming effect of the home environment in shaping +the reactions of the next generation. As a rule, only the children who +have grown up in a happy and wholesome atmosphere of sincere parental +comradeship and affection can have an entirely sane and healthy reaction +to their own erotic functions in later years. + +Although romantic love in its present expression may often lead to +uncongenial marriages and even involve dysgenic mating, its æsthetic and +refining influences are such as to make it desirable in spite of these +drawbacks. Its influence upon literature has been noted by Bloch[2] +while its potency in the formation of a deep and tender feeling between +men and women has been elaborately discussed by Finck.[4] Thus it is +evident that its individual and social advantages more than balance its +disadvantages. + +Unfortunately, with the entrance into the marital relationship and the +release of the erotic emotion into natural channels so that it no longer +seeks the vicarious outlets which were partly supplied in the +idealization of the lovers, there is a tendency for this romantic +element to fade from their affection. The conjugal affection which +replaces it is built on quite other foundations. It is not composed of +day dreams about the beloved, but is wrought out of mutual interests, of +joys and sorrows shared together, of the pleasure of unrestricted +companionship, and of the common care of offspring. The danger lies in +the possibility that these foundations for conjugal love will not have +been lain by the time that romantic sentiments begin to grow dim. It is +this crisis in the married life which seems disappointing in the +afterglow of the engagement and honeymoon. + +Of late there have been attempts to build up a new conception of love +which shall incorporate the best features of romantic love and at the +same time make the transition to the conjugal affection less difficult. +This new conception has grown up through the increasing freedom of +women and the constant association of the sexes in the educational and +business world as well as in the social life. This free companionship of +men and women has done much to destroy the illusions about each other +which were formerly supposed to be so necessary a component of romantic +love, but it has also created the basis for a broader sympathy and a +deeper comradeship which is easily carried over into the married +relation. + +The new ideal of love which is being thus developed combines complete +understanding and frankness with erotic attraction and the tenderness of +romanticism. It implies a type of marital relationship in which there is +preservation of the personality and at the same time a harmony and union +of interests that was often absent from the old-fashioned marriage, when +the wife was supposed to be more limited in her interests than her +husband. It may well be that the evolution of this new ideal of love, +which grants personal autonomy even within the marriage bond, will solve +a great deal of the present conflict between the individualistic +impulses and the exercise of the erotic functions as permitted by the +group. + +It is, of course, an open question as to how far the interests of the +individual and the group can be made to coincide. Group survival demands +that the most vital and intelligent members shall be those to carry on +the reproductive functions. Therefore from the social viewpoint, it is +quite justified in setting up the machinery of social approval and in +establishing emotional attitudes by this means that will insure that +this takes place. On the other hand, it may be that the individuals who +will be thus coerced will be as rebellious against new forms of social +control as they are restless under the present methods of restraint. + +If we free ourselves from a manner of thinking induced by inhibitions +developed through ages of taboo control, and look at the problem +rationally, we must admit that the chief interest of society would be in +the eugenic value of the children born into it. At the present time, +however, the emphasis seems to be chiefly upon the manner of birth, that +is, the principal concern is to have the parents married in the +customary orthodox fashion. Only in view of the necessities of the +recent war have the European nations been forced to wipe out the stain +of illegitimacy, and in America we are still blind to this necessity. +Only Scandinavia, under the leadership of such minds as Ellen Key's, was +roused to this inconsistency in the mores without external pressure, and +enacted legislation concerning illegitimacy which may well serve as a +model to the whole world. The main points of the Norwegian Castberg bill +are as follows: The child whose parents are unmarried has a right to +the surname of the father, and the right of inheritance from a +propertied father; the court has full power to clear up the paternity of +the child; the man is held responsible for the child's support even if +other men are known to have had intercourse with the mother. In order to +discourage immorality in women for the purpose of blackmailing wealthy +men, the mother is also compelled to contribute to the child's +support.[1] + +No psychologist of discernment, in insisting on eugenic standards rather +than a marriage certificate as the best criterion for parenthood would +encourage any tendency to promiscuous mating. The individual suffering +involved in such a system of sexual relationships would be too great to +permit its universal adoption even if it should be found to have no +deleterious social effects. But the very fact that transient mating does +involve so much human agony, especially on the part of the woman, is all +the more reason why it is needless to add artificial burdens to those +already compelled by the very nature of the emotional life. + +The study of child psychology, too, would tend to discourage any general +tendency to temporary sexual relationships. Modern research has shown +that nothing is more necessary for the normal development of the child's +emotional life than a happy home environment with the presence of both +father and mother. Only in these surroundings, with the love of both +parents as a part of the childhood experience, can the emotional +reactions of the child be properly conditioned to respond to the social +situations of adult life. + +In one respect, at least, society can do a great deal to better the +existing situation, and to solve the struggle between the individual and +group interests. At the same time that it endeavours to set up emotional +responses that shall be conducive to eugenic mating and to a happy love +life, as well as for the welfare of the child, it should also leave a +wide margin of personal liberty for the individuals concerned to work +out a type of sexual relationship which is in harmony with their natural +inclinations. The institution of monogamy is too deeply founded in the +needs of the individual and of the child to suffer from this increase in +freedom and responsibility. Were it so frail a thing as to need the +protection of the church and state as well as public opinion to insure +its survival, it would be so little adapted to the needs of humanity +that it might better disappear. + +There are no indications that there would be any wider deviation from +the monogamous relationship were variations frankly recognized that now +take place in secret. By its present attitude, society is not +accomplishing its purpose and preventing all sexual relationships except +those which conform to its institutionalized standards. It is merely +forcing what should be always the most dignified of human relationships +into the shamefulness of concealment and furtiveness. Moreover, because +it visits its wrath on the child born of unions which are not strictly +conventionalized, it prevents the birth of children from mothers who +might be of great eugenic value, but whom fear of social disapproval +keeps from the exercise of their maternal functions but not of their +sexual activities. + +In the final analysis, it will probably be demonstrated that for a +certain type of personality there can be no compromise which will +resolve the conflict between the egoistic inclinations and the interests +of the group. For those whose deepest desires are so out of harmony with +the social life of the times there is no alternative but to sacrifice +their personal desires or to forfeit the pleasure of feeling in complete +rapport with their fellows. In such natures, the ultimate course of +conduct will be determined by the relative strengths of the +individualistic and gregarious impulses, other things being equal. In +some instances this will mean the choice of a line of conduct out of +harmony with the general trend of group life; in others, it will mean +the repression of personal inclinations and conformity to social +standards. + +For the majority of people, however, it is likely that a more rational +form of social control, freed from the long ages of taboo restrictions, +and based upon accurate biological and psychological knowledge, will +solve the disharmony between the individual and the group to a great +extent. Such a rationalization will take into account the value of a new +ideal of love which shall be built up from a sane relationship between +the sexes and in accordance with eugenic standards. It will also grant a +great deal of personal autonomy in the determination of sexual +relationships in so far as this can be correlated with the welfare of +the children of the race. Last of all, it will attempt to condition the +emotional reactions to respond to stimuli which shall insure eugenic +mating naturally and without the intervention of legislation. + +Unless modern civilization can set up some such form of rational control +for the sexual and reproductive life of its members, the present +conflict between individuation and socialization will continue and the +dysgenic factors now operative in society will steadily increase. In the +end, this internal conflict may become so powerful as to act as an +irresistible disintegrating force that will shatter the fabric of modern +social organization. Only the evolution of a rationalized method of +control can avert this social catastrophe. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER III. + + +1. Anthony, Katharine. Feminism in Germany and Scandinavia. Henry Holt, +N.Y., 1915. + +2. Bloch, Ivan. Sexual Life of Our Time. Rebman, London, 1908. + +3. Burgess, E.W. The Function of Socialization in Social Evolution. +Univ. Chicago Press, 1916. + +4. Finck, H.T. Romantic Love and Personal Beauty. Macmillan, N.Y., 1891. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TABOO AND GENETICS*** + + +******* This file should be named 14325-8.txt or 14325-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/3/2/14325 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Taboo and Genetics</p> +<p>Author: Melvin Moses Knight, Iva Lowther Peters, and Phyllis Mary Blanchard</p> +<p>Release Date: December 11, 2004 [eBook #14325]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TABOO AND GENETICS***</p> +<br><br><h3>E-text prepared by Michael Ciesielski, Dave Macfarlane,<br> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</h3><br><br> +<table border=0 bgcolor="ccccff" cellpadding=10> + <tr> + <td valign="top"> + Transcriber's Note: + </td> + <td> + The irregular footnote markers in this text [numbers] refer to the reference book the author used, and not always to + the specific page numbers. These reference books are listed numerically + at the end of each chapter. The footnotes are marked with [letters] and + the referenced footnotes are contained within the text, near to the + footnote marker. Therefore, occasionally the numerical footnote markers + are out of sequence. + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<br> +<br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>TABOO AND GENETICS</h2> + +<h4>A STUDY OF THE BIOLOGICAL</h4> + +<h4>SOCIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL</h4> + +<h4>FOUNDATION OF THE FAMILY</h4> +<br> + + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h3>M. M. KNIGHT, PH.D.</h3> + +<h3>IVA LOWTHER PETERS, PH.D.</h3> + +<h3>PHYLLIS BLANCHARD, PH.D.</h3> + +<h5>Author of <i>The Adolescent Girl</i></h5> + +<br /> + +<h6>London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd.<br> +New York: Moffat, Yard & Co.</h6> +<br> +<h4>1921</h4> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>DEDICATED TO<br> +OUR FRIEND AND TEACHER,</h4> +<h3>FRANK HAMILTON HANKINS</h3> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> +<br> + +<p>Scientific discovery, especially in biology, during the past two decades +has made necessary an entire restatement of the sociological problem of +sex. Ward's so-called "gynæcocentric" theory, as sketched in Chapter 14 +of his <i>Pure Sociology</i>, has been almost a bible on the sex problem to +sociologists, in spite of the fact that modern laboratory +experimentation has disproved it in almost every detail. While a +comparatively small number of people read this theory from the original +source, it is still being scattered far and wide in the form of +quotations, paraphrases, and interpretations by more popular writers. It +is therefore necessary to gather together the biological data which are +available from technical experimentation and medical research, in order +that its social implications may be utilized to show the obsoleteness of +this older and unscientific statement of the sex problem in society.</p> + +<p>In order to have a thoroughly comprehensive survey of the institutions +connected with sexual relationships and the family and their entire +significance for human life, it is also necessary to approach them from +the ethnological and psychological points of view. The influence of the +primitive sex taboos on the evolution of the social mores and family +life has received too little attention in the whole literature of sexual +ethics and the sociology of sex. That these old customs have had an +inestimable influence upon the members of the group, modern psychology +has recently come to recognize. It therefore seems advantageous to +include these psychological findings in the same book with the +discussion of the sex taboos and other material with which it must so +largely deal.</p> + +<p>These fields—biology, ethnology, and psychology—are so complicated and +so far apart technically, although their social implications are so +closely interwoven, that it has seemed best to divide the treatment +between three different writers, each of whom has devoted much study to +his special phase of the subject. This leads to a very simple +arrangement of the material. The first part deals with the physical or +biological basis of the sex problem, which all societies from the most +primitive to the most advanced have had and still have to build upon. +The second part deals with the various ideas man has developed in his +quest for a satisfactory adaptation of this physical basis to his own +requirements. Part three attempts to analyze the effect of this long +history of social experimentation upon the human psyche in its modern +social milieu.</p> + +<p>In the social evolution of the human mind, the deepest desires of the +individual have been often necessarily sacrificed to the needs of the +group. Sometimes they have been unnecessarily sacrificed, since human +intelligence is, unfortunately, not omniscient. Nevertheless, the sum +total of human knowledge has now become great enough so that it is at +least well to pause and take account of its bearing on the age-old +problem of family life, in order that our evolution henceforth may be +guarded by rational control rather than trial and error in so far as is +possible. Such a summarization of our actual knowledge of the biology, +sociology and psychology of the foundations of the family institution +this book aims to present, and if it can at the same time suggest a +starting point for a more rationalized system of social control in this +field, its purpose will have been accomplished.</p> + +<p>THE AUTHORS.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + <p><a href='#PART_I'>PART I</a></p> + +<p><b>BY M. M. KNIGHT, PH.D.</b></p> + +<p><big>THE NEW BIOLOGY AND THE SEX PROBLEM IN SOCIETY</big></p> + + + <p><a href='#CHAPTER_I'>I. THE PROBLEM DEFINED</a></p> + +<p>What is sex? A sexual and mixed reproduction. Origin of sexual +reproduction. Advantage of sex in chance of survival. Germ and body +cells. Limitations of biology in social problems. Sex always present in +higher animals. Sex in mammals—the problem in the human species. +Application of the laboratory method.</p> + + <p><a href='#CHAPTER_II'>II. SEX IN TERMS OF INTERNAL SECRETIONS</a></p> + +<p>Continuity of germ plasm. The sex chromosome. The internal secretions +and the sex complex. The male and the female type of body. How removal +of sex glands affects body type. Sex determination. Share of the egg and +sperm in inheritance. The nature of sex—sexual selection of little +importance. The four main types of secretory systems. Sex and sex +instincts of rats modified by surgery. Dual basis for sex. Opposite sex +basis in every individual. The Free-Martin cattle. Partial reversal of +sex in human species.</p> + + <p><a href='#CHAPTER_III'>III. SEX AND SEX DIFFERENCES AS QUANTITATIVE</a></p> + +<p>Intersexes in moths. Bird intersexes. Higher metabolism of males. +Quantitative difference between sex factors. Old ideas of +intersexuality. Modern surgery and human intersexes. Quantitative theory +a Mendelian explanation. Peculiar complication in the case of man. +Chemical life-cycles of the sexes. Functional-reproductive period and +the sex problem. Relative significance of physiological sex differences.</p> + + + <p><a href='#CHAPTER_IV'>IV. SEX SPECIALIZATION AND GROUP SURVIVAL</a></p> + +<p>Adaptation and specialization. Reproduction a group—not an individual +problem. Conflict between specialization and adaptation. Intelligence +makes for economy in adjustment to environment. Reproduction, not +production, the chief factor in the sex problem.</p> + + <p><a href='#CHAPTER_V'>V. RACIAL DEGENERATION AND THE NECESSITY FOR RATIONALIZATION OF THE MORES</a></p> + +<p>Racial decay in modern society. Purely "moral" control dysgenic in +civilized society. New machinery for social control. Mistaken notion +that reproduction is an individual problem. Economic and other factors +in the group problem of reproduction.</p> +<br /> + + <p><a href='#PART_II'>PART II</a></p> + +<p><b>BY IVA LOWTHER PETERS, PH.D.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE INSTITUTIONALIZED SEX TABOO</b></p> + +<p><a href='#CHAPTER_I_P2'>I. THE PRIMITIVE ATTITUDE TOWARD SEX AND WOMANHOOD</a></p> + +<p>Primitive social control. Its rigidity. Its necessity. The universality +of this control in the form of taboos. Connection between the universal +attitude of primitive peoples toward woman as shown in the +Institutionalized Sex Taboo and the magico-religious belief in Mana. +Relation of Mana to Taboo. Discussion of Sympathetic Magic and the +associated idea of danger from contact. Difficulties in the way of an +inclusive definition of Taboo. Its dual nature. Comparison of concepts +of Crawley, Frazer, Marett, and others. Conclusion that Taboo is +Negative Mana. Contribution of modern psychology to the study of Taboo. +Freud's analogy between the dualistic attitude toward the tabooed object +and the ambivalence of the emotions. The understanding of this dualism +together with the primitive belief in Mana and Sympathetic Magic +explains much in the attitude of man toward woman. The vast amount of +evidence in the taboos of many peoples of dualism in the attitude toward +woman. Possible physiological explanation of this dualistic attitude of +man toward woman found in a period before self-control had in some +measure replaced social control, in the reaction of weakness and disgust +following sex festivals.</p> + + <p><a href='#CHAPTER_II_P2'>II. FROM THE DAWN OF HISTORY: WOMAN AS SAINT AND WITCH</a></p> + +<p>Taboos of first chapter indicate that in the early ages the fear of +contamination by woman predominated. Later emphasis fell on her mystic +and uncanny power. Ancient fertility cults. Temple prostitution, +dedication of virgins, etc. Ancient priestesses and prophetesses. +Medicine early developed by woman added to belief in her power. Woman's +psychic quality of intuition: its origin—theories—conclusion that this +quality is probably physiological in origin, but aggravated by taboo +repressions. Transformation in attitude toward woman in the early +Christian period. Psychological reasons for the persistence in religion +of a Mother Goddess. Development of the Christian concept. Preservation +of ancient woman cults as demonology. Early Christian attitude toward +woman as unclean and in league with demons. Culmination of belief in +demonic power of woman in witchcraft persecutions. All women affected by +the belief in witches and in the uncleanness of woman. Gradual +development on the basis of the beliefs outlined of an ideally pure and +immaculate Model Woman.</p> + +<p> <a href='#CHAPTER_III_P2'>III. THE DUALISM IN MODERN LIFE: THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO</a></p> + +<p>The Taboo and modern institutions. Survival of ideas of the uncleanness +of woman. Taboo and the family. The "good" woman. The "bad" woman. +Increase in the number of women who do not fit into the ancient +classifications.</p> + +<p> <a href='#CHAPTER_IV_P2'>IV. DYSGENIC INFLUENCES OF THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO</a></p> + +<p>Taboo survivals act dysgenically within the family under present +conditions. Conventional education of girls a dysgenic influence. +Prostitution and the family. Influence of ancient standards of "good" +and "bad." The illegitimate child. Effect of fear, anger, etc., on +posterity. The attitude of economically independent women toward +marriage.</p> +<br /> + + <p><a href='#PART_III'>PART III</a></p> + +<p><b>BY PHYLLIS BLANCHARD, PH.D.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE SEX PROBLEM IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY</b></p> + + <p><a href='#CHAPTER_I_P3'>I. SEX IN TERMS OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY</a></p> + +<p>Bearing of modern psychology on the sex problem. Conditioning of the +sexual impulse. Vicarious expression of the sexual impulse. Unconscious +factors of the sex life. Taboo control has conditioned the natural +biological tendencies of individuals to conform to arbitrary standards +of masculinity and femininity. Conflict between individual desires and +social standards.</p> + + <p><a href='#CHAPTER_II_P3'>II. HOW OUR INSTITUTIONS FIT INDIVIDUAL SEX PSYCHOLOGY</a></p> + +<p>Social institutions controlling sex activities based on the assumption +that <i>all</i> women are adapted to as well as specialized for reproduction. +Neurotic tendencies which unfit women for marriage—the desire for +domination. Sexual anæsthesia another neurotic trait which interferes +with marital harmony. The conditioning of the sexual impulse to the +parent ideal and the erotic fetish as factors which determine mating. +Homosexual tendencies and their part in the sex problem. The conflict +between the desire for marriage and egoistic ambitions. The social +regulations from the viewpoint of individual psychology.</p> +<br /> + + <p><a href='#CHAPTER_III_P3'>III. DYSGENIC NATURE OF CERTAIN FACTORS OF SEX PSYCHOLOGY AND NECESSITY FOR A SOCIAL THERAPY</a></p> + +<p>Mating determined by unconscious psychological motives instead of +eugenic considerations. Some of the best male and female stock refusing +marriage and parenthood. The race is reproduced largely by the inferior +and average stocks and very little by the superior stock. As a +therapeutic measure, society should utilize psychological knowledge as a +new method of control. Romantic love and conjugal love—a new ideal of +love. The solution of the conflict between individual and group +interests.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='PART_I'></a><h2>PART I</h2> + +<h3>THE NEW BIOLOGY AND THE SEX PROBLEM IN SOCIETY</h3> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h3>M. M. KNIGHT, PH.D.</h3> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='CHAPTER_I'></a><h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<center> +THE PROBLEM DEFINED</center><br> + +<center><blockquote>What is sex? Asexual and mixed reproduction; Origin of sexual +reproduction; Advantage of sex in chance of survival; Germ and body +cells; Limitations of biology in social problems; Sex always present in +higher animals; Sex in mammals; The sex problem in the human species; +Application of laboratory method.</blockquote> +</center> +<br> +<br /> + +<p>Sex, like all complicated phenomena, defies being crowded into a simple +definition. In an animal or plant individual it is expressed by and +linked with the ability to produce egg- or sperm-cells (ova or +spermatozoa). Sexual reproduction is simply the chain of events +following the union of the egg and sperm to produce a new individual. +Looked at from another angle, it is that sort of reproduction which +requires two differentiated individuals: the male, which produces +spermatoza, and the female, which produces ova. In the case of very +simple forms, it would be simply the union or conjugation of a male and +a female individual and the reproductive process involved. Where there +is no differentiation into male and female there is no sex.</p> + +<p>An individual which produces both sperm-and egg-cells within its body +is termed an hermaphrodite. Very few hermaphrodites exist among the +vertebrates, although they may be found in one or two species (e.g., the +hagfish). There are no truly hermaphroditic mammals, i.e., individuals +in which both the male and the female germ cells function, except +perhaps in rare instances.</p> + +<p>Sexless or asexual reproduction assumes various forms. What is usually +considered the most primitive of these is fission or simple division, in +which the cell divides into two equal, identical parts. There is of +course no suggestion of sex here. It is fairly safe to assume that life +began thus in the world, as neuter or sexless—i.e., with no suggestion +of either maleness or femaleness.<a name='FNanchor_A_1'></a><a href='#Footnote_A_1'><sup>[A]</sup></a></p> + +<a name='Footnote_A_1'></a><a href='#FNanchor_A_1'>[A]</a><div class='note'><p>This asexual type of reproduction has been misinterpreted +by a whole school of non-biological writers, who have followed the lead +of Lester F. Ward, in his classification of these neuter-organisms as +females. Ward says ("Pure Sociology," Ch. 14): "It does no violence to +language or science to say that life begins with the female organism and +is carried on a long distance by means of females alone. In all the +different forms of asexual reproduction from fission to parthenogenesis, +the female may in this sense be said to exist alone and perform all the +functions of life including reproduction. In a word, life begins as +female" (p. 313). Adding to this statement the assertion that the male +developed at first as a mere parasite, in the actual, physical sense, +Ward proceeds to build up his famous Gynæcocentric Theory, which is +familiar to all students of social science, and need not be elaborated +here. It is obvious that a thorough biological knowledge destroys the +fundamental concept on which this theory is founded, for there is no +doubt that life begins as neuter or sexless, and not as female.</p></div> + +<p>There are a number of other forms of asexual reproduction, or the +"vegetative type" (Abbott's term, which includes fission, budding, +polysporogonia and simple spore formation). Budding (as in yeast) and +spore formation are familiar to us in plants. Such forms are too distant +from man, in structure and function, for profitable direct comparison. +Especially is this true with respect to sex, which they do not possess.</p> + +<p>Parthenogenesis includes very diverse and anomalous cases. The term +signifies the ability of females to reproduce in such species for one or +a number of generations without males. Many forms of this class (or more +strictly, these classes) have apparently become specialized or +degenerated, having once been more truly sexual. Parthenogenesis +(division and development of an egg without the agency of male sperm) +has been brought about artificially by Jacques Loeb in species as +complicated as frogs.<a name='FNanchor_1_1'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_1'><sup>[1]</sup></a><a name='FNanchor_2_1'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_1'><sup>[2]</sup></a> All the frogs produced were males, so that +the race (of frogs) could not even be theoretically carried on by that +method.</p> + +<p>The origin of sexual reproduction in animals must have been something as +follows: The first method of reproduction was by a simple division of +the unicellular organism to form two new individuals. At times, a fusion +of two independent individuals occurred. This was known as conjugation, +and is seen among Paramecia and some other species to-day. Its value is +probably a reinvigoration of the vitality of the individual. Next there +was probably a tendency for the organism to break up into many parts +which subsequently united with each other. Gradually some of these +uniting cells came to contain more food material than the others. As a +result of their increased size, they possessed less power of motion than +the others, and in time lost their cilia (or flagella) entirely and were +brought into contact with the smaller cells only by the motion of the +latter. Finally, in colonial forms, most of the cells in the colony +ceased to have any share in reproduction, that function being relegated +to the activities of a few cells which broke away and united with others +similarly adrift. These cells functioning for reproduction continued to +differentiate more and more, until large ova and small, motile +spermtozoa were definitely developed.</p> + +<p>The clearest evidences as to the stages in the evolution of sexual +reproduction is found in the plant world among the green algæ.<a name='FNanchor_3_1'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_1'><sup>[3]</sup></a> In +the lower orders of one-celled algæ, reproduction takes place by simple +cell division. In some families, this simple division results in the +production of several new individuals instead of only two from each +parent cell. A slightly different condition is found in those orders +where the numerous cells thus produced by simple division of the parent +organism unite in pairs to produce new individuals after a brief +independent existence of their own. These free-swimming cells, which +apparently are formed only to reunite with each other, are called +zoöspores, while the organism which results from their fusion is known +as a zygospore. The zygospore thus formed slowly increases in size, +until it in its turn develops a new generation of zoöspores. In still +other forms, in place of the zoöspores, more highly differentiated +cells, known as eggs and sperms, are developed, and these unite to +produce the new individuals. Both eggs and sperms are believed to have +been derived from simpler ancestral types of ciliated cells which were +similar in structure and closely resembled zoöspores.<a name='FNanchor_A_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_A_2'><sup>[A]</sup></a></p> + +<a name='Footnote_A_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_A_2'>[A]</a><div class='note'><p> This evidence, which points to the conclusion that in the +early origin of sexual reproduction the males and females were +differentiated and developed from a uniform type of ancestral cell, +quite controverts Ward's point that the male originated as a kind of +parasite.</p></div> + +<p>Having once originated, the sexual type of reproduction possessed a +definite survival value which assured its continuation. Sex makes +possible a crossing of strains, which evidently possesses some great +advantage, since the few simple forms which have no such division of +reproductive functions have undergone no great development and all the +higher, more complicated animals are sexual. This crossing of strains +may make possible greater variety, it may help in crossing out or +weakening variations which are too far from the average, or both.</p> + +<p>Schäfer<a name='FNanchor_4_1'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_1'><sup>[4]</sup></a> thinks that an exchange of nuclear substance probably gives +a sort of chemical rejuvenation and very likely stimulates division. At +any rate, the groups in which the reproductive process became thus +partitioned between two kinds of individuals, male and female, not only +survived, but they underwent an amazing development compared with those +which remained sexless.</p> + +<p>There came a time in the evolution of the groups possessing sexual +reproduction, when increasing specialization necessitated the division +into reproductive and non-reproductive cells. When a simple cell +reproduces by dividing into two similar parts, each developing into a +new individual like the parent, this parent no longer exists as a cell, +but the material which composed it still exists in the new ones. The old +cell did not "die"—no body was left behind. Since this nuclear +substance exists in the new cells, and since these generations go on +indefinitely, the cells are in a sense "immortal" or deathless. In a +one-celled individual, there is no distinction between germinal and +bodily functions. In the more complicated organisms, however, there are +innumerable kinds of cells, a few (the germ cells) specialized for +reproduction, the others forming the body which eats, moves, sees, +feels, and in the case of man, <i>thinks</i>. But the germ-cells or germplasm +continue to be immortal or deathless in the same sense as in the +simplest organisms. The body, in a historical sense, grew up around the +germ-cells, taking over functions a little at a time, until in the +higher animals nutrition and other activities and a large part even of +the reproductive process itself is carried on by body-cells.</p> + +<p>When we think of a man or woman, we think of an individual only one of +whose innumerable activities—reproduction—is carried on by germ-cells, +and this one only at the very beginning of the life of a new individual. +Human societies, needless to remark, are not organized by germplasms, +but by brains and hands—composed of body cells. If these brains and +hands—if human bodies—did not wear out or become destroyed, we should +not need to trouble ourselves so much about the germplasm, whose sole +function in human society is to replace them.</p> + +<p>Since the individual human bodies and minds which seek after the things +to which we mortals attach value—moral worth, esthetic and other +pleasure, achievement and the like—do have to be replaced every few +years, the germplasms from which new individuals must come have always +been and always will be of fundamental importance. It is always the +<i>product</i> of the germplasm which concerns us, and we are interested in +the germ-cells themselves only in relation to their capacity to produce +individuals of value to society.</p> + +<p>So let us not go erring about in the philosophical ether, imagining that +because the <i>amoeba</i> may not be specialized for anything over and above +nutrition and reproduction that these are necessarily the "main +business" or "chief ends" of human societies. Better say that although +we have become developed and specialized for a million other activities +we are still bound by those fundamental necessities. As to "Nature's +purposes" about which the older sex literature has had so much to say, +the idea is essentially religious rather than scientific. If such +"purposes" indeed exist in the universe, man evidently does not feel +particularly bound by them. We do not hesitate to put a cornfield where +"Nature" had a forest, or to replace a barren hillside by the sea with a +city.</p> + +<p>Necessities and possibilities, not "purposes" in nature, claim our +attention—reproduction being one of those embarrassing necessities, +viewed through the eyes of man, the one evaluating animal in the world. +Thus in reasoning from biology to social problems, it is fundamental to +remember that man as an animal is tremendously differentiated in +functions, and that most of the activities we look upon as distinctively +human depend upon the body rather than the germ-cells.</p> + +<p>It follows that biology is the foundation rather than the house, if we +may use so crude a figure. The solidity of the foundation is very +important, but it does not dictate the details as to how the +superstructure shall be arranged.</p> + +<p>Civilization would not be civilization if we had to spend most of our +time thinking about the biological basis. If we wish to think of +"Nature's" proscriptions or plans as controlling animal life, the +anthropomorphism is substantially harmless. But man keeps out of the way +of most of such proscriptions, has plans of his own, and has acquired +considerable skill in varying his projects without running foul of such +biological prohibitions.</p> + +<p>It is time to abandon the notion that biology prescribes in detail how +we shall run society. True, this foundation has never received a surplus +of intelligent consideration. Sometimes human societies have built so +foolishly upon it that the result has been collapse. Somebody is always +digging around it in quest of evidence of some vanished idyllic state of +things which, having had and discarded, we should return to. This little +excursion into biology is made in the full consciousness that social +mandates are not to be found there. Human projects are the primary +material of social science. It is indispensable to check these against +biological fact, in order to ascertain which are feasible and which are +not. The biological basis may <i>help</i> in explaining old social structures +or in planning new ones; but much wild social theory has been born of a +failure to appreciate the limitations of such material.</p> + +<p>All the so-called higher animals, mammals and others, are divided into +two sexes, male and female. Besides the differentiation of germ-cells +there are rather obvious differences in the bodies of the two sexes. In +common with many other mammals, the human male has a larger and stronger +body, on an average, than has the human female. This is true also of the +anthropoid apes, the species which most resemble man physically and are +commonly supposed to be his nearest blood relatives in the animal +kingdom. It has been true of man himself as far back as we have any +records.</p> + +<p>Such differences are only superficial—the real ones go deeper. We are +not so much interested in how they originated in the world as in how +they <i>do</i> come about in the individual. At least, we can come a good +deal nearer ascertaining the latter than the former. In either case, our +real purpose is to determine as nearly as possible what the unlikeness +really consists of and so help people to sensibly make up their minds +what can be done about it.</p> + +<p>To define sex with rigid accuracy as the term applies to human beings, +it is necessary to tell what it is in mammals, since man is a mammal. +The presence of distinct body-cells is not peculiar to mammals, but +there is one respect in which these latter are quite different from +non-mammals: A mammalian individual, beginning like a non-mammal with a +fertilized egg, has a period of intra-maternal development which a +non-mammal has not. That is, a non-mammalian is a fertilized egg <i>plus</i> +its parental (or extra-parental) environment; but a mammalian individual +is a fertilized egg, <i>plus its intra-maternal environment</i>, plus its +non-parental environment.</p> + +<p>Here in a nutshell is the biological basis of sex problem in human +society. Human individuals do wear out and have to be replaced by +reproduction. In the reproductive process, the female, as in mammals +generally, is specialized to provide an intra-maternal environment +(approximately nine months in the human species) for each new +individual, and lactation or suckling afterward. The biological phase of +the sex problem in society consists in studying the nature of that +specialization. From the purely sociological standpoint, the sex problem +concerns the customs and institutions which have grown up or may grow +up to meet the need of society for reproduction.</p> + +<p>The point which most concerns us is in how far biological data can be +applied to the sex problem in society. Systematic dissections or +breeding experiments upon human beings, thought out in advance and under +control in a laboratory, are subject to obvious limitations. Surgical +operations, where careful data are kept, often answer the same purpose +as concerns some details; but these alone would give us a fragmentary +record of how a fertilized egg becomes a conscious human being of one +sex or the other. The practice of medicine often throws light on +important points. Observation of abnormal cases plays its part in adding +to our knowledge. Carefully compiled records of what does occur in +inheritance, while lacking many of the checks of planned and controlled +experiments, to some extent take the place of the systematic breeding +possible with animals. At best, however, the limitations in +experimentation with human subjects would give us a rather disconnected +record were it not for the data of experimental biology.</p> + +<p>How may such biological material be safely used? Indiscriminately +employed, it is worse than useless—it can be confusing or actually +misleading. It is probably never safe to say, or even to infer directly, +that because of this or that animal structure or behaviour we should do +thus and so in human society. On this point sociology—especially the +sociology of sex—must frankly admit its mistakes and break with much of +its cherished past.</p> + +<p>The social problem of sex consists of fitting the best possible +institutions on to the biological foundation <i>as we find it in the human +species</i>. Hence all our reasoning about which institution or custom is +preferable must refer directly to the human bodies which compose +society. We can use laboratory evidence about the bodies of other +animals to help us in understanding the physical structure and functions +of the human body; but we must stop trying to apply the sex-ways of +birds, spiders or even cows (which are at least mammals) to human +society, which is not made up of any of these.</p> + +<p>It is possible to be quite sure that some facts carefully observed about +mammals in a biological laboratory apply to similar structures in man, +also a mammal. Because of this relationship, the data from medicine and +surgery are priceless. Thus we are enabled to check up our systematic +experimental knowledge of animals by an ascertained fact here and there +in the human material, and to get a fairly exact idea of how great the +correspondence actually is. Gaps thus filled in are narrow enough, and +our certainty of the ground on either side sufficiently great, to give +a good deal of justifiable assurance.</p> + +<p>If we use our general biological evidence in this way, merely to help in +clearing up points about <i>human</i> biology, we need not be entirely +limited to mammals. Some sex phenomena are quite general, and may be +drawn from the sexual species most convenient to study and control in +experiments. When we get away from mammalian forms, however, we must be +very sure that the cases used for illustrations are of general +application, are similar in respect to the points compared, or that any +vital differences are understood and conscientiously pointed out.</p> + +<p>Too much stress cannot be laid upon the point that such animal data, +carefully checked up with the human material, cannot safely be used for +any other purpose than to discover what the facts are about the human +body. When the discussion of human social institutions is taken up in +Part II, the obvious assumption will always be that these rest upon +human biology, and that we must not let our minds wander into vague +analogies concerning birds, spiders or crustacea.</p> +<br /> + +<p>BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER I</p> + +<a name='Footnote_1_1'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_1'>1.</a><div class='note'> Loeb, Jacques. Artificial Parthenogenesis and Fertilization. Chicago, +1913.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_2_1'></a><a href='#FNanchor_2_1'>2.</a><div class='note'><p> Loeb, Jacques. The Organism as a Whole. N.Y., 1916, p. 125—brief +summary of results of [1].</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_3_1'></a><a href='#FNanchor_3_1'>3.</a><div class='note'><p> Bower, Kerr & Agar. Sex and Heredity. N.Y., 1919, 119 pp.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_4_1'></a><a href='#FNanchor_4_1'>4.</a><div class='note'><p> Schäfer, E.A. Nature, Origin and Maintenance of Life. Science, n.s., +Vol. 36, pp. 306 f., 1912.</p></div> + +5. <p> Guyer, M.F. Being Well-Born. Indianapolis, 1916; p. 123.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='CHAPTER_II'></a><h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<center>SEX IN TERMS OF INTERNAL SECRETIONS</center> +<br /> + +<center><blockquote>Continuity of germplasm; The sex chromosome; The internal secretions and +the sex complex; The male and the female type of body; How removal of +sex glands affects body type; Sex determination; Share of egg and sperm +in heredity; Nature of sex—sexual selection of little importance; The +four main types of secretory systems; Sex and sex-instincts of rats +modified by surgery; Dual basis for sex; Opposite-sex basis in every +individual; The Free-Martin cattle; Partial reversal of sex in man.</blockquote></center><br> +<br /> + +<p>In Chapter I, the "immortality" of the protoplasm in the germ cells of +higher animals, as well as in simpler forms without distinct bodies, was +mentioned. In these higher animals this protoplasm is known as +<i>germplasm</i>, that in body cells as <i>somatoplasm</i>.</p> + +<p>All that is really meant by "immortality" in a germplasm is continuity. +That is, while an individual may consist of a colony of millions of +cells, all of these spring from one cell and it a germ cell—the +fertilized ovum. This first divides to form a new group of germ cells, +which are within the embryo or new body when it begins to develop, and +so on through indefinite generations. Thus the germ cells in an +individual living to-day are the lineal descendants, by simple division, +of the germ cells in his ancestors as many generations, or thousands of +generations, ago as we care to imagine. All the complicated body +specializations and sex phenomena may be regarded as super-imposed upon +or grouped around this succession of germ cells, continuous by simple +division.</p> + +<p>The type of body in each generation depends upon this germplasm, but the +germplasm is not supposed to be in any way modified by the body (except, +of course, that severe enough accidents might damage it). Thus we +resemble our parents only because the germplasm which directs our +development is a split-off portion of the same continuous line of germ +cells which directed their development, that of their fathers, and so on +back. This now universally accepted theory is called the "continuity of +the germplasm."</p> + +<p>It will be seen at once that this seems to preclude any possibility of a +child's inheriting from its parents anything which these did not +themselves inherit. The bodies of each generation are, so to speak, mere +"buds" from the continuous lines of germplasm. If we <i>develop</i> our +muscles or our musical talent, this development is of the body and dies +with it, though the physical basis or capacity we ourselves inherited +is still in the germplasm and is therefore passed along to our +children. We may also furnish our children an environment which will +stimulate their desire and lend opportunity for similar or greater +advancement than our own. This is <i>social inheritance</i>, or the product +of <i>environment</i>—easy to confuse with that of <i>heredity</i> and very +difficult to separate, especially in the case of mental traits.</p> + +<p>It will likewise become clear as we proceed that there is no mechanism +or relationship known to biology which could account for what is +popularly termed "pre-natal influence." A developing embryo has its own +circulation, so insulated from that of the mother that only a few of the +most virulent and insidious disease germs can ever pass the barrier. The +general health of the mother is of utmost importance to the vitality, +chances of life, constitution and immunity from disease of the unborn +child. Especially must she be free from diseases which may be +communicated to the child either before or at the time of birth. This +applies particularly to gonorrhoea, one of the most widely prevalent as +well as most ancient of maladies, and syphilis, another disastrous and +very common plague which is directly communicable. As to "birthmarks" +and the like being directly caused by things the mother has seen or +thought about, such beliefs seem to be founded on a few remarkable pure +coincidences and a great deal of folk-lore.</p> + +<p>Reproduction in its simplest form is, then, simply the division of one +cell into two parts, each of which develops into a replica of the +original. Division is also the first stage in reproduction in the most +complicated animal bodies. To get an idea of what takes place in such a +division we must remember that a cell consists of three distinct parts: +(a) the protoplasm or cytoplasm, (b) the nucleus, and (c) a small body +known as the centrosome which need not be discussed here.</p> + +<p>When a cell division takes place, the nucleus breaks up into a number of +thread-like portions which are known as chromosomes. There are supposed +to be 24 pairs, or 48, in the human cell. All the evidence indicates +that these chromosomes carry the "factors" in inheritance which produces +the characters or characteristics of the individual body.</p> + +<p>In mitosis or ordinary cell division, these chromosomes split +lengthwise, so that the new cells always have the same number as the +original one. When the germ-cells of the male and female make the +division which marks the first step in reproduction, however, the +process is different. Half the chromatin material passes into each of +the two cells formed. This is called <i>maturation</i>, or the maturation +division, and the new cells have only half the original number of +chromosomes. Each of these divides again by mitosis (the chromosomes +splitting lengthwise), the half or haploid number remaining. The result +is the <i>gametes</i> (literally "marrying cells"—from the Greek <i>gamé</i>, +signifying marriage). Those from the male are called sperms or +spermatozoa and those from the female eggs or ova. (The divisions to +form ova present certain complications which need not be taken up in +detail here.) Of the 24 chromosomes in each sperm or egg we are here +concerned with only one, known as the sex chromosome because, in +addition to transmitting other characteristics, it determines the sex of +the new individual.</p> + +<p>Neither the ovum nor the spermatozoon (the human race is referred to) is +capable alone of developing into a new individual. They must join in the +process known as fertilization. The sperm penetrates the egg (within the +body of the female) and the 24 chromosomes from each source, male and +female, are re-grouped in a new nucleus with 48 chromosomes—the full +number.</p> + +<p>The chances are half and half that the new individual thus begun will be +of a given sex, for the following reason: There is a structural +difference, supposed to be fundamentally chemical, between the cells of +a female body and those of a male. The result is that the gametes (sperm +and eggs) they respectively produce in maturation are not exactly alike +as to chromosome composition. All the eggs contain what is known as the +"X" type of sex chromosome. But only half the male sperm have this +type—in the other half is found one of somewhat different type, known +as "Y." (This, again, is for the human species—in some animals the +mechanism and arrangement is somewhat different.) If a sperm and egg +both carrying the X-type of chromosome unite in fertilization, the +resulting embryo is a female. If an X unites with a Y, the result is a +male. Since each combination happens in about half the cases, the race +is about half male and half female.</p> + +<p>Thus sex is inherited, like other characters, by the action of the +chromatin material of the cell nucleus. As Goldschmidt<a name='FNanchor_1_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_2'><sup>[1]</sup></a> remarks, this +theory of the visible mechanism of sex distribution "is to-day so far +proven that the demonstration stands on the level of an experimental +proof in physics or chemistry." But why and how does this nuclear +material determine sex? In other words, what is the nature of the +process of differentiation into male and female which it sets in motion?</p> + +<p>To begin with, we must give some account of the difference between the +cells of male and female origin, an unlikeness capable of producing the +two distinct types of gametes, not only in external appearance, but in +chromosome makeup as well. It is due to the presence in the bodies of +higher animals of a considerable number of glands, such as the thyroid +in the throat and the suprarenals just over the kidneys. These pour +secretions into the blood stream, determining its chemical quality and +hence how it will influence the growth or, when grown, the stable +structure of other organs and cells. They are called endocrine glands or +organs, and their chemical contributions to the blood are known as +<i>hormones</i>.</p> + +<p>Sometimes those which do nothing but furnish these secretions are spoken +of as "ductless glands," from their structure. The hormones (endocrine +or internal secretions) do not come from the ductless glands alone—but +the liver and other glands contribute hormones to the blood stream, in +addition to their other functions. Some authorities think that "every +cell in the body is an organ of internal secretion",<a name='FNanchor_2_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_2'><sup>[2]</sup></a> and that thus +each influences all the others. The sex glands are especially important +as endocrine organs; in fact the somatic cells are organized around the +germ cells, as pointed out above. Hence the sex glands may be considered +as the keys or central factors in the two chemical systems, the male and +the female type.</p> + +<p>These various hormones or chemical controllers in the blood interact in +a nicely balanced chemical system. Taken as a whole this is often +called the "secretory balance" or "internal secretory balance." This +balance is literally the key to the sex differences we see, because it +lies back of them; i.e., there are two general types of secretory +balance, one for males and one for females. Not only are the secretions +from the male and the female sex glands themselves quite unlike, but the +whole chemical system, balance or "complex" involved is different. +Because of this dual basis for metabolism or body chemistry, centering in +the sex glands, no organ or cell in a male body can be exactly like the +corresponding one in a female body.</p> + +<p>In highly organized forms like the mammals (including man), sex is +linked up with <i>all</i> the internal secretions, and hence is of the whole +body.<a name='FNanchor_3_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_2'><sup>[3]</sup></a> As Bell <a name='FNanchor_2_2a'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_2'><sup>[2, p.5]</sup></a> states it: "We must focus at one and the +same time the two essential processes of life—the individual metabolism +and the reproductive metabolism. They are interdependent. Indeed, the +individual metabolism is the reproductive metabolism."</p> + +<p>Here, then, is the reason men have larger, differently formed bodies +than women—why they have heavier bones, tend to grow beards, and so on. +The sex glands are only part of what we may call a well-organized +chemical laboratory, delivering various products to the blood, but +always in the same general proportions for a given sex. The ingredients +which come from the sex glands are also qualitatively different, as has +been repeatedly proved by injections and otherwise.</p> + +<p>Each of these sex types, male and female, varies somewhat within itself, +as is true of everything living. The two are not so far apart but that +they may overlap occasionally in some details. For instance, some women +are larger than are some men—have lower pitched voices, etc. The whole +bodily metabolism, resting as it does upon a chemical complex, is +obviously more like the male average in some women than it is in others, +and <i>vice versa</i>. But the average physical make-up which we find +associated with the male and female sex glands, respectively, is +distinctive in each case, and a vast majority of individuals of each sex +conform nearly enough to the average so that classification presents no +difficulty.</p> + +<p>The extreme as well as the average body types existing in the presence +of the respective types of sex-glands are different. For example, we +find an occasional hen with male spurs, comb or wattles, though she is a +normal female in every other respect, and lays eggs.<a name='FNanchor_4_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_2'><sup>[4]</sup></a> But we never +find a functional female (which lays eggs) with <i>all</i> the typical +characteristics of the male body. Body variation can go only so far in +the presence of each type of primary sexuality (i.e., sex-glands).</p> + +<p>The bodily peculiarities of each sex, as distinguished from the +sex-glands or gonads themselves, are known as <i>secondary</i> sex +characters. To put our statement in the paragraph above in another form, +the primary and secondary sex do not always correspond in all details. +We shall find as we proceed that our original tentative definition of +sex as the ability to produce in the one case sperm, in the other eggs, +is sometimes difficult to apply. What shall we say of a sterile +individual, which produces neither? The problem is especially +embarrassing when the primary and secondary sex do not correspond, as is +sometimes the case.</p> + +<p>Even in a fully grown animal, to remove or exchange the sex glands (by +surgery) modifies the bodily type. One of the most familiar cases of +removal is the gelding or desexed horse. His appearance and disposition +are different from the stallion, especially if the operation takes place +while he is very young. The reason he resembles a normal male in many +respects is simply that sexuality in such highly-organized mammals is of +the whole body, not of the sex-glands or organs alone.</p> + +<p>Suppose this horse was desexed at two years old. Nearly three years had +elapsed since he was a fertilized egg. During the eleven months or so he +spent within his mother, he developed a very complicated body. Beginning +as a male, with a male-type metabolism (that is, as the result of a +union between an X and a Y chromosome, not two X's), all his glands, as +well as the body structures they control, developed in its presence. Not +only the sex glands, but the liver, suprarenals, thyroid—the whole body +in fact—became adjusted to the male type. He had long before birth what +we call a male sex complex. Complex it is, but it is, nevertheless, easy +enough to imagine its nature for illustrative purposes. It is simply all +the endocrine or hormone-producing organs organized into a balanced +chemical system—adjusted to each other.</p> + +<p>When the horse had had this body and this gland system for nearly three +years (eleven months within his mother's body and twenty-four outside), +it had become pretty well organised and fixed. When a single chemical +element (the hormones from the sex-glands) was withdrawn, the system +(thus stereotyped in a developed body and glands) was modified but not +entirely upset. The sex complex remained male in many respects. It had +come to depend upon the other chemical plants, so to speak, quite as +much as upon the sex glands. The later the castration is performed—the +more fixed the body and gland type has become—the closer the horse will +resemble a normal male. Much laboratory experimentation now goes to +show that some accident while this horse was still a fertilized egg or +a very small embryo might have upset this male type of body +chemistry—perhaps even caused him to develop into a female instead, if +it took place early enough. This is well illustrated by the so-called +"Free-Martin" cattle, to be described later.</p> + +<p>For a long time a controversy raged as to whether sex is determined at +the time of fertilization, before or after. Biologists now generally +prefer to say that a fertilized egg is "predisposed" to maleness or +femaleness, instead of "determined." The word "determined" suggests +finality, whereas the embryo appears to have in the beginning only a +strong tendency or predisposition toward one sex type or the other. It +is now quite commonly believed that this predisposition arises from the +<i>quantity</i> rather than the quality or kind of factors in the chemical +impetus in the nuclei of the conjugating gametes. A later chapter will +be devoted to explaining the quantitative theory of sex.</p> + +<p>Hence the modern theory of "sex determination" has become:</p> + +<p>1. That the chemical factors which give rise to one sex or the other are +present in the sperm and ovum <i>before</i> fertilization;</p> + +<p>2. That a tendency or predisposition toward maleness or femaleness +arises at the time of fertilization, depending upon which type of sperm +unites with the uniform type of egg (in some species the sperm is +uniform while the egg varies);</p> + +<p>3. That this predisposition is:</p> + +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>a. Weaker at first, before it builds up much of a body and gland system to fix it;</span><br /> + +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>b. Increasingly stronger as the new body becomes organized and developed;</span><br /> + +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>c. Liable to partial or complete upset in the very early stages;</span><br /> + +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>d. Probably quantitative—stronger in some cases than in others.</span><br /> + +<p>The new definition is, then, really a combination and amplification of +the three older points of view.</p> + +<p>The term "sex determination" does not mean to the biologist the changing +or determining of the sex at will on the part of the experimenter. This +might be done by what is known as "selective fertilization" artificially +with only the kind of sperm (X or Y as to chromosomes) which would +produce the desired result. There is as yet no way to thus select the +sperm of higher animals. It has been authoritatively claimed that +feeding with certain chemicals, and other methods to be discussed later, +has affected the sex of offspring. These experiments (and +controversies) need not detain us, since they are not applicable to the +human species.</p> + +<p>Let us consider this fertilized egg—the contributions of the father and +the mother. The total length of the spermatozoon is only about 1/300 of +an inch, and 4/5 of this is the tail. This tail does not enter the egg, +and has no other known function than that of a propeller. Its movement +has been studied and found to be about 1/8 of an inch per minute. Only +the head and neck enter the egg. This head consists almost entirely of +the nuclear material which is supposed to determine the characters of +the future individual.</p> + +<p>The ovum or egg contributed by the mother is much larger—nearly round +in shape and about 1/120 of an inch in diameter. Besides its nucleus, it +contains a considerable amount of what used to be considered as "stored +nutritive material" for the early development of the individual.</p> + +<p>In ancient times the female was quite commonly supposed to be a mere +medium of development for the male seed. Thus the Laws of Manu stated +that woman was the soil in which the male seed was planted. In the Greek +<i>Eumenides</i>, Orestes' mother did not generate him, but only received and +nursed the germ. These quaint ideas of course originated merely from +observation of the fact that the woman carries the young until birth, +and must not lead us to imagine that the ancients actually separated the +germ and somatic cells in their thinking.</p> + +<p>A modern version of this old belief was the idea advanced by Harvey that +the ovum consisted of fluid in which the embryo appeared by spontaneous +generation. Loeuwenhoek's development of the microscope in the 17th +century led immediately to the discovery of the spermatozoon by one of +his students. At the time, the "preformation theory" was probably the +most widely accepted—i.e., that the adult form exists in miniature in +the egg or germ, development being merely an unfolding of these +preformed parts. With the discovery of the spermatozoon the +preformationists were divided into two schools, one (the ovists) holding +that the ovum was the container of the miniature individual, the other +(animalculists) according this function to the spermatozoon. According +to the ovists, the ovum needed merely the stimulation of the +spermatozoon to cause its contained individual to undergo development, +while the animalculists looked upon the spermatozoon as the essential +embryo container, the ovum serving merely as a suitable food supply or +growing place.</p> + +<p>This nine-lived notion of male supremacy in inheritance was rather +reinforced than removed by the breeding of domestic animals in the +still more recent past. Attention has been focused on a few great males. +For example, the breed of American trotting horses all goes back to one +sire—Hambletonian 10. The great Orloff Stud Book, registering over a +million individuals, is in the beginning founded on a single horse—a +male. It is not strange that we still find among some breeders vestiges +of the ancient belief that the male predominates in inheritance. A +superior male can impress his characters in a single year upon 100 times +as <i>many</i> colts as a female of equal quality could produce in her +lifetime. So slight an incident in his life is this reproductive process +for each individual that he could if he devoted his life solely to +reproduction stamp his characters upon a thousand times as many colts as +could a female. Thus under artificial breeding conditions, the good +males do have a tremendously disproportionate share in improving the +whole breed of horses, though each single horse gets his qualities +equally from his male and female parents.</p> + +<p>Though Mendel knew an astonishing amount about inheritance a +half-century ago, it is worth noting that the foundation upon which +rests our present knowledge of sex has been discovered less than twenty +years before—the reference is, of course, to the chromosomes as the +carriers of inheritance. While from the standpoint of biology the +opinions of two decades ago about sex literally belong to a different +age, some of them have been so persistent in sociological thought and +writings that they must be briefly reviewed in order that the reader may +be on his guard against them. Books which still have a wide circulation +deal with the sex problem in terms of a biology now no more tenable than +the flatness of the earth.</p> + +<p>On the one hand were the ancient traditions of male predominance in +inheritance, reinforced by the peculiar emphasis which animal breeding +places upon males. On the other hand, biologists like Andrew Wilson<a name='FNanchor_5_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_5_2'><sup>[5]</sup></a> +had argued as early as the seventies of the past century for female +predominance, from the general evidence of spiders, birds, etc. Lester +F. Ward crystallized the arguments for this view in an article entitled +"Our Better Halves" in <i>The Forum</i> in 1888. This philosophy of sex, +which he christened the "Gynæcocentric Theory," is best known as +expanded into the fourteenth chapter of his "Pure Sociology," published +fifteen years later. Its publication at this late date gave it an +unfortunate vitality long after its main tenets had been disproved in +the biological laboratory. Germ-cell and body-cell functions were not +separated. Arguments from social structures, from cosmic, natural and +human history, much of it deduced by analogy, were jumbled together in +a fashion which seems amazing to us now, though common enough thirty +years ago. It was not a wild hypothesis in 1888, its real date, but its +repeated republication (in the original and in the works of other +writers who accepted it as authoritative) since 1903 has done much to +discredit sociology with biologists and, what is more serious, to muddle +ideas about sex and society.</p> + +<p>In 1903, Weismann's theory of the continuity of the germplasm was ten +years old. De Vries' experiments in variation and Mendel's rediscovered +work on plant hybridization had hopelessly undermined the older notion +that the evolution or progress of species has taken place through the +inheritance of acquired characters—that is, that the individuals +developed or adapted themselves to suit their surroundings and that +these body-modifications were inherited by their offspring. As pointed +out in Chapter I, biologists have accepted Weismann's theory of a +continuous germplasm, and that this germplasm, not the body, is the +carrier of inheritance. Nobody has so far produced evidence of any trace +of any biological mechanism whereby development of part of the body—say +the biceps of the brain—of the individual could possibly produce such a +specific modification of the germplasm he carries as to result in the +inheritance of a similar development by his offspring.</p> + +<p>Mendel's experiments had shown that the characters we inherit are units +or combinations of units, very difficult to permanently change or +modify. They combine with each other in all sorts of complicated ways. +Sometimes one will "dominate" another, causing it to disappear for a +generation or more; but it is not broken up. These characters have a +remarkable way of becoming "segregated" once more—that is, of appearing +intact later on.</p> + +<p>While it follows from Weismann's theory that an adaptation acquired by +an individual during his lifetime cannot be transmitted to his +offspring, it remained for De Vries to show authoritatively that +evolution can, and does, take place without this. Once this was +established, biologists cheerfully abandoned the earlier notion. Lester +Ward and the biologists of his day in general not only believed in the +transmission of acquired characters, but they filled the obvious gaps +which occurred in trying to apply this theory to the observed facts by +placing a fantastic emphasis upon sexual selection. That is, much +progress was accounted for through the selection by the females of the +superior males. This, as a prime factor in evolution, has since been +almost "wholly discredited" (Kellogg's phrase) by the careful +experiments of Mayer, Soule, Douglass, Dürigen, Morgan and others. The +belief in sexual selection involved a long string of corollaries, of +which biology has about purged itself, but they hang on tenaciously in +sociological and popular literature. For instance, Ward believed in the +tendency of opposites to mate (tall men with short women, blonds with +brunettes, etc.), although Karl Pearson had published a statistical +refutation in his <i>Grammar of Science</i>, which had run through two +editions when the <i>Pure Sociology</i> appeared. The greater variability of +males than females, another gynæcocentric dogma had also been attacked +by Pearson on statistical evidence in 1897 (in the well-known essay on +Variation in Man and Woman, in <i>Chances of Death</i>) and has become +increasingly unacceptable through the researches of Mrs. +Hollingworth<a name='FNanchor_6_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_6_2'><sup>[6, </sup></a><a name='FNanchor_7_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_7_2'><sup>7, </sup></a><a name='FNanchor_8_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_8_2'><sup>8]</sup></a>. The idea of a vanished age of mother-rule in human +society, so essential to the complete theory, has long since been +modified by anthropologists.</p> + +<p>De Vries' experiments showed that a moderately simple fact practically +makes all these complicated theories unnecessary. No two living things +are exactly alike—that is, all living matter is more or less variable. +Some variations are more fortunate than others, and these variants are +the ones which survive—the ones best adapted to their environment. +Given this fact of the constant variation of living matter, natural +selection (i.e., survival of the fittest and elimination of the unfit) +is the mechanism of evolution or progress which best accounts for the +observed facts. Such variation is called "chance variation," not because +it takes place by "chance" in the properly accepted sense of the term, +but because it is so tremendously varied—is evidently due to such +complicated and little-understood circumstances—that it can best be +studied mathematically, using statistical applications of the "theory of +probabilities."</p> + +<p>The fine-spun, elaborate theories about sex, so current twenty years +ago, have fallen into almost complete desuetude among scientists. With +the discovery of the place of the chromosomes in inheritance, biologists +began to give their almost undivided attention to a rigid laboratory +examination of the cell. This has included sex phenomena since McClung +and Sutton pointed out the function of the sex chromosome in 1902 and +1903. Present-day "theories" are little more than working hypotheses, +developed, not in a library or study, but with one eye glued to a +high-power microscope.</p> + +<p>Besides its faulty foundation as to facts, the old gynæcocentric theory +involved a method of treatment by historical analogy which biologists +have almost entirely discarded. Anyone interested in the relative value +of different kinds of biological data for social problems would do well +to read the opening chapter of Prof. Morgan's "Critique of the Theory of +Evolution"<a name='FNanchor_9_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_9_2'><sup>[9]</sup></a> , for even a summary of which space is lacking here. +College reference shelves are still stocked with books on sex sociology +which are totally oblivious of present-day biology. For example, Mrs +Gilman (Man-Made World), Mrs Hartley (Truth About Woman) and the +Nearings (Woman and Social Progress) adhere to Ward's theory in +substantially its primitive form, and not even sociologists like +Professor Thomas (Sex and Society) have been able to entirely break away +from it.</p> + +<p>The old question of male and female predominance in inheritance has been +to a considerable extent cleared up, to the discomfiture of both sides +to the controversy. Most exhaustive experiments failed to trace any +characters to any other part of either sperm or egg than the nucleus. +Transmission of characteristics seemed to be absolutely equal by the two +parents. The male nucleus enters the egg practically naked. Hence if the +characters are transmitted equally, there is certainly ground for +supposing that only the nucleus of the egg has such functions, and that +the remainder merely provides material for early development. Yet this +does not seem to be strictly true.</p> + +<p>Parthenogenesis (development of eggs without agency of male sperm) +proves that in many simple forms the female nucleus alone possesses all +the essential determiners for a new individual. Boveri's classic +experiment<a name='FNanchor_10_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_10_2'><sup>[10]</sup></a> proved the same thing for the male nucleus. He removed +the nuclei from sea-urchin eggs and replaced them with male nuclei. +Normal individuals developed. To make things still more certain, he +replaced the female nucleus with a male one from a different variety of +sea-urchin. The resulting individual exhibited the characteristics of +the <i>male nucleus</i> only—none of those of the species represented by the +egg. Here, then, was inheritance definitely traced to the nucleus. If +this nucleus is a male the characters are those of the male line; if a +female those of the female line, and in sexual reproduction where the +two are fused, half and half.</p> + +<p>Yet the fact remained that all efforts to develop the spermatozoon alone +(without the agency of any egg material at all) into an individual had +signally failed. Conklin<a name='FNanchor_11_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_11_2'><sup>[11]</sup></a> had found out in 1904 and 1905 that the egg +cytoplasm in Ascidians is not only composed of different materials, but +that these give rise to definite structures in the embryo later on. So a +good many biologists believed, and still believe<a name='FNanchor_12_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_12_2'><sup>[12,</sup></a> <a name='FNanchor_13_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_13_2'><sup>13,</sup></a> <a name='FNanchor_14_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_14_2'><sup>14]</sup></a> that the egg +is, before fertilization, a sort of "rough preformation of the future +embryo" and that the Mendelian factors in the nuclei "only impress the +individual (and variety) characters upon this rough block."</p> + +<p>If we look at these views from one angle, the apparent conflict +disappears, as Professor Conklin<a name='FNanchor_15_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_15_2'><sup>[15]</sup></a> points out. We can still presume +that all the factors of inheritance are carried in the nucleus. But +instead of commencing the life history of the individual at +fertilization, we must date it back to the beginning of the development +of the egg in the ovary. Whatever rude characters the egg possesses at +the time of fertilization were developed under the influence of the +nucleus, which in turn got them half and half from its male and female +parents. These characters carried by the female across one generation +are so rudimentary that they are completely covered up, in the +developing embryo, by those of the new nucleus formed by the union of +the sperm with the egg in fertilization.</p> + +<p>In case fertilization does not take place, this rude beginning in the +egg is lost. Since no characteristic sex is assumed until after +fertilization, we may say that life begins as neuter in the individual, +as it is presumed to have done in the world. It will occur to those +inclined to speculation or philosophic analysis that by the word +"neuter" we may mean any one or all of three things: (a) neither male +nor female; (b) both male and female, as yet undifferentiated, or (c) +potentially either male or female. Clearly, the above explanation +assumes a certain <i>germinal</i> specialization of the female to +reproduction, in addition to the body specialization for the +intra-parental environment (in mammals).</p> + +<p>A tremendous amount of laboratory experimentation upon animals has been +done in late years to determine the nature of sex. For example, +Goodale<a name='FNanchor_16_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_16_2'><sup>[16]</sup></a> castrated a brown leghorn cockerel twenty-three days old +and dropped pieces of the ovary of a female bird of the same brood and +strain into the abdominal cavity. These adhered and built up circulatory +systems, as an autopsy later showed. This cockerel, whose male sex +glands had been exchanged for female ones, developed the female body, +and colouration so completely that expert breeders of the strain +pronounced it a female. He found that simply removing the female sex +glands invariably led to the development of spurs and male plumage. But +simple removal of the male sex glands did not alter plumage. To make +sure, he replaced the male sex glands with female, and found that the +former male developed female plumage.</p> + +<p>This obviously signifies that in birds the female is an inhibited +male.<a name='FNanchor_4_2a'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_2'><sup>[4, p.49.]</sup></a> Either sex when castrated has male feathers—the male has +them either with or without testes, unless they are <i>inhibited</i> by the +presence of (transplanted) ovaries. It will be remembered that the +sociological theory of sex held by Ward, Mrs. Hartley and a host of +others was founded on the supposition that evolution or development of a +species is chiefly due to selection by the females of the better males, +a conclusion based almost entirely on bird evidence. Ward<a name='FNanchor_17_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_17_2'><sup>[17]</sup></a> states +that "the change or progress, as it may be called, has been wholly in +the male, the female remaining unchanged"; also that "the male side of +nature shot up and blossomed out in an unnatural, fantastic way...." +Speaking of the highly-coloured males, especially among birds, the same +writer states that "the <i>normal colour</i> (italics ours) is that of the +young and the female, and the colour of the male is the result of his +excessive variability." Goodale's results completely refute this idea, +and should bury for ever the well-known sociological notion of "male +afflorescence."</p> + +<p>The general doctrine of a stable, "race-type" female and a highly +variable male has been widely circulated. In tracing it back through +voluminous literature, it appears to have been founded on an article +published by W.I. Brooks in the <i>Popular Science Monthly</i> for June, +1879, fourteen years before Weissmann's enunciation of the theory of +continuity of the germ-plasm. Like Wallace, Brooks continued to study +and experiment till the last, and finally withdrew from his earlier +position on sexual selection. However, this has not prevented others +from continuing to quote his discarded views—innocently, of course.</p> + +<p>Havelock Ellis<a name='FNanchor_18_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_18_2'><sup>[18]</sup></a> and G. Stanley Hall<a name='FNanchor_19_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_19_2'><sup>[19]</sup></a> have applied the idea of a +"race-type" female with peculiar insistence to the human race. Goodale +has finally killed the bird evidence upon which earlier workers so +largely founded this doctrine, by showing that the "race type" toward +which birds tend unless inhibited by the female ovarian secretion is the +male type, not the female. There is a great difference in the way the +internal secretions act in birds and in man, as will be pointed out +later. It is so important that such a major point as general variability +must be supported and corroborated by mammalian evidence to prove +anything positively for man. As already noted, the statistical studies +of Pearson and Mrs. Hollingworth <i>et al.</i> have yielded uniformly +negative results.</p> + +<p>In the utilization of data gathered from non-human species, certain +differences in the systems of internal secretion must be taken into +account. Birds differ from the human species as to internal secretory +action in two vital particulars: (a) In the higher mammals, sex depends +upon a "complex" of all the glands interacting, instead of upon the sex +glands alone as in birds; (b) The male bird instead of the female is +homogametic for sex—i.e., the sperm instead of the eggs is uniform as +to the sex chromosome.</p> + +<p>Insects are (in some cases at least) like birds as to the odd +chromosome—the opposite of man. But as to secondary sex-characters they +differ from both. These characters do not depend upon any condition of +the sex organs, but are determined directly by the chemical factors +which determine sex itself.<a name='FNanchor_20_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_20_2'><sup>[20]</sup></a> </p> + +<p>In crustacea, the male is an inhibited female (the exact opposite of +birds), as shown by the experiments of Giard and Geoffrey Smith on +crabs. A parasite, <i>Sacculina neglecta</i>, sometimes drives root-like +growths into the spider crab, causing slow castration. The females thus +desexed do not assume the male type of body, but castrated males vary so +far toward the female type that some lay eggs<a name='FNanchor_3_2a'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_2'><sup>[3, p.143;</sup></a> <a name='FNanchor_20_2a'></a><a href='#Footnote_20_2'><sup>20]</sup></a>. It is the +discovery of such distinctions which makes it necessary to re-examine +all the older biological evidence on the sex problem, and to discard +most of it as insufficiently exact.</p> + +<p>The work of Steinach<a name='FNanchor_12_2a'></a><a href='#Footnote_12_2'><sup>[12, pp.225f.]</sup></a> on rats is another well-known example +of changing sex characters by surgery. Steinach found that an ovary +transplanted into a male body changed its characteristics and instincts +into the female type. The growth of the male sex organs he found to be +definitely inhibited by the ovaries. He went so far as to transplant the +whole uterus and tube into the male body, where it developed normally. +One of the most interesting of his results is the observation of how the +instincts were changed along with the type of body. The feminized males +behaved like normal females toward the other males and toward females. +Likewise they were treated as normal females by the males.</p> + +<p>It would be impossible to give here any just idea of the vast amount of +rigid scientific experimentation which has been carried on in this +field, or the certainty of many of the results. Sex is really known, +about as well as anything can be known, to arise from the chemical +causes discussed above. That is, the endocrine explanation is the +correct one.</p> + +<p>One of the most significant results of the transplantation experiments +is the evidence that <i>each individual carries the fundamental bases for +both sexes</i>. When Goodale changed a male bird into a female as to +secondary characters and instincts by replacing one secretion with +another, he was faced with the following problem: How can a single +secretion be responsible for innumerable changes as to feather length, +form and colouring, as to spurs, comb and almost an endless array of +other details? To suppose that a secretion could be so complicated in +its action as to determine each one of a thousand different items of +structure, colour and behaviour would be preposterous. Besides, we know +that some of these internal secretions are <i>not</i> excessively +complicated—for instance adrenalin (the suprarenal secretion) can be +compounded in the laboratory. We may say that it cannot possibly be that +the ovarian or testicular secretion is composed of enough different +chemical substances to produce each different effect.</p> + +<p>There remains only the supposition that the female already possesses the +genetic basis for becoming a male, and <i>vice versa</i>. This is in accord +with the observed facts. In countless experiments it is shown that the +transformed female becomes like the male of her own strain and brood—to +state it simply, like the male she would have been if she had not been a +female. If we think of this basis as single, then it must <i>exhibit</i> +itself in one way in the presence of the male secretions, in another way +under the influence of the female secretions. In this way a very simple +chemical agent in the secretion might account for the whole +difference—merely causing a genetic basis already present to express +itself in the one or the other manner.</p> + +<p>This may be illustrated by the familiar case of the crustacea <i>Artemia +salina</i> and <i>Artemia Milhausenii</i>. These are so unlike that they were +long supposed to be different species; but it was later discovered that +the genetic basis is exactly the same. One lives in 4 to 8% salt water, +the other in 25% or over. If, however, the fresh-water variety is put in +the saltier water with the salt-water variety, all develop exactly +alike, into the salt-water kind. Likewise, if the salt-water variety is +developed in fresh water, it assumes all the characteristics of the +fresh-water kind. Thus the addition or subtraction of a single chemical +agent—common salt—makes all the difference.</p> + +<p>If this basis for sex is single, it is represented by the male plumage +in domestic birds, the secretions from the sex-glands acting as +modifiers. But a great deal of evidence has been produced to show that +the genetic basis, in man and some other forms at least, is double. That +is, we must think of two genetic bases existing in each individual—each +representing one of the two types of secondary sex characters. The +primary sex (i.e., the sex glands) would then determine which is to +express itself. In the domestic birds described above, the male type of +body appears in the absence of the ovarian secretion, and the female +type in its presence. In man and the more highly organized mammals, we +must use "secretions" in the plural, since a number of them, from +different glands, act together in a "complex." Goodale, experimenting +with birds, was unable to definitely decide whether the basis for sex +was single or double in that material, though he favoured the latter +explanation.</p> + +<p>Dr Bell, the English gynecologist, using human surgical cases as a +basis, commits himself strongly to the dual basis.<a name='FNanchor_2_2b'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_2'><sup>[2, p.13.]</sup></a> "Every +fertilized ovum," he says, "is potentially bisexual," but has "a +predominating tendency ... toward masculinity or femininity." But "at +the same time," he remarks, "it is equally obvious that latent traits of +the opposite sex are always present." After discussing mental traits +observed in each sex which normally belong to the other, he concludes as +follows: "If further evidence of this bisexuality, which exists in +everyone, were required, it is to be found in the embryological remains +of the latent sex, which always exist in the genital ducts."</p> + +<p>In some lower forms, dual sexuality is apparent until the animal is +fairly well developed. In frogs, for example, the sex glands of both +sexes contain eggs in early life, and it is not possible to tell them +apart with certainty, until they are about four months old.<a name='FNanchor_12_2b'></a><a href='#Footnote_12_2'><sup>[12, p.125.]</sup></a> +Then the eggs gradually disappear in the male.</p> + +<p>However, we need not depend upon non-mammalian evidence for either the +secretory explanation or the dual basis. An ideal case would be to +observe the effects of circulating the blood of one sex in a developing +embryo of the other. This blood-transfusion occurs in nature in the +"Free-Martin" cattle.<a name='FNanchor_21_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_21_2'><sup>[21]</sup></a> </p> + +<p>Two embryos (twins) begin to develop in separate membranes or chorions. +At an early stage in this development, however, the arteries and veins +of the two become connected, so that the blood of each may circulate +through the body of the other. "If both are males or both are females no +harm results from this...," since the chemical balance which determines +the bodily form in each case is of the same type. But if one is a male +and the other a female, the male secretory balance dominates the female +in a very peculiar fashion. The female reproductive system is largely +suppressed. She even develops certain male organs, and her general +bodily appearance is so decidedly masculine that until Dr Lillie worked +out the case she had always been supposed to be a non-functional male. +She is sterile. The blood transfusion not only alters the sex-type of +her body, but it actually modifies the sex glands themselves, so that +the ovary resembles a testicle, though dissection proves the contrary.</p> + +<p>Why does not the female become a true, functional male? Perhaps she does +in some cases. Such a one would not be investigated, since there would +be no visible peculiarity. In all the cases examined, the embryo had +begun its female development and specialization under the influence of +a predisposition of the female type in the fertilized egg, before the +transfusion began. There is no absolutely convincing mammalian evidence +of the complete upset of this predisposition, so all one can say is that +it is theoretically possible. Cases of partial reversal, sometimes +called "intersexes," are common enough. In birds and insects, where the +material is less expensive and experimentation simpler, males have been +produced from female-predisposed fertilized eggs and <i>vice versa</i>, as we +shall see in the next chapter.</p> + +<p>Dr Bell<a name='FNanchor_2_2c'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_2'><sup>[2, pp.133f.]</sup></a> points out that the so-called human "hermaphrodites" +are simply partial reversals of the sex type from that originally fixed +in the fertilized egg. As has been remarked earlier in these pages, +there is rarely if ever true hermaphroditism in higher animals—i.e., +cases of <i>two functional sexes</i> in the same individual. In fact, the +pathological cases in the human species called by that name are probably +not capable of reproduction at all.<a name='FNanchor_A_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_A_3'><sup>[A]</sup></a></p> + +<a name='Footnote_A_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_A_3'>[A]</a><div class='note'><p> <i>Note on human hermaphroditism</i>: This subject has been +treated in a considerable medical literature. See, for example, Alienist +and Neurologist for August, 1916, and New York Medical Journal for Oct. +23, 1915. It has been claimed that both human and higher mammalian +"hermaphrodites" have actually functioned for both sexes. Obviously, +absolute certainty about cause and effect in such cases, where human +beings are concerned, is next to impossible, because of lack of +scientific, laboratory control. If a case of complete functional +hermaphroditism in the human species could be established beyond +question, it would indicate that the male secretory balance in man does +not inhibit the female organs to the same extent that it apparently does +in the Free-Martin cattle. If established, the idea of "male dominance" +in the human species would be undermined in a new place. Such cases, if +they occur at all, are exceedingly rare, but are of theoretical +interest. We must not rush to conclusions, as the earlier sociologists +used to do. Such a case would require careful analysis. Its very +uniqueness would suggest that it may not be due to the ordinary causes +of hermaphroditism, but might arise from some obscure and unusual cause +such as the fusion of two embryos at a very early stage. The +biochemistry involved is so intricate and so little understood that any +deduction from the known facts would be purely speculative.</p></div> +<br /> + +<p>Like the Free-Martin cattle, some accident has resulted in a mixture of +male and female characteristics. This accident occurs after a certain +amount of embryonic development has taken place under the influence of +the original predisposition of the fertilized egg. The delicate +secretory balance, so complex in man, is upset. With partially developed +organs of one type and with a blood-chemistry of the opposite one, some +curious results follow, as the illustrative plates in Dr Bell's book +show.</p> + +<p>It should be remembered that sex in higher mammals is of the whole body, +and depends upon all the secretions. Hence an accident to one of the +other glands may upset the balance as well as one to the sex glands +themselves. For example, 15% of Neugebauer's<a name='FNanchor_22_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_22_2'><sup>[22]</sup></a> cases of female tubular +partial hermaphroditism had abnormal growths in the suprarenals.</p> + +<p>Thus in the human species, it is possible for one type of sex glands to +exist in the opposite type of body, as we saw it to be in +cattle—though it apparently could not occur unless compensated for in +some way by the other secretions. This is a very great departure from +birds, rats and guinea pigs, whose bodies change over their sex type +when the gonads are transplanted. Birds take on the male appearance when +the sex glands are removed (or retain it, if they are males). This is +not true of man. The chemical life processes of the two sexes after +puberty in the human species are quite characteristic. The male and +female types are both very different from the infantile. When it becomes +necessary to desex men, the resulting condition is <i>infantile</i>, not +female.<a name='FNanchor_23_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_23_2'><sup>[23]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The desexed man is of course the eunuch of ancient literature. If +desexed near maturity, he might look like a normal man in many respects; +but if the operation were performed before puberty, his development is +simply arrested and remains infantile—incomplete. Only in 1878 was the +practice of desexing boys to get the famous adult male soprano voices +for the Sistine Choir discontinued.</p> + +<p>Removal of the ovaries in women likewise produces an infantile +condition, which is pronounced only in case the operation takes place +very young. <a name='FNanchor_24_2'></a><a href='#Footnote_24_2'><sup>[24]</sup></a> From his clinical experience, Dr Bell <a name='FNanchor_2_2d'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_2'><sup>[2, p.160]</sup></a> +concludes that no very definite modifications can be produced in an +adult woman by withdrawal of the ovarian secretion alone. "There must +be," he says, "some gross change in those parts of the endocritic +system, especially apart from the genital glands, which normally produce +masculinity—potentiality that appears to be concentrated in the +suprarenals, the pituitary and probably in the pineal."</p> + +<p>What, then, do we mean by "male" and "female" in man? Take Dr Russell +Andrews' patient: photographs<a name='FNanchor_2_2e'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_2'><sup>[2, plate opposite p.243]</sup></a> show a rounded +bodily outline, hairless face, well-developed mammæ—the female sex +characteristics in every respect which the ordinary person could detect. +Yet an operation proved that the sex glands themselves were male.</p> + +<p>Presumably extreme cases like the above are rare. Obviously operations +cannot be performed on all those with female-type bodies who do not bear +children, to determine the primary sex, and conversely with men. This +does, however, point the obvious question: Are not some we classify as +men <i>more male</i> or masculine than others—some we classify as women +<i>more feminine</i> than others? Bearing in mind the fact that the genetic +basis for both sexes exists in each individual, are not some women more +masculine than others, some men more feminine than others? However much +we may object to stating it just that way, the biological fact remains +thus. The Greeks called these intermediate types <i>urnings</i>—modern +biology knows them as "intersexes."</p> + +<p>Only within the past few years have the general phenomena of +intersexuality been cleared up to any considerable extent—naturally on +the basis of the secretory explanation of sex. This secretory or +endocrine idea has also given us an entirely new view of sex +differences. These are best discussed as functional rather than as +structural. To correlate this material, we must next give a rude sketch +of the quantitative theory of sex.</p><br /> + +<p>BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER II</p> + +<a name='Footnote_1_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_2'>1.</a><div class='note'> Goldschmidt, R. Intersexuality and the Endocrine Aspect of Sex. +Endocrinology, Vol. I, p. 434, 1917.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_2_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_2_2'>2.</a><div class='note'> Bell, Dr Blair. The Sex Complex. London, 1916, p. 98.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_3_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_3_2'>3.</a><div class='note'> Paton, D. Noël. Regulators of Metabolism. London, 1913, p. 146.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_4_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_4_2'>4.</a><div class='note'> Goodale, H.D. Gonadectomy...Carnegie Pub. 243, 1916, pp. 43f.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_5_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_5_2'>5.</a><div class='note'> Wilson, Andrew. Polity of a Pond (essay). Humboldt Lib. of Sc., +No. 88—reprint, dated 1888.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_6_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_6_2'>6.</a><div class='note'> Hollingworth, L.S. Variability as Related to Sex Differences in +Achievement. Am. Jour, of Sociol., XIX., 1914, pp. 510-530.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_7_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_7_2'>7.</a><div class='note'> Lowie, R.H. & Hollingworth, L.S. Science and Feminism. Sci. Mthly., +Sept., 1916, pp. 277-284.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_8_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_8_2'>8.</a><div class='note'> Montague, Helen & Hollingworth, L.S. Comparative Variability of the +Sexes at Birth. Am. J. of Sociol. XX, 335-70. 1915.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_9_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_9_2'>9.</a><div class='note'> Morgan, T.H. A Critique of the Theory of Evolution. N.Y., 1916, +pp. 1-27.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_10_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_10_2'>10.</a><div class='note'> Loeb, Jacques. Artificial Parthenogenesis and Fertilization. +Chicago, 1913, pp. 3, 51f., 240f, 303.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_11_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_11_2'>11.</a><div class='note'> Conklin, E.G. Organ-Forming Substances in the Eggs of Ascidians. +U. of Pa. Contrib. from the Zool. Lab. Vol. 12. 1905, pp. 205-230.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_12_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_12_2'>12.</a><div class='note'> Loeb, J. The Organism as a Whole. N.Y., 1916, pp. 138f, 151-2.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_13_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_13_2'>13.</a><div class='note'> Guyer, M.F. Being Well-Born. Indianapolis, 1916, p. 51.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_14_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_14_2'>14.</a><div class='note'> Tower, W.L. (et al.). Heredity and Eugenics. Chicago, 1912, +pp. 164, 254-5.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_15_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_15_2'>15.</a><div class='note'> Conklin, E.G. Share of Egg and Sperm in Heredity. Proc. Nat. Acad. +of Sc., Feb., 1917.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_16_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_16_2'>16.</a><div class='note'> Goodale, H.D. A Feminized Cockerel. Jour. Exp. Zool. Vol. 20, +pp. 421-8.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_17_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_17_2'>17.</a><div class='note'> Ward, Lester F. Pure Sociology. N.Y., 1903, pp. 322f.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_18_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_18_2'>18.</a><div class='note'> Ellis, Havelock. Man and Woman, 4th Ed. London, 1904. Ch. XVI.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_19_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_19_2'>19.</a><div class='note'> Hall, G. Stanley. Adolescence. N.Y., 1907. Vol. II, pp. 561-2.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_20_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_20_2'>20.</a><div class='note'> Morgan, T.H. Heredity and Sex. N.Y., 1913, pp. 155f.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_21_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_21_2'>21.</a><div class='note'> Lillie, F.R. Theory of the Free Martin. Science, n.s., Vol. XLIII, +pp. 611-13.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_22_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_22_2'>22.</a><div class='note'> Neugebauer, F.L. Hermaphrodismus, Leipzig, 1908.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_23_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_23_2'>23.</a><div class='note'> Vincent, S. Internal Secretions and the Ductless Glands. London, +1912, p. 69.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_24_2'></a><a href='#FNanchor_24_2'>24.</a><div class='note'> Marshall, F.H. Physiology of Reproduction. London, 1910, p. 314.</div> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='CHAPTER_III'></a><h2>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<center>SEX AND SEX DIFFERENCES AS QUANTITATIVE</center> +<br> +<center><blockquote>Intersexes in moths; Bird intersexes; Higher metabolism of males; +Quantitative difference between sex factors; Old ideas of +intersexuality; Modern surgery and human intersexes; Quantitative theory +a Mendelian explanation; Peculiar complication in the case of man; +Chemical life cycles of the sexes; Functional-reproductive period and +the sex problem; Relative significance of physiological sex differences.</blockquote></center><br> +<br /> + +<p>Crossing European and Japanese gypsy moths, Goldschmidt <a name='FNanchor_1_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_3'><sup>[1, </sup></a><a name='FNanchor_2_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_3'><sup>2, </sup></a><a name='FNanchor_3_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_3'><sup>3, </sup></a><a name='FNanchor_4_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_3'><sup>4]</sup></a> +noticed that the sex types secured were not pure—i.e., that certain +crosses produced females which bore a distinctly greater resemblance to +the male type than others, and <i>vice versa</i>. One of these hybrids of +"intersexes," as he calls them, would always possess some female and +some male sexual characters. He found that he could separate the males +and females, respectively, into seven distinct grades with respect to +their modification toward the opposite-sex type, and could produce any +one of these grades at will by breeding.</p> + +<p>For example, the seven grades of females were roughly as follows: +(1) Pure females; (2) Females with feathered antennæ like males and +producing fewer than the normal number of eggs; (3) Appearance of the +brown (male) patches on the white female wings; ripe eggs in abdomen, +but only hairs in the egg-sponge laid; instincts still female; +(4) Instincts less female; whole sections of wings with male colouration, +interspersed with cuneiform female sectors; abdomen smaller, males less +attracted; reproduction impossible; (5) Male colouration over almost the +entire wing; abdomen almost male, with few ripe eggs; instincts +intermediate between male and female; (6) Like males, but with +rudimentary ovaries and show female traits in some other organs; +(7) Males with a few traces of female origin, notably wing-shape.</p> + +<p>The males showed the same graded approach to the female type. Their +instincts likewise became more and more female as the type was modified +in that direction. That is, a moth would be 12% or 35% female, and so +on.</p> + +<p>Goldschmidt watched the crosses which produced seven different grades of +maleness in his females. The moth material, like the birds and mammals, +suggested a dual basis for sex in each individual. The grades of +maleness and femaleness made it seem probable that the factor which +determines sex must be stronger in some instances than in others, i.e., +that the difference between two of these grades of female is originally +quantitative, not qualitative—in amount rather than in kind.</p> + +<p>Mating European moths with European, or Japanese with Japanese, produced +pure, uniform sex-types, male and female. But a cross of European with +Japanese strains resulted in intersexes. Goldschmidt concluded that +(1) all individuals carried the genetic basis for both sexes; and +(2) that these basic factors were two chemicals of enzyme nature. One +of these he called Andrase, enzyme producing maleness, the other Gynase, +enzyme producing femaleness. Further, (3) since each chemical sex +determiner is present in both individuals in every cross, there must be +two chemical "doses" of maleness and two of femaleness struggling for +mastery in each fertilized egg. (4) If the total dose of maleness +exceeds the total dose of femaleness, the sex will be male, and +<i>vice versa</i>. (5) These quantities get fixed by natural selection +in a single race which always lives in the same environment, i.e., the +doses of maleness and femaleness in a given sex always bear practically +the same relation to each other. Hence the types are fixed and uniform. +(6) But different races are likely to have a different strength of +chemical sex-doses, so that when they are crossed, the ratios of +maleness to femaleness are upset. Often they are almost exactly equal, +which produces a type half male and half female—or 2/3, or 1/3, etc. +The proof of this theory is that it solved the problems. Goldschmidt +was able to work out the strengths of the doses of each sex in his +various individuals, and thereby to predict the exact grade of +intersexuality which would result from a given cross.</p> + +<p>Riddle's work on pigeons <a name='FNanchor_5_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_5_3'><sup>[5, </sup></a><a name='FNanchor_6_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_6_3'><sup>6]</sup></a> brings us much nearer to man, and +suggests the results noted by both Goldschmidt and Lillie. As in the +Free-Martin cattle, there is an apparent reversal of the sex +predisposition of the fertilized egg. As in the gypsy moths, different +grades of intersexes were observed. In the pigeons, it was found that +more yolk material tended to produce a larger proportion of females. The +most minute quantitative measurements were made of this factor, to +eliminate any possibility of error.</p> + +<p>The chromosome mechanisms practically force us to suppose that about +half the eggs are originally predisposed to maleness, half to +femaleness. A pigeon's clutch normally consists of two eggs, one with a +large yolk and one with a small yolk. But the half-and-half numerical +relation of males to females varies considerably—i.e., not all the +large-yolked eggs produce females or all the small-yolked ones males.</p> + +<p>Wild pigeons begin the season by throwing a predominance of males, and +the first eggs of the clutches also tend to produce males all along. In +both cases, the male-producing eggs were found to be the ones with the +smaller yolks. Family crosses also produce small yolks, which hatch out +nearly all males. Some pairs of birds, however, have nearly all female +offspring. Riddle investigated a large number of these cases and found +the amount of yolk material to be large. In other words, there seems to +be a definite relation between the amount of yolk and sex.</p> + +<p>A great number of clever experiments were carried out to find out if +eggs originally predisposed to one sex were actually used to produce the +other. Selective fertilization with different kinds of sperm was +impossible, since in these birds there is only one type of sperm—two of +eggs—as to the sex chromosome. For instance, by overworking females at +egg-production, the same birds which had been producing more males than +females were made to reverse that relation.</p> + +<p>One of the interesting results of the experiments was the production of +a number of intersexual types of various grades. This was easily +verifiable by colour and other characteristics. To make sure that the +instincts were correspondingly modified, behaviour was registered on +moving-picture films. Where the first egg of a clutch (the one with a +small, normally male-producing yolk) produces a female, she is usually +found to be more masculine than her sister from the second egg with the +larger yolk. This is true both as to appearance and as to behaviour. +Some of these were quite nearly males in appearance and behaviour, +though they laid eggs.</p> + +<p>Testicular and ovarian extracts were injected. The more feminine birds +were often killed by the testicular extract, the more masculine by the +ovarian extract. Finally, to make assurance doubly sure, some females +which should theoretically have been the most feminine were dissected +and shown to be so. That is, out-crosses which produced a predominance +of females in the fall were mated with females which had been overworked +at egg production until they threw nearly all females. Dissecting the +females thus produced, they were shown to have <i>right ovaries</i>, which +means <i>double femaleness</i>, since normally the pigeon is functional only +in the left ovary, like other birds. The right one usually degenerates +before or at hatching and is wholly absent in the week-old squab.</p> + +<p>In pigeons, Riddle thinks the "developmental energy" of the eggs is in +an inverse ratio to their size. The last and largest eggs of the season +develop least and produce most females. The second egg of a clutch is +larger than the first, but develops less and the bird produced is +shorter-lived. Overworking and other conditions tending to produce large +eggs and females also throw white mutants and show other signs of +weakness. Old females lay larger eggs than do young ones. These eggs +produce more females. They store more material, have a lower metabolism +and less oxidizing capacity than do the earlier male-producing eggs.</p> + +<p>It would be unsafe to draw specific conclusions about mammals from these +bird and insect experiments. Both the secretory action and the +chromosome mechanisms are different. The quantitative nature of sex, and +also the existence of intersexual types, between males and females, +would seem to be general phenomena, requiring rather slight +corroboration from the mammals themselves. We have such mammalian cases +as the Free-Martin cattle, and some convincing evidence of +intersexuality in the human species itself, which will be reviewed +presently.</p> + +<p>The notion of more "developmental energy" or a higher metabolism in +males is borne out in the human species. Benedict and Emmes <a name='FNanchor_7_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_7_3'><sup>[7]</sup></a> have +shown by very careful measurements that the basal metabolism of men is +about 6% higher than that of women. Riddle cites the work of Thury and +Russell on cattle to show that a higher water value (as he found in the +pigeon eggs), associated with increased metabolism, helps to produce +males.</p> + +<p>In males, the secretion of the sex glands alone seems to be of +particular importance, again suggesting this idea of "strength" which +comes up over and over again. Removal of these glands modifies the male +body much more profoundly than it does the female. <a name='FNanchor_8_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_8_3'><sup>[8]</sup></a> It is quite +generally supposed that the action of this one secretion may have much +to do with the superior size and vigour of males. For example, Paton +says <a name='FNanchor_9_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_9_3'><sup>[9]</sup></a>: "The evidence thus seems conclusive that in the male the gonad, +by producing an internal secretion, exercises a direct and specific +influence upon the whole soma, increasing the activity of growth, +moulding the whole course of development, and so modifying the +metabolism of nerve and muscle that the whole character of the animal is +altered." It used to be said that the male was more "katabolic," the +female more "anabolic." These expressions are objectionable, inasmuch as +they hint that in a mature organism, with metabolism rather stable, +tearing down, or katabolism, could go on faster than building up, or +anabolism, or that one of two phases of the same process might go on +faster than the other. It seems safer to say merely that a lower +metabolism in the female is accompanied by a tendency to store +materials.</p> + +<p>A long time will doubtless be required to work out the details of +differences in metabolism in the two sexes. Some of the main facts are +known, however, and the general effects of the two diverse chemical +systems upon the life cycles of the sexes are quite obvious. What we +call the "quantitative theory of sex" has, besides a place in exact +science, an interesting relation to the history of biological thought, +especially as applied to society. It is thus in order to state as +clearly as possible what it now is; then, so that no one may confuse it +with what it is not, to run over some of the old ideas which resemble +it.</p> + +<p>Experiments with transplanted sex glands, with sex-gland extracts +(testicular and ovarian) and the observation of infusions of a male-type +blood-stream into a female body, as occurs in nature in some cattle and +in the so-called human "hermaphrodites," indicate a gross chemical +difference between the respective determiners for femaleness and for +maleness. So the chemicals involved, though not yet isolated, must be +presumed to be <i>qualitatively</i> different, since they produce such +different results.</p> + +<p>But such experiments also indicate that both determiners must be present +in some proportions in every individual of either sex. The basis for +both sexes being present, the one which shall predominate or be +expressed in the individual must depend upon the <i>quantitative</i> relation +between the determiners which come together at fertilization. The +quantitative theory merely means that this predominance of one factor or +the other (maleness or femaleness—Gynase or Andrase) is more pronounced +in some cases than in others.</p> + +<p>In brief, then, the quantitative theory of sex is merely the most +reasonable explanation of the known fact that intersexes exist—that is, +females with some male characteristics, or with all their characters +more like the female type than the average, and <i>vice versa</i>. Laboratory +biology has established the phenomena of intersexuality beyond question, +and the word "inter-sex" has become a scientific term. But the fact that +this word and the idea it represents are new to <i>exact science</i> does not +mean that it is new in the world.</p> + +<p>Intersexes in the human species—not only the extreme pathological cases +represented by the so-called "hermaphrodites," but also merely masculine +women and effeminate men—have been the subject of serious remarks as +well as literary gibes from the earliest times. The Greeks called these +people <i>urnings</i>. Schopenhauer was interested in the vast ancient +literature and philosophy on this subject. The 19th century produced a +copious psychological treatment of warped or reversed sexual impulses by +such men as Moll, Krafft-Ebing and Havelock Ellis. Otto Weiniger<a name='FNanchor_10_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_10_3'><sup>[10]</sup></a> +collected a mass of this philosophy, literature, psychology, folklore +and gossip, tied it together with such biological facts as were then +known (1901) and wove around it a theory of sex <i>attraction</i>.<a name='FNanchor_A_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_A_4'><sup>[A]</sup></a> The +same material was popularized by Leland<a name='FNanchor_11_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_11_3'><sup>[11]</sup></a>, Carpenter<a name='FNanchor_12_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_12_3'><sup>[12]</sup></a> and W.L. +George<a name='FNanchor_13_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_13_3'><sup>[13]</sup></a> to support quite different views.</p> + +<a name='Footnote_A_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_A_4'>[A]</a><div class='note'><p> NOTE: Weiniger thought he could pick, merely by observing +physical type, people who would be sexually attracted to each other. +There is much ground for scepticism about this. To begin with, the +biological experiments indicate that intersexes are peculiarly likely to +appear where two or more races are mixed. So far, there is no exact +knowledge about the amount or kind of sex difference in each race. As +Bateson remarks (Biol. Fact & the Struct. of Society, p.13), one +unversed in the breeds even of poultry would experience great difficulty +and make many mistakes in sorting a miscellaneous group of cocks and +hens into pairs according to breed. If this is true in dealing with pure +breeds, "in man, as individuals pure-bred in any respect are very rare, +the operation would be far more difficult." In the human species sexual +attraction also obviously depends upon many factors which are not purely +biological; it is rather a complicated sentiment than an instinct.</p></div> + +<p>George's statement that "there are no men and ... no women; there are +only sexual majorities"[p.61, op. cit.] has been widely quoted. The +feminists, he adds, "base themselves on Weininger's theory, according to +which the male principle may be found in woman, and the female principle +in man." Unfortunately, George does not make clear what he means by +"principle," so his theory, if he has one, is impossible to appraise in +biological terms. From the embryonic idea expressed above, he deduces a +very positive social philosophy of sex. The feminists, he says, +"recognize no masculine or feminine '<i>spheres</i>' and ... propose to +identify absolutely the conditions of the sexes." So, while George seems +to think much more highly of women than does Weininger, their +philosophies come together, for quite different reasons, on the +practical procedure of disregarding reproduction and letting the race go +hang<a name='FNanchor_10_3a'></a><a href='#Footnote_10_3'><sup>[10, p.345]</sup></a>. Weininger seems to recognize the dual basis for sex; +George evidently does not quite follow him. Both entirely misconceived +the real issues involved, as well as the kind of evidence required to +settle them, as we shall see later in discussing adaptation and +specialization.</p> + +<p>Dr Blair Bell<a name='FNanchor_14_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_14_3'><sup>[14,</sup></a> <a name='FNanchor_15_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_15_3'><sup>15]</sup></a> has collected a mass of evidence on intersexes in +the human species. This includes his own surgical and other cases, as +well as many treated by his colleagues, and a very considerable review +of the medical literature. He not only believes in degrees of femininity +in women, but has worked out classifications which he claims to have +found of great practical value in surgery.<a name='FNanchor_14_3a'></a><a href='#Footnote_14_3'><sup>[14, pp.166-7]</sup></a> As noted above, +Riddle discovered that his more feminine female pigeons were often +killed by a dose of testicular extract which was practically harmless to +a partially masculinized female. Sex in the human species being a matter +of all the glands organized into a complex, the quantitative "strength" +of that complex would be useful to know before removing any one +secretion from it. Dr Bell states that the oöphorectomy operation +(removal of ovaries) may be performed upon a masculine type of woman +with "little disturbance of the metabolism..." But he thinks that the +degree of masculinity should always be carefully observed before +undertaking such operations, which in some cases have most undesirable +effects.</p> + +<p>At one end of the scale, this surgeon places the typically feminine +woman in all her characteristics—with well-formed breasts, menstruating +freely and feminine in instincts—he says "mind." The intermediate +grades consist, he says, of women whose metabolism leans toward the +masculine type. Some have sexual desires but no maternal impulse. Others +desire maternity but take no interest in sex activity, or positively +shun it. The physical manifestations of masculine glandular activity +take the form of pitch of voice, skin texture, shape and weight of +bones, etc. Some of the inter-grades are a little hard to define—the +human species is such an inextricable mixture of races, etc.; but Dr +Bell does not hesitate to describe the characteristically masculine +woman of the extreme type, who "shuns both sexual relations and +maternity...(She) is on the fringe of femininity. These women are +usually flat-breasted and plain. Even though they menstruate, their +metabolism is often for the most part masculine in character: +indications of this are seen in the bones which are heavy, in the skin +which is coarse, and in the aggressive character of the mind...If a +woman have well-developed genitalia, and secondary characteristics, she +usually is normal in her instincts. A feebly menstruating woman with +flat breasts and coarse skin cannot be expected to have strong +reproductive instincts, since she is largely masculine in type..."</p> + +<p>The glandular and quantitative explanation of sex, instead of being +abstruse and complicated, brings the subject in line with the known +facts about inheritance generally. The dual basis for femaleness and +maleness in each individual simply means that both factors are present, +but that only one expresses itself fully. The presence of such a dual +basis is proved by the fact that in castration and transplantation +experiments both are exhibited by the same individual in a single +lifetime. In the case of the Free-Martin cattle, even the female +sex-glands are modified toward the male type to such an extent that they +were long mistaken for testes. The same applies to some glands found in +human "hermaphrodites," as Dr Bell's plates show.</p> + +<p>The peculiar complication of the chemical complex determining sex in +these mammalian forms, involving all the glands and hence the entire +body, makes it problematical whether a complete (functional) reversal is +possible, at least after any development whatever of the embryo has +taken place. On the other hand, the fact that such complete +transformations have not so far been observed by no means proves their +non-existence. Their being functional, and hence to all external +appearances normal, would cause such animals to escape observation.</p> + +<p>Latent traits of the opposite sex of course immediately suggest +recessive or unexpressed characters in the well-known Mendelian +inheritance phenomena. In the bird-castration cases, we saw that to +remove the inhibiting sex glands caused previously latent characters to +act like dominant or expressed ones. The case of horns in sheep, +investigated by Professor Wood<a name='FNanchor_16_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_16_3'><sup>[16]</sup></a>, is so similar that it seems worth +summarizing, by way of illustration.</p> + +<p>Both sexes in Dorset sheep have well-developed horns; in the Suffolk +breed both sexes are hornless. If the breeds are crossed, all the rams +in the first (hybrid) generation have horns and all the ewes are +hornless. If these hybrids are mated, the resulting male offspring +averages three horned to one hornless; but the females are the reverse +of this ratio—one horned to three hornless. This is an example of +Mendel's principle of segregation—factors may be mixed in breeding, but +they do not lose their identity, and hence tend to be sorted out or +segregated again in succeeding generations.</p> + +<p>In the horned Dorsets, we must suppose that both males and females carry +a dual factor for horns—technically, are <i>homozygous</i> for horns. The +hornless Suffolks, on the contrary, are homozygous for <i>absence</i> of +horns. Thus the dual factor in the zygotes or fertilized eggs at the +basis of the first filial (hybrid) generation consists of a single +factor for horns and a single factor for their absence. If we represent +horns by <i>H</i> and absence of horns by <i>A</i>, Dorsets have a factor <i>HH</i>, +Suffolks <i>AA</i> and the hybrids <i>HA</i>.</p> + +<p>All the males in this generation have horns, which means that a single +"dose" of the factor <i>H</i> will produce horns in a male, or that they are +<i>dominant</i> in males. But a single dose will not produce horns in a +female—that is, horns are <i>recessive</i> in females—the factor is present +but unexpressed.</p> + +<p>Mating two <i>HA</i> hybrids, the <i>H</i> and <i>A</i> of course split apart in the +formation of the gametes, as the <i>HH</i> and <i>AA</i> did in the previous +generation; so that we get an equal number of single <i>H</i> and <i>A</i> +factors. In reuniting in fertilized eggs, the chance is just half and +half that an <i>H</i> will unite with another <i>H</i> or with an <i>A</i>—that an +<i>A</i> will unite with an <i>H</i> or another <i>A</i>. Thus we have two chances of +getting <i>HA</i> to each chance of getting either <i>AA</i> or <i>HH</i>. Half the +zygotes will be <i>HA</i>, one-fourth <i>HH</i> and one-fourth <i>AA</i>.</p> + +<p>If we consider four average males, one will have two <i>A's</i> (absence of +the factor for horns) and will thus be hornless. One will have two +<i>H's</i>, or the double factor for horns, and hence will exhibit horns—as +will also the two <i>HA's</i> since a single dose of horns expresses them in +a male. So we have the three-to-one Mendelian ratio.</p> + +<p>But four females with exactly the same factors will express them as +follows: The one <i>HH</i> (double factor for horns) proves sufficient to +express horns, even in a female. The <i>AA</i>, lacking the factor entirely, +cannot have horns. Nor will the two <i>HA</i> females have horns, a single +dose being insufficient to express them in a female. Again we get our +three-to-one Mendelian ratio, but this time it is three hornless to one +horned.</p> + +<p>Especially Goldschmidt's carefully graded experiments point to a similar +difference in the strength of the dose or doses of the sex factors. +Instead of the two doses of horns required to express them in the +presence of the female secretory balance in Professor Wood's sheep, +Goldschmidt found it took six doses of maleness to completely express it +on a female basis in his moths. But even with three doses, the female +was incapable of reproduction. A single dose in excess of the ordinary +combination to produce normal females modified the type of body, also +reducing the number of eggs.</p> + +<p>In the case of the horns, only two types were possible, absence or +presence of the character. Likewise there are only two types of primary +sex, i.e., of sex glands proper. But seven different types or grades of +body for each sex were found to exhibit themselves in the moths. In more +complicated bodies, we should of course expect many more, and where many +races (instead of two) are mixed, as in man, a classification merely on +the basis of physical characteristics would be much more complicated. +Indeed, we may well be sceptical as to the possibilities of cataloguing +differences of the sort between men and women by body type alone.</p> + +<p>In society, however, we are much more interested in the mental than the +purely physical qualities of the two types of bodies, especially since +the use of machines has so largely replaced brute strength with skill. +Most employments do not even require a muscular skill beyond that +possessed by ordinary individuals of both sexes.</p> + +<p>Even this ignores the primary consideration in the sex problem in +society, the first of the following two parts into which the whole +problem may be divided: (1) <i>How to guarantee the survival of the group +through reproduction</i> of a sufficient number of capable individuals; and +(2) How to make the most economical use of the remaining energies, first +in winning nutrition and protection from the environment, second in +pursuing the distinctly human values over and above survival. The sex +problem as a whole is concerned with adjusting two different general +types of individuals, male and female, to the complicated business of +such group life or society. The differences between these two sex-types +being fundamentally functional, the best way to get at them is to trace +the respective and unlike life cycles.</p> + +<p>We have already shown in rude outline how a difference (apparently +chemical) between two fertilized eggs starts them along two different +lines of development in the embryonic stage. One develops the +characteristic male primary and secondary sex characters, the other the +female. Throughout the embryonic or intra-maternal stage this +differentiation goes on, becoming more and more fixed as it expresses +itself in physical structures. Childhood is only a continuation of this +development—physically separate from the mother after the period of +lactation. Until puberty, when sex ceases to be merely potential and +becomes functional (about 12-14 in girls and 14-16 boys), the +differences in metabolism are not very marked. Neither are they in old +age, after sex has ceased to be functional. It is during the period when +sex is functional (about 35 years in women and considerably longer in +men) that the gross physiological differences manifest themselves.</p> + +<p>Before puberty in both sexes, calcium or lime salts are retained in the +tissues and go to build up the bony skeleton. (A mere sketch of calcium +metabolism is all that can be given here—for details consult such works +as and <a name='FNanchor_17_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_17_3'>17</a> in bibliography; summary in <a name='FNanchor_14_3b'></a><a href='#Footnote_14_3'>14; pp. 34f. & 161f.</a>) Note that +puberty comes earlier in girls than in boys, and that the skeleton +therefore remains lighter. During the reproductive period in women these +salts are heavily drawn upon for the use of the reproductive system. The +male reproductive system draws upon them as well, though the drain is +very slight as compared to that in women. In old age these salts produce +senility through deposit in the tissues, especially in the arteries.</p> + +<p>At the pubertal age in girls begins the phenomenon known as +menstruation, in which there is a large excretion of calcium salts. In +pregnancy these are needed for building the skeleton of the foetus, and +at delivery go to the breasts to assist in lactation. Bell states that +there is a noticeable connection between early menstruation and short +stature, and <i>vice versa</i>. What is commonly known as menstruation lasts +only a few days, and is merely the critical period in a monthly cycle or +periodicity which goes with the female sex specialization. This period +involves the gradual preparation of the uterus or womb for a guest, +together with the maturing of the ova. Then the Graafian follicles +containing the ova break and these latter enter the uterus for +fertilization.</p> + +<p>If fertilization takes place, the fertilized egg buries itself in the +wall and development of the embryo proceeds. Menstruation stops, the +calcium salts being required for the growing embryo. There is likely to +be no menstruation for a considerable time after delivery if the child +is nursed, as is normal. This gives the uterus time for devolution to +the normal, before a surplus of calcium salts sets the periodicity going +again. If the egg which passes from the ovary to the uterus is not +fertilized, it is excreted, the uterus goes through another monthly +cycle of preparation for the period of intra-maternal environment, and +so on indefinitely until the climacteric.</p> + +<p>This climacteric or decay of sexuality is a rather critical time, +especially in women. It marks the period at which the metabolism can no +longer support the strain of reproduction. A surplus of calcium brings +on senility, as noted above. Withdrawal of the interests which centre in +sex, together with the marked accompanying physical changes, involves a +shift of mental attitude which is also frequently serious. A British +coroner stated in the <i>British Medical Journal</i> in 1900 (Vol. 2, p.792) +that a majority of 200 cases of female suicide occurred at this period, +while in the case of younger women suicide is peculiarly likely to occur +during menstruation. Krugelstein and Lombroso, respectively, remark the +same tendencies.<a name='FNanchor_18_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_18_3'><sup>[18]</sup></a>.</p> + +<p>It is a matter of almost everyday observation that men and women in the +neighbourhood of fifty suddenly find themselves disoriented in the +world. Tolstoi, for example, who had written passionately of passion in +his earlier years, suddenly awoke, according to his "Confessions," from +what seemed to him afterward to have been a bad dream. In this case, the +result was a new version of religion as a new anchorage for the man's +life. It may be pacifism, prohibition, philanthropy, or any one of a +very large number of different interests—but there must usually be +something to furnish zest to a life which has ceased to be a sufficient +excuse for itself.</p> + +<p>If freed from worry about economic realities, it is not infrequently +possible for the first time for these people to "balance" their +lives—to find in abstraction a rounded perfection for which earlier in +life we seek in vain as strugglers in a world of change. Thus old people +are often highly conservative, i.e., impatient of change in their social +environment, involving re-orientation; they wish the rules of the game +let alone, so they can pursue the new realities they have created for +themselves.</p> + +<p>Socially, the old are of course a very important factor since a changed +metabolism sets them somewhat outside the passionate interests which +drive people forward, often in wrong directions, in the prime of life. +Hence in a sense the old can judge calmly, as outsiders. Like youth +before it has yet come in contact with complicated reality, they often +see men and women as "each chasing his separate phantom."</p> + +<p>While such conservatism, in so far as it is judicial, is of value to +society, looking at it from the viewpoint of biology we see also some +bad features. <i>Senex</i>, the old man, often says to younger people, "These +things you pursue are valueless—I too have sought them, later abandoned +the search and now see my folly;" not realizing that if his blood were +to resume its former chemical character he would return to the quest.</p> + +<p>Elderly people, then, biological neuters, come especially within the +problem of the economical use of the social as distinguished from the +biological capacities of the race. They affect the sex problem proper, +which applies to a younger age-class, only through their opinions. Some +of these opinions are hangovers from the time in their own lives when +they had stronger sexual interests, and some are peculiar to people of +their readjusted glandular activity. Their reproductive contribution to +society has been made.</p> + +<p>Pre-pubertal childhood and youth, on the contrary, has its biological +contributions to society still before it. The glandular activity of boys +and girls is perhaps not so unlike as to justify society in giving them +a different kind of education and preparation for group life. The excuse +for two sorts of training is that the two sexes will not do the same +work after puberty. Hence the question of youthful training is +sociological almost entirely—not biological—or rather, it rests upon +the biology, not of childhood but of the reproductive period, which +society anticipates.</p> + +<p>Instead of scattering attention over the whole history of the universe, +then, or even over the general field of biology, in dealing with sex as +a social problem, the emphasis must be upon the human life cycle during +the functional-reproductive period. Other biological data than that +which concerns this period is merely introductory or explanatory. The +extent to which the sociological problem involved is linked up with +general biological considerations like natural selection, adaptation and +specialization will be summarized in a separate chapter.</p> + +<p>Earlier female maturity and puberty, as well as lighter structure, have +already been accounted for by the metabolism, especially of the calcium +salts. These have also been shown to be the key fact in the monthly +periodicity of the mammalian female. Nearly all of the anatomical and +physiological sex differences catalogued by such pioneer workers as +Ellis, Ploss, Thomas and Bucura are simply what we should expect from +the less active and in some ways peculiar metabolism of woman.</p> + +<p>Among such differences are the size and shape of bones and other body +structures, the more plentiful hæmoglobin in male blood during the +reproductive period, and such blood peculiarities as the production of +more carbonic acid or the higher specific gravity in the male. The +greater percentage of fat as compared with muscle in women<a name='FNanchor_19_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_19_3'><sup>[19]</sup></a>, if it is +generally true, is what we should expect from a lower metabolism and a +tendency to store materials. The long list of diseases which are more or +less sex-limited <a name='FNanchor_20_3'></a><a href='#Footnote_20_3'><sup>[20;</sup></a> <a name='FNanchor_14_3e'></a><a href='#Footnote_14_3'><sup>14, pp.160f.;</sup></a> <a name='FNanchor_18_3a'></a><a href='#Footnote_18_3'><sup>18]</sup></a> are largely endocrine. Even those +which do not primarily concern the internal secretory system would be +expected to work somewhat differently in the presence of unlike blood +streams. As to the greater average weight of the male brain, this is +true of the whole body. Brain weight, either absolute or relative to +body weight, is not positively known to be in any way correlated (in +normal people) with mental capacity.</p> + +<p>A library might be stocked with the vast literature devoted to +summarizing and cataloguing sex differences; and most of it would be +useless from the standpoint of sociology. Unaccompanied by the +criticisms a biologist would have to make on the method of their +ascertainment and validity, not to mention their significance, such +lists can easily do—and probably have done—more harm than good. One +simple and reasonable criterion would reduce this catalogue to fairly +modest proportions, so far as social science is concerned: <i>Which ones +have an obvious or even probable social significance?</i> Over and above +that, while such contrasts may be of speculative interest, they lead +imaginative people to argue from them by analogy and thus cloud the real +issues.</p> + +<p>What are the outstandingly significant sex differences which application +of the above criterion leaves? (1) A less active and more uneven +metabolism of woman; (2) Associated with this, less physical strength on +the average—hence an inferior adaptability to some kinds of work, +resulting in a narrower range of choice of occupation, disadvantageous +in competitive society; (3) But the one fundamental difference, to which +all the others are as nothing, is the specialization of the mammalian +female body and metabolism to furnish the intra-maternal environment +(approximately nine months in the human species) for the early +development of the young and lactation for some months afterward.</p> + +<p>This last may be said to include the former two, which were arbitrarily +placed first because they are always in evidence, whether reproduction +is undertaken or not. This takes us out of cell and endocrine biology +and into the general problem in group adjustment to environment which +that specialization entails.</p> +<br /> + +<p>BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER III</p> + +<a name='Footnote_1_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_3'>1.</a><div class='note'> Goldschmidt, R. Experimental Intersexuality and the Sex Problem. +Amer. Naturalist, 1916. Vol. 50, pp. 705f.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_2_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_2_3'>2.</a><div class='note'> Goldschmidt, R. Preliminary Report on Further Experiments in +Inheritance and Determination of Sex. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sc, 1916. +Vol. II, No. 1, pp. 53f.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_3_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_3_3'>3.</a><div class='note'> Goldschmidt, R. A Case of Facultative Parthenogenesis. Biol. +Bulletin, 1917. Vol. XXXII, No. 1, p. 38.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_4_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_4_3'>4.</a><div class='note'> Goldschmidt, R. Intersexuality and the Endocrine Aspect of Sex. +Endocrinology, Vol. I, p. 434. 1917. Fine summary of the work done on +moths, birds and various forms by many biologists.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_5_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_5_3'>5.</a><div class='note'> Riddle, Dr Oscar. Quantitative Basis of Sex as indicated +by the Sex-Behaviour of Doves from a Sex-Controlled Series. Science, n.s., Vol. 39, p. 440, 1914.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_6_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_6_3'>6.</a><div class='note'> Riddle, Dr Oscar. Sex Control and Known Correlations in Pegeons. +Amer. Nat. Vol. L, pp. 385-410.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_7_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_7_3'>7.</a><div class='note'> Benedict, F.G. & Emmes, L.E. A Comparison of the Basal Metabolism of +Men and Women. Jour. Biol. Chem. Vol. 20. No. 3. 1914.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_8_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_8_3'>8.</a><div class='note'> Schäfer, Sir E.A. Endocrine Glands and Internal Secretions. Stanford +University, 1914, p. 91.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_9_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_9_3'>9.</a><div class='note'> Paton, D. Noël. Regulators of Metabolism. London, 1913, p. 146.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_10_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_10_3'>10.</a><div class='note'> Weininger, Otto. Sex and Character. London & N.Y., 1906. Eng. trans. +of Geschlecht u. Charakter, Vienna & Leipzig, 1901 & 1903.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_11_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_11_3'>11.</a><div class='note'> Leland, C.G. The Alternate Sex. London, 1904.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_12_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_12_3'>12.</a><div class='note'> Carpenter, Edw. Love's Coming of Age. London, 1906.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_13_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_13_3'>13.</a><div class='note'> George, W.L. The Intelligence of Woman, Boston, 1916.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_14_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_14_3'>14.</a><div class='note'> Bell, Dr Blair. The Sex Complex, London, 1916.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_15_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_15_3'>15.</a><div class='note'> Bell, Dr. Blair. Gynæcology. London, 1919.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_16_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_16_3'>16.</a><div class='note'> Bateson, W. Mendel's Principles of Heredity. 1909, pp. 169-70.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_17_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_17_3'>17.</a><div class='note'> Marshall, F.H. A Physiology of Reproduction. London, 1910.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_18_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_18_3'>18.</a><div class='note'> Ellis, Havelock. Man and Woman. 1904 ed., pp. 284f</div> + +<a name='Footnote_19_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_19_3'>19.</a><div class='note'> Thomas, W.I. Sex and Society. 1907, p. 19.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_20_3'></a><a href='#FNanchor_20_3'>20.</a><div class='note'> Schäfer, Sir Edw. An Introduction to the Study of Internal +Secretions. London, 1916, pp. 106f.</div> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='CHAPTER_IV'></a><h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<center>SEX SPECIALIZATION AND GROUP SURVIVAL</center> +<br> +<center><blockquote>Adaptation and specialization; Reproduction a group not an individual +problem; Conflict between specialization and adaptation; Intelligence +makes for economy in adjustment to environment; Reproduction, not +production, the chief factor in the sex problem.</blockquote></center><br> +<br /> + +<p>From the facts briefly stated in the preceding chapters it is quite +evident that the general superiority of man over woman or <i>vice versa</i> +cannot be proven by biology. Such an idea arises from a careless and +unscientific use of language. Superiority is a term which, when used to +express the rather exact ideas of biology, is employed in a carefully +limited and specific, not in a general, sense. That is, superiority, +even if an apparently general idea like survival value is referred to, +always implies a given, understood environment where such is not +specifically mentioned. Wolves, for example, might be found to possess +superior chances for survival over foxes, beaver or partridges in a +given environment. A biologist would probably use more exact and less +ambiguous terms to express such a fact, and say that wolves were the +best <i>adapted</i> to the given surroundings. If all these animals continued +to live side by side in the given environment, they could be compared +only as to specific details—size, strength, cunning, fleetness in +running, swimming or flying, concealment from enemies, etc. Then the +biologist would probably make his meaning perfectly clear by stating +that one is <i>specialized</i> in one direction or another.</p> + +<p>Especially is general superiority a vague idea when the things compared +are different but mutually necessary or complementary. If their +functions overlap to some extent (i.e., if certain acts can be performed +by either), we may say that one is better adapted to a certain activity +than the other. Thus it may be that women are generally better adapted +to caring for young children than are men, or that men are on the whole +better adapted to riveting boiler plates, erecting skyscrapers, or +sailing ships. Where their activities do not overlap at all, even the +word adaptation hardly applies. For example, women are not better +"adapted" to furnishing the intra-maternal environment for the young, +since men are not adapted to it at all. It is a case of female +<i>specialization</i>.</p> + +<p>Men being neither specialized nor adapted, to any extent whatever, to +this particular activity, any attempt at comparison is obviously +fruitless, since one term is always zero. This specialization, +absolutely necessary to the survival of human groups, is either present +or it is absent in a given individual. Any attempt to formulate a +general proposition about superiority either attaches purely arbitrary +values to different kinds of activity or is absurd from the standpoint +of the most elementary logic.</p> + +<p>From the standpoint of biology, reproduction is not an individual but a +group problem, however many problems of detail it may give rise to in +individual lives. Sex involves the division of the reproductive process, +without the exercise of which any human group would perish very shortly, +into two complementary, mutually necessary but unequal parts. (This +statement applies only to the reproductive process, as obviously the +male and female gametes contribute equally to the formation of the new +individual). Neither part (the male or the female) of this process is +more necessary than the other, both being <i>absolutely</i> necessary. But +the female specialization for furnishing the intra-maternal environment +makes her share more burdensome.</p> + +<p>Biologically considered, not even two individuals (male and female), +together with their offspring, can be more than an arbitrary "unit" as +concerns sex, since inbreeding eventually impoverishes the stock. Hence +outcrosses are necessary. To intelligibly consider the sex problem in +the human species, then, we must always predicate a considerable <i>group</i> +of people, with such organization and division of activities as to +guarantee that all the processes necessary to survival will be carried +on. Sex is a group problem. Considering the mutual interdependence and +the diversity of activities in human society, to make the generalization +that one sex is superior to the other is on a par with saying that roots +and branches are superior to trunks and leaves. It is sheer foolishness. +Yet oceans of ink have flowed in attempts to establish one or the other +of two equally absurd propositions.</p> + +<p>Since the specialization to furnish the intra-maternal environment for +the young makes the female part of the reproductive process essentially +and unavoidably more burdensome than the male, it results that an +economical division of the extra-reproductive activities of any group +must throw an unequal share upon the males. This specialization to carry +the young during the embryonic period is thus at the base of the +division of labour between the sexes. It is the chief factor involved in +the problems of sex, and gives rise, directly or indirectly, to most of +the others.</p> + +<p>But the sex problem as a whole is one of adaptation as well as of +specialization. An incident of the female specialization is a type of +body on the average smaller, weaker and less well adapted to some other +activities than is the male body, even when reproduction is not +undertaken. A great complication is added by the fact that some women, +and also some men, are better adapted than others to nonreproductive +activities. This is another way of saying that the type of body +associated with either type of sex glands varies a good deal, for +reasons and in respects already pointed out.</p> + +<p>The most important fact about this reproductive specialization is that +beyond fertilization it is <i>exclusive</i> in the female. Since the males +cannot furnish the intra-parental environment for the young, the entire +burden must fall on half the group. If this aggregation is to even hold +its own numerically, its women must have, on an average, two children +each, <i>plus about one more</i> for unavoidable waste—death in infancy or +childhood, sterility, obvious unfitness for reproduction, etc., i.e., +<i>three</i> in all. If one woman has less than her three children, then +another must have more than three, or the group number will decrease. +<i>Group survival is the fundamental postulate in a problem of this kind.</i></p> + +<p>The above figure is for civilized society. In primitive groups, the +terrific wastage makes a much higher birth-rate necessary, several times +as high in many cases. If we suppose such a group, where child +mortality, lack of sanitation, etc., necessitates an average of eight +children per woman (instead of three), the biological origin of the +division of labour between the sexes is much more clearly seen than it +is in civilized societies.</p> + +<p>If men are better hunters or fighters than women, the latter could +nevertheless hunt and fight—it is a question of superior or inferior +adaptation to particular activities. But it is more than that. <i>Only</i> +the women are biologically specialized to the chief reproductive burden +(intra-parental environment and lactation). If half the women should +withdraw from child-bearing, the remainder would be obliged to average +<i>sixteen</i> apiece. But even this is not all. Unfortunately, the half of +the women who would be found best adapted to hunting and fighting would +be the more vigorous half. The new generation would thus be born from +the leftovers, and would be poor quality. Such a division of labour +within a group would be fatally foolish and entirely uncalled for—since +there are plenty of men adapted to hunting and fighting, but entirely +unspecialized to child-bearing and nursing.</p> + +<p>Group survival being the fundamental thing, the group is obliged to +develop a division of labour which directs the activities of the +individuals composing it to providing for its necessities, regardless +of any interference with their own desires. That is, if group survival +requires that woman use her specialization to child-bearing instead of +any adaptation she may possess in other directions, one of two things +inevitably result: (1) Either the group finds or evolves some social +control machinery which meets the necessity, or (2) it must give way to +some other group which can do so. In either case, the result is a +division of labour, which we see more clearly in primitive peoples. The +less efficient group is not necessarily exterminated, but if it loses +out in the competition until some other group is able to conquer it and +impose <i>its</i> division of labour the result is of course the extinction +of the conquered group as an integral part of society. This is simply +natural selection working on groups. Natural selection works chiefly in +this manner on the human species, <i>because that species lives in +groups</i>. Such group control of the component individuals as has been +described has led to a division of labour between the sexes in every +primitive society. All this means is that the group adopting such a +division has greater survival value, and hence is more likely to be +represented in later ages.</p> + +<p>It must not be supposed that such systems of control were always +logically thought out or deliberately planned. Even animals which live +in herds or colonies have divisions of labour.</p> + +<p>Through an infinite slaughter of the least fit, such groups arrive at +some kind of instinctive adjustment to produce and protect the young. +The crudest human intelligence must have eliminated much of the waste +involved, by comprehending obvious cause-and-effect relations which +animals have to arrive at through trial and error methods.</p> + +<p>For example, an intelligence capable of employing artificial weapons is +also able to see that the wielder of these for group defence cannot be +encumbered with baggage or children when the group is in movement. Hence +women became the burden bearers, and took care of the children, even +after the nursing period. War parties could not generally be mixed, for +the obvious reasons that such women as did not have young children would +be pregnant a good deal of the time, or likely to become so. Moreover, a +hunter and fighter must not have his courage, ferocity and physical +initiative undermined by unsuitable employments and associations.</p> + +<p>In a semi-settled group, the hunter and warrior cannot be relied upon to +keep hearth-fires burning or tend crops, even though he may occasionally +have time for such activities. These duties are therefore relegated to +the women, whose child-bearing functions impose upon them a more +sedentary existence. Women must reproduce practically up to their full +capacity to fill up the gaps made by war, accident and disease as well +as death from old age. To this biological service which they alone can +perform are added those which lie nearest it and interfere least with +carrying it out.</p> + +<p>We must therefore keep in view <i>all</i> the activities of any group in +which the sex problem is being studied. There is a certain tendency to +disregard the female specialization to child-bearing, and to regard the +sex question as one merely of adaptation to extra-biological services. +In every group which has survived, some machinery—a "crust of custom," +reinforced by more arbitrary laws or regulations—has sought to +guarantee reproduction by keeping women out of lines of endeavour which +might endanger that fundamental group necessity. Primitive societies +which got stabilized within a given territory and found their birth-rate +dangerously <i>high</i> could always keep it down by exposing or destroying +some of the unfit children, or a certain per cent of the female +children, or both.</p> + +<p>In primitive groups, the individual was practically <i>nil</i>. But modern +civilized society is able to survive without the rigid control of +individual activities which the old economy entailed. Man comes to +choose more and more for himself individually instead of for the group, +uniformity weakens and individualism becomes more pronounced. As +control of environment becomes more complete and easy, natural selection +grows harder to detect. We turn our interests and activities toward the +search for what we want and take survival largely for granted—something +the savage cannot do. Natural selection becomes unreal to us, because +the things we do to survive are so intricately mixed up with those we do +for other reasons. Natural selection in gregarious animals operates upon +groups rather than upon individuals. Arrangement of these groups is +often very intricate. Some have territorial boundaries and some have +not. Often they overlap, identical individuals belonging to several. +Hence it is not strange that natural selection phenomena often escape +attention.</p> + +<p>But this must not lead us to suppose that natural selection is wholly +inoperative in civilized society. We see some nations outbreeding +others, or dominating them through superior organization. Within +nations, some racial and religious groups outbreed others and thus +gradually supplant them—<i>for the future is to those who furnish its +populations</i>.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='CHAPTER_V'></a><h2>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<center>RACIAL DEGENERATION AND THE NECESSITY FOR RATIONALIZATION OF THE MORES</center> +<br> +<center><blockquote>Racial decay in modern society; Purely "moral" control dysgenic in +civilized society; New machinery for social control; Mistaken notion +that reproduction is an individual problem; Economic and other factors +in the group problem of reproduction.</blockquote></center><br> +<br /> + +<p>From the discussion in the preceding chapter, it becomes apparent that +for the half of the female element in a savage society possessing the +most vigor and initiative to turn away from reproduction would in the +long run be fatal to the group. Yet this is what occurs in large measure +in modern civilized society. Reproduction is a biological function. It +is non-competitive, as far as the individual is concerned, and offers no +material rewards. The breakdown of the group's control over the detailed +conduct and behaviour of its members is accompanied by an increasing +stress upon material rewards to individuals. So with growing +individualism, in the half of the race which can both bear children and +compete in the social activities offering rewards, i.e., the women who +are specialized to the former and adapted to the latter, there is a +growing tendency among the most successful, individualized strains, to +choose the social and eschew the biological functions.</p> + +<p>Racial degeneration is the result. Recorded history is one succession of +barbarous races, under strong, primitive breeding conditions, swamping +their more civilized, individualized neighbours, adopting the dysgenic +ways of civilization and then being swamped in their turn by barbarians. +This is especially pronounced in our own times because popularized +biological and medical knowledge makes it possible for a tremendous +class of the most successful and enlightened to avoid reproduction +without foregoing sex activity.</p> + +<p>In primitive groups, a "moral" control which kept all women at +reproduction was neither eugenic nor dysgenic unless accompanied by +systematic destruction of the least fit children. By "moral" control is +meant the use of taboo, prejudice, religious abhorrence for certain acts +and the like. The carefully nurtured moral ideas about sex and +reproduction simply represent the system of coercion which groups have +found most effective in enforcing the division of reproductive and other +activities among the individual members. When this social machinery grew +up, to regulate sexual activity was in general to regulate +reproduction. The natural sex desire proved sufficiently powerful and +general to still seek its object, even with the group handicaps and +regulations imposed to meet the reproductive necessity. But +contraceptive knowledge, etc., has now become so general that to +regulate sex activity is no longer to regulate reproduction. The taboo +or "moral" method of regulation has become peculiarly degenerating to +race quality, because the most intelligent, rationalized individuals are +least affected by it.</p> + +<p>There is no turning back to control by ignorance. Even theoretically, +the only way to stop such a disastrous selection of the unfit would be +to rationalize reproduction—so that <i>nobody</i> shall reproduce the +species through sheer ignorance of how to evade or avoid it. This done, +some type of social control must be found which will enable civilized +societies to breed from their best instead of their worst stock. Under +the old scheme, already half broken down, natural selection favours +primitive rather than civilized societies through decreased birth-rates +and survival of the unfit in the latter. Even this is true only where +the savage groups are not interfered with by the civilized, a condition +rapidly disappearing through modern occidental imperialism and the +inoculation of primitive peoples with "civilized" diseases such as +syphilis, rum-drinking and rampant individualism.</p> + +<p>To continually encourage the racially most desirable women to disregard +their sexual specialization and exploit their social-competitive +adaptation must, obviously destroy the group which pursues such a +policy. The only way to make such a course democratic is to carefully +instruct all women, rich and poor, wise and ignorant, in the methods of +avoiding reproduction and to inject the virus of individualism in all +alike. Then the group can get its population supply only by a new system +of control. To remove any economic handicaps to child-bearing is +certainly not out of harmony with our ideas of justice.</p> + +<p>In removing the economic handicaps at present connected with the +reproductive function in women, care must also be taken that the very +measures which insure this do not themselves become dysgenic influences. +Such schemes as maternity insurance, pensions for mothers, and most of +the propositions along this line, may offer an inducement to women of +the poorer classes to assume the burdens connected with their +specialization for child-bearing. But their more fortunate sisters, who +find themselves so well adapted to modern conditions that they are even +moderately successful in the competition for material rewards, will +hardly find recompense thus for turning from their social to their +biological functions. To these highly individualized modern women must +be presented more cogent reasons for taking upon themselves the burden +of reproducing the group.</p> + +<p>It is obvious that from just this energetic female stock we should +obtain a large part of the next generation if we are at all concerned +over the welfare of the group and its chances of survival. One +suggestion is that we may be able to turn their very individualism to +account and use it as a potent factor in the social control of their +reproductive activities. If we can demonstrate on the basis of sound +biological data that the bearing of children is necessary for the full +and complete development of the individual woman, physically and +mentally, we shall have gone a long way toward securing voluntary +motherhood. Only such argument will induce the highly individualized, +who may also be the most vital, woman to turn of her own accord from +competitive social activities to the performance of the biological +function for which she is specialized. This is especially true, as has +been intimated above, since contraceptive knowledge now permits the +exercise of sexual functions without the natural consequences, and the +avoidance of motherhood no longer involves the denial of expression to +the sexual urge.</p> + +<p>Even if we are able to utilize this method of control, it will not +obtain the requisite number of offspring to maintain the eugenic quality +of the group, since the bearing of one or two children would be all that +individual development would require. If the group must have on the +average three children from each of its women in order to replace +itself, the larger part of the reproductive activities will still be +confined to the more ignorant, or if they also make use of contraceptive +knowledge, the group will simply die out from the effects of its own +democratic enlightenment. Thus it becomes apparent that we must find +some more potent force than this narrow form of self-interest to +accomplish the social purposes of reproduction. When reproduction is +generally understood to be as thoroughly a matter of group survival as +for example the defensive side in a war of extermination, the same +sentiment of group loyalty which now takes such forms as patriotism can +be appealed to. If the human race is unsocial it will perish anyway. If +it has not become unsocial—and it does not display any such tendency, +but only the use of such impulses in mistaken directions—then a group +necessity like reproduction can be met. Whatever is required of the +individual will become "moral" and "patriotic"—i.e., it will be +wreathed in the imperishable sentiments which group themselves around +socially necessary and hence socially approved acts everywhere and +always.</p> + +<p>In whatever races finally survive, the women of good stock as well as +poor—perhaps eventually the good even more than the poor—will +reproduce themselves. Because of our ideals of individual liberty, this +may not be achieved by taboo, ignorance or conscription for motherhood. +But when it is found to be the personal interest to bear children, both +as a means of complete physical and mental development and as a way of +winning social approval and esteem, it will become as imperative for +woman to fulfil the biological function to which she is specialized as +it was under the old system of moral and taboo control. The increasing +emphasis on the necessity of motherhood for the maintenance of a normal, +health personality, and the growing tendency to look upon this function +as the greatest service which woman can render to society, are manifest +signs that this time is approaching. There is little doubt that woman +will be as amenable to these newer and more rationalized mores as human +nature has always been to the irrationally formed customs and traditions +of the past.</p> + +<p>To ignore the female specialization involved in furnishing the +intramaternal environment for three children, on an average, to the +group, is simply foolish. If undertaken at maturity—say from +twenty-two to twenty-five years of age—and a two-year interval left +between the three in the interest of both mother and children, it puts +woman in an entirely different relation toward extra-reproductive +activities than man. It does imply a division of labour.</p> + +<p>In general, it would seem socially expedient to encourage each woman to +have her own three children, instead of shifting the burden upon the +shoulders of some other. If such activities of nursing and caring for +the very young can be pooled, so much the better. Doubtless some women +who find them distasteful would be much more useful to society at other +work. But let us not disregard fundamentals. It is obviously +advantageous for children of normal, able parents to be cared for in the +home environment. In a <i>biologically healthy</i> society the presumption +must be that the average woman has some three children of her own. Since +this obviously includes nurses and governesses, we see at once the +futility of the oft-proposed class solution of hiring single women to +care for the children of the fortunate. If such a servant is +undesirable, she is not hired; if normal, in a biologically healthy +society she would have her own children.</p> + +<p>The female handicap incident to reproduction may be illustrated by the +case of Hambletonian 10 mentioned in Chapter II. We saw that a female +could not have borne the hundredth part of his colts. This simply means +that the effort or individual cost of impressing his characters upon the +new generation is less than one one-hundredth that required of a female.</p> + +<p>Among domestic animals this is made use of to multiply the better males +to the exclusion of the others, a valuable biological expedient which we +are denied in human groups because it would upset all our social +institutions. So we do the next best thing and make the males do more +than half in the extra-biological activities of society, since they are +by their structure prevented from having an equal share in the +reproductive burden. This is an absolutely necessary equation, and there +will always be some sort of division of labour on the basis of it.</p> + +<p>Since reproduction is a group, not an individual, necessity, whatever +economic burden it entails must eventually be assumed by society and +divided up among the individuals, like the cost of war or any other +group activity. Ideally, then, from the standpoint of democracy, every +individual, male or female, should bear his share as a matter of course. +This attitude toward reproduction, as an individual duty but a group +economic burden, would lead to the solution of most of the problems +involved. Negative eugenics should be an immediate assumption—if the +state must pay for offspring, the quality will immediately begin to be +considered. A poor race-contribution, not worth paying for, would +certainly be prevented as far as possible.</p> + +<p>Some well-meaning radical writers mistakenly suppose that the +emancipation of women means the withdrawal by the group of any interest +in, or any attempt to regulate, such things as the hours and conditions +of female labour. That would simply imply that the group takes no +interest in reproduction—in its own survival. For if the group does not +make some equation for the greater burden of reproduction upon women, +the inevitable result will be that that particular service will not be +rendered by those most desirable to be preserved.</p> + +<p>Given the fundamental assumption that the group is to survive—to be +perpetuated by the one possible means—if it withdraws all solicitude +about the handicap this entails to women as a whole, introducing a +spirit of laissez-faire competition between men and women, the women +with sense enough to see the point will not encumber themselves with +children. For each one of these who has no children, some other woman +must have six instead of three. And some people encourage this in the +name of democracy!</p> + +<p>The most involved problems must inevitably centre around the women who, +to quote Mrs. Hollingworth, "vary from the mode," but are yet +functional for sex. Some have no sex desires at all, some no craving for +or attachment to children, some neither of these. It is a question still +to be solved whether some of them ought, in the interest of the race, to +be encouraged to reproduce themselves. In less individualized primitive +society, seclusion, taboo and ignorance coerced them into reproduction. +Any type of control involving the inculcation of "moral" ideas is open +to the objection that it may work on those who should not reproduce +themselves as well as those who should.</p> + +<p>In a sense, this problem will tend to solve itself. With the +substitution of the more rationalized standards of self-interest and +group loyalty for the irrational taboo control of reproductive +activities, there will be as much freedom for women to choose whether +they will accept maternity as there is now, in the period of transition +from the old standards to the new. The chief difference will be that +many of the artificial forces which are acting as barriers to motherhood +at the present time—as for example the economic handicap involved—will +be removed, and woman's choice will therefore be more entirely in +harmony with her native instinctive tendencies. Thus those women endowed +with the most impelling desire for children will, as a rule, have the +largest number. In all probability their offspring will inherit the +same strong parental instinct. The stocks more poorly endowed with this +impulse will tend to die out by the very lack of any tendency to +self-perpetuation. It is only logical to conclude, therefore, that as we +set up the new forces of social control outlined in this chapter, we are +at the same time providing more scope for natural selection, and that +the problem of aberrant types consequently becomes only a transitory +one.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='PART_II'></a><h2>PART II</h2> + +<h3>THE INSTITUTIONALIZED SEX TABOO</h3> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h3>IVA LOWTHER PETERS, PH.D.</h3> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='CHAPTER_I_P2'></a><h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<center>THE PRIMITIVE ATTITUDE TOWARD SEX AND WOMANHOOD</center> +<br /> + +<center><blockquote>Primitive social control; Its rigidity; Its necessity; Universality of +this control in the form of taboos; Connection between the universal +attitude of primitive peoples towards woman as shown in the +Institutionalized Sex Taboo and the magic-religious belief in Mana; +Relation of Mana to Taboo; Discussion of Sympathetic Magic and the +associated idea of danger from contact; Difficulties in the way of an +inclusive definition of Taboo; Its dual nature; Comparison of concepts +of Crawley, Frazer, Marett and others; Conclusion that Taboo is Negative +Mana; Contribution of modern psychology to the study of Taboo; Freud's +analogy between the dualistic attitude toward the tabooed object and the +ambivalence of the emotions; The understanding of this dualism together +with the primitive belief in Mana and Sympathetic Magic explains much in +the attitude of man toward woman; The vast amount of evidence in the +taboos of many peoples of dualism in the attitude toward woman. Possible +physiological explanation of this dualistic attitude of man toward woman +found in a period before self-control had in some measure replaced +social control, in the reaction of weakness and disgust following sex +festivals.</blockquote></center><br> +<br /> + +<p>A study of the elaborate, standardized, and authoritative systems of +social control found among all primitive peoples gives a vivid +impression of the difficulty of the task of compelling man to die to +himself, that is, to become a socius. The rigors and rituals of +initiation ceremonies at adolescence impressed the duties of sociality +at that impressionable period. The individual who refused to bow his +head to the social yoke became a vagabond, an outcast, an excommunicate. +In view of the fierceness of the struggle for food and the attitude +toward the stranger among all primitives, the outcast's life chances +were unenviable. It was preferable to adapt one's self to the social +order. "Bad" traits were the more easily suppressed in return for the +re-enforcement of power which was the striking feature of group life; +power over enemies, power over nature, and a re-enforcement of the +emotional life of the individual which became the basis on which were +built up the magico-religious ceremonies of institutionalized religion.</p> + +<p>It is the purpose of this study to consider a phase of social life in +which there can be traced a persistence into modern times of a primitive +form of control which in a pre-rational stage of group life made +possible the comparatively harmonious interplay of antagonistic forces. +This form of control is called Taboo. A student of the phenomenon, a +recognized authority on its ethnological interpretation, says of it: "To +illustrate the continuity of culture and the identity of the elementary +human ideas in all ages, it is sufficient to point to the ease with +which the Polynesian word <i>tabu</i> has passed into modern +language." <a name='FNanchor_1_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_4'><sup>[1, p.16]</sup></a></p> + +<p>We shall attempt to show that at least one form of taboo, the +Institutionalized Sex Taboo, is co-extensive with human social +experience, and exists to-day at the base of family life, the socialized +form of sex relationship. The family as a social institution has been +scarcely touched until a very recent historical period by the +rationalizing process that has affected religious and political +institutions. Economic changes resultant upon the introduction of an +industrial era which showed the importance of women in diverse social +relations were causes of this new effort at adaptation to changing +conditions. It became apparent that taboos in the form of customs, +ceremonials, beliefs, and conventions, all electrically charged with +emotional content, have guarded the life of woman from change, and with +her the functions peculiar to family life. There has doubtless been +present in some of these taboos "a good hard common-sense element." But +there are also irrational elements whose persistence has resulted in +hardship, blind cruelty, and over-standardization.</p> + +<p>In order to comprehend the attitude of early man toward sex and +womanhood, and to understand the system of taboo control which grew out +of this attitude, it is only reasonable to suppose that the prehistoric +races, like the uncivilized peoples of the present time, were inclined +to explain all phenomena as the result of the action of spiritistic +forces partaking of both a magical and religious nature. This +supernatural principle which the primitive mind conceived as an +all-pervading, universal essence, is most widely known as <i>mana</i>, +although it has been discussed under other names.<a name='FNanchor_A_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_A_5'><sup>[A]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Certain persons, animals and objects<a name='FNanchor_B_6'></a><a href='#Footnote_B_6'><sup>[B]</sup></a> are often held to be imbued to +an unusual degree with this <i>mana</i>, and hence are to be regarded as holy +and held in awe. Inasmuch as man may wish to use this power for his own +purposes, a ceremonial cult would naturally grow up by which this would +become possible. Otherwise, to come in contact with these objects +directly or indirectly, besides profaning their sanctity would be +exceedingly dangerous for the transgressor, because of this same power +of transmission of a dread and little understood force. Therefore, all +such persons, animals or objects are taboo and must be avoided. Under +these circumstances it can be seen that taboos are unanalyzed, +unrationalized "Don'ts," connected with the use and wont which have +crystallized around the wish of man to manipulate the mysterious and +often desirable features of his environment, notably those connected +with possession, food, and sex.</p> + +<a name='Footnote_A_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_A_5'>[A]</a><div class='note'><p> The Australians call it Arunkulta, the Iroquis Indians +Orenda and other North American tribes Wakonda, the Melanesians Mana.</p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_B_6'></a><a href='#FNanchor_B_6'>[B]</a><div class='note'><p> Dr F.B. Jevons <a name='FNanchor_2_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_4'><sup>[2]</sup></a> says: "These things ... are alike taboo: +the dead body; the new-born child; blood and the shedder of blood; the +divine being as well as the criminal; the sick, outcasts, and +foreigners; animals as well as men; women especially, the married woman +as well as the sacred virgin; food, clothes, vessels, property, house, +bed, canoes, the threshing floor, the winnowing fan, a name, a word, a +day; all are or may be taboo because dangerous. This short list does not +contain one-hundredth part of the things which are supposed to be +dangerous; but even if it were filled out and made tolerably complete, +it would, by itself, fail to give any idea of the actual extent and +importance of the institution of taboo."</p></div> +<br /> + +<p>The idea of the transmission of <i>mana</i> through contact is concomitant +with the notion of <i>sympathetic magic</i>, defined as the belief that the +qualities of one thing can be mysteriously transferred to another. The +most familiar illustration is that of the hunter who will not eat the +heart of the deer he has killed lest he become timid like that animal, +while to eat the heart of a lion would be to gain all the fierce courage +of that beast.<a name='FNanchor_A_7'></a><a href='#Footnote_A_7'><sup>[A]</sup></a> This belief becomes so elaborated that the qualities +of one object are finally thought to be transferred to another which has +never come into direct contact with the first, the transition being +accomplished through the agency of a third object which has been in +contact with both the others and thus acts as the conducting medium +through which the qualities of one pass into the other.</p> + +<a name='Footnote_A_7'></a><a href='#FNanchor_A_7'>[A]</a><div class='note'><p> E.B. Tylor <a name='FNanchor_3_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_4'><sup>[3]</sup></a> has called attention to the belief that the +qualities of the eaten pass into the eater as an explanation of the food +taboos and prejudices of savage peoples.</p></div> + +<p>Just as the holy thing, which is to be feared as the seat of a mystic, +supernatural force, is to be avoided lest harm befall from contact with +it, or lest it be denied by human touch and its divine essence be +affected, so the unclean thing is also made taboo lest it infect man +with its own evil nature. Even as the savage will not have his idol +polluted by contact with his own personality, however indirect, so he +would himself avoid pollution in similar fashion by shunning that which +is unclean. Here also the avoidance of the tabooed person or thing is +based on the principle of sympathetic magic understood as a method of +transference of qualities, and on belief in the possibility of infection +by contact.</p> + +<p>The dual nature of taboo as the avoidance of both the sacred and the +unclean is noted by authorities on the subject who differ in other +respects as to the definition of taboo, such as in the relation of taboo +to the magical ceremonies by which man undertook to mould his +environment to his wishes. Whether the tabooed object be regarded in one +light or the other, the breaking of taboo is associated with dread of +the unknown—besides the fear of infection with the qualities of the +tabooed object according to the laws of sympathetic magic. There is +also the fear of the mysterious and supernatural, whether conceived as +the mana force or as a principle of "bad magic."</p> + +<p>Dr. J.G. Frazer has collected into the many volumes of "The Golden +Bough" a mass of evidence concerning the taboos of primitive society. On +the basis of his definition of magic as "a misapplication of the ideas +of association by similarity and contiguity," Dr. Frazer divided magic +into "positive magic," or charms, and "negative magic," or taboo. +"Positive magic says, 'Do this in order that so and so may happen.' +Negative magic or taboo says 'Do not do this lest so and so should +happen.'" <a name='FNanchor_4_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_4'><sup>[4, p.111, v.I.]</sup></a></p> + +<p>But Dr. Frazer's conclusion, which he himself considered only tentative, +was not long left unassailed. Prof. R.R. Marett in his essay "Is Taboo a +Negative Magic?" <a name='FNanchor_5_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_5_4'><sup>[5]</sup></a> called attention to the very evident fact that Dr. +Frazer's definition would not cover the characteristics of some of the +best known taboos, the food taboos of Prof. Tylor to which we have +previously alluded in this study, as a consequence of which "the flesh +of timid animals is avoided by warriors, but they love the meat of +tigers, boars, and stags, for their courage and speed." <a name='FNanchor_3_4b'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_4'><sup>[3, p.131.]</sup></a> Are +not these food taboos rather, Dr. Marett asks, a "misapplication of the +ideas of association by similarity and contiguity" amounting to the +sympathetic taboos so carefully described by such writers on Magic as +MM. Hubert and Mauss of L'Année Sociologique? Still another kind of +taboos mentioned by Dr. Frazer but amplified by Mr. Crawley in "The +Mystic Rose," the taboos on knots at childbirth, marriage, and death, +are much better described by the term "sympathetic taboo." Moreover, if +taboo were a form of magic as defined by Dr. Frazer, it would be a +somewhat definite and measurable quantity; whereas the distinguishing +characteristic of taboo everywhere is the "infinite plus of awfulness" +always accompanying its violation. As Dr. Marett observes, there may be +certain definite results, such as prescribed punishment for violations +against which a legal code is in process of growth. There may be also +social "growlings," showing the opposition of public opinion to which +the savage is at least as keenly sensitive as the modern. But it is the +"infinite plus" always attached to the violation of taboo that puts it +into the realm of the mystical, the magical. It would seem that Dr. +Frazer's definition does not include enough.</p> + +<p>It is when we turn to the subject of this study that we see most clearly +the deficiencies in these explanations—to the "classic well-nigh +universal major taboo" of the woman shunned. Dr. Marett uses her as his +most telling argument against the inclusiveness of the concepts of Dr. +Frazer and of MM. Hubert and Mauss. He says: "It is difficult to +conceive of sympathy, and sympathy only, as the continuous, or even the +originally efficient cause of the avoidance." Mr Crawley had called +attention to the fact that savages fear womanly characteristics, that +is, effeminacy, which is identified with weakness. While noting with +great psychological insight the presence of other factors, such as the +dislike of the different, he had gone so far as to express the opinion +that the fear of effeminacy was probably the chief factor in the Sex +Taboo. This is probably the weakest point in Mr. Crawley's study, for he +shows so clearly the presence of other elements, notably mystery, the +element that made woman the potential witch against whom suspicion +concentrated in so tragical a fashion up to a late historical period.</p> + +<p>Because of the element of mystery present in taboo we are led to +conclude that taboo is more than negative magic if we accept so definite +a concept as "a false association of ideas." The presence of power in +the tabooed object turns our attention to <i>mana</i> as giving us a better +understanding of why man must be wary. Mana must however be liberally +interpreted if we are to see to the bottom of the mystery. It must be +thought of as including good as well as evil power, as more than the +"black magic" of the witch-haunted England of the 17th century, as is +shown by the social position of the magicians who deal with the Mana of +the Pacific and with the Orenda of the Iroquois. It implies +"wonder-working," and may be shown in sheer luck, in individual cunning +and power, or in such a form as the "uncanny" psychic qualities ascribed +to women from the dawn of history. With this interpretation of mana in +mind, taboo may be conceived as negative mana; and to break taboo is to +set in motion against oneself mystic wonder-working power.</p> + +<p>Our study thus far has made it clear that there are mystic dangers to be +guarded against from human as well as extra-human sources. There is +weakness to be feared as well as power, as shown by the food and sex +taboos. And once again there is mystery in the different, the unusual, +the unlike, that causes avoidance and creates taboos. Man's dislike of +change from the old well-trodden way, no matter how irrational, accounts +for the persistence of many ancient folkways<a name='FNanchor_6_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_6_4'><sup>[6]</sup></a> whose origins are lost +in mystery.<a name='FNanchor_A_8'></a><a href='#Footnote_A_8'><sup>[A]</sup></a> Many of these old and persistent avoidances have been +expanded in the development of social relationships until we agree with +Mr. Crawley that taboo shows that "man seems to feel that he is treading +in slippery places." Might it not be within the range of possibility +that in the study of taboo we are groping with man through the first +blind processes of social control?<a name='FNanchor_B_9'></a><a href='#Footnote_B_9'><sup>[B]</sup></a></p> + +<a name='Footnote_A_8'></a><a href='#FNanchor_A_8'>[A]</a><div class='note'><p> Prof. Franz Boas explains this tendency: "The more +frequently an action is repeated, the more firmly it will become +established ... so that customary actions which are of frequent +repetition become entirely unconscious. Hand in hand with this decrease +of consciousness goes an increase in the emotional value of the omission +of these activities, and still more of the performance of acts contrary +to custom." <a name='FNanchor_7_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_7_4'><sup>[7]</sup></a></p></div> + +<a name='Footnote_B_9'></a><a href='#FNanchor_B_9'>[B]</a><div class='note'><p> No study of the tabu-mana theory, however delimited its +field, can disregard the studies of religion and magic made by the +contributors to L'Année Sociologique, notably MM. Durkheim and +Levy-Bruhl, and in England by such writers as Sir Gilbert Murray, Miss +Harrison, Mr A.B. Cook, Mr F.M. Cornford, and others. In their studies +of "collective representations" these writers give us an account of the +development of the social obligation back of religion, law, and social +institutions. They posit the sacred as forbidden and carry origins back +to a pre-logical stage, giving as the origin of the collective emotion +that started the representations to working the re-enforcement of power +or emotion resulting from gregarious living. This study is concerned, +however, with a "social" rather than a "religious" taboo,—if such a +distinction can somewhat tentatively be made, with the admission that +the social scruple very easily takes on a religious colouring.</p></div> + +<p>It is worthy of note that the most modern school of analytical +psychology has recently turned attention to the problem of taboo. Prof. +Sigmund Freud, protagonist psychoanalysis, in an essay, Totem und Tabu, +called attention to the analogy between the dualistic attitude toward +the tabooed object as both sacred and unclean and the ambivalent +attitude of the neurotic toward the salient objects in his environment. +We must agree that in addition to the dread of the tabooed person or +object there is often a feeling of fascination. This is of course +particularly prominent in the case of the woman tabooed because of the +strength of the sex instinct. As Freud has very justly said, the tabooed +object is very often in itself the object of supreme desire. This is +very obvious in the case of the food and sex taboos, which attempt to +inhibit two of the most powerful impulses of human nature. The two +conflicting streams of consciousness called ambivalence by the +psychologist may be observed in the attitude of the savage toward many +of his taboos. As the Austrian alienist cannily remarks, unless the +thing were desired there would be no necessity to impose taboo +restrictions concerning it.</p> + +<p>It is by a knowledge of the mana concept and the belief in sympathetic +magic, clarified by recognition of the ambivalent element in the +emotional reaction to the thing tabooed, that we can hope to understand +the almost universal custom of the "woman shunned" and the sex taboos of +primitive peoples. This dualism appears most strongly in the attitude +toward woman; for while she was the natural object of the powerful +sexual instinct she was quite as much the source of fear because she was +generally supposed to be endowed with spiritistic forces and in league +with supernatural powers. During the long period when the fact of +paternity was unrecognized, the power of reproduction which was thus +ascribed to woman alone made of her a mysterious being. Her fertility +could be explained only on the basis of her possession of an unusually +large amount of mana or creative force, or by the theory of impregnation +by demonic powers. As a matter of fact, both explanations were accepted +by primitive peoples, so that woman was regarded not only as imbued with +mana but also as being in direct contact with spirits. Many of the +devices for closing the reproductive organs which abounded among savage +tribes were imposed as a protection against spirits rather than against +the males of the human species. The tradition of impregnation by gods or +demons was not confined to savage tribes, but was wide-spread in the +days of Greece and Rome and lasted into biblical times, when we read of +the sons of heaven having intercourse with the daughters of men.</p> + +<p>In addition to this fear of the woman as in possession of and in league +with supernatural powers, there was an additional motive to avoidance in +the fear of transmission of her weakness through contact, a fear based +on a belief in sympathetic magic, and believed with all the "intensely +realized, living, and operative assurance" of which the untutored mind +is capable. Crawley masses an overwhelming amount of data on this point, +and both he and Frazer show the strength of these beliefs. Indeed, in +many cases violation proved to be "sure death," not by the hand of man, +but from sheer fright. As a result, just as woman was considered to have +both the tendency and power to impart her characteristics through +contact, so the sexual act, the acme of contact, became the most potent +influence for the emasculation of the male.</p> + +<p>If we wish for proof that the primitive attitude toward women was +essentially that which we have outlined, we have only to glance at the +typical taboos concerning woman found among ancient peoples and among +savage races of our own day. Nothing could be more indicative of the +belief that the power to bring forth children was a manifestation of the +possession of mana than the common avoidance of the pregnant woman. Her +mystic power is well illustrated by such beliefs as those described by +the traveller Im Thurn, who says that the Indians of Guiana believe that +if a pregnant woman eat of game caught by hounds, they will never be +able to hunt again. Similarly, Alfred Russell Wallace wrote of the +aborigines of the Amazon: "They believe that if a woman during her +pregnancy eats of any meat, any other animal partaking of it will +suffer; if a domestic animal or tame bird, it will die; if a dog, it +will be for the future incapable of hunting; and even a man will be +unable to shoot that particular kind of game for the future." <a name='FNanchor_8_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_8_4'><sup>[8]</sup></a> In +Fiji a pregnant wife may not wait upon her husband. <a name='FNanchor_9_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_9_4'><sup>[9]</sup></a> In the +Caroline Islands men may not eat with their wives when pregnant, but +small boys are allowed to do so. <a name='FNanchor_10_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_10_4'><sup>[10]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The avoidance of the menstruous woman is an even more widespread custom +than the shunning of pregnancy, probably because this function was +interpreted as a symptom of demonic possession. Primitive man had no +reason to know that the phenomenon of menstruation was in any way +connected with reproduction. The typical explanation was probably very +much like that of the Zoroastrians, who believed that the menses were +caused by the evil god Ahriman. A woman during the period was unclean +and possessed by that demon. She must be kept confined and apart from +the faithful, whom her touch would defile, and from the fire, which her +very look would injure. To this day there is in the house of the Parsee +a room for the monthly seclusion of the women, bare of all comforts, and +from it neither sun, moon, stars, fire, water, nor any human being can +be seen. <a name='FNanchor_11_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_11_4'><sup>[11]</sup></a></p> + +<p>All the ancient civilizations had such taboos upon the menstruous woman. +According to Pliny, the Romans held that nothing had such marvellous +efficacy as, or more deadly qualities than, the menstrual flow. The +Arabs thought that a great variety of natural powers attached +themselves to a woman during the menstrual period. <a name='FNanchor_12_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_12_4'><sup>[12, p.448]</sup></a> Rabbinic +laws demand that "a woman during all the days of her separation shall be +as if under a ban." The epithet Niddah, applied to a woman at that time, +means "to lay under a ban." The reconstruction of the ancient Assyrian +texts shows that the law of the unclean taboo on the woman in her +courses holds for them. Up to the present time the Semitic woman is +carefully segregated from the rest of the tribe, often for a long time, +and becomes taboo again on each successive occasion. <a name='FNanchor_13_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_13_4'><sup>[13]</sup></a> Peoples in the +eastern Mediterranean region will not permit a woman in her courses to +salt or pickle; whatever she might prepare would not keep. This belief +survives among the folk to-day in America, and was evidently brought +early in the history of the country, for it is common among pioneer +stock.</p> + +<p>There are very similar taboos among the savage races. Among the Tshi +peoples of West Africa women are not allowed to remain even in the town +but retire at the period to huts erected for the purpose in the +neighbouring bush, because they are supposed to be offensive to the +tribal deities at that time. <a name='FNanchor_14_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_14_4'><sup>[14]</sup></a> The Karoks of California have a +superstition like that of the Israelites. Every month the woman is +banished without the village to live in a booth by herself. She is not +permitted to partake of any meat, including fish. If a woman at this +time touches or even approaches any medicine which is about to be given +to a sick man, it will cause his death. <a name='FNanchor_15_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_15_4'><sup>[15]</sup></a> Amongst other Indian tribes +of North America women at menstruation are forbidden to touch men's +utensils, which would be so defiled by their touch that their subsequent +use would be attended by certain misfortune. The Canadian Dénés believe +that the very sight of a woman in this condition is dangerous to +society, so that she wears a special skin bonnet to hide her from the +public gaze. <a name='FNanchor_16_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_16_4'><sup>[16]</sup></a> In western Victoria a menstruous woman may not take +anyone's food or drink, and no one will touch food that has been touched +by her. <a name='FNanchor_17_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_17_4'><sup>[17]</sup></a> Amongst the Maoris, if a man ate food cooked by a menstrous +woman, he would be "tapu an inch thick." <a name='FNanchor_18_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_18_4'><sup>[18]</sup></a> Frazer quotes the case of +an Australian blackfellow who discovered that his wife had lain on his +blanket at her menstrual period, and who killed her and died of terror +himself within a fortnight. <a name='FNanchor_19_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_19_4'><sup>[19]</sup></a> Australian women at this time are +forbidden on pain of death to touch anything that men use or even to +walk on a path that men frequent. <a name='FNanchor_20_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_20_4'><sup>[20]</sup></a> Among the Baganda tribes a +menstruous woman is not permitted to come near her husband, cook his +food, touch any of his weapons, or sit on his mats, bed, or seat. <a name='FNanchor_21_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_21_4'><sup>[21]</sup></a></p> + +<p>By some twist in the primitive way of thinking, some "false association +by similarity and contiguity," the function of childbirth, unlike that +of pregnancy, where the emphasis seems to have been placed in most cases +on the mana principle, was held to be unclean and contaminating, and was +followed by elaborate rites of purification. It may be that the pains of +delivery were ascribed to the machinations of demonic powers, or +possession by evil spirits,—we know that this has sometimes been the +case. The use of charms and amulets, and the chanting of sacred formulæ +at this dangerous time all point to such beliefs. At any rate, although +the birth of the child would seem in every respect except in the +presence of blood to be more closely connected with the phenomena of +pregnancy than with that of menstruation, as a matter of fact the taboos +on the woman in child-bed were intimately associated with those on +menstruous women.</p> + +<p>Among the ancients, the Zoroastrians considered the woman unclean at +childbirth as at menstruation. <a name='FNanchor_22_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_22_4'><sup>[22]</sup></a> In the Old Testament, ritual +uncleanness results from contact with a woman at childbirth. <a name='FNanchor_23_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_23_4'><sup>[23]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Likewise among savage tribes the same customs concerning childbirth +prevail. Among the Australian aborigines women are secluded at childbirth +as at menstruation, and all vessels used by them during this seclusion +are burned. <a name='FNanchor_20_4b'></a><a href='#Footnote_20_4'><sup>[20]</sup></a> The Ewe-speaking people think a mother and babe unclean +for forty days after childbirth. <a name='FNanchor_24_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_24_4'><sup>[24]</sup></a> At menstruation and childbirth a +Chippeway wife may not eat with her husband; she must cook her food at a +separate fire, since any one using her fire would fall +ill. <a name='FNanchor_10_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_10_4'><sup>[10, v. ii, p.457]</sup></a> The Alaskan explorer Dall found that among the +Kaniagmuts a woman was considered unclean for several days both after +delivery and menstruation; in either case no one may touch her and she +is fed with food at the end of a stick. <a name='FNanchor_25_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_25_4'><sup>[25]</sup></a> Amongst the tribes of the +Hindu Kush the mother is considered unclean for seven days after the +birth of her child, and no one will eat from her hand nor will she +suckle her infant during that period. In the Oxus valley north of the +Hindu Kush the period is extended to forty days. <a name='FNanchor_26_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_26_4'><sup>[26]</sup></a></p> + +<p>This attitude which primitive man takes toward woman at the time of her +sexual crises—menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth—are but an +intensification of the feeling which he has toward her at all times. +Conflicting with his natural erotic inclinations are the emotions of awe +and fear which she inspires in him as the potential source of contagion, +for there is always some doubt as to her freedom from bad magic, and it +is much safer to regard her as unclean. <a name='FNanchor_27_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_27_4'><sup>[27]</sup></a> Thus the every-day life of +savage tribes is hedged in by all manner of restrictions concerning the +females of their group. The men have their own dwelling in many +instances, where no woman may enter. So, too, she may be barred out from +the temples and excluded from the religious ceremonies when men worship +their deity. There are people who will not permit the women of their +nation to touch the weapons, clothing, or any other possessions of the +men, or to cook their food, lest even this indirect contact result in +emasculation. The same idea of sympathetic magic is at the root of +taboos which forbid the wife to speak her husband's name, or even to use +the same dialect. With social intercourse debarred, and often no common +table even in family life, it is veritably true that men and women +belong to two castes.</p> + +<p>Of the primitive institution known as the "men's house," Hutton Webster +says: "Sexual separation is further secured and perpetuated by the +institution known as the men's house, of which examples are to be found +among primitive peoples throughout the world. It is usually the largest +building in a tribal settlement ... Here the most precious belongings of +the community, such as trophies and religious emblems, are preserved. +Within its precincts ... women and children ... seldom or never +enter ... Family huts serve as little more than resorts for the +women and children." <a name='FNanchor_28_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_28_4'><sup>[28]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Many examples among uncivilized peoples bear out this description of +the institution of the men's house. Amongst the Indians of California +and in some Redskin tribes the men's clubhouse may never be entered by a +squaw under penalty of death. The Shastika Indians have a town lodge for +women, and another for men which the women may not enter. <a name='FNanchor_15_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_15_4'><sup>[15]</sup></a>Among the +Fijis women are not allowed to enter a <i>bure</i> or club house, which is +used as a lounge by the chiefs. In the Solomon Islands women may not +enter the men's <i>tambu</i> house, and on some of the islands are not even +permitted to cross the beach in front of it. <a name='FNanchor_29_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_29_4'><sup>[29]</sup></a> In the Marquesas +Islands the <i>ti</i> where the men congregate and spend most of their time +is taboo to women, and protected by the penalty of death from the +pollution of a woman's presence. <a name='FNanchor_30_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_30_4'><sup>[30]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Not only is woman barred from the men's club house, but she is also +often prohibited from association and social intercourse with the +opposite sex by many other regulations and customs. Thus no woman may +enter the house of a Maori chief,<a name='FNanchor_31_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_31_4'><sup>[31]</sup></a> while among the Zulus, even if a +man and wife are going to the same place they never walk together.<a name='FNanchor_32_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_32_4'><sup>[32]</sup></a> +Among the Baganda wives are kept apart from the men's quarters.<a name='FNanchor_21_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_21_4'><sup>[21]</sup></a> The +Ojibway Indian Peter Jones says of his people: "When travelling the men +always walk on before. It would be considered a great presumption for +the wife to walk by the side of her husband."<a name='FNanchor_33_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_33_4'><sup>[33]</sup></a> In many islands of the +South Seas the houses of important men are not accessible to their +wives, who live in separate huts. Among the Bedouins a wife may not sit +in any part of the tent except her own corner, while it is disgraceful +for a man to sit under the shadow of the women's <i>roffe</i> (tent +covering).<a name='FNanchor_34_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_34_4'><sup>[34]</sup></a> Among the Hindus, no female may enter the men's +apartments. In the Society and Sandwich Islands the females were +humiliated by taboo, and in their domestic life the women lived almost +entirely by themselves. The wife could not eat the same food, could not +eat in the same place, could not cook by the same fire. It was said that +woman would pollute the food.<a name='FNanchor_35_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_35_4'><sup>[35]</sup></a> In Korea a large bell is tolled at +about 8 p.m. and 3 a.m. daily, and between these hours only are women +supposed to appear in the streets.<a name='FNanchor_36_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_36_4'><sup>[36]</sup></a> In the New Hebrides there is a +curious segregation of the sexes, with a dread among the men of eating +anything female.<a name='FNanchor_37_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_37_4'><sup>[37]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Among many tribes this segregation of the women and the separation of +the sexes begin at an early age, most often at the approach of puberty, +which is earlier in primitive peoples than in our own race.<a name='FNanchor_38_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_38_4'><sup>[38]</sup></a> The boys +usually go about with the father, while the girls remain with the +mother. This is true in Patagonia, where the boys begin to go with the +father at ten, the daughters with the mother at nine.<a name='FNanchor_39_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_39_4'><sup>[39]</sup></a> In Korea boys +and girls are separated at seven. From that time the Korean girl is +absolutely secluded in the inner court of her father's home. Mrs Bishop +says: "Girl children are so successfully hidden away that ... I never +saw one girl who looked above the age of six ... except in the women's +rooms."<a name='FNanchor_36_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_36_4'><sup>[36]</sup></a> Among the northern Indian girls are from the age of eight or +nine prohibited from joining in the most innocent amusements with +children of the opposite sex, and are watched and guarded with such an +unremitting attention as cannot be exceeded by the most rigid discipline +of an English boarding-school.<a name='FNanchor_40_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_40_4'><sup>[40]</sup></a> Similar arrangements are reported +among the Hill Dyaks,<a name='FNanchor_41_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_41_4'><sup>[41]</sup></a> certain Victorian tribes,<a name='FNanchor_17_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_17_4'><sup>[17]</sup></a> and many others. +As already instanced, the separation of the sexes extends even to +brothers and sisters and other close relatives. Thus in Fiji brothers +and sisters are forbidden by national and religious custom to speak to +each other.<a name='FNanchor_9_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_9_4'><sup>[9]</sup></a> In Melanesia, according to Codrington, the boy begins to +avoid his mother when he puts on clothing, and his sister as soon as she +is tattooed.<a name='FNanchor_42_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_42_4'><sup>[42]</sup></a> In the exclusive Nanburi caste of Travancore brothers +and sisters are separated at an early age.</p> + +<p>Women are more often than not excluded also from religious worship on +account of the idea of their uncleanness. The Arabs in many cases will +not allow women religious instruction. The Ansayrees consider woman to +be an inferior being without a soul, and therefore exclude her from +religious services.<a name='FNanchor_34_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_34_4'><sup>[34]</sup></a> In the Sandwich Islands women were not allowed +to share in worship or festivals.<a name='FNanchor_35_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_35_4'><sup>[35]</sup></a> The Australians are very jealous +lest women should look into their sacred mysteries. It is death for a +woman to look into a Bora.<a name='FNanchor_20_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_20_4'><sup>[20]</sup></a> In Fiji women are kept away from worship +and excluded from all the temples.<a name='FNanchor_9_4b'></a><a href='#Footnote_9_4'><sup>[9]</sup></a> The women of some of the Indian +hill-tribes may not sacrifice nor appear at shrines, nor take part in +religious festivals. In New Ireland women are not allowed to approach +the temples.<a name='FNanchor_43_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_43_4'><sup>[43]</sup></a> In the Marquesas Islands the Hoolah-hoolah ground, +where festivals are held, is taboo to women, who are killed if they +enter or even touch with their feet the shadow of the trees.<a name='FNanchor_30_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_30_4'><sup>[30]</sup></a> Women +are also excluded from the sacred festivals of the Ahts.<a name='FNanchor_44_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_44_4'><sup>[44]</sup></a> In the +Amazon region, the women are not even permitted to see the objects used +in important ceremonies. If any woman of the Uaupes tribe happens to see +the masks used in the tribal ceremony she is put to death.<a name='FNanchor_45_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_45_4'><sup>[45]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Crawley has explained the taboos on the sexes eating together and on the +cooking of food by women for men as due to the superstitious belief +that food which has come in contact with or under the influence of the +female is capable of transmitting her properties. Some southern Arabs +would die rather than accept food from a woman.<a name='FNanchor_12_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_12_4'><sup>[12]</sup></a> Among the old +Semites it was not the custom for a man to eat with his wife and +children. Among the Motu of New Guinea when a man is helega, he may not +eat food that his wife has cooked.<a name='FNanchor_46_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_46_4'><sup>[46]</sup></a> South Australian boys during +initiation are forbidden to eat with the women, lest they "grow ugly or +become grey."</p> + +<p>It was probably some fear of the charm-weaving power of woman which lay +at the root of the rules which forbade her to speak her husband's name, +the implication being that she might use it in some incantation against +him. For instance, a Zulu woman was forbidden to speak her husband's +name; if she did so, she would be suspected of witchcraft.<a name='FNanchor_47_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_47_4'><sup>[47]</sup></a> Herodotus +tells us that no Ionian woman would ever mention the name of her +husband, nor may a Hindu woman do so.<a name='FNanchor_48_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_48_4'><sup>[48]</sup></a> </p> + +<p>Frazer says that the custom of the Kaffir woman of South Africa not to +speak the name of her own or husband's relations has given rise to an +almost entirely different language from that of the men through the +substitution of new words for the words thus banned. Once this "women's +speech" had arisen, it would of course not be used by the men because of +the universal contempt for woman and all that pertained to her. This may +have been the origin of the use of different dialects in some tribes, +such as the Japanese, the Arawaks, some Brazilian tribes, and +others.<a name='FNanchor_49_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_49_4'><sup>[49]</sup></a> </p> + +<p>Although the division of labour between the sexes had a natural +biological basis, and indeed had its beginning in the animal world long +before man as such came into existence, the idea of the uncleanness of +woman was carried over to her work, which became beneath the dignity of +man. As a result, there grew up a series of taboos which absolutely +fixed the sphere of woman's labour, and prohibited her from encroaching +on the pursuits of man lest they be degraded by her use, quite as much +as they barred man from her specific activities. In Nicaragua, for +example, it is a rule that the marketing shall be done by women. In +Samoa, where the manufacture of cloth is allotted to the women, it is +taboo for a man to engage in any part of the process.<a name='FNanchor_30_4b'></a><a href='#Footnote_30_4'><sup>[30]</sup></a> Among the +Andamanese the performance of most of the domestic duties falls to the +lot of the women and children. Only in cases of stern necessity will the +husband procure wood or water.<a name='FNanchor_50_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_50_4'><sup>[50]</sup></a> An Eskimo even thinks it an indignity +to row in an <i>umiak</i>, the large boat used by women.</p> + +<p>They also distinguish very definitely between the offices of husband +and wife. For example, when a man has brought a seal to land, it would +be a stigma on his character to draw it out of the water, since that is +the duty of the female.<a name='FNanchor_51_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_51_4'><sup>[51]</sup></a> In the Marquesas Islands, the use of canoes +in all parts of the islands is rigorously prohibited to women, for whom +it is death even to be seen entering one when hauled on shore; while +Tapa-making, which belongs exclusively to women, is taboo to men.<a name='FNanchor_30_4c'></a><a href='#Footnote_30_4'><sup>[30]</sup></a> +Among the Betchuanas of South Africa the men will not let women touch +the cattle.<a name='FNanchor_52_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_52_4'><sup>[52]</sup></a> The Baganda think that if a woman steps over a man's +weapons they will not aim straight or kill until they have been +purified.<a name='FNanchor_21_4b'></a><a href='#Footnote_21_4'><sup>[21]</sup></a> Among many South African tribes, if a wife steps over her +husband's assegais, they are considered useless from that time and are +given to the boys to play with. This superstition rings many changes and +is current among the natives of all countries.</p> + +<p>The taboos which have thus been exemplified and reviewed are based on +the feeling that woman is possessed of a demonic power, or perhaps of a +<i>mana</i> principle which may work injury; or else upon the fear that she +may contaminate man with her weakness. It is very probable that many of +these taboos originated even as far back as the stage of society in +which the line of descent was traced through the mother. There seems +little doubt that the framework of ancient society rested on the basis +of kinship, and that the structure of the ancient gens brought the +mother and child into the same gens. Under these circumstances the gens +of the mother would have some ascendancy in the ancient household. On +such an established fact rests the assumption of a matriarchate, or +period of Mutterrecht. The German scholar Bachofen in his monumental +work "Das Mutterrecht" discussed the traces of female "authority" among +the Lycians, Cretans, Athenians, Lemnians, Lesbians, and Asiatic +peoples. But it is now almost unanimously agreed that the matriarchal +period was not a time when women were in possession of political or +economic power, but was a method of tracing descent and heritage. It is +fairly well established that, in the transition from metronymic to +patronymic forms, authority did not pass from women to men, but from the +brothers and maternal uncles of the women of the group to the husbands +and sons. Such a method of tracing descent, while it doubtless had its +advantages in keeping the woman with her child with her blood kindred, +would not prevent her from occupying a degraded position through the +force of the taboos which we have described.<a name='FNanchor_53_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_53_4'><sup>[53]</sup></a></p> + +<p>With the development of the patriarchal system and the custom of +marriage by capture or purchase, woman came to be regarded as a part of +man's property, and as inviolate as any other of his possessions. Under +these circumstances virginity came to be more and more of an asset, +since no man wished his property to be denied by the touch of another. +Elaborate methods for the preservation of chastity both before and after +marriage were developed, and in many instances went so far as to +consider a woman defiled if she were accidentally touched by any other +man than her husband. Here we have once more the working of sympathetic +magic, where the slightest contact works contamination.</p> + +<p>We have in other connections alluded to the seclusion of young girls in +Korea, among the Hindus, among the North American Indians, and in the +South Seas. One of the most beautiful examples of this custom is found +in New Britain. From puberty until marriage the native girls are +confined in houses with a bundle of dried grass across the entrance to +show that the house is strictly taboo. The interior of these houses is +divided into cells or cages in each of which a girl is confined. No +light and little or no air enters, and the atmosphere is hot and +stifling.</p> + +<p>The seclusion of women after marriage is common among many peoples. In +the form in which it affected western civilization it probably +originated among the Persians or some other people of central Asia, and +spread to the Arabs and Mohammedans. That it did not originate with the +Arabs is attested by students of their culture. It was common among the +Greeks, whose wives were secluded from other men than their husbands. In +modern Korea it is not even proper to ask after the women of the family. +Women have been put to death in that country when strange men have +accidentally touched their hands.<a name='FNanchor_36_4b'></a><a href='#Footnote_36_4'><sup>[36, p.341]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The saddest outcome of the idea of woman as property was the status of +widows. In uncivilized society a widow is considered dangerous because +the ghost of her husband is supposed to cling to her. Hence she must be +slain that his spirit may depart in peace with her, as well as with the +weapons and other possessions which are buried with him or burned upon +his funeral pyre. The Marathi proverb to the effect that "the husband is +the life of the woman" thus becomes literally true.</p> + +<p>The best known case of widow slaying is of course the custom of "suttee" +in India. The long struggle made against this custom by the British +government is a vivid illustration of the strength of these ancient +customs. The Laws of Manu indicate that the burning of widows was +practised by primitive Aryans. In the Fiji Islands, where a wife was +strangled on her husband's grave, the strangled women were called "the +carpeting of the grave."<a name='FNanchor_54_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_54_4'><sup>[54]</sup></a> In Arabia, as in many other countries, +while a widow may escape death, she is very often forced into the class +of vagabonds and dependents. One of the most telling appeals made by +missionaries is the condition of child widows in countries in which the +unfortunates cannot be killed, but where the almost universal stigma of +shame is attached to second marriages. A remarkable exception to this, +when in ancient Greece the dying husband sometimes bequeathed his widow +to a male friend, emphasized the idea of woman as property.</p> + +<p>Although the taboos which are based on the idea of ownership are +somewhat aside from the main theme of our discussion, they nevertheless +reinforce the other taboos of the seclusion and segregation of woman as +unclean. Moreover, as will be shown in a later chapter, the property +idea has certain implications which are important for the proper +understanding of the status of woman and the attitude toward her at the +present time.</p> + +<p>In the face of the primitive aversion to woman as the source of +contamination through sympathetic magic, or as the seat of some mystic +force, whether of good or evil, it may well be asked how man ever dared +let his sexual longings overcome his fears and risk the dangers of so +intimate a relationship. Only by some religious ceremonial, some act of +purification, could man hope to counteract these properties of woman; +and thus the marriage ritual came into existence. By the marriage +ceremonial, the breach of taboo was expiated, condoned, and socially +countenanced.<a name='FNanchor_1_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_4'><sup>[1, p.200]</sup></a> This was very evident in the marriage customs of +the Greeks, which were composed of purification rites and other +precautions.<a name='FNanchor_55_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_55_4'><sup>[55]</sup></a> The injunctions to the Hebrews given in Leviticus +illustrate the almost universal fact that even under the sanction of +marriage the sexual embrace was taboo at certain times, as for example +before the hunt or battle.</p> + +<p>We are now prepared to admit that throughout the ages there has existed +a strongly dualistic or "ambivalent" feeling in the mind of man toward +woman. On the one hand she is the object of erotic desire; on the other +hand she is the source of evil and danger. So firmly is the latter +feeling fixed that not even the sanction of the marriage ceremony can +completely remove it, as the taboos of intercourse within the marital +relationship show.</p> + +<p>There are certain psychological and physiological reasons for the +persistence of this dualistic attitude in the very nature of the sex act +itself. Until the climax of the sexual erethism, woman is for man the +acme of supreme desire; but with detumescence the emotions tend to +swing to the opposite pole, and excitement and longing are forgotten in +the mood of repugnance and exhaustion. This tendency would be very much +emphasized in those primitive tribes where the <i>corroboree</i> with its +unlimited indulgence was common, and also among the ancients with their +orgiastic festivals. In the revulsion of feeling following these orgies +woman would be blamed for man's own folly. In this physiological swing +from desire to satiety, the apparent cause of man's weakness would be +looked upon as the source of the evil—a thing unclean. There would be +none of the ethical and altruistic element of modern "love" to protect +her. Students agree that these elements in the modern sentiment have +been evolved, "not from the sexual instinct, but from the companionship +of the battlefield."<a name='FNanchor_56_4'></a><a href='#Footnote_56_4'><sup>[56]</sup></a> It is therefore probable that in this +physiological result of uncontrolled sex passion we shall find the +source of the dualism of the attitude toward sex and womanhood present +in taboo.</p><br /> + +<p>BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER I</p> + +<a name='Footnote_1_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_4'>1.</a><div class='note'> Crawley, A.E. The Mystic Rose. 492 pp. Macmillan. London, 1902.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_2_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_2_4'>2.</a><div class='note'> Jevons, F.B. History of Religion. 443 pp. Methuen & Co. London, 1896.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_3_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_3_4'>3.</a><div class='note'> Tylor, E.B. Early History of Mankind, 3d. ed. 388 pp. J. Murray. +London, 1878.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_4_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_4_4'>4.</a><div class='note'> Frazer, J.G. The Golden Bough: Part I, The Magic Art and the +Evolution of Kings. 2 vols. Macmillan. London, 1911.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_5_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_5_4'>5.</a><div class='note'> First published in Anthropological Essays presented to E.B. Tylor in +honour of his 75th birthday. Oct. 2, 1907. 416 pp. The Clarendon Press, +Oxford, 1907.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_6_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_6_4'>6.</a><div class='note'> Sumner, W.G. Folkways. 692 pp. Ginn & Co. Boston, 1907.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_7_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_7_4'>7.</a><div class='note'> Boas, Franz. The Mind of Primitive Man. 294 pp. Macmillan. N.Y., 1911.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_8_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_8_4'>8.</a><div class='note'> Wallace, Alfred Russel. Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro. 541 pp. Reeve & Co., London, 1853.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_9_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_9_4'>9.</a><div class='note'> Williams, Thomas, and Calvert, James. Fiji and the Fijians. 551 pp. Appleton. N.Y., 1859.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_10_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_10_4'>10.</a><div class='note'> Ploss, Dr Hermann H. Das Weib. 2 vols. Th. Grieben's Verlag. Leipzig, 1885.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_11_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_11_4'>11.</a><div class='note'> Greiger, Ostiranische Kultur. Erlangen, 1882. Quoted from Folkways +<a name='FNanchor_6_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_6_4'><sup>[6]</sup></a>, p. 513.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_12_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_12_4'>12.</a><div class='note'> Robertson Smith, W. Religion of the Semites. 508 pp. A. & C. Black. Edinburgh, 1894.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_13_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_13_4'>13.</a><div class='note'> Thompson, R.C. Semitic Magic. 286 pp. Luzac & Co. London, 1908.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_14_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_14_4'>14.</a><div class='note'> Ellis, A.B. Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast of West Africa. +343 pp. Chapman & Hall. London, 1887.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_15_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_15_4'>15.</a><div class='note'> Powers, Stephen. Tribes of California. Contributions to North +American Ethnology, Third Volume. Washington, 1877.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_16_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_16_4'>16.</a><div class='note'> Morice, Rev. Father A.G. The Canadian Dénés. Annual Archeological +Report, 1905. Toronto, 1906. Quoted from Frazer, Taboo and the Perils of +the Soul.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_17_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_17_4'>17.</a><div class='note'> Dawson, James. Australian Aborigines. 111 pp., with Appendix. George +Robertson. Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide, 1881. Citation from Latin vote to Chap. XII.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_18_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_18_4'>18.</a><div class='note'> Tregear, Edward. The Maoris of New Zealand. Journal of the +Anthropological Institute, v. xix, 1889.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_19_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_19_4'>19.</a><div class='note'> Armit, Capt. W.E. Customs of the Australian Aborigines. Jour. Anthr. +Inst., ix, 1880, p. 459. See also <a name='FNanchor_18_4a'></a><a href='#Footnote_18_4'><sup>[18]</sup></a>.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_20_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_20_4'>20.</a><div class='note'> Ridley, W. Report on Australian Languages and Traditions. Jour. Anthr. Inst., ii, 1872.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_21_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_21_4'>21.</a><div class='note'> Roscoe, Rev. John. Manners and Customs of the Baganda. Jour. Anthr, +Inst., xxxii, 1902.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_22_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_22_4'>22.</a><div class='note'> Zend-Avesta. Sacred Books of the East Series. Oxford 1880, 1883.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_23_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_23_4'>23.</a><div class='note'> Leviticus xii.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_24_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_24_4'>24.</a><div class='note'> Ellis, A.B. Ewe-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa. +Chapman & Hall. London, 1890. 331 pp.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_25_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_25_4'>25.</a><div class='note'> Dall, W.H. Alaska and Its Resources. 627 pp. Lee & Shepard. Boston, 1870.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_26_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_26_4'>26.</a><div class='note'> Biddulph, Maj. J. Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh. 164 pp. Gov't. Printing Office. Calcutta, 1880.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_27_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_27_4'>27.</a><div class='note'> Frazer, J.G. The Golden Bough: Part II, Taboo and the Perils of the Soul. 446 pp. Macmillan. London, 1911.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_28_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_28_4'>28.</a><div class='note'> Webster, Hutton. Primitive Secret Societies. 227 pp. Macmillan. N.Y., 1908.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_29_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_29_4'>29.</a><div class='note'> Guppy, H.B. The Solomon Islands and Their Natives. 384 pp. Swan Sonnenschein & Co. London, 1887.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_30_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_30_4'>30.</a><div class='note'> Melville, H. The Marquesas Islands. 285 pp. John Murray. London, 1846.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_31_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_31_4'>31.</a><div class='note'> Taylor, Rev. Richard. Te Ika A Maui, or New Zealand and Its Inhabitants. 713 pp. 2d. ed. Macintosh. London, 1870.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_32_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_32_4'>32.</a><div class='note'> Shooter, Rev. Joseph. The Kaffirs of Natal and the Zulu Country. 403 pp. E. Stanford. London, 1857.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_33_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_33_4'>33.</a><div class='note'> Jones, Rev. Peter. History of the Ojibway Indians. 217 pp. A.W. Bennett. London, 1861.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_34_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_34_4'>34.</a><div class='note'> Featherman, A. Social History of the Races of Mankind. 5 vols. Trübner & Co. London, 1881.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_35_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_35_4'>35.</a><div class='note'> Ellis, Rev. Wm. Polynesian Researches. 4 vols. G. Bohn. London, 1853.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_36_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_36_4'>36.</a><div class='note'> Bishop, Mrs Isabella Bird. Korea and Her Neighbours. 480 pp. Fleming H. Revell Co. N.Y., 1898.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_37_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_37_4'>37.</a><div class='note'> Somerville, Lieut. Boyle T. The New Hebrides. Jour. Anthr. Inst., xxiii, 1894.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_38_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_38_4'>38.</a><div class='note'> Hall, G. Stanley. Adolescence. 2 vols. Appleton, N.Y., 1904.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_39_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_39_4'>39.</a><div class='note'> Musters, G.C. At Home with the Patagoniana. 340 pp. J. Murray. London, 1873.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_40_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_40_4'>40.</a><div class='note'> Hearne, Samuel. A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's +Bay to the Northern Ocean. Publications of the Champlain Society, No. 6. London, 1795.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_41_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_41_4'>41.</a><div class='note'> Low, Hugh. Sarawak. 416 pp. Richard Bentley. London, 1848.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_42_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_42_4'>42.</a><div class='note'> Codrington, Rev. R.H. The Melanesians. 419 pp. Oxford, 1891.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_43_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_43_4'>43.</a><div class='note'> Romilly, Hugh Hastings. The Western Pacific and New Guinea, 2d. ed., 284 pp. John Murray. London, 1887.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_44_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_44_4'>44.</a><div class='note'> Sproat, G.M. Scenes and Studies of Savage Life. 317 pp. Smith, Elder & Co. London, 1868.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_45_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_45_4'>45.</a><div class='note'> Wissler, Clark. The American Indian. 435 pp. D.C. McMurtrie. N.Y., 1917.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_46_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_46_4'>46.</a><div class='note'> Lawes, W.G. Ethnographical Notes on the Motu, Koitapu, and Koiari Tribes of New Guinea. Jour. Anthr. Inst., viii, 1879.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_47_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_47_4'>47.</a><div class='note'> Callaway, Rev. Canon Henry. Religious System of the Amazulu. 448 pp. Trübner & Co. London, 1870.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_48_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_48_4'>48.</a><div class='note'> Crooke, W. Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India. 2 vols. Archibald Constable & Co. Westminster, 1896.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_49_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_49_4'>49.</a><div class='note'> Crawley, A.E. Sexual Taboo. Journ. Anthr. Inst., xxiv, 1895.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_50_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_50_4'>50.</a><div class='note'> Man, E.H. The Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands. Jour. Anthr. Inst., xii, 1882.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_51_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_51_4'>51.</a><div class='note'> Crantz, David. History of Greenland. Trans, fr. the German, 2 vols. Longmans, Green. London, 1820.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_52_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_52_4'>52.</a><div class='note'> Holub, E. Central South African Tribes. Jour. Anthr. Inst., x, 1881.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_53_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_53_4'>53.</a><div class='note'> Morgan, Lewis H. Ancient Society. 560 pp. Henry Holt & Co. N.Y., 1907. (First edition, 1877).</div> + +<a name='Footnote_54_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_54_4'>54.</a><div class='note'> Fison, Rev. Lorimer. Figian Burial Customs, jour. Anthr. Inst., x. 1881.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_55_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_55_4'>55.</a><div class='note'> Rohde, Erwin. Psyche. 711 pp. Freiburg und Leipzig, 1894.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_56_4'></a><a href='#FNanchor_56_4'>56.</a><div class='note'> Benecke, E.F.M. Women in Greek Poetry. 256 pp. Swan Sonnenschein & Co. London, 1896.</div> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='CHAPTER_II_P2'></a><h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<center>FROM THE DAWN OF HISTORY: WOMAN AS SAINT AND WITCH</center> +<br /> + +<center><blockquote>Taboos of first chapter indicate that in the early ages the fear of +contamination by woman predominated; Later, emphasis fell on her mystic +and uncanny power; Ancient fertility cults; Temple prostitution, +dedication of virgins, etc.; Ancient priestesses and prophetesses; +Medicine early developed by woman added to belief in her power; Woman's +psychic quality of intuition: its origin—theories—conclusion that this +quality is probably physiological in origin, but aggravated by taboo +repressions; Transformation in attitude toward woman in the early +Christian period; Psychological reasons for the persistence in religion +of a Mother Goddess; Development of the Christian concept; Preservation +of ancient women cults as demonology; Early Christian attitude toward +woman as unclean and in league with demons; Culmination of belief in +demonic power of woman in witchcraft persecutions; All women affected by +the belief in witches and in the uncleanness of woman; Gradual +development on the basis of the beliefs outlined of an ideally pure and +immaculate Model Woman.</blockquote></center> +<br><br> +<p>From the data of the preceding chapter, it is clear that the early ages +of human life there was a dualistic attitude toward woman. On the one +hand she was regarded as the possessor of the mystic <i>mana</i> force, +while on the other she was the source of "bad magic" and likely to +contaminate man with her weaknesses. Altogether, the study of primitive +taboos would indicate that the latter conception predominated in savage +life, and that until the dawn of history woman was more often regarded +as a thing unclean than as the seat of a divine power.</p> + +<p>At the earliest beginnings of civilization man's emotions seem to have +swung to the opposite extreme, for emphasis fell on the mystic and +uncanny powers possessed by woman. Thus it was that in ancient nations +there was a deification of woman which found expression in the belief in +feminine deities and the establishment of priestess cults. Not until the +dawn of the Christian era was the emphasis once more focussed on woman +as a thing unclean. Then, her mystic power was ascribed to demon +communication, and stripped of her divinity, she became the witch to be +excommunicated and put to death.</p> + +<p>All the ancient world saw something supernatural, something demoniacal, +in generation. Sometimes the act was deified, as in the phallic +ceremonials connected with nature worship, where the procreative +principle in man became identified with the creative energy pervading +all nature, and was used as a magic charm at the time of springtime +planting to insure the fertility of the fields and abundant harvest,<a name='FNanchor_1_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_5'><sup>[1]</sup></a> +It was also an important part of the ritual in the Phrygian cults, the +cult of the Phoenician Astarte, and the Aphrodite cults. These mystery +religions were widely current in the Græco-Roman world in pre-Christian +times. The cult of Demeter and Dionysius in Greece and Thrace; Cybele +and Attis in Phrygia; Atagartes in Cilicia; Aphrodite and Adonis in +Syria; Ashtart and Eshmun (Adon) in Phoenicia; Ishtar and Tammuz in +Babylonia; Isis, Osiris and Serapis in Egypt, and Mithra in Persia—all +were developed along the same lines.<a name='FNanchor_2_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_5'><sup>[2]</sup></a> The custom of the sacrifice of +virginity to the gods, and the institution of temple prostitution, also +bear witness to the sacred atmosphere with which the sex act was +surrounded among the early historic peoples.<a name='FNanchor_3_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_5'><sup>[3]</sup></a> It was this idea of the +mysterious sanctity of sex which did much to raise woman to her position +as divinity and fertility goddess.</p> + +<p>The dedication of virgins to various deities, of which the classic +example is the institution of the Vestal Virgins at Rome, and the fact +that at Thebes and elsewhere even the male deities had their priestesses +as well as priests, are other indications that at this time woman was +regarded as divine or as capable of ministering to divinity. The +prophetic powers of woman were universally recognized. The oracles at +Delphi, Argos, Epirus, Thrace and Arcadia were feminine. Indeed the +Sibylline prophetesses were known throughout the Mediterranean basin.<a name='FNanchor_A_10'></a><a href='#Footnote_A_10'><sup>[A]</sup></a></p> + +<a name='Footnote_A_10'></a><a href='#FNanchor_A_10'>[A]</a><div class='note'><p> Farnell<a name='FNanchor_4_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_5'><sup>[4]</sup></a> found such decided traces of feminine divinity +as to incline him to agree with Bachofen that there was at +one time an age of Mutterrecht which had left its impress on +religion as well as on other aspects of social life. As we have +said before, it is now fairly well established that in the transition +from metronymic to patronymic forms, authority did not pass +from women to men but from the brothers and maternal uncles +of the women of the group to husbands and sons. This fact +does not, however, invalidate the significance of Farnell's data +for the support of the view herein advanced, i.e., that woman +was at one time universally considered to partake of the divine.</p></div> + +<p>The widespread character of the woman-cult of priestesses and +prophetesses among the peoples from whom our culture is derived is +evidenced in literature and religion. That there had been cults of +ancient mothers who exerted moral influence and punished crime is shown +by the Eumenides and Erinyes of the Greeks. The power of old women as +law-givers survived in Rome in the legend of the Cumæan Sibyl.<a name='FNanchor_5_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_5_5'><sup>[5]</sup></a> An +index of the universality of the sibylline cult appears in the list of +races to which Varro and Lactantius say they belonged: Persian, Libyan, +Delphian, Cimmerian, Erythrian, Trojan, and Phrygian.<a name='FNanchor_6_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_6_5'><sup>[6]</sup></a> These sibyls +were believed to be inspired, and generations of Greek and Roman +philosophers never doubted their power. Their carmina were a court of +last resort, and their books were guarded by a sacred taboo.</p> + +<p>Among the Greeks and neighbouring nations the women of Thessaly had a +great reputation for their charms and incantations.<a name='FNanchor_7_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_7_5'><sup>[7]</sup></a> Among the writers +who speak of a belief in their power are: Plato, Aristophanes, Horace, +Ovid, Virgil, Tibullus, Seneca, Lucan, Menander, and Euripides.</p> + +<p>All of the northern European tribes believed in the foresight of future +events by women. Strabo says of the Cimbri that when they took the field +they were accompanied by venerable, hoary-headed prophetesses, clothed +in long, white robes. Scandinavians, Gauls, Germans, Danes and Britons +obeyed, esteemed and venerated females who dealt in charms and +incantations. These sacred women claimed to foretell the future and to +interpret dreams, and among Germans, Celts and Gauls they were the only +physicians and surgeons. The druidesses cured disease and were believed +to have power superior to that of the priests.<a name='FNanchor_8_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_8_5'><sup>[8]</sup></a> The Germans never +undertook any adventure without consulting their prophetesses.<a name='FNanchor_9_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_9_5'><sup>[9]</sup></a> The +Scandinavian name for women endowed with the gift of prophecy was +<i>fanae</i>, <i>fanes</i>. The English form is <i>fay</i>. The ceremonies of fays or +fairies, like those of the druidesses, were performed in secluded +woods.<a name='FNanchor_A_11'></a><a href='#Footnote_A_11'><sup>[A]</sup></a></p> + +<a name='Footnote_A_11'></a><a href='#FNanchor_A_11'>[A]</a><div class='note'><p> Joan of Arc was asked during her trial if she were a fay.</p></div> + +<p>Magic and medicine went hand in hand in ancient times, and remained +together down to the middle ages. Old herbals largely compiled from the +lore of ancient women form a link in the chain of tradition, the first +ring of which may have been formed in Egypt or in Greece. There is no +doubt that women from an early date tried to cure disease. Homer makes +mention of Hecamede and her healing potions. There seems little doubt +that there were Greek women who applied themselves to a complete study +of medicine and contributed to the advance of medical science. This +traditional belief in the power of women to cure disease survives in the +folk to-day.<a name='FNanchor_10_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_10_5'><sup>[10]</sup></a></p> + +<p>In view of the widespread veneration of a peculiar psychic quality of +woman, a power of prophecy and a property of divinity which has made her +an object of fear and worship, it may be well to review the modern +explanations of the origin of this unique feminine power. Herbert +Spencer was of the opinion that feminine penetration was an ability to +distinguish quickly the passing feelings of those around and was the +result of long ages of barbarism during which woman as the weaker sex +was obliged to resort to the arts of divination and to cunning to make +up for her lack of physical force and to protect herself and her +offspring.<a name='FNanchor_11_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_11_5'><sup>[11]</sup></a> In like vein Käthe Schirmacher, a German feminist, says: +"The celebrated intuition of woman is nothing but an astonishing +refinement of the senses through fear.... Waiting in fear was made the +life task of the sex."<a name='FNanchor_12_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_12_5'><sup>[12]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Lester F. Ward had a somewhat different view.<a name='FNanchor_13_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_13_5'><sup>[13]</sup></a> He thought that +woman's psychic power came from the sympathy based on the maternal +instinct, which "though in itself an entirely different faculty, early +blended with or helped to create, the derivative reason-born faculty of +altruism." With Ward's view Olive Schreiner agrees, saying: "We have no +certain proof that it is so at present, but woman's long years of +servitude and physical subjection, and her experience as childbearer and +protector of infancy, may be found in the future to have endowed her ... +with an exceptional width of human sympathy and instinctive +comprehension."<a name='FNanchor_14_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_14_5'><sup>[14]</sup></a></p> + +<p>In all probability Lombroso came nearer to the truth in his explanation +of feminine penetration. "That woman is more subject to hysteria is a +known fact," he says, "but few know how liable she is to hypnotic +phenomena, which easily opens up the unfoldment of spiritual +faculties.... The history of observation proves that hysteria and +hypnotism take the form of magic, sorcery, and divination or prophecy, +among savage peoples. 'Women,' say the Pishawar peoples, 'are all +witches; for several reasons they may not exert their inborn powers.' +... In the Slave Coast hysterical women are believed to be possessed +with spirits. The Fuegians believed that there had been a time when +women wielded the empire through her possession of the secrets of +sorcery."<a name='FNanchor_8_5a'></a><a href='#Footnote_8_5'><sup>[8, pp.85f.]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The history of modern spiritualism has so well confirmed this view of +Lombroso's that we are safe in accepting it as the partial explanation +of the attribute of a mysterious and uncanny power which man has always +given to the feminine nature. The power of prophecy and divination which +was possessed by women at the dawn of history and for some time +thereafter was probably not different in its essentials from the +manifestations of hysterical girls who have puzzled the wisest +physicians or the strange phenomena of those spiritualistic mediums who +have been the subject of research well into our own times.<a name='FNanchor_15_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_15_5'><sup>[15]</sup></a></p> + +<p>If we wish to push our inquiry still further and ask why woman should be +so much more subject than man to hysterical seizures and to hypnotic +suggestion, we shall probably find that it is an essential part of her +femininity. Modern psychology and physiology have pointed out that the +menstrual cycle of woman has a vast influence not only on her emotional +nature but on her whole psychic life, so that there are times when she +is more nervously tense, more apt to become hysterical or to yield to +the influence of suggestion. Moreover, because of the emphasis on +chastity and the taboos with which she was surrounded, any neurotic +tendencies which might be inherent in her nature were sure to be +developed to the utmost.</p> + +<p>As Lombroso suggests, hysteria and other neurotic phenomena are classed +as evidence of spirit possession by the untutored mind. Thus it happened +that observing the strange psychic manifestations to which woman was +periodically subject, the ancient peoples endowed her with +spiritualistic forces which were sometimes held to be beneficent and at +other times malefic in character. Whatever the attitude at any time +whether her <i>mana</i> were regarded as evil or benignant, the savage and +primitive felt that it was well to be on his guard in the presence of +power; so that the taboos previously outlined would hold through the +swing of man's mind from one extreme to the other.</p> + +<p>As goddess, priestess and prophetess, woman continued to play her rôle +in human affairs until the Christian period, when a remarkable +transformation took place. The philosophy of dualism that emanated from +Persia had affected all the religions of the Mediterranean Basin and had +worked its way into Christian beliefs by way of Gnosticism, +Manicheanism, and Neo-Platonism. Much of the writing of the church +fathers is concerned with the effort to harmonize conflicting beliefs +or to avoid the current heresies. To one who reads the fathers it +becomes evident to what extent the relation of man to woman figures in +these controversies.<a name='FNanchor_16_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_16_5'><sup>[16]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The Manicheanism which held in essence Persian Mithraism and which had +so profound an influence on the writings of St. Augustine gave body and +soul to two distinct worlds and finally identified woman with the body. +But probably as a result of the teachings of Gnosticism with its +Neo-Platonic philosophy which never entirely rejected feminine +influence, some of this influence survived in the restatement of +religion for the folk. When the restatement was completed and was +spreading throughout Europe in the form which held for the next +millennium, it was found that the early goddesses had been accepted +among the saints, the priestesses and prophetesses were rejected as +witches, while the needs of men later raised the Blessed Virgin to a +place beside her son.</p> + +<p>Modern psychology has given us an explanation of the difficulty of +eradicating the worship of such a goddess as the Great Mother of Asia +Minor from the religion of even martial peoples who fear the +contamination of woman's weakness; or from a religion obsessed with +hatred of woman as unclean by men who made the suppression of bodily +passions the central notion of sanctity. The most persistent human +relationship, the one charged with a constant emotional value, is not +that of sex, which takes manifold forms, but that of the mother and +child. It is to the mother that the child looks for food, love, and +protection. It is to the child that the mother often turns from the +mate, either because of the predominance of mother love over sex or in +consolation for the loss of the love of the male. We have only recently +learned to evaluate the infantile patterns engraved in the neural tissue +during the years of childhood when the mother is the central figure of +the child's life. Whatever disillusionments may come about other women +later in life, the mother ideal thus established remains a constant part +of man's unconscious motivations. It is perhaps possible that this +infantile picture of a being all-wise, all-tender, all-sacrificing, has +within it enough emotional force to create the demand for a +mother-goddess in any religion.</p> + +<p>To arrive at the concept of the Madonna, a far-reaching process of +synthesis and reinterpretation must have been carried out before the +Bible could be brought into harmony with the demands made by a cult of a +mother goddess. Just as the views brought into the church by celibate +ideals spread among heathen people, so the church must have been in its +turn influenced by the heathen way of looking at things.<a name='FNanchor_17_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_17_5'><sup>[17]</sup></a> One of the +great difficulties was the reconciliation of the biological process of +procreation with divinity. But there had for ages been among primitive +peoples the belief that impregnation was caused by spirit possession or +by sorcery. This explanation had survived in a but slightly altered form +in the ancient mythologies, all of which contained traditions of heroes +and demi-gods who were born supernaturally of a divine father and a +human mother. In the myths of Buddha, Zoroaster, Pythagoras and Plato, +it was intimated that the father had been a god or spirit, and that the +mother had been, and moreover remained after the birth, an earthly +virgin. These old and precious notions of the supernatural origin of +great men were not willingly renounced by those who accepted the new +religion; nor was it necessary to make such a sacrifice, because men +thought that they could recognize in the Jewish traditions something +corresponding to the heathen legends.<a name='FNanchor_18_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_18_5'><sup>[18]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The proper conditions for the development of a mother cult within +Christianity existed within the church by the end of the second century. +At the Council of Nicæa (325 A.D.) it was settled that the Son was of +the same nature as the Father. The question of the nature of Mary then +came to the fore. The eastern fathers, Athanasius, Ephraim Syrus, +Eusebius and Chrysostom, made frequent use in their writings of the +term Theotokos, Mother of God. When Nestorius attacked those who +worshipped the infant Christ as a god and Mary as the mother of God +rather than as the mother of Christ, a duel began between Cyril of +Alexandria and Nestorius "which in fierceness and importance can only be +compared with that between Arius and Athanasius."<a name='FNanchor_19_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_19_5'><sup>[19]</sup></a></p> + +<p>In 431 A.D. the Universal Church Council at Ephesus assented to the +doctrine that Mary was the Mother of God. Thus Ephesus, home of the +great Diana, from primitive times the centre of the worship of a goddess +who united in herself the virtues of virginity and motherhood, could +boast of being the birthplace of the Madonna cult. And thus Mary, our +Lady of Sorrows, pure and undefiled, "the church's paradox," became the +ideal of man. She was "a woman, virgin and mother, sufficiently high to +be worshipped, yet sufficiently near to be reached by affection. ... If +we judge myths as artistic creations we must recognize that no god or +goddess has given its worshippers such an ideal as the Mary of Christian +art and poetry."<a name='FNanchor_19_5a'></a><a href='#Footnote_19_5'><sup>[19: p.183]</sup></a> <a name='FNanchor_20_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_20_5'><sup>[20: v. ii., pp.220f.]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Although Christianity thus took over and embodied in its doctrines the +cult of the mother-goddess, at the same time it condemned all the rites +which had accompanied the worship of the fertility goddesses in all the +pagan religions. The power of these rites was still believed in, but +they were supposed to be the work of demons, and we find them strictly +forbidden in the early ecclesiastical laws. The phallic ceremonials +which formed so large a part of heathen ritual became marks of the +devil, and the deities in whose honour they were performed, although +losing none of their power, were regarded as demonic rather than divine +in nature. Diana, goddess of the moon, for example, became identified +with Hecate of evil repute, chief of the witches. "In such a fashion the +religion of Greece, that of Egypt, of Phoenicia and Asia Minor, of +Assyria and of Persia, became mingled and confused in a simple +demonology."<a name='FNanchor_21_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_21_5'><sup>[21]</sup></a></p> + +<p>In addition to the condemnation of Pagan deities and their ritualistic +worship, there was a force inherent in the very nature of Christianity +which worked toward the degradation of the sex life. After the death of +Christ, his followers had divorced their thoughts from all things +earthly and set about fitting themselves for their places in the other +world. The thought of the early Christian sects was obsessed by the idea +of the second coming of the Messiah. The end of the world was incipient, +therefore it behooved each and every one to purge himself from sin. This +emphasis on the spiritual as opposed to the fleshly became fixated +especially on the sex relationship, which came to be the symbol of the +lusts of the body which must be conquered by the high desires of the +soul. Consequently the feelings concerning this relation became +surcharged with all the emotion which modern psychology has taught us +always attaches to the conscious symbol of deeply underlying unconscious +complexes. In such a situation man, who had come to look with horror on +the being who reminded him that he was flesh as well as spirit saw in +her "the Devil's gateway," or "a fireship continually striving to get +along side the male man-of-war to blow him up into pieces."<a name='FNanchor_22_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_22_5'><sup>[22]</sup></a><a name='FNanchor_A_12'></a><a href='#Footnote_A_12'><sup>[A]</sup></a></p> + +<a name='Footnote_A_12'></a><a href='#FNanchor_A_12'>[A]</a><div class='note'><p> Dr Donaldson, translator of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, says: +"I used to believe ... that woman owes her present position to +Christianity ... but in the first three centuries I have not been able +to see that Christianity had any favourable effect on the position of +woman."</p></div> + +<p>With the rejection of the idea of the sanctity of sex as embodied in the +phallic rituals of the pagan cults, the psychic power of woman became +once more a thing of fear rather than of worship, and her uncleanness +was emphasized again more than her holiness, even as in primitive times. +The power of woman to tell the course of future events which in other +days had made her revered as priestess and prophetess now made her hated +as a witch who had control of what the Middle Ages knew as the Black +Art.<a name='FNanchor_23_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_23_5'><sup>[23]</sup></a> The knowledge of medicine which she had acquired through the +ages was now thought to be utilized in the making of "witch's brew," and +the "ceremonies and charms whereby the influence of the gods might be +obtained to preserve or injure"<a name='FNanchor_21_5a'></a><a href='#Footnote_21_5'><sup>[21: v.1, p.12]</sup></a> became incantations to the +evil one. In addition to her natural erotic attraction for the male, +woman was now accused of using charms to lure him to his destruction. +The asceticism of the church made it shameful to yield to her +allurements, and as a result woman came to be feared and loathed as the +arch-temptress who would destroy man's attempt to conform to celibate +ideals. This sex antagonism culminated in the witchcraft persecutions +which make so horrible a page of the world's history.</p> + +<p>Among the pagans, witches had shared with prophetesses and priestesses a +degree of reverence and veneration. Medea had taught Jason to tame the +brazen-footed bulls and dragons which guarded the Golden Fleece. Hecate +was skilled in spells and incantations. Horace frequently mentions with +respect Canidia, who was a powerful enchantress. Gauls, Britons and +Germans had obeyed and venerated women who dealt in charms and +incantations. The doctrines of Christianity had changed the veneration +into hatred and detestation without eradicating the belief in the power +of the witch. It was with the hosts of evil that she was now believed to +have her dealings, however. When this notion of the alliance between +demons and women had become a commonplace, "the whole tradition was +directed against woman as the Devil's instrument, basely seductive, +passionate and licentious by nature."<a name='FNanchor_24_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_24_5'><sup>[24]</sup></a> Man's fear of woman found a +frantic and absurd expression in her supposed devil-worship. As a +result, the superstitions about witchcraft became for centuries not only +a craze, but a theory held by intelligent people.</p> + +<p>Among the female demons who were especially feared were: Nahemah, the +princess of the Succubi; Lilith, queen of the Stryges; and the Lamiæ or +Vampires, who fed on the living flesh of men. Belief in the Vampires +still persists as a part of the folklore of Europe. Lilith tempted to +debauchery, and was variously known as child-strangler, child-stealer, +and a witch who changed true offspring for fairy or phantom children.<a name='FNanchor_A_13'></a><a href='#Footnote_A_13'><sup>[A]</sup></a> +The figure of the child-stealing witch occurs in an extremely ancient +apocryphal book called the Testament of Soloman, and dates probably from +the first or second century of the Christian Era.<a name='FNanchor_25_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_25_5'><sup>[25]</sup></a></p> + + +<a name='Footnote_A_13'></a><a href='#FNanchor_A_13'>[A]</a><div class='note'><p> The name of Lilith carries us as far back as Babylon, and +in her charms and conjurations we have revived in Europe the reflection +of old Babylonian charms.</p></div> + +<p>Laws against the malefici (witches) were passed by Constantine. In the +Theodosian Code (<i>Lib. 9. Tit. 16. Leg. 3.</i>) they are charged with +making attempts by their wicked arts upon the lives of innocent men, and +drawing others by magical potions (philtra et pharmaca) to commit +misdemeanours. They are further charged with disturbing the elements, +raising tempests, and practising abominable arts. The Council of +Laodicea (343-381. <i>Can</i>. 36) condemned them. The Council of Ancyra +forbade the use of medicine to work mischief. St. Basil's canons +condemned witchcraft. The fourth Council of Carthage censured +enchantment.<a name='FNanchor_26_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_26_5'><sup>[26]</sup></a> John of Salisbury tells of their feasts, to which they +took unbaptized children. William of Auverne describes the charms and +incantations which they used to turn a cane into a horse. William of +Malmesbury gives an account of two old women who transformed the +travellers who passed their door into horses, swine or other animals +which they sold. From some of the old Teuton laws we learn that it was +believed that witches could take a man's heart out of his body and fill +the cavity with straw or wood so that he would go on living.</p> + +<p>One of the famous witchcraft trials was that of the Lady Alice +Kyteler,<a name='FNanchor_27_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_27_5'><sup>[27]</sup></a> whose high rank could not save her from the accusation. It +was claimed that she used the ceremonies of the church, but with some +wicked changes. She extinguished the candles with the exclamation, "Fi! +Fi! Fi! Amen!" She was also accused of securing the love of her +husbands, who left much property to her, by magic charms. These claims +were typical of the accusations against witches in the trials which took +place.</p> + +<p>By the sixteenth century, the cumulative notion of witches had +penetrated both cultivated and uncultivated classes, and was embodied in +a great and increasing literature. "No comprehensive work on theology, +philosophy, history, law, medicine, or natural science could wholly +ignore it," says Burr, "and to lighter literature it afforded the most +telling illustrations for the pulpit, the most absorbing gossip for the +news-letter, the most edifying tales for the fireside."<a name='FNanchor_28_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_28_5'><sup>[28]</sup></a></p> + +<p>As a result of this belief in the diabolic power of woman, judicial +murder of helpless women became an institution, which is thus +characterized by Sumner: "After the refined torture of the body and +nameless mental sufferings, women were executed in the most cruel +manner. These facts are so monstrous that all other aberrations of the +human race are small in comparison.... He who studies the witch trials +believes himself transferred into the midst of a race which has +smothered all its own nobler instincts, reason, justice, benevolence and +sympathy."<a name='FNanchor_24_5a'></a><a href='#Footnote_24_5'><sup>[24]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Any woman was suspect. Michelet, after a thirty years' study, wrote: +"Witches they are by nature. It is a gift peculiar to woman and her +temperament. By birth a fay, by the regular recurrence of her ecstasy +she becomes a sibyl. By her love she grows into an enchantress. By her +subtlety ... she becomes a witch and works her spells."<a name='FNanchor_29_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_29_5'><sup>[29]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Just how many victims there were of the belief in the power of women as +witches will never be known. Scherr thinks that the persecutions cost +100,000 lives in Germany alone.<a name='FNanchor_30_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_30_5'><sup>[30]</sup></a> Lord Avebury quotes the estimate of +the inquisitor Sprenger, joint author of the "Witch Hammer," that during +the Christian period some 9,000,000 persons, mostly women, were burned +as witches.<a name='FNanchor_31_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_31_5'><sup>[31]</sup></a> Seven thousand victims are said to have been burned at +Treves, 600 by a single bishop of Bamburg, 800 in a single year in the +bishopric of Wurtzburg. At Toulouse 400 persons perished at a single +burning.<a name='FNanchor_29_5a'></a><a href='#Footnote_29_5'><sup>[29: ch.1]</sup></a> <a name='FNanchor_20_5a'></a><a href='#Footnote_20_5'><sup>[20: v.1. ch.1]</sup></a> One witch judge boasted that he +executed 900 witches in fifteen years. The last mass burning in Germany +was said to have taken place in 1678, when 97 persons were burned +together. The earliest recorded burning of a witch in England is in +Walter Mapes' <i>De Nugis Curialium</i>, in the reign of Henry II. An old +black letter tract gloats over the execution at Northampton, 1612, of a +number of persons convicted of witchcraft.<a name='FNanchor_32_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_32_5'><sup>[32]</sup></a> The last judicial +sentence was in 1736, when one Jane Wenham was found guilty of +conversing familiarly with the devil in the form of a cat.<a name='FNanchor_33_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_33_5'><sup>[33]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The connection between the witchcraft delusion and the attitude toward +all women has already been implied.<a name='FNanchor_34_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_34_5'><sup>[34]</sup></a> The dualistic teaching of the +early church fathers, with its severance of matter and spirit and its +insistence on the ascetic ideal of life, had focussed on sexuality as +the outstanding manifestation of fleshly desires. The contact of the +sexes came to be looked upon as the supreme sin. Celibacy taught that +through the observance of the taboo on woman the man of God was to be +saved from pollution. Woman was the arch temptress who by the natural +forces of sex attraction, reinforced by her evil charms and +incantations, made it so difficult to attain the celibate ideal. From +her ancestress Eve woman was believed to inherit the natural propensity +to lure man to his undoing. Thus the old belief in the uncleanness of +woman was renewed in the minds of men with even greater intensity than +ever before, and in addition to a dangerous adventure, even within the +sanction of wedlock the sex act became a deed of shame. The following +quotations from the church fathers will illustrate this view:</p> + +<p>Jerome said, "Marriage is always a vice; all we can do is to excuse and +cleanse it. ... In Paradise Eve was a virgin. Virginity is natural +while wedlock only follows guilt."<a name='FNanchor_35_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_35_5'><sup>[35]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Tertullian addressed women in these words: "Do you not know that you are +each an Eve? The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age. +... You are the devil's gateway. ... You destroy God's image, +Man."<a name='FNanchor_35_5a'></a><a href='#Footnote_35_5'><sup>[35: Bk.1.]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Thus woman became degraded beyond all previous thought in the teaching +of the early church. The child was looked upon as the result of an act +of sin, and came into the world tainted through its mother with sin. At +best marriage was a vice. All the church could do was to cleanse it as +much as possible by sacred rites, an attempt which harked back to the +origin of marriage as the ceremonial breaking of taboo. Peter Lombard's +Sentences affirmed marriage a sacrament. This was reaffirmed at Florence +in 1439. In 1565, the Council of Trent made the final declaration. But +not even this could wholly purify woman, and intercourse with her was +still regarded as a necessary evil, a concession that had to be +unwillingly made to the lusts of the flesh.</p> + +<p>Such accounts as we have of the lives of holy women indicate that they +shared in the beliefs of their times. In the account of the life of a +saint known as the Blessed Eugenia preserved in an old palimpsest<a name='FNanchor_36_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_36_5'><sup>[36]</sup></a> we +read that she adopted the costume of a monk,—"Being a woman by nature +in order that I might gain everlasting life." The same account tells of +another holy woman who passed as a eunuch, because she had been warned +that it was easier for the devil to tempt a woman. In another collection +of lives of saints is the story<a name='FNanchor_37_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_37_5'><sup>[37]</sup></a> of a holy woman who never allowed +herself to see the face of a man, even that of her own brother, lest +through her he might go in among women. Another holy virgin shut herself +up in a tomb because she did not wish to cause the spiritual downfall of +a young man who loved her.</p> + +<p>This long period of religious hatred of and contempt for woman included +the Crusades, the Age of Chivalry,<a name='FNanchor_38_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_38_5'><sup>[38]</sup></a> and lasted well into the +Renaissance.<a name='FNanchor_39_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_39_5'><sup>[39]</sup></a> Students of the first thousand years of the Christian +era like Donaldson,<a name='FNanchor_22_5a'></a><a href='#Footnote_22_5'><sup>[22]</sup></a> McCabe,<a name='FNanchor_40_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_40_5'><sup>[40]</sup></a> and Benecke argue that the social +and intellectual position of women was probably lower than at any time +since the creation of the world. It was while the position of woman as +wife and mother was thus descending into the slough which has been +termed the Dark Age of Woman that the Apotheosis of the Blessed Virgin +was accomplished. The attitude toward human love, generation, the +relation of the earthly mother to the human child because of Eve's sin, +all made the Immaculate Conception a logical necessity. The doctrine of +the virgin birth disposed of sin through the paternal line. But if Mary +was conceived in sin or was not purified from sin, even that of the +first parent, how could she conceive in her body him who was without +sin? The controversy over the Immaculate Conception which began as early +as the seventh century lasted until Pius IX declared it to be an article +of Catholic belief in 1854. Thus not only Christ, but also his mother +became purged of the sin of conception by natural biological processes, +and the same immaculacy and freedom from contamination was accorded to +both. In this way the final step in the differentiation between earthly +motherhood and divine motherhood was completed.</p> + +<p>The worship of the virgin by men and women who looked upon the celibate +life as the perfect life, and upon the relationship of earthly +fatherhood and motherhood as contaminating, gave the world an ideal of +woman as "superhuman, immaculate, bowing in frightened awe before the +angel with the lily, standing mute and with downcast eyes before her +Divine Son."<a name='FNanchor_41_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_41_5'><sup>[41]</sup></a> With all its admitted beauty, this ideal represented +not the institution of the family, but the institution of the church. +Chivalry carried over from the church to the castle this concept of +womanhood and set it to the shaping of The Lady,<a name='FNanchor_42_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_42_5'><sup>[42]</sup></a> who was finally +given a rank in the ideals of knighthood only a little below that to +which Mary had been elevated by the ecclesiastical authorities. This +concept of the lady was the result of the necessity for a new social +standardization which must combine beauty, purity, meekness and angelic +goodness. Only by such a combination could religion and family life be +finally reconciled. By such a combination, earthly motherhood could be +made to approximate the divine motherhood.</p> + +<p>With the decline of the influence of chivalry, probably as the result of +industrial changes, The Lady was replaced by a feminine ideal which may +well be termed the "Model Woman." Although less ethereal than her +predecessor, The Lady, the Model Woman is quite as much an attempt to +reconcile the dualistic attitude, with its Divine Mother cult on the one +hand, and its belief in the essential evil of the procreative process +and the uncleanness of woman on the other, to human needs. The +characteristics of the Model Woman must approximate those of the Holy +Virgin as closely as possible. Her chastity before marriage is +imperative. Her calling must be the high art of motherhood. She must be +the incarnation of the maternal spirit of womanhood, but her purity must +remain unsullied by any trace of erotic passion.</p> + +<p>A voluminous literature which stated the virtues and duties of the +Model Woman blossomed out in the latter part of the eighteenth and first +half of the nineteenth century.<a name='FNanchor_43_5'></a><a href='#Footnote_43_5'><sup>[43]</sup></a> The Puritan ideals also embodied +this concept. It was by this attempt to make woman conform to a +standardized ideal that man sought to solve the conflict between his +natural human instincts and desires and the early Christian teaching +concerning the sex life and womanhood.</p> +<br /> + +<p>BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER II</p> + +<a name='Footnote_1_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_5'>1.</a><div class='note'>1. Frazer, J.G. The Golden Bough. A Study in Magic and Religion. Part I. +The Magic Art. 2 vols. Macmillan. London, 1911. Part V. Spirits of the +Corn and of the Wild. 2 vols. London, 1912.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_2_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_2_5'>2.</a><div class='note'> Farnell, L.R. Evolution of Religion. 235 pp. Williams and Norgate. +London, 1905. Crown Theological Library, Vol 12.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_3_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_3_5'>3.</a><div class='note'> Frazer, J.G. Part IV. of The Golden Bough; Adonis, Attis, and Osiris. +Chaps. III and IV. Macmillan. London, 1907.</div> + +<p>—— Sumner, W.G. Folkways. 692 pp. Ginn & Co. Boston, 1907. Chap. XVI, Sacral Harlotry.</p> + +<p>—— Lombroso, Cesare, and Lombroso-Ferrero, G. La donna delinquente. 508 pp. Fratelli Bocca. Milano, 1915.</p> + +<a name='Footnote_4_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_4_5'>4.</a><div class='note'> Farnell, L.R. Sociological Hypotheses Concerning the Position of +Woman in Ancient Religion. Archiv für Religionswissenschaft. Siebenter Band, 1904.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_5_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_5_5'>5.</a><div class='note'> Fowler, W. Warde. The Religious Experiences of the Roman People. 504 pp. Macmillan. London, 1911.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_6_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_6_5'>6.</a><div class='note'> For a description of these sibyls with a list of the works in which they are mentioned, see:</div> + +<p>—— Fullom, Steven Watson. The History of Woman. Third Ed. London, 1855.</p> + +<p>—— Rohmer, Sax. (Ward, A.S.) The Romance of Sorcery. 320 pp. E.P. Dutton & Co., New York, 1914.</p> + +<a name='Footnote_7_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_7_5'>7.</a><div class='note'> Maury, L.F. La Magie et L'Astrologie dans l'Antiquité et au Moyen +Age. Quatrieme éd. 484 pp. Paris, 1877.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_8_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_8_5'>8.</a><div class='note'> Lombroso, Cesare. Priests and Women's Clothes. North American Review. Vol. 192, 1910.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_9_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_9_5'>9.</a><div class='note'> For an extensive compilation of facts from ancient literature and history concerning sacred women, see:</div> + +<p>—— Alexander, W. History of Women from the Earliest Antiquity to the Present Time. 2 vols. W. Strahan. London, 1779.</p> + +<a name='Footnote_10_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_10_5'>10.</a><div class='note'> Mason, Otis T. Woman's Share in Primitive Culture. 295 pp. Appleton. New York, 1894.</div> + +<p>—— Dyer, T.F.S. Plants in Witchcraft. Popular Science Monthly. Vol. 34, 1889, pp. 826-833.</p> + +<p>—— Donaldson, Rev. James. Woman, Her Position and Influence in Ancient Greece and Rome. 278 pp. Longmans, Green. London, 1907.</p> + +<a name='Footnote_11_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_11_5'>11.</a><div class='note'> Spencer, Herbert. Study of Sociology. 431 pp. Appleton. N.Y., 1880.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_12_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_12_5'>12.</a><div class='note'> Schirmacher, Käthe. Das Rätsel: Weib. 160 pp. A Duncker. Weimar, +1911.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_13_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_13_5'>13.</a><div class='note'> Ward, Lester F. Psychic Factors in Civilization. 369 pp. Ginn & Co., +Boston and New York, 1906. Chap. XXVI.</div> + +<p>—— Pure Sociology. 607 pp. Macmillan. N.Y., 1903.</p> + +<a name='Footnote_14_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_14_5'>14.</a><div class='note'> Schreiner, Olive. Woman and Labour. 299 pp. Frederick A. Stokes Co. N.Y., 1911.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_15_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_15_5'>15.</a><div class='note'> Hall, G. Stanley. Adolescence. 2 vols. Appleton. N.Y., 1904.</div> + +<p>—— Dupouy, Edmund. Psychologie morbide. Librairie des Sciences Psychiques, 1907.</p> + +<a name='Footnote_16_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_16_5'>16.</a><div class='note'> The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Translation by the Rev. Alexander Roberts +and James Donaldson, LL.D., and others. American Reprint of the +Edinburgh Edition. Buffalo, 1889.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_17_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_17_5'>17.</a><div class='note'> Hatch, Edwin. Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian +Church. Ed. by A.M. Fairbairn. 4th ed. London, 1892. Hibbert Lectures, 1888.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_18_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_18_5'>18.</a><div class='note'> Gilbert, George Holley. The Greek Strain in Our Oldest Gospels. +North American Review. Vol. 192, 1910.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_19_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_19_5'>19.</a><div class='note'> Hirn, Yrjo. The Sacred Shrine. 574 pp. Macmillan. London, 1912.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_20_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_20_5'>20.</a><div class='note'> Lecky, W.E.H. Rationalism in Europe. 2 vols. Appleton. N.Y. and London, 1910. Vol. II, pp. 220 f.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_21_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_21_5'>21.</a><div class='note'> Wright, Thomas. Narratives of Sorcery and Magic. 2 vols. R. Bentley. London, 1851.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_22_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_22_5'>22.</a><div class='note'> Donaldson, Rev. James. The Position of Woman Among the Early Christians. Contemporary Review. Vol. 56, 1889.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_23_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_23_5'>23.</a><div class='note'> Bingham, Joseph. Antiquities of the Christian Church. 2 vols. London, 1846.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_24_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_24_5'>24.</a><div class='note'> Sumner, W.G. Witchcraft. Forum. Vol. 41, 1909, pp. 410-423.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_25_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_25_5'>25.</a><div class='note'> Gaster, M. Two Thousand Years of a Charm Against the Child-stealing Witch. Folklore. Vol. XI, No. 2, June, 1900.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_26_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_26_5'>26.</a><div class='note'> For discussion of the dates of the Church Councils see Rev. Charles +J. Hefele, Councils of the Church. Trans, fr. the German by C.W. Bush, 1883.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_27_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_27_5'>27.</a><div class='note'> Alice Kyteler. A contemporary narrative of the Proceedings against +Dame Alice Kyteler, prosecuted for sorcery by Richard de Ledrede, Bishop +of Ossory, 1324. Edited by Thomas Wright. London, 1843.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_28_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_28_5'>28.</a><div class='note'> Burr, George L. The Literature of Witchcraft. Papers of the American +Historical Association. Vol IV, pp. 37-66. G.P. Putnam's Sons. N.Y., 1890.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_29_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_29_5'>29.</a><div class='note'> Michelet, J. La Sorcière. 488 pp. Paris, 1878. Trans. of Introduction by L.J. Trotter.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_30_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_30_5'>30.</a><div class='note'> Scherr, Johannes. Deutsche Frauenwelt. Band II.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_31_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_31_5'>31.</a><div class='note'> Avebury, Right Hon. Lord (Sir John Lubbock). Marriage, Totemism and +Religion. 243 pp. Longmans, Green. London, 1911. Footnote, p. 127.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_32_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_32_5'>32.</a><div class='note'> Wood, Wm. Witchcraft. Cornhill Magazine. Vol. V, 1898.</div> + +<p>—— Lea, H.C. Superstition and Force. 407 pp. Philadelphia, 1866.</p> + +<a name='Footnote_33_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_33_5'>33.</a><div class='note'> Bragge, F. Jane Wenham. 36 pp. E. Curll. London 1712.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_34_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_34_5'>34.</a><div class='note'> Paulus, Nikolaus. Die Rolle der Frau in der Geschichte des +Hexenwahns. Historisches Jahrbuch. XXIX Band. München. Jahrgang 1918.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_35_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_35_5'>35.</a><div class='note'> Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian +Church. 2d. series. Vol. 6, Letter xxii, Ad Eustachium.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_36_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_36_5'>36.</a><div class='note'> Studia Sinaitica No. IX. Select Narratives of Holy Women from the +Syro-Antiochene or Sinai Palimpsest as written above the old Syriac +Gospels by John the Stylite, of Beth-Mari Ianun in A.D. 778. Edited by +Agnes Smith Lewis, M.R.A.S. London, 1900.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_37_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_37_5'>37.</a><div class='note'> Lady Meux Mss. No. VI. British Museum. The Book of Paradise, being +the Histories and Sayings of the Monks and Ascetics of the Egyptian +Desert by Palladius, Hieronymus and others. English Trans. by E.A. +Wallis Budge. (From the Syriac.) Vol. I.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_38_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_38_5'>38.</a><div class='note'> Gautier, Emile Théodore Léon. La Chevalerie. 850 pp. C. Delagrave. Paris, 1890.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_39_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_39_5'>39.</a><div class='note'> Maulde la Clavière, R. de. The Women of the Renaissance. Trans. by +G.H. Ely. 510 pp. Swan Sonnenschein, 1900.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_40_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_40_5'>40.</a><div class='note'> McCabe, Joseph. Woman in Political Evolution. Watts & Co. London, +1909.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_41_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_41_5'>41.</a><div class='note'> Barnes, Earl. Woman in Modern Society. 257 pp. B.W. Huebsch. N.Y., +1913.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_42_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_42_5'>42.</a><div class='note'> Putnam, Emily James. The Lady. 323 pp. Sturgis & Walton Co. N.Y., +1910.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_43_5'></a><a href='#FNanchor_43_5'>43.</a><div class='note'> Excellent examples of this literature are Kenrick's "The Whole Duty +of a Woman, or A Guide to the Female Sex," published some time in the +eighteenth century (a copy in the Galatea Collection, Boston Public +Library); and Duties of Young Women, by E.H. Chapin. 218 pp. G.W. +Briggs. Boston, 1848.</div> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='CHAPTER_III_P2'></a><h2>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<center>THE DUALISM IN MODERN LIFE: THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO</center> +<br> +<center><blockquote>The taboo and modern institutions; Survival of ideas of the uncleanness +of woman; Taboo and the family; The "good" woman; The "bad" woman; +Increase in the number of women who do not fit into the ancient +classifications.</blockquote></center><br> +<br /> + +<p>With the gradual accumulation of scientific knowledge and increasing +tendency of mankind toward a rationalistic view of most things, it might +be expected that the ancient attitude toward sex and womanhood would +have been replaced by a saner feeling. To some extent this has indeed +been the case. It is surprising, however, to note the traces which the +old taboos and superstitions have left upon our twentieth century social +life. Men and women are becoming conscious that they live in a world +formed out of the worlds that have passed away. The underlying principle +of this social phenomenon has been called the principle of "the +persistence of institutions."<a name='FNanchor_1_6'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_6'><sup>[1]</sup></a> Institutionalized habits, mosaics of +reactions to forgotten situations, fall like shadows on the life of +to-day. Memories of the woman shunned, of the remote woman goddess, and +of the witch, transmit the ancient forms by which woman has been +expected to shape her life.</p> + +<p>It may seem a far cry from the savage taboo to the institutional life of +the present; but the patterns of our social life, like the infantile +patterns on which adult life shapes itself, go back to an immemorial +past. Back in the early life of the peoples from which we spring is the +taboo, and in our own life there are customs so analogous to many of +these ancient prohibitions that they must be accounted survivals of old +social habits just as the vestigial structures within our bodies are the +remnants of our biological past.</p> + +<p>The modern preaching concerning woman's sphere, for example, is an +obvious descendant of the old taboos which enforced the division of +labour between the sexes. Just as it formerly was death for a woman to +approach her husband's weapons, so it has for a long time been +considered a disgrace for her to attempt to compete with man in his line +of work. Only under the pressure of modern industrialism and economic +necessity has this ancient taboo been broken down, and even now there is +some reluctance to recognize its passing. The exigencies of the world +war have probably done more than any other one thing to accelerate the +disappearance of this taboo on woman from the society of to-day.</p> + +<p>A modern institution reminiscent of the men's house of the savage races, +where no woman might intrude, is the men's club. This institution, as Mr +Webster has pointed out,<a name='FNanchor_2_6'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_6'><sup>[2]</sup></a> is a potent force for sexual solidarity and +consciousness of kind. The separate living and lack of club activity of +women has had much to do with a delay in the development of a sex +consciousness and loyalty. The development of women's organizations +along the lines of the men's clubs has been a powerful factor in +enabling them to overcome the force of the taboos which have lingered on +in social life. Only through united resistance could woman ever hope to +break down the barriers with which she was shut off from the fullness of +life.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the property taboo has been as persistent as any other of the +restrictions which have continued to surround woman through the ages. +Before marriage, the girl who is "well brought up" is still carefully +protected from contact with any male. The modern system of chaperonage +is the substitute for the old seclusion and isolation of the pubescent +girl. Even science was influenced by the old sympathetic magic view that +woman could be contaminated by the touch of any other man than her +husband, for the principle of telegony, that the father of one child +could pass on his characteristics to offspring by other fathers, +lingered in biological teaching until the very recent discoveries of the +physical basis of heredity in the chromosomes. Law-making was also +influenced by the idea of woman as property. For a long time there was a +hesitancy to prohibit wife-beating on account of the feeling that the +wife was the husband's possession, to be dealt with as he desired. The +laws of coverture also perpetuated the old property taboos, and gave to +the husband the right to dispose of his wife's property.</p> + +<p>The general attitude towards such sexual crises as menstruation and +pregnancy is still strongly reminiscent of the primitive belief that +woman is unclean at those times. Mothers still hesitate to enlighten +their daughters concerning these natural biological functions, and as a +result girls are unconsciously imbued with a feeling of shame concerning +them. Modern psychology has given many instances of the rebellion of +girls at the inception of menstruation, for which they have been ill +prepared. There is little doubt that this attitude has wrought untold +harm in the case of nervous and delicately balanced temperaments, and +has even been one of the predisposing factors of neurosis.<a name='FNanchor_3_6'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_6'><sup>[3]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The old seclusion and avoidance of the pregnant woman still persists. +The embarrassment of any public appearance when pregnancy is evident, +the jokes and secrecy which surround this event, show how far we are +from rationalizing this function.</p> + +<p>Even medical men show the influence of old superstitions when they +refuse to alleviate the pains of childbirth on the grounds that they are +good for the mother. Authorities say that instruction in obstetrics is +sadly neglected. A recent United States report tells us that preventable +diseases of childbirth and pregnancy cause more deaths among women than +any other disease except tuberculosis.<a name='FNanchor_4_6'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_6'><sup>[4]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The belief in the possession by woman of an uncanny psychic power which +made her the priestess and witch of other days, has crystallized into +the modern concept of womanly intuition. In our times, women "get +hunches," have "feelings in their bones," etc., about people, or about +things which are going to happen. They are often asked to decide on +business ventures or to pass opinions on persons whom they do not know. +There are shrewd business men who never enter into a serious negotiation +without getting their wives' intuitive opinion of the men with whom they +are dealing. The psychology of behaviour would explain these rapid fire +judgments of women as having basis in observation of unconscious +movements, while another psychological explanation would emphasize +sensitiveness to suggestion as a factor in the process. Yet in spite of +these rational explanations of woman's swift conclusions on matters of +importance, she is still accredited with a mysterious faculty of +intuition.</p> + +<p>A curious instance of the peculiar forms in which old taboos linger on +in modern life is the taboos on certain words and on discussion of +certain subjects. The ascetic idea of the uncleanness of the sex +relation is especially noticeable. A study of 150 girls made by the +writer in 1916-17 showed a taboo on thought and discussion among +well-bred girls of the following subjects, which they characterize as +"indelicate," "polluting," and "things completely outside the knowledge +of a lady."</p> + +<p>1. Things contrary to custom, often called "wicked" and "immoral."</p> + +<p>2. Things "disgusting," such as bodily functions, normal as well as +pathological, and all the implications of uncleanliness.</p> + +<p>3. Things uncanny, that "make your flesh creep," and things suspicious.</p> + +<p>4. Many forms of animal life which it is a commonplace that girls will +fear or which are considered unclean.</p> + +<p>5. Sex differences.</p> + +<p>6. Age differences.</p> + +<p>7. All matters relating to the double standard of morality.</p> + +<p>8. All matters connected with marriage, pregnancy, and childbirth.</p> + +<p>9. Allusions to any part of the body except head and hands.</p> + +<p>10. Politics.</p> + +<p>11. Religion.</p> + +<p>It will be noted that most of these taboo objects are obviously those +which the concept of the Model Woman has ruled out of the life of the +feminine half of the world.</p> + +<p>As might well be expected, it is in the marriage ceremony and the +customs of the family institution that the most direct continuation of +taboo may be found. The early ceremonials connected with marriage, as Mr +Crawley has shown, counteracted to some extent man's ancient fear of +woman as the embodiment of a weakness which would emasculate him. +Marriage acted as a bridge, by which the breach of taboo was expiated, +condoned, and socially countenanced. Modern convention in many forms +perpetuates this concept. Marriage, a conventionalized breach of taboo, +is the beginning of a new family. In all its forms, social, religious, +or legal, it is an accepted exception to the social injunctions which +keep men and women apart under other circumstances.</p> + +<p>The new family as a part of the social order comes into existence +through the social recognition of a relationship which is considered +especially dangerous and can only be recognized by the performance of +elaborate rites and ceremonies. It is taboo for men and women to have +contact with each other. Contact may occur only under ceremonial +conditions, guarded in turn by taboo, and therefore socially recognized. +The girl whose life from puberty on has been carefully guarded by +taboos, passes through the gateway of ceremonial into a new life, which +is quite as carefully guarded. These restrictions and elaborate rituals +which surround marriage and family life may appropriately be termed +institutional taboos. They include the property and division of labour +taboos in the survival forms already mentioned, as well as other +religious and social restrictions and prohibitions.</p> + +<p>The foundations of family life go far back of the changes of recent +centuries. The family has its source in the mating instinct, but this +instinct is combined with other individual instincts and social +relationships which become highly elaborated in the course of social +evolution. The household becomes a complex economic institution. While +the processes of change may have touched the surface of these relations, +the family itself has remained to the present an institution established +through the social sanctions of communities more primitive than our +own. The new family begins with the ceremonial breach of taboo,—the +taboo which enjoins the shunning of woman as a being both sacred and +unclean. Once married, the woman falls under the property taboo, and is +as restricted as ever she was before marriage, although perhaps in +slightly different ways. In ancient Rome, the wife was not mistress of +the hearth. She did not represent the ancestral gods, the lares and +penates, since she was not descended from them. In death as in life she +counted only as a part of her husband. Greek, Roman and Hindu law, all +derived from ancestor worship, agreed in considering the wife a +minor.<a name='FNanchor_5_6'></a><a href='#Footnote_5_6'><sup>[5]</sup></a></p> + +<p>These practices are of the greatest significance in a consideration of +the modern institutional taboos which surround the family. Students +agree that our own mores are in large part derived from those of the +lowest class of freedmen in Rome at the time when Christianity took over +the control which had fallen from the hands of the Roman emperors. These +mores were inherited by the Bourgeoisie of the Middle Ages, and were +passed on by them as they acquired economic supremacy. Thus these +practices have come down to us unchanged in spirit even if somewhat +modified in form, to fit the changed environment of our times.</p> + +<p>The standardization of the family with its foundations embedded in a +series of institutional taboos, added its weight to the formulation of +the Model Woman type referred to at the close of the preceding chapter. +The model wife appears in the earliest literature. In <i>The Trojan +Women</i>, Hecuba tells how she behaved in wedlock. She stayed at home and +did not gossip. She was modest and silent before her husband. The +patient Penelope was another ideal wife. To her, her son Telemachus +says:</p> + +<p>"Your widowed hours apart, with female toil, And various labours of the +loom, beguile, There rule, from palace cares remote and free, That care +to man belongs, and most to me."</p> + +<p>The wifely type of the Hebrews is set forth in Proverbs xxxi, 10-31. Her +virtues consisted in rising while it was yet night, and not eating the +bread of idleness. In her relation to her husband, she must never +surprise him by unusual conduct, and must see that he was well fed.</p> + +<p>The Romans, Hindus, and Mohammedans demanded similar virtues in their +wives and mothers. The wives of the medieval period were to remain +little girls, most admired for their passive obedience. Gautier puts +into the mouth of a dutiful wife of the Age of Chivalry the following +soliloquy:</p> + +<p>"I will love no one but my husband. Even if he loves me no longer, I +will love him always. I will be humble and as a servitor. I will call +him my sire, or my baron, or domine..."<a name='FNanchor_6_6'></a><a href='#Footnote_6_6'><sup>[6]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The modern feminine ideal combines the traits demanded by the worship of +the madonna and the virtues imposed by the institutional taboos which +surround the family. She is the virgin pure and undefiled before +marriage. She is the protecting mother and the obedient, faithful wife +afterward. In spite of various disrupting influences which are tending +to break down this concept, and which will presently be discussed, this +is still the ideal which governs the life of womankind. The average +mother educates her daughter to conform to this ideal woman type which +is the synthesized product of ages of taboo and religious mysticism. +Home training and social pressure unite to force woman into the mould +wrought out in the ages when she has been the object of superstitious +fear to man and also a part of his property to utilize as he willed. +Being thus the product of wholly irrational forces, it is little wonder +that only in recent years has she had any opportunity to show what she +in her inmost soul desired, and what capabilities were latent within her +personality.</p> + +<p>In sharp contrast to the woman who conforms to the standards thus +created for her, is the prostitute, who is the product of forces as +ancient as those which have shaped the family institution. In the +struggle between man's instinctive needs and his mystical ideal of +womanhood, there has come about a division of women into two +classes—the good and the bad. It is a demarcation as sharp as that +involved in the primitive taboos which set women apart as sacred or +unclean. In building up the Madonna concept and requiring the women of +his family to approximate this mother-goddess ideal, man made them into +beings too spiritual to satisfy his earthly needs. The wife and mother +must be pure, as he conceived purity, else she could not be respected. +The religious forces which had set up the worship of maternity had +condemned the sex relationship and caused a dissociation of two elements +of human nature which normally are in complete and intimate harmony. One +result of this divorce of two biologically concomitant functions was the +institution of prostitution.</p> + +<p>Prostitution is designed to furnish and regulate a supply of women +outside the mores of the family whose sex shall be for sale, not for +purposes of procreation but for purposes of indulgence. In the ancient +world, temple prostitution was common, the proceeds going to the god or +goddess; but the sense of pollution in the sex relation which came to be +so potent an element in the control of family life drove the prostitute +from the sanctuary to the stews and the brothel, where she lives to-day. +She has become the woman shunned, while the wife and mother who is the +centre of the family with its institutional taboos is the sacred woman, +loved and revered by men who condemn the prostitute for the very act for +which they seek her company. Such is the irrational situation which has +come to us as a heritage from the past.</p> + +<p>Among the chief causes which have impelled women into prostitution +rather than into family life are the following: (1) Slavery; (2) +poverty; (3) inclination. These causes have been expanded and re-grouped +by specialists, but the only addition which the writer sees as necessary +in consequence of the study of taboo is the fact that the way of the +woman transgressor is peculiarly hard because of the sex taboo, the +ignorance and narrowness of good women, and the economic limitations of +all women. Ignorance of the results of entrance into a life which +usually means abandonment of hope may be a contributing cause. Boredom +with the narrowness of family life and desire for adventure are also +influences.</p> + +<p>That sex desire leads directly to the life of the prostitute is +unlikely. The strongly sexed class comes into prostitution by the war of +irregular relationships with men to whom they have been attached, and +who have abandoned them or sold them out. Many authorities agree on the +frigidity of the prostitute. It is her protection from physical and +emotional exhaustion. This becomes evident when it is learned that these +women will receive thirty men a day, sometimes more. A certain original +lack of sensitiveness may be assumed, especially since the +investigations of prostitutes have shown a large proportion, perhaps +one-third, who are mentally inferior. It is an interesting fact that +those who are sensitive to their social isolation defend themselves by +dwelling on their social necessity. Either intuitively or by a trade +tradition, the prostitute feels that "she remains, while creeds and +civilizations rise and fall, blasted for the sins of the people." A +beautiful young prostitute who had been expelled from a high grade house +after the exposures of the Lexow Investigation, once said to the writer: +"It would never do for good women to know what beasts men are. We girls +have got to pay."</p> + +<p>The lady, dwelling on her pedestal of isolation, from which she commands +the veneration of the chivalrous gentleman and the adoration of the +poet, is the product of a leisure assured by property. At the end of the +social scale is the girl who wants to be a lady, who doesn't want to +work, and who, like the lady, has nothing to sell but herself. The life +of the prostitute is the nearest approach for the poor girl to the life +of a lady with its leisure, its fine clothes, and its excitement. So +long as we have a sex ethics into which are incorporated the taboo +concepts, the lady cannot exist without the prostitute. The restrictions +which surround the lady guard her from the passions of men. The +prostitute has been developed to satisfy masculine needs which it is not +permitted the lady to know exist.</p> + +<p>But in addition to the married woman who has fulfilled the destiny for +which she has been prepared and the prostitute who is regarded as a +social leper, there is a large and increasing number of unmarried women +who fall into neither of these classes. For a long time these +unfortunates were forced to take refuge in the homes of their luckier +sisters who had fulfilled their mission in life by marrying, or to adopt +the life of the religieuse. Economic changes have brought an alteration +in their status, however, and the work of the unattached woman is +bringing her a respect in the modern industrial world that the "old +maid" of the past could never hope to receive.</p> + +<p>Although at first often looked upon askance, the working woman by the +sheer force of her labours has finally won for herself a recognized +place in society. This was the first influence that worked against the +old taboos, and made possible the tentative gropings toward a new +standardization of women. The sheer weight of the number of unattached +women in present day life has made such a move a necessity. In England, +at the outbreak of the war, there were 1,200,000 more women than men. It +is estimated that at the end of the war at least 25% of English women +are doomed to celibacy and childlessness. In Germany, the industrial +census of 1907 showed that only 9-1/2 millions of women were married, or +about one-half the total number over eighteen years of age. In the +United States, married women constitute less than 60% of the women +fifteen years of age and over.</p> + +<p>The impossibility of a social system based on the old sex taboos under +the new conditions is obvious. There must be a revaluation of woman on +the basis of her mental and economic capacity instead of on the manner +in which she fits into a system of institutional taboos. But the old +concepts are still with us, and have shaped the early lives of working +women as well as the lives of those who have fitted into the old +grooves. Tenacious survivals surround them both, and are responsible for +many of the difficulties of mental and moral adjustment which make the +woman question a puzzle to both conservative and radical thinkers on the +subject.</p><br> + +<p>BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER III</p> + +<a name='Footnote_1_6'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_6'>1.</a><div class='note'> Davis, Michael M. Psychological Interpretations of Society. 260 pp. +Columbia University. Longmans. Green & Co. N.Y., 1909.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_2_6'></a><a href='#FNanchor_2_6'>2.</a><div class='note'> Webster, Hutton. Primitive Secret Societies. 227 pp. Macmillan. N.Y., 1908.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_3_6'></a><a href='#FNanchor_3_6'>3.</a><div class='note'> Blanchard, Phyllis. The Adolescent Girl. 243 pp. Kegan Paul & Co., London, 1921.</div> + +<p>—— Peters, Iva L. A Questionnaire Study of Some of the Effects of +Social Restrictions on the American Girl. Pedagogical Seminary, +December, 1916, Vol. XXIII, pp. 550-569.</p> + +<a name='Footnote_4_6'></a><a href='#FNanchor_4_6'>4.</a><div class='note'> Report of the U.S. Children's Bureau, 1917.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_5_6'></a><a href='#FNanchor_5_6'>5.</a><div class='note'> Fowler, W. Warde. The Religious Experience of the Roman People. 504 +pp. Macmillan. London, 1911.</div> + +<p>—— Fustel de Coulanges, Numa Denis. The Ancient City. Trans. from the +latest French edition by Willard Small. 10th ed. Lee and Shepard. +Boston, 1901. 529 pp.</p> + +<a name='Footnote_6_6'></a><a href='#FNanchor_6_6'>6.</a><div class='note'> Gautier, Emile Théodore Léon. La Chevalerie. 850 pp. C. Delagrave. +Paris, 1890.</div> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='CHAPTER_IV_P2'></a><h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<center>DYSGENIC INFLUENCES OF THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO</center> +<br /> + +<center><blockquote>Taboo survivals act dysgenically within the family under present +conditions; Conventional education of girls a dysgenic influence; +Prostitution and the family; Influence of ancient standards of "good" +and "bad." The illegitimate child; Effect of fear, anger, etc., on +posterity; The attitude of economically independent women toward +marriage.</blockquote></center><br><br /> + +<p>It is evident that in the working of old taboos as they have been +preserved in our social institutions there are certain dysgenic +influences which may well be briefly enumerated. For surely the test of +the family institution is the way in which it fosters the production and +development of the coming generation. The studies made by the Galton +Laboratory in England and by the Children's Bureau in Washington combine +with our modern knowledge of heredity to show that it is possible to cut +down the potential heritage of children by bad matrimonial choices. If +we are to reach a solution of these population problems, we must learn +to approach the problem of the sex relation without that sense of +uncleanness which has led so many generations to regard marriage as +giving respectability to an otherwise wicked inclination. The task of +devising a sane approach is only just begun. But the menace of +prostitution and of the social diseases has become so great that society +is compelled from an instinct of sheer self-preservation to drag into +the open some of the iniquities which have hitherto existed under cover.</p> + +<p>In the first place, the education of girls, which has been almost +entirely determined by the standardized concepts of the ideal woman, has +left them totally unprepared for wifehood and motherhood, the very +calling which those ideals demand that they shall follow. The whole +education of the girl aims at the concealment of the physiological +nature of men and women. She enters marriage unprepared for the +realities of conjugal life, and hence incapable of understanding either +herself or her husband. When pregnancy comes to such a wife, the old +seclusion taboos fall upon her like a categorical imperative. She is +overwhelmed with embarrassment at a normal and natural biological +process which can hardly be classified as "romantic." Such an attitude +is neither conducive to the eugenic choice of a male nor to the proper +care of the child either before or after its birth.</p> + +<p>A second dysgenic influence which results from the taboo system of +sexual ethics is the institution of prostitution, the great agency for +the spread of venereal disease through the homes of the community, and +which takes such heavy toll from the next generation in lowered vitality +and defective organization.</p> + +<p>The 1911 report of the Committee on the Social Evil in Baltimore showed +that at the time there was in that city one prostitute to every 500 +inhabitants. As is the case everywhere, such statistics cover only +prostitutes who have been detected. Hospital and clinic reports for +Baltimore gave 9,450 acute cases of venereal disease in 1906 as compared +with 575 cases of measles, 1,172 cases of diphtheria, 577 of scarlet +fever, 175 of chickenpox, 58 of smallpox and 733 cases of tuberculosis.</p> + +<p>Statistics on the health of young men shown by the physical examinations +of the various draft boards throughout the country give us a more +complete estimate of the prevalence of venereal disease among the +prospective fathers of the next generation than any other figures for +the United States. In an article in the <i>New York Medical Journal</i> for +February 2, 1918, Dr. Isaac W. Brewer of the Medical Reserve Corps +presents tables showing the percentage of rejections for various +disabilities among the applicants for enlistment in the regular army +from January 1, 1912, to December 31, 1915. Among 153,705 white and +11,092 coloured applicants, the rejection rate per 1,000 for venereal +disease was 196.7 for whites and 279.9 for coloured as against 91.3 for +whites and 75.0 for coloured for heart difficulties, next on the list. +In foreshadowing the results under the draft, Dr. Brewer says: "Venereal +disease is the greatest cause for rejection, and reports from the +cantonments where the National Army has assembled indicate that a large +number of the men had these diseases when they arrived at the camp. It +is probably true that venereal diseases cause the greatest amount of +sickness in our country."</p> + +<p>Statistics available for conditions among the American Expeditionary +Forces must be treated with great caution. Detection of these diseases +at certain stages is extremely difficult. Because of the courtesy +extended to our men by our allies, cases were treated in French and +English hospitals of which no record is available. But it is fairly safe +to say that there was no such prevalence of disease as was shown by the +Exner Report to have existed on the Mexican Border. It may even be +predicted that the education in hygienic measures which the men received +may in time affect favourably the health of the male population and +through them their wives and children. But all who came in contact with +this problem in the army know that it is a long way to the +understanding of the difficulties involved before we approach a +solution. We do know, on the basis of the work, of Neisser, Lesser, +Forel, Flexner and others, that regulation and supervision seem to +increase the incidence of disease. Among the reasons for this are: (1) +difficulties of diagnosis; (2) difficulties attendant on the +apprehension and examination of prostitutes; (3) the infrequency of +examination as compared with the number of clients of these women; and +perhaps as important as any of these reasons is the false sense of +security involved.</p> + +<p>The model woman of the past has known very little of the prostitute and +venereal disease. It is often stated that her moral safety has been +maintained at the expense of her fallen and unclean sister. But such +statements are not limited as they should be by the qualification that +her moral safety obtained in such a fashion is often at the expense of +her physical safety. If the assumption has a basis in fact that there is +a relation between prostitution and monogamic marriage, the complexity +of the problem becomes evident. It is further complicated by the +postponement of marriage from economic reasons, hesitation at the +assumption of family responsibilities at a time of life when ambition as +well as passion is strong, when the physiological functions are +stimulated by city life and there is constant opportunity for relief of +repression for a price. It is here that the demarcation between the +man's and the woman's world shows most clearly. It may well be that the +only solution of this problem is through the admission of a new +factor—the "good" woman whom taboo has kept in ignorance of a problem +that is her own. If it be true that the only solution for the double +standard whose evils show most plainly here is a new single standard +which has not yet been found, then it is high time that we find what +that standard is to be, for the sake of the future.</p> + +<p>The third dysgenic influence which works under cover of the +institutional taboo is akin to the first in its ancient standards of +"good" and "bad." We are only recently getting any standards for a good +mother except a man's choice and a wedding ring. Men's ideals of +attractiveness greatly complicate the eugenic situation. A good +matchmaker, with social backing and money, can make a moron more +attractive than a pushing, energetic girl with plenty of initiative, +whose contribution to her children would be equal or superior to that of +her mate. A timid, gentle, pretty moron, with the attainment of a girl +of twelve years, will make an excellent match, and bring into the world +children who give us one of the reasons why it is "three generations +from shirt-sleeves to shirt-sleeves." For such a girl, the slave to +convention, exactly fits the feminine ideal which man has built up for +himself. And she will be a good wife and mother in the conventional +sense all her life. This following of an ideal feminine type conceived +in irrational processes in former days inclines men to marry women with +inferior genetic possibilities because they meet the more insistent +surface requirements. The heritage of our children is thus cut down, and +many a potential mother of great men remains unwed.</p> + +<p>The same survival of ancient sex taboos is seen in the attitude toward +the illegitimate child. The marriage ceremony is by its origin and by +the forms of its perpetuation the only sanction for the breaking of the +taboo on contact between men and women. The illegitimate child, the +visible symbol of the sin of its parents, is the one on whom most +heavily falls the burden of the crime. Society has for the most part +been utterly indifferent to the eugenic value of the child and has +concerned itself chiefly with the manner of its birth. Only the +situation arising out of the war and the need of the nations for men has +been able to partially remedy this situation.</p> + +<p>The taboos on illegitimacy in the United States have been less affected +by the practical population problems growing out of war conditions than +those of other countries. As compared with the advanced stands of the +Scandinavian countries, the few laws of progressive states look +painfully inadequate. Miss Breckinridge writes:<a name='FNanchor_1_7'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_7'><sup>[1]</sup></a></p> + +<p>"The humiliating and despised position of the illegitimate child need +hardly be pointed out. He was the son of nobody, filius nullius, without +name or kin so far as kinship meant rights of inheritance or of +succession. In reality this child of nobody did in a way belong to his +mother as the legitimate child never did in common law, for, while the +right of the unmarried mother to the custody of the child of her shame +was not so noble and dignified a thing as the right of the father to the +legitimate child, she had in fact a claim, at least so long as the child +was of tender years, not so different from his and as wide as the sky +from the impotence of the married mother. The contribution of the father +has been secured under conditions shockingly humiliating to her, in +amounts totally inadequate to her and the child's support. In Illinois, +$550 over 5 years; Tennessee, $40 the first year, $30 the second, $20 +the third. (See studies of the Boston Conference on Illegitimacy, +September, 1914, p. 47.) Moreover, the situation was so desperate that +physicians, social workers and relatives have conspired to save the +girl's respectability at the risk of the child's life and at the cost of +all spiritual and educative value of the experience of motherhood. This +has meant a greatly higher death rate among illegitimate infants, a +higher crime and a higher dependency rate."</p> + +<p>The fifth of the dysgenic influences which has been fostered by the +institutional taboo is uncovered by recent studies of the effect of +certain emotions on the human organism. The life of woman has long been +shadowed by the fact that she has been the weaker sex; that even when +strong she has been weighted by her child; and that throughout the +period of private property she has been the poor sex, dependent on some +male for her support. In an age of force, fear has been her strong +emotion. If she felt rage it must be suppressed. Disappointment and +discouragement had also to be borne in silence and with patience. Of +such a situation Davies says:</p> + +<p>"The power of the mind over the body is a scientific fact, as is +evidenced by hypnotic suggestion and in the emotional control over the +chemistry of health through the agency of the internal secretions. The +reproductive processes are very susceptible to chemic influences. Thus +the influences of the environment may in some degree carry through to +the offspring."<a name='FNanchor_2_7'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_7'><sup>[2]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The studies of Drs Crile and Cannon show that the effects of fear on the +ganglionic cells are tremendous. Some of the cells are exhausted and +completely destroyed by intensity and duration of emotion. Cannon's +experiments on animals during fear, rage, anger, and hunger, show that +the entire nervous system is involved and that internal and external +functions change their normal nature and activity. The thyroid and +adrenal glands are deeply affected. In times of intense emotion, the +thyroid gland throws into the system products which cause a quickened +pulse, rapid respiration, trembling, arrest of digestion, etc. When the +subjects of experiments in the effect of the emotions of fear, rage, +etc., are examined, it is found that the physical development, +especially the sexual development, is retarded. Heredity, age, sex, the +nervous system of the subject, and the intensity and duration of the +shock must all have consideration. Griesinger, Amard and Daguin +emphasize especially the results of pain, anxiety and shock, claiming +that they are difficult or impossible to treat.</p> + +<p>To the bride brought up under the old taboos, the sex experiences of +early married life are apt to come as a shock, particularly when the +previous sex experiences of her mate have been gained with women of +another class. Indeed, so deeply has the sense of shame concerning the +sexual functions been impressed upon the feminine mind that many wives +never cease to feel a recurrent emotion of repugnance throughout the +marital relationship. Especially would this be intensified in the case +of sexual intercourse during the periods of gestation and lactation, +when the girl who had been taught that the sexual functions existed only +in the service of reproduction would see her most cherished illusions +rudely dispelled. The effect of this long continued emotional state with +its feeling of injury upon the metabolism of the female organism would +be apt to have a detrimental effect upon the embryo through the blood +supply, or upon the nursing infant through the mother's milk. There can +be no doubt that anxiety, terror, etc., affect the milk supply, and +therefore the life of the child.</p> + +<p>The sixth dysgenic effect of the control by taboos is the rebellion of +economically independent women who refuse motherhood under the only +conditions society leaves open to them. The statistics in existence, +though open to criticism, indicate that the most highly trained women in +America are not perpetuating themselves.<a name='FNanchor_3_7'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_7'><sup>[3]</sup></a> Of the situation in England, +Bertrand Russell said in 1917: "If an average sample were taken out of +the population of England, and their parents were examined, it would be +found that prudence, energy, intellect and enlightenment were less +common among the parents than in the population in general; while +shiftlessness, feeble-mindedness, stupidity and superstition were more +common than in the population in general ... Mutual liberty is making +the old form of marriage impossible while a new form is not yet +developed."<a name='FNanchor_4_7'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_7'><sup>[4]</sup></a></p> + +<p>It must be admitted that to-day marriage and motherhood are subject to +economic penalties. Perhaps one of the best explanations of the strength +of the present struggle for economic independence among women is the +fact that a commercial world interested in exchange values had refused +to properly evaluate their social contribution. A new industrial system +had taken away one by one their "natural" occupations. In the modern +man's absorption in the life of a great industrial expansion, home life +has been less insistent in its claims. His slackening of interest and +attention, together with the discovery of her usefulness in industry, +may have given the woman of initiative her opportunity to slip away from +her ancient sphere into a world where her usefulness in other fields +than that of sex has made her a different creature from the model woman +of yesterday. These trained and educated women have hesitated to face +the renunciations involved in a return to the home. The result has been +one more factor in the lessening of eugenic motherhood, since it is +necessarily the less strong who lose footing and fall back on marriage +for support. These women wage-earners who live away from the traditions +of what a woman ought to be will have a great deal of influence in the +changed relations of the sexes. The answer to the question of their +relation to the family and to a saner parenthood is of vital importance +to society.</p><br> + +<p>BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER IV</p> + +<a name='Footnote_1_7'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_7'>1.</a><div class='note'> Breckinridge, Sophonisba P. Social Control of Child Welfare. +Publications of the American Sociological Society. Vol. XII, p. 23 f.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_2_7'></a><a href='#FNanchor_2_7'>2.</a><div class='note'> Davies, G.R. Social Environment. 149 pp. A.C. McClurg & Co., Chicago, 1917.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_3_7'></a><a href='#FNanchor_3_7'>3.</a><div class='note'> Popenoe, Paul. Eugenics and College Education. School and Society, pp. 438-441. Vol. VI. No. 146.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_4_7'></a><a href='#FNanchor_4_7'>4.</a><div class='note'> Russell, Bertrand. Why Men Fight. 272 pp. The Century Co., N.Y., 1917.</div> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='PART_III'></a><h2>PART III</h2> + +<h3>THE SEX PROBLEM IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY</h3> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h3>PHYLLIS BLANCHARD, PH.D.</h3> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='CHAPTER_I_P3'></a><h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<center>SEX IN TERMS OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY</center> +<br /> + +<center><blockquote>Bearing of modern psychology on the sex problem; Conditioning of the +sexual impulse; Vicarious expression of the sexual impulse; Unconscious +factors of the sex life; Taboo control has conditioned the natural +biological tendencies of individuals to conform to arbitrary standards +of masculinity and femininity; Conflict between individual desires and +social standards.</blockquote></center><br> +<br /> + +<p>An adequate treatment of the sex problem in society must necessarily +involve a consideration of the sexual impulse in the individual members +of that society. Recent psychological research, with its laboratory +experiments and studies of pathology has added a great deal of +information at this point. The lately acquired knowledge of the warping +effect of the environment upon the native biological endowment of the +individual by means of the establishment of conditioned reflexes, the +discovery that any emotion which is denied its natural motor outlet +tends to seek expression through some vicarious activity, and the +realization of the fundamental importance of the unconscious factors in +shaping emotional reactions,—such formulations of behaviouristic and +analytic psychology have thrown a great deal of light upon the nature +of the individual sex life.</p> + +<p>There are certain modifications of the erotic life which are explicable +only when we recollect that under environmental influences situations +which originally did not call up an emotional response come later to do +so. This fact, which was first noted by Setchenov, was experimentally +demonstrated by Pavlov and his students.<a name='FNanchor_7_8'></a><a href='#Footnote_7_8'><sup>[7]</sup></a> They found that when some +irrelevant stimulus, such as a musical tone or a piece of coloured paper +was presented to a dog simultaneously with its food for a sufficiently +long period, the presentation of the tone or paper alone finally caused +the same flow of saliva that the food had originally evoked. The +irrelevant stimulus was named a <i>food sign</i>, and the involuntary motor +response of salivary secretion was called a <i>conditioned reflex</i> to +differentiate it from the similar response to the biologically adequate +stimulus of food, which was termed an <i>unconditioned reflex</i>.</p> + +<p>"The significance of the conditioned reflex is simply this, that an +associated stimulus brings about a reaction; and this associated +stimulus may be from any receptor organ of the body; and it may be +formed of course not merely in the laboratory by specially devised +experiments, but by association in the ordinary environment."<a name='FNanchor_1_8'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_8'><sup>[1]</sup></a> Thus it +is evident that the formation of conditioned reflexes takes place in +all fields of animal and human activity.</p> + +<p>Watson has recently stated that a similar substitution of one stimulus +for another occurs in the case of an emotional reaction as well as at +the level of the simple physiological reflex response.<a name='FNanchor_8_8'></a><a href='#Footnote_8_8'><sup>[8]</sup></a> This means +that when an emotionally exciting object stimulates the subject +simultaneously with one not emotionally exciting, the latter may in time +(or even after one joint stimulation) arouse the same emotional response +as the former. Kempf considers this capacity of the emotion to become +thus conditioned to other than the original stimuli "of the utmost +importance in determining the selections and aversions throughout life, +such as mating, habitat, friends, enemies, vocations, professions, +religious and political preferences, etc."<a name='FNanchor_5_8'></a><a href='#Footnote_5_8'><sup>[5]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Just as Pavlov and his followers found that almost anything could become +a food sign, so the study of neurotics has shown that the sexual emotion +can be fixed upon almost any love object. For example, a single +characteristic of a beloved person (e.g.,—eye colour, smile posture, +gestures) can become itself a stimulus to evoke the emotional response +originally associated only with that person. Then it happens that the +affection may centre upon anyone possessing similar traits. In most +psychological literature, this focussing of the emotion upon some +particular characteristic is termed <i>fetishism</i>, and the stimulus which +become capable of arousing the conditioned emotional response is called +an <i>erotic fetish</i>. In extreme cases of fetishism, the sexual emotions +can only be aroused in the presence of the particular fetish involved. +Krafft-Ebing<a name='FNanchor_6_8'></a><a href='#Footnote_6_8'><sup>[6]</sup></a> and other psychopathologists describe very abnormal +cases of erotic fetishism in which some inanimate object becomes +entirely dissociated from the person with whom it was originally +connected, so that it serves exclusively as a love object in itself, and +prevents a normal emotional reaction to members of the opposite sex.</p> + +<p>The development of romantic love has depended to a great extent upon the +establishment of a wide range of stimuli capable of arousing the erotic +impulses. As Finck has pointed out, this romantic sentiment is +inseparable from the ideals of personal beauty.<a name='FNanchor_3_8'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_8'><sup>[3]</sup></a> As criteria of beauty +he lists such characteristics as well-shaped waist, rounded bosom, full +and red underlip, small feet, etc., all of which have come to be +considered standards of loveliness because the erotic emotion has been +conditioned to respond to their stimulation. Literature is full of +references to such marks of beauty in its characters (<i>Jane Eyre</i> is +almost the only well-known book with a plain heroine), and is therefore +one of the potent factors in establishing a conditioned emotional +reaction to these stimuli.</p> + +<p>The erotic impulse may have its responses conditioned in many other ways +than the building up of erotic fetishes. Kempf has observed that the +affective reactions of the individual are largely conditioned by the +unconscious attitudes of parents, friends, enemies and teachers. For +instance, one boy is conditioned to distrust his ability and another to +have confidence in his powers by the attitude of the parents. Similarly, +the daughter whose mother is abnormally prudish about sexual functions +will surely be conditioned to react in the same manner towards her own +sexual functions, unless conditioned to react differently by the +influence of another person.<a name='FNanchor_5_8a'></a><a href='#Footnote_5_8'><sup>[5]</sup></a> Through the everyday associations in the +social milieu, therefore, the erotic impulse of an individual may become +modified in almost any manner.</p> + +<p>Just as an emotional reaction may become conditioned to almost any other +stimulus than the one which originally called it forth, so there is a +tendency for any emotion to seek a vicarious outlet whenever its natural +expression is inhibited. Were any member of the group to give free play +to his affective life he would inevitably interfere seriously with the +freedom of the other members. But the fear of arousing the disapproval +of his fellows, which is rooted in man's gregarious nature, inhibits the +tendency to self-indulgence. "A most important factor begins to exert +pressure upon the infant at birth and continues throughout its life," +says Kempf. "It is the incessant, continuous pressure of the herd ... to +conventionalize its methods of acquiring the gratification of its +needs."<a name='FNanchor_5_8b'></a><a href='#Footnote_5_8'><sup>[5]</sup></a> The emotions thus denied a natural outlet seek other channels +of activity which have received the sanction of social approval.</p> + +<p>It is obvious that the rigid social regulations concerning sexual +activities must enforce repression of the erotic impulses more +frequently than any others. The love which is thus denied its biological +expression transmutes itself into many forms. It may reach out to +envelop all humanity, and find a suitable activity in social service. It +may be transformed into the love of God, and find an outlet in the +religious life of the individual. Or it may be expressed only in +language, in which case it may stop at the stage of erotic fantasy and +day-dream, or may result in some really great piece of poetry or prose. +This last outlet is so common that our language is full of symbolic +words and phrases which have a hidden erotic meaning attached to them.</p> + +<p>According to Watson, the phenomena seen in this tendency of emotions +inhibited at one point to seek other outlets are too complex to be +explained on the basis of conditioned reflex responses. All that we can +say at present is that too great emotional pressure is drained off +through whatever channel environmental and hereditary factors make +possible.<a name='FNanchor_8_8a'></a><a href='#Footnote_8_8'><sup>[8]</sup></a> This vicarious mode of expression may become habitual, +however, and interfere with a return to natural activities in a manner +analogous to that in which the development of the erotic fetish often +prevents the normal reaction to the original stimulus.</p> + +<p>Because the conditioned emotional reactions and substitutions of +vicarious motor outlets take place at neurological and physiological +levels outside the realm of consciousness, they are called unconscious +activities of the organism. There are many other unconscious factors +which also modify the sex life of the human individual. The most +fundamental of these are the impressions and associations of the infancy +period, which may well be classed as conditioned reflex mechanisms, but +are sufficiently important to receive separate consideration.</p> + +<p>It is generally conceded by students of child psychology that the social +reactions of the child are conditioned by the home environment in which +the earliest and most formative years of its life are passed. It is not +surprising, therefore, that the ideal of the opposite sex which the boy +or girl forms at this time should approximate the mother or father, +since they are the persons best loved and most frequently seen. The +ideals thus established in early childhood are very often the +unconscious influences which determine the choice of a mate in adult +life. Or the devotion to the parent may be so intense as to prevent the +transference of the love-life to another person and thus entirely +prohibit the entrance upon the marital relation. Elida Evans has given +some very convincing cases in illustration of these points in her recent +book, "The Problem of the Nervous Child."<a name='FNanchor_2_8'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_8'><sup>[2]</sup></a></p> + +<p>On the other hand, in those unfortunate cases where the father or mother +is the object of dislike, associations may be formed which will be so +persistent as to prevent the normal emotional reaction to the opposite +sex in later years. This, too, results in the avoidance of marriage and +the establishment of vicarious outlets for the sexual emotions, or less +often in homosexual attachments or perversions of the sex life. +Conditioned emotional reactions such as these play a dominant role in +the social problem of sex, as will become apparent in succeeding +chapters.</p> + +<p>In addition to the influences which naturally act to condition the +original sexual endowment of the individual, there are artificial forces +which still further qualify it. The system of taboo control which +society has always utilized in one form or another as a means of +regulating the reproductive activities of its members, has set up +arbitrary ideals of masculinity and femininity to which each man and +woman must conform or else forfeit social esteem. The feminine standard +thus enforced has been adequately described in Part II of this study. Dr +Hinkle has also described this approved feminine type, as well as the +contrasting masculine ideal which embodies the qualities of courage, +aggressiveness, and other traditional male characteristics. From her +psychoanalytic practice, Dr Hinkle concludes that men and women do not +in reality conform to these arbitrarily fixed types by native biological +endowment, but that they try to shape their reactions in harmony with +these socially approved standards in spite of their innate tendencies to +variation.<a name='FNanchor_4_8'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_8'><sup>[4]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The same conclusion might be arrived at theoretically on the grounds of +the recent biological evidence of intersexuality discussed in Part I, +which implies that there are no absolute degrees of maleness and +femaleness. If there are no 100% males and females, it is obvious that +no men and women will entirely conform to ideals of masculine and +feminine perfection.</p> + +<p>In addition to the imposition of these arbitrary standards of +masculinity and femininity, society has forced upon its members +conformity to a uniform and institutionalized type of sexual +relationship. This institutionalized and inflexible type of sexual +activity, which is the only expression of the sexual emotion meeting +with social approval, not only makes no allowance for biological +variations, but takes even less into account the vastly complex and +exceedingly different conditionings of the emotional reactions of the +individual sex life. The resulting conflict between the individual +desires and the standards imposed by society has caused a great deal of +disharmony in the psychic life of its members. The increasing number of +divorces and the modern tendency to celibacy are symptomatic of the +cumulative effect of this fundamental psychic conflict.</p> + +<br /> + +<p>BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER I</p> + +<a name='Footnote_1_8'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_8'>1.</a><div class='note'> Burnham, W.H. Mental Hygiene and the Conditioned Reflex. Ped. Sem. +Vol. XXIV, Dec, 1917, pp. 449-488.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_2_8'></a><a href='#FNanchor_2_8'>2.</a><div class='note'> Evans, Elida. The Problem of the Nervous Child. Kegan Paul & Co., +London, 1920.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_3_8'></a><a href='#FNanchor_3_8'>3.</a><div class='note'> Finck, H.T. Romantic Love and Personal Beauty. Macmillan, N.Y., 1891.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_4_8'></a><a href='#FNanchor_4_8'>4.</a><div class='note'> Hinkle, Beatrice M. On the Arbitrary Use of the Terms "Masculine" and +"Feminine." Psychoanalyt. Rev. Vol. VII, No. 1, Jan., 1920, pp. 15-30.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_5_8'></a><a href='#FNanchor_5_8'>5.</a><div class='note'> Kempf, E.J. The Tonus of the Autonomic Segments as Causes of +Abnormal Behaviour. Jour. Nerv. & Ment. Disease, Jan., 1920, pp. 1-34.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_6_8'></a><a href='#FNanchor_6_8'>6.</a><div class='note'> Krafft-Ebing, R. Psychopathia Sexualis. Fuchs, Stuttgart, 1907.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_7_8'></a><a href='#FNanchor_7_8'>7.</a><div class='note'> Pavlov, J.P. L'excitation Psychique des Glandes Salivaires. Jour de +Psychologie, 1910, No. 2, pp. 97-114.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_8_8'></a><a href='#FNanchor_8_8'>8.</a><div class='note'> Watson, J.B. Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviourist. +Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1919.</div> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='CHAPTER_II_P3'></a><h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<center>HOW OUR INSTITUTIONS FIT INDIVIDUAL SEX PSYCHOLOGY</center> +<br /> + +<center><blockquote>Social institutions controlling sex activities based on the assumption +that <i>all</i> women are adapted to as well as specialized for reproduction; +Neurotic tendencies which unfit women for marriage—the desire for +domination; Sexual anæsthesia another neurotic trait which interferes +with marital harmony; The conditioning of the sexual impulse to the +parent ideal and the erotic fetish as factors which determine mating; +Homosexual tendencies and their part in the sex problem; The conflict +between the desire for marriage and egoistic ambitions; The social +regulations from the viewpoint of individual psychology.</blockquote></center><br> +<br /> + +<p>The institutionalized forms of social control into which the old sex +taboos have developed impose upon all members of the group a uniform +type of sexual relationship. These socially enforced standards which +govern the sex life are based upon the assumption that men and women +conform closely to the masculine and feminine ideals of tradition. The +emphasis is much more strongly placed on feminine conformity, however; +a great many sexual activities are tolerated in the male that would be +unsparingly condemned in the female. Thus the sex problem becomes in +large measure a woman's problem, not only because of her peculiar +biological specialization for reproduction, which involves an enormous +responsibility but also because her life has for so many generations +been hedged in by rigid institutionalized taboos and prohibitions.</p> + +<p>The traditional conception of marriage and the family relation implies +that all women are adapted to as well as specialized for motherhood. In +reality, if the biological evidence of intersexuality be as conclusive +as now appears, there are many women who by their very nature are much +better adapted to the activities customarily considered as pre-eminently +masculine, although they are still specialized for childbearing. There +is no statistical evidence of any high correlation between the sexual +and maternal impulses. Indeed, a great many traits of human behaviour +seem to justify the inference that these two tendencies may often be +entirely dissociated in the individual life. Dr Blair Bell (as noted in +Part I, Chapter III) believes that it is possible to differentiate women +possessing a maternal impulse from those lacking such tendencies by the +very anatomical structure. It is obvious that a woman endowed with a +strong erotic nature requires a kind of sexual relationship different +from one whose interests are predominantly in her children. And both the +sexual and maternal types require different situations than the woman +who combines the two instincts in her own personality for a normal +expression of their emotional life.</p> + +<p>According to social tradition, sexual activity (at least in the case of +women) is to be exercised primarily for the reproduction of the group. +Thus the institutions of marriage and the family in their present form +provide only for the woman who possesses both the sexual and maternal +cravings. Contraceptive knowledge has enabled a small number of women +(which is rapidly growing larger) to fit into these institutions in +spite of their lack of a desire for motherhood. There have been a few +hardy theorists who have braved convention to the extent of suggesting +the deliberate adoption of unmarried motherhood by women who are +consumed by the maternal passion but have no strongly erotic nature. +Whether their problem will be solved in this manner, only the course of +social evolution in the future can show.</p> + +<p>Besides the differences in natural instinctive tendencies which make it +difficult for many women to fit into a uniform type of sexual +relationship, modern society, with its less rigid natural selection, +has permitted the survival of many neurotic temperaments which find +marriage a precarious venture. The neurotic constitution, as Adler<a name='FNanchor_1_9'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_9'><sup>[1,</sup></a><a name='FNanchor_2_9'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_9'><sup>2]</sup></a> +has pointed out, is an expression of underlying structural or functional +organic deficiency. It is a physiological axiom that whenever one organ +of the body, because of injury, disease, etc., becomes incapable of +properly discharging its functions, its duties are taken over by some +other organ or group of organs. This process of organic compensation, +whereby deficiency in one part of the body is atoned for by additional +labours of other parts, necessarily involves the nervous mechanism in +ways which need not be discussed in detail here.</p> + +<p>In children the process of compensation, with its formation of new +nervous co-ordinations, is manifest in the inability to cope with their +companions who have a better biological endowment. This gives rise to a +feeling of inferiority from which the child tries to free itself by +every possible means, ordinarily by surpassing in the classroom the +playmates whom it cannot defeat on the playground. The feeling of +inferiority continues throughout life, however, although the mechanism +of physiological compensation may have become so perfected that the +functioning of the organism is quite adequate to the needs of the +environment. As a result, the ruling motive of the conduct becomes the +desire to release the personality from this torturing sense of inability +by a constant demonstration of the power to control circumstances or to +dominate associates.</p> + +<p>This abnormal will to power finds expression in the marital relationship +in the desire for supremacy over the mate. The domineering husband is a +familiar figure in daily life. The wife who finds it more difficult to +rule her husband by sheer mastery achieves the same ends by developing a +fit of hysterical weeping or having a nervous headache when denied her +own way in family affairs.</p> + +<p>By far the easiest way for the woman to satisfy her craving for power is +the development of an interesting illness which makes her the centre of +attention. The history of nervous disease furnishes many cases of +neurosis where this uncontrollable longing for domination is the chief +factor in the etiology of the illness. It is not at all unusual to meet +wives who hold their husbands subservient to every whim because of +"delicate nervous organizations" which are upset at the slightest +thwarting of their wishes so that they develop nervous headaches, +nervous indigestion, and many other kinds of sickness unless their +preferences meet with the utmost consideration. This tendency often +becomes a chronic invalidism, which, at the same time that it brings +the longed-for attention, incapacitates the individual for sexual and +maternal activities and makes the married life an abnormal and unhappy +one.</p> + +<p>Another more or less neurotic trait which acts as a cause of disharmony +in the marital relationship is the sexual anæsthesia which is not at all +uncommon in modern women. The absence of any erotic passion is held to +be a matter of physiological makeup by many authorities, but it is +probably more often due to the inhibition of natural tendencies in +accordance with concepts built up by social tradition. In order to +understand how social suggestion can have so powerful an effect upon the +reactions of the individual, we must revert once more to the principles +of behaviouristic psychology.</p> + +<p>According to Watson,<a name='FNanchor_4_9'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_9'><sup>[4]</sup></a> whenever the environmental factors are such that +a direct expression of an emotion cannot occur, the individual has to +have recourse to implicit motor attitudes. The best example in everyday +life is probably seen in the case of anger, which can seldom be +permitted to find an outlet in the natural act of striking, etc. It is +apparent, however, in the facial expression and in a certain muscular +posture which can best be described as a "defiant" attitude. Another +good example is the submissive attitude which often accompanies the +emotion of fear. It is manifest in shrinking, avoiding movements, +sometimes of the whole body, but more often of the eyes or some other +special organ.</p> + +<p>"In the sphere of love," Watson remarks, "there are numerous attitudes +as shown by the popular expressions lovelorn, lovesick, tenderness, +sympathy. More fundamental and prominent attitudes are those of shyness, +shame, embarrassment, jealousy, envy, hate, pride, suspicion, +resentment, anguish, and anxiety."<a name='FNanchor_4_9a'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_9'><sup>[4]</sup></a></p> + +<p>The significant fact is that these attitudes function by limiting the +range of stimuli to which the person is sensitive. The attitude of shame +concerning their sexual functions, which has been impressed upon women +as a result of ages of thinking in harmony with taboo standards, thus is +able to prevent the normal biological response to a situation which +should call out the emotions of love. In women who have an unstable +nervous system this shameful feeling often results in a definite +physiological shrinking from the physical manifestations of sexuality +and renders the individual insensitive to all erotic stimulation.</p> + +<p>This attitude of shame in connection with the love life came into +existence as a socially conditioned emotional reaction set up under the +influence of the traditional ideal of the "model woman" who was pictured +as a being of unearthly purity and immaculacy. It has been passed on +from generation to generation through an unconscious conditioning of the +daughter's attitude by suggestion and imitation to resemble that of the +mother. Thus it happens that although an increasing amount of liberty, +both social and economic, and a more rational and scientific +understanding of the womanly nature, have quite revoked this ideal in +theory, in actual practice it still continues to exert its inhibitory +and restrictive influence.</p> + +<p>Because the standardized family relationship involves so much more +radical a readjustment in the life of woman than of man, it has almost +always been the feminine partner who has taken refuge in neurotic +symptoms in order to escape the difficulties of the situation. After the +marriage ceremony, the man's life goes on much as before, so far as his +social activities are concerned, but woman takes up the new duties +connected with the care of the home and her child-bearing functions. +Moreover, the sexual life of woman is in many ways more complex than +that of man. She has been subjected to more repressions and inhibitions, +and as a result there has been more modification of her emotional +reactions in the field of love. This greater complexity of her love life +makes adaptation to marriage more problematical in the case of woman.</p> + +<p>Although the neurotic tendencies of modern women have been an important +factor for the production of disharmony in the family life, there are +certain variations of the individual sex life which are more universally +significant. The conditioned emotional reactions which environmental +influences have built up around the sexual impulse of each member of +society invariably determine the choice of the mate and give rise to +extremely complicated problems by the very nature of the selective +process. It is largely a matter of chance whether the mate chosen in +accordance with the ideals of romantic love and because of some +fascinating trait which acts as an erotic fetish or in conformity with a +parental fixation will prove a congenial companion through life.</p> + +<p>But the complexity of the situation lies in the fact that the erotic +impulses may become conditioned to respond to an indefinite number of +substituted stimuli. For example, the parental fixation may become +reconditioned by focussing upon some special characteristic of the +father or mother, which becomes an erotic fetish. If the mate is +selected on the basis of this fetishistic attraction, he (or she) may +prove to be so unlike the parent in other respects as to lose all the +affection which was originally inspired. A concrete illustration of +these conflicting emotional reactions is the case of the girl who +declared that she feared her fiancé as much as she loved him, but felt +that she must marry him nevertheless. An investigation showed that her +almost compulsive feeling about her lover was due to the fact that his +gestures and manner of regarding her, in fact his whole bearing, +reminded her of her dead father, while in other respects he was totally +repugnant to her because his character traits were so far removed from +those of her father ideal.</p> + +<p>The conflict between the parental ideal and other phases of the sexual +impulse is even more pronounced in men than in women, for two reasons. +In the first place, the mother plays by far the largest part in the life +of her children, so that the son's fixation upon her is necessarily more +intense than the daughter's affection for the father. Yet on the other +hand, the sexual desire of the male is more easily aroused than that of +the female, and is more apt to centre upon some member of the opposite +sex who possesses certain physical attractiveness but is not at all like +the mother ideal. Thus it happens that men often enshrine on their +hearthstone the woman who approximates the worshipped mother, while they +seek satisfaction for their erotic needs outside the home. In other +words, in the masculine psyche there is often a dissociation of the +sexual impulse in its direct manifestations and the sentiment of love in +its more idealistic aspects. This partially explains the fact that it +is possible for a man to be "unfaithful" to his wife while actually +loving her devotedly all the time.</p> + +<p>A different solution of the unconscious conflict between the mother +fixation and the sexual desires at lower levels is seen in those cases +in which the man impulsively marries the woman who has this transient +attraction for him. When the first passion of such an alliance has worn +away, there is no lasting bond to take its place, and the man must find +solace in some such way as an intimate friendship with a woman who +recalls the maternal impressions of his childhood. A famous example of +this is found in the beautiful affection of Auguste Comte for his +idolized Clotilde de Vaux. Although Comte was bound to a woman whom he +had married in the flush of erotic desire and whom he found entirety +uncongenial, Clotilde became the inspiration of his later life, and held +his affection without the aid of any material bond because she so +closely resembled the dead mother whom he adored.<a name='FNanchor_3_9'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_9'><sup>[3]</sup></a></p> + +<p>It is evident that the selection of a mate who is erotically attractive, +but proves to be very similar to a parent who was disliked instead of +loved, is as unfortunate as the choice of a partner who is utterly +unlike a beloved father or mother. Indeed, when all the possible +complications are clearly visualized, taking into account the numerous +ways in which the sexual emotions can be modified, it is plain that +these unconscious factors which determine the choice of a mate are not +always conducive to a happy married life.</p> + +<p>Quite recently the tendency to homosexuality has been emphasized as an +important factor in the psychological problem of sex. At the +International Conference of Medical Women (New York, 1919) it was stated +that homosexual fixations among women are a frequent cause of female +celibacy and divorce. This view was upheld by such authorities as Dr. +Constance Long of England, and other prominent women physicians. +Although a certain percentage of female homosexuality is congenital, it +is probable that by far the largest part is due to a conditioning of the +sexual impulse by the substitution of members of the same sex as the +erotic stimulus in place of the normal response to the opposite sex.</p> + +<p>This substitution is facilitated by certain facts in the social life of +women. The frequent lack of opportunity to be with men during adolescent +school days, and a certain amount of taboo on male society for the +unmarried woman, are in direct favour of the establishment of homosexual +reactions. There is also an increasing sex antagonism, growing out of +woman's long struggle for the privilege of participating in activities +and sharing prerogatives formerly limited to men, which acts as an +inhibitory force to prevent the transference of the sexual emotion to +its normal object in the opposite sex. Moreover, the entrance of woman +into a manner of living and lines of activity which have heretofore been +exclusively masculine, has brought out certain character traits which in +other times would have been repressed as incompatible with the social +standards of feminine conduct, but which are conducive to the formation +of homosexual attachments, since the qualities admired in men can now be +found also in women.</p> + +<p>In this connection the term <i>homosexuality</i> is used very loosely to +denote any type of emotional fixation upon members of the same sex which +is strong enough to prevent a normal love life with some individual of +the opposite sex. Among American women, at least, this tendency is +seldom expressed by any gross physical manifestations, but often becomes +an idealized and lofty sentiment of friendship. It is abnormal, however, +when it becomes so strong as to prevent a happy married life.</p> + +<p>The tendency of emotions to seek a vicarious outlet must also be +considered in any inclusive attempt to explain the homosexual attachment +of women. The woman who, on account of lack of attraction for men or for +any other reason, is denied the normal functioning of the love life in +marriage, is forced to find some other expression for her erotic +emotions, and it is only natural that she should find it in an affection +for other women. Again, the voluntary celibacy of a large class of +modern women, who prefer to retain their economic independence rather +than to enter into family life, also necessitates finding vicarious +emotional activities. Whenever their work throws a number of these women +into constant association, it is almost inevitable that homosexual +attachments will spring up.</p> + +<p>We meet all these types of homosexual fixations in daily life. The +college girl who is isolated from men for four years has her sworn +comrade among the girls, and is sure that she will never marry but will +love her chum always. Very often it is some time after she leaves +college before she begins to take an interest in male companionship. The +young professional woman looks up to the older woman in her line of work +with the same admiration for her courage and brilliancy that used to be +reserved for the husband alone in the days when women were permitted +only a strictly feminine education and occupation. The business woman +refuses to give up her high salaried position for marriage, and consoles +herself with her feminine friends. These are the common manifestations +characteristic of female homosexuality. As has been suggested, the term +is loosely applied to such cases as these, but the tendency of recent +psychological literature is to consider them as highly sublimated +expressions of this tendency.</p> + +<p>As has been intimated, the modern woman who has entered into the +economic competition is often reluctant to abandon this activity for the +responsibilities of wifehood and motherhood, which involve a withdrawal +from the business world. Just as the materialistic rewards of economic +activities often prove more attractive than the emotional satisfactions +of family life, so, too, the intellectual ambitions of the professional +woman may deter her from the exercise of her reproductive functions. +Thus the egoistic and individualistic tendencies which modern social +organization fosters in the personality of its feminine members makes +them unwilling to sacrifice their ambitious plans in the performance of +their natural biological functions.</p> + +<p>In the present speeding up of competition, the entrance upon family life +becomes almost as burdensome to man as to woman, although in a different +manner. Free as he is from the biological responsibilities connected +with childbearing which fall to a woman's lot, he finds the economic +responsibilities which the care of children entails equally grilling. +His choice of a profession can no longer be decided by his own +preferences, but must be determined by the economic returns. He can +never afford to sacrifice financial gain for personal recognition, +because of his obligation to provide for his family. Thus it happens +that marriage often presents a situation in which no outlet for personal +ambitions is possible and the egoistic desires and emotions must be +sternly repressed. There is therefore an increasing hesitancy on the +part of the men of to-day to assume responsibilities so grave and +involving so much personal sacrifice.</p> + +<p>It is evident from even such a casual inquiry as this, that there are +many facts of individual psychology which have not been taken into +account by society in the development of the mores which govern the +sexual relationships of its members. The traditional institution of the +family, which would shape all women into model wives and mothers, has +neglected to consider the fact that not all women are biologically +adapted for these particular activities. The choice of a mate which is +determined by irrational and unconscious motives may or may not prove to +be a wise selection, as we have seen in the course of our discussion. +Most significant of all for the social problem of sex, is the +overwhelming tendency to individuation which is making both men and +women frankly question whether marriage and parenthood are worth while +when they involve so much personal sacrifice.</p> + +<p>From the viewpoint of psychology, we may briefly summarize the whole +situation by saying that society has imposed upon its members a uniform +and inflexible type of sexual relationships and reproductive activities +with a total disregard of individual differences in its demand for +conformity to these traditions. When the infinite number of variations +and modifications possible in the sexual life of different individuals +is taken into consideration, it is obvious that there must be a certain +disharmony between personal inclinations and social standards. Because +the power of the group control is very great, its members usually +repress emotions which are not in accord with its regulations, and shape +their conduct to meet with its approval. If such a restriction of the +personality and emotional life of the individual is necessary for the +welfare of the whole race and for social progress, its existence is +entirely justified. It is our next task, therefore, to determine in what +respects a rigid and irrational social control is conducive to human +betterment, and wherein, if at all, it fails to achieve this purpose.</p> +<br /> + +<p>BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER II</p> + +<a name='Footnote_1_9'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_9'>1.</a><div class='note'> Adler, Alfred. The Neurotic Constitution. Moffat, Yard, N.Y., 1917. +(Kegan Paul & Co., 1921.)</div> + +<a name='Footnote_2_9'></a><a href='#FNanchor_2_9'>2.</a><div class='note'> Adler, Alfred. A Study of Organic Inferiority and Its Psychic +Compensation. Nervous & Mental Disease Pub. Co., N.Y., 1917.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_3_9'></a><a href='#FNanchor_3_9'>3.</a><div class='note'> Blanchard, P. A Psychoanalytic Study of Auguste Comte. Am. Jour. +Psy., April, 1918.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_4_9'></a><a href='#FNanchor_4_9'>4.</a><div class='note'> Watson, J.B. Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviourist. +Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1919.</div> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<a name='CHAPTER_III_P3'></a><h2>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<center>DYSGENIC NATURE OF CERTAIN FACTORS OF SEX PSYCHOLOGY AND NECESSITY FOR A SOCIAL THERAPY</center> + +<center><blockquote>Mating determined by unconscious psychological motives instead of +eugenic considerations; Some of the best male and female stock refusing +marriage and parenthood; The race is reproduced largely by the inferior +and average stocks and very little by the superior stock; As a +therapeutic measure, society should utilize psychological knowledge as a +new method of control; Romantic love and conjugal love—a new ideal of +love; The solution of the conflict between individual and group +interests.</blockquote></center><br> +<br /> + +<p>From the viewpoint of group welfare, the present psychological situation +of human reproductive activities undoubtedly has its detrimental +aspects. As we have seen, the choice of a mate is determined by +irrational motives which lie far below the levels of consciousness. +These unconscious factors which govern sexual selection far outweigh the +more rational considerations of modern eugenic thought. The marks of +personal beauty around which romantic love centres and which therefore +play a prominent part in mating are not necessarily indicative of +physical and mental health that will insure the production of sound +offspring. The modern standards of beauty (at least in so far as +feminine loveliness is concerned) have gone far from the ancient Grecian +type of physical perfection. Influenced perhaps by the chivalric ideals +of "the lady," the demand is rather for a delicate and fragile +prettiness which has come to be regarded as the essence of femininity. +The robust, athletic girl must preserve this "feminine charm" in the +midst of her wholesome outdoor life, else she stands in great danger of +losing her erotic attraction.</p> + +<p>Surface indications of the truth of this statement are easily +discovered. The literature which before the war ran riot with athletic +heroines pictured them with wind-blown hair and flushed cheeks receiving +the offer of their male companion's heart and hand. The golf course or +the summer camp was simply a charming new setting for the development of +the eternal love theme. Even fashion has conspired to emphasize the +feminine charm of the girl who goes in for sports, as a glance at the +models of bathing costumes, silken sweaters, and graceful "sport" skirts +plainly reveals.</p> + +<p>Just as the love which is directed in accordance with an emotional +reaction conditioned to respond to some erotic fetishism or to a parent +ideal may be productive of individual unhappiness, so it is also +entirely a matter of chance whether or not it leads to a eugenic mating. +Like romantic love, it is quite as apt to focus upon a person who does +not conform to eugenic ideals as upon one who does. The mate selected +upon the basis of these unconscious motives is very likely to bequeath a +neurotic constitution or an otherwise impaired physical organism to the +offspring of the union, since those possibilities were not taken into +consideration in making the choice.</p> + +<p>It becomes apparent that while certain forces in the life of the +individual and in the social inheritance have united to condition the +emotional reactions of the sex life, these conditionings have not always +been for the benefit of the race. Indeed, it would almost seem that +society has been more concerned with the manner of expression of the +love life in the individual members than in its effects upon the next +generation. In its neglect or ignorance of the significance of +artificial modifications of the emotions, it has permitted certain +dysgenic influences to continue in the psychic life of generation after +generation, regarding with the utmost placidity a process of sexual +selection determined by irrational and irresponsible motives.</p> + +<p>The most potent dysgenic influence in the present phase of the sex +problem is the conflict between the interests of the individual and the +group regulations. The traditional type of marriage and family life has +a cramping effect upon the personal ambitions which lessens its +attractiveness materially. The enterprising young business or +professional man has no desire to restrict his opportunities by the +assumption of the responsibilities that accompany family life. He must +be free to stake all his resources on some favourable speculation +without the thought that he cannot take chances on impoverishing his +wife and children. Or if he has professional aspirations, he must be +able to take the long difficult pathway of scientific research with no +anxiety about the meagre salary that is insufficient for the support of +a home. Thus the most vital and aggressive male stocks as well as the +most highly intelligent tend to avoid the hampering effects of family +life, and their qualities are often lost to the next generation, since +even if they marry they will feel that they cannot afford offspring.</p> + +<p>As women enter more and more into the competition for economic and +social rewards, this becomes equally applicable in their case. Indeed, +it would be strange were there not an even greater tendency to shun the +ties of family life on the part of ambitious women than of men, since +it involves greater sacrifices in their case on account of their +biological specialization for motherhood. It appears, therefore, that we +are losing the best parental material for the coming generations on both +the paternal and maternal sides. Thus the conflict between the egoistic +desires and the social institution of the family is segregating just +those energetic, successful individuals from whom the race of the future +should spring if we hope to reproduce a social organism capable of +survival in the inter-group struggle.</p> + +<p>If it be true that the best stock, both male and female, for various +reasons refuses to assume the duty of reproduction, the group will +necessarily be replaced from individuals of average and inferior (but +not superior) eugenic value. Even within these limits there is at +present no conscious eugenic selection, and the irrational and +unconscious motives which govern sexual selection at the present time +may induce the choice of a mate from among the weaker individuals. Once +again it becomes a matter of chance whether or not the matings prove to +be for the welfare of the group and of the race.</p> + +<p>It might be contended that the very fact that certain individuals +withdraw from reproductive activities is sufficient proof of their lack +of normal emotional reactions adapting them to the performance of those +functions. But a clearer insight shows that the group standards permit +the exercise of the reproductive activities only in accord with +arbitrary regulations which have coalesced in the institutions of +marriage and the family. These institutions have been developed to fit a +definite ideal of manhood and womanhood which grew up out of a manner of +thinking in accord with taboo control and ignorant superstitions rather +than in harmony with the actual facts of the situation. Now that we are +facing reality and trying to rationalize our thinking, we find that the +variation from these masculine and feminine ideals does not necessarily +imply biological or psychological abnormality, since the ideals were +themselves established without reference to biological and psychological +data.</p> + +<p>The traditional marriage and family arrangement tends to enforce a +selection of individuals who conform most nearly to these artificial +types as parents for the succeeding generations. It is not at all +certain that such a selection is advantageous to the group. It would +seem rather that in so complex a social system as that of the present +day with its increasing division of labour on other than purely sexual +distinctions, we need a variety of types of individuals adapted to the +varied activities of modern life.</p> + +<p>If society is to successfully meet the present situation it must +utilize its psychological insight to remedy conditions which are +obviously dysgenic and detrimental to the welfare of the race. If the +egoistic and highly individualized modern man and woman are induced to +sacrifice personal ambitions in the interests of reproduction, for +instance, it will only be because society has learned to turn those same +egoistic impulses to its own ends. This will never be accomplished by +the forces of tradition or by any such superimposed method of control as +conscription for parenthood. There is too much of a spirit of freedom +and individual liberty in the social mind to-day for any such measure to +meet with success. The same spirit of freedom which formerly burst the +bonds of superstition and entered into the world of science is now as +impatient of restraint of its emotional life as it formerly was of +restriction of its intellectual search for the truth.</p> + +<p>Therefore society can no longer depend upon taboo standards crystallized +into institutionalized forms as a means of control. It must appeal to +more rational motives if it expects to have any degree of influence over +its most intelligent and energetic members. Only when the production of +eugenic offspring brings the same social approval and reward that is +meted out for other activities will the ineradicable and irrespressible +egoistic desires that now prevent individuals from assuming the +responsibilities of family life be enlisted in the very cause to which +they are now so hostile. When the same disapproval is manifested for the +shirking of reproductive activities by the eugenically fit that is now +directed toward lack of patriotism in other lines, the number of +voluntary celibates in society will be materialy decreased.</p> + +<p>The greatest triumph of society in the manipulation of the sexual and +reproductive life of its members will come when it is able to condition +the emotional reaction of the individual by the substitution of the +eugenic ideal for the parental fixation and to focus the sentiment of +romantic love upon eugenic traits. When this is accomplished, the +selection of the mate will at least be favourable for racial +regeneration even if individual disharmonies are not entirely +eliminated. That there are great difficulties in the way of this +accomplishment may be admitted at the outset. The conditioned responses +to be broken down and replaced are for the most part formed in early +childhood, and have had a long period in which to become firmly +impressed upon the organism. But psychological experiments have proven +that even the best established conditioned reactions can be broken down +and others substituted in their place, so that the situation is not so +hopeless. When we recollect that for ages the traditional ideals of +masculinity and femininity have been conditioning the emotional life of +men and women to respond to their requirements with a remarkable degree +of success, there is ground for the belief that the same forces of +suggestion and imitation may be turned to more rational ends and +utilized as an effective means of social therapy.</p> + +<p>If we are to have a more rationalized form of social control, then, it +will undoubtedly take into consideration the necessity of forming the +socially desirable conditionings of the emotional life. The importance +of the emotional reactions for social progress has been very well +summarized by Burgess, who says that emotion can be utilized for +breaking down old customs and establishing new ones, as well as for the +conservation of the mores. Society can largely determine around what +stimuli the emotions can be organized, this author continues, and the +group has indeed always sought to control the stimuli impinging upon its +members. One policy has been to eliminate objectionable stimuli, as in +the outlawing of the saloon. The other is to change the nature of the +affective response of the individual to certain stimuli in the +environment where the natural or organic responses would be at variance +with conduct considered socially desirable.<a name='FNanchor_3_10'></a><a href='#Footnote_3_10'><sup>[3]</sup></a></p> + +<p>Modern psychological knowledge enables us to understand the mechanism +of this last method of social control as the building up of the +conditioned emotional response. If our civilization is to endure it must +learn to apply this method of control to the sex life of the individual +so that reproduction will fall to the lot of the most desirable eugenic +stock instead of being left to the workings of chance as it is at the +present time.</p> + +<p>From the viewpoint of individual psychology, one of the principal +problems of the erotic life is to find a smooth transition from the +romantic love of the courtship period to the less ethereal emotions of +the married state. Indirectly, this is also socially significant, +because of the overwhelming effect of the home environment in shaping +the reactions of the next generation. As a rule, only the children who +have grown up in a happy and wholesome atmosphere of sincere parental +comradeship and affection can have an entirely sane and healthy reaction +to their own erotic functions in later years.</p> + +<p>Although romantic love in its present expression may often lead to +uncongenial marriages and even involve dysgenic mating, its æsthetic and +refining influences are such as to make it desirable in spite of these +drawbacks. Its influence upon literature has been noted by Bloch<a name='FNanchor_2_10'></a><a href='#Footnote_2_10'><sup>[2]</sup></a> +while its potency in the formation of a deep and tender feeling between +men and women has been elaborately discussed by Finck.<a name='FNanchor_4_10'></a><a href='#Footnote_4_10'><sup>[4]</sup></a> Thus it is +evident that its individual and social advantages more than balance its +disadvantages.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, with the entrance into the marital relationship and the +release of the erotic emotion into natural channels so that it no longer +seeks the vicarious outlets which were partly supplied in the +idealization of the lovers, there is a tendency for this romantic +element to fade from their affection. The conjugal affection which +replaces it is built on quite other foundations. It is not composed of +day dreams about the beloved, but is wrought out of mutual interests, of +joys and sorrows shared together, of the pleasure of unrestricted +companionship, and of the common care of offspring. The danger lies in +the possibility that these foundations for conjugal love will not have +been lain by the time that romantic sentiments begin to grow dim. It is +this crisis in the married life which seems disappointing in the +afterglow of the engagement and honeymoon.</p> + +<p>Of late there have been attempts to build up a new conception of love +which shall incorporate the best features of romantic love and at the +same time make the transition to the conjugal affection less difficult. +This new conception has grown up through the increasing freedom of +women and the constant association of the sexes in the educational and +business world as well as in the social life. This free companionship of +men and women has done much to destroy the illusions about each other +which were formerly supposed to be so necessary a component of romantic +love, but it has also created the basis for a broader sympathy and a +deeper comradeship which is easily carried over into the married +relation.</p> + +<p>The new ideal of love which is being thus developed combines complete +understanding and frankness with erotic attraction and the tenderness of +romanticism. It implies a type of marital relationship in which there is +preservation of the personality and at the same time a harmony and union +of interests that was often absent from the old-fashioned marriage, when +the wife was supposed to be more limited in her interests than her +husband. It may well be that the evolution of this new ideal of love, +which grants personal autonomy even within the marriage bond, will solve +a great deal of the present conflict between the individualistic +impulses and the exercise of the erotic functions as permitted by the +group.</p> + +<p>It is, of course, an open question as to how far the interests of the +individual and the group can be made to coincide. Group survival demands +that the most vital and intelligent members shall be those to carry on +the reproductive functions. Therefore from the social viewpoint, it is +quite justified in setting up the machinery of social approval and in +establishing emotional attitudes by this means that will insure that +this takes place. On the other hand, it may be that the individuals who +will be thus coerced will be as rebellious against new forms of social +control as they are restless under the present methods of restraint.</p> + +<p>If we free ourselves from a manner of thinking induced by inhibitions +developed through ages of taboo control, and look at the problem +rationally, we must admit that the chief interest of society would be in +the eugenic value of the children born into it. At the present time, +however, the emphasis seems to be chiefly upon the manner of birth, that +is, the principal concern is to have the parents married in the +customary orthodox fashion. Only in view of the necessities of the +recent war have the European nations been forced to wipe out the stain +of illegitimacy, and in America we are still blind to this necessity. +Only Scandinavia, under the leadership of such minds as Ellen Key's, was +roused to this inconsistency in the mores without external pressure, and +enacted legislation concerning illegitimacy which may well serve as a +model to the whole world. The main points of the Norwegian Castberg bill +are as follows: The child whose parents are unmarried has a right to +the surname of the father, and the right of inheritance from a +propertied father; the court has full power to clear up the paternity of +the child; the man is held responsible for the child's support even if +other men are known to have had intercourse with the mother. In order to +discourage immorality in women for the purpose of blackmailing wealthy +men, the mother is also compelled to contribute to the child's +support.<a name='FNanchor_1_10'></a><a href='#Footnote_1_10'><sup>[1]</sup></a></p> + +<p>No psychologist of discernment, in insisting on eugenic standards rather +than a marriage certificate as the best criterion for parenthood would +encourage any tendency to promiscuous mating. The individual suffering +involved in such a system of sexual relationships would be too great to +permit its universal adoption even if it should be found to have no +deleterious social effects. But the very fact that transient mating does +involve so much human agony, especially on the part of the woman, is all +the more reason why it is needless to add artificial burdens to those +already compelled by the very nature of the emotional life.</p> + +<p>The study of child psychology, too, would tend to discourage any general +tendency to temporary sexual relationships. Modern research has shown +that nothing is more necessary for the normal development of the child's +emotional life than a happy home environment with the presence of both +father and mother. Only in these surroundings, with the love of both +parents as a part of the childhood experience, can the emotional +reactions of the child be properly conditioned to respond to the social +situations of adult life.</p> + +<p>In one respect, at least, society can do a great deal to better the +existing situation, and to solve the struggle between the individual and +group interests. At the same time that it endeavours to set up emotional +responses that shall be conducive to eugenic mating and to a happy love +life, as well as for the welfare of the child, it should also leave a +wide margin of personal liberty for the individuals concerned to work +out a type of sexual relationship which is in harmony with their natural +inclinations. The institution of monogamy is too deeply founded in the +needs of the individual and of the child to suffer from this increase in +freedom and responsibility. Were it so frail a thing as to need the +protection of the church and state as well as public opinion to insure +its survival, it would be so little adapted to the needs of humanity +that it might better disappear.</p> + +<p>There are no indications that there would be any wider deviation from +the monogamous relationship were variations frankly recognized that now +take place in secret. By its present attitude, society is not +accomplishing its purpose and preventing all sexual relationships except +those which conform to its institutionalized standards. It is merely +forcing what should be always the most dignified of human relationships +into the shamefulness of concealment and furtiveness. Moreover, because +it visits its wrath on the child born of unions which are not strictly +conventionalized, it prevents the birth of children from mothers who +might be of great eugenic value, but whom fear of social disapproval +keeps from the exercise of their maternal functions but not of their +sexual activities.</p> + +<p>In the final analysis, it will probably be demonstrated that for a +certain type of personality there can be no compromise which will +resolve the conflict between the egoistic inclinations and the interests +of the group. For those whose deepest desires are so out of harmony with +the social life of the times there is no alternative but to sacrifice +their personal desires or to forfeit the pleasure of feeling in complete +rapport with their fellows. In such natures, the ultimate course of +conduct will be determined by the relative strengths of the +individualistic and gregarious impulses, other things being equal. In +some instances this will mean the choice of a line of conduct out of +harmony with the general trend of group life; in others, it will mean +the repression of personal inclinations and conformity to social +standards.</p> + +<p>For the majority of people, however, it is likely that a more rational +form of social control, freed from the long ages of taboo restrictions, +and based upon accurate biological and psychological knowledge, will +solve the disharmony between the individual and the group to a great +extent. Such a rationalization will take into account the value of a new +ideal of love which shall be built up from a sane relationship between +the sexes and in accordance with eugenic standards. It will also grant a +great deal of personal autonomy in the determination of sexual +relationships in so far as this can be correlated with the welfare of +the children of the race. Last of all, it will attempt to condition the +emotional reactions to respond to stimuli which shall insure eugenic +mating naturally and without the intervention of legislation.</p> + +<p>Unless modern civilization can set up some such form of rational control +for the sexual and reproductive life of its members, the present +conflict between individuation and socialization will continue and the +dysgenic factors now operative in society will steadily increase. In the +end, this internal conflict may become so powerful as to act as an +irresistible disintegrating force that will shatter the fabric of modern +social organization. Only the evolution of a rationalized method of +control can avert this social catastrophe.</p><br /> + + + + +<p>BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER III.</p> +<br /> + +<a name='Footnote_1_10'></a><a href='#FNanchor_1_10'>1.</a><div class='note'> Anthony, Katharine. Feminism in Germany and Scandinavia. Henry Holt, +N.Y., 1915.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_2_10'></a><a href='#FNanchor_2_10'>2.</a><div class='note'> Bloch, Ivan. Sexual Life of Our Time. Rebman, London, 1908.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_3_10'></a><a href='#FNanchor_3_10'>3.</a><div class='note'> Burgess, E.W. The Function of Socialization in Social Evolution. +Univ. Chicago Press, 1916.</div> + +<a name='Footnote_4_10'></a><a href='#FNanchor_4_10'>4.</a><div class='note'> Finck, H.T. Romantic Love and Personal Beauty. Macmillan, N.Y., 1891.</div> + +<br> +<br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TABOO AND GENETICS***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 14325-h.txt or 14325-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/3/2/14325">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/3/2/14325</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Taboo and Genetics + +Author: Melvin Moses Knight, Iva Lowther Peters, and Phyllis Mary Blanchard + +Release Date: December 11, 2004 [eBook #14325] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TABOO AND GENETICS*** + + +E-text prepared by Michael Ciesielski, Dave Macfarlane, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +Transcriber's note: The irregular footnote markers in this text [numbers] + refer to the reference book the author used, and not + always to the specific page numbers. These reference + books are listed numerically at the end of each + chapter. The footnotes are marked with [letters] and + the referenced footnotes are contained within the + text, near to the footnote marker. Therefore, + occasionally the numerical footnote markers are out + of sequence. Words that were italicized are now + marked by an underscore (_). + + + + + +TABOO AND GENETICS + +A Study of the Biological, Sociological and Psychological Foundation of +the Family + +by + +M. M. KNIGHT, PH.D. + +IVA LOWTHER PETERS, PH.D. + +PHYLLIS BLANCHARD, PH.D. + +Author of _The Adolescent Girl_ + +London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd. +New York: Moffat, Yard & Co. + +1921 + + + + + + + +DEDICATED TO +OUR FRIEND AND TEACHER, +FRANK HAMILTON HANKINS + + + + +PREFACE + + +Scientific discovery, especially in biology, during the past two decades +has made necessary an entire restatement of the sociological problem of +sex. Ward's so-called "gynaecocentric" theory, as sketched in Chapter 14 +of his _Pure Sociology_, has been almost a bible on the sex problem to +sociologists, in spite of the fact that modern laboratory +experimentation has disproved it in almost every detail. While a +comparatively small number of people read this theory from the original +source, it is still being scattered far and wide in the form of +quotations, paraphrases, and interpretations by more popular writers. It +is therefore necessary to gather together the biological data which are +available from technical experimentation and medical research, in order +that its social implications may be utilized to show the obsoleteness of +this older and unscientific statement of the sex problem in society. + +In order to have a thoroughly comprehensive survey of the institutions +connected with sexual relationships and the family and their entire +significance for human life, it is also necessary to approach them from +the ethnological and psychological points of view. The influence of the +primitive sex taboos on the evolution of the social mores and family +life has received too little attention in the whole literature of sexual +ethics and the sociology of sex. That these old customs have had an +inestimable influence upon the members of the group, modern psychology +has recently come to recognize. It therefore seems advantageous to +include these psychological findings in the same book with the +discussion of the sex taboos and other material with which it must so +largely deal. + +These fields--biology, ethnology, and psychology--are so complicated and +so far apart technically, although their social implications are so +closely interwoven, that it has seemed best to divide the treatment +between three different writers, each of whom has devoted much study to +his special phase of the subject. This leads to a very simple +arrangement of the material. The first part deals with the physical or +biological basis of the sex problem, which all societies from the most +primitive to the most advanced have had and still have to build upon. +The second part deals with the various ideas man has developed in his +quest for a satisfactory adaptation of this physical basis to his own +requirements. Part three attempts to analyze the effect of this long +history of social experimentation upon the human psyche in its modern +social milieu. + +In the social evolution of the human mind, the deepest desires of the +individual have been often necessarily sacrificed to the needs of the +group. Sometimes they have been unnecessarily sacrificed, since human +intelligence is, unfortunately, not omniscient. Nevertheless, the sum +total of human knowledge has now become great enough so that it is at +least well to pause and take account of its bearing on the age-old +problem of family life, in order that our evolution henceforth may be +guarded by rational control rather than trial and error in so far as is +possible. Such a summarization of our actual knowledge of the biology, +sociology and psychology of the foundations of the family institution +this book aims to present, and if it can at the same time suggest a +starting point for a more rationalized system of social control in this +field, its purpose will have been accomplished. + +THE AUTHORS. + + + + +CONTENTS + +PART I + +BY M. M. KNIGHT, PH.D. + +THE NEW BIOLOGY AND THE SEX PROBLEM IN SOCIETY + +CHAPTER + +I. THE PROBLEM DEFINED + +What is sex? A sexual and mixed reproduction. Origin of sexual +reproduction. Advantage of sex in chance of survival. Germ and body +cells. Limitations of biology in social problems. Sex always present in +higher animals. Sex in mammals--the problem in the human species. +Application of the laboratory method. + +II. SEX IN TERMS OF INTERNAL SECRETIONS + +Continuity of germ plasm. The sex chromosome. The internal secretions +and the sex complex. The male and the female type of body. How removal +of sex glands affects body type. Sex determination. Share of the egg and +sperm in inheritance. The nature of sex--sexual selection of little +importance. The four main types of secretory systems. Sex and sex +instincts of rats modified by surgery. Dual basis for sex. Opposite sex +basis in every individual. The Free-Martin cattle. Partial reversal of +sex in human species. + +III. SEX AND SEX DIFFERENCES AS QUANTITATIVE + +Intersexes in moths. Bird intersexes. Higher metabolism of males. +Quantitative difference between sex factors. Old ideas of +intersexuality. Modern surgery and human intersexes. Quantitative theory +a Mendelian explanation. Peculiar complication in the case of man. +Chemical life-cycles of the sexes. Functional-reproductive period and +the sex problem. Relative significance of physiological sex differences. + + +IV. SEX SPECIALIZATION AND GROUP SURVIVAL + +Adaptation and specialization. Reproduction a group--not an individual +problem. Conflict between specialization and adaptation. Intelligence +makes for economy in adjustment to environment. Reproduction, not +production, the chief factor in the sex problem. + +V. RACIAL DEGENERATION AND THE NECESSITY FOR RATIONALIZATION OF THE MORES + +Racial decay in modern society. Purely "moral" control dysgenic in +civilized society. New machinery for social control. Mistaken notion +that reproduction is an individual problem. Economic and other factors +in the group problem of reproduction. + + +PART II + +BY IVA LOWTHER PETERS, PH.D. + +THE INSTITUTIONALIZED SEX TABOO + +I. THE PRIMITIVE ATTITUDE TOWARD SEX AND WOMANHOOD + +Primitive social control. Its rigidity. Its necessity. The universality +of this control in the form of taboos. Connection between the universal +attitude of primitive peoples toward woman as shown in the +Institutionalized Sex Taboo and the magico-religious belief in Mana. +Relation of Mana to Taboo. Discussion of Sympathetic Magic and the +associated idea of danger from contact. Difficulties in the way of an +inclusive definition of Taboo. Its dual nature. Comparison of concepts +of Crawley, Frazer, Marett, and others. Conclusion that Taboo is +Negative Mana. Contribution of modern psychology to the study of Taboo. +Freud's analogy between the dualistic attitude toward the tabooed object +and the ambivalence of the emotions. The understanding of this dualism +together with the primitive belief in Mana and Sympathetic Magic +explains much in the attitude of man toward woman. The vast amount of +evidence in the taboos of many peoples of dualism in the attitude toward +woman. Possible physiological explanation of this dualistic attitude of +man toward woman found in a period before self-control had in some +measure replaced social control, in the reaction of weakness and disgust +following sex festivals. + +II. FROM THE DAWN OF HISTORY: WOMAN AS SAINT AND WITCH + +Taboos of first chapter indicate that in the early ages the fear of +contamination by woman predominated. Later emphasis fell on her mystic +and uncanny power. Ancient fertility cults. Temple prostitution, +dedication of virgins, etc. Ancient priestesses and prophetesses. +Medicine early developed by woman added to belief in her power. Woman's +psychic quality of intuition: its origin--theories--conclusion that this +quality is probably physiological in origin, but aggravated by taboo +repressions. Transformation in attitude toward woman in the early +Christian period. Psychological reasons for the persistence in religion +of a Mother Goddess. Development of the Christian concept. Preservation +of ancient woman cults as demonology. Early Christian attitude toward +woman as unclean and in league with demons. Culmination of belief in +demonic power of woman in witchcraft persecutions. All women affected by +the belief in witches and in the uncleanness of woman. Gradual +development on the basis of the beliefs outlined of an ideally pure and +immaculate Model Woman. + +III. THE DUALISM IN MODERN LIFE: THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO + +The Taboo and modern institutions. Survival of ideas of the uncleanness +of woman. Taboo and the family. The "good" woman. The "bad" woman. +Increase in the number of women who do not fit into the ancient +classifications. + +IV. DYSGENIC INFLUENCES OF THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO + +Taboo survivals act dysgenically within the family under present +conditions. Conventional education of girls a dysgenic influence. +Prostitution and the family. Influence of ancient standards of "good" +and "bad." The illegitimate child. Effect of fear, anger, etc., on +posterity. The attitude of economically independent women toward +marriage. + + +PART III + +BY PHYLLIS BLANCHARD, PH.D. + +THE SEX PROBLEM IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY + +I. SEX IN TERMS OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY + +Bearing of modern psychology on the sex problem. Conditioning of the +sexual impulse. Vicarious expression of the sexual impulse. Unconscious +factors of the sex life. Taboo control has conditioned the natural +biological tendencies of individuals to conform to arbitrary standards +of masculinity and femininity. Conflict between individual desires and +social standards. + +II. HOW OUR INSTITUTIONS FIT INDIVIDUAL SEX PSYCHOLOGY + +Social institutions controlling sex activities based on the assumption +that _all_ women are adapted to as well as specialized for reproduction. +Neurotic tendencies which unfit women for marriage--the desire for +domination. Sexual anaesthesia another neurotic trait which interferes +with marital harmony. The conditioning of the sexual impulse to the +parent ideal and the erotic fetish as factors which determine mating. +Homosexual tendencies and their part in the sex problem. The conflict +between the desire for marriage and egoistic ambitions. The social +regulations from the viewpoint of individual psychology. + + +III. DYSGENIC NATURE OF CERTAIN FACTORS OF SEX PSYCHOLOGY AND NECESSITY + FOR A SOCIAL THERAPY + +Mating determined by unconscious psychological motives instead of +eugenic considerations. Some of the best male and female stock refusing +marriage and parenthood. The race is reproduced largely by the inferior +and average stocks and very little by the superior stock. As a +therapeutic measure, society should utilize psychological knowledge as a +new method of control. Romantic love and conjugal love--a new ideal of +love. The solution of the conflict between individual and group +interests. + + + + +PART I + +THE NEW BIOLOGY AND THE SEX PROBLEM IN SOCIETY + +BY + +M. M. KNIGHT, PH.D. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE PROBLEM DEFINED + +What is sex? Asexual and mixed reproduction; Origin of sexual +reproduction; Advantage of sex in chance of survival; Germ and body +cells; Limitations of biology in social problems; Sex always present in +higher animals; Sex in mammals; The sex problem in the human species; +Application of laboratory method. + + +Sex, like all complicated phenomena, defies being crowded into a simple +definition. In an animal or plant individual it is expressed by and +linked with the ability to produce egg- or sperm-cells (ova or +spermatozoa). Sexual reproduction is simply the chain of events +following the union of the egg and sperm to produce a new individual. +Looked at from another angle, it is that sort of reproduction which +requires two differentiated individuals: the male, which produces +spermatoza, and the female, which produces ova. In the case of very +simple forms, it would be simply the union or conjugation of a male and +a female individual and the reproductive process involved. Where there +is no differentiation into male and female there is no sex. + +An individual which produces both sperm-and egg-cells within its body +is termed an hermaphrodite. Very few hermaphrodites exist among the +vertebrates, although they may be found in one or two species (e.g., the +hagfish). There are no truly hermaphroditic mammals, i.e., individuals +in which both the male and the female germ cells function, except +perhaps in rare instances. + +Sexless or asexual reproduction assumes various forms. What is usually +considered the most primitive of these is fission or simple division, in +which the cell divides into two equal, identical parts. There is of +course no suggestion of sex here. It is fairly safe to assume that life +began thus in the world, as neuter or sexless--i.e., with no suggestion +of either maleness or femaleness.[A] + +[Footnote A: This asexual type of reproduction has been misinterpreted +by a whole school of non-biological writers, who have followed the lead +of Lester F. Ward, in his classification of these neuter-organisms as +females. Ward says ("Pure Sociology," Ch. 14): "It does no violence to +language or science to say that life begins with the female organism and +is carried on a long distance by means of females alone. In all the +different forms of asexual reproduction from fission to parthenogenesis, +the female may in this sense be said to exist alone and perform all the +functions of life including reproduction. In a word, life begins as +female" (p. 313). Adding to this statement the assertion that the male +developed at first as a mere parasite, in the actual, physical sense, +Ward proceeds to build up his famous Gynaecocentric Theory, which is +familiar to all students of social science, and need not be elaborated +here. It is obvious that a thorough biological knowledge destroys the +fundamental concept on which this theory is founded, for there is no +doubt that life begins as neuter or sexless, and not as female.] + +There are a number of other forms of asexual reproduction, or the +"vegetative type" (Abbott's term, which includes fission, budding, +polysporogonia and simple spore formation). Budding (as in yeast) and +spore formation are familiar to us in plants. Such forms are too distant +from man, in structure and function, for profitable direct comparison. +Especially is this true with respect to sex, which they do not possess. + +Parthenogenesis includes very diverse and anomalous cases. The term +signifies the ability of females to reproduce in such species for one or +a number of generations without males. Many forms of this class (or more +strictly, these classes) have apparently become specialized or +degenerated, having once been more truly sexual. Parthenogenesis +(division and development of an egg without the agency of male sperm) +has been brought about artificially by Jacques Loeb in species as +complicated as frogs.[1,2] All the frogs produced were males, so that +the race (of frogs) could not even be theoretically carried on by that +method. + +The origin of sexual reproduction in animals must have been something as +follows: The first method of reproduction was by a simple division of +the unicellular organism to form two new individuals. At times, a fusion +of two independent individuals occurred. This was known as conjugation, +and is seen among Paramecia and some other species to-day. Its value is +probably a reinvigoration of the vitality of the individual. Next there +was probably a tendency for the organism to break up into many parts +which subsequently united with each other. Gradually some of these +uniting cells came to contain more food material than the others. As a +result of their increased size, they possessed less power of motion than +the others, and in time lost their cilia (or flagella) entirely and were +brought into contact with the smaller cells only by the motion of the +latter. Finally, in colonial forms, most of the cells in the colony +ceased to have any share in reproduction, that function being relegated +to the activities of a few cells which broke away and united with others +similarly adrift. These cells functioning for reproduction continued to +differentiate more and more, until large ova and small, motile +spermtozoa were definitely developed. + +The clearest evidences as to the stages in the evolution of sexual +reproduction is found in the plant world among the green algae.[3] In +the lower orders of one-celled algae, reproduction takes place by simple +cell division. In some families, this simple division results in the +production of several new individuals instead of only two from each +parent cell. A slightly different condition is found in those orders +where the numerous cells thus produced by simple division of the parent +organism unite in pairs to produce new individuals after a brief +independent existence of their own. These free-swimming cells, which +apparently are formed only to reunite with each other, are called +zooespores, while the organism which results from their fusion is known +as a zygospore. The zygospore thus formed slowly increases in size, +until it in its turn develops a new generation of zooespores. In still +other forms, in place of the zooespores, more highly differentiated +cells, known as eggs and sperms, are developed, and these unite to +produce the new individuals. Both eggs and sperms are believed to have +been derived from simpler ancestral types of ciliated cells which were +similar in structure and closely resembled zooespores.[A] + +[Footnote A: This evidence, which points to the conclusion that in the +early origin of sexual reproduction the males and females were +differentiated and developed from a uniform type of ancestral cell, +quite controverts Ward's point that the male originated as a kind of +parasite.] + +Having once originated, the sexual type of reproduction possessed a +definite survival value which assured its continuation. Sex makes +possible a crossing of strains, which evidently possesses some great +advantage, since the few simple forms which have no such division of +reproductive functions have undergone no great development and all the +higher, more complicated animals are sexual. This crossing of strains +may make possible greater variety, it may help in crossing out or +weakening variations which are too far from the average, or both. + +Schaefer[4] thinks that an exchange of nuclear substance probably gives +a sort of chemical rejuvenation and very likely stimulates division. At +any rate, the groups in which the reproductive process became thus +partitioned between two kinds of individuals, male and female, not only +survived, but they underwent an amazing development compared with those +which remained sexless. + +There came a time in the evolution of the groups possessing sexual +reproduction, when increasing specialization necessitated the division +into reproductive and non-reproductive cells. When a simple cell +reproduces by dividing into two similar parts, each developing into a +new individual like the parent, this parent no longer exists as a cell, +but the material which composed it still exists in the new ones. The old +cell did not "die"--no body was left behind. Since this nuclear +substance exists in the new cells, and since these generations go on +indefinitely, the cells are in a sense "immortal" or deathless. In a +one-celled individual, there is no distinction between germinal and +bodily functions. In the more complicated organisms, however, there are +innumerable kinds of cells, a few (the germ cells) specialized for +reproduction, the others forming the body which eats, moves, sees, +feels, and in the case of man, _thinks_. But the germ-cells or germplasm +continue to be immortal or deathless in the same sense as in the +simplest organisms. The body, in a historical sense, grew up around the +germ-cells, taking over functions a little at a time, until in the +higher animals nutrition and other activities and a large part even of +the reproductive process itself is carried on by body-cells. + +When we think of a man or woman, we think of an individual only one of +whose innumerable activities--reproduction--is carried on by germ-cells, +and this one only at the very beginning of the life of a new individual. +Human societies, needless to remark, are not organized by germplasms, +but by brains and hands--composed of body cells. If these brains and +hands--if human bodies--did not wear out or become destroyed, we should +not need to trouble ourselves so much about the germplasm, whose sole +function in human society is to replace them. + +Since the individual human bodies and minds which seek after the things +to which we mortals attach value--moral worth, esthetic and other +pleasure, achievement and the like--do have to be replaced every few +years, the germplasms from which new individuals must come have always +been and always will be of fundamental importance. It is always the +_product_ of the germplasm which concerns us, and we are interested in +the germ-cells themselves only in relation to their capacity to produce +individuals of value to society. + +So let us not go erring about in the philosophical ether, imagining that +because the _amoeba_ may not be specialized for anything over and above +nutrition and reproduction that these are necessarily the "main +business" or "chief ends" of human societies. Better say that although +we have become developed and specialized for a million other activities +we are still bound by those fundamental necessities. As to "Nature's +purposes" about which the older sex literature has had so much to say, +the idea is essentially religious rather than scientific. If such +"purposes" indeed exist in the universe, man evidently does not feel +particularly bound by them. We do not hesitate to put a cornfield where +"Nature" had a forest, or to replace a barren hillside by the sea with a +city. + +Necessities and possibilities, not "purposes" in nature, claim our +attention--reproduction being one of those embarrassing necessities, +viewed through the eyes of man, the one evaluating animal in the world. +Thus in reasoning from biology to social problems, it is fundamental to +remember that man as an animal is tremendously differentiated in +functions, and that most of the activities we look upon as distinctively +human depend upon the body rather than the germ-cells. + +It follows that biology is the foundation rather than the house, if we +may use so crude a figure. The solidity of the foundation is very +important, but it does not dictate the details as to how the +superstructure shall be arranged. + +Civilization would not be civilization if we had to spend most of our +time thinking about the biological basis. If we wish to think of +"Nature's" proscriptions or plans as controlling animal life, the +anthropomorphism is substantially harmless. But man keeps out of the way +of most of such proscriptions, has plans of his own, and has acquired +considerable skill in varying his projects without running foul of such +biological prohibitions. + +It is time to abandon the notion that biology prescribes in detail how +we shall run society. True, this foundation has never received a surplus +of intelligent consideration. Sometimes human societies have built so +foolishly upon it that the result has been collapse. Somebody is always +digging around it in quest of evidence of some vanished idyllic state of +things which, having had and discarded, we should return to. This little +excursion into biology is made in the full consciousness that social +mandates are not to be found there. Human projects are the primary +material of social science. It is indispensable to check these against +biological fact, in order to ascertain which are feasible and which are +not. The biological basis may _help_ in explaining old social structures +or in planning new ones; but much wild social theory has been born of a +failure to appreciate the limitations of such material. + +All the so-called higher animals, mammals and others, are divided into +two sexes, male and female. Besides the differentiation of germ-cells +there are rather obvious differences in the bodies of the two sexes. In +common with many other mammals, the human male has a larger and stronger +body, on an average, than has the human female. This is true also of the +anthropoid apes, the species which most resemble man physically and are +commonly supposed to be his nearest blood relatives in the animal +kingdom. It has been true of man himself as far back as we have any +records. + +Such differences are only superficial--the real ones go deeper. We are +not so much interested in how they originated in the world as in how +they _do_ come about in the individual. At least, we can come a good +deal nearer ascertaining the latter than the former. In either case, our +real purpose is to determine as nearly as possible what the unlikeness +really consists of and so help people to sensibly make up their minds +what can be done about it. + +To define sex with rigid accuracy as the term applies to human beings, +it is necessary to tell what it is in mammals, since man is a mammal. +The presence of distinct body-cells is not peculiar to mammals, but +there is one respect in which these latter are quite different from +non-mammals: A mammalian individual, beginning like a non-mammal with a +fertilized egg, has a period of intra-maternal development which a +non-mammal has not. That is, a non-mammalian is a fertilized egg _plus_ +its parental (or extra-parental) environment; but a mammalian individual +is a fertilized egg, _plus its intra-maternal environment_, plus its +non-parental environment. + +Here in a nutshell is the biological basis of sex problem in human +society. Human individuals do wear out and have to be replaced by +reproduction. In the reproductive process, the female, as in mammals +generally, is specialized to provide an intra-maternal environment +(approximately nine months in the human species) for each new +individual, and lactation or suckling afterward. The biological phase of +the sex problem in society consists in studying the nature of that +specialization. From the purely sociological standpoint, the sex problem +concerns the customs and institutions which have grown up or may grow +up to meet the need of society for reproduction. + +The point which most concerns us is in how far biological data can be +applied to the sex problem in society. Systematic dissections or +breeding experiments upon human beings, thought out in advance and under +control in a laboratory, are subject to obvious limitations. Surgical +operations, where careful data are kept, often answer the same purpose +as concerns some details; but these alone would give us a fragmentary +record of how a fertilized egg becomes a conscious human being of one +sex or the other. The practice of medicine often throws light on +important points. Observation of abnormal cases plays its part in adding +to our knowledge. Carefully compiled records of what does occur in +inheritance, while lacking many of the checks of planned and controlled +experiments, to some extent take the place of the systematic breeding +possible with animals. At best, however, the limitations in +experimentation with human subjects would give us a rather disconnected +record were it not for the data of experimental biology. + +How may such biological material be safely used? Indiscriminately +employed, it is worse than useless--it can be confusing or actually +misleading. It is probably never safe to say, or even to infer directly, +that because of this or that animal structure or behaviour we should do +thus and so in human society. On this point sociology--especially the +sociology of sex--must frankly admit its mistakes and break with much of +its cherished past. + +The social problem of sex consists of fitting the best possible +institutions on to the biological foundation _as we find it in the human +species_. Hence all our reasoning about which institution or custom is +preferable must refer directly to the human bodies which compose +society. We can use laboratory evidence about the bodies of other +animals to help us in understanding the physical structure and functions +of the human body; but we must stop trying to apply the sex-ways of +birds, spiders or even cows (which are at least mammals) to human +society, which is not made up of any of these. + +It is possible to be quite sure that some facts carefully observed about +mammals in a biological laboratory apply to similar structures in man, +also a mammal. Because of this relationship, the data from medicine and +surgery are priceless. Thus we are enabled to check up our systematic +experimental knowledge of animals by an ascertained fact here and there +in the human material, and to get a fairly exact idea of how great the +correspondence actually is. Gaps thus filled in are narrow enough, and +our certainty of the ground on either side sufficiently great, to give +a good deal of justifiable assurance. + +If we use our general biological evidence in this way, merely to help in +clearing up points about _human_ biology, we need not be entirely +limited to mammals. Some sex phenomena are quite general, and may be +drawn from the sexual species most convenient to study and control in +experiments. When we get away from mammalian forms, however, we must be +very sure that the cases used for illustrations are of general +application, are similar in respect to the points compared, or that any +vital differences are understood and conscientiously pointed out. + +Too much stress cannot be laid upon the point that such animal data, +carefully checked up with the human material, cannot safely be used for +any other purpose than to discover what the facts are about the human +body. When the discussion of human social institutions is taken up in +Part II, the obvious assumption will always be that these rest upon +human biology, and that we must not let our minds wander into vague +analogies concerning birds, spiders or crustacea. + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER I + +1. Loeb, Jacques. Artificial Parthenogenesis and Fertilization. Chicago, +1913. + +2. Loeb, Jacques. The Organism as a Whole. N.Y., 1916, p. 125--brief +summary of results of [1]. + +3. Bower, Kerr & Agar. Sex and Heredity. N.Y., 1919, 119 pp. + +4. Schaefer, E.A. Nature, Origin and Maintenance of Life. Science, n.s., +Vol. 36, pp. 306 f., 1912. + +5. Guyer, M.F. Being Well-Born. Indianapolis, 1916; p. 123. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +SEX IN TERMS OF INTERNAL SECRETIONS + + +Continuity of germplasm; The sex chromosome; The internal secretions and +the sex complex; The male and the female type of body; How removal of +sex glands affects body type; Sex determination; Share of egg and sperm +in heredity; Nature of sex--sexual selection of little importance; The +four main types of secretory systems; Sex and sex-instincts of rats +modified by surgery; Dual basis for sex; Opposite-sex basis in every +individual; The Free-Martin cattle; Partial reversal of sex in man. + + +In Chapter I, the "immortality" of the protoplasm in the germ cells of +higher animals, as well as in simpler forms without distinct bodies, was +mentioned. In these higher animals this protoplasm is known as +_germplasm_, that in body cells as _somatoplasm_. + +All that is really meant by "immortality" in a germplasm is continuity. +That is, while an individual may consist of a colony of millions of +cells, all of these spring from one cell and it a germ cell--the +fertilized ovum. This first divides to form a new group of germ cells, +which are within the embryo or new body when it begins to develop, and +so on through indefinite generations. Thus the germ cells in an +individual living to-day are the lineal descendants, by simple division, +of the germ cells in his ancestors as many generations, or thousands of +generations, ago as we care to imagine. All the complicated body +specializations and sex phenomena may be regarded as super-imposed upon +or grouped around this succession of germ cells, continuous by simple +division. + +The type of body in each generation depends upon this germplasm, but the +germplasm is not supposed to be in any way modified by the body (except, +of course, that severe enough accidents might damage it). Thus we +resemble our parents only because the germplasm which directs our +development is a split-off portion of the same continuous line of germ +cells which directed their development, that of their fathers, and so on +back. This now universally accepted theory is called the "continuity of +the germplasm." + +It will be seen at once that this seems to preclude any possibility of a +child's inheriting from its parents anything which these did not +themselves inherit. The bodies of each generation are, so to speak, mere +"buds" from the continuous lines of germplasm. If we _develop_ our +muscles or our musical talent, this development is of the body and dies +with it, though the physical basis or capacity we ourselves inherited +is still in the germplasm and is therefore passed along to our +children. We may also furnish our children an environment which will +stimulate their desire and lend opportunity for similar or greater +advancement than our own. This is _social inheritance_, or the product +of _environment_--easy to confuse with that of _heredity_ and very +difficult to separate, especially in the case of mental traits. + +It will likewise become clear as we proceed that there is no mechanism +or relationship known to biology which could account for what is +popularly termed "pre-natal influence." A developing embryo has its own +circulation, so insulated from that of the mother that only a few of the +most virulent and insidious disease germs can ever pass the barrier. The +general health of the mother is of utmost importance to the vitality, +chances of life, constitution and immunity from disease of the unborn +child. Especially must she be free from diseases which may be +communicated to the child either before or at the time of birth. This +applies particularly to gonorrhoea, one of the most widely prevalent as +well as most ancient of maladies, and syphilis, another disastrous and +very common plague which is directly communicable. As to "birthmarks" +and the like being directly caused by things the mother has seen or +thought about, such beliefs seem to be founded on a few remarkable pure +coincidences and a great deal of folk-lore. + +Reproduction in its simplest form is, then, simply the division of one +cell into two parts, each of which develops into a replica of the +original. Division is also the first stage in reproduction in the most +complicated animal bodies. To get an idea of what takes place in such a +division we must remember that a cell consists of three distinct parts: +(a) the protoplasm or cytoplasm, (b) the nucleus, and (c) a small body +known as the centrosome which need not be discussed here. + +When a cell division takes place, the nucleus breaks up into a number of +thread-like portions which are known as chromosomes. There are supposed +to be 24 pairs, or 48, in the human cell. All the evidence indicates +that these chromosomes carry the "factors" in inheritance which produces +the characters or characteristics of the individual body. + +In mitosis or ordinary cell division, these chromosomes split +lengthwise, so that the new cells always have the same number as the +original one. When the germ-cells of the male and female make the +division which marks the first step in reproduction, however, the +process is different. Half the chromatin material passes into each of +the two cells formed. This is called _maturation_, or the maturation +division, and the new cells have only half the original number of +chromosomes. Each of these divides again by mitosis (the chromosomes +splitting lengthwise), the half or haploid number remaining. The result +is the _gametes_ (literally "marrying cells"--from the Greek _game_, +signifying marriage). Those from the male are called sperms or +spermatozoa and those from the female eggs or ova. (The divisions to +form ova present certain complications which need not be taken up in +detail here.) Of the 24 chromosomes in each sperm or egg we are here +concerned with only one, known as the sex chromosome because, in +addition to transmitting other characteristics, it determines the sex of +the new individual. + +Neither the ovum nor the spermatozoon (the human race is referred to) is +capable alone of developing into a new individual. They must join in the +process known as fertilization. The sperm penetrates the egg (within the +body of the female) and the 24 chromosomes from each source, male and +female, are re-grouped in a new nucleus with 48 chromosomes--the full +number. + +The chances are half and half that the new individual thus begun will be +of a given sex, for the following reason: There is a structural +difference, supposed to be fundamentally chemical, between the cells of +a female body and those of a male. The result is that the gametes (sperm +and eggs) they respectively produce in maturation are not exactly alike +as to chromosome composition. All the eggs contain what is known as the +"X" type of sex chromosome. But only half the male sperm have this +type--in the other half is found one of somewhat different type, known +as "Y." (This, again, is for the human species--in some animals the +mechanism and arrangement is somewhat different.) If a sperm and egg +both carrying the X-type of chromosome unite in fertilization, the +resulting embryo is a female. If an X unites with a Y, the result is a +male. Since each combination happens in about half the cases, the race +is about half male and half female. + +Thus sex is inherited, like other characters, by the action of the +chromatin material of the cell nucleus. As Goldschmidt[1] remarks, this +theory of the visible mechanism of sex distribution "is to-day so far +proven that the demonstration stands on the level of an experimental +proof in physics or chemistry." But why and how does this nuclear +material determine sex? In other words, what is the nature of the +process of differentiation into male and female which it sets in motion? + +To begin with, we must give some account of the difference between the +cells of male and female origin, an unlikeness capable of producing the +two distinct types of gametes, not only in external appearance, but in +chromosome makeup as well. It is due to the presence in the bodies of +higher animals of a considerable number of glands, such as the thyroid +in the throat and the suprarenals just over the kidneys. These pour +secretions into the blood stream, determining its chemical quality and +hence how it will influence the growth or, when grown, the stable +structure of other organs and cells. They are called endocrine glands or +organs, and their chemical contributions to the blood are known as +_hormones_. + +Sometimes those which do nothing but furnish these secretions are spoken +of as "ductless glands," from their structure. The hormones (endocrine +or internal secretions) do not come from the ductless glands alone--but +the liver and other glands contribute hormones to the blood stream, in +addition to their other functions. Some authorities think that "every +cell in the body is an organ of internal secretion",[2] and that thus +each influences all the others. The sex glands are especially important +as endocrine organs; in fact the somatic cells are organized around the +germ cells, as pointed out above. Hence the sex glands may be considered +as the keys or central factors in the two chemical systems, the male and +the female type. + +These various hormones or chemical controllers in the blood interact in +a nicely balanced chemical system. Taken as a whole this is often +called the "secretory balance" or "internal secretory balance." This +balance is literally the key to the sex differences we see, because it +lies back of them; i.e., there are two general types of secretory +balance, one for males and one for females. Not only are the secretions +from the male and the female sex glands themselves quite unlike, but the +whole chemical system, balance or "complex" involved is different. +Because of this dual basis for metabolism or body chemistry, centering in +the sex glands, no organ or cell in a male body can be exactly like the +corresponding one in a female body. + +In highly organized forms like the mammals (including man), sex is +linked up with _all_ the internal secretions, and hence is of the whole +body.[3] As Bell [2, p.5] states it: "We must focus at one and the +same time the two essential processes of life--the individual metabolism +and the reproductive metabolism. They are interdependent. Indeed, the +individual metabolism is the reproductive metabolism." + +Here, then, is the reason men have larger, differently formed bodies +than women--why they have heavier bones, tend to grow beards, and so on. +The sex glands are only part of what we may call a well-organized +chemical laboratory, delivering various products to the blood, but +always in the same general proportions for a given sex. The ingredients +which come from the sex glands are also qualitatively different, as has +been repeatedly proved by injections and otherwise. + +Each of these sex types, male and female, varies somewhat within itself, +as is true of everything living. The two are not so far apart but that +they may overlap occasionally in some details. For instance, some women +are larger than are some men--have lower pitched voices, etc. The whole +bodily metabolism, resting as it does upon a chemical complex, is +obviously more like the male average in some women than it is in others, +and _vice versa_. But the average physical make-up which we find +associated with the male and female sex glands, respectively, is +distinctive in each case, and a vast majority of individuals of each sex +conform nearly enough to the average so that classification presents no +difficulty. + +The extreme as well as the average body types existing in the presence +of the respective types of sex-glands are different. For example, we +find an occasional hen with male spurs, comb or wattles, though she is a +normal female in every other respect, and lays eggs.[4] But we never +find a functional female (which lays eggs) with _all_ the typical +characteristics of the male body. Body variation can go only so far in +the presence of each type of primary sexuality (i.e., sex-glands). + +The bodily peculiarities of each sex, as distinguished from the +sex-glands or gonads themselves, are known as _secondary_ sex +characters. To put our statement in the paragraph above in another form, +the primary and secondary sex do not always correspond in all details. +We shall find as we proceed that our original tentative definition of +sex as the ability to produce in the one case sperm, in the other eggs, +is sometimes difficult to apply. What shall we say of a sterile +individual, which produces neither? The problem is especially +embarrassing when the primary and secondary sex do not correspond, as is +sometimes the case. + +Even in a fully grown animal, to remove or exchange the sex glands (by +surgery) modifies the bodily type. One of the most familiar cases of +removal is the gelding or desexed horse. His appearance and disposition +are different from the stallion, especially if the operation takes place +while he is very young. The reason he resembles a normal male in many +respects is simply that sexuality in such highly-organized mammals is of +the whole body, not of the sex-glands or organs alone. + +Suppose this horse was desexed at two years old. Nearly three years had +elapsed since he was a fertilized egg. During the eleven months or so he +spent within his mother, he developed a very complicated body. Beginning +as a male, with a male-type metabolism (that is, as the result of a +union between an X and a Y chromosome, not two X's), all his glands, as +well as the body structures they control, developed in its presence. Not +only the sex glands, but the liver, suprarenals, thyroid--the whole body +in fact--became adjusted to the male type. He had long before birth what +we call a male sex complex. Complex it is, but it is, nevertheless, easy +enough to imagine its nature for illustrative purposes. It is simply all +the endocrine or hormone-producing organs organized into a balanced +chemical system--adjusted to each other. + +When the horse had had this body and this gland system for nearly three +years (eleven months within his mother's body and twenty-four outside), +it had become pretty well organised and fixed. When a single chemical +element (the hormones from the sex-glands) was withdrawn, the system +(thus stereotyped in a developed body and glands) was modified but not +entirely upset. The sex complex remained male in many respects. It had +come to depend upon the other chemical plants, so to speak, quite as +much as upon the sex glands. The later the castration is performed--the +more fixed the body and gland type has become--the closer the horse will +resemble a normal male. Much laboratory experimentation now goes to +show that some accident while this horse was still a fertilized egg or +a very small embryo might have upset this male type of body +chemistry--perhaps even caused him to develop into a female instead, if +it took place early enough. This is well illustrated by the so-called +"Free-Martin" cattle, to be described later. + +For a long time a controversy raged as to whether sex is determined at +the time of fertilization, before or after. Biologists now generally +prefer to say that a fertilized egg is "predisposed" to maleness or +femaleness, instead of "determined." The word "determined" suggests +finality, whereas the embryo appears to have in the beginning only a +strong tendency or predisposition toward one sex type or the other. It +is now quite commonly believed that this predisposition arises from the +_quantity_ rather than the quality or kind of factors in the chemical +impetus in the nuclei of the conjugating gametes. A later chapter will +be devoted to explaining the quantitative theory of sex. + +Hence the modern theory of "sex determination" has become: + +1. That the chemical factors which give rise to one sex or the other are +present in the sperm and ovum _before_ fertilization; + +2. That a tendency or predisposition toward maleness or femaleness +arises at the time of fertilization, depending upon which type of sperm +unites with the uniform type of egg (in some species the sperm is +uniform while the egg varies); + +3. That this predisposition is: + + a. Weaker at first, before it builds up much of a body and gland system + to fix it; + + b. Increasingly stronger as the new body becomes organized and + developed; + + c. Liable to partial or complete upset in the very early stages; + + d. Probably quantitative--stronger in some cases than in others. + +The new definition is, then, really a combination and amplification of +the three older points of view. + +The term "sex determination" does not mean to the biologist the changing +or determining of the sex at will on the part of the experimenter. This +might be done by what is known as "selective fertilization" artificially +with only the kind of sperm (X or Y as to chromosomes) which would +produce the desired result. There is as yet no way to thus select the +sperm of higher animals. It has been authoritatively claimed that +feeding with certain chemicals, and other methods to be discussed later, +has affected the sex of offspring. These experiments (and +controversies) need not detain us, since they are not applicable to the +human species. + +Let us consider this fertilized egg--the contributions of the father and +the mother. The total length of the spermatozoon is only about 1/300 of +an inch, and 4/5 of this is the tail. This tail does not enter the egg, +and has no other known function than that of a propeller. Its movement +has been studied and found to be about 1/8 of an inch per minute. Only +the head and neck enter the egg. This head consists almost entirely of +the nuclear material which is supposed to determine the characters of +the future individual. + +The ovum or egg contributed by the mother is much larger--nearly round +in shape and about 1/120 of an inch in diameter. Besides its nucleus, it +contains a considerable amount of what used to be considered as "stored +nutritive material" for the early development of the individual. + +In ancient times the female was quite commonly supposed to be a mere +medium of development for the male seed. Thus the Laws of Manu stated +that woman was the soil in which the male seed was planted. In the Greek +_Eumenides_, Orestes' mother did not generate him, but only received and +nursed the germ. These quaint ideas of course originated merely from +observation of the fact that the woman carries the young until birth, +and must not lead us to imagine that the ancients actually separated the +germ and somatic cells in their thinking. + +A modern version of this old belief was the idea advanced by Harvey that +the ovum consisted of fluid in which the embryo appeared by spontaneous +generation. Loeuwenhoek's development of the microscope in the 17th +century led immediately to the discovery of the spermatozoon by one of +his students. At the time, the "preformation theory" was probably the +most widely accepted--i.e., that the adult form exists in miniature in +the egg or germ, development being merely an unfolding of these +preformed parts. With the discovery of the spermatozoon the +preformationists were divided into two schools, one (the ovists) holding +that the ovum was the container of the miniature individual, the other +(animalculists) according this function to the spermatozoon. According +to the ovists, the ovum needed merely the stimulation of the +spermatozoon to cause its contained individual to undergo development, +while the animalculists looked upon the spermatozoon as the essential +embryo container, the ovum serving merely as a suitable food supply or +growing place. + +This nine-lived notion of male supremacy in inheritance was rather +reinforced than removed by the breeding of domestic animals in the +still more recent past. Attention has been focused on a few great males. +For example, the breed of American trotting horses all goes back to one +sire--Hambletonian 10. The great Orloff Stud Book, registering over a +million individuals, is in the beginning founded on a single horse--a +male. It is not strange that we still find among some breeders vestiges +of the ancient belief that the male predominates in inheritance. A +superior male can impress his characters in a single year upon 100 times +as _many_ colts as a female of equal quality could produce in her +lifetime. So slight an incident in his life is this reproductive process +for each individual that he could if he devoted his life solely to +reproduction stamp his characters upon a thousand times as many colts as +could a female. Thus under artificial breeding conditions, the good +males do have a tremendously disproportionate share in improving the +whole breed of horses, though each single horse gets his qualities +equally from his male and female parents. + +Though Mendel knew an astonishing amount about inheritance a +half-century ago, it is worth noting that the foundation upon which +rests our present knowledge of sex has been discovered less than twenty +years before--the reference is, of course, to the chromosomes as the +carriers of inheritance. While from the standpoint of biology the +opinions of two decades ago about sex literally belong to a different +age, some of them have been so persistent in sociological thought and +writings that they must be briefly reviewed in order that the reader may +be on his guard against them. Books which still have a wide circulation +deal with the sex problem in terms of a biology now no more tenable than +the flatness of the earth. + +On the one hand were the ancient traditions of male predominance in +inheritance, reinforced by the peculiar emphasis which animal breeding +places upon males. On the other hand, biologists like Andrew Wilson[5] +had argued as early as the seventies of the past century for female +predominance, from the general evidence of spiders, birds, etc. Lester +F. Ward crystallized the arguments for this view in an article entitled +"Our Better Halves" in _The Forum_ in 1888. This philosophy of sex, +which he christened the "Gynaecocentric Theory," is best known as +expanded into the fourteenth chapter of his "Pure Sociology," published +fifteen years later. Its publication at this late date gave it an +unfortunate vitality long after its main tenets had been disproved in +the biological laboratory. Germ-cell and body-cell functions were not +separated. Arguments from social structures, from cosmic, natural and +human history, much of it deduced by analogy, were jumbled together in +a fashion which seems amazing to us now, though common enough thirty +years ago. It was not a wild hypothesis in 1888, its real date, but its +repeated republication (in the original and in the works of other +writers who accepted it as authoritative) since 1903 has done much to +discredit sociology with biologists and, what is more serious, to muddle +ideas about sex and society. + +In 1903, Weismann's theory of the continuity of the germplasm was ten +years old. De Vries' experiments in variation and Mendel's rediscovered +work on plant hybridization had hopelessly undermined the older notion +that the evolution or progress of species has taken place through the +inheritance of acquired characters--that is, that the individuals +developed or adapted themselves to suit their surroundings and that +these body-modifications were inherited by their offspring. As pointed +out in Chapter I, biologists have accepted Weismann's theory of a +continuous germplasm, and that this germplasm, not the body, is the +carrier of inheritance. Nobody has so far produced evidence of any trace +of any biological mechanism whereby development of part of the body--say +the biceps of the brain--of the individual could possibly produce such a +specific modification of the germplasm he carries as to result in the +inheritance of a similar development by his offspring. + +Mendel's experiments had shown that the characters we inherit are units +or combinations of units, very difficult to permanently change or +modify. They combine with each other in all sorts of complicated ways. +Sometimes one will "dominate" another, causing it to disappear for a +generation or more; but it is not broken up. These characters have a +remarkable way of becoming "segregated" once more--that is, of appearing +intact later on. + +While it follows from Weismann's theory that an adaptation acquired by +an individual during his lifetime cannot be transmitted to his +offspring, it remained for De Vries to show authoritatively that +evolution can, and does, take place without this. Once this was +established, biologists cheerfully abandoned the earlier notion. Lester +Ward and the biologists of his day in general not only believed in the +transmission of acquired characters, but they filled the obvious gaps +which occurred in trying to apply this theory to the observed facts by +placing a fantastic emphasis upon sexual selection. That is, much +progress was accounted for through the selection by the females of the +superior males. This, as a prime factor in evolution, has since been +almost "wholly discredited" (Kellogg's phrase) by the careful +experiments of Mayer, Soule, Douglass, Duerigen, Morgan and others. The +belief in sexual selection involved a long string of corollaries, of +which biology has about purged itself, but they hang on tenaciously in +sociological and popular literature. For instance, Ward believed in the +tendency of opposites to mate (tall men with short women, blonds with +brunettes, etc.), although Karl Pearson had published a statistical +refutation in his _Grammar of Science_, which had run through two +editions when the _Pure Sociology_ appeared. The greater variability of +males than females, another gynaecocentric dogma had also been attacked +by Pearson on statistical evidence in 1897 (in the well-known essay on +Variation in Man and Woman, in _Chances of Death_) and has become +increasingly unacceptable through the researches of Mrs. +Hollingworth[6,7,8]. The idea of a vanished age of mother-rule in human +society, so essential to the complete theory, has long since been +modified by anthropologists. + +De Vries' experiments showed that a moderately simple fact practically +makes all these complicated theories unnecessary. No two living things +are exactly alike--that is, all living matter is more or less variable. +Some variations are more fortunate than others, and these variants are +the ones which survive--the ones best adapted to their environment. +Given this fact of the constant variation of living matter, natural +selection (i.e., survival of the fittest and elimination of the unfit) +is the mechanism of evolution or progress which best accounts for the +observed facts. Such variation is called "chance variation," not because +it takes place by "chance" in the properly accepted sense of the term, +but because it is so tremendously varied--is evidently due to such +complicated and little-understood circumstances--that it can best be +studied mathematically, using statistical applications of the "theory of +probabilities." + +The fine-spun, elaborate theories about sex, so current twenty years +ago, have fallen into almost complete desuetude among scientists. With +the discovery of the place of the chromosomes in inheritance, biologists +began to give their almost undivided attention to a rigid laboratory +examination of the cell. This has included sex phenomena since McClung +and Sutton pointed out the function of the sex chromosome in 1902 and +1903. Present-day "theories" are little more than working hypotheses, +developed, not in a library or study, but with one eye glued to a +high-power microscope. + +Besides its faulty foundation as to facts, the old gynaecocentric theory +involved a method of treatment by historical analogy which biologists +have almost entirely discarded. Anyone interested in the relative value +of different kinds of biological data for social problems would do well +to read the opening chapter of Prof. Morgan's "Critique of the Theory of +Evolution"[9], for even a summary of which space is lacking here. +College reference shelves are still stocked with books on sex sociology +which are totally oblivious of present-day biology. For example, Mrs +Gilman (Man-Made World), Mrs Hartley (Truth About Woman) and the +Nearings (Woman and Social Progress) adhere to Ward's theory in +substantially its primitive form, and not even sociologists like +Professor Thomas (Sex and Society) have been able to entirely break away +from it. + +The old question of male and female predominance in inheritance has been +to a considerable extent cleared up, to the discomfiture of both sides +to the controversy. Most exhaustive experiments failed to trace any +characters to any other part of either sperm or egg than the nucleus. +Transmission of characteristics seemed to be absolutely equal by the two +parents. The male nucleus enters the egg practically naked. Hence if the +characters are transmitted equally, there is certainly ground for +supposing that only the nucleus of the egg has such functions, and that +the remainder merely provides material for early development. Yet this +does not seem to be strictly true. + +Parthenogenesis (development of eggs without agency of male sperm) +proves that in many simple forms the female nucleus alone possesses all +the essential determiners for a new individual. Boveri's classic +experiment[10] proved the same thing for the male nucleus. He removed +the nuclei from sea-urchin eggs and replaced them with male nuclei. +Normal individuals developed. To make things still more certain, he +replaced the female nucleus with a male one from a different variety of +sea-urchin. The resulting individual exhibited the characteristics of +the _male nucleus_ only--none of those of the species represented by the +egg. Here, then, was inheritance definitely traced to the nucleus. If +this nucleus is a male the characters are those of the male line; if a +female those of the female line, and in sexual reproduction where the +two are fused, half and half. + +Yet the fact remained that all efforts to develop the spermatozoon alone +(without the agency of any egg material at all) into an individual had +signally failed. Conklin[11] had found out in 1904 and 1905 that the egg +cytoplasm in Ascidians is not only composed of different materials, but +that these give rise to definite structures in the embryo later on. So a +good many biologists believed, and still believe[12,13,14] that the egg +is, before fertilization, a sort of "rough preformation of the future +embryo" and that the Mendelian factors in the nuclei "only impress the +individual (and variety) characters upon this rough block." + +If we look at these views from one angle, the apparent conflict +disappears, as Professor Conklin[15] points out. We can still presume +that all the factors of inheritance are carried in the nucleus. But +instead of commencing the life history of the individual at +fertilization, we must date it back to the beginning of the development +of the egg in the ovary. Whatever rude characters the egg possesses at +the time of fertilization were developed under the influence of the +nucleus, which in turn got them half and half from its male and female +parents. These characters carried by the female across one generation +are so rudimentary that they are completely covered up, in the +developing embryo, by those of the new nucleus formed by the union of +the sperm with the egg in fertilization. + +In case fertilization does not take place, this rude beginning in the +egg is lost. Since no characteristic sex is assumed until after +fertilization, we may say that life begins as neuter in the individual, +as it is presumed to have done in the world. It will occur to those +inclined to speculation or philosophic analysis that by the word +"neuter" we may mean any one or all of three things: (a) neither male +nor female; (b) both male and female, as yet undifferentiated, or (c) +potentially either male or female. Clearly, the above explanation +assumes a certain _germinal_ specialization of the female to +reproduction, in addition to the body specialization for the +intra-parental environment (in mammals). + +A tremendous amount of laboratory experimentation upon animals has been +done in late years to determine the nature of sex. For example, +Goodale[16] castrated a brown leghorn cockerel twenty-three days old +and dropped pieces of the ovary of a female bird of the same brood and +strain into the abdominal cavity. These adhered and built up circulatory +systems, as an autopsy later showed. This cockerel, whose male sex +glands had been exchanged for female ones, developed the female body, +and colouration so completely that expert breeders of the strain +pronounced it a female. He found that simply removing the female sex +glands invariably led to the development of spurs and male plumage. But +simple removal of the male sex glands did not alter plumage. To make +sure, he replaced the male sex glands with female, and found that the +former male developed female plumage. + +This obviously signifies that in birds the female is an inhibited +male.[4, p.49.] Either sex when castrated has male feathers--the male has +them either with or without testes, unless they are _inhibited_ by the +presence of (transplanted) ovaries. It will be remembered that the +sociological theory of sex held by Ward, Mrs. Hartley and a host of +others was founded on the supposition that evolution or development of a +species is chiefly due to selection by the females of the better males, +a conclusion based almost entirely on bird evidence. Ward[17] states +that "the change or progress, as it may be called, has been wholly in +the male, the female remaining unchanged"; also that "the male side of +nature shot up and blossomed out in an unnatural, fantastic way...." +Speaking of the highly-coloured males, especially among birds, the same +writer states that "the _normal colour_ (italics ours) is that of the +young and the female, and the colour of the male is the result of his +excessive variability." Goodale's results completely refute this idea, +and should bury for ever the well-known sociological notion of "male +afflorescence." + +The general doctrine of a stable, "race-type" female and a highly +variable male has been widely circulated. In tracing it back through +voluminous literature, it appears to have been founded on an article +published by W.I. Brooks in the _Popular Science Monthly_ for June, +1879, fourteen years before Weissmann's enunciation of the theory of +continuity of the germ-plasm. Like Wallace, Brooks continued to study +and experiment till the last, and finally withdrew from his earlier +position on sexual selection. However, this has not prevented others +from continuing to quote his discarded views--innocently, of course. + +Havelock Ellis[18] and G. Stanley Hall[19] have applied the idea of a +"race-type" female with peculiar insistence to the human race. Goodale +has finally killed the bird evidence upon which earlier workers so +largely founded this doctrine, by showing that the "race type" toward +which birds tend unless inhibited by the female ovarian secretion is the +male type, not the female. There is a great difference in the way the +internal secretions act in birds and in man, as will be pointed out +later. It is so important that such a major point as general variability +must be supported and corroborated by mammalian evidence to prove +anything positively for man. As already noted, the statistical studies +of Pearson and Mrs. Hollingworth _et al._ have yielded uniformly +negative results. + +In the utilization of data gathered from non-human species, certain +differences in the systems of internal secretion must be taken into +account. Birds differ from the human species as to internal secretory +action in two vital particulars: (a) In the higher mammals, sex depends +upon a "complex" of all the glands interacting, instead of upon the sex +glands alone as in birds; (b) The male bird instead of the female is +homogametic for sex--i.e., the sperm instead of the eggs is uniform as +to the sex chromosome. + +Insects are (in some cases at least) like birds as to the odd +chromosome--the opposite of man. But as to secondary sex-characters they +differ from both. These characters do not depend upon any condition of +the sex organs, but are determined directly by the chemical factors +which determine sex itself.[20] + +In crustacea, the male is an inhibited female (the exact opposite of +birds), as shown by the experiments of Giard and Geoffrey Smith on +crabs. A parasite, _Sacculina neglecta_, sometimes drives root-like +growths into the spider crab, causing slow castration. The females thus +desexed do not assume the male type of body, but castrated males vary so +far toward the female type that some lay eggs[3, p.143; 20]. It is the +discovery of such distinctions which makes it necessary to re-examine +all the older biological evidence on the sex problem, and to discard +most of it as insufficiently exact. + +The work of Steinach[12, pp.225f.] on rats is another well-known example +of changing sex characters by surgery. Steinach found that an ovary +transplanted into a male body changed its characteristics and instincts +into the female type. The growth of the male sex organs he found to be +definitely inhibited by the ovaries. He went so far as to transplant the +whole uterus and tube into the male body, where it developed normally. +One of the most interesting of his results is the observation of how the +instincts were changed along with the type of body. The feminized males +behaved like normal females toward the other males and toward females. +Likewise they were treated as normal females by the males. + +It would be impossible to give here any just idea of the vast amount of +rigid scientific experimentation which has been carried on in this +field, or the certainty of many of the results. Sex is really known, +about as well as anything can be known, to arise from the chemical +causes discussed above. That is, the endocrine explanation is the +correct one. + +One of the most significant results of the transplantation experiments +is the evidence that _each individual carries the fundamental bases for +both sexes_. When Goodale changed a male bird into a female as to +secondary characters and instincts by replacing one secretion with +another, he was faced with the following problem: How can a single +secretion be responsible for innumerable changes as to feather length, +form and colouring, as to spurs, comb and almost an endless array of +other details? To suppose that a secretion could be so complicated in +its action as to determine each one of a thousand different items of +structure, colour and behaviour would be preposterous. Besides, we know +that some of these internal secretions are _not_ excessively +complicated--for instance adrenalin (the suprarenal secretion) can be +compounded in the laboratory. We may say that it cannot possibly be that +the ovarian or testicular secretion is composed of enough different +chemical substances to produce each different effect. + +There remains only the supposition that the female already possesses the +genetic basis for becoming a male, and _vice versa_. This is in accord +with the observed facts. In countless experiments it is shown that the +transformed female becomes like the male of her own strain and brood--to +state it simply, like the male she would have been if she had not been a +female. If we think of this basis as single, then it must _exhibit_ +itself in one way in the presence of the male secretions, in another way +under the influence of the female secretions. In this way a very simple +chemical agent in the secretion might account for the whole +difference--merely causing a genetic basis already present to express +itself in the one or the other manner. + +This may be illustrated by the familiar case of the crustacea _Artemia +salina_ and _Artemia Milhausenii_. These are so unlike that they were +long supposed to be different species; but it was later discovered that +the genetic basis is exactly the same. One lives in 4 to 8% salt water, +the other in 25% or over. If, however, the fresh-water variety is put in +the saltier water with the salt-water variety, all develop exactly +alike, into the salt-water kind. Likewise, if the salt-water variety is +developed in fresh water, it assumes all the characteristics of the +fresh-water kind. Thus the addition or subtraction of a single chemical +agent--common salt--makes all the difference. + +If this basis for sex is single, it is represented by the male plumage +in domestic birds, the secretions from the sex-glands acting as +modifiers. But a great deal of evidence has been produced to show that +the genetic basis, in man and some other forms at least, is double. That +is, we must think of two genetic bases existing in each individual--each +representing one of the two types of secondary sex characters. The +primary sex (i.e., the sex glands) would then determine which is to +express itself. In the domestic birds described above, the male type of +body appears in the absence of the ovarian secretion, and the female +type in its presence. In man and the more highly organized mammals, we +must use "secretions" in the plural, since a number of them, from +different glands, act together in a "complex." Goodale, experimenting +with birds, was unable to definitely decide whether the basis for sex +was single or double in that material, though he favoured the latter +explanation. + +Dr Bell, the English gynecologist, using human surgical cases as a +basis, commits himself strongly to the dual basis.[2, p.13.] "Every +fertilized ovum," he says, "is potentially bisexual," but has "a +predominating tendency ... toward masculinity or femininity." But "at +the same time," he remarks, "it is equally obvious that latent traits of +the opposite sex are always present." After discussing mental traits +observed in each sex which normally belong to the other, he concludes as +follows: "If further evidence of this bisexuality, which exists in +everyone, were required, it is to be found in the embryological remains +of the latent sex, which always exist in the genital ducts." + +In some lower forms, dual sexuality is apparent until the animal is +fairly well developed. In frogs, for example, the sex glands of both +sexes contain eggs in early life, and it is not possible to tell them +apart with certainty, until they are about four months old.[12, p.125.] +Then the eggs gradually disappear in the male. + +However, we need not depend upon non-mammalian evidence for either the +secretory explanation or the dual basis. An ideal case would be to +observe the effects of circulating the blood of one sex in a developing +embryo of the other. This blood-transfusion occurs in nature in the +"Free-Martin" cattle.[21] + +Two embryos (twins) begin to develop in separate membranes or chorions. +At an early stage in this development, however, the arteries and veins +of the two become connected, so that the blood of each may circulate +through the body of the other. "If both are males or both are females no +harm results from this...," since the chemical balance which determines +the bodily form in each case is of the same type. But if one is a male +and the other a female, the male secretory balance dominates the female +in a very peculiar fashion. The female reproductive system is largely +suppressed. She even develops certain male organs, and her general +bodily appearance is so decidedly masculine that until Dr Lillie worked +out the case she had always been supposed to be a non-functional male. +She is sterile. The blood transfusion not only alters the sex-type of +her body, but it actually modifies the sex glands themselves, so that +the ovary resembles a testicle, though dissection proves the contrary. + +Why does not the female become a true, functional male? Perhaps she does +in some cases. Such a one would not be investigated, since there would +be no visible peculiarity. In all the cases examined, the embryo had +begun its female development and specialization under the influence of +a predisposition of the female type in the fertilized egg, before the +transfusion began. There is no absolutely convincing mammalian evidence +of the complete upset of this predisposition, so all one can say is that +it is theoretically possible. Cases of partial reversal, sometimes +called "intersexes," are common enough. In birds and insects, where the +material is less expensive and experimentation simpler, males have been +produced from female-predisposed fertilized eggs and _vice versa_, as we +shall see in the next chapter. + +Dr Bell[2, pp.133f.] points out that the so-called human "hermaphrodites" +are simply partial reversals of the sex type from that originally fixed +in the fertilized egg. As has been remarked earlier in these pages, +there is rarely if ever true hermaphroditism in higher animals--i.e., +cases of _two functional sexes_ in the same individual. In fact, the +pathological cases in the human species called by that name are probably +not capable of reproduction at all.[A] + +[Footnote A: _Note on human hermaphroditism_: This subject has been +treated in a considerable medical literature. See, for example, Alienist +and Neurologist for August, 1916, and New York Medical Journal for Oct. +23, 1915. It has been claimed that both human and higher mammalian +"hermaphrodites" have actually functioned for both sexes. Obviously, +absolute certainty about cause and effect in such cases, where human +beings are concerned, is next to impossible, because of lack of +scientific, laboratory control. If a case of complete functional +hermaphroditism in the human species could be established beyond +question, it would indicate that the male secretory balance in man does +not inhibit the female organs to the same extent that it apparently does +in the Free-Martin cattle. If established, the idea of "male dominance" +in the human species would be undermined in a new place. Such cases, if +they occur at all, are exceedingly rare, but are of theoretical +interest. We must not rush to conclusions, as the earlier sociologists +used to do. Such a case would require careful analysis. Its very +uniqueness would suggest that it may not be due to the ordinary causes +of hermaphroditism, but might arise from some obscure and unusual cause +such as the fusion of two embryos at a very early stage. The +biochemistry involved is so intricate and so little understood that any +deduction from the known facts would be purely speculative.] + + +Like the Free-Martin cattle, some accident has resulted in a mixture of +male and female characteristics. This accident occurs after a certain +amount of embryonic development has taken place under the influence of +the original predisposition of the fertilized egg. The delicate +secretory balance, so complex in man, is upset. With partially developed +organs of one type and with a blood-chemistry of the opposite one, some +curious results follow, as the illustrative plates in Dr Bell's book +show. + +It should be remembered that sex in higher mammals is of the whole body, +and depends upon all the secretions. Hence an accident to one of the +other glands may upset the balance as well as one to the sex glands +themselves. For example, 15% of Neugebauer's[22] cases of female tubular +partial hermaphroditism had abnormal growths in the suprarenals. + +Thus in the human species, it is possible for one type of sex glands to +exist in the opposite type of body, as we saw it to be in +cattle--though it apparently could not occur unless compensated for in +some way by the other secretions. This is a very great departure from +birds, rats and guinea pigs, whose bodies change over their sex type +when the gonads are transplanted. Birds take on the male appearance when +the sex glands are removed (or retain it, if they are males). This is +not true of man. The chemical life processes of the two sexes after +puberty in the human species are quite characteristic. The male and +female types are both very different from the infantile. When it becomes +necessary to desex men, the resulting condition is _infantile_, not +female.[23] + +The desexed man is of course the eunuch of ancient literature. If +desexed near maturity, he might look like a normal man in many respects; +but if the operation were performed before puberty, his development is +simply arrested and remains infantile--incomplete. Only in 1878 was the +practice of desexing boys to get the famous adult male soprano voices +for the Sistine Choir discontinued. + +Removal of the ovaries in women likewise produces an infantile +condition, which is pronounced only in case the operation takes place +very young. [24] From his clinical experience, Dr Bell [2, p.160] +concludes that no very definite modifications can be produced in an +adult woman by withdrawal of the ovarian secretion alone. "There must +be," he says, "some gross change in those parts of the endocritic +system, especially apart from the genital glands, which normally produce +masculinity--potentiality that appears to be concentrated in the +suprarenals, the pituitary and probably in the pineal." + +What, then, do we mean by "male" and "female" in man? Take Dr Russell +Andrews' patient: photographs[2, plate opposite p.243] show a rounded +bodily outline, hairless face, well-developed mammae--the female sex +characteristics in every respect which the ordinary person could detect. +Yet an operation proved that the sex glands themselves were male. + +Presumably extreme cases like the above are rare. Obviously operations +cannot be performed on all those with female-type bodies who do not bear +children, to determine the primary sex, and conversely with men. This +does, however, point the obvious question: Are not some we classify as +men _more male_ or masculine than others--some we classify as women +_more feminine_ than others? Bearing in mind the fact that the genetic +basis for both sexes exists in each individual, are not some women more +masculine than others, some men more feminine than others? However much +we may object to stating it just that way, the biological fact remains +thus. The Greeks called these intermediate types _urnings_--modern +biology knows them as "intersexes." + +Only within the past few years have the general phenomena of +intersexuality been cleared up to any considerable extent--naturally on +the basis of the secretory explanation of sex. This secretory or +endocrine idea has also given us an entirely new view of sex +differences. These are best discussed as functional rather than as +structural. To correlate this material, we must next give a rude sketch +of the quantitative theory of sex. + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER II + +1. Goldschmidt, R. Intersexuality and the Endocrine Aspect of Sex. +Endocrinology, Vol. I, p. 434, 1917. + +2. Bell, Dr Blair. The Sex Complex. London, 1916, p. 98. + +3. Paton, D. Noel. Regulators of Metabolism. London, 1913, p. 146. + +4. Goodale, H.D. Gonadectomy...Carnegie Pub. 243, 1916, pp. 43f. + +5. Wilson, Andrew. Polity of a Pond (essay). Humboldt Lib. of Sc., +No. 88--reprint, dated 1888. + +6. Hollingworth, L.S. Variability as Related to Sex Differences in +Achievement. Am. Jour, of Sociol., XIX., 1914, pp. 510-530. + +7. Lowie, R.H. & Hollingworth, L.S. Science and Feminism. Sci. Mthly., +Sept., 1916, pp. 277-284. + +8. Montague, Helen & Hollingworth, L.S. Comparative Variability of the +Sexes at Birth. Am. J. of Sociol. XX, 335-70. 1915. + +9. Morgan, T.H. A Critique of the Theory of Evolution. N.Y., 1916, +pp. 1-27. + +10. Loeb, Jacques. Artificial Parthenogenesis and Fertilization. +Chicago, 1913, pp. 3, 51f., 240f, 303. + +11. Conklin, E.G. Organ-Forming Substances in the Eggs of Ascidians. +U. of Pa. Contrib. from the Zool. Lab. Vol. 12. 1905, pp. 205-230. + +12. Loeb, J. The Organism as a Whole. N.Y., 1916, pp. 138f, 151-2. + +13. Guyer, M.F. Being Well-Born. Indianapolis, 1916, p. 51. + +14. Tower, W.L. (et al.). Heredity and Eugenics. Chicago, 1912, +pp. 164, 254-5. + +15. Conklin, E.G. Share of Egg and Sperm in Heredity. Proc. Nat. Acad. +of Sc., Feb., 1917. + +16. Goodale, H.D. A Feminized Cockerel. Jour. Exp. Zool. Vol. 20, +pp. 421-8. + +17. Ward, Lester F. Pure Sociology. N.Y., 1903, pp. 322f. + +18. Ellis, Havelock. Man and Woman, 4th Ed. London, 1904. Ch. XVI. + +19. Hall, G. Stanley. Adolescence. N.Y., 1907. Vol. II, pp. 561-2. + +20. Morgan, T.H. Heredity and Sex. N.Y., 1913, pp. 155f. + +21. Lillie, F.R. Theory of the Free Martin. Science, n.s., Vol. XLIII, +pp. 611-13. + +22. Neugebauer, F.L. Hermaphrodismus, Leipzig, 1908. + +23. Vincent, S. Internal Secretions and the Ductless Glands. London, +1912, p. 69. + +24. Marshall, F.H. Physiology of Reproduction. London, 1910, p. 314. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +SEX AND SEX DIFFERENCES AS QUANTITATIVE + +Intersexes in moths; Bird intersexes; Higher metabolism of males; +Quantitative difference between sex factors; Old ideas of +intersexuality; Modern surgery and human intersexes; Quantitative theory +a Mendelian explanation; Peculiar complication in the case of man; +Chemical life cycles of the sexes; Functional-reproductive period and +the sex problem; Relative significance of physiological sex differences. + + +Crossing European and Japanese gypsy moths, Goldschmidt [1,2,3,4] +noticed that the sex types secured were not pure--i.e., that certain +crosses produced females which bore a distinctly greater resemblance to +the male type than others, and _vice versa_. One of these hybrids of +"intersexes," as he calls them, would always possess some female and +some male sexual characters. He found that he could separate the males +and females, respectively, into seven distinct grades with respect to +their modification toward the opposite-sex type, and could produce any +one of these grades at will by breeding. + +For example, the seven grades of females were roughly as follows: +(1) Pure females; (2) Females with feathered antennae like males and +producing fewer than the normal number of eggs; (3) Appearance of the +brown (male) patches on the white female wings; ripe eggs in abdomen, +but only hairs in the egg-sponge laid; instincts still female; +(4) Instincts less female; whole sections of wings with male colouration, +interspersed with cuneiform female sectors; abdomen smaller, males less +attracted; reproduction impossible; (5) Male colouration over almost the +entire wing; abdomen almost male, with few ripe eggs; instincts +intermediate between male and female; (6) Like males, but with +rudimentary ovaries and show female traits in some other organs; +(7) Males with a few traces of female origin, notably wing-shape. + +The males showed the same graded approach to the female type. Their +instincts likewise became more and more female as the type was modified +in that direction. That is, a moth would be 12% or 35% female, and so +on. + +Goldschmidt watched the crosses which produced seven different grades of +maleness in his females. The moth material, like the birds and mammals, +suggested a dual basis for sex in each individual. The grades of +maleness and femaleness made it seem probable that the factor which +determines sex must be stronger in some instances than in others, i.e., +that the difference between two of these grades of female is originally +quantitative, not qualitative--in amount rather than in kind. + +Mating European moths with European, or Japanese with Japanese, produced +pure, uniform sex-types, male and female. But a cross of European with +Japanese strains resulted in intersexes. Goldschmidt concluded that +(1) all individuals carried the genetic basis for both sexes; and +(2) that these basic factors were two chemicals of enzyme nature. One +of these he called Andrase, enzyme producing maleness, the other Gynase, +enzyme producing femaleness. Further, (3) since each chemical sex +determiner is present in both individuals in every cross, there must be +two chemical "doses" of maleness and two of femaleness struggling for +mastery in each fertilized egg. (4) If the total dose of maleness +exceeds the total dose of femaleness, the sex will be male, and +_vice versa_. (5) These quantities get fixed by natural selection +in a single race which always lives in the same environment, i.e., the +doses of maleness and femaleness in a given sex always bear practically +the same relation to each other. Hence the types are fixed and uniform. +(6) But different races are likely to have a different strength of +chemical sex-doses, so that when they are crossed, the ratios of +maleness to femaleness are upset. Often they are almost exactly equal, +which produces a type half male and half female--or 2/3, or 1/3, etc. +The proof of this theory is that it solved the problems. Goldschmidt +was able to work out the strengths of the doses of each sex in his +various individuals, and thereby to predict the exact grade of +intersexuality which would result from a given cross. + +Riddle's work on pigeons [5,6] brings us much nearer to man, and +suggests the results noted by both Goldschmidt and Lillie. As in the +Free-Martin cattle, there is an apparent reversal of the sex +predisposition of the fertilized egg. As in the gypsy moths, different +grades of intersexes were observed. In the pigeons, it was found that +more yolk material tended to produce a larger proportion of females. The +most minute quantitative measurements were made of this factor, to +eliminate any possibility of error. + +The chromosome mechanisms practically force us to suppose that about +half the eggs are originally predisposed to maleness, half to +femaleness. A pigeon's clutch normally consists of two eggs, one with a +large yolk and one with a small yolk. But the half-and-half numerical +relation of males to females varies considerably--i.e., not all the +large-yolked eggs produce females or all the small-yolked ones males. + +Wild pigeons begin the season by throwing a predominance of males, and +the first eggs of the clutches also tend to produce males all along. In +both cases, the male-producing eggs were found to be the ones with the +smaller yolks. Family crosses also produce small yolks, which hatch out +nearly all males. Some pairs of birds, however, have nearly all female +offspring. Riddle investigated a large number of these cases and found +the amount of yolk material to be large. In other words, there seems to +be a definite relation between the amount of yolk and sex. + +A great number of clever experiments were carried out to find out if +eggs originally predisposed to one sex were actually used to produce the +other. Selective fertilization with different kinds of sperm was +impossible, since in these birds there is only one type of sperm--two of +eggs--as to the sex chromosome. For instance, by overworking females at +egg-production, the same birds which had been producing more males than +females were made to reverse that relation. + +One of the interesting results of the experiments was the production of +a number of intersexual types of various grades. This was easily +verifiable by colour and other characteristics. To make sure that the +instincts were correspondingly modified, behaviour was registered on +moving-picture films. Where the first egg of a clutch (the one with a +small, normally male-producing yolk) produces a female, she is usually +found to be more masculine than her sister from the second egg with the +larger yolk. This is true both as to appearance and as to behaviour. +Some of these were quite nearly males in appearance and behaviour, +though they laid eggs. + +Testicular and ovarian extracts were injected. The more feminine birds +were often killed by the testicular extract, the more masculine by the +ovarian extract. Finally, to make assurance doubly sure, some females +which should theoretically have been the most feminine were dissected +and shown to be so. That is, out-crosses which produced a predominance +of females in the fall were mated with females which had been overworked +at egg production until they threw nearly all females. Dissecting the +females thus produced, they were shown to have _right ovaries_, which +means _double femaleness_, since normally the pigeon is functional only +in the left ovary, like other birds. The right one usually degenerates +before or at hatching and is wholly absent in the week-old squab. + +In pigeons, Riddle thinks the "developmental energy" of the eggs is in +an inverse ratio to their size. The last and largest eggs of the season +develop least and produce most females. The second egg of a clutch is +larger than the first, but develops less and the bird produced is +shorter-lived. Overworking and other conditions tending to produce large +eggs and females also throw white mutants and show other signs of +weakness. Old females lay larger eggs than do young ones. These eggs +produce more females. They store more material, have a lower metabolism +and less oxidizing capacity than do the earlier male-producing eggs. + +It would be unsafe to draw specific conclusions about mammals from these +bird and insect experiments. Both the secretory action and the +chromosome mechanisms are different. The quantitative nature of sex, and +also the existence of intersexual types, between males and females, +would seem to be general phenomena, requiring rather slight +corroboration from the mammals themselves. We have such mammalian cases +as the Free-Martin cattle, and some convincing evidence of +intersexuality in the human species itself, which will be reviewed +presently. + +The notion of more "developmental energy" or a higher metabolism in +males is borne out in the human species. Benedict and Emmes[7] have +shown by very careful measurements that the basal metabolism of men is +about 6% higher than that of women. Riddle cites the work of Thury and +Russell on cattle to show that a higher water value (as he found in the +pigeon eggs), associated with increased metabolism, helps to produce +males. + +In males, the secretion of the sex glands alone seems to be of +particular importance, again suggesting this idea of "strength" which +comes up over and over again. Removal of these glands modifies the male +body much more profoundly than it does the female.[8] It is quite +generally supposed that the action of this one secretion may have much +to do with the superior size and vigour of males. For example, Paton +says[9]: "The evidence thus seems conclusive that in the male the gonad, +by producing an internal secretion, exercises a direct and specific +influence upon the whole soma, increasing the activity of growth, +moulding the whole course of development, and so modifying the +metabolism of nerve and muscle that the whole character of the animal is +altered." It used to be said that the male was more "katabolic," the +female more "anabolic." These expressions are objectionable, inasmuch as +they hint that in a mature organism, with metabolism rather stable, +tearing down, or katabolism, could go on faster than building up, or +anabolism, or that one of two phases of the same process might go on +faster than the other. It seems safer to say merely that a lower +metabolism in the female is accompanied by a tendency to store +materials. + +A long time will doubtless be required to work out the details of +differences in metabolism in the two sexes. Some of the main facts are +known, however, and the general effects of the two diverse chemical +systems upon the life cycles of the sexes are quite obvious. What we +call the "quantitative theory of sex" has, besides a place in exact +science, an interesting relation to the history of biological thought, +especially as applied to society. It is thus in order to state as +clearly as possible what it now is; then, so that no one may confuse it +with what it is not, to run over some of the old ideas which resemble +it. + +Experiments with transplanted sex glands, with sex-gland extracts +(testicular and ovarian) and the observation of infusions of a male-type +blood-stream into a female body, as occurs in nature in some cattle and +in the so-called human "hermaphrodites," indicate a gross chemical +difference between the respective determiners for femaleness and for +maleness. So the chemicals involved, though not yet isolated, must be +presumed to be _qualitatively_ different, since they produce such +different results. + +But such experiments also indicate that both determiners must be present +in some proportions in every individual of either sex. The basis for +both sexes being present, the one which shall predominate or be +expressed in the individual must depend upon the _quantitative_ relation +between the determiners which come together at fertilization. The +quantitative theory merely means that this predominance of one factor or +the other (maleness or femaleness--Gynase or Andrase) is more pronounced +in some cases than in others. + +In brief, then, the quantitative theory of sex is merely the most +reasonable explanation of the known fact that intersexes exist--that is, +females with some male characteristics, or with all their characters +more like the female type than the average, and _vice versa_. Laboratory +biology has established the phenomena of intersexuality beyond question, +and the word "inter-sex" has become a scientific term. But the fact that +this word and the idea it represents are new to _exact science_ does not +mean that it is new in the world. + +Intersexes in the human species--not only the extreme pathological cases +represented by the so-called "hermaphrodites," but also merely masculine +women and effeminate men--have been the subject of serious remarks as +well as literary gibes from the earliest times. The Greeks called these +people _urnings_. Schopenhauer was interested in the vast ancient +literature and philosophy on this subject. The 19th century produced a +copious psychological treatment of warped or reversed sexual impulses by +such men as Moll, Krafft-Ebing and Havelock Ellis. Otto Weiniger[10] +collected a mass of this philosophy, literature, psychology, folklore +and gossip, tied it together with such biological facts as were then +known (1901) and wove around it a theory of sex _attraction_.[A] The +same material was popularized by Leland[11], Carpenter[12] and W.L. +George[13] to support quite different views. + +[Footnote A: NOTE: Weiniger thought he could pick, merely by observing +physical type, people who would be sexually attracted to each other. +There is much ground for scepticism about this. To begin with, the +biological experiments indicate that intersexes are peculiarly likely to +appear where two or more races are mixed. So far, there is no exact +knowledge about the amount or kind of sex difference in each race. As +Bateson remarks (Biol. Fact & the Struct. of Society, p.13), one +unversed in the breeds even of poultry would experience great difficulty +and make many mistakes in sorting a miscellaneous group of cocks and +hens into pairs according to breed. If this is true in dealing with pure +breeds, "in man, as individuals pure-bred in any respect are very rare, +the operation would be far more difficult." In the human species sexual +attraction also obviously depends upon many factors which are not purely +biological; it is rather a complicated sentiment than an instinct.] + +George's statement that "there are no men and ... no women; there are +only sexual majorities"[p.61, op. cit.] has been widely quoted. The +feminists, he adds, "base themselves on Weininger's theory, according to +which the male principle may be found in woman, and the female principle +in man." Unfortunately, George does not make clear what he means by +"principle," so his theory, if he has one, is impossible to appraise in +biological terms. From the embryonic idea expressed above, he deduces a +very positive social philosophy of sex. The feminists, he says, +"recognize no masculine or feminine '_spheres_' and ... propose to +identify absolutely the conditions of the sexes." So, while George seems +to think much more highly of women than does Weininger, their +philosophies come together, for quite different reasons, on the +practical procedure of disregarding reproduction and letting the race go +hang[10, p.345]. Weininger seems to recognize the dual basis for sex; +George evidently does not quite follow him. Both entirely misconceived +the real issues involved, as well as the kind of evidence required to +settle them, as we shall see later in discussing adaptation and +specialization. + +Dr Blair Bell[14,15] has collected a mass of evidence on intersexes in +the human species. This includes his own surgical and other cases, as +well as many treated by his colleagues, and a very considerable review +of the medical literature. He not only believes in degrees of femininity +in women, but has worked out classifications which he claims to have +found of great practical value in surgery.[14, pp.166-7] As noted above, +Riddle discovered that his more feminine female pigeons were often +killed by a dose of testicular extract which was practically harmless to +a partially masculinized female. Sex in the human species being a matter +of all the glands organized into a complex, the quantitative "strength" +of that complex would be useful to know before removing any one +secretion from it. Dr Bell states that the ooephorectomy operation +(removal of ovaries) may be performed upon a masculine type of woman +with "little disturbance of the metabolism..." But he thinks that the +degree of masculinity should always be carefully observed before +undertaking such operations, which in some cases have most undesirable +effects. + +At one end of the scale, this surgeon places the typically feminine +woman in all her characteristics--with well-formed breasts, menstruating +freely and feminine in instincts--he says "mind." The intermediate +grades consist, he says, of women whose metabolism leans toward the +masculine type. Some have sexual desires but no maternal impulse. Others +desire maternity but take no interest in sex activity, or positively +shun it. The physical manifestations of masculine glandular activity +take the form of pitch of voice, skin texture, shape and weight of +bones, etc. Some of the inter-grades are a little hard to define--the +human species is such an inextricable mixture of races, etc.; but Dr +Bell does not hesitate to describe the characteristically masculine +woman of the extreme type, who "shuns both sexual relations and +maternity...(She) is on the fringe of femininity. These women are +usually flat-breasted and plain. Even though they menstruate, their +metabolism is often for the most part masculine in character: +indications of this are seen in the bones which are heavy, in the skin +which is coarse, and in the aggressive character of the mind...If a +woman have well-developed genitalia, and secondary characteristics, she +usually is normal in her instincts. A feebly menstruating woman with +flat breasts and coarse skin cannot be expected to have strong +reproductive instincts, since she is largely masculine in type..." + +The glandular and quantitative explanation of sex, instead of being +abstruse and complicated, brings the subject in line with the known +facts about inheritance generally. The dual basis for femaleness and +maleness in each individual simply means that both factors are present, +but that only one expresses itself fully. The presence of such a dual +basis is proved by the fact that in castration and transplantation +experiments both are exhibited by the same individual in a single +lifetime. In the case of the Free-Martin cattle, even the female +sex-glands are modified toward the male type to such an extent that they +were long mistaken for testes. The same applies to some glands found in +human "hermaphrodites," as Dr Bell's plates show. + +The peculiar complication of the chemical complex determining sex in +these mammalian forms, involving all the glands and hence the entire +body, makes it problematical whether a complete (functional) reversal is +possible, at least after any development whatever of the embryo has +taken place. On the other hand, the fact that such complete +transformations have not so far been observed by no means proves their +non-existence. Their being functional, and hence to all external +appearances normal, would cause such animals to escape observation. + +Latent traits of the opposite sex of course immediately suggest +recessive or unexpressed characters in the well-known Mendelian +inheritance phenomena. In the bird-castration cases, we saw that to +remove the inhibiting sex glands caused previously latent characters to +act like dominant or expressed ones. The case of horns in sheep, +investigated by Professor Wood[16], is so similar that it seems worth +summarizing, by way of illustration. + +Both sexes in Dorset sheep have well-developed horns; in the Suffolk +breed both sexes are hornless. If the breeds are crossed, all the rams +in the first (hybrid) generation have horns and all the ewes are +hornless. If these hybrids are mated, the resulting male offspring +averages three horned to one hornless; but the females are the reverse +of this ratio--one horned to three hornless. This is an example of +Mendel's principle of segregation--factors may be mixed in breeding, but +they do not lose their identity, and hence tend to be sorted out or +segregated again in succeeding generations. + +In the horned Dorsets, we must suppose that both males and females carry +a dual factor for horns--technically, are _homozygous_ for horns. The +hornless Suffolks, on the contrary, are homozygous for _absence_ of +horns. Thus the dual factor in the zygotes or fertilized eggs at the +basis of the first filial (hybrid) generation consists of a single +factor for horns and a single factor for their absence. If we represent +horns by _H_ and absence of horns by _A_, Dorsets have a factor _HH_, +Suffolks _AA_ and the hybrids _HA_. + +All the males in this generation have horns, which means that a single +"dose" of the factor _H_ will produce horns in a male, or that they are +_dominant_ in males. But a single dose will not produce horns in a +female--that is, horns are _recessive_ in females--the factor is present +but unexpressed. + +Mating two _HA_ hybrids, the _H_ and _A_ of course split apart in the +formation of the gametes, as the _HH_ and _AA_ did in the previous +generation; so that we get an equal number of single _H_ and _A_ +factors. In reuniting in fertilized eggs, the chance is just half and +half that an _H_ will unite with another _H_ or with an _A_--that an +_A_ will unite with an _H_ or another _A_. Thus we have two chances of +getting _HA_ to each chance of getting either _AA_ or _HH_. Half the +zygotes will be _HA_, one-fourth _HH_ and one-fourth _AA_. + +If we consider four average males, one will have two _A's_ (absence of +the factor for horns) and will thus be hornless. One will have two +_H's_, or the double factor for horns, and hence will exhibit horns--as +will also the two _HA's_ since a single dose of horns expresses them in +a male. So we have the three-to-one Mendelian ratio. + +But four females with exactly the same factors will express them as +follows: The one _HH_ (double factor for horns) proves sufficient to +express horns, even in a female. The _AA_, lacking the factor entirely, +cannot have horns. Nor will the two _HA_ females have horns, a single +dose being insufficient to express them in a female. Again we get our +three-to-one Mendelian ratio, but this time it is three hornless to one +horned. + +Especially Goldschmidt's carefully graded experiments point to a similar +difference in the strength of the dose or doses of the sex factors. +Instead of the two doses of horns required to express them in the +presence of the female secretory balance in Professor Wood's sheep, +Goldschmidt found it took six doses of maleness to completely express it +on a female basis in his moths. But even with three doses, the female +was incapable of reproduction. A single dose in excess of the ordinary +combination to produce normal females modified the type of body, also +reducing the number of eggs. + +In the case of the horns, only two types were possible, absence or +presence of the character. Likewise there are only two types of primary +sex, i.e., of sex glands proper. But seven different types or grades of +body for each sex were found to exhibit themselves in the moths. In more +complicated bodies, we should of course expect many more, and where many +races (instead of two) are mixed, as in man, a classification merely on +the basis of physical characteristics would be much more complicated. +Indeed, we may well be sceptical as to the possibilities of cataloguing +differences of the sort between men and women by body type alone. + +In society, however, we are much more interested in the mental than the +purely physical qualities of the two types of bodies, especially since +the use of machines has so largely replaced brute strength with skill. +Most employments do not even require a muscular skill beyond that +possessed by ordinary individuals of both sexes. + +Even this ignores the primary consideration in the sex problem in +society, the first of the following two parts into which the whole +problem may be divided: (1) _How to guarantee the survival of the group +through reproduction_ of a sufficient number of capable individuals; and +(2) How to make the most economical use of the remaining energies, first +in winning nutrition and protection from the environment, second in +pursuing the distinctly human values over and above survival. The sex +problem as a whole is concerned with adjusting two different general +types of individuals, male and female, to the complicated business of +such group life or society. The differences between these two sex-types +being fundamentally functional, the best way to get at them is to trace +the respective and unlike life cycles. + +We have already shown in rude outline how a difference (apparently +chemical) between two fertilized eggs starts them along two different +lines of development in the embryonic stage. One develops the +characteristic male primary and secondary sex characters, the other the +female. Throughout the embryonic or intra-maternal stage this +differentiation goes on, becoming more and more fixed as it expresses +itself in physical structures. Childhood is only a continuation of this +development--physically separate from the mother after the period of +lactation. Until puberty, when sex ceases to be merely potential and +becomes functional (about 12-14 in girls and 14-16 boys), the +differences in metabolism are not very marked. Neither are they in old +age, after sex has ceased to be functional. It is during the period when +sex is functional (about 35 years in women and considerably longer in +men) that the gross physiological differences manifest themselves. + +Before puberty in both sexes, calcium or lime salts are retained in the +tissues and go to build up the bony skeleton. (A mere sketch of calcium +metabolism is all that can be given here--for details consult such works +as 15 and 17 in bibliography; summary in 14; pp. 34f. & 161f.) Note that +puberty comes earlier in girls than in boys, and that the skeleton +therefore remains lighter. During the reproductive period in women these +salts are heavily drawn upon for the use of the reproductive system. The +male reproductive system draws upon them as well, though the drain is +very slight as compared to that in women. In old age these salts produce +senility through deposit in the tissues, especially in the arteries. + +At the pubertal age in girls begins the phenomenon known as +menstruation, in which there is a large excretion of calcium salts. In +pregnancy these are needed for building the skeleton of the foetus, and +at delivery go to the breasts to assist in lactation. Bell states that +there is a noticeable connection between early menstruation and short +stature, and _vice versa_. What is commonly known as menstruation lasts +only a few days, and is merely the critical period in a monthly cycle or +periodicity which goes with the female sex specialization. This period +involves the gradual preparation of the uterus or womb for a guest, +together with the maturing of the ova. Then the Graafian follicles +containing the ova break and these latter enter the uterus for +fertilization. + +If fertilization takes place, the fertilized egg buries itself in the +wall and development of the embryo proceeds. Menstruation stops, the +calcium salts being required for the growing embryo. There is likely to +be no menstruation for a considerable time after delivery if the child +is nursed, as is normal. This gives the uterus time for devolution to +the normal, before a surplus of calcium salts sets the periodicity going +again. If the egg which passes from the ovary to the uterus is not +fertilized, it is excreted, the uterus goes through another monthly +cycle of preparation for the period of intra-maternal environment, and +so on indefinitely until the climacteric. + +This climacteric or decay of sexuality is a rather critical time, +especially in women. It marks the period at which the metabolism can no +longer support the strain of reproduction. A surplus of calcium brings +on senility, as noted above. Withdrawal of the interests which centre in +sex, together with the marked accompanying physical changes, involves a +shift of mental attitude which is also frequently serious. A British +coroner stated in the _British Medical Journal_ in 1900 (Vol. 2, p.792) +that a majority of 200 cases of female suicide occurred at this period, +while in the case of younger women suicide is peculiarly likely to occur +during menstruation. Krugelstein and Lombroso, respectively, remark the +same tendencies.[18] + +It is a matter of almost everyday observation that men and women in the +neighbourhood of fifty suddenly find themselves disoriented in the +world. Tolstoi, for example, who had written passionately of passion in +his earlier years, suddenly awoke, according to his "Confessions," from +what seemed to him afterward to have been a bad dream. In this case, the +result was a new version of religion as a new anchorage for the man's +life. It may be pacifism, prohibition, philanthropy, or any one of a +very large number of different interests--but there must usually be +something to furnish zest to a life which has ceased to be a sufficient +excuse for itself. + +If freed from worry about economic realities, it is not infrequently +possible for the first time for these people to "balance" their +lives--to find in abstraction a rounded perfection for which earlier in +life we seek in vain as strugglers in a world of change. Thus old people +are often highly conservative, i.e., impatient of change in their social +environment, involving re-orientation; they wish the rules of the game +let alone, so they can pursue the new realities they have created for +themselves. + +Socially, the old are of course a very important factor since a changed +metabolism sets them somewhat outside the passionate interests which +drive people forward, often in wrong directions, in the prime of life. +Hence in a sense the old can judge calmly, as outsiders. Like youth +before it has yet come in contact with complicated reality, they often +see men and women as "each chasing his separate phantom." + +While such conservatism, in so far as it is judicial, is of value to +society, looking at it from the viewpoint of biology we see also some +bad features. _Senex_, the old man, often says to younger people, "These +things you pursue are valueless--I too have sought them, later abandoned +the search and now see my folly;" not realizing that if his blood were +to resume its former chemical character he would return to the quest. + +Elderly people, then, biological neuters, come especially within the +problem of the economical use of the social as distinguished from the +biological capacities of the race. They affect the sex problem proper, +which applies to a younger age-class, only through their opinions. Some +of these opinions are hangovers from the time in their own lives when +they had stronger sexual interests, and some are peculiar to people of +their readjusted glandular activity. Their reproductive contribution to +society has been made. + +Pre-pubertal childhood and youth, on the contrary, has its biological +contributions to society still before it. The glandular activity of boys +and girls is perhaps not so unlike as to justify society in giving them +a different kind of education and preparation for group life. The excuse +for two sorts of training is that the two sexes will not do the same +work after puberty. Hence the question of youthful training is +sociological almost entirely--not biological--or rather, it rests upon +the biology, not of childhood but of the reproductive period, which +society anticipates. + +Instead of scattering attention over the whole history of the universe, +then, or even over the general field of biology, in dealing with sex as +a social problem, the emphasis must be upon the human life cycle during +the functional-reproductive period. Other biological data than that +which concerns this period is merely introductory or explanatory. The +extent to which the sociological problem involved is linked up with +general biological considerations like natural selection, adaptation and +specialization will be summarized in a separate chapter. + +Earlier female maturity and puberty, as well as lighter structure, have +already been accounted for by the metabolism, especially of the calcium +salts. These have also been shown to be the key fact in the monthly +periodicity of the mammalian female. Nearly all of the anatomical and +physiological sex differences catalogued by such pioneer workers as +Ellis, Ploss, Thomas and Bucura are simply what we should expect from +the less active and in some ways peculiar metabolism of woman. + +Among such differences are the size and shape of bones and other body +structures, the more plentiful haemoglobin in male blood during the +reproductive period, and such blood peculiarities as the production of +more carbonic acid or the higher specific gravity in the male. The +greater percentage of fat as compared with muscle in women[19], if it is +generally true, is what we should expect from a lower metabolism and a +tendency to store materials. The long list of diseases which are more or +less sex-limited [20; 14, pp.160f.; 18] are largely endocrine. Even those +which do not primarily concern the internal secretory system would be +expected to work somewhat differently in the presence of unlike blood +streams. As to the greater average weight of the male brain, this is +true of the whole body. Brain weight, either absolute or relative to +body weight, is not positively known to be in any way correlated (in +normal people) with mental capacity. + +A library might be stocked with the vast literature devoted to +summarizing and cataloguing sex differences; and most of it would be +useless from the standpoint of sociology. Unaccompanied by the +criticisms a biologist would have to make on the method of their +ascertainment and validity, not to mention their significance, such +lists can easily do--and probably have done--more harm than good. One +simple and reasonable criterion would reduce this catalogue to fairly +modest proportions, so far as social science is concerned: _Which ones +have an obvious or even probable social significance?_ Over and above +that, while such contrasts may be of speculative interest, they lead +imaginative people to argue from them by analogy and thus cloud the real +issues. + +What are the outstandingly significant sex differences which application +of the above criterion leaves? (1) A less active and more uneven +metabolism of woman; (2) Associated with this, less physical strength on +the average--hence an inferior adaptability to some kinds of work, +resulting in a narrower range of choice of occupation, disadvantageous +in competitive society; (3) But the one fundamental difference, to which +all the others are as nothing, is the specialization of the mammalian +female body and metabolism to furnish the intra-maternal environment +(approximately nine months in the human species) for the early +development of the young and lactation for some months afterward. + +This last may be said to include the former two, which were arbitrarily +placed first because they are always in evidence, whether reproduction +is undertaken or not. This takes us out of cell and endocrine biology +and into the general problem in group adjustment to environment which +that specialization entails. + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER III + +1. Goldschmidt, R. Experimental Intersexuality and the Sex Problem. +Amer. Naturalist, 1916. Vol. 50, pp. 705f. + +2. Goldschmidt, R. Preliminary Report on Further Experiments in +Inheritance and Determination of Sex. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sc, 1916. +Vol. II, No. 1, pp. 53f. + +3. Goldschmidt, R. A Case of Facultative Parthenogenesis. Biol. +Bulletin, 1917. Vol. XXXII, No. 1, p. 38. + +4. Goldschmidt, R. Intersexuality and the Endocrine Aspect of Sex. +Endocrinology, Vol. I, p. 434. 1917. Fine summary of the work done on +moths, birds and various forms by many biologists. + +5. Riddle, Dr Oscar. Quantitative Basis of Sex as indicated +by the Sex-Behaviour of Doves from a Sex-Controlled Series. Science, +n.s., Vol. 39, p. 440, 1914. + +6. Riddle, Dr Oscar. Sex Control and Known Correlations in Pegeons. +Amer. Nat. Vol. L, pp. 385-410. + +7. Benedict, F.G. & Emmes, L.E. A Comparison of the Basal Metabolism of +Men and Women. Jour. Biol. Chem. Vol. 20. No. 3. 1914. + +8. Schaefer, Sir E.A. Endocrine Glands and Internal Secretions. Stanford +University, 1914, p. 91. + +9. Paton, D. Noel. Regulators of Metabolism. London, 1913, p. 146. + +10. Weininger, Otto. Sex and Character. London & N.Y., 1906. Eng. trans. +of Geschlecht u. Charakter, Vienna & Leipzig, 1901 & 1903. + +11. Leland, C.G. The Alternate Sex. London, 1904. + +12. Carpenter, Edw. Love's Coming of Age. London, 1906. + +13. George, W.L. The Intelligence of Woman, Boston, 1916. + +14. Bell, Dr Blair. The Sex Complex, London, 1916. + +15. Bell, Dr. Blair. Gynaecology. London, 1919. + +16. Bateson, W. Mendel's Principles of Heredity. 1909, pp. 169-70. + +17. Marshall, F.H. A Physiology of Reproduction. London, 1910. + +18. Ellis, Havelock. Man and Woman. 1904 ed., pp. 284f + +19. Thomas, W.I. Sex and Society. 1907, p. 19. + +20. Schaefer, Sir Edw. An Introduction to the Study of Internal +Secretions. London, 1916, pp. 106f. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +SEX SPECIALIZATION AND GROUP SURVIVAL + +Adaptation and specialization; Reproduction a group not an individual +problem; Conflict between specialization and adaptation; Intelligence +makes for economy in adjustment to environment; Reproduction, not +production, the chief factor in the sex problem. + + +From the facts briefly stated in the preceding chapters it is quite +evident that the general superiority of man over woman or _vice versa_ +cannot be proven by biology. Such an idea arises from a careless and +unscientific use of language. Superiority is a term which, when used to +express the rather exact ideas of biology, is employed in a carefully +limited and specific, not in a general, sense. That is, superiority, +even if an apparently general idea like survival value is referred to, +always implies a given, understood environment where such is not +specifically mentioned. Wolves, for example, might be found to possess +superior chances for survival over foxes, beaver or partridges in a +given environment. A biologist would probably use more exact and less +ambiguous terms to express such a fact, and say that wolves were the +best _adapted_ to the given surroundings. If all these animals continued +to live side by side in the given environment, they could be compared +only as to specific details--size, strength, cunning, fleetness in +running, swimming or flying, concealment from enemies, etc. Then the +biologist would probably make his meaning perfectly clear by stating +that one is _specialized_ in one direction or another. + +Especially is general superiority a vague idea when the things compared +are different but mutually necessary or complementary. If their +functions overlap to some extent (i.e., if certain acts can be performed +by either), we may say that one is better adapted to a certain activity +than the other. Thus it may be that women are generally better adapted +to caring for young children than are men, or that men are on the whole +better adapted to riveting boiler plates, erecting skyscrapers, or +sailing ships. Where their activities do not overlap at all, even the +word adaptation hardly applies. For example, women are not better +"adapted" to furnishing the intra-maternal environment for the young, +since men are not adapted to it at all. It is a case of female +_specialization_. + +Men being neither specialized nor adapted, to any extent whatever, to +this particular activity, any attempt at comparison is obviously +fruitless, since one term is always zero. This specialization, +absolutely necessary to the survival of human groups, is either present +or it is absent in a given individual. Any attempt to formulate a +general proposition about superiority either attaches purely arbitrary +values to different kinds of activity or is absurd from the standpoint +of the most elementary logic. + +From the standpoint of biology, reproduction is not an individual but a +group problem, however many problems of detail it may give rise to in +individual lives. Sex involves the division of the reproductive process, +without the exercise of which any human group would perish very shortly, +into two complementary, mutually necessary but unequal parts. (This +statement applies only to the reproductive process, as obviously the +male and female gametes contribute equally to the formation of the new +individual). Neither part (the male or the female) of this process is +more necessary than the other, both being _absolutely_ necessary. But +the female specialization for furnishing the intra-maternal environment +makes her share more burdensome. + +Biologically considered, not even two individuals (male and female), +together with their offspring, can be more than an arbitrary "unit" as +concerns sex, since inbreeding eventually impoverishes the stock. Hence +outcrosses are necessary. To intelligibly consider the sex problem in +the human species, then, we must always predicate a considerable _group_ +of people, with such organization and division of activities as to +guarantee that all the processes necessary to survival will be carried +on. Sex is a group problem. Considering the mutual interdependence and +the diversity of activities in human society, to make the generalization +that one sex is superior to the other is on a par with saying that roots +and branches are superior to trunks and leaves. It is sheer foolishness. +Yet oceans of ink have flowed in attempts to establish one or the other +of two equally absurd propositions. + +Since the specialization to furnish the intra-maternal environment for +the young makes the female part of the reproductive process essentially +and unavoidably more burdensome than the male, it results that an +economical division of the extra-reproductive activities of any group +must throw an unequal share upon the males. This specialization to carry +the young during the embryonic period is thus at the base of the +division of labour between the sexes. It is the chief factor involved in +the problems of sex, and gives rise, directly or indirectly, to most of +the others. + +But the sex problem as a whole is one of adaptation as well as of +specialization. An incident of the female specialization is a type of +body on the average smaller, weaker and less well adapted to some other +activities than is the male body, even when reproduction is not +undertaken. A great complication is added by the fact that some women, +and also some men, are better adapted than others to nonreproductive +activities. This is another way of saying that the type of body +associated with either type of sex glands varies a good deal, for +reasons and in respects already pointed out. + +The most important fact about this reproductive specialization is that +beyond fertilization it is _exclusive_ in the female. Since the males +cannot furnish the intra-parental environment for the young, the entire +burden must fall on half the group. If this aggregation is to even hold +its own numerically, its women must have, on an average, two children +each, _plus about one more_ for unavoidable waste--death in infancy or +childhood, sterility, obvious unfitness for reproduction, etc., i.e., +_three_ in all. If one woman has less than her three children, then +another must have more than three, or the group number will decrease. +_Group survival is the fundamental postulate in a problem of this kind._ + +The above figure is for civilized society. In primitive groups, the +terrific wastage makes a much higher birth-rate necessary, several times +as high in many cases. If we suppose such a group, where child +mortality, lack of sanitation, etc., necessitates an average of eight +children per woman (instead of three), the biological origin of the +division of labour between the sexes is much more clearly seen than it +is in civilized societies. + +If men are better hunters or fighters than women, the latter could +nevertheless hunt and fight--it is a question of superior or inferior +adaptation to particular activities. But it is more than that. _Only_ +the women are biologically specialized to the chief reproductive burden +(intra-parental environment and lactation). If half the women should +withdraw from child-bearing, the remainder would be obliged to average +_sixteen_ apiece. But even this is not all. Unfortunately, the half of +the women who would be found best adapted to hunting and fighting would +be the more vigorous half. The new generation would thus be born from +the leftovers, and would be poor quality. Such a division of labour +within a group would be fatally foolish and entirely uncalled for--since +there are plenty of men adapted to hunting and fighting, but entirely +unspecialized to child-bearing and nursing. + +Group survival being the fundamental thing, the group is obliged to +develop a division of labour which directs the activities of the +individuals composing it to providing for its necessities, regardless +of any interference with their own desires. That is, if group survival +requires that woman use her specialization to child-bearing instead of +any adaptation she may possess in other directions, one of two things +inevitably result: (1) Either the group finds or evolves some social +control machinery which meets the necessity, or (2) it must give way to +some other group which can do so. In either case, the result is a +division of labour, which we see more clearly in primitive peoples. The +less efficient group is not necessarily exterminated, but if it loses +out in the competition until some other group is able to conquer it and +impose _its_ division of labour the result is of course the extinction +of the conquered group as an integral part of society. This is simply +natural selection working on groups. Natural selection works chiefly in +this manner on the human species, _because that species lives in +groups_. Such group control of the component individuals as has been +described has led to a division of labour between the sexes in every +primitive society. All this means is that the group adopting such a +division has greater survival value, and hence is more likely to be +represented in later ages. + +It must not be supposed that such systems of control were always +logically thought out or deliberately planned. Even animals which live +in herds or colonies have divisions of labour. + +Through an infinite slaughter of the least fit, such groups arrive at +some kind of instinctive adjustment to produce and protect the young. +The crudest human intelligence must have eliminated much of the waste +involved, by comprehending obvious cause-and-effect relations which +animals have to arrive at through trial and error methods. + +For example, an intelligence capable of employing artificial weapons is +also able to see that the wielder of these for group defence cannot be +encumbered with baggage or children when the group is in movement. Hence +women became the burden bearers, and took care of the children, even +after the nursing period. War parties could not generally be mixed, for +the obvious reasons that such women as did not have young children would +be pregnant a good deal of the time, or likely to become so. Moreover, a +hunter and fighter must not have his courage, ferocity and physical +initiative undermined by unsuitable employments and associations. + +In a semi-settled group, the hunter and warrior cannot be relied upon to +keep hearth-fires burning or tend crops, even though he may occasionally +have time for such activities. These duties are therefore relegated to +the women, whose child-bearing functions impose upon them a more +sedentary existence. Women must reproduce practically up to their full +capacity to fill up the gaps made by war, accident and disease as well +as death from old age. To this biological service which they alone can +perform are added those which lie nearest it and interfere least with +carrying it out. + +We must therefore keep in view _all_ the activities of any group in +which the sex problem is being studied. There is a certain tendency to +disregard the female specialization to child-bearing, and to regard the +sex question as one merely of adaptation to extra-biological services. +In every group which has survived, some machinery--a "crust of custom," +reinforced by more arbitrary laws or regulations--has sought to +guarantee reproduction by keeping women out of lines of endeavour which +might endanger that fundamental group necessity. Primitive societies +which got stabilized within a given territory and found their birth-rate +dangerously _high_ could always keep it down by exposing or destroying +some of the unfit children, or a certain per cent of the female +children, or both. + +In primitive groups, the individual was practically _nil_. But modern +civilized society is able to survive without the rigid control of +individual activities which the old economy entailed. Man comes to +choose more and more for himself individually instead of for the group, +uniformity weakens and individualism becomes more pronounced. As +control of environment becomes more complete and easy, natural selection +grows harder to detect. We turn our interests and activities toward the +search for what we want and take survival largely for granted--something +the savage cannot do. Natural selection becomes unreal to us, because +the things we do to survive are so intricately mixed up with those we do +for other reasons. Natural selection in gregarious animals operates upon +groups rather than upon individuals. Arrangement of these groups is +often very intricate. Some have territorial boundaries and some have +not. Often they overlap, identical individuals belonging to several. +Hence it is not strange that natural selection phenomena often escape +attention. + +But this must not lead us to suppose that natural selection is wholly +inoperative in civilized society. We see some nations outbreeding +others, or dominating them through superior organization. Within +nations, some racial and religious groups outbreed others and thus +gradually supplant them--_for the future is to those who furnish its +populations_. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +RACIAL DEGENERATION AND THE NECESSITY FOR RATIONALIZATION OF THE MORES + +Racial decay in modern society; Purely "moral" control dysgenic in +civilized society; New machinery for social control; Mistaken notion +that reproduction is an individual problem; Economic and other factors +in the group problem of reproduction. + + +From the discussion in the preceding chapter, it becomes apparent that +for the half of the female element in a savage society possessing the +most vigor and initiative to turn away from reproduction would in the +long run be fatal to the group. Yet this is what occurs in large measure +in modern civilized society. Reproduction is a biological function. It +is non-competitive, as far as the individual is concerned, and offers no +material rewards. The breakdown of the group's control over the detailed +conduct and behaviour of its members is accompanied by an increasing +stress upon material rewards to individuals. So with growing +individualism, in the half of the race which can both bear children and +compete in the social activities offering rewards, i.e., the women who +are specialized to the former and adapted to the latter, there is a +growing tendency among the most successful, individualized strains, to +choose the social and eschew the biological functions. + +Racial degeneration is the result. Recorded history is one succession of +barbarous races, under strong, primitive breeding conditions, swamping +their more civilized, individualized neighbours, adopting the dysgenic +ways of civilization and then being swamped in their turn by barbarians. +This is especially pronounced in our own times because popularized +biological and medical knowledge makes it possible for a tremendous +class of the most successful and enlightened to avoid reproduction +without foregoing sex activity. + +In primitive groups, a "moral" control which kept all women at +reproduction was neither eugenic nor dysgenic unless accompanied by +systematic destruction of the least fit children. By "moral" control is +meant the use of taboo, prejudice, religious abhorrence for certain acts +and the like. The carefully nurtured moral ideas about sex and +reproduction simply represent the system of coercion which groups have +found most effective in enforcing the division of reproductive and other +activities among the individual members. When this social machinery grew +up, to regulate sexual activity was in general to regulate +reproduction. The natural sex desire proved sufficiently powerful and +general to still seek its object, even with the group handicaps and +regulations imposed to meet the reproductive necessity. But +contraceptive knowledge, etc., has now become so general that to +regulate sex activity is no longer to regulate reproduction. The taboo +or "moral" method of regulation has become peculiarly degenerating to +race quality, because the most intelligent, rationalized individuals are +least affected by it. + +There is no turning back to control by ignorance. Even theoretically, +the only way to stop such a disastrous selection of the unfit would be +to rationalize reproduction--so that _nobody_ shall reproduce the +species through sheer ignorance of how to evade or avoid it. This done, +some type of social control must be found which will enable civilized +societies to breed from their best instead of their worst stock. Under +the old scheme, already half broken down, natural selection favours +primitive rather than civilized societies through decreased birth-rates +and survival of the unfit in the latter. Even this is true only where +the savage groups are not interfered with by the civilized, a condition +rapidly disappearing through modern occidental imperialism and the +inoculation of primitive peoples with "civilized" diseases such as +syphilis, rum-drinking and rampant individualism. + +To continually encourage the racially most desirable women to disregard +their sexual specialization and exploit their social-competitive +adaptation must, obviously destroy the group which pursues such a +policy. The only way to make such a course democratic is to carefully +instruct all women, rich and poor, wise and ignorant, in the methods of +avoiding reproduction and to inject the virus of individualism in all +alike. Then the group can get its population supply only by a new system +of control. To remove any economic handicaps to child-bearing is +certainly not out of harmony with our ideas of justice. + +In removing the economic handicaps at present connected with the +reproductive function in women, care must also be taken that the very +measures which insure this do not themselves become dysgenic influences. +Such schemes as maternity insurance, pensions for mothers, and most of +the propositions along this line, may offer an inducement to women of +the poorer classes to assume the burdens connected with their +specialization for child-bearing. But their more fortunate sisters, who +find themselves so well adapted to modern conditions that they are even +moderately successful in the competition for material rewards, will +hardly find recompense thus for turning from their social to their +biological functions. To these highly individualized modern women must +be presented more cogent reasons for taking upon themselves the burden +of reproducing the group. + +It is obvious that from just this energetic female stock we should +obtain a large part of the next generation if we are at all concerned +over the welfare of the group and its chances of survival. One +suggestion is that we may be able to turn their very individualism to +account and use it as a potent factor in the social control of their +reproductive activities. If we can demonstrate on the basis of sound +biological data that the bearing of children is necessary for the full +and complete development of the individual woman, physically and +mentally, we shall have gone a long way toward securing voluntary +motherhood. Only such argument will induce the highly individualized, +who may also be the most vital, woman to turn of her own accord from +competitive social activities to the performance of the biological +function for which she is specialized. This is especially true, as has +been intimated above, since contraceptive knowledge now permits the +exercise of sexual functions without the natural consequences, and the +avoidance of motherhood no longer involves the denial of expression to +the sexual urge. + +Even if we are able to utilize this method of control, it will not +obtain the requisite number of offspring to maintain the eugenic quality +of the group, since the bearing of one or two children would be all that +individual development would require. If the group must have on the +average three children from each of its women in order to replace +itself, the larger part of the reproductive activities will still be +confined to the more ignorant, or if they also make use of contraceptive +knowledge, the group will simply die out from the effects of its own +democratic enlightenment. Thus it becomes apparent that we must find +some more potent force than this narrow form of self-interest to +accomplish the social purposes of reproduction. When reproduction is +generally understood to be as thoroughly a matter of group survival as +for example the defensive side in a war of extermination, the same +sentiment of group loyalty which now takes such forms as patriotism can +be appealed to. If the human race is unsocial it will perish anyway. If +it has not become unsocial--and it does not display any such tendency, +but only the use of such impulses in mistaken directions--then a group +necessity like reproduction can be met. Whatever is required of the +individual will become "moral" and "patriotic"--i.e., it will be +wreathed in the imperishable sentiments which group themselves around +socially necessary and hence socially approved acts everywhere and +always. + +In whatever races finally survive, the women of good stock as well as +poor--perhaps eventually the good even more than the poor--will +reproduce themselves. Because of our ideals of individual liberty, this +may not be achieved by taboo, ignorance or conscription for motherhood. +But when it is found to be the personal interest to bear children, both +as a means of complete physical and mental development and as a way of +winning social approval and esteem, it will become as imperative for +woman to fulfil the biological function to which she is specialized as +it was under the old system of moral and taboo control. The increasing +emphasis on the necessity of motherhood for the maintenance of a normal, +health personality, and the growing tendency to look upon this function +as the greatest service which woman can render to society, are manifest +signs that this time is approaching. There is little doubt that woman +will be as amenable to these newer and more rationalized mores as human +nature has always been to the irrationally formed customs and traditions +of the past. + +To ignore the female specialization involved in furnishing the +intramaternal environment for three children, on an average, to the +group, is simply foolish. If undertaken at maturity--say from +twenty-two to twenty-five years of age--and a two-year interval left +between the three in the interest of both mother and children, it puts +woman in an entirely different relation toward extra-reproductive +activities than man. It does imply a division of labour. + +In general, it would seem socially expedient to encourage each woman to +have her own three children, instead of shifting the burden upon the +shoulders of some other. If such activities of nursing and caring for +the very young can be pooled, so much the better. Doubtless some women +who find them distasteful would be much more useful to society at other +work. But let us not disregard fundamentals. It is obviously +advantageous for children of normal, able parents to be cared for in the +home environment. In a _biologically healthy_ society the presumption +must be that the average woman has some three children of her own. Since +this obviously includes nurses and governesses, we see at once the +futility of the oft-proposed class solution of hiring single women to +care for the children of the fortunate. If such a servant is +undesirable, she is not hired; if normal, in a biologically healthy +society she would have her own children. + +The female handicap incident to reproduction may be illustrated by the +case of Hambletonian 10 mentioned in Chapter II. We saw that a female +could not have borne the hundredth part of his colts. This simply means +that the effort or individual cost of impressing his characters upon the +new generation is less than one one-hundredth that required of a female. + +Among domestic animals this is made use of to multiply the better males +to the exclusion of the others, a valuable biological expedient which we +are denied in human groups because it would upset all our social +institutions. So we do the next best thing and make the males do more +than half in the extra-biological activities of society, since they are +by their structure prevented from having an equal share in the +reproductive burden. This is an absolutely necessary equation, and there +will always be some sort of division of labour on the basis of it. + +Since reproduction is a group, not an individual, necessity, whatever +economic burden it entails must eventually be assumed by society and +divided up among the individuals, like the cost of war or any other +group activity. Ideally, then, from the standpoint of democracy, every +individual, male or female, should bear his share as a matter of course. +This attitude toward reproduction, as an individual duty but a group +economic burden, would lead to the solution of most of the problems +involved. Negative eugenics should be an immediate assumption--if the +state must pay for offspring, the quality will immediately begin to be +considered. A poor race-contribution, not worth paying for, would +certainly be prevented as far as possible. + +Some well-meaning radical writers mistakenly suppose that the +emancipation of women means the withdrawal by the group of any interest +in, or any attempt to regulate, such things as the hours and conditions +of female labour. That would simply imply that the group takes no +interest in reproduction--in its own survival. For if the group does not +make some equation for the greater burden of reproduction upon women, +the inevitable result will be that that particular service will not be +rendered by those most desirable to be preserved. + +Given the fundamental assumption that the group is to survive--to be +perpetuated by the one possible means--if it withdraws all solicitude +about the handicap this entails to women as a whole, introducing a +spirit of laissez-faire competition between men and women, the women +with sense enough to see the point will not encumber themselves with +children. For each one of these who has no children, some other woman +must have six instead of three. And some people encourage this in the +name of democracy! + +The most involved problems must inevitably centre around the women who, +to quote Mrs. Hollingworth, "vary from the mode," but are yet +functional for sex. Some have no sex desires at all, some no craving for +or attachment to children, some neither of these. It is a question still +to be solved whether some of them ought, in the interest of the race, to +be encouraged to reproduce themselves. In less individualized primitive +society, seclusion, taboo and ignorance coerced them into reproduction. +Any type of control involving the inculcation of "moral" ideas is open +to the objection that it may work on those who should not reproduce +themselves as well as those who should. + +In a sense, this problem will tend to solve itself. With the +substitution of the more rationalized standards of self-interest and +group loyalty for the irrational taboo control of reproductive +activities, there will be as much freedom for women to choose whether +they will accept maternity as there is now, in the period of transition +from the old standards to the new. The chief difference will be that +many of the artificial forces which are acting as barriers to motherhood +at the present time--as for example the economic handicap involved--will +be removed, and woman's choice will therefore be more entirely in +harmony with her native instinctive tendencies. Thus those women endowed +with the most impelling desire for children will, as a rule, have the +largest number. In all probability their offspring will inherit the +same strong parental instinct. The stocks more poorly endowed with this +impulse will tend to die out by the very lack of any tendency to +self-perpetuation. It is only logical to conclude, therefore, that as we +set up the new forces of social control outlined in this chapter, we are +at the same time providing more scope for natural selection, and that +the problem of aberrant types consequently becomes only a transitory +one. + + + + +PART II + +THE INSTITUTIONALIZED SEX TABOO + +BY + +IVA LOWTHER PETERS, PH.D. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE PRIMITIVE ATTITUDE TOWARD SEX AND WOMANHOOD + + +Primitive social control; Its rigidity; Its necessity; Universality of +this control in the form of taboos; Connection between the universal +attitude of primitive peoples towards woman as shown in the +Institutionalized Sex Taboo and the magic-religious belief in Mana; +Relation of Mana to Taboo; Discussion of Sympathetic Magic and the +associated idea of danger from contact; Difficulties in the way of an +inclusive definition of Taboo; Its dual nature; Comparison of concepts +of Crawley, Frazer, Marett and others; Conclusion that Taboo is Negative +Mana; Contribution of modern psychology to the study of Taboo; Freud's +analogy between the dualistic attitude toward the tabooed object and the +ambivalence of the emotions; The understanding of this dualism together +with the primitive belief in Mana and Sympathetic Magic explains much in +the attitude of man toward woman; The vast amount of evidence in the +taboos of many peoples of dualism in the attitude toward woman. Possible +physiological explanation of this dualistic attitude of man toward woman +found in a period before self-control had in some measure replaced +social control, in the reaction of weakness and disgust following sex +festivals. + + +A study of the elaborate, standardized, and authoritative systems of +social control found among all primitive peoples gives a vivid +impression of the difficulty of the task of compelling man to die to +himself, that is, to become a socius. The rigors and rituals of +initiation ceremonies at adolescence impressed the duties of sociality +at that impressionable period. The individual who refused to bow his +head to the social yoke became a vagabond, an outcast, an excommunicate. +In view of the fierceness of the struggle for food and the attitude +toward the stranger among all primitives, the outcast's life chances +were unenviable. It was preferable to adapt one's self to the social +order. "Bad" traits were the more easily suppressed in return for the +re-enforcement of power which was the striking feature of group life; +power over enemies, power over nature, and a re-enforcement of the +emotional life of the individual which became the basis on which were +built up the magico-religious ceremonies of institutionalized religion. + +It is the purpose of this study to consider a phase of social life in +which there can be traced a persistence into modern times of a primitive +form of control which in a pre-rational stage of group life made +possible the comparatively harmonious interplay of antagonistic forces. +This form of control is called Taboo. A student of the phenomenon, a +recognized authority on its ethnological interpretation, says of it: "To +illustrate the continuity of culture and the identity of the elementary +human ideas in all ages, it is sufficient to point to the ease with +which the Polynesian word _tabu_ has passed into modern +language."[1, p.16] + +We shall attempt to show that at least one form of taboo, the +Institutionalized Sex Taboo, is co-extensive with human social +experience, and exists to-day at the base of family life, the socialized +form of sex relationship. The family as a social institution has been +scarcely touched until a very recent historical period by the +rationalizing process that has affected religious and political +institutions. Economic changes resultant upon the introduction of an +industrial era which showed the importance of women in diverse social +relations were causes of this new effort at adaptation to changing +conditions. It became apparent that taboos in the form of customs, +ceremonials, beliefs, and conventions, all electrically charged with +emotional content, have guarded the life of woman from change, and with +her the functions peculiar to family life. There has doubtless been +present in some of these taboos "a good hard common-sense element." But +there are also irrational elements whose persistence has resulted in +hardship, blind cruelty, and over-standardization. + +In order to comprehend the attitude of early man toward sex and +womanhood, and to understand the system of taboo control which grew out +of this attitude, it is only reasonable to suppose that the prehistoric +races, like the uncivilized peoples of the present time, were inclined +to explain all phenomena as the result of the action of spiritistic +forces partaking of both a magical and religious nature. This +supernatural principle which the primitive mind conceived as an +all-pervading, universal essence, is most widely known as _mana_, +although it has been discussed under other names.[A] + +Certain persons, animals and objects[B] are often held to be imbued to +an unusual degree with this _mana_, and hence are to be regarded as holy +and held in awe. Inasmuch as man may wish to use this power for his own +purposes, a ceremonial cult would naturally grow up by which this would +become possible. Otherwise, to come in contact with these objects +directly or indirectly, besides profaning their sanctity would be +exceedingly dangerous for the transgressor, because of this same power +of transmission of a dread and little understood force. Therefore, all +such persons, animals or objects are taboo and must be avoided. Under +these circumstances it can be seen that taboos are unanalyzed, +unrationalized "Don'ts," connected with the use and wont which have +crystallized around the wish of man to manipulate the mysterious and +often desirable features of his environment, notably those connected +with possession, food, and sex. + +[Footnote A: The Australians call it Arunkulta, the Iroquis Indians +Orenda and other North American tribes Wakonda, the Melanesians Mana.] + +[Footnote B: Dr F.B. Jevons[2] says: "These things ... are alike taboo: +the dead body; the new-born child; blood and the shedder of blood; the +divine being as well as the criminal; the sick, outcasts, and +foreigners; animals as well as men; women especially, the married woman +as well as the sacred virgin; food, clothes, vessels, property, house, +bed, canoes, the threshing floor, the winnowing fan, a name, a word, a +day; all are or may be taboo because dangerous. This short list does not +contain one-hundredth part of the things which are supposed to be +dangerous; but even if it were filled out and made tolerably complete, +it would, by itself, fail to give any idea of the actual extent and +importance of the institution of taboo."] + + +The idea of the transmission of _mana_ through contact is concomitant +with the notion of _sympathetic magic_, defined as the belief that the +qualities of one thing can be mysteriously transferred to another. The +most familiar illustration is that of the hunter who will not eat the +heart of the deer he has killed lest he become timid like that animal, +while to eat the heart of a lion would be to gain all the fierce courage +of that beast.[A] This belief becomes so elaborated that the qualities +of one object are finally thought to be transferred to another which has +never come into direct contact with the first, the transition being +accomplished through the agency of a third object which has been in +contact with both the others and thus acts as the conducting medium +through which the qualities of one pass into the other. + +[Footnote A: E.B. Tylor[3] has called attention to the belief that the +qualities of the eaten pass into the eater as an explanation of the food +taboos and prejudices of savage peoples.] + +Just as the holy thing, which is to be feared as the seat of a mystic, +supernatural force, is to be avoided lest harm befall from contact with +it, or lest it be denied by human touch and its divine essence be +affected, so the unclean thing is also made taboo lest it infect man +with its own evil nature. Even as the savage will not have his idol +polluted by contact with his own personality, however indirect, so he +would himself avoid pollution in similar fashion by shunning that which +is unclean. Here also the avoidance of the tabooed person or thing is +based on the principle of sympathetic magic understood as a method of +transference of qualities, and on belief in the possibility of infection +by contact. + +The dual nature of taboo as the avoidance of both the sacred and the +unclean is noted by authorities on the subject who differ in other +respects as to the definition of taboo, such as in the relation of taboo +to the magical ceremonies by which man undertook to mould his +environment to his wishes. Whether the tabooed object be regarded in one +light or the other, the breaking of taboo is associated with dread of +the unknown--besides the fear of infection with the qualities of the +tabooed object according to the laws of sympathetic magic. There is +also the fear of the mysterious and supernatural, whether conceived as +the mana force or as a principle of "bad magic." + +Dr. J.G. Frazer has collected into the many volumes of "The Golden +Bough" a mass of evidence concerning the taboos of primitive society. On +the basis of his definition of magic as "a misapplication of the ideas +of association by similarity and contiguity," Dr. Frazer divided magic +into "positive magic," or charms, and "negative magic," or taboo. +"Positive magic says, 'Do this in order that so and so may happen.' +Negative magic or taboo says 'Do not do this lest so and so should +happen.'"[4, p.111, v.I.] + +But Dr. Frazer's conclusion, which he himself considered only tentative, +was not long left unassailed. Prof. R.R. Marett in his essay "Is Taboo a +Negative Magic?"[5] called attention to the very evident fact that Dr. +Frazer's definition would not cover the characteristics of some of the +best known taboos, the food taboos of Prof. Tylor to which we have +previously alluded in this study, as a consequence of which "the flesh +of timid animals is avoided by warriors, but they love the meat of +tigers, boars, and stags, for their courage and speed."[3, p.131.] Are +not these food taboos rather, Dr. Marett asks, a "misapplication of the +ideas of association by similarity and contiguity" amounting to the +sympathetic taboos so carefully described by such writers on Magic as +MM. Hubert and Mauss of L'Annee Sociologique? Still another kind of +taboos mentioned by Dr. Frazer but amplified by Mr. Crawley in "The +Mystic Rose," the taboos on knots at childbirth, marriage, and death, +are much better described by the term "sympathetic taboo." Moreover, if +taboo were a form of magic as defined by Dr. Frazer, it would be a +somewhat definite and measurable quantity; whereas the distinguishing +characteristic of taboo everywhere is the "infinite plus of awfulness" +always accompanying its violation. As Dr. Marett observes, there may be +certain definite results, such as prescribed punishment for violations +against which a legal code is in process of growth. There may be also +social "growlings," showing the opposition of public opinion to which +the savage is at least as keenly sensitive as the modern. But it is the +"infinite plus" always attached to the violation of taboo that puts it +into the realm of the mystical, the magical. It would seem that Dr. +Frazer's definition does not include enough. + +It is when we turn to the subject of this study that we see most clearly +the deficiencies in these explanations--to the "classic well-nigh +universal major taboo" of the woman shunned. Dr. Marett uses her as his +most telling argument against the inclusiveness of the concepts of Dr. +Frazer and of MM. Hubert and Mauss. He says: "It is difficult to +conceive of sympathy, and sympathy only, as the continuous, or even the +originally efficient cause of the avoidance." Mr Crawley had called +attention to the fact that savages fear womanly characteristics, that +is, effeminacy, which is identified with weakness. While noting with +great psychological insight the presence of other factors, such as the +dislike of the different, he had gone so far as to express the opinion +that the fear of effeminacy was probably the chief factor in the Sex +Taboo. This is probably the weakest point in Mr. Crawley's study, for he +shows so clearly the presence of other elements, notably mystery, the +element that made woman the potential witch against whom suspicion +concentrated in so tragical a fashion up to a late historical period. + +Because of the element of mystery present in taboo we are led to +conclude that taboo is more than negative magic if we accept so definite +a concept as "a false association of ideas." The presence of power in +the tabooed object turns our attention to _mana_ as giving us a better +understanding of why man must be wary. Mana must however be liberally +interpreted if we are to see to the bottom of the mystery. It must be +thought of as including good as well as evil power, as more than the +"black magic" of the witch-haunted England of the 17th century, as is +shown by the social position of the magicians who deal with the Mana of +the Pacific and with the Orenda of the Iroquois. It implies +"wonder-working," and may be shown in sheer luck, in individual cunning +and power, or in such a form as the "uncanny" psychic qualities ascribed +to women from the dawn of history. With this interpretation of mana in +mind, taboo may be conceived as negative mana; and to break taboo is to +set in motion against oneself mystic wonder-working power. + +Our study thus far has made it clear that there are mystic dangers to be +guarded against from human as well as extra-human sources. There is +weakness to be feared as well as power, as shown by the food and sex +taboos. And once again there is mystery in the different, the unusual, +the unlike, that causes avoidance and creates taboos. Man's dislike of +change from the old well-trodden way, no matter how irrational, accounts +for the persistence of many ancient folkways[6] whose origins are lost +in mystery.[A] Many of these old and persistent avoidances have been +expanded in the development of social relationships until we agree with +Mr. Crawley that taboo shows that "man seems to feel that he is treading +in slippery places." Might it not be within the range of possibility +that in the study of taboo we are groping with man through the first +blind processes of social control?[B] + +[Footnote A: Prof. Franz Boas explains this tendency: "The more +frequently an action is repeated, the more firmly it will become +established ... so that customary actions which are of frequent +repetition become entirely unconscious. Hand in hand with this decrease +of consciousness goes an increase in the emotional value of the omission +of these activities, and still more of the performance of acts contrary +to custom."[7]] + +[Footnote B: No study of the tabu-mana theory, however delimited its +field, can disregard the studies of religion and magic made by the +contributors to L'Annee Sociologique, notably MM. Durkheim and +Levy-Bruhl, and in England by such writers as Sir Gilbert Murray, Miss +Harrison, Mr A.B. Cook, Mr F.M. Cornford, and others. In their studies +of "collective representations" these writers give us an account of the +development of the social obligation back of religion, law, and social +institutions. They posit the sacred as forbidden and carry origins back +to a pre-logical stage, giving as the origin of the collective emotion +that started the representations to working the re-enforcement of power +or emotion resulting from gregarious living. This study is concerned, +however, with a "social" rather than a "religious" taboo,--if such a +distinction can somewhat tentatively be made, with the admission that +the social scruple very easily takes on a religious colouring.] + +It is worthy of note that the most modern school of analytical +psychology has recently turned attention to the problem of taboo. Prof. +Sigmund Freud, protagonist psychoanalysis, in an essay, Totem und Tabu, +called attention to the analogy between the dualistic attitude toward +the tabooed object as both sacred and unclean and the ambivalent +attitude of the neurotic toward the salient objects in his environment. +We must agree that in addition to the dread of the tabooed person or +object there is often a feeling of fascination. This is of course +particularly prominent in the case of the woman tabooed because of the +strength of the sex instinct. As Freud has very justly said, the tabooed +object is very often in itself the object of supreme desire. This is +very obvious in the case of the food and sex taboos, which attempt to +inhibit two of the most powerful impulses of human nature. The two +conflicting streams of consciousness called ambivalence by the +psychologist may be observed in the attitude of the savage toward many +of his taboos. As the Austrian alienist cannily remarks, unless the +thing were desired there would be no necessity to impose taboo +restrictions concerning it. + +It is by a knowledge of the mana concept and the belief in sympathetic +magic, clarified by recognition of the ambivalent element in the +emotional reaction to the thing tabooed, that we can hope to understand +the almost universal custom of the "woman shunned" and the sex taboos of +primitive peoples. This dualism appears most strongly in the attitude +toward woman; for while she was the natural object of the powerful +sexual instinct she was quite as much the source of fear because she was +generally supposed to be endowed with spiritistic forces and in league +with supernatural powers. During the long period when the fact of +paternity was unrecognized, the power of reproduction which was thus +ascribed to woman alone made of her a mysterious being. Her fertility +could be explained only on the basis of her possession of an unusually +large amount of mana or creative force, or by the theory of impregnation +by demonic powers. As a matter of fact, both explanations were accepted +by primitive peoples, so that woman was regarded not only as imbued with +mana but also as being in direct contact with spirits. Many of the +devices for closing the reproductive organs which abounded among savage +tribes were imposed as a protection against spirits rather than against +the males of the human species. The tradition of impregnation by gods or +demons was not confined to savage tribes, but was wide-spread in the +days of Greece and Rome and lasted into biblical times, when we read of +the sons of heaven having intercourse with the daughters of men. + +In addition to this fear of the woman as in possession of and in league +with supernatural powers, there was an additional motive to avoidance in +the fear of transmission of her weakness through contact, a fear based +on a belief in sympathetic magic, and believed with all the "intensely +realized, living, and operative assurance" of which the untutored mind +is capable. Crawley masses an overwhelming amount of data on this point, +and both he and Frazer show the strength of these beliefs. Indeed, in +many cases violation proved to be "sure death," not by the hand of man, +but from sheer fright. As a result, just as woman was considered to have +both the tendency and power to impart her characteristics through +contact, so the sexual act, the acme of contact, became the most potent +influence for the emasculation of the male. + +If we wish for proof that the primitive attitude toward women was +essentially that which we have outlined, we have only to glance at the +typical taboos concerning woman found among ancient peoples and among +savage races of our own day. Nothing could be more indicative of the +belief that the power to bring forth children was a manifestation of the +possession of mana than the common avoidance of the pregnant woman. Her +mystic power is well illustrated by such beliefs as those described by +the traveller Im Thurn, who says that the Indians of Guiana believe that +if a pregnant woman eat of game caught by hounds, they will never be +able to hunt again. Similarly, Alfred Russell Wallace wrote of the +aborigines of the Amazon: "They believe that if a woman during her +pregnancy eats of any meat, any other animal partaking of it will +suffer; if a domestic animal or tame bird, it will die; if a dog, it +will be for the future incapable of hunting; and even a man will be +unable to shoot that particular kind of game for the future."[8] In +Fiji a pregnant wife may not wait upon her husband.[9] In the +Caroline Islands men may not eat with their wives when pregnant, but +small boys are allowed to do so.[10] + +The avoidance of the menstruous woman is an even more widespread custom +than the shunning of pregnancy, probably because this function was +interpreted as a symptom of demonic possession. Primitive man had no +reason to know that the phenomenon of menstruation was in any way +connected with reproduction. The typical explanation was probably very +much like that of the Zoroastrians, who believed that the menses were +caused by the evil god Ahriman. A woman during the period was unclean +and possessed by that demon. She must be kept confined and apart from +the faithful, whom her touch would defile, and from the fire, which her +very look would injure. To this day there is in the house of the Parsee +a room for the monthly seclusion of the women, bare of all comforts, and +from it neither sun, moon, stars, fire, water, nor any human being can +be seen.[11] + +All the ancient civilizations had such taboos upon the menstruous woman. +According to Pliny, the Romans held that nothing had such marvellous +efficacy as, or more deadly qualities than, the menstrual flow. The +Arabs thought that a great variety of natural powers attached +themselves to a woman during the menstrual period.[12, p.448] Rabbinic +laws demand that "a woman during all the days of her separation shall be +as if under a ban." The epithet Niddah, applied to a woman at that time, +means "to lay under a ban." The reconstruction of the ancient Assyrian +texts shows that the law of the unclean taboo on the woman in her +courses holds for them. Up to the present time the Semitic woman is +carefully segregated from the rest of the tribe, often for a long time, +and becomes taboo again on each successive occasion.[13] Peoples in the +eastern Mediterranean region will not permit a woman in her courses to +salt or pickle; whatever she might prepare would not keep. This belief +survives among the folk to-day in America, and was evidently brought +early in the history of the country, for it is common among pioneer +stock. + +There are very similar taboos among the savage races. Among the Tshi +peoples of West Africa women are not allowed to remain even in the town +but retire at the period to huts erected for the purpose in the +neighbouring bush, because they are supposed to be offensive to the +tribal deities at that time.[14] The Karoks of California have a +superstition like that of the Israelites. Every month the woman is +banished without the village to live in a booth by herself. She is not +permitted to partake of any meat, including fish. If a woman at this +time touches or even approaches any medicine which is about to be given +to a sick man, it will cause his death.[15] Amongst other Indian tribes +of North America women at menstruation are forbidden to touch men's +utensils, which would be so defiled by their touch that their subsequent +use would be attended by certain misfortune. The Canadian Denes believe +that the very sight of a woman in this condition is dangerous to +society, so that she wears a special skin bonnet to hide her from the +public gaze.[16] In western Victoria a menstruous woman may not take +anyone's food or drink, and no one will touch food that has been touched +by her.[17] Amongst the Maoris, if a man ate food cooked by a menstrous +woman, he would be "tapu an inch thick."[18] Frazer quotes the case of +an Australian blackfellow who discovered that his wife had lain on his +blanket at her menstrual period, and who killed her and died of terror +himself within a fortnight.[19] Australian women at this time are +forbidden on pain of death to touch anything that men use or even to +walk on a path that men frequent.[20] Among the Baganda tribes a +menstruous woman is not permitted to come near her husband, cook his +food, touch any of his weapons, or sit on his mats, bed, or seat.[21] + +By some twist in the primitive way of thinking, some "false association +by similarity and contiguity," the function of childbirth, unlike that +of pregnancy, where the emphasis seems to have been placed in most cases +on the mana principle, was held to be unclean and contaminating, and was +followed by elaborate rites of purification. It may be that the pains of +delivery were ascribed to the machinations of demonic powers, or +possession by evil spirits,--we know that this has sometimes been the +case. The use of charms and amulets, and the chanting of sacred formulae +at this dangerous time all point to such beliefs. At any rate, although +the birth of the child would seem in every respect except in the +presence of blood to be more closely connected with the phenomena of +pregnancy than with that of menstruation, as a matter of fact the taboos +on the woman in child-bed were intimately associated with those on +menstruous women. + +Among the ancients, the Zoroastrians considered the woman unclean at +childbirth as at menstruation.[22] In the Old Testament, ritual +uncleanness results from contact with a woman at childbirth.[23] + +Likewise among savage tribes the same customs concerning childbirth +prevail. Among the Australian aborigines women are secluded at childbirth +as at menstruation, and all vessels used by them during this seclusion +are burned.[20] The Ewe-speaking people think a mother and babe unclean +for forty days after childbirth.[24] At menstruation and childbirth +a Chippeway wife may not eat with her husband; she must cook +her food at a separate fire, since any one using her fire would fall +ill.[10, v. ii, p.457] The Alaskan explorer Dall found that among the +Kaniagmuts a woman was considered unclean for several days both after +delivery and menstruation; in either case no one may touch her and she +is fed with food at the end of a stick.[25] Amongst the tribes of the +Hindu Kush the mother is considered unclean for seven days after the +birth of her child, and no one will eat from her hand nor will she +suckle her infant during that period. In the Oxus valley north of the +Hindu Kush the period is extended to forty days.[26] + +This attitude which primitive man takes toward woman at the time of her +sexual crises--menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth--are but an +intensification of the feeling which he has toward her at all times. +Conflicting with his natural erotic inclinations are the emotions of awe +and fear which she inspires in him as the potential source of contagion, +for there is always some doubt as to her freedom from bad magic, and it +is much safer to regard her as unclean.[27] Thus the every-day life of +savage tribes is hedged in by all manner of restrictions concerning the +females of their group. The men have their own dwelling in many +instances, where no woman may enter. So, too, she may be barred out from +the temples and excluded from the religious ceremonies when men worship +their deity. There are people who will not permit the women of their +nation to touch the weapons, clothing, or any other possessions of the +men, or to cook their food, lest even this indirect contact result in +emasculation. The same idea of sympathetic magic is at the root of +taboos which forbid the wife to speak her husband's name, or even to use +the same dialect. With social intercourse debarred, and often no common +table even in family life, it is veritably true that men and women +belong to two castes. + +Of the primitive institution known as the "men's house," Hutton Webster +says: "Sexual separation is further secured and perpetuated by the +institution known as the men's house, of which examples are to be found +among primitive peoples throughout the world. It is usually the largest +building in a tribal settlement ... Here the most precious belongings of +the community, such as trophies and religious emblems, are preserved. +Within its precincts ... women and children ... seldom or never +enter ... Family huts serve as little more than resorts for the +women and children."[28] + +Many examples among uncivilized peoples bear out this description of +the institution of the men's house. Amongst the Indians of California +and in some Redskin tribes the men's clubhouse may never be entered by a +squaw under penalty of death. The Shastika Indians have a town lodge for +women, and another for men which the women may not enter.[15] Among the +Fijis women are not allowed to enter a _bure_ or club house, which is +used as a lounge by the chiefs. In the Solomon Islands women may not +enter the men's _tambu_ house, and on some of the islands are not even +permitted to cross the beach in front of it.[29] In the Marquesas +Islands the _ti_ where the men congregate and spend most of their time +is taboo to women, and protected by the penalty of death from the +pollution of a woman's presence.[30] + +Not only is woman barred from the men's club house, but she is also +often prohibited from association and social intercourse with the +opposite sex by many other regulations and customs. Thus no woman may +enter the house of a Maori chief,[31] while among the Zulus, even if a +man and wife are going to the same place they never walk together.[32] +Among the Baganda wives are kept apart from the men's quarters.[21] The +Ojibway Indian Peter Jones says of his people: "When travelling the men +always walk on before. It would be considered a great presumption for +the wife to walk by the side of her husband."[33] In many islands of the +South Seas the houses of important men are not accessible to their +wives, who live in separate huts. Among the Bedouins a wife may not sit +in any part of the tent except her own corner, while it is disgraceful +for a man to sit under the shadow of the women's _roffe_ (tent +covering).[34] Among the Hindus, no female may enter the men's +apartments. In the Society and Sandwich Islands the females were +humiliated by taboo, and in their domestic life the women lived almost +entirely by themselves. The wife could not eat the same food, could not +eat in the same place, could not cook by the same fire. It was said that +woman would pollute the food.[35] In Korea a large bell is tolled at +about 8 p.m. and 3 a.m. daily, and between these hours only are women +supposed to appear in the streets.[36] In the New Hebrides there is a +curious segregation of the sexes, with a dread among the men of eating +anything female.[37] + +Among many tribes this segregation of the women and the separation of +the sexes begin at an early age, most often at the approach of puberty, +which is earlier in primitive peoples than in our own race.[38] The boys +usually go about with the father, while the girls remain with the +mother. This is true in Patagonia, where the boys begin to go with the +father at ten, the daughters with the mother at nine.[39] In Korea boys +and girls are separated at seven. From that time the Korean girl is +absolutely secluded in the inner court of her father's home. Mrs Bishop +says: "Girl children are so successfully hidden away that ... I never +saw one girl who looked above the age of six ... except in the women's +rooms."[36] Among the northern Indian girls are from the age of eight or +nine prohibited from joining in the most innocent amusements with +children of the opposite sex, and are watched and guarded with such an +unremitting attention as cannot be exceeded by the most rigid discipline +of an English boarding-school.[40] Similar arrangements are reported +among the Hill Dyaks,[41] certain Victorian tribes,[17] and many others. +As already instanced, the separation of the sexes extends even to +brothers and sisters and other close relatives. Thus in Fiji brothers +and sisters are forbidden by national and religious custom to speak to +each other.[9] In Melanesia, according to Codrington, the boy begins to +avoid his mother when he puts on clothing, and his sister as soon as she +is tattooed.[42] In the exclusive Nanburi caste of Travancore brothers +and sisters are separated at an early age. + +Women are more often than not excluded also from religious worship on +account of the idea of their uncleanness. The Arabs in many cases will +not allow women religious instruction. The Ansayrees consider woman to +be an inferior being without a soul, and therefore exclude her from +religious services.[34] In the Sandwich Islands women were not allowed +to share in worship or festivals.[35] The Australians are very jealous +lest women should look into their sacred mysteries. It is death for a +woman to look into a Bora.[20] In Fiji women are kept away from worship +and excluded from all the temples.[9] The women of some of the Indian +hill-tribes may not sacrifice nor appear at shrines, nor take part in +religious festivals. In New Ireland women are not allowed to approach +the temples.[43] In the Marquesas Islands the Hoolah-hoolah ground, +where festivals are held, is taboo to women, who are killed if they +enter or even touch with their feet the shadow of the trees.[30] Women +are also excluded from the sacred festivals of the Ahts.[44] In the +Amazon region, the women are not even permitted to see the objects used +in important ceremonies. If any woman of the Uaupes tribe happens to see +the masks used in the tribal ceremony she is put to death.[45] + +Crawley has explained the taboos on the sexes eating together and on the +cooking of food by women for men as due to the superstitious belief +that food which has come in contact with or under the influence of the +female is capable of transmitting her properties. Some southern Arabs +would die rather than accept food from a woman.[12] Among the old +Semites it was not the custom for a man to eat with his wife and +children. Among the Motu of New Guinea when a man is helega, he may not +eat food that his wife has cooked.[46] South Australian boys during +initiation are forbidden to eat with the women, lest they "grow ugly or +become grey." + +It was probably some fear of the charm-weaving power of woman which lay +at the root of the rules which forbade her to speak her husband's name, +the implication being that she might use it in some incantation against +him. For instance, a Zulu woman was forbidden to speak her husband's +name; if she did so, she would be suspected of witchcraft.[47] Herodotus +tells us that no Ionian woman would ever mention the name of her +husband, nor may a Hindu woman do so.[48] + +Frazer says that the custom of the Kaffir woman of South Africa not to +speak the name of her own or husband's relations has given rise to an +almost entirely different language from that of the men through the +substitution of new words for the words thus banned. Once this "women's +speech" had arisen, it would of course not be used by the men because of +the universal contempt for woman and all that pertained to her. This may +have been the origin of the use of different dialects in some tribes, +such as the Japanese, the Arawaks, some Brazilian tribes, and +others.[49] + +Although the division of labour between the sexes had a natural +biological basis, and indeed had its beginning in the animal world long +before man as such came into existence, the idea of the uncleanness of +woman was carried over to her work, which became beneath the dignity of +man. As a result, there grew up a series of taboos which absolutely +fixed the sphere of woman's labour, and prohibited her from encroaching +on the pursuits of man lest they be degraded by her use, quite as much +as they barred man from her specific activities. In Nicaragua, for +example, it is a rule that the marketing shall be done by women. In +Samoa, where the manufacture of cloth is allotted to the women, it is +taboo for a man to engage in any part of the process.[30] Among the +Andamanese the performance of most of the domestic duties falls to the +lot of the women and children. Only in cases of stern necessity will the +husband procure wood or water.[50] An Eskimo even thinks it an indignity +to row in an _umiak_, the large boat used by women. + +They also distinguish very definitely between the offices of husband +and wife. For example, when a man has brought a seal to land, it would +be a stigma on his character to draw it out of the water, since that is +the duty of the female.[51] In the Marquesas Islands, the use of canoes +in all parts of the islands is rigorously prohibited to women, for whom +it is death even to be seen entering one when hauled on shore; while +Tapa-making, which belongs exclusively to women, is taboo to men.[30] +Among the Betchuanas of South Africa the men will not let women touch +the cattle.[52] The Baganda think that if a woman steps over a man's +weapons they will not aim straight or kill until they have been +purified.[21] Among many South African tribes, if a wife steps over her +husband's assegais, they are considered useless from that time and are +given to the boys to play with. This superstition rings many changes and +is current among the natives of all countries. + +The taboos which have thus been exemplified and reviewed are based on +the feeling that woman is possessed of a demonic power, or perhaps of a +_mana_ principle which may work injury; or else upon the fear that she +may contaminate man with her weakness. It is very probable that many of +these taboos originated even as far back as the stage of society in +which the line of descent was traced through the mother. There seems +little doubt that the framework of ancient society rested on the basis +of kinship, and that the structure of the ancient gens brought the +mother and child into the same gens. Under these circumstances the gens +of the mother would have some ascendancy in the ancient household. On +such an established fact rests the assumption of a matriarchate, or +period of Mutterrecht. The German scholar Bachofen in his monumental +work "Das Mutterrecht" discussed the traces of female "authority" among +the Lycians, Cretans, Athenians, Lemnians, Lesbians, and Asiatic +peoples. But it is now almost unanimously agreed that the matriarchal +period was not a time when women were in possession of political or +economic power, but was a method of tracing descent and heritage. It is +fairly well established that, in the transition from metronymic to +patronymic forms, authority did not pass from women to men, but from the +brothers and maternal uncles of the women of the group to the husbands +and sons. Such a method of tracing descent, while it doubtless had its +advantages in keeping the woman with her child with her blood kindred, +would not prevent her from occupying a degraded position through the +force of the taboos which we have described.[53] + +With the development of the patriarchal system and the custom of +marriage by capture or purchase, woman came to be regarded as a part of +man's property, and as inviolate as any other of his possessions. Under +these circumstances virginity came to be more and more of an asset, +since no man wished his property to be denied by the touch of another. +Elaborate methods for the preservation of chastity both before and after +marriage were developed, and in many instances went so far as to +consider a woman defiled if she were accidentally touched by any other +man than her husband. Here we have once more the working of sympathetic +magic, where the slightest contact works contamination. + +We have in other connections alluded to the seclusion of young girls in +Korea, among the Hindus, among the North American Indians, and in the +South Seas. One of the most beautiful examples of this custom is found +in New Britain. From puberty until marriage the native girls are +confined in houses with a bundle of dried grass across the entrance to +show that the house is strictly taboo. The interior of these houses is +divided into cells or cages in each of which a girl is confined. No +light and little or no air enters, and the atmosphere is hot and +stifling. + +The seclusion of women after marriage is common among many peoples. In +the form in which it affected western civilization it probably +originated among the Persians or some other people of central Asia, and +spread to the Arabs and Mohammedans. That it did not originate with the +Arabs is attested by students of their culture. It was common among the +Greeks, whose wives were secluded from other men than their husbands. In +modern Korea it is not even proper to ask after the women of the family. +Women have been put to death in that country when strange men have +accidentally touched their hands.[36, p.341] + +The saddest outcome of the idea of woman as property was the status of +widows. In uncivilized society a widow is considered dangerous because +the ghost of her husband is supposed to cling to her. Hence she must be +slain that his spirit may depart in peace with her, as well as with the +weapons and other possessions which are buried with him or burned upon +his funeral pyre. The Marathi proverb to the effect that "the husband is +the life of the woman" thus becomes literally true. + +The best known case of widow slaying is of course the custom of "suttee" +in India. The long struggle made against this custom by the British +government is a vivid illustration of the strength of these ancient +customs. The Laws of Manu indicate that the burning of widows was +practised by primitive Aryans. In the Fiji Islands, where a wife was +strangled on her husband's grave, the strangled women were called "the +carpeting of the grave."[54] In Arabia, as in many other countries, +while a widow may escape death, she is very often forced into the class +of vagabonds and dependents. One of the most telling appeals made by +missionaries is the condition of child widows in countries in which the +unfortunates cannot be killed, but where the almost universal stigma of +shame is attached to second marriages. A remarkable exception to this, +when in ancient Greece the dying husband sometimes bequeathed his widow +to a male friend, emphasized the idea of woman as property. + +Although the taboos which are based on the idea of ownership are +somewhat aside from the main theme of our discussion, they nevertheless +reinforce the other taboos of the seclusion and segregation of woman as +unclean. Moreover, as will be shown in a later chapter, the property +idea has certain implications which are important for the proper +understanding of the status of woman and the attitude toward her at the +present time. + +In the face of the primitive aversion to woman as the source of +contamination through sympathetic magic, or as the seat of some mystic +force, whether of good or evil, it may well be asked how man ever dared +let his sexual longings overcome his fears and risk the dangers of so +intimate a relationship. Only by some religious ceremonial, some act of +purification, could man hope to counteract these properties of woman; +and thus the marriage ritual came into existence. By the marriage +ceremonial, the breach of taboo was expiated, condoned, and socially +countenanced.[1, p.200] This was very evident in the marriage customs of +the Greeks, which were composed of purification rites and other +precautions.[55] The injunctions to the Hebrews given in Leviticus +illustrate the almost universal fact that even under the sanction of +marriage the sexual embrace was taboo at certain times, as for example +before the hunt or battle. + +We are now prepared to admit that throughout the ages there has existed +a strongly dualistic or "ambivalent" feeling in the mind of man toward +woman. On the one hand she is the object of erotic desire; on the other +hand she is the source of evil and danger. So firmly is the latter +feeling fixed that not even the sanction of the marriage ceremony can +completely remove it, as the taboos of intercourse within the marital +relationship show. + +There are certain psychological and physiological reasons for the +persistence of this dualistic attitude in the very nature of the sex act +itself. Until the climax of the sexual erethism, woman is for man the +acme of supreme desire; but with detumescence the emotions tend to +swing to the opposite pole, and excitement and longing are forgotten in +the mood of repugnance and exhaustion. This tendency would be very much +emphasized in those primitive tribes where the _corroboree_ with its +unlimited indulgence was common, and also among the ancients with their +orgiastic festivals. In the revulsion of feeling following these orgies +woman would be blamed for man's own folly. In this physiological swing +from desire to satiety, the apparent cause of man's weakness would be +looked upon as the source of the evil--a thing unclean. There would be +none of the ethical and altruistic element of modern "love" to protect +her. Students agree that these elements in the modern sentiment have +been evolved, "not from the sexual instinct, but from the companionship +of the battlefield."[56] It is therefore probable that in this +physiological result of uncontrolled sex passion we shall find the +source of the dualism of the attitude toward sex and womanhood present +in taboo. + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER I + +1. Crawley, A.E. The Mystic Rose. 492 pp. Macmillan. London, 1902. + +2. Jevons, F.B. History of Religion. 443 pp. Methuen & Co. London, 1896. + +3. Tylor, E.B. Early History of Mankind, 3d. ed. 388 pp. J. Murray. +London, 1878. + +4. Frazer, J.G. The Golden Bough: Part I, The Magic Art and the +Evolution of Kings. 2 vols. Macmillan. London, 1911. + +5. First published in Anthropological Essays presented to E.B. Tylor in +honour of his 75th birthday. Oct. 2, 1907. 416 pp. The Clarendon Press, +Oxford, 1907. + +6. Sumner, W.G. Folkways. 692 pp. Ginn & Co. Boston, 1907. + +7. Boas, Franz. The Mind of Primitive Man. 294 pp. Macmillan. N.Y., +1911. + +8. Wallace, Alfred Russel. Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio +Negro. 541 pp. Reeve & Co., London, 1853. + +9. Williams, Thomas, and Calvert, James. Fiji and the Fijians. 551 pp. +Appleton. N.Y., 1859. + +10. Ploss, Dr Hermann H. Das Weib. 2 vols. Th. Grieben's Verlag. +Leipzig, 1885. + +11. Greiger, Ostiranische Kultur. Erlangen, 1882. Quoted from Folkways +[6], p. 513. + +12. Robertson Smith, W. Religion of the Semites. 508 pp. A. & C. Black. +Edinburgh, 1894. + +13. Thompson, R.C. Semitic Magic. 286 pp. Luzac & Co. London, 1908. + +14. Ellis, A.B. Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast of West Africa. +343 pp. Chapman & Hall. London, 1887. + +15. Powers, Stephen. Tribes of California. Contributions to North +American Ethnology, Third Volume. Washington, 1877. + +16. Morice, Rev. Father A.G. The Canadian Denes. Annual Archeological +Report, 1905. Toronto, 1906. Quoted from Frazer, Taboo and the Perils of +the Soul. + +17. Dawson, James. Australian Aborigines. 111 pp., with Appendix. George +Robertson. Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide, 1881. Citation from Latin +note to Chap. XII. + +18. Tregear, Edward. The Maoris of New Zealand. Journal of the +Anthropological Institute, v. xix, 1889. + +19. Armit, Capt. W.E. Customs of the Australian Aborigines. Jour. Anthr. +Inst., ix, 1880, p. 459. See also [18]. + +20. Ridley, W. Report on Australian Languages and Traditions. Jour. +Anthr. Inst., ii, 1872. + +21. Roscoe, Rev. John. Manners and Customs of the Baganda. Jour. Anthr, +Inst., xxxii, 1902. + +22. Zend-Avesta. Sacred Books of the East Series. Oxford 1880, 1883. + +23. Leviticus xii. + +24. Ellis, A.B. Ewe-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa. +Chapman & Hall. London, 1890. 331 pp. + +25. Dall, W.H. Alaska and Its Resources. 627 pp. Lee & Shepard. Boston, +1870. + +26. Biddulph, Maj. J. Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh. 164 pp. Gov't. +Printing Office. Calcutta, 1880. + +27. Frazer, J.G. The Golden Bough: Part II, Taboo and the Perils of the +Soul. 446 pp. Macmillan. London, 1911. + +28. Webster, Hutton. Primitive Secret Societies. 227 pp. Macmillan. +N.Y., 1908. + +29. Guppy, H.B. The Solomon Islands and Their Natives. 384 pp. Swan +Sonnenschein & Co. London, 1887. + +30. Melville, H. The Marquesas Islands. 285 pp. John Murray. London, +1846. + +31. Taylor, Rev. Richard. Te Ika A Maui, or New Zealand and Its +Inhabitants. 713 pp. 2d. ed. Macintosh. London, 1870. + +32. Shooter, Rev. Joseph. The Kaffirs of Natal and the Zulu Country. 403 +pp. E. Stanford. London, 1857. + +33. Jones, Rev. Peter. History of the Ojibway Indians. 217 pp. A.W. +Bennett. London, 1861. + +34. Featherman, A. Social History of the Races of Mankind. 5 vols. +Truebner & Co. London, 1881. + +35. Ellis, Rev. Wm. Polynesian Researches. 4 vols. G. Bohn. London, +1853. + +36. Bishop, Mrs Isabella Bird. Korea and Her Neighbours. 480 pp. Fleming +H. Revell Co. N.Y., 1898. + +37. Somerville, Lieut. Boyle T. The New Hebrides. Jour. Anthr. Inst., +xxiii, 1894. + +38. Hall, G. Stanley. Adolescence. 2 vols. Appleton, N.Y., 1904. + +39. Musters, G.C. At Home with the Patagoniana. 340 pp. J. Murray. +London, 1873. + +40. Hearne, Samuel. A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's +Bay to the Northern Ocean. Publications of the Champlain Society, No. 6. +London, 1795. + +41. Low, Hugh. Sarawak. 416 pp. Richard Bentley. London, 1848. + +42. Codrington, Rev. R.H. The Melanesians. 419 pp. Oxford, 1891. + +43. Romilly, Hugh Hastings. The Western Pacific and New Guinea, 2d. ed., +284 pp. John Murray. London, 1887. + +44. Sproat, G.M. Scenes and Studies of Savage Life. 317 pp. Smith, Elder +& Co. London, 1868. + +45. Wissler, Clark. The American Indian. 435 pp. D.C. McMurtrie. N.Y., +1917. + +46. Lawes, W.G. Ethnographical Notes on the Motu, Koitapu, and Koiari +Tribes of New Guinea. Jour. Anthr. Inst., viii, 1879. + +47. Callaway, Rev. Canon Henry. Religious System of the Amazulu. 448 pp. +Truebner & Co. London, 1870. + +48. Crooke, W. Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India. 2 vols. +Archibald Constable & Co. Westminster, 1896. + +49. Crawley, A.E. Sexual Taboo. Journ. Anthr. Inst., xxiv, 1895. + +50. Man, E.H. The Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands. Jour. +Anthr. Inst., xii, 1882. + +51. Crantz, David. History of Greenland. Trans, fr. the German, 2 vols. +Longmans, Green. London, 1820. + +52. Holub, E. Central South African Tribes. Jour. Anthr. Inst., x, 1881. + +53. Morgan, Lewis H. Ancient Society. 560 pp. Henry Holt & Co. N.Y., +1907. (First edition, 1877). + +54. Fison, Rev. Lorimer. Figian Burial Customs, jour. Anthr. Inst., x. +1881. + +55. Rohde, Erwin. Psyche. 711 pp. Freiburg und Leipzig, 1894. + +56. Benecke, E.F.M. Women in Greek Poetry. 256 pp. Swan Sonnenschein & +Co. London, 1896. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +FROM THE DAWN OF HISTORY: WOMAN AS SAINT AND WITCH + + +Taboos of first chapter indicate that in the early ages the fear of +contamination by woman predominated; Later, emphasis fell on her mystic +and uncanny power; Ancient fertility cults; Temple prostitution, +dedication of virgins, etc.; Ancient priestesses and prophetesses; +Medicine early developed by woman added to belief in her power; Woman's +psychic quality of intuition: its origin--theories--conclusion that this +quality is probably physiological in origin, but aggravated by taboo +repressions; Transformation in attitude toward woman in the early +Christian period; Psychological reasons for the persistence in religion +of a Mother Goddess; Development of the Christian concept; Preservation +of ancient women cults as demonology; Early Christian attitude toward +woman as unclean and in league with demons; Culmination of belief in +demonic power of woman in witchcraft persecutions; All women affected by +the belief in witches and in the uncleanness of woman; Gradual +development on the basis of the beliefs outlined of an ideally pure and +immaculate Model Woman. + +From the data of the preceding chapter, it is clear that the early ages +of human life there was a dualistic attitude toward woman. On the one +hand she was regarded as the possessor of the mystic _mana_ force, +while on the other she was the source of "bad magic" and likely to +contaminate man with her weaknesses. Altogether, the study of primitive +taboos would indicate that the latter conception predominated in savage +life, and that until the dawn of history woman was more often regarded +as a thing unclean than as the seat of a divine power. + +At the earliest beginnings of civilization man's emotions seem to have +swung to the opposite extreme, for emphasis fell on the mystic and +uncanny powers possessed by woman. Thus it was that in ancient nations +there was a deification of woman which found expression in the belief in +feminine deities and the establishment of priestess cults. Not until the +dawn of the Christian era was the emphasis once more focussed on woman +as a thing unclean. Then, her mystic power was ascribed to demon +communication, and stripped of her divinity, she became the witch to be +excommunicated and put to death. + +All the ancient world saw something supernatural, something demoniacal, +in generation. Sometimes the act was deified, as in the phallic +ceremonials connected with nature worship, where the procreative +principle in man became identified with the creative energy pervading +all nature, and was used as a magic charm at the time of springtime +planting to insure the fertility of the fields and abundant harvest,[1] +It was also an important part of the ritual in the Phrygian cults, the +cult of the Phoenician Astarte, and the Aphrodite cults. These mystery +religions were widely current in the Graeco-Roman world in pre-Christian +times. The cult of Demeter and Dionysius in Greece and Thrace; Cybele +and Attis in Phrygia; Atagartes in Cilicia; Aphrodite and Adonis in +Syria; Ashtart and Eshmun (Adon) in Phoenicia; Ishtar and Tammuz in +Babylonia; Isis, Osiris and Serapis in Egypt, and Mithra in Persia--all +were developed along the same lines.[2] The custom of the sacrifice of +virginity to the gods, and the institution of temple prostitution, also +bear witness to the sacred atmosphere with which the sex act was +surrounded among the early historic peoples.[3] It was this idea of the +mysterious sanctity of sex which did much to raise woman to her position +as divinity and fertility goddess. + +The dedication of virgins to various deities, of which the classic +example is the institution of the Vestal Virgins at Rome, and the fact +that at Thebes and elsewhere even the male deities had their priestesses +as well as priests, are other indications that at this time woman was +regarded as divine or as capable of ministering to divinity. The +prophetic powers of woman were universally recognized. The oracles at +Delphi, Argos, Epirus, Thrace and Arcadia were feminine. Indeed the +Sibylline prophetesses were known throughout the Mediterranean basin.[A] + +[Footnote A: Farnell[4] found such decided traces of feminine divinity +as to incline him to agree with Bachofen that there was at +one time an age of Mutterrecht which had left its impress on +religion as well as on other aspects of social life. As we have +said before, it is now fairly well established that in the transition +from metronymic to patronymic forms, authority did not pass +from women to men but from the brothers and maternal uncles +of the women of the group to husbands and sons. This fact +does not, however, invalidate the significance of Farnell's data +for the support of the view herein advanced, i.e., that woman +was at one time universally considered to partake of the divine.] + +The widespread character of the woman-cult of priestesses and +prophetesses among the peoples from whom our culture is derived is +evidenced in literature and religion. That there had been cults of +ancient mothers who exerted moral influence and punished crime is shown +by the Eumenides and Erinyes of the Greeks. The power of old women as +law-givers survived in Rome in the legend of the Cumaean Sibyl.[5] An +index of the universality of the sibylline cult appears in the list of +races to which Varro and Lactantius say they belonged: Persian, Libyan, +Delphian, Cimmerian, Erythrian, Trojan, and Phrygian.[6] These sibyls +were believed to be inspired, and generations of Greek and Roman +philosophers never doubted their power. Their carmina were a court of +last resort, and their books were guarded by a sacred taboo. + +Among the Greeks and neighbouring nations the women of Thessaly had a +great reputation for their charms and incantations.[7] Among the writers +who speak of a belief in their power are: Plato, Aristophanes, Horace, +Ovid, Virgil, Tibullus, Seneca, Lucan, Menander, and Euripides. + +All of the northern European tribes believed in the foresight of future +events by women. Strabo says of the Cimbri that when they took the field +they were accompanied by venerable, hoary-headed prophetesses, clothed +in long, white robes. Scandinavians, Gauls, Germans, Danes and Britons +obeyed, esteemed and venerated females who dealt in charms and +incantations. These sacred women claimed to foretell the future and to +interpret dreams, and among Germans, Celts and Gauls they were the only +physicians and surgeons. The druidesses cured disease and were believed +to have power superior to that of the priests.[8] The Germans never +undertook any adventure without consulting their prophetesses.[9] The +Scandinavian name for women endowed with the gift of prophecy was +_fanae_, _fanes_. The English form is _fay_. The ceremonies of fays or +fairies, like those of the druidesses, were performed in secluded +woods.[A] + +[Footnote A: Joan of Arc was asked during her trial if she were a fay.] + +Magic and medicine went hand in hand in ancient times, and remained +together down to the middle ages. Old herbals largely compiled from the +lore of ancient women form a link in the chain of tradition, the first +ring of which may have been formed in Egypt or in Greece. There is no +doubt that women from an early date tried to cure disease. Homer makes +mention of Hecamede and her healing potions. There seems little doubt +that there were Greek women who applied themselves to a complete study +of medicine and contributed to the advance of medical science. This +traditional belief in the power of women to cure disease survives in the +folk to-day.[10] + +In view of the widespread veneration of a peculiar psychic quality of +woman, a power of prophecy and a property of divinity which has made her +an object of fear and worship, it may be well to review the modern +explanations of the origin of this unique feminine power. Herbert +Spencer was of the opinion that feminine penetration was an ability to +distinguish quickly the passing feelings of those around and was the +result of long ages of barbarism during which woman as the weaker sex +was obliged to resort to the arts of divination and to cunning to make +up for her lack of physical force and to protect herself and her +offspring.[11] In like vein Kaethe Schirmacher, a German feminist, says: +"The celebrated intuition of woman is nothing but an astonishing +refinement of the senses through fear.... Waiting in fear was made the +life task of the sex."[12] + +Lester F. Ward had a somewhat different view.[13] He thought that +woman's psychic power came from the sympathy based on the maternal +instinct, which "though in itself an entirely different faculty, early +blended with or helped to create, the derivative reason-born faculty of +altruism." With Ward's view Olive Schreiner agrees, saying: "We have no +certain proof that it is so at present, but woman's long years of +servitude and physical subjection, and her experience as childbearer and +protector of infancy, may be found in the future to have endowed her ... +with an exceptional width of human sympathy and instinctive +comprehension."[14] + +In all probability Lombroso came nearer to the truth in his explanation +of feminine penetration. "That woman is more subject to hysteria is a +known fact," he says, "but few know how liable she is to hypnotic +phenomena, which easily opens up the unfoldment of spiritual +faculties.... The history of observation proves that hysteria and +hypnotism take the form of magic, sorcery, and divination or prophecy, +among savage peoples. 'Women,' say the Pishawar peoples, 'are all +witches; for several reasons they may not exert their inborn powers.' +... In the Slave Coast hysterical women are believed to be possessed +with spirits. The Fuegians believed that there had been a time when +women wielded the empire through her possession of the secrets of +sorcery."[8, pp.85f.] + +The history of modern spiritualism has so well confirmed this view of +Lombroso's that we are safe in accepting it as the partial explanation +of the attribute of a mysterious and uncanny power which man has always +given to the feminine nature. The power of prophecy and divination which +was possessed by women at the dawn of history and for some time +thereafter was probably not different in its essentials from the +manifestations of hysterical girls who have puzzled the wisest +physicians or the strange phenomena of those spiritualistic mediums who +have been the subject of research well into our own times.[15] + +If we wish to push our inquiry still further and ask why woman should be +so much more subject than man to hysterical seizures and to hypnotic +suggestion, we shall probably find that it is an essential part of her +femininity. Modern psychology and physiology have pointed out that the +menstrual cycle of woman has a vast influence not only on her emotional +nature but on her whole psychic life, so that there are times when she +is more nervously tense, more apt to become hysterical or to yield to +the influence of suggestion. Moreover, because of the emphasis on +chastity and the taboos with which she was surrounded, any neurotic +tendencies which might be inherent in her nature were sure to be +developed to the utmost. + +As Lombroso suggests, hysteria and other neurotic phenomena are classed +as evidence of spirit possession by the untutored mind. Thus it happened +that observing the strange psychic manifestations to which woman was +periodically subject, the ancient peoples endowed her with +spiritualistic forces which were sometimes held to be beneficent and at +other times malefic in character. Whatever the attitude at any time +whether her _mana_ were regarded as evil or benignant, the savage and +primitive felt that it was well to be on his guard in the presence of +power; so that the taboos previously outlined would hold through the +swing of man's mind from one extreme to the other. + +As goddess, priestess and prophetess, woman continued to play her role +in human affairs until the Christian period, when a remarkable +transformation took place. The philosophy of dualism that emanated from +Persia had affected all the religions of the Mediterranean Basin and had +worked its way into Christian beliefs by way of Gnosticism, +Manicheanism, and Neo-Platonism. Much of the writing of the church +fathers is concerned with the effort to harmonize conflicting beliefs +or to avoid the current heresies. To one who reads the fathers it +becomes evident to what extent the relation of man to woman figures in +these controversies.[16] + +The Manicheanism which held in essence Persian Mithraism and which had +so profound an influence on the writings of St. Augustine gave body and +soul to two distinct worlds and finally identified woman with the body. +But probably as a result of the teachings of Gnosticism with its +Neo-Platonic philosophy which never entirely rejected feminine +influence, some of this influence survived in the restatement of +religion for the folk. When the restatement was completed and was +spreading throughout Europe in the form which held for the next +millennium, it was found that the early goddesses had been accepted +among the saints, the priestesses and prophetesses were rejected as +witches, while the needs of men later raised the Blessed Virgin to a +place beside her son. + +Modern psychology has given us an explanation of the difficulty of +eradicating the worship of such a goddess as the Great Mother of Asia +Minor from the religion of even martial peoples who fear the +contamination of woman's weakness; or from a religion obsessed with +hatred of woman as unclean by men who made the suppression of bodily +passions the central notion of sanctity. The most persistent human +relationship, the one charged with a constant emotional value, is not +that of sex, which takes manifold forms, but that of the mother and +child. It is to the mother that the child looks for food, love, and +protection. It is to the child that the mother often turns from the +mate, either because of the predominance of mother love over sex or in +consolation for the loss of the love of the male. We have only recently +learned to evaluate the infantile patterns engraved in the neural tissue +during the years of childhood when the mother is the central figure of +the child's life. Whatever disillusionments may come about other women +later in life, the mother ideal thus established remains a constant part +of man's unconscious motivations. It is perhaps possible that this +infantile picture of a being all-wise, all-tender, all-sacrificing, has +within it enough emotional force to create the demand for a +mother-goddess in any religion. + +To arrive at the concept of the Madonna, a far-reaching process of +synthesis and reinterpretation must have been carried out before the +Bible could be brought into harmony with the demands made by a cult of a +mother goddess. Just as the views brought into the church by celibate +ideals spread among heathen people, so the church must have been in its +turn influenced by the heathen way of looking at things.[17] One of the +great difficulties was the reconciliation of the biological process of +procreation with divinity. But there had for ages been among primitive +peoples the belief that impregnation was caused by spirit possession or +by sorcery. This explanation had survived in a but slightly altered form +in the ancient mythologies, all of which contained traditions of heroes +and demi-gods who were born supernaturally of a divine father and a +human mother. In the myths of Buddha, Zoroaster, Pythagoras and Plato, +it was intimated that the father had been a god or spirit, and that the +mother had been, and moreover remained after the birth, an earthly +virgin. These old and precious notions of the supernatural origin of +great men were not willingly renounced by those who accepted the new +religion; nor was it necessary to make such a sacrifice, because men +thought that they could recognize in the Jewish traditions something +corresponding to the heathen legends.[18] + +The proper conditions for the development of a mother cult within +Christianity existed within the church by the end of the second century. +At the Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.) it was settled that the Son was of +the same nature as the Father. The question of the nature of Mary then +came to the fore. The eastern fathers, Athanasius, Ephraim Syrus, +Eusebius and Chrysostom, made frequent use in their writings of the +term Theotokos, Mother of God. When Nestorius attacked those who +worshipped the infant Christ as a god and Mary as the mother of God +rather than as the mother of Christ, a duel began between Cyril of +Alexandria and Nestorius "which in fierceness and importance can only be +compared with that between Arius and Athanasius."[19] + +In 431 A.D. the Universal Church Council at Ephesus assented to the +doctrine that Mary was the Mother of God. Thus Ephesus, home of the +great Diana, from primitive times the centre of the worship of a goddess +who united in herself the virtues of virginity and motherhood, could +boast of being the birthplace of the Madonna cult. And thus Mary, our +Lady of Sorrows, pure and undefiled, "the church's paradox," became the +ideal of man. She was "a woman, virgin and mother, sufficiently high to +be worshipped, yet sufficiently near to be reached by affection. ... If +we judge myths as artistic creations we must recognize that no god or +goddess has given its worshippers such an ideal as the Mary of Christian +art and poetry."[19: p.183] [20: v. ii., pp.220f.] + +Although Christianity thus took over and embodied in its doctrines the +cult of the mother-goddess, at the same time it condemned all the rites +which had accompanied the worship of the fertility goddesses in all the +pagan religions. The power of these rites was still believed in, but +they were supposed to be the work of demons, and we find them strictly +forbidden in the early ecclesiastical laws. The phallic ceremonials +which formed so large a part of heathen ritual became marks of the +devil, and the deities in whose honour they were performed, although +losing none of their power, were regarded as demonic rather than divine +in nature. Diana, goddess of the moon, for example, became identified +with Hecate of evil repute, chief of the witches. "In such a fashion the +religion of Greece, that of Egypt, of Phoenicia and Asia Minor, of +Assyria and of Persia, became mingled and confused in a simple +demonology."[21] + +In addition to the condemnation of Pagan deities and their ritualistic +worship, there was a force inherent in the very nature of Christianity +which worked toward the degradation of the sex life. After the death of +Christ, his followers had divorced their thoughts from all things +earthly and set about fitting themselves for their places in the other +world. The thought of the early Christian sects was obsessed by the idea +of the second coming of the Messiah. The end of the world was incipient, +therefore it behooved each and every one to purge himself from sin. This +emphasis on the spiritual as opposed to the fleshly became fixated +especially on the sex relationship, which came to be the symbol of the +lusts of the body which must be conquered by the high desires of the +soul. Consequently the feelings concerning this relation became +surcharged with all the emotion which modern psychology has taught us +always attaches to the conscious symbol of deeply underlying unconscious +complexes. In such a situation man, who had come to look with horror on +the being who reminded him that he was flesh as well as spirit saw in +her "the Devil's gateway," or "a fireship continually striving to get +along side the male man-of-war to blow him up into pieces."[22][A] + +[Footnote A: Dr Donaldson, translator of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, says: +"I used to believe ... that woman owes her present position to +Christianity ... but in the first three centuries I have not been able +to see that Christianity had any favourable effect on the position of +woman."] + +With the rejection of the idea of the sanctity of sex as embodied in the +phallic rituals of the pagan cults, the psychic power of woman became +once more a thing of fear rather than of worship, and her uncleanness +was emphasized again more than her holiness, even as in primitive times. +The power of woman to tell the course of future events which in other +days had made her revered as priestess and prophetess now made her hated +as a witch who had control of what the Middle Ages knew as the Black +Art.[23] The knowledge of medicine which she had acquired through the +ages was now thought to be utilized in the making of "witch's brew," and +the "ceremonies and charms whereby the influence of the gods might be +obtained to preserve or injure"[21: v.1, p.12] became incantations to the +evil one. In addition to her natural erotic attraction for the male, +woman was now accused of using charms to lure him to his destruction. +The asceticism of the church made it shameful to yield to her +allurements, and as a result woman came to be feared and loathed as the +arch-temptress who would destroy man's attempt to conform to celibate +ideals. This sex antagonism culminated in the witchcraft persecutions +which make so horrible a page of the world's history. + +Among the pagans, witches had shared with prophetesses and priestesses a +degree of reverence and veneration. Medea had taught Jason to tame the +brazen-footed bulls and dragons which guarded the Golden Fleece. Hecate +was skilled in spells and incantations. Horace frequently mentions with +respect Canidia, who was a powerful enchantress. Gauls, Britons and +Germans had obeyed and venerated women who dealt in charms and +incantations. The doctrines of Christianity had changed the veneration +into hatred and detestation without eradicating the belief in the power +of the witch. It was with the hosts of evil that she was now believed to +have her dealings, however. When this notion of the alliance between +demons and women had become a commonplace, "the whole tradition was +directed against woman as the Devil's instrument, basely seductive, +passionate and licentious by nature."[24] Man's fear of woman found a +frantic and absurd expression in her supposed devil-worship. As a +result, the superstitions about witchcraft became for centuries not only +a craze, but a theory held by intelligent people. + +Among the female demons who were especially feared were: Nahemah, the +princess of the Succubi; Lilith, queen of the Stryges; and the Lamiae or +Vampires, who fed on the living flesh of men. Belief in the Vampires +still persists as a part of the folklore of Europe. Lilith tempted to +debauchery, and was variously known as child-strangler, child-stealer, +and a witch who changed true offspring for fairy or phantom children.[A] +The figure of the child-stealing witch occurs in an extremely ancient +apocryphal book called the Testament of Soloman, and dates probably from +the first or second century of the Christian Era.[25] + + +[Footnote A: The name of Lilith carries us as far back as Babylon, and +in her charms and conjurations we have revived in Europe the reflection +of old Babylonian charms.] + +Laws against the malefici (witches) were passed by Constantine. In the +Theodosian Code (_Lib. 9. Tit. 16. Leg. 3._) they are charged with +making attempts by their wicked arts upon the lives of innocent men, and +drawing others by magical potions (philtra et pharmaca) to commit +misdemeanours. They are further charged with disturbing the elements, +raising tempests, and practising abominable arts. The Council of +Laodicea (343-381. _Can_. 36) condemned them. The Council of Ancyra +forbade the use of medicine to work mischief. St. Basil's canons +condemned witchcraft. The fourth Council of Carthage censured +enchantment.[26] John of Salisbury tells of their feasts, to which they +took unbaptized children. William of Auverne describes the charms and +incantations which they used to turn a cane into a horse. William of +Malmesbury gives an account of two old women who transformed the +travellers who passed their door into horses, swine or other animals +which they sold. From some of the old Teuton laws we learn that it was +believed that witches could take a man's heart out of his body and fill +the cavity with straw or wood so that he would go on living. + +One of the famous witchcraft trials was that of the Lady Alice +Kyteler,[27] whose high rank could not save her from the accusation. It +was claimed that she used the ceremonies of the church, but with some +wicked changes. She extinguished the candles with the exclamation, "Fi! +Fi! Fi! Amen!" She was also accused of securing the love of her +husbands, who left much property to her, by magic charms. These claims +were typical of the accusations against witches in the trials which took +place. + +By the sixteenth century, the cumulative notion of witches had +penetrated both cultivated and uncultivated classes, and was embodied in +a great and increasing literature. "No comprehensive work on theology, +philosophy, history, law, medicine, or natural science could wholly +ignore it," says Burr, "and to lighter literature it afforded the most +telling illustrations for the pulpit, the most absorbing gossip for the +news-letter, the most edifying tales for the fireside."[28] + +As a result of this belief in the diabolic power of woman, judicial +murder of helpless women became an institution, which is thus +characterized by Sumner: "After the refined torture of the body and +nameless mental sufferings, women were executed in the most cruel +manner. These facts are so monstrous that all other aberrations of the +human race are small in comparison.... He who studies the witch trials +believes himself transferred into the midst of a race which has +smothered all its own nobler instincts, reason, justice, benevolence and +sympathy."[24] + +Any woman was suspect. Michelet, after a thirty years' study, wrote: +"Witches they are by nature. It is a gift peculiar to woman and her +temperament. By birth a fay, by the regular recurrence of her ecstasy +she becomes a sibyl. By her love she grows into an enchantress. By her +subtlety ... she becomes a witch and works her spells."[29] + +Just how many victims there were of the belief in the power of women as +witches will never be known. Scherr thinks that the persecutions cost +100,000 lives in Germany alone.[30] Lord Avebury quotes the estimate of +the inquisitor Sprenger, joint author of the "Witch Hammer," that during +the Christian period some 9,000,000 persons, mostly women, were burned +as witches.[31] Seven thousand victims are said to have been burned at +Treves, 600 by a single bishop of Bamburg, 800 in a single year in the +bishopric of Wurtzburg. At Toulouse 400 persons perished at a single +burning.[29: ch.1] [20: v.1. ch.1] One witch judge boasted that he +executed 900 witches in fifteen years. The last mass burning in Germany +was said to have taken place in 1678, when 97 persons were burned +together. The earliest recorded burning of a witch in England is in +Walter Mapes' _De Nugis Curialium_, in the reign of Henry II. An old +black letter tract gloats over the execution at Northampton, 1612, of a +number of persons convicted of witchcraft.[32] The last judicial +sentence was in 1736, when one Jane Wenham was found guilty of +conversing familiarly with the devil in the form of a cat.[33] + +The connection between the witchcraft delusion and the attitude toward +all women has already been implied.[34] The dualistic teaching of the +early church fathers, with its severance of matter and spirit and its +insistence on the ascetic ideal of life, had focussed on sexuality as +the outstanding manifestation of fleshly desires. The contact of the +sexes came to be looked upon as the supreme sin. Celibacy taught that +through the observance of the taboo on woman the man of God was to be +saved from pollution. Woman was the arch temptress who by the natural +forces of sex attraction, reinforced by her evil charms and +incantations, made it so difficult to attain the celibate ideal. From +her ancestress Eve woman was believed to inherit the natural propensity +to lure man to his undoing. Thus the old belief in the uncleanness of +woman was renewed in the minds of men with even greater intensity than +ever before, and in addition to a dangerous adventure, even within the +sanction of wedlock the sex act became a deed of shame. The following +quotations from the church fathers will illustrate this view: + +Jerome said, "Marriage is always a vice; all we can do is to excuse and +cleanse it. ... In Paradise Eve was a virgin. Virginity is natural +while wedlock only follows guilt."[35] + +Tertullian addressed women in these words: "Do you not know that you are +each an Eve? The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age. +... You are the devil's gateway. ... You destroy God's image, +Man."[35: Bk.1.] + +Thus woman became degraded beyond all previous thought in the teaching +of the early church. The child was looked upon as the result of an act +of sin, and came into the world tainted through its mother with sin. At +best marriage was a vice. All the church could do was to cleanse it as +much as possible by sacred rites, an attempt which harked back to the +origin of marriage as the ceremonial breaking of taboo. Peter Lombard's +Sentences affirmed marriage a sacrament. This was reaffirmed at Florence +in 1439. In 1565, the Council of Trent made the final declaration. But +not even this could wholly purify woman, and intercourse with her was +still regarded as a necessary evil, a concession that had to be +unwillingly made to the lusts of the flesh. + +Such accounts as we have of the lives of holy women indicate that they +shared in the beliefs of their times. In the account of the life of a +saint known as the Blessed Eugenia preserved in an old palimpsest[36] we +read that she adopted the costume of a monk,--"Being a woman by nature +in order that I might gain everlasting life." The same account tells of +another holy woman who passed as a eunuch, because she had been warned +that it was easier for the devil to tempt a woman. In another collection +of lives of saints is the story[37] of a holy woman who never allowed +herself to see the face of a man, even that of her own brother, lest +through her he might go in among women. Another holy virgin shut herself +up in a tomb because she did not wish to cause the spiritual downfall of +a young man who loved her. + +This long period of religious hatred of and contempt for woman included +the Crusades, the Age of Chivalry,[38] and lasted well into the +Renaissance.[39] Students of the first thousand years of the Christian +era like Donaldson,[22] McCabe,[40] and Benecke argue that the social +and intellectual position of women was probably lower than at any time +since the creation of the world. It was while the position of woman as +wife and mother was thus descending into the slough which has been +termed the Dark Age of Woman that the Apotheosis of the Blessed Virgin +was accomplished. The attitude toward human love, generation, the +relation of the earthly mother to the human child because of Eve's sin, +all made the Immaculate Conception a logical necessity. The doctrine of +the virgin birth disposed of sin through the paternal line. But if Mary +was conceived in sin or was not purified from sin, even that of the +first parent, how could she conceive in her body him who was without +sin? The controversy over the Immaculate Conception which began as early +as the seventh century lasted until Pius IX declared it to be an article +of Catholic belief in 1854. Thus not only Christ, but also his mother +became purged of the sin of conception by natural biological processes, +and the same immaculacy and freedom from contamination was accorded to +both. In this way the final step in the differentiation between earthly +motherhood and divine motherhood was completed. + +The worship of the virgin by men and women who looked upon the celibate +life as the perfect life, and upon the relationship of earthly +fatherhood and motherhood as contaminating, gave the world an ideal of +woman as "superhuman, immaculate, bowing in frightened awe before the +angel with the lily, standing mute and with downcast eyes before her +Divine Son."[41] With all its admitted beauty, this ideal represented +not the institution of the family, but the institution of the church. +Chivalry carried over from the church to the castle this concept of +womanhood and set it to the shaping of The Lady,[42] who was finally +given a rank in the ideals of knighthood only a little below that to +which Mary had been elevated by the ecclesiastical authorities. This +concept of the lady was the result of the necessity for a new social +standardization which must combine beauty, purity, meekness and angelic +goodness. Only by such a combination could religion and family life be +finally reconciled. By such a combination, earthly motherhood could be +made to approximate the divine motherhood. + +With the decline of the influence of chivalry, probably as the result of +industrial changes, The Lady was replaced by a feminine ideal which may +well be termed the "Model Woman." Although less ethereal than her +predecessor, The Lady, the Model Woman is quite as much an attempt to +reconcile the dualistic attitude, with its Divine Mother cult on the one +hand, and its belief in the essential evil of the procreative process +and the uncleanness of woman on the other, to human needs. The +characteristics of the Model Woman must approximate those of the Holy +Virgin as closely as possible. Her chastity before marriage is +imperative. Her calling must be the high art of motherhood. She must be +the incarnation of the maternal spirit of womanhood, but her purity must +remain unsullied by any trace of erotic passion. + +A voluminous literature which stated the virtues and duties of the +Model Woman blossomed out in the latter part of the eighteenth and first +half of the nineteenth century.[43] The Puritan ideals also embodied +this concept. It was by this attempt to make woman conform to a +standardized ideal that man sought to solve the conflict between his +natural human instincts and desires and the early Christian teaching +concerning the sex life and womanhood. + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER II + +1. Frazer, J.G. The Golden Bough. A Study in Magic and Religion. Part I. +The Magic Art. 2 vols. Macmillan. London, 1911. Part V. Spirits of the +Corn and of the Wild. 2 vols. London, 1912. + +2. Farnell, L.R. Evolution of Religion. 235 pp. Williams and Norgate. +London, 1905. Crown Theological Library, Vol 12. + +3. Frazer, J.G. Part IV. of The Golden Bough; Adonis, Attis, and Osiris. +Chaps. III and IV. Macmillan. London, 1907. + +---- Sumner, W.G. Folkways. 692 pp. Ginn & Co. Boston, 1907. Chap. XVI, +Sacral Harlotry. + +---- Lombroso, Cesare, and Lombroso-Ferrero, G. La donna delinquente. 508 +pp. Fratelli Bocca. Milano, 1915. + +4. Farnell, L.R. Sociological Hypotheses Concerning the Position of +Woman in Ancient Religion. Archiv fuer Religionswissenschaft. Siebenter +Band, 1904. + +5. Fowler, W. Warde. The Religious Experiences of the Roman People. 504 +pp. Macmillan. London, 1911. + +6. For a description of these sibyls with a list of the works in which +they are mentioned, see: + +---- Fullom, Steven Watson. The History of Woman. Third Ed. London, 1855. + +---- Rohmer, Sax. (Ward, A.S.) The Romance of Sorcery. 320 pp. E.P. +Dutton & Co., New York, 1914. + +7. Maury, L.F. La Magie et L'Astrologie dans l'Antiquite et au Moyen +Age. Quatrieme ed. 484 pp. Paris, 1877. + +8. Lombroso, Cesare. Priests and Women's Clothes. North American Review. +Vol. 192, 1910. + +9. For an extensive compilation of facts from ancient literature and +history concerning sacred women, see: + +---- Alexander, W. History of Women from the Earliest Antiquity to the +Present Time. 2 vols. W. Strahan. London, 1779. + +10. Mason, Otis T. Woman's Share in Primitive Culture. 295 pp. Appleton. +New York, 1894. + +---- Dyer, T.F.S. Plants in Witchcraft. Popular Science Monthly. Vol. 34, +1889, pp. 826-833. + +---- Donaldson, Rev. James. Woman, Her Position and Influence in Ancient +Greece and Rome. 278 pp. Longmans, Green. London, 1907. + +11. Spencer, Herbert. Study of Sociology. 431 pp. Appleton. N.Y., 1880. + +12. Schirmacher, Kaethe. Das Raetsel: Weib. 160 pp. A Duncker. Weimar, +1911. + +13. Ward, Lester F. Psychic Factors in Civilization. 369 pp. Ginn & Co., +Boston and New York, 1906. Chap. XXVI. + +---- Pure Sociology. 607 pp. Macmillan. N.Y., 1903. + +14. Schreiner, Olive. Woman and Labour. 299 pp. Frederick A. Stokes Co. +N.Y., 1911. + +15. Hall, G. Stanley. Adolescence. 2 vols. Appleton. N.Y., 1904. + +---- Dupouy, Edmund. Psychologie morbide. Librairie des Sciences +Psychiques, 1907. + +16. The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Translation by the Rev. Alexander Roberts +and James Donaldson, LL.D., and others. American Reprint of the +Edinburgh Edition. Buffalo, 1889. + +17. Hatch, Edwin. Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian +Church. Ed. by A.M. Fairbairn. 4th ed. London, 1892. Hibbert Lectures, +1888. + +18. Gilbert, George Holley. The Greek Strain in Our Oldest Gospels. +North American Review. Vol. 192, 1910. + +19. Hirn, Yrjo. The Sacred Shrine. 574 pp. Macmillan. London, 1912. + +20. Lecky, W.E.H. Rationalism in Europe. 2 vols. Appleton. N.Y. and +London, 1910. Vol. II, pp. 220 f. + +21. Wright, Thomas. Narratives of Sorcery and Magic. 2 vols. R. Bentley. +London, 1851. + +22. Donaldson, Rev. James. The Position of Woman Among the Early +Christians. Contemporary Review. Vol. 56, 1889. + +23. Bingham, Joseph. Antiquities of the Christian Church. 2 vols. +London, 1846. + +24. Sumner, W.G. Witchcraft. Forum. Vol. 41, 1909, pp. 410-423. + +25. Gaster, M. Two Thousand Years of a Charm Against the Child-stealing +Witch. Folklore. Vol. XI, No. 2, June, 1900. + +26. For discussion of the dates of the Church Councils see Rev. Charles +J. Hefele, Councils of the Church. Trans, fr. the German by C.W. Bush, +1883. + +27. Alice Kyteler. A contemporary narrative of the Proceedings against +Dame Alice Kyteler, prosecuted for sorcery by Richard de Ledrede, Bishop +of Ossory, 1324. Edited by Thomas Wright. London, 1843. + +28. Burr, George L. The Literature of Witchcraft. Papers of the American +Historical Association. Vol IV, pp. 37-66. G.P. Putnam's Sons. N.Y., +1890. + +29. Michelet, J. La Sorciere. 488 pp. Paris, 1878. Trans. of +Introduction by L.J. Trotter. + +30. Scherr, Johannes. Deutsche Frauenwelt. Band II. + +31. Avebury, Right Hon. Lord (Sir John Lubbock). Marriage, Totemism and +Religion. 243 pp. Longmans, Green. London, 1911. Footnote, p. 127. + +32. Wood, Wm. Witchcraft. Cornhill Magazine. Vol. V, 1898. + +---- Lea, H.C. Superstition and Force. 407 pp. Philadelphia, 1866. + +33. Bragge, F. Jane Wenham. 36 pp. E. Curll. London 1712. + +34. Paulus, Nikolaus. Die Rolle der Frau in der Geschichte des +Hexenwahns. Historisches Jahrbuch. XXIX Band. Muenchen. Jahrgang 1918. + +35. Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian +Church. 2d. series. Vol. 6, Letter xxii, Ad Eustachium. + +36. Studia Sinaitica No. IX. Select Narratives of Holy Women from the +Syro-Antiochene or Sinai Palimpsest as written above the old Syriac +Gospels by John the Stylite, of Beth-Mari Ianun in A.D. 778. Edited by +Agnes Smith Lewis, M.R.A.S. London, 1900. + +37. Lady Meux Mss. No. VI. British Museum. The Book of Paradise, being +the Histories and Sayings of the Monks and Ascetics of the Egyptian +Desert by Palladius, Hieronymus and others. English Trans. by E.A. +Wallis Budge. (From the Syriac.) Vol. I. + +38. Gautier, Emile Theodore Leon. La Chevalerie. 850 pp. C. Delagrave. +Paris, 1890. + +39. Maulde la Claviere, R. de. The Women of the Renaissance. Trans. by +G.H. Ely. 510 pp. Swan Sonnenschein, 1900. + +40. McCabe, Joseph. Woman in Political Evolution. Watts & Co. London, +1909. + +41. Barnes, Earl. Woman in Modern Society. 257 pp. B.W. Huebsch. N.Y., +1913. + +42. Putnam, Emily James. The Lady. 323 pp. Sturgis & Walton Co. N.Y., +1910. + +43. Excellent examples of this literature are Kenrick's "The Whole Duty +of a Woman, or A Guide to the Female Sex," published some time in the +eighteenth century (a copy in the Galatea Collection, Boston Public +Library); and Duties of Young Women, by E.H. Chapin. 218 pp. G.W. +Briggs. Boston, 1848. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE DUALISM IN MODERN LIFE: THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO + +The taboo and modern institutions; Survival of ideas of the uncleanness +of woman; Taboo and the family; The "good" woman; The "bad" woman; +Increase in the number of women who do not fit into the ancient +classifications. + + +With the gradual accumulation of scientific knowledge and increasing +tendency of mankind toward a rationalistic view of most things, it might +be expected that the ancient attitude toward sex and womanhood would +have been replaced by a saner feeling. To some extent this has indeed +been the case. It is surprising, however, to note the traces which the +old taboos and superstitions have left upon our twentieth century social +life. Men and women are becoming conscious that they live in a world +formed out of the worlds that have passed away. The underlying principle +of this social phenomenon has been called the principle of "the +persistence of institutions."[1] Institutionalized habits, mosaics of +reactions to forgotten situations, fall like shadows on the life of +to-day. Memories of the woman shunned, of the remote woman goddess, and +of the witch, transmit the ancient forms by which woman has been +expected to shape her life. + +It may seem a far cry from the savage taboo to the institutional life of +the present; but the patterns of our social life, like the infantile +patterns on which adult life shapes itself, go back to an immemorial +past. Back in the early life of the peoples from which we spring is the +taboo, and in our own life there are customs so analogous to many of +these ancient prohibitions that they must be accounted survivals of old +social habits just as the vestigial structures within our bodies are the +remnants of our biological past. + +The modern preaching concerning woman's sphere, for example, is an +obvious descendant of the old taboos which enforced the division of +labour between the sexes. Just as it formerly was death for a woman to +approach her husband's weapons, so it has for a long time been +considered a disgrace for her to attempt to compete with man in his line +of work. Only under the pressure of modern industrialism and economic +necessity has this ancient taboo been broken down, and even now there is +some reluctance to recognize its passing. The exigencies of the world +war have probably done more than any other one thing to accelerate the +disappearance of this taboo on woman from the society of to-day. + +A modern institution reminiscent of the men's house of the savage races, +where no woman might intrude, is the men's club. This institution, as Mr +Webster has pointed out,[2] is a potent force for sexual solidarity and +consciousness of kind. The separate living and lack of club activity of +women has had much to do with a delay in the development of a sex +consciousness and loyalty. The development of women's organizations +along the lines of the men's clubs has been a powerful factor in +enabling them to overcome the force of the taboos which have lingered on +in social life. Only through united resistance could woman ever hope to +break down the barriers with which she was shut off from the fullness of +life. + +Perhaps the property taboo has been as persistent as any other of the +restrictions which have continued to surround woman through the ages. +Before marriage, the girl who is "well brought up" is still carefully +protected from contact with any male. The modern system of chaperonage +is the substitute for the old seclusion and isolation of the pubescent +girl. Even science was influenced by the old sympathetic magic view that +woman could be contaminated by the touch of any other man than her +husband, for the principle of telegony, that the father of one child +could pass on his characteristics to offspring by other fathers, +lingered in biological teaching until the very recent discoveries of the +physical basis of heredity in the chromosomes. Law-making was also +influenced by the idea of woman as property. For a long time there was a +hesitancy to prohibit wife-beating on account of the feeling that the +wife was the husband's possession, to be dealt with as he desired. The +laws of coverture also perpetuated the old property taboos, and gave to +the husband the right to dispose of his wife's property. + +The general attitude towards such sexual crises as menstruation and +pregnancy is still strongly reminiscent of the primitive belief that +woman is unclean at those times. Mothers still hesitate to enlighten +their daughters concerning these natural biological functions, and as a +result girls are unconsciously imbued with a feeling of shame concerning +them. Modern psychology has given many instances of the rebellion of +girls at the inception of menstruation, for which they have been ill +prepared. There is little doubt that this attitude has wrought untold +harm in the case of nervous and delicately balanced temperaments, and +has even been one of the predisposing factors of neurosis.[3] + +The old seclusion and avoidance of the pregnant woman still persists. +The embarrassment of any public appearance when pregnancy is evident, +the jokes and secrecy which surround this event, show how far we are +from rationalizing this function. + +Even medical men show the influence of old superstitions when they +refuse to alleviate the pains of childbirth on the grounds that they are +good for the mother. Authorities say that instruction in obstetrics is +sadly neglected. A recent United States report tells us that preventable +diseases of childbirth and pregnancy cause more deaths among women than +any other disease except tuberculosis.[4] + +The belief in the possession by woman of an uncanny psychic power which +made her the priestess and witch of other days, has crystallized into +the modern concept of womanly intuition. In our times, women "get +hunches," have "feelings in their bones," etc., about people, or about +things which are going to happen. They are often asked to decide on +business ventures or to pass opinions on persons whom they do not know. +There are shrewd business men who never enter into a serious negotiation +without getting their wives' intuitive opinion of the men with whom they +are dealing. The psychology of behaviour would explain these rapid fire +judgments of women as having basis in observation of unconscious +movements, while another psychological explanation would emphasize +sensitiveness to suggestion as a factor in the process. Yet in spite of +these rational explanations of woman's swift conclusions on matters of +importance, she is still accredited with a mysterious faculty of +intuition. + +A curious instance of the peculiar forms in which old taboos linger on +in modern life is the taboos on certain words and on discussion of +certain subjects. The ascetic idea of the uncleanness of the sex +relation is especially noticeable. A study of 150 girls made by the +writer in 1916-17 showed a taboo on thought and discussion among +well-bred girls of the following subjects, which they characterize as +"indelicate," "polluting," and "things completely outside the knowledge +of a lady." + +1. Things contrary to custom, often called "wicked" and "immoral." + +2. Things "disgusting," such as bodily functions, normal as well as +pathological, and all the implications of uncleanliness. + +3. Things uncanny, that "make your flesh creep," and things suspicious. + +4. Many forms of animal life which it is a commonplace that girls will +fear or which are considered unclean. + +5. Sex differences. + +6. Age differences. + +7. All matters relating to the double standard of morality. + +8. All matters connected with marriage, pregnancy, and childbirth. + +9. Allusions to any part of the body except head and hands. + +10. Politics. + +11. Religion. + +It will be noted that most of these taboo objects are obviously those +which the concept of the Model Woman has ruled out of the life of the +feminine half of the world. + +As might well be expected, it is in the marriage ceremony and the +customs of the family institution that the most direct continuation of +taboo may be found. The early ceremonials connected with marriage, as Mr +Crawley has shown, counteracted to some extent man's ancient fear of +woman as the embodiment of a weakness which would emasculate him. +Marriage acted as a bridge, by which the breach of taboo was expiated, +condoned, and socially countenanced. Modern convention in many forms +perpetuates this concept. Marriage, a conventionalized breach of taboo, +is the beginning of a new family. In all its forms, social, religious, +or legal, it is an accepted exception to the social injunctions which +keep men and women apart under other circumstances. + +The new family as a part of the social order comes into existence +through the social recognition of a relationship which is considered +especially dangerous and can only be recognized by the performance of +elaborate rites and ceremonies. It is taboo for men and women to have +contact with each other. Contact may occur only under ceremonial +conditions, guarded in turn by taboo, and therefore socially recognized. +The girl whose life from puberty on has been carefully guarded by +taboos, passes through the gateway of ceremonial into a new life, which +is quite as carefully guarded. These restrictions and elaborate rituals +which surround marriage and family life may appropriately be termed +institutional taboos. They include the property and division of labour +taboos in the survival forms already mentioned, as well as other +religious and social restrictions and prohibitions. + +The foundations of family life go far back of the changes of recent +centuries. The family has its source in the mating instinct, but this +instinct is combined with other individual instincts and social +relationships which become highly elaborated in the course of social +evolution. The household becomes a complex economic institution. While +the processes of change may have touched the surface of these relations, +the family itself has remained to the present an institution established +through the social sanctions of communities more primitive than our +own. The new family begins with the ceremonial breach of taboo,--the +taboo which enjoins the shunning of woman as a being both sacred and +unclean. Once married, the woman falls under the property taboo, and is +as restricted as ever she was before marriage, although perhaps in +slightly different ways. In ancient Rome, the wife was not mistress of +the hearth. She did not represent the ancestral gods, the lares and +penates, since she was not descended from them. In death as in life she +counted only as a part of her husband. Greek, Roman and Hindu law, all +derived from ancestor worship, agreed in considering the wife a +minor.[5] + +These practices are of the greatest significance in a consideration of +the modern institutional taboos which surround the family. Students +agree that our own mores are in large part derived from those of the +lowest class of freedmen in Rome at the time when Christianity took over +the control which had fallen from the hands of the Roman emperors. These +mores were inherited by the Bourgeoisie of the Middle Ages, and were +passed on by them as they acquired economic supremacy. Thus these +practices have come down to us unchanged in spirit even if somewhat +modified in form, to fit the changed environment of our times. + +The standardization of the family with its foundations embedded in a +series of institutional taboos, added its weight to the formulation of +the Model Woman type referred to at the close of the preceding chapter. +The model wife appears in the earliest literature. In _The Trojan +Women_, Hecuba tells how she behaved in wedlock. She stayed at home and +did not gossip. She was modest and silent before her husband. The +patient Penelope was another ideal wife. To her, her son Telemachus +says: + +"Your widowed hours apart, with female toil, And various labours of the +loom, beguile, There rule, from palace cares remote and free, That care +to man belongs, and most to me." + +The wifely type of the Hebrews is set forth in Proverbs xxxi, 10-31. Her +virtues consisted in rising while it was yet night, and not eating the +bread of idleness. In her relation to her husband, she must never +surprise him by unusual conduct, and must see that he was well fed. + +The Romans, Hindus, and Mohammedans demanded similar virtues in their +wives and mothers. The wives of the medieval period were to remain +little girls, most admired for their passive obedience. Gautier puts +into the mouth of a dutiful wife of the Age of Chivalry the following +soliloquy: + +"I will love no one but my husband. Even if he loves me no longer, I +will love him always. I will be humble and as a servitor. I will call +him my sire, or my baron, or domine..."[6] + +The modern feminine ideal combines the traits demanded by the worship of +the madonna and the virtues imposed by the institutional taboos which +surround the family. She is the virgin pure and undefiled before +marriage. She is the protecting mother and the obedient, faithful wife +afterward. In spite of various disrupting influences which are tending +to break down this concept, and which will presently be discussed, this +is still the ideal which governs the life of womankind. The average +mother educates her daughter to conform to this ideal woman type which +is the synthesized product of ages of taboo and religious mysticism. +Home training and social pressure unite to force woman into the mould +wrought out in the ages when she has been the object of superstitious +fear to man and also a part of his property to utilize as he willed. +Being thus the product of wholly irrational forces, it is little wonder +that only in recent years has she had any opportunity to show what she +in her inmost soul desired, and what capabilities were latent within her +personality. + +In sharp contrast to the woman who conforms to the standards thus +created for her, is the prostitute, who is the product of forces as +ancient as those which have shaped the family institution. In the +struggle between man's instinctive needs and his mystical ideal of +womanhood, there has come about a division of women into two +classes--the good and the bad. It is a demarcation as sharp as that +involved in the primitive taboos which set women apart as sacred or +unclean. In building up the Madonna concept and requiring the women of +his family to approximate this mother-goddess ideal, man made them into +beings too spiritual to satisfy his earthly needs. The wife and mother +must be pure, as he conceived purity, else she could not be respected. +The religious forces which had set up the worship of maternity had +condemned the sex relationship and caused a dissociation of two elements +of human nature which normally are in complete and intimate harmony. One +result of this divorce of two biologically concomitant functions was the +institution of prostitution. + +Prostitution is designed to furnish and regulate a supply of women +outside the mores of the family whose sex shall be for sale, not for +purposes of procreation but for purposes of indulgence. In the ancient +world, temple prostitution was common, the proceeds going to the god or +goddess; but the sense of pollution in the sex relation which came to be +so potent an element in the control of family life drove the prostitute +from the sanctuary to the stews and the brothel, where she lives to-day. +She has become the woman shunned, while the wife and mother who is the +centre of the family with its institutional taboos is the sacred woman, +loved and revered by men who condemn the prostitute for the very act for +which they seek her company. Such is the irrational situation which has +come to us as a heritage from the past. + +Among the chief causes which have impelled women into prostitution +rather than into family life are the following: (1) Slavery; (2) +poverty; (3) inclination. These causes have been expanded and re-grouped +by specialists, but the only addition which the writer sees as necessary +in consequence of the study of taboo is the fact that the way of the +woman transgressor is peculiarly hard because of the sex taboo, the +ignorance and narrowness of good women, and the economic limitations of +all women. Ignorance of the results of entrance into a life which +usually means abandonment of hope may be a contributing cause. Boredom +with the narrowness of family life and desire for adventure are also +influences. + +That sex desire leads directly to the life of the prostitute is +unlikely. The strongly sexed class comes into prostitution by the war of +irregular relationships with men to whom they have been attached, and +who have abandoned them or sold them out. Many authorities agree on the +frigidity of the prostitute. It is her protection from physical and +emotional exhaustion. This becomes evident when it is learned that these +women will receive thirty men a day, sometimes more. A certain original +lack of sensitiveness may be assumed, especially since the +investigations of prostitutes have shown a large proportion, perhaps +one-third, who are mentally inferior. It is an interesting fact that +those who are sensitive to their social isolation defend themselves by +dwelling on their social necessity. Either intuitively or by a trade +tradition, the prostitute feels that "she remains, while creeds and +civilizations rise and fall, blasted for the sins of the people." A +beautiful young prostitute who had been expelled from a high grade house +after the exposures of the Lexow Investigation, once said to the writer: +"It would never do for good women to know what beasts men are. We girls +have got to pay." + +The lady, dwelling on her pedestal of isolation, from which she commands +the veneration of the chivalrous gentleman and the adoration of the +poet, is the product of a leisure assured by property. At the end of the +social scale is the girl who wants to be a lady, who doesn't want to +work, and who, like the lady, has nothing to sell but herself. The life +of the prostitute is the nearest approach for the poor girl to the life +of a lady with its leisure, its fine clothes, and its excitement. So +long as we have a sex ethics into which are incorporated the taboo +concepts, the lady cannot exist without the prostitute. The restrictions +which surround the lady guard her from the passions of men. The +prostitute has been developed to satisfy masculine needs which it is not +permitted the lady to know exist. + +But in addition to the married woman who has fulfilled the destiny for +which she has been prepared and the prostitute who is regarded as a +social leper, there is a large and increasing number of unmarried women +who fall into neither of these classes. For a long time these +unfortunates were forced to take refuge in the homes of their luckier +sisters who had fulfilled their mission in life by marrying, or to adopt +the life of the religieuse. Economic changes have brought an alteration +in their status, however, and the work of the unattached woman is +bringing her a respect in the modern industrial world that the "old +maid" of the past could never hope to receive. + +Although at first often looked upon askance, the working woman by the +sheer force of her labours has finally won for herself a recognized +place in society. This was the first influence that worked against the +old taboos, and made possible the tentative gropings toward a new +standardization of women. The sheer weight of the number of unattached +women in present day life has made such a move a necessity. In England, +at the outbreak of the war, there were 1,200,000 more women than men. It +is estimated that at the end of the war at least 25% of English women +are doomed to celibacy and childlessness. In Germany, the industrial +census of 1907 showed that only 9-1/2 millions of women were married, or +about one-half the total number over eighteen years of age. In the +United States, married women constitute less than 60% of the women +fifteen years of age and over. + +The impossibility of a social system based on the old sex taboos under +the new conditions is obvious. There must be a revaluation of woman on +the basis of her mental and economic capacity instead of on the manner +in which she fits into a system of institutional taboos. But the old +concepts are still with us, and have shaped the early lives of working +women as well as the lives of those who have fitted into the old +grooves. Tenacious survivals surround them both, and are responsible for +many of the difficulties of mental and moral adjustment which make the +woman question a puzzle to both conservative and radical thinkers on the +subject. + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER III + +1. Davis, Michael M. Psychological Interpretations of Society. 260 pp. +Columbia University. Longmans. Green & Co. N.Y., 1909. + +2. Webster, Hutton. Primitive Secret Societies. 227 pp. Macmillan. N.Y., +1908. + +3. Blanchard, Phyllis. The Adolescent Girl. 243 pp. Kegan Paul & Co., +London, 1921. + +---- Peters, Iva L. A Questionnaire Study of Some of the Effects of +Social Restrictions on the American Girl. Pedagogical Seminary, +December, 1916, Vol. XXIII, pp. 550-569. + +4. Report of the U.S. Children's Bureau, 1917. + +5. Fowler, W. Warde. The Religious Experience of the Roman People. 504 +pp. Macmillan. London, 1911. + +---- Fustel de Coulanges, Numa Denis. The Ancient City. Trans. from the +latest French edition by Willard Small. 10th ed. Lee and Shepard. +Boston, 1901. 529 pp. + +6. Gautier, Emile Theodore Leon. La Chevalerie. 850 pp. C. Delagrave. +Paris, 1890. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +DYSGENIC INFLUENCES OF THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO + + +Taboo survivals act dysgenically within the family under present +conditions; Conventional education of girls a dysgenic influence; +Prostitution and the family; Influence of ancient standards of "good" +and "bad." The illegitimate child; Effect of fear, anger, etc., on +posterity; The attitude of economically independent women toward +marriage. + +It is evident that in the working of old taboos as they have been +preserved in our social institutions there are certain dysgenic +influences which may well be briefly enumerated. For surely the test of +the family institution is the way in which it fosters the production and +development of the coming generation. The studies made by the Galton +Laboratory in England and by the Children's Bureau in Washington combine +with our modern knowledge of heredity to show that it is possible to cut +down the potential heritage of children by bad matrimonial choices. If +we are to reach a solution of these population problems, we must learn +to approach the problem of the sex relation without that sense of +uncleanness which has led so many generations to regard marriage as +giving respectability to an otherwise wicked inclination. The task of +devising a sane approach is only just begun. But the menace of +prostitution and of the social diseases has become so great that society +is compelled from an instinct of sheer self-preservation to drag into +the open some of the iniquities which have hitherto existed under cover. + +In the first place, the education of girls, which has been almost +entirely determined by the standardized concepts of the ideal woman, has +left them totally unprepared for wifehood and motherhood, the very +calling which those ideals demand that they shall follow. The whole +education of the girl aims at the concealment of the physiological +nature of men and women. She enters marriage unprepared for the +realities of conjugal life, and hence incapable of understanding either +herself or her husband. When pregnancy comes to such a wife, the old +seclusion taboos fall upon her like a categorical imperative. She is +overwhelmed with embarrassment at a normal and natural biological +process which can hardly be classified as "romantic." Such an attitude +is neither conducive to the eugenic choice of a male nor to the proper +care of the child either before or after its birth. + +A second dysgenic influence which results from the taboo system of +sexual ethics is the institution of prostitution, the great agency for +the spread of venereal disease through the homes of the community, and +which takes such heavy toll from the next generation in lowered vitality +and defective organization. + +The 1911 report of the Committee on the Social Evil in Baltimore showed +that at the time there was in that city one prostitute to every 500 +inhabitants. As is the case everywhere, such statistics cover only +prostitutes who have been detected. Hospital and clinic reports for +Baltimore gave 9,450 acute cases of venereal disease in 1906 as compared +with 575 cases of measles, 1,172 cases of diphtheria, 577 of scarlet +fever, 175 of chickenpox, 58 of smallpox and 733 cases of tuberculosis. + +Statistics on the health of young men shown by the physical examinations +of the various draft boards throughout the country give us a more +complete estimate of the prevalence of venereal disease among the +prospective fathers of the next generation than any other figures for +the United States. In an article in the _New York Medical Journal_ for +February 2, 1918, Dr. Isaac W. Brewer of the Medical Reserve Corps +presents tables showing the percentage of rejections for various +disabilities among the applicants for enlistment in the regular army +from January 1, 1912, to December 31, 1915. Among 153,705 white and +11,092 coloured applicants, the rejection rate per 1,000 for venereal +disease was 196.7 for whites and 279.9 for coloured as against 91.3 for +whites and 75.0 for coloured for heart difficulties, next on the list. +In foreshadowing the results under the draft, Dr. Brewer says: "Venereal +disease is the greatest cause for rejection, and reports from the +cantonments where the National Army has assembled indicate that a large +number of the men had these diseases when they arrived at the camp. It +is probably true that venereal diseases cause the greatest amount of +sickness in our country." + +Statistics available for conditions among the American Expeditionary +Forces must be treated with great caution. Detection of these diseases +at certain stages is extremely difficult. Because of the courtesy +extended to our men by our allies, cases were treated in French and +English hospitals of which no record is available. But it is fairly safe +to say that there was no such prevalence of disease as was shown by the +Exner Report to have existed on the Mexican Border. It may even be +predicted that the education in hygienic measures which the men received +may in time affect favourably the health of the male population and +through them their wives and children. But all who came in contact with +this problem in the army know that it is a long way to the +understanding of the difficulties involved before we approach a +solution. We do know, on the basis of the work, of Neisser, Lesser, +Forel, Flexner and others, that regulation and supervision seem to +increase the incidence of disease. Among the reasons for this are: (1) +difficulties of diagnosis; (2) difficulties attendant on the +apprehension and examination of prostitutes; (3) the infrequency of +examination as compared with the number of clients of these women; and +perhaps as important as any of these reasons is the false sense of +security involved. + +The model woman of the past has known very little of the prostitute and +venereal disease. It is often stated that her moral safety has been +maintained at the expense of her fallen and unclean sister. But such +statements are not limited as they should be by the qualification that +her moral safety obtained in such a fashion is often at the expense of +her physical safety. If the assumption has a basis in fact that there is +a relation between prostitution and monogamic marriage, the complexity +of the problem becomes evident. It is further complicated by the +postponement of marriage from economic reasons, hesitation at the +assumption of family responsibilities at a time of life when ambition as +well as passion is strong, when the physiological functions are +stimulated by city life and there is constant opportunity for relief of +repression for a price. It is here that the demarcation between the +man's and the woman's world shows most clearly. It may well be that the +only solution of this problem is through the admission of a new +factor--the "good" woman whom taboo has kept in ignorance of a problem +that is her own. If it be true that the only solution for the double +standard whose evils show most plainly here is a new single standard +which has not yet been found, then it is high time that we find what +that standard is to be, for the sake of the future. + +The third dysgenic influence which works under cover of the +institutional taboo is akin to the first in its ancient standards of +"good" and "bad." We are only recently getting any standards for a good +mother except a man's choice and a wedding ring. Men's ideals of +attractiveness greatly complicate the eugenic situation. A good +matchmaker, with social backing and money, can make a moron more +attractive than a pushing, energetic girl with plenty of initiative, +whose contribution to her children would be equal or superior to that of +her mate. A timid, gentle, pretty moron, with the attainment of a girl +of twelve years, will make an excellent match, and bring into the world +children who give us one of the reasons why it is "three generations +from shirt-sleeves to shirt-sleeves." For such a girl, the slave to +convention, exactly fits the feminine ideal which man has built up for +himself. And she will be a good wife and mother in the conventional +sense all her life. This following of an ideal feminine type conceived +in irrational processes in former days inclines men to marry women with +inferior genetic possibilities because they meet the more insistent +surface requirements. The heritage of our children is thus cut down, and +many a potential mother of great men remains unwed. + +The same survival of ancient sex taboos is seen in the attitude toward +the illegitimate child. The marriage ceremony is by its origin and by +the forms of its perpetuation the only sanction for the breaking of the +taboo on contact between men and women. The illegitimate child, the +visible symbol of the sin of its parents, is the one on whom most +heavily falls the burden of the crime. Society has for the most part +been utterly indifferent to the eugenic value of the child and has +concerned itself chiefly with the manner of its birth. Only the +situation arising out of the war and the need of the nations for men has +been able to partially remedy this situation. + +The taboos on illegitimacy in the United States have been less affected +by the practical population problems growing out of war conditions than +those of other countries. As compared with the advanced stands of the +Scandinavian countries, the few laws of progressive states look +painfully inadequate. Miss Breckinridge writes:[1] + +"The humiliating and despised position of the illegitimate child need +hardly be pointed out. He was the son of nobody, filius nullius, without +name or kin so far as kinship meant rights of inheritance or of +succession. In reality this child of nobody did in a way belong to his +mother as the legitimate child never did in common law, for, while the +right of the unmarried mother to the custody of the child of her shame +was not so noble and dignified a thing as the right of the father to the +legitimate child, she had in fact a claim, at least so long as the child +was of tender years, not so different from his and as wide as the sky +from the impotence of the married mother. The contribution of the father +has been secured under conditions shockingly humiliating to her, in +amounts totally inadequate to her and the child's support. In Illinois, +$550 over 5 years; Tennessee, $40 the first year, $30 the second, $20 +the third. (See studies of the Boston Conference on Illegitimacy, +September, 1914, p. 47.) Moreover, the situation was so desperate that +physicians, social workers and relatives have conspired to save the +girl's respectability at the risk of the child's life and at the cost of +all spiritual and educative value of the experience of motherhood. This +has meant a greatly higher death rate among illegitimate infants, a +higher crime and a higher dependency rate." + +The fifth of the dysgenic influences which has been fostered by the +institutional taboo is uncovered by recent studies of the effect of +certain emotions on the human organism. The life of woman has long been +shadowed by the fact that she has been the weaker sex; that even when +strong she has been weighted by her child; and that throughout the +period of private property she has been the poor sex, dependent on some +male for her support. In an age of force, fear has been her strong +emotion. If she felt rage it must be suppressed. Disappointment and +discouragement had also to be borne in silence and with patience. Of +such a situation Davies says: + +"The power of the mind over the body is a scientific fact, as is +evidenced by hypnotic suggestion and in the emotional control over the +chemistry of health through the agency of the internal secretions. The +reproductive processes are very susceptible to chemic influences. Thus +the influences of the environment may in some degree carry through to +the offspring."[2] + +The studies of Drs Crile and Cannon show that the effects of fear on the +ganglionic cells are tremendous. Some of the cells are exhausted and +completely destroyed by intensity and duration of emotion. Cannon's +experiments on animals during fear, rage, anger, and hunger, show that +the entire nervous system is involved and that internal and external +functions change their normal nature and activity. The thyroid and +adrenal glands are deeply affected. In times of intense emotion, the +thyroid gland throws into the system products which cause a quickened +pulse, rapid respiration, trembling, arrest of digestion, etc. When the +subjects of experiments in the effect of the emotions of fear, rage, +etc., are examined, it is found that the physical development, +especially the sexual development, is retarded. Heredity, age, sex, the +nervous system of the subject, and the intensity and duration of the +shock must all have consideration. Griesinger, Amard and Daguin +emphasize especially the results of pain, anxiety and shock, claiming +that they are difficult or impossible to treat. + +To the bride brought up under the old taboos, the sex experiences of +early married life are apt to come as a shock, particularly when the +previous sex experiences of her mate have been gained with women of +another class. Indeed, so deeply has the sense of shame concerning the +sexual functions been impressed upon the feminine mind that many wives +never cease to feel a recurrent emotion of repugnance throughout the +marital relationship. Especially would this be intensified in the case +of sexual intercourse during the periods of gestation and lactation, +when the girl who had been taught that the sexual functions existed only +in the service of reproduction would see her most cherished illusions +rudely dispelled. The effect of this long continued emotional state with +its feeling of injury upon the metabolism of the female organism would +be apt to have a detrimental effect upon the embryo through the blood +supply, or upon the nursing infant through the mother's milk. There can +be no doubt that anxiety, terror, etc., affect the milk supply, and +therefore the life of the child. + +The sixth dysgenic effect of the control by taboos is the rebellion of +economically independent women who refuse motherhood under the only +conditions society leaves open to them. The statistics in existence, +though open to criticism, indicate that the most highly trained women in +America are not perpetuating themselves.[3] Of the situation in England, +Bertrand Russell said in 1917: "If an average sample were taken out of +the population of England, and their parents were examined, it would be +found that prudence, energy, intellect and enlightenment were less +common among the parents than in the population in general; while +shiftlessness, feeble-mindedness, stupidity and superstition were more +common than in the population in general ... Mutual liberty is making +the old form of marriage impossible while a new form is not yet +developed."[4] + +It must be admitted that to-day marriage and motherhood are subject to +economic penalties. Perhaps one of the best explanations of the strength +of the present struggle for economic independence among women is the +fact that a commercial world interested in exchange values had refused +to properly evaluate their social contribution. A new industrial system +had taken away one by one their "natural" occupations. In the modern +man's absorption in the life of a great industrial expansion, home life +has been less insistent in its claims. His slackening of interest and +attention, together with the discovery of her usefulness in industry, +may have given the woman of initiative her opportunity to slip away from +her ancient sphere into a world where her usefulness in other fields +than that of sex has made her a different creature from the model woman +of yesterday. These trained and educated women have hesitated to face +the renunciations involved in a return to the home. The result has been +one more factor in the lessening of eugenic motherhood, since it is +necessarily the less strong who lose footing and fall back on marriage +for support. These women wage-earners who live away from the traditions +of what a woman ought to be will have a great deal of influence in the +changed relations of the sexes. The answer to the question of their +relation to the family and to a saner parenthood is of vital importance +to society. + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER IV + +1. Breckinridge, Sophonisba P. Social Control of Child Welfare. +Publications of the American Sociological Society. Vol. XII, p. 23 f. + +2. Davies, G.R. Social Environment. 149 pp. A.C. McClurg & Co., Chicago, +1917. + +3. Popenoe, Paul. Eugenics and College Education. School and Society, +pp. 438-441. Vol. VI. No. 146. + +4. Russell, Bertrand. Why Men Fight. 272 pp. The Century Co., N.Y., +1917. + + + + +PART III + +THE SEX PROBLEM IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY + +BY + +PHYLLIS BLANCHARD, PH.D. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +SEX IN TERMS OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY + + +Bearing of modern psychology on the sex problem; Conditioning of the +sexual impulse; Vicarious expression of the sexual impulse; Unconscious +factors of the sex life; Taboo control has conditioned the natural +biological tendencies of individuals to conform to arbitrary standards +of masculinity and femininity; Conflict between individual desires and +social standards. + + +An adequate treatment of the sex problem in society must necessarily +involve a consideration of the sexual impulse in the individual members +of that society. Recent psychological research, with its laboratory +experiments and studies of pathology has added a great deal of +information at this point. The lately acquired knowledge of the warping +effect of the environment upon the native biological endowment of the +individual by means of the establishment of conditioned reflexes, the +discovery that any emotion which is denied its natural motor outlet +tends to seek expression through some vicarious activity, and the +realization of the fundamental importance of the unconscious factors in +shaping emotional reactions,--such formulations of behaviouristic and +analytic psychology have thrown a great deal of light upon the nature +of the individual sex life. + +There are certain modifications of the erotic life which are explicable +only when we recollect that under environmental influences situations +which originally did not call up an emotional response come later to do +so. This fact, which was first noted by Setchenov, was experimentally +demonstrated by Pavlov and his students.[7] They found that when some +irrelevant stimulus, such as a musical tone or a piece of coloured paper +was presented to a dog simultaneously with its food for a sufficiently +long period, the presentation of the tone or paper alone finally caused +the same flow of saliva that the food had originally evoked. The +irrelevant stimulus was named a _food sign_, and the involuntary motor +response of salivary secretion was called a _conditioned reflex_ to +differentiate it from the similar response to the biologically adequate +stimulus of food, which was termed an _unconditioned reflex_. + +"The significance of the conditioned reflex is simply this, that an +associated stimulus brings about a reaction; and this associated +stimulus may be from any receptor organ of the body; and it may be +formed of course not merely in the laboratory by specially devised +experiments, but by association in the ordinary environment."[1] Thus it +is evident that the formation of conditioned reflexes takes place in +all fields of animal and human activity. + +Watson has recently stated that a similar substitution of one stimulus +for another occurs in the case of an emotional reaction as well as at +the level of the simple physiological reflex response.[8] This means +that when an emotionally exciting object stimulates the subject +simultaneously with one not emotionally exciting, the latter may in time +(or even after one joint stimulation) arouse the same emotional response +as the former. Kempf considers this capacity of the emotion to become +thus conditioned to other than the original stimuli "of the utmost +importance in determining the selections and aversions throughout life, +such as mating, habitat, friends, enemies, vocations, professions, +religious and political preferences, etc."[5] + +Just as Pavlov and his followers found that almost anything could become +a food sign, so the study of neurotics has shown that the sexual emotion +can be fixed upon almost any love object. For example, a single +characteristic of a beloved person (e.g.,--eye colour, smile posture, +gestures) can become itself a stimulus to evoke the emotional response +originally associated only with that person. Then it happens that the +affection may centre upon anyone possessing similar traits. In most +psychological literature, this focussing of the emotion upon some +particular characteristic is termed _fetishism_, and the stimulus which +become capable of arousing the conditioned emotional response is called +an _erotic fetish_. In extreme cases of fetishism, the sexual emotions +can only be aroused in the presence of the particular fetish involved. +Krafft-Ebing[6] and other psychopathologists describe very abnormal +cases of erotic fetishism in which some inanimate object becomes +entirely dissociated from the person with whom it was originally +connected, so that it serves exclusively as a love object in itself, and +prevents a normal emotional reaction to members of the opposite sex. + +The development of romantic love has depended to a great extent upon the +establishment of a wide range of stimuli capable of arousing the erotic +impulses. As Finck has pointed out, this romantic sentiment is +inseparable from the ideals of personal beauty.[3] As criteria of beauty +he lists such characteristics as well-shaped waist, rounded bosom, full +and red underlip, small feet, etc., all of which have come to be +considered standards of loveliness because the erotic emotion has been +conditioned to respond to their stimulation. Literature is full of +references to such marks of beauty in its characters (_Jane Eyre_ is +almost the only well-known book with a plain heroine), and is therefore +one of the potent factors in establishing a conditioned emotional +reaction to these stimuli. + +The erotic impulse may have its responses conditioned in many other ways +than the building up of erotic fetishes. Kempf has observed that the +affective reactions of the individual are largely conditioned by the +unconscious attitudes of parents, friends, enemies and teachers. For +instance, one boy is conditioned to distrust his ability and another to +have confidence in his powers by the attitude of the parents. Similarly, +the daughter whose mother is abnormally prudish about sexual functions +will surely be conditioned to react in the same manner towards her own +sexual functions, unless conditioned to react differently by the +influence of another person.[5] Through the everyday associations in the +social milieu, therefore, the erotic impulse of an individual may become +modified in almost any manner. + +Just as an emotional reaction may become conditioned to almost any other +stimulus than the one which originally called it forth, so there is a +tendency for any emotion to seek a vicarious outlet whenever its natural +expression is inhibited. Were any member of the group to give free play +to his affective life he would inevitably interfere seriously with the +freedom of the other members. But the fear of arousing the disapproval +of his fellows, which is rooted in man's gregarious nature, inhibits the +tendency to self-indulgence. "A most important factor begins to exert +pressure upon the infant at birth and continues throughout its life," +says Kempf. "It is the incessant, continuous pressure of the herd ... to +conventionalize its methods of acquiring the gratification of its +needs."[5] The emotions thus denied a natural outlet seek other channels +of activity which have received the sanction of social approval. + +It is obvious that the rigid social regulations concerning sexual +activities must enforce repression of the erotic impulses more +frequently than any others. The love which is thus denied its biological +expression transmutes itself into many forms. It may reach out to +envelop all humanity, and find a suitable activity in social service. It +may be transformed into the love of God, and find an outlet in the +religious life of the individual. Or it may be expressed only in +language, in which case it may stop at the stage of erotic fantasy and +day-dream, or may result in some really great piece of poetry or prose. +This last outlet is so common that our language is full of symbolic +words and phrases which have a hidden erotic meaning attached to them. + +According to Watson, the phenomena seen in this tendency of emotions +inhibited at one point to seek other outlets are too complex to be +explained on the basis of conditioned reflex responses. All that we can +say at present is that too great emotional pressure is drained off +through whatever channel environmental and hereditary factors make +possible.[8] This vicarious mode of expression may become habitual, +however, and interfere with a return to natural activities in a manner +analogous to that in which the development of the erotic fetish often +prevents the normal reaction to the original stimulus. + +Because the conditioned emotional reactions and substitutions of +vicarious motor outlets take place at neurological and physiological +levels outside the realm of consciousness, they are called unconscious +activities of the organism. There are many other unconscious factors +which also modify the sex life of the human individual. The most +fundamental of these are the impressions and associations of the infancy +period, which may well be classed as conditioned reflex mechanisms, but +are sufficiently important to receive separate consideration. + +It is generally conceded by students of child psychology that the social +reactions of the child are conditioned by the home environment in which +the earliest and most formative years of its life are passed. It is not +surprising, therefore, that the ideal of the opposite sex which the boy +or girl forms at this time should approximate the mother or father, +since they are the persons best loved and most frequently seen. The +ideals thus established in early childhood are very often the +unconscious influences which determine the choice of a mate in adult +life. Or the devotion to the parent may be so intense as to prevent the +transference of the love-life to another person and thus entirely +prohibit the entrance upon the marital relation. Elida Evans has given +some very convincing cases in illustration of these points in her recent +book, "The Problem of the Nervous Child."[2] + +On the other hand, in those unfortunate cases where the father or mother +is the object of dislike, associations may be formed which will be so +persistent as to prevent the normal emotional reaction to the opposite +sex in later years. This, too, results in the avoidance of marriage and +the establishment of vicarious outlets for the sexual emotions, or less +often in homosexual attachments or perversions of the sex life. +Conditioned emotional reactions such as these play a dominant role in +the social problem of sex, as will become apparent in succeeding +chapters. + +In addition to the influences which naturally act to condition the +original sexual endowment of the individual, there are artificial forces +which still further qualify it. The system of taboo control which +society has always utilized in one form or another as a means of +regulating the reproductive activities of its members, has set up +arbitrary ideals of masculinity and femininity to which each man and +woman must conform or else forfeit social esteem. The feminine standard +thus enforced has been adequately described in Part II of this study. Dr +Hinkle has also described this approved feminine type, as well as the +contrasting masculine ideal which embodies the qualities of courage, +aggressiveness, and other traditional male characteristics. From her +psychoanalytic practice, Dr Hinkle concludes that men and women do not +in reality conform to these arbitrarily fixed types by native biological +endowment, but that they try to shape their reactions in harmony with +these socially approved standards in spite of their innate tendencies to +variation.[4] + +The same conclusion might be arrived at theoretically on the grounds of +the recent biological evidence of intersexuality discussed in Part I, +which implies that there are no absolute degrees of maleness and +femaleness. If there are no 100% males and females, it is obvious that +no men and women will entirely conform to ideals of masculine and +feminine perfection. + +In addition to the imposition of these arbitrary standards of +masculinity and femininity, society has forced upon its members +conformity to a uniform and institutionalized type of sexual +relationship. This institutionalized and inflexible type of sexual +activity, which is the only expression of the sexual emotion meeting +with social approval, not only makes no allowance for biological +variations, but takes even less into account the vastly complex and +exceedingly different conditionings of the emotional reactions of the +individual sex life. The resulting conflict between the individual +desires and the standards imposed by society has caused a great deal of +disharmony in the psychic life of its members. The increasing number of +divorces and the modern tendency to celibacy are symptomatic of the +cumulative effect of this fundamental psychic conflict. + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER I + +1. Burnham, W.H. Mental Hygiene and the Conditioned Reflex. Ped. Sem. +Vol. XXIV, Dec, 1917, pp. 449-488. + +2. Evans, Elida. The Problem of the Nervous Child. Kegan Paul & Co., +London, 1920. + +3. Finck, H.T. Romantic Love and Personal Beauty. Macmillan, N.Y., 1891. + +4. Hinkle, Beatrice M. On the Arbitrary Use of the Terms "Masculine" and +"Feminine." Psychoanalyt. Rev. Vol. VII, No. 1, Jan., 1920, pp. 15-30. + +5. Kempf, E.J. The Tonus of the Autonomic Segments as Causes of +Abnormal Behaviour. Jour. Nerv. & Ment. Disease, Jan., 1920, pp. 1-34. + +6. Krafft-Ebing, R. Psychopathia Sexualis. Fuchs, Stuttgart, 1907. + +7. Pavlov, J.P. L'excitation Psychique des Glandes Salivaires. Jour de +Psychologie, 1910, No. 2, pp. 97-114. + +8. Watson, J.B. Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviourist. +Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1919. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +HOW OUR INSTITUTIONS FIT INDIVIDUAL SEX PSYCHOLOGY + + +Social institutions controlling sex activities based on the assumption +that _all_ women are adapted to as well as specialized for reproduction; +Neurotic tendencies which unfit women for marriage--the desire for +domination; Sexual anaesthesia another neurotic trait which interferes +with marital harmony; The conditioning of the sexual impulse to the +parent ideal and the erotic fetish as factors which determine mating; +Homosexual tendencies and their part in the sex problem; The conflict +between the desire for marriage and egoistic ambitions; The social +regulations from the viewpoint of individual psychology. + + +The institutionalized forms of social control into which the old sex +taboos have developed impose upon all members of the group a uniform +type of sexual relationship. These socially enforced standards which +govern the sex life are based upon the assumption that men and women +conform closely to the masculine and feminine ideals of tradition. The +emphasis is much more strongly placed on feminine conformity, however; +a great many sexual activities are tolerated in the male that would be +unsparingly condemned in the female. Thus the sex problem becomes in +large measure a woman's problem, not only because of her peculiar +biological specialization for reproduction, which involves an enormous +responsibility but also because her life has for so many generations +been hedged in by rigid institutionalized taboos and prohibitions. + +The traditional conception of marriage and the family relation implies +that all women are adapted to as well as specialized for motherhood. In +reality, if the biological evidence of intersexuality be as conclusive +as now appears, there are many women who by their very nature are much +better adapted to the activities customarily considered as pre-eminently +masculine, although they are still specialized for childbearing. There +is no statistical evidence of any high correlation between the sexual +and maternal impulses. Indeed, a great many traits of human behaviour +seem to justify the inference that these two tendencies may often be +entirely dissociated in the individual life. Dr Blair Bell (as noted in +Part I, Chapter III) believes that it is possible to differentiate women +possessing a maternal impulse from those lacking such tendencies by the +very anatomical structure. It is obvious that a woman endowed with a +strong erotic nature requires a kind of sexual relationship different +from one whose interests are predominantly in her children. And both the +sexual and maternal types require different situations than the woman +who combines the two instincts in her own personality for a normal +expression of their emotional life. + +According to social tradition, sexual activity (at least in the case of +women) is to be exercised primarily for the reproduction of the group. +Thus the institutions of marriage and the family in their present form +provide only for the woman who possesses both the sexual and maternal +cravings. Contraceptive knowledge has enabled a small number of women +(which is rapidly growing larger) to fit into these institutions in +spite of their lack of a desire for motherhood. There have been a few +hardy theorists who have braved convention to the extent of suggesting +the deliberate adoption of unmarried motherhood by women who are +consumed by the maternal passion but have no strongly erotic nature. +Whether their problem will be solved in this manner, only the course of +social evolution in the future can show. + +Besides the differences in natural instinctive tendencies which make it +difficult for many women to fit into a uniform type of sexual +relationship, modern society, with its less rigid natural selection, +has permitted the survival of many neurotic temperaments which find +marriage a precarious venture. The neurotic constitution, as Adler[1,2] +has pointed out, is an expression of underlying structural or functional +organic deficiency. It is a physiological axiom that whenever one organ +of the body, because of injury, disease, etc., becomes incapable of +properly discharging its functions, its duties are taken over by some +other organ or group of organs. This process of organic compensation, +whereby deficiency in one part of the body is atoned for by additional +labours of other parts, necessarily involves the nervous mechanism in +ways which need not be discussed in detail here. + +In children the process of compensation, with its formation of new +nervous co-ordinations, is manifest in the inability to cope with their +companions who have a better biological endowment. This gives rise to a +feeling of inferiority from which the child tries to free itself by +every possible means, ordinarily by surpassing in the classroom the +playmates whom it cannot defeat on the playground. The feeling of +inferiority continues throughout life, however, although the mechanism +of physiological compensation may have become so perfected that the +functioning of the organism is quite adequate to the needs of the +environment. As a result, the ruling motive of the conduct becomes the +desire to release the personality from this torturing sense of inability +by a constant demonstration of the power to control circumstances or to +dominate associates. + +This abnormal will to power finds expression in the marital relationship +in the desire for supremacy over the mate. The domineering husband is a +familiar figure in daily life. The wife who finds it more difficult to +rule her husband by sheer mastery achieves the same ends by developing a +fit of hysterical weeping or having a nervous headache when denied her +own way in family affairs. + +By far the easiest way for the woman to satisfy her craving for power is +the development of an interesting illness which makes her the centre of +attention. The history of nervous disease furnishes many cases of +neurosis where this uncontrollable longing for domination is the chief +factor in the etiology of the illness. It is not at all unusual to meet +wives who hold their husbands subservient to every whim because of +"delicate nervous organizations" which are upset at the slightest +thwarting of their wishes so that they develop nervous headaches, +nervous indigestion, and many other kinds of sickness unless their +preferences meet with the utmost consideration. This tendency often +becomes a chronic invalidism, which, at the same time that it brings +the longed-for attention, incapacitates the individual for sexual and +maternal activities and makes the married life an abnormal and unhappy +one. + +Another more or less neurotic trait which acts as a cause of disharmony +in the marital relationship is the sexual anaesthesia which is not at all +uncommon in modern women. The absence of any erotic passion is held to +be a matter of physiological makeup by many authorities, but it is +probably more often due to the inhibition of natural tendencies in +accordance with concepts built up by social tradition. In order to +understand how social suggestion can have so powerful an effect upon the +reactions of the individual, we must revert once more to the principles +of behaviouristic psychology. + +According to Watson,[4] whenever the environmental factors are such that +a direct expression of an emotion cannot occur, the individual has to +have recourse to implicit motor attitudes. The best example in everyday +life is probably seen in the case of anger, which can seldom be +permitted to find an outlet in the natural act of striking, etc. It is +apparent, however, in the facial expression and in a certain muscular +posture which can best be described as a "defiant" attitude. Another +good example is the submissive attitude which often accompanies the +emotion of fear. It is manifest in shrinking, avoiding movements, +sometimes of the whole body, but more often of the eyes or some other +special organ. + +"In the sphere of love," Watson remarks, "there are numerous attitudes +as shown by the popular expressions lovelorn, lovesick, tenderness, +sympathy. More fundamental and prominent attitudes are those of shyness, +shame, embarrassment, jealousy, envy, hate, pride, suspicion, +resentment, anguish, and anxiety."[4] + +The significant fact is that these attitudes function by limiting the +range of stimuli to which the person is sensitive. The attitude of shame +concerning their sexual functions, which has been impressed upon women +as a result of ages of thinking in harmony with taboo standards, thus is +able to prevent the normal biological response to a situation which +should call out the emotions of love. In women who have an unstable +nervous system this shameful feeling often results in a definite +physiological shrinking from the physical manifestations of sexuality +and renders the individual insensitive to all erotic stimulation. + +This attitude of shame in connection with the love life came into +existence as a socially conditioned emotional reaction set up under the +influence of the traditional ideal of the "model woman" who was pictured +as a being of unearthly purity and immaculacy. It has been passed on +from generation to generation through an unconscious conditioning of the +daughter's attitude by suggestion and imitation to resemble that of the +mother. Thus it happens that although an increasing amount of liberty, +both social and economic, and a more rational and scientific +understanding of the womanly nature, have quite revoked this ideal in +theory, in actual practice it still continues to exert its inhibitory +and restrictive influence. + +Because the standardized family relationship involves so much more +radical a readjustment in the life of woman than of man, it has almost +always been the feminine partner who has taken refuge in neurotic +symptoms in order to escape the difficulties of the situation. After the +marriage ceremony, the man's life goes on much as before, so far as his +social activities are concerned, but woman takes up the new duties +connected with the care of the home and her child-bearing functions. +Moreover, the sexual life of woman is in many ways more complex than +that of man. She has been subjected to more repressions and inhibitions, +and as a result there has been more modification of her emotional +reactions in the field of love. This greater complexity of her love life +makes adaptation to marriage more problematical in the case of woman. + +Although the neurotic tendencies of modern women have been an important +factor for the production of disharmony in the family life, there are +certain variations of the individual sex life which are more universally +significant. The conditioned emotional reactions which environmental +influences have built up around the sexual impulse of each member of +society invariably determine the choice of the mate and give rise to +extremely complicated problems by the very nature of the selective +process. It is largely a matter of chance whether the mate chosen in +accordance with the ideals of romantic love and because of some +fascinating trait which acts as an erotic fetish or in conformity with a +parental fixation will prove a congenial companion through life. + +But the complexity of the situation lies in the fact that the erotic +impulses may become conditioned to respond to an indefinite number of +substituted stimuli. For example, the parental fixation may become +reconditioned by focussing upon some special characteristic of the +father or mother, which becomes an erotic fetish. If the mate is +selected on the basis of this fetishistic attraction, he (or she) may +prove to be so unlike the parent in other respects as to lose all the +affection which was originally inspired. A concrete illustration of +these conflicting emotional reactions is the case of the girl who +declared that she feared her fiance as much as she loved him, but felt +that she must marry him nevertheless. An investigation showed that her +almost compulsive feeling about her lover was due to the fact that his +gestures and manner of regarding her, in fact his whole bearing, +reminded her of her dead father, while in other respects he was totally +repugnant to her because his character traits were so far removed from +those of her father ideal. + +The conflict between the parental ideal and other phases of the sexual +impulse is even more pronounced in men than in women, for two reasons. +In the first place, the mother plays by far the largest part in the life +of her children, so that the son's fixation upon her is necessarily more +intense than the daughter's affection for the father. Yet on the other +hand, the sexual desire of the male is more easily aroused than that of +the female, and is more apt to centre upon some member of the opposite +sex who possesses certain physical attractiveness but is not at all like +the mother ideal. Thus it happens that men often enshrine on their +hearthstone the woman who approximates the worshipped mother, while they +seek satisfaction for their erotic needs outside the home. In other +words, in the masculine psyche there is often a dissociation of the +sexual impulse in its direct manifestations and the sentiment of love in +its more idealistic aspects. This partially explains the fact that it +is possible for a man to be "unfaithful" to his wife while actually +loving her devotedly all the time. + +A different solution of the unconscious conflict between the mother +fixation and the sexual desires at lower levels is seen in those cases +in which the man impulsively marries the woman who has this transient +attraction for him. When the first passion of such an alliance has worn +away, there is no lasting bond to take its place, and the man must find +solace in some such way as an intimate friendship with a woman who +recalls the maternal impressions of his childhood. A famous example of +this is found in the beautiful affection of Auguste Comte for his +idolized Clotilde de Vaux. Although Comte was bound to a woman whom he +had married in the flush of erotic desire and whom he found entirety +uncongenial, Clotilde became the inspiration of his later life, and held +his affection without the aid of any material bond because she so +closely resembled the dead mother whom he adored.[3] + +It is evident that the selection of a mate who is erotically attractive, +but proves to be very similar to a parent who was disliked instead of +loved, is as unfortunate as the choice of a partner who is utterly +unlike a beloved father or mother. Indeed, when all the possible +complications are clearly visualized, taking into account the numerous +ways in which the sexual emotions can be modified, it is plain that +these unconscious factors which determine the choice of a mate are not +always conducive to a happy married life. + +Quite recently the tendency to homosexuality has been emphasized as an +important factor in the psychological problem of sex. At the +International Conference of Medical Women (New York, 1919) it was stated +that homosexual fixations among women are a frequent cause of female +celibacy and divorce. This view was upheld by such authorities as Dr. +Constance Long of England, and other prominent women physicians. +Although a certain percentage of female homosexuality is congenital, it +is probable that by far the largest part is due to a conditioning of the +sexual impulse by the substitution of members of the same sex as the +erotic stimulus in place of the normal response to the opposite sex. + +This substitution is facilitated by certain facts in the social life of +women. The frequent lack of opportunity to be with men during adolescent +school days, and a certain amount of taboo on male society for the +unmarried woman, are in direct favour of the establishment of homosexual +reactions. There is also an increasing sex antagonism, growing out of +woman's long struggle for the privilege of participating in activities +and sharing prerogatives formerly limited to men, which acts as an +inhibitory force to prevent the transference of the sexual emotion to +its normal object in the opposite sex. Moreover, the entrance of woman +into a manner of living and lines of activity which have heretofore been +exclusively masculine, has brought out certain character traits which in +other times would have been repressed as incompatible with the social +standards of feminine conduct, but which are conducive to the formation +of homosexual attachments, since the qualities admired in men can now be +found also in women. + +In this connection the term _homosexuality_ is used very loosely to +denote any type of emotional fixation upon members of the same sex which +is strong enough to prevent a normal love life with some individual of +the opposite sex. Among American women, at least, this tendency is +seldom expressed by any gross physical manifestations, but often becomes +an idealized and lofty sentiment of friendship. It is abnormal, however, +when it becomes so strong as to prevent a happy married life. + +The tendency of emotions to seek a vicarious outlet must also be +considered in any inclusive attempt to explain the homosexual attachment +of women. The woman who, on account of lack of attraction for men or for +any other reason, is denied the normal functioning of the love life in +marriage, is forced to find some other expression for her erotic +emotions, and it is only natural that she should find it in an affection +for other women. Again, the voluntary celibacy of a large class of +modern women, who prefer to retain their economic independence rather +than to enter into family life, also necessitates finding vicarious +emotional activities. Whenever their work throws a number of these women +into constant association, it is almost inevitable that homosexual +attachments will spring up. + +We meet all these types of homosexual fixations in daily life. The +college girl who is isolated from men for four years has her sworn +comrade among the girls, and is sure that she will never marry but will +love her chum always. Very often it is some time after she leaves +college before she begins to take an interest in male companionship. The +young professional woman looks up to the older woman in her line of work +with the same admiration for her courage and brilliancy that used to be +reserved for the husband alone in the days when women were permitted +only a strictly feminine education and occupation. The business woman +refuses to give up her high salaried position for marriage, and consoles +herself with her feminine friends. These are the common manifestations +characteristic of female homosexuality. As has been suggested, the term +is loosely applied to such cases as these, but the tendency of recent +psychological literature is to consider them as highly sublimated +expressions of this tendency. + +As has been intimated, the modern woman who has entered into the +economic competition is often reluctant to abandon this activity for the +responsibilities of wifehood and motherhood, which involve a withdrawal +from the business world. Just as the materialistic rewards of economic +activities often prove more attractive than the emotional satisfactions +of family life, so, too, the intellectual ambitions of the professional +woman may deter her from the exercise of her reproductive functions. +Thus the egoistic and individualistic tendencies which modern social +organization fosters in the personality of its feminine members makes +them unwilling to sacrifice their ambitious plans in the performance of +their natural biological functions. + +In the present speeding up of competition, the entrance upon family life +becomes almost as burdensome to man as to woman, although in a different +manner. Free as he is from the biological responsibilities connected +with childbearing which fall to a woman's lot, he finds the economic +responsibilities which the care of children entails equally grilling. +His choice of a profession can no longer be decided by his own +preferences, but must be determined by the economic returns. He can +never afford to sacrifice financial gain for personal recognition, +because of his obligation to provide for his family. Thus it happens +that marriage often presents a situation in which no outlet for personal +ambitions is possible and the egoistic desires and emotions must be +sternly repressed. There is therefore an increasing hesitancy on the +part of the men of to-day to assume responsibilities so grave and +involving so much personal sacrifice. + +It is evident from even such a casual inquiry as this, that there are +many facts of individual psychology which have not been taken into +account by society in the development of the mores which govern the +sexual relationships of its members. The traditional institution of the +family, which would shape all women into model wives and mothers, has +neglected to consider the fact that not all women are biologically +adapted for these particular activities. The choice of a mate which is +determined by irrational and unconscious motives may or may not prove to +be a wise selection, as we have seen in the course of our discussion. +Most significant of all for the social problem of sex, is the +overwhelming tendency to individuation which is making both men and +women frankly question whether marriage and parenthood are worth while +when they involve so much personal sacrifice. + +From the viewpoint of psychology, we may briefly summarize the whole +situation by saying that society has imposed upon its members a uniform +and inflexible type of sexual relationships and reproductive activities +with a total disregard of individual differences in its demand for +conformity to these traditions. When the infinite number of variations +and modifications possible in the sexual life of different individuals +is taken into consideration, it is obvious that there must be a certain +disharmony between personal inclinations and social standards. Because +the power of the group control is very great, its members usually +repress emotions which are not in accord with its regulations, and shape +their conduct to meet with its approval. If such a restriction of the +personality and emotional life of the individual is necessary for the +welfare of the whole race and for social progress, its existence is +entirely justified. It is our next task, therefore, to determine in what +respects a rigid and irrational social control is conducive to human +betterment, and wherein, if at all, it fails to achieve this purpose. + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER II + +1. Adler, Alfred. The Neurotic Constitution. Moffat, Yard, N.Y., 1917. +(Kegan Paul & Co., 1921.) + +2. Adler, Alfred. A Study of Organic Inferiority and Its Psychic +Compensation. Nervous & Mental Disease Pub. Co., N.Y., 1917. + +3. Blanchard, P. A Psychoanalytic Study of Auguste Comte. Am. Jour. +Psy., April, 1918. + +4. Watson, J.B. Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviourist. +Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1919. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +DYSGENIC NATURE OF CERTAIN FACTORS OF SEX PSYCHOLOGY AND NECESSITY FOR A +SOCIAL THERAPY + +Mating determined by unconscious psychological motives instead of +eugenic considerations; Some of the best male and female stock refusing +marriage and parenthood; The race is reproduced largely by the inferior +and average stocks and very little by the superior stock; As a +therapeutic measure, society should utilize psychological knowledge as a +new method of control; Romantic love and conjugal love--a new ideal of +love; The solution of the conflict between individual and group +interests. + + +From the viewpoint of group welfare, the present psychological situation +of human reproductive activities undoubtedly has its detrimental +aspects. As we have seen, the choice of a mate is determined by +irrational motives which lie far below the levels of consciousness. +These unconscious factors which govern sexual selection far outweigh the +more rational considerations of modern eugenic thought. The marks of +personal beauty around which romantic love centres and which therefore +play a prominent part in mating are not necessarily indicative of +physical and mental health that will insure the production of sound +offspring. The modern standards of beauty (at least in so far as +feminine loveliness is concerned) have gone far from the ancient Grecian +type of physical perfection. Influenced perhaps by the chivalric ideals +of "the lady," the demand is rather for a delicate and fragile +prettiness which has come to be regarded as the essence of femininity. +The robust, athletic girl must preserve this "feminine charm" in the +midst of her wholesome outdoor life, else she stands in great danger of +losing her erotic attraction. + +Surface indications of the truth of this statement are easily +discovered. The literature which before the war ran riot with athletic +heroines pictured them with wind-blown hair and flushed cheeks receiving +the offer of their male companion's heart and hand. The golf course or +the summer camp was simply a charming new setting for the development of +the eternal love theme. Even fashion has conspired to emphasize the +feminine charm of the girl who goes in for sports, as a glance at the +models of bathing costumes, silken sweaters, and graceful "sport" skirts +plainly reveals. + +Just as the love which is directed in accordance with an emotional +reaction conditioned to respond to some erotic fetishism or to a parent +ideal may be productive of individual unhappiness, so it is also +entirely a matter of chance whether or not it leads to a eugenic mating. +Like romantic love, it is quite as apt to focus upon a person who does +not conform to eugenic ideals as upon one who does. The mate selected +upon the basis of these unconscious motives is very likely to bequeath a +neurotic constitution or an otherwise impaired physical organism to the +offspring of the union, since those possibilities were not taken into +consideration in making the choice. + +It becomes apparent that while certain forces in the life of the +individual and in the social inheritance have united to condition the +emotional reactions of the sex life, these conditionings have not always +been for the benefit of the race. Indeed, it would almost seem that +society has been more concerned with the manner of expression of the +love life in the individual members than in its effects upon the next +generation. In its neglect or ignorance of the significance of +artificial modifications of the emotions, it has permitted certain +dysgenic influences to continue in the psychic life of generation after +generation, regarding with the utmost placidity a process of sexual +selection determined by irrational and irresponsible motives. + +The most potent dysgenic influence in the present phase of the sex +problem is the conflict between the interests of the individual and the +group regulations. The traditional type of marriage and family life has +a cramping effect upon the personal ambitions which lessens its +attractiveness materially. The enterprising young business or +professional man has no desire to restrict his opportunities by the +assumption of the responsibilities that accompany family life. He must +be free to stake all his resources on some favourable speculation +without the thought that he cannot take chances on impoverishing his +wife and children. Or if he has professional aspirations, he must be +able to take the long difficult pathway of scientific research with no +anxiety about the meagre salary that is insufficient for the support of +a home. Thus the most vital and aggressive male stocks as well as the +most highly intelligent tend to avoid the hampering effects of family +life, and their qualities are often lost to the next generation, since +even if they marry they will feel that they cannot afford offspring. + +As women enter more and more into the competition for economic and +social rewards, this becomes equally applicable in their case. Indeed, +it would be strange were there not an even greater tendency to shun the +ties of family life on the part of ambitious women than of men, since +it involves greater sacrifices in their case on account of their +biological specialization for motherhood. It appears, therefore, that we +are losing the best parental material for the coming generations on both +the paternal and maternal sides. Thus the conflict between the egoistic +desires and the social institution of the family is segregating just +those energetic, successful individuals from whom the race of the future +should spring if we hope to reproduce a social organism capable of +survival in the inter-group struggle. + +If it be true that the best stock, both male and female, for various +reasons refuses to assume the duty of reproduction, the group will +necessarily be replaced from individuals of average and inferior (but +not superior) eugenic value. Even within these limits there is at +present no conscious eugenic selection, and the irrational and +unconscious motives which govern sexual selection at the present time +may induce the choice of a mate from among the weaker individuals. Once +again it becomes a matter of chance whether or not the matings prove to +be for the welfare of the group and of the race. + +It might be contended that the very fact that certain individuals +withdraw from reproductive activities is sufficient proof of their lack +of normal emotional reactions adapting them to the performance of those +functions. But a clearer insight shows that the group standards permit +the exercise of the reproductive activities only in accord with +arbitrary regulations which have coalesced in the institutions of +marriage and the family. These institutions have been developed to fit a +definite ideal of manhood and womanhood which grew up out of a manner of +thinking in accord with taboo control and ignorant superstitions rather +than in harmony with the actual facts of the situation. Now that we are +facing reality and trying to rationalize our thinking, we find that the +variation from these masculine and feminine ideals does not necessarily +imply biological or psychological abnormality, since the ideals were +themselves established without reference to biological and psychological +data. + +The traditional marriage and family arrangement tends to enforce a +selection of individuals who conform most nearly to these artificial +types as parents for the succeeding generations. It is not at all +certain that such a selection is advantageous to the group. It would +seem rather that in so complex a social system as that of the present +day with its increasing division of labour on other than purely sexual +distinctions, we need a variety of types of individuals adapted to the +varied activities of modern life. + +If society is to successfully meet the present situation it must +utilize its psychological insight to remedy conditions which are +obviously dysgenic and detrimental to the welfare of the race. If the +egoistic and highly individualized modern man and woman are induced to +sacrifice personal ambitions in the interests of reproduction, for +instance, it will only be because society has learned to turn those same +egoistic impulses to its own ends. This will never be accomplished by +the forces of tradition or by any such superimposed method of control as +conscription for parenthood. There is too much of a spirit of freedom +and individual liberty in the social mind to-day for any such measure to +meet with success. The same spirit of freedom which formerly burst the +bonds of superstition and entered into the world of science is now as +impatient of restraint of its emotional life as it formerly was of +restriction of its intellectual search for the truth. + +Therefore society can no longer depend upon taboo standards crystallized +into institutionalized forms as a means of control. It must appeal to +more rational motives if it expects to have any degree of influence over +its most intelligent and energetic members. Only when the production of +eugenic offspring brings the same social approval and reward that is +meted out for other activities will the ineradicable and irrespressible +egoistic desires that now prevent individuals from assuming the +responsibilities of family life be enlisted in the very cause to which +they are now so hostile. When the same disapproval is manifested for the +shirking of reproductive activities by the eugenically fit that is now +directed toward lack of patriotism in other lines, the number of +voluntary celibates in society will be materialy decreased. + +The greatest triumph of society in the manipulation of the sexual and +reproductive life of its members will come when it is able to condition +the emotional reaction of the individual by the substitution of the +eugenic ideal for the parental fixation and to focus the sentiment of +romantic love upon eugenic traits. When this is accomplished, the +selection of the mate will at least be favourable for racial +regeneration even if individual disharmonies are not entirely +eliminated. That there are great difficulties in the way of this +accomplishment may be admitted at the outset. The conditioned responses +to be broken down and replaced are for the most part formed in early +childhood, and have had a long period in which to become firmly +impressed upon the organism. But psychological experiments have proven +that even the best established conditioned reactions can be broken down +and others substituted in their place, so that the situation is not so +hopeless. When we recollect that for ages the traditional ideals of +masculinity and femininity have been conditioning the emotional life of +men and women to respond to their requirements with a remarkable degree +of success, there is ground for the belief that the same forces of +suggestion and imitation may be turned to more rational ends and +utilized as an effective means of social therapy. + +If we are to have a more rationalized form of social control, then, it +will undoubtedly take into consideration the necessity of forming the +socially desirable conditionings of the emotional life. The importance +of the emotional reactions for social progress has been very well +summarized by Burgess, who says that emotion can be utilized for +breaking down old customs and establishing new ones, as well as for the +conservation of the mores. Society can largely determine around what +stimuli the emotions can be organized, this author continues, and the +group has indeed always sought to control the stimuli impinging upon its +members. One policy has been to eliminate objectionable stimuli, as in +the outlawing of the saloon. The other is to change the nature of the +affective response of the individual to certain stimuli in the +environment where the natural or organic responses would be at variance +with conduct considered socially desirable.[3] + +Modern psychological knowledge enables us to understand the mechanism +of this last method of social control as the building up of the +conditioned emotional response. If our civilization is to endure it must +learn to apply this method of control to the sex life of the individual +so that reproduction will fall to the lot of the most desirable eugenic +stock instead of being left to the workings of chance as it is at the +present time. + +From the viewpoint of individual psychology, one of the principal +problems of the erotic life is to find a smooth transition from the +romantic love of the courtship period to the less ethereal emotions of +the married state. Indirectly, this is also socially significant, +because of the overwhelming effect of the home environment in shaping +the reactions of the next generation. As a rule, only the children who +have grown up in a happy and wholesome atmosphere of sincere parental +comradeship and affection can have an entirely sane and healthy reaction +to their own erotic functions in later years. + +Although romantic love in its present expression may often lead to +uncongenial marriages and even involve dysgenic mating, its aesthetic and +refining influences are such as to make it desirable in spite of these +drawbacks. Its influence upon literature has been noted by Bloch[2] +while its potency in the formation of a deep and tender feeling between +men and women has been elaborately discussed by Finck.[4] Thus it is +evident that its individual and social advantages more than balance its +disadvantages. + +Unfortunately, with the entrance into the marital relationship and the +release of the erotic emotion into natural channels so that it no longer +seeks the vicarious outlets which were partly supplied in the +idealization of the lovers, there is a tendency for this romantic +element to fade from their affection. The conjugal affection which +replaces it is built on quite other foundations. It is not composed of +day dreams about the beloved, but is wrought out of mutual interests, of +joys and sorrows shared together, of the pleasure of unrestricted +companionship, and of the common care of offspring. The danger lies in +the possibility that these foundations for conjugal love will not have +been lain by the time that romantic sentiments begin to grow dim. It is +this crisis in the married life which seems disappointing in the +afterglow of the engagement and honeymoon. + +Of late there have been attempts to build up a new conception of love +which shall incorporate the best features of romantic love and at the +same time make the transition to the conjugal affection less difficult. +This new conception has grown up through the increasing freedom of +women and the constant association of the sexes in the educational and +business world as well as in the social life. This free companionship of +men and women has done much to destroy the illusions about each other +which were formerly supposed to be so necessary a component of romantic +love, but it has also created the basis for a broader sympathy and a +deeper comradeship which is easily carried over into the married +relation. + +The new ideal of love which is being thus developed combines complete +understanding and frankness with erotic attraction and the tenderness of +romanticism. It implies a type of marital relationship in which there is +preservation of the personality and at the same time a harmony and union +of interests that was often absent from the old-fashioned marriage, when +the wife was supposed to be more limited in her interests than her +husband. It may well be that the evolution of this new ideal of love, +which grants personal autonomy even within the marriage bond, will solve +a great deal of the present conflict between the individualistic +impulses and the exercise of the erotic functions as permitted by the +group. + +It is, of course, an open question as to how far the interests of the +individual and the group can be made to coincide. Group survival demands +that the most vital and intelligent members shall be those to carry on +the reproductive functions. Therefore from the social viewpoint, it is +quite justified in setting up the machinery of social approval and in +establishing emotional attitudes by this means that will insure that +this takes place. On the other hand, it may be that the individuals who +will be thus coerced will be as rebellious against new forms of social +control as they are restless under the present methods of restraint. + +If we free ourselves from a manner of thinking induced by inhibitions +developed through ages of taboo control, and look at the problem +rationally, we must admit that the chief interest of society would be in +the eugenic value of the children born into it. At the present time, +however, the emphasis seems to be chiefly upon the manner of birth, that +is, the principal concern is to have the parents married in the +customary orthodox fashion. Only in view of the necessities of the +recent war have the European nations been forced to wipe out the stain +of illegitimacy, and in America we are still blind to this necessity. +Only Scandinavia, under the leadership of such minds as Ellen Key's, was +roused to this inconsistency in the mores without external pressure, and +enacted legislation concerning illegitimacy which may well serve as a +model to the whole world. The main points of the Norwegian Castberg bill +are as follows: The child whose parents are unmarried has a right to +the surname of the father, and the right of inheritance from a +propertied father; the court has full power to clear up the paternity of +the child; the man is held responsible for the child's support even if +other men are known to have had intercourse with the mother. In order to +discourage immorality in women for the purpose of blackmailing wealthy +men, the mother is also compelled to contribute to the child's +support.[1] + +No psychologist of discernment, in insisting on eugenic standards rather +than a marriage certificate as the best criterion for parenthood would +encourage any tendency to promiscuous mating. The individual suffering +involved in such a system of sexual relationships would be too great to +permit its universal adoption even if it should be found to have no +deleterious social effects. But the very fact that transient mating does +involve so much human agony, especially on the part of the woman, is all +the more reason why it is needless to add artificial burdens to those +already compelled by the very nature of the emotional life. + +The study of child psychology, too, would tend to discourage any general +tendency to temporary sexual relationships. Modern research has shown +that nothing is more necessary for the normal development of the child's +emotional life than a happy home environment with the presence of both +father and mother. Only in these surroundings, with the love of both +parents as a part of the childhood experience, can the emotional +reactions of the child be properly conditioned to respond to the social +situations of adult life. + +In one respect, at least, society can do a great deal to better the +existing situation, and to solve the struggle between the individual and +group interests. At the same time that it endeavours to set up emotional +responses that shall be conducive to eugenic mating and to a happy love +life, as well as for the welfare of the child, it should also leave a +wide margin of personal liberty for the individuals concerned to work +out a type of sexual relationship which is in harmony with their natural +inclinations. The institution of monogamy is too deeply founded in the +needs of the individual and of the child to suffer from this increase in +freedom and responsibility. Were it so frail a thing as to need the +protection of the church and state as well as public opinion to insure +its survival, it would be so little adapted to the needs of humanity +that it might better disappear. + +There are no indications that there would be any wider deviation from +the monogamous relationship were variations frankly recognized that now +take place in secret. By its present attitude, society is not +accomplishing its purpose and preventing all sexual relationships except +those which conform to its institutionalized standards. It is merely +forcing what should be always the most dignified of human relationships +into the shamefulness of concealment and furtiveness. Moreover, because +it visits its wrath on the child born of unions which are not strictly +conventionalized, it prevents the birth of children from mothers who +might be of great eugenic value, but whom fear of social disapproval +keeps from the exercise of their maternal functions but not of their +sexual activities. + +In the final analysis, it will probably be demonstrated that for a +certain type of personality there can be no compromise which will +resolve the conflict between the egoistic inclinations and the interests +of the group. For those whose deepest desires are so out of harmony with +the social life of the times there is no alternative but to sacrifice +their personal desires or to forfeit the pleasure of feeling in complete +rapport with their fellows. In such natures, the ultimate course of +conduct will be determined by the relative strengths of the +individualistic and gregarious impulses, other things being equal. In +some instances this will mean the choice of a line of conduct out of +harmony with the general trend of group life; in others, it will mean +the repression of personal inclinations and conformity to social +standards. + +For the majority of people, however, it is likely that a more rational +form of social control, freed from the long ages of taboo restrictions, +and based upon accurate biological and psychological knowledge, will +solve the disharmony between the individual and the group to a great +extent. Such a rationalization will take into account the value of a new +ideal of love which shall be built up from a sane relationship between +the sexes and in accordance with eugenic standards. It will also grant a +great deal of personal autonomy in the determination of sexual +relationships in so far as this can be correlated with the welfare of +the children of the race. Last of all, it will attempt to condition the +emotional reactions to respond to stimuli which shall insure eugenic +mating naturally and without the intervention of legislation. + +Unless modern civilization can set up some such form of rational control +for the sexual and reproductive life of its members, the present +conflict between individuation and socialization will continue and the +dysgenic factors now operative in society will steadily increase. In the +end, this internal conflict may become so powerful as to act as an +irresistible disintegrating force that will shatter the fabric of modern +social organization. Only the evolution of a rationalized method of +control can avert this social catastrophe. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER III. + + +1. Anthony, Katharine. Feminism in Germany and Scandinavia. Henry Holt, +N.Y., 1915. + +2. Bloch, Ivan. Sexual Life of Our Time. Rebman, London, 1908. + +3. Burgess, E.W. The Function of Socialization in Social Evolution. +Univ. Chicago Press, 1916. + +4. Finck, H.T. Romantic Love and Personal Beauty. Macmillan, N.Y., 1891. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TABOO AND GENETICS*** + + +******* This file should be named 14325.txt or 14325.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/3/2/14325 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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