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 ofthe 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 TOOUR FRIEND AND TEACHER, FRANK HAMILTON HANKINS

PREFACE

Scientific discovery, especially in biology, during the past two decadeshas made necessary an entire restatement of the sociological problem ofsex. Ward's so-called "gynæcocentric" theory, as sketched in Chapter 14of his _Pure Sociology_, has been almost a bible on the sex problem tosociologists, in spite of the fact that modern laboratoryexperimentation has disproved it in almost every detail. While acomparatively small number of people read this theory from the originalsource, it is still being scattered far and wide in the form ofquotations, paraphrases, and interpretations by more popular writers. Itis therefore necessary to gather together the biological data which areavailable from technical experimentation and medical research, in orderthat its social implications may be utilized to show the obsoleteness ofthis older and unscientific statement of the sex problem in society. 

In order to have a thoroughly comprehensive survey of the institutionsconnected with sexual relationships and the family and their entiresignificance for human life, it is also necessary to approach them fromthe ethnological and psychological points of view. The influence of theprimitive sex taboos on the evolution of the social mores and familylife has received too little attention in the whole literature of sexualethics and the sociology of sex. That these old customs have had aninestimable influence upon the members of the group, modern psychologyhas recently come to recognize. It therefore seems advantageous toinclude these psychological findings in the same book with thediscussion of the sex taboos and other material with which it must solargely deal. 

These fields--biology, ethnology, and psychology--are so complicated andso far apart technically, although their social implications are soclosely interwoven, that it has seemed best to divide the treatmentbetween three different writers, each of whom has devoted much study tohis special phase of the subject. This leads to a very simplearrangement of the material. The first part deals with the physical orbiological basis of the sex problem, which all societies from the mostprimitive to the most advanced have had and still have to build upon. The second part deals with the various ideas man has developed in hisquest for a satisfactory adaptation of this physical basis to his ownrequirements. Part three attempts to analyze the effect of this longhistory of social experimentation upon the human psyche in its modernsocial milieu. 

In the social evolution of the human mind, the deepest desires of theindividual have been often necessarily sacrificed to the needs of thegroup. Sometimes they have been unnecessarily sacrificed, since humanintelligence is, unfortunately, not omniscient. Nevertheless, the sumtotal of human knowledge has now become great enough so that it is atleast well to pause and take account of its bearing on the age-oldproblem of family life, in order that our evolution henceforth may beguarded by rational control rather than trial and error in so far as ispossible. Such a summarization of our actual knowledge of the biology, sociology and psychology of the foundations of the family institutionthis book aims to present, and if it can at the same time suggest astarting point for a more rationalized system of social control in thisfield, 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 sexualreproduction. Advantage of sex in chance of survival. Germ and bodycells. Limitations of biology in social problems. Sex always present inhigher 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 secretionsand the sex complex. The male and the female type of body. How removalof sex glands affects body type. Sex determination. Share of the egg andsperm in inheritance. The nature of sex--sexual selection of littleimportance. The four main types of secretory systems. Sex and sexinstincts of rats modified by surgery. Dual basis for sex. Opposite sexbasis in every individual. The Free-Martin cattle. Partial reversal ofsex 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 ofintersexuality. Modern surgery and human intersexes. Quantitative theorya Mendelian explanation. Peculiar complication in the case of man. Chemical life-cycles of the sexes. Functional-reproductive period andthe sex problem. Relative significance of physiological sex differences. 

IV. SEX SPECIALIZATION AND GROUP SURVIVAL

Adaptation and specialization. Reproduction a group--not an individualproblem. Conflict between specialization and adaptation. Intelligencemakes for economy in adjustment to environment. Reproduction, notproduction, 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 incivilized society. New machinery for social control. Mistaken notionthat reproduction is an individual problem. Economic and other factorsin 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 universalityof this control in the form of taboos. Connection between the universalattitude of primitive peoples toward woman as shown in theInstitutionalized Sex Taboo and the magico-religious belief in Mana. Relation of Mana to Taboo. Discussion of Sympathetic Magic and theassociated idea of danger from contact. Difficulties in the way of aninclusive definition of Taboo. Its dual nature. Comparison of conceptsof Crawley, Frazer, Marett, and others. Conclusion that Taboo isNegative Mana. Contribution of modern psychology to the study of Taboo. Freud's analogy between the dualistic attitude toward the tabooed objectand the ambivalence of the emotions. The understanding of this dualismtogether with the primitive belief in Mana and Sympathetic Magicexplains much in the attitude of man toward woman. The vast amount ofevidence in the taboos of many peoples of dualism in the attitude towardwoman. Possible physiological explanation of this dualistic attitude ofman toward woman found in a period before self-control had in somemeasure replaced social control, in the reaction of weakness and disgustfollowing 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 ofcontamination by woman predominated. Later emphasis fell on her mysticand 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'spsychic quality of intuition: its origin--theories--conclusion that thisquality is probably physiological in origin, but aggravated by taboorepressions. Transformation in attitude toward woman in the earlyChristian period. Psychological reasons for the persistence in religionof a Mother Goddess. Development of the Christian concept. Preservationof ancient woman cults as demonology. Early Christian attitude towardwoman as unclean and in league with demons. Culmination of belief indemonic power of woman in witchcraft persecutions. All women affected bythe belief in witches and in the uncleanness of woman. Gradualdevelopment on the basis of the beliefs outlined of an ideally pure andimmaculate Model Woman. 

III. THE DUALISM IN MODERN LIFE: THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO

The Taboo and modern institutions. Survival of ideas of the uncleannessof woman. Taboo and the family. The "good" woman. The "bad" woman. Increase in the number of women who do not fit into the ancientclassifications. 

IV. DYSGENIC INFLUENCES OF THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO

Taboo survivals act dysgenically within the family under presentconditions. 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. , onposterity. The attitude of economically independent women towardmarriage. 

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 thesexual impulse. Vicarious expression of the sexual impulse. Unconsciousfactors of the sex life. Taboo control has conditioned the naturalbiological tendencies of individuals to conform to arbitrary standardsof masculinity and femininity. Conflict between individual desires andsocial standards. 

II. HOW OUR INSTITUTIONS FIT INDIVIDUAL SEX PSYCHOLOGY

Social institutions controlling sex activities based on the assumptionthat _all_ women are adapted to as well as specialized for reproduction. Neurotic tendencies which unfit women for marriage--the desire fordomination. Sexual anæsthesia another neurotic trait which interfereswith marital harmony. The conditioning of the sexual impulse to theparent ideal and the erotic fetish as factors which determine mating. Homosexual tendencies and their part in the sex problem. The conflictbetween the desire for marriage and egoistic ambitions. The socialregulations 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 ofeugenic considerations. Some of the best male and female stock refusingmarriage and parenthood. The race is reproduced largely by the inferiorand average stocks and very little by the superior stock. As atherapeutic measure, society should utilize psychological knowledge as anew method of control. Romantic love and conjugal love--a new ideal oflove. The solution of the conflict between individual and groupinterests. 

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 sexualreproduction; Advantage of sex in chance of survival; Germ and bodycells; Limitations of biology in social problems; Sex always present inhigher 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 simpledefinition. In an animal or plant individual it is expressed by andlinked with the ability to produce egg- or sperm-cells (ova orspermatozoa). Sexual reproduction is simply the chain of eventsfollowing the union of the egg and sperm to produce a new individual. Looked at from another angle, it is that sort of reproduction whichrequires two differentiated individuals: the male, which producesspermatoza, and the female, which produces ova. In the case of verysimple forms, it would be simply the union or conjugation of a male anda female individual and the reproductive process involved. Where thereis no differentiation into male and female there is no sex. 

An individual which produces both sperm-and egg-cells within its bodyis termed an hermaphrodite. Very few hermaphrodites exist among thevertebrates, although they may be found in one or two species (e. G. , thehagfish). There are no truly hermaphroditic mammals, i. E. , individualsin which both the male and the female germ cells function, exceptperhaps in rare instances. 

Sexless or asexual reproduction assumes various forms. What is usuallyconsidered the most primitive of these is fission or simple division, inwhich the cell divides into two equal, identical parts. There is ofcourse no suggestion of sex here. It is fairly safe to assume that lifebegan thus in the world, as neuter or sexless--i. E. , with no suggestionof either maleness or femaleness. [A]

[Footnote A: This asexual type of reproduction has been misinterpretedby a whole school of non-biological writers, who have followed the leadof Lester F. Ward, in his classification of these neuter-organisms asfemales. Ward says ("Pure Sociology, " Ch. 14): "It does no violence tolanguage or science to say that life begins with the female organism andis carried on a long distance by means of females alone. In all thedifferent forms of asexual reproduction from fission to parthenogenesis, the female may in this sense be said to exist alone and perform all thefunctions of life including reproduction. In a word, life begins asfemale" (p. 313). Adding to this statement the assertion that the maledeveloped at first as a mere parasite, in the actual, physical sense, Ward proceeds to build up his famous Gynæcocentric Theory, which isfamiliar to all students of social science, and need not be elaboratedhere. It is obvious that a thorough biological knowledge destroys thefundamental concept on which this theory is founded, for there is nodoubt 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) andspore formation are familiar to us in plants. Such forms are too distantfrom 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 termsignifies the ability of females to reproduce in such species for one ora number of generations without males. Many forms of this class (or morestrictly, these classes) have apparently become specialized ordegenerated, 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 ascomplicated as frogs. [1, 2] All the frogs produced were males, so thatthe race (of frogs) could not even be theoretically carried on by thatmethod. 

The origin of sexual reproduction in animals must have been something asfollows: The first method of reproduction was by a simple division ofthe unicellular organism to form two new individuals. At times, a fusionof two independent individuals occurred. This was known as conjugation, and is seen among Paramecia and some other species to-day. Its value isprobably a reinvigoration of the vitality of the individual. Next therewas probably a tendency for the organism to break up into many partswhich subsequently united with each other. Gradually some of theseuniting cells came to contain more food material than the others. As aresult of their increased size, they possessed less power of motion thanthe others, and in time lost their cilia (or flagella) entirely and werebrought into contact with the smaller cells only by the motion of thelatter. Finally, in colonial forms, most of the cells in the colonyceased to have any share in reproduction, that function being relegatedto the activities of a few cells which broke away and united with otherssimilarly adrift. These cells functioning for reproduction continued todifferentiate more and more, until large ova and small, motilespermtozoa were definitely developed. 

The clearest evidences as to the stages in the evolution of sexualreproduction is found in the plant world among the green algæ. [3] Inthe lower orders of one-celled algæ, reproduction takes place by simplecell division. In some families, this simple division results in theproduction of several new individuals instead of only two from eachparent cell. A slightly different condition is found in those orderswhere the numerous cells thus produced by simple division of the parentorganism unite in pairs to produce new individuals after a briefindependent existence of their own. These free-swimming cells, whichapparently are formed only to reunite with each other, are calledzoöspores, while the organism which results from their fusion is knownas a zygospore. The zygospore thus formed slowly increases in size, until it in its turn develops a new generation of zoöspores. In stillother forms, in place of the zoöspores, more highly differentiatedcells, known as eggs and sperms, are developed, and these unite toproduce the new individuals. Both eggs and sperms are believed to havebeen derived from simpler ancestral types of ciliated cells which weresimilar in structure and closely resembled zoöspores. [A]

[Footnote A: This evidence, which points to the conclusion that in theearly origin of sexual reproduction the males and females weredifferentiated and developed from a uniform type of ancestral cell, quite controverts Ward's point that the male originated as a kind ofparasite. ]

Having once originated, the sexual type of reproduction possessed adefinite survival value which assured its continuation. Sex makespossible a crossing of strains, which evidently possesses some greatadvantage, since the few simple forms which have no such division ofreproductive functions have undergone no great development and all thehigher, more complicated animals are sexual. This crossing of strainsmay make possible greater variety, it may help in crossing out orweakening variations which are too far from the average, or both. 

Schäfer[4] thinks that an exchange of nuclear substance probably givesa sort of chemical rejuvenation and very likely stimulates division. Atany rate, the groups in which the reproductive process became thuspartitioned between two kinds of individuals, male and female, not onlysurvived, but they underwent an amazing development compared with thosewhich remained sexless. 

There came a time in the evolution of the groups possessing sexualreproduction, when increasing specialization necessitated the divisioninto reproductive and non-reproductive cells. When a simple cellreproduces by dividing into two similar parts, each developing into anew 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 oldcell did not "die"--no body was left behind. Since this nuclearsubstance exists in the new cells, and since these generations go onindefinitely, the cells are in a sense "immortal" or deathless. In aone-celled individual, there is no distinction between germinal andbodily functions. In the more complicated organisms, however, there areinnumerable kinds of cells, a few (the germ cells) specialized forreproduction, the others forming the body which eats, moves, sees, feels, and in the case of man, _thinks_. But the germ-cells or germplasmcontinue to be immortal or deathless in the same sense as in thesimplest organisms. The body, in a historical sense, grew up around thegerm-cells, taking over functions a little at a time, until in thehigher animals nutrition and other activities and a large part even ofthe reproductive process itself is carried on by body-cells. 

When we think of a man or woman, we think of an individual only one ofwhose 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 andhands--if human bodies--did not wear out or become destroyed, we shouldnot need to trouble ourselves so much about the germplasm, whose solefunction in human society is to replace them. 

Since the individual human bodies and minds which seek after the thingsto which we mortals attach value--moral worth, esthetic and otherpleasure, achievement and the like--do have to be replaced every fewyears, the germplasms from which new individuals must come have alwaysbeen and always will be of fundamental importance. It is always the_product_ of the germplasm which concerns us, and we are interested inthe germ-cells themselves only in relation to their capacity to produceindividuals of value to society. 

So let us not go erring about in the philosophical ether, imagining thatbecause the _amoeba_ may not be specialized for anything over and abovenutrition and reproduction that these are necessarily the "mainbusiness" or "chief ends" of human societies. Better say that althoughwe have become developed and specialized for a million other activitieswe are still bound by those fundamental necessities. As to "Nature'spurposes" 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 feelparticularly 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 acity. 

Necessities and possibilities, not "purposes" in nature, claim ourattention--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 toremember that man as an animal is tremendously differentiated infunctions, and that most of the activities we look upon as distinctivelyhuman depend upon the body rather than the germ-cells. 

It follows that biology is the foundation rather than the house, if wemay use so crude a figure. The solidity of the foundation is veryimportant, but it does not dictate the details as to how thesuperstructure shall be arranged. 

Civilization would not be civilization if we had to spend most of ourtime thinking about the biological basis. If we wish to think of"Nature's" proscriptions or plans as controlling animal life, theanthropomorphism is substantially harmless. But man keeps out of the wayof most of such proscriptions, has plans of his own, and has acquiredconsiderable skill in varying his projects without running foul of suchbiological prohibitions. 

It is time to abandon the notion that biology prescribes in detail howwe shall run society. True, this foundation has never received a surplusof intelligent consideration. Sometimes human societies have built sofoolishly upon it that the result has been collapse. Somebody is alwaysdigging around it in quest of evidence of some vanished idyllic state ofthings which, having had and discarded, we should return to. This littleexcursion into biology is made in the full consciousness that socialmandates are not to be found there. Human projects are the primarymaterial of social science. It is indispensable to check these againstbiological fact, in order to ascertain which are feasible and which arenot. The biological basis may _help_ in explaining old social structuresor in planning new ones; but much wild social theory has been born of afailure to appreciate the limitations of such material. 

All the so-called higher animals, mammals and others, are divided intotwo sexes, male and female. Besides the differentiation of germ-cellsthere are rather obvious differences in the bodies of the two sexes. Incommon with many other mammals, the human male has a larger and strongerbody, on an average, than has the human female. This is true also of theanthropoid apes, the species which most resemble man physically and arecommonly supposed to be his nearest blood relatives in the animalkingdom. It has been true of man himself as far back as we have anyrecords. 

Such differences are only superficial--the real ones go deeper. We arenot so much interested in how they originated in the world as in howthey _do_ come about in the individual. At least, we can come a gooddeal nearer ascertaining the latter than the former. In either case, ourreal purpose is to determine as nearly as possible what the unlikenessreally consists of and so help people to sensibly make up their mindswhat 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, butthere is one respect in which these latter are quite different fromnon-mammals: A mammalian individual, beginning like a non-mammal with afertilized egg, has a period of intra-maternal development which anon-mammal has not. That is, a non-mammalian is a fertilized egg _plus_its parental (or extra-parental) environment; but a mammalian individualis a fertilized egg, _plus its intra-maternal environment_, plus itsnon-parental environment. 

Here in a nutshell is the biological basis of sex problem in humansociety. Human individuals do wear out and have to be replaced byreproduction. In the reproductive process, the female, as in mammalsgenerally, is specialized to provide an intra-maternal environment(approximately nine months in the human species) for each newindividual, and lactation or suckling afterward. The biological phase ofthe sex problem in society consists in studying the nature of thatspecialization. From the purely sociological standpoint, the sex problemconcerns the customs and institutions which have grown up or may growup to meet the need of society for reproduction. 

The point which most concerns us is in how far biological data can beapplied to the sex problem in society. Systematic dissections orbreeding experiments upon human beings, thought out in advance and undercontrol in a laboratory, are subject to obvious limitations. Surgicaloperations, where careful data are kept, often answer the same purposeas concerns some details; but these alone would give us a fragmentaryrecord of how a fertilized egg becomes a conscious human being of onesex or the other. The practice of medicine often throws light onimportant points. Observation of abnormal cases plays its part in addingto our knowledge. Carefully compiled records of what does occur ininheritance, while lacking many of the checks of planned and controlledexperiments, to some extent take the place of the systematic breedingpossible with animals. At best, however, the limitations inexperimentation with human subjects would give us a rather disconnectedrecord were it not for the data of experimental biology. 

How may such biological material be safely used? Indiscriminatelyemployed, it is worse than useless--it can be confusing or actuallymisleading. It is probably never safe to say, or even to infer directly, that because of this or that animal structure or behaviour we should dothus and so in human society. On this point sociology--especially thesociology of sex--must frankly admit its mistakes and break with much ofits cherished past. 

The social problem of sex consists of fitting the best possibleinstitutions on to the biological foundation _as we find it in the humanspecies_. Hence all our reasoning about which institution or custom ispreferable must refer directly to the human bodies which composesociety. We can use laboratory evidence about the bodies of otheranimals to help us in understanding the physical structure and functionsof the human body; but we must stop trying to apply the sex-ways ofbirds, spiders or even cows (which are at least mammals) to humansociety, which is not made up of any of these. 

It is possible to be quite sure that some facts carefully observed aboutmammals in a biological laboratory apply to similar structures in man, also a mammal. Because of this relationship, the data from medicine andsurgery are priceless. Thus we are enabled to check up our systematicexperimental knowledge of animals by an ascertained fact here and therein the human material, and to get a fairly exact idea of how great thecorrespondence actually is. Gaps thus filled in are narrow enough, andour certainty of the ground on either side sufficiently great, to givea good deal of justifiable assurance. 

If we use our general biological evidence in this way, merely to help inclearing up points about _human_ biology, we need not be entirelylimited to mammals. Some sex phenomena are quite general, and may bedrawn from the sexual species most convenient to study and control inexperiments. When we get away from mammalian forms, however, we must bevery sure that the cases used for illustrations are of generalapplication, are similar in respect to the points compared, or that anyvital 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 forany other purpose than to discover what the facts are about the humanbody. When the discussion of human social institutions is taken up inPart II, the obvious assumption will always be that these rest uponhuman biology, and that we must not let our minds wander into vagueanalogies 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--briefsummary 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 andthe sex complex; The male and the female type of body; How removal ofsex glands affects body type; Sex determination; Share of egg and spermin heredity; Nature of sex--sexual selection of little importance; Thefour main types of secretory systems; Sex and sex-instincts of ratsmodified by surgery; Dual basis for sex; Opposite-sex basis in everyindividual; The Free-Martin cattle; Partial reversal of sex in man. 

In Chapter I, the "immortality" of the protoplasm in the germ cells ofhigher animals, as well as in simpler forms without distinct bodies, wasmentioned. 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 ofcells, all of these spring from one cell and it a germ cell--thefertilized 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, andso on through indefinite generations. Thus the germ cells in anindividual living to-day are the lineal descendants, by simple division, of the germ cells in his ancestors as many generations, or thousands ofgenerations, ago as we care to imagine. All the complicated bodyspecializations and sex phenomena may be regarded as super-imposed uponor grouped around this succession of germ cells, continuous by simpledivision. 

The type of body in each generation depends upon this germplasm, but thegermplasm is not supposed to be in any way modified by the body (except, of course, that severe enough accidents might damage it). Thus weresemble our parents only because the germplasm which directs ourdevelopment is a split-off portion of the same continuous line of germcells which directed their development, that of their fathers, and so onback. This now universally accepted theory is called the "continuity ofthe germplasm. "

It will be seen at once that this seems to preclude any possibility of achild's inheriting from its parents anything which these did notthemselves inherit. The bodies of each generation are, so to speak, mere"buds" from the continuous lines of germplasm. If we _develop_ ourmuscles or our musical talent, this development is of the body and dieswith it, though the physical basis or capacity we ourselves inheritedis still in the germplasm and is therefore passed along to ourchildren. We may also furnish our children an environment which willstimulate their desire and lend opportunity for similar or greateradvancement than our own. This is _social inheritance_, or the productof _environment_--easy to confuse with that of _heredity_ and verydifficult to separate, especially in the case of mental traits. 

It will likewise become clear as we proceed that there is no mechanismor relationship known to biology which could account for what ispopularly termed "pre-natal influence. " A developing embryo has its owncirculation, so insulated from that of the mother that only a few of themost virulent and insidious disease germs can ever pass the barrier. Thegeneral health of the mother is of utmost importance to the vitality, chances of life, constitution and immunity from disease of the unbornchild. Especially must she be free from diseases which may becommunicated to the child either before or at the time of birth. Thisapplies particularly to gonorrhoea, one of the most widely prevalent aswell as most ancient of maladies, and syphilis, another disastrous andvery common plague which is directly communicable. As to "birthmarks"and the like being directly caused by things the mother has seen orthought about, such beliefs seem to be founded on a few remarkable purecoincidences and a great deal of folk-lore. 

Reproduction in its simplest form is, then, simply the division of onecell into two parts, each of which develops into a replica of theoriginal. Division is also the first stage in reproduction in the mostcomplicated animal bodies. To get an idea of what takes place in such adivision we must remember that a cell consists of three distinct parts:(a) the protoplasm or cytoplasm, (b) the nucleus, and (c) a small bodyknown as the centrosome which need not be discussed here. 

When a cell division takes place, the nucleus breaks up into a number ofthread-like portions which are known as chromosomes. There are supposedto be 24 pairs, or 48, in the human cell. All the evidence indicatesthat these chromosomes carry the "factors" in inheritance which producesthe characters or characteristics of the individual body. 

In mitosis or ordinary cell division, these chromosomes splitlengthwise, so that the new cells always have the same number as theoriginal one. When the germ-cells of the male and female make thedivision which marks the first step in reproduction, however, theprocess is different. Half the chromatin material passes into each ofthe two cells formed. This is called _maturation_, or the maturationdivision, and the new cells have only half the original number ofchromosomes. Each of these divides again by mitosis (the chromosomessplitting lengthwise), the half or haploid number remaining. The resultis the _gametes_ (literally "marrying cells"--from the Greek _gamé_, signifying marriage). Those from the male are called sperms orspermatozoa and those from the female eggs or ova. (The divisions toform ova present certain complications which need not be taken up indetail here. ) Of the 24 chromosomes in each sperm or egg we are hereconcerned with only one, known as the sex chromosome because, inaddition to transmitting other characteristics, it determines the sex ofthe new individual. 

Neither the ovum nor the spermatozoon (the human race is referred to) iscapable alone of developing into a new individual. They must join in theprocess known as fertilization. The sperm penetrates the egg (within thebody of the female) and the 24 chromosomes from each source, male andfemale, are re-grouped in a new nucleus with 48 chromosomes--the fullnumber. 

The chances are half and half that the new individual thus begun will beof a given sex, for the following reason: There is a structuraldifference, supposed to be fundamentally chemical, between the cells ofa female body and those of a male. The result is that the gametes (spermand eggs) they respectively produce in maturation are not exactly alikeas to chromosome composition. All the eggs contain what is known as the"X" type of sex chromosome. But only half the male sperm have thistype--in the other half is found one of somewhat different type, knownas "Y. " (This, again, is for the human species--in some animals themechanism and arrangement is somewhat different. ) If a sperm and eggboth carrying the X-type of chromosome unite in fertilization, theresulting embryo is a female. If an X unites with a Y, the result is amale. Since each combination happens in about half the cases, the raceis about half male and half female. 

Thus sex is inherited, like other characters, by the action of thechromatin material of the cell nucleus. As Goldschmidt[1] remarks, thistheory of the visible mechanism of sex distribution "is to-day so farproven that the demonstration stands on the level of an experimentalproof in physics or chemistry. " But why and how does this nuclearmaterial determine sex? In other words, what is the nature of theprocess of differentiation into male and female which it sets in motion?

To begin with, we must give some account of the difference between thecells of male and female origin, an unlikeness capable of producing thetwo distinct types of gametes, not only in external appearance, but inchromosome makeup as well. It is due to the presence in the bodies ofhigher animals of a considerable number of glands, such as the thyroidin the throat and the suprarenals just over the kidneys. These poursecretions into the blood stream, determining its chemical quality andhence how it will influence the growth or, when grown, the stablestructure of other organs and cells. They are called endocrine glands ororgans, and their chemical contributions to the blood are known as_hormones_. 

Sometimes those which do nothing but furnish these secretions are spokenof as "ductless glands, " from their structure. The hormones (endocrineor internal secretions) do not come from the ductless glands alone--butthe liver and other glands contribute hormones to the blood stream, inaddition to their other functions. Some authorities think that "everycell in the body is an organ of internal secretion", [2] and that thuseach influences all the others. The sex glands are especially importantas endocrine organs; in fact the somatic cells are organized around thegerm cells, as pointed out above. Hence the sex glands may be consideredas the keys or central factors in the two chemical systems, the male andthe female type. 

These various hormones or chemical controllers in the blood interact ina nicely balanced chemical system. Taken as a whole this is oftencalled the "secretory balance" or "internal secretory balance. " Thisbalance is literally the key to the sex differences we see, because itlies back of them; i. E. , there are two general types of secretorybalance, one for males and one for females. Not only are the secretionsfrom the male and the female sex glands themselves quite unlike, but thewhole chemical system, balance or "complex" involved is different. Because of this dual basis for metabolism or body chemistry, centering inthe sex glands, no organ or cell in a male body can be exactly like thecorresponding one in a female body. 

In highly organized forms like the mammals (including man), sex islinked up with _all_ the internal secretions, and hence is of the wholebody. [3] As Bell [2, p. 5] states it: "We must focus at one and thesame time the two essential processes of life--the individual metabolismand the reproductive metabolism. They are interdependent. Indeed, theindividual metabolism is the reproductive metabolism. "

Here, then, is the reason men have larger, differently formed bodiesthan 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-organizedchemical laboratory, delivering various products to the blood, butalways in the same general proportions for a given sex. The ingredientswhich come from the sex glands are also qualitatively different, as hasbeen 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 thatthey may overlap occasionally in some details. For instance, some womenare larger than are some men--have lower pitched voices, etc. The wholebodily metabolism, resting as it does upon a chemical complex, isobviously more like the male average in some women than it is in others, and _vice versa_. But the average physical make-up which we findassociated with the male and female sex glands, respectively, isdistinctive in each case, and a vast majority of individuals of each sexconform nearly enough to the average so that classification presents nodifficulty. 

The extreme as well as the average body types existing in the presenceof the respective types of sex-glands are different. For example, wefind an occasional hen with male spurs, comb or wattles, though she is anormal female in every other respect, and lays eggs. [4] But we neverfind a functional female (which lays eggs) with _all_ the typicalcharacteristics of the male body. Body variation can go only so far inthe presence of each type of primary sexuality (i. E. , sex-glands). 

The bodily peculiarities of each sex, as distinguished from thesex-glands or gonads themselves, are known as _secondary_ sexcharacters. 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 ofsex 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 sterileindividual, which produces neither? The problem is especiallyembarrassing when the primary and secondary sex do not correspond, as issometimes the case. 

Even in a fully grown animal, to remove or exchange the sex glands (bysurgery) modifies the bodily type. One of the most familiar cases ofremoval is the gelding or desexed horse. His appearance and dispositionare different from the stallion, especially if the operation takes placewhile he is very young. The reason he resembles a normal male in manyrespects is simply that sexuality in such highly-organized mammals is ofthe whole body, not of the sex-glands or organs alone. 

Suppose this horse was desexed at two years old. Nearly three years hadelapsed since he was a fertilized egg. During the eleven months or so hespent within his mother, he developed a very complicated body. Beginningas a male, with a male-type metabolism (that is, as the result of aunion between an X and a Y chromosome, not two X's), all his glands, aswell as the body structures they control, developed in its presence. Notonly the sex glands, but the liver, suprarenals, thyroid--the whole bodyin fact--became adjusted to the male type. He had long before birth whatwe call a male sex complex. Complex it is, but it is, nevertheless, easyenough to imagine its nature for illustrative purposes. It is simply allthe endocrine or hormone-producing organs organized into a balancedchemical system--adjusted to each other. 

When the horse had had this body and this gland system for nearly threeyears (eleven months within his mother's body and twenty-four outside), it had become pretty well organised and fixed. When a single chemicalelement (the hormones from the sex-glands) was withdrawn, the system(thus stereotyped in a developed body and glands) was modified but notentirely upset. The sex complex remained male in many respects. It hadcome to depend upon the other chemical plants, so to speak, quite asmuch as upon the sex glands. The later the castration is performed--themore fixed the body and gland type has become--the closer the horse willresemble a normal male. Much laboratory experimentation now goes toshow that some accident while this horse was still a fertilized egg ora very small embryo might have upset this male type of bodychemistry--perhaps even caused him to develop into a female instead, ifit 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 atthe time of fertilization, before or after. Biologists now generallyprefer to say that a fertilized egg is "predisposed" to maleness orfemaleness, instead of "determined. " The word "determined" suggestsfinality, whereas the embryo appears to have in the beginning only astrong tendency or predisposition toward one sex type or the other. Itis now quite commonly believed that this predisposition arises from the_quantity_ rather than the quality or kind of factors in the chemicalimpetus in the nuclei of the conjugating gametes. A later chapter willbe 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 arepresent in the sperm and ovum _before_ fertilization;

2. That a tendency or predisposition toward maleness or femalenessarises at the time of fertilization, depending upon which type of spermunites with the uniform type of egg (in some species the sperm isuniform 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 ofthe three older points of view. 

The term "sex determination" does not mean to the biologist the changingor determining of the sex at will on the part of the experimenter. Thismight be done by what is known as "selective fertilization" artificiallywith only the kind of sperm (X or Y as to chromosomes) which wouldproduce the desired result. There is as yet no way to thus select thesperm of higher animals. It has been authoritatively claimed thatfeeding with certain chemicals, and other methods to be discussed later, has affected the sex of offspring. These experiments (andcontroversies) need not detain us, since they are not applicable to thehuman species. 

Let us consider this fertilized egg--the contributions of the father andthe mother. The total length of the spermatozoon is only about 1/300 ofan 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 movementhas been studied and found to be about 1/8 of an inch per minute. Onlythe head and neck enter the egg. This head consists almost entirely ofthe nuclear material which is supposed to determine the characters ofthe future individual. 

The ovum or egg contributed by the mother is much larger--nearly roundin shape and about 1/120 of an inch in diameter. Besides its nucleus, itcontains a considerable amount of what used to be considered as "storednutritive material" for the early development of the individual. 

In ancient times the female was quite commonly supposed to be a meremedium of development for the male seed. Thus the Laws of Manu statedthat woman was the soil in which the male seed was planted. In the Greek_Eumenides_, Orestes' mother did not generate him, but only received andnursed the germ. These quaint ideas of course originated merely fromobservation of the fact that the woman carries the young until birth, and must not lead us to imagine that the ancients actually separated thegerm and somatic cells in their thinking. 

A modern version of this old belief was the idea advanced by Harvey thatthe ovum consisted of fluid in which the embryo appeared by spontaneousgeneration. Loeuwenhoek's development of the microscope in the 17thcentury led immediately to the discovery of the spermatozoon by one ofhis students. At the time, the "preformation theory" was probably themost widely accepted--i. E. , that the adult form exists in miniature inthe egg or germ, development being merely an unfolding of thesepreformed parts. With the discovery of the spermatozoon thepreformationists were divided into two schools, one (the ovists) holdingthat the ovum was the container of the miniature individual, the other(animalculists) according this function to the spermatozoon. Accordingto the ovists, the ovum needed merely the stimulation of thespermatozoon to cause its contained individual to undergo development, while the animalculists looked upon the spermatozoon as the essentialembryo container, the ovum serving merely as a suitable food supply orgrowing place. 

This nine-lived notion of male supremacy in inheritance was ratherreinforced than removed by the breeding of domestic animals in thestill more recent past. Attention has been focused on a few great males. For example, the breed of American trotting horses all goes back to onesire--Hambletonian 10. The great Orloff Stud Book, registering over amillion individuals, is in the beginning founded on a single horse--amale. It is not strange that we still find among some breeders vestigesof the ancient belief that the male predominates in inheritance. Asuperior male can impress his characters in a single year upon 100 timesas _many_ colts as a female of equal quality could produce in herlifetime. So slight an incident in his life is this reproductive processfor each individual that he could if he devoted his life solely toreproduction stamp his characters upon a thousand times as many colts ascould a female. Thus under artificial breeding conditions, the goodmales do have a tremendously disproportionate share in improving thewhole breed of horses, though each single horse gets his qualitiesequally from his male and female parents. 

Though Mendel knew an astonishing amount about inheritance ahalf-century ago, it is worth noting that the foundation upon whichrests our present knowledge of sex has been discovered less than twentyyears before--the reference is, of course, to the chromosomes as thecarriers of inheritance. While from the standpoint of biology theopinions of two decades ago about sex literally belong to a differentage, some of them have been so persistent in sociological thought andwritings that they must be briefly reviewed in order that the reader maybe on his guard against them. Books which still have a wide circulationdeal with the sex problem in terms of a biology now no more tenable thanthe flatness of the earth. 

On the one hand were the ancient traditions of male predominance ininheritance, reinforced by the peculiar emphasis which animal breedingplaces upon males. On the other hand, biologists like Andrew Wilson[5]had argued as early as the seventies of the past century for femalepredominance, from the general evidence of spiders, birds, etc. LesterF. 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 asexpanded into the fourteenth chapter of his "Pure Sociology, " publishedfifteen years later. Its publication at this late date gave it anunfortunate vitality long after its main tenets had been disproved inthe biological laboratory. Germ-cell and body-cell functions were notseparated. Arguments from social structures, from cosmic, natural andhuman history, much of it deduced by analogy, were jumbled together ina fashion which seems amazing to us now, though common enough thirtyyears ago. It was not a wild hypothesis in 1888, its real date, but itsrepeated republication (in the original and in the works of otherwriters who accepted it as authoritative) since 1903 has done much todiscredit sociology with biologists and, what is more serious, to muddleideas about sex and society. 

In 1903, Weismann's theory of the continuity of the germplasm was tenyears old. De Vries' experiments in variation and Mendel's rediscoveredwork on plant hybridization had hopelessly undermined the older notionthat the evolution or progress of species has taken place through theinheritance of acquired characters--that is, that the individualsdeveloped or adapted themselves to suit their surroundings and thatthese body-modifications were inherited by their offspring. As pointedout in Chapter I, biologists have accepted Weismann's theory of acontinuous germplasm, and that this germplasm, not the body, is thecarrier of inheritance. Nobody has so far produced evidence of any traceof any biological mechanism whereby development of part of the body--saythe biceps of the brain--of the individual could possibly produce such aspecific modification of the germplasm he carries as to result in theinheritance of a similar development by his offspring. 

Mendel's experiments had shown that the characters we inherit are unitsor combinations of units, very difficult to permanently change ormodify. They combine with each other in all sorts of complicated ways. Sometimes one will "dominate" another, causing it to disappear for ageneration or more; but it is not broken up. These characters have aremarkable way of becoming "segregated" once more--that is, of appearingintact later on. 

While it follows from Weismann's theory that an adaptation acquired byan individual during his lifetime cannot be transmitted to hisoffspring, it remained for De Vries to show authoritatively thatevolution can, and does, take place without this. Once this wasestablished, biologists cheerfully abandoned the earlier notion. LesterWard and the biologists of his day in general not only believed in thetransmission of acquired characters, but they filled the obvious gapswhich occurred in trying to apply this theory to the observed facts byplacing a fantastic emphasis upon sexual selection. That is, muchprogress was accounted for through the selection by the females of thesuperior males. This, as a prime factor in evolution, has since beenalmost "wholly discredited" (Kellogg's phrase) by the carefulexperiments of Mayer, Soule, Douglass, Dürigen, Morgan and others. Thebelief in sexual selection involved a long string of corollaries, ofwhich biology has about purged itself, but they hang on tenaciously insociological and popular literature. For instance, Ward believed in thetendency of opposites to mate (tall men with short women, blonds withbrunettes, etc. ), although Karl Pearson had published a statisticalrefutation in his _Grammar of Science_, which had run through twoeditions when the _Pure Sociology_ appeared. The greater variability ofmales than females, another gynæcocentric dogma had also been attackedby Pearson on statistical evidence in 1897 (in the well-known essay onVariation in Man and Woman, in _Chances of Death_) and has becomeincreasingly unacceptable through the researches of Mrs. Hollingworth[6, 7, 8]. The idea of a vanished age of mother-rule in humansociety, so essential to the complete theory, has long since beenmodified by anthropologists. 

De Vries' experiments showed that a moderately simple fact practicallymakes all these complicated theories unnecessary. No two living thingsare exactly alike--that is, all living matter is more or less variable. Some variations are more fortunate than others, and these variants arethe ones which survive--the ones best adapted to their environment. Given this fact of the constant variation of living matter, naturalselection (i. E. , survival of the fittest and elimination of the unfit)is the mechanism of evolution or progress which best accounts for theobserved facts. Such variation is called "chance variation, " not becauseit takes place by "chance" in the properly accepted sense of the term, but because it is so tremendously varied--is evidently due to suchcomplicated and little-understood circumstances--that it can best bestudied mathematically, using statistical applications of the "theory ofprobabilities. "

The fine-spun, elaborate theories about sex, so current twenty yearsago, have fallen into almost complete desuetude among scientists. Withthe discovery of the place of the chromosomes in inheritance, biologistsbegan to give their almost undivided attention to a rigid laboratoryexamination of the cell. This has included sex phenomena since McClungand Sutton pointed out the function of the sex chromosome in 1902 and1903. Present-day "theories" are little more than working hypotheses, developed, not in a library or study, but with one eye glued to ahigh-power microscope. 

Besides its faulty foundation as to facts, the old gynæcocentric theoryinvolved a method of treatment by historical analogy which biologistshave almost entirely discarded. Anyone interested in the relative valueof different kinds of biological data for social problems would do wellto read the opening chapter of Prof. Morgan's "Critique of the Theory ofEvolution"[9], for even a summary of which space is lacking here. College reference shelves are still stocked with books on sex sociologywhich are totally oblivious of present-day biology. For example, MrsGilman (Man-Made World), Mrs Hartley (Truth About Woman) and theNearings (Woman and Social Progress) adhere to Ward's theory insubstantially its primitive form, and not even sociologists likeProfessor Thomas (Sex and Society) have been able to entirely break awayfrom it. 

The old question of male and female predominance in inheritance has beento a considerable extent cleared up, to the discomfiture of both sidesto the controversy. Most exhaustive experiments failed to trace anycharacters to any other part of either sperm or egg than the nucleus. Transmission of characteristics seemed to be absolutely equal by the twoparents. The male nucleus enters the egg practically naked. Hence if thecharacters are transmitted equally, there is certainly ground forsupposing that only the nucleus of the egg has such functions, and thatthe remainder merely provides material for early development. Yet thisdoes 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 allthe essential determiners for a new individual. Boveri's classicexperiment[10] proved the same thing for the male nucleus. He removedthe nuclei from sea-urchin eggs and replaced them with male nuclei. Normal individuals developed. To make things still more certain, hereplaced the female nucleus with a male one from a different variety ofsea-urchin. The resulting individual exhibited the characteristics ofthe _male nucleus_ only--none of those of the species represented by theegg. Here, then, was inheritance definitely traced to the nucleus. Ifthis nucleus is a male the characters are those of the male line; if afemale those of the female line, and in sexual reproduction where thetwo 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 hadsignally failed. Conklin[11] had found out in 1904 and 1905 that the eggcytoplasm in Ascidians is not only composed of different materials, butthat these give rise to definite structures in the embryo later on. So agood many biologists believed, and still believe[12, 13, 14] that the eggis, before fertilization, a sort of "rough preformation of the futureembryo" and that the Mendelian factors in the nuclei "only impress theindividual (and variety) characters upon this rough block. "

If we look at these views from one angle, the apparent conflictdisappears, as Professor Conklin[15] points out. We can still presumethat all the factors of inheritance are carried in the nucleus. Butinstead of commencing the life history of the individual atfertilization, we must date it back to the beginning of the developmentof the egg in the ovary. Whatever rude characters the egg possesses atthe time of fertilization were developed under the influence of thenucleus, which in turn got them half and half from its male and femaleparents. These characters carried by the female across one generationare so rudimentary that they are completely covered up, in thedeveloping embryo, by those of the new nucleus formed by the union ofthe sperm with the egg in fertilization. 

In case fertilization does not take place, this rude beginning in theegg is lost. Since no characteristic sex is assumed until afterfertilization, 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 thoseinclined to speculation or philosophic analysis that by the word"neuter" we may mean any one or all of three things: (a) neither malenor female; (b) both male and female, as yet undifferentiated, or (c)potentially either male or female. Clearly, the above explanationassumes a certain _germinal_ specialization of the female toreproduction, in addition to the body specialization for theintra-parental environment (in mammals). 

A tremendous amount of laboratory experimentation upon animals has beendone in late years to determine the nature of sex. For example, Goodale[16] castrated a brown leghorn cockerel twenty-three days oldand dropped pieces of the ovary of a female bird of the same brood andstrain into the abdominal cavity. These adhered and built up circulatorysystems, as an autopsy later showed. This cockerel, whose male sexglands had been exchanged for female ones, developed the female body, and colouration so completely that expert breeders of the strainpronounced it a female. He found that simply removing the female sexglands invariably led to the development of spurs and male plumage. Butsimple removal of the male sex glands did not alter plumage. To makesure, he replaced the male sex glands with female, and found that theformer male developed female plumage. 

This obviously signifies that in birds the female is an inhibitedmale. [4, p. 49. ] Either sex when castrated has male feathers--the male hasthem either with or without testes, unless they are _inhibited_ by thepresence of (transplanted) ovaries. It will be remembered that thesociological theory of sex held by Ward, Mrs. Hartley and a host ofothers was founded on the supposition that evolution or development of aspecies is chiefly due to selection by the females of the better males, a conclusion based almost entirely on bird evidence. Ward[17] statesthat "the change or progress, as it may be called, has been wholly inthe male, the female remaining unchanged"; also that "the male side ofnature shot up and blossomed out in an unnatural, fantastic way. .. . "Speaking of the highly-coloured males, especially among birds, the samewriter states that "the _normal colour_ (italics ours) is that of theyoung and the female, and the colour of the male is the result of hisexcessive variability. " Goodale's results completely refute this idea, and should bury for ever the well-known sociological notion of "maleafflorescence. "

The general doctrine of a stable, "race-type" female and a highlyvariable male has been widely circulated. In tracing it back throughvoluminous literature, it appears to have been founded on an articlepublished by W. I. Brooks in the _Popular Science Monthly_ for June, 1879, fourteen years before Weissmann's enunciation of the theory ofcontinuity of the germ-plasm. Like Wallace, Brooks continued to studyand experiment till the last, and finally withdrew from his earlierposition on sexual selection. However, this has not prevented othersfrom 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. Goodalehas finally killed the bird evidence upon which earlier workers solargely founded this doctrine, by showing that the "race type" towardwhich birds tend unless inhibited by the female ovarian secretion is themale type, not the female. There is a great difference in the way theinternal secretions act in birds and in man, as will be pointed outlater. It is so important that such a major point as general variabilitymust be supported and corroborated by mammalian evidence to proveanything positively for man. As already noted, the statistical studiesof Pearson and Mrs. Hollingworth _et al. _ have yielded uniformlynegative results. 

In the utilization of data gathered from non-human species, certaindifferences in the systems of internal secretion must be taken intoaccount. Birds differ from the human species as to internal secretoryaction in two vital particulars: (a) In the higher mammals, sex dependsupon a "complex" of all the glands interacting, instead of upon the sexglands alone as in birds; (b) The male bird instead of the female ishomogametic for sex--i. E. , the sperm instead of the eggs is uniform asto the sex chromosome. 

Insects are (in some cases at least) like birds as to the oddchromosome--the opposite of man. But as to secondary sex-characters theydiffer from both. These characters do not depend upon any condition ofthe sex organs, but are determined directly by the chemical factorswhich determine sex itself. [20]

In crustacea, the male is an inhibited female (the exact opposite ofbirds), as shown by the experiments of Giard and Geoffrey Smith oncrabs. A parasite, _Sacculina neglecta_, sometimes drives root-likegrowths into the spider crab, causing slow castration. The females thusdesexed do not assume the male type of body, but castrated males vary sofar toward the female type that some lay eggs[3, p. 143; 20]. It is thediscovery of such distinctions which makes it necessary to re-examineall the older biological evidence on the sex problem, and to discardmost of it as insufficiently exact. 

The work of Steinach[12, pp. 225f. ] on rats is another well-known exampleof changing sex characters by surgery. Steinach found that an ovarytransplanted into a male body changed its characteristics and instinctsinto the female type. The growth of the male sex organs he found to bedefinitely inhibited by the ovaries. He went so far as to transplant thewhole uterus and tube into the male body, where it developed normally. One of the most interesting of his results is the observation of how theinstincts were changed along with the type of body. The feminized malesbehaved 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 ofrigid scientific experimentation which has been carried on in thisfield, or the certainty of many of the results. Sex is really known, about as well as anything can be known, to arise from the chemicalcauses discussed above. That is, the endocrine explanation is thecorrect one. 

One of the most significant results of the transplantation experimentsis the evidence that _each individual carries the fundamental bases forboth sexes_. When Goodale changed a male bird into a female as tosecondary characters and instincts by replacing one secretion withanother, he was faced with the following problem: How can a singlesecretion be responsible for innumerable changes as to feather length, form and colouring, as to spurs, comb and almost an endless array ofother details? To suppose that a secretion could be so complicated inits action as to determine each one of a thousand different items ofstructure, colour and behaviour would be preposterous. Besides, we knowthat some of these internal secretions are _not_ excessivelycomplicated--for instance adrenalin (the suprarenal secretion) can becompounded in the laboratory. We may say that it cannot possibly be thatthe ovarian or testicular secretion is composed of enough differentchemical substances to produce each different effect. 

There remains only the supposition that the female already possesses thegenetic basis for becoming a male, and _vice versa_. This is in accordwith the observed facts. In countless experiments it is shown that thetransformed female becomes like the male of her own strain and brood--tostate it simply, like the male she would have been if she had not been afemale. 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 wayunder the influence of the female secretions. In this way a very simplechemical agent in the secretion might account for the wholedifference--merely causing a genetic basis already present to expressitself in the one or the other manner. 

This may be illustrated by the familiar case of the crustacea _Artemiasalina_ and _Artemia Milhausenii_. These are so unlike that they werelong supposed to be different species; but it was later discovered thatthe 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 inthe saltier water with the salt-water variety, all develop exactlyalike, into the salt-water kind. Likewise, if the salt-water variety isdeveloped in fresh water, it assumes all the characteristics of thefresh-water kind. Thus the addition or subtraction of a single chemicalagent--common salt--makes all the difference. 

If this basis for sex is single, it is represented by the male plumagein domestic birds, the secretions from the sex-glands acting asmodifiers. But a great deal of evidence has been produced to show thatthe genetic basis, in man and some other forms at least, is double. Thatis, we must think of two genetic bases existing in each individual--eachrepresenting one of the two types of secondary sex characters. Theprimary sex (i. E. , the sex glands) would then determine which is toexpress itself. In the domestic birds described above, the male type ofbody appears in the absence of the ovarian secretion, and the femaletype in its presence. In man and the more highly organized mammals, wemust use "secretions" in the plural, since a number of them, fromdifferent glands, act together in a "complex. " Goodale, experimentingwith birds, was unable to definitely decide whether the basis for sexwas single or double in that material, though he favoured the latterexplanation. 

Dr Bell, the English gynecologist, using human surgical cases as abasis, commits himself strongly to the dual basis. [2, p. 13. ] "Everyfertilized ovum, " he says, "is potentially bisexual, " but has "apredominating tendency . .. Toward masculinity or femininity. " But "atthe same time, " he remarks, "it is equally obvious that latent traits ofthe opposite sex are always present. " After discussing mental traitsobserved in each sex which normally belong to the other, he concludes asfollows: "If further evidence of this bisexuality, which exists ineveryone, were required, it is to be found in the embryological remainsof the latent sex, which always exist in the genital ducts. "

In some lower forms, dual sexuality is apparent until the animal isfairly well developed. In frogs, for example, the sex glands of bothsexes contain eggs in early life, and it is not possible to tell themapart 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 thesecretory explanation or the dual basis. An ideal case would be toobserve the effects of circulating the blood of one sex in a developingembryo 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 veinsof the two become connected, so that the blood of each may circulatethrough the body of the other. "If both are males or both are females noharm results from this. .. , " since the chemical balance which determinesthe bodily form in each case is of the same type. But if one is a maleand the other a female, the male secretory balance dominates the femalein a very peculiar fashion. The female reproductive system is largelysuppressed. She even develops certain male organs, and her generalbodily appearance is so decidedly masculine that until Dr Lillie workedout 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 ofher body, but it actually modifies the sex glands themselves, so thatthe ovary resembles a testicle, though dissection proves the contrary. 

Why does not the female become a true, functional male? Perhaps she doesin some cases. Such a one would not be investigated, since there wouldbe no visible peculiarity. In all the cases examined, the embryo hadbegun its female development and specialization under the influence ofa predisposition of the female type in the fertilized egg, before thetransfusion began. There is no absolutely convincing mammalian evidenceof the complete upset of this predisposition, so all one can say is thatit is theoretically possible. Cases of partial reversal, sometimescalled "intersexes, " are common enough. In birds and insects, where thematerial is less expensive and experimentation simpler, males have beenproduced from female-predisposed fertilized eggs and _vice versa_, as weshall 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 fixedin 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, thepathological cases in the human species called by that name are probablynot capable of reproduction at all. [A]

[Footnote A: _Note on human hermaphroditism_: This subject has beentreated in a considerable medical literature. See, for example, Alienistand 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 humanbeings are concerned, is next to impossible, because of lack ofscientific, laboratory control. If a case of complete functionalhermaphroditism in the human species could be established beyondquestion, it would indicate that the male secretory balance in man doesnot inhibit the female organs to the same extent that it apparently doesin the Free-Martin cattle. If established, the idea of "male dominance"in the human species would be undermined in a new place. Such cases, ifthey occur at all, are exceedingly rare, but are of theoreticalinterest. We must not rush to conclusions, as the earlier sociologistsused to do. Such a case would require careful analysis. Its veryuniqueness would suggest that it may not be due to the ordinary causesof hermaphroditism, but might arise from some obscure and unusual causesuch as the fusion of two embryos at a very early stage. Thebiochemistry involved is so intricate and so little understood that anydeduction from the known facts would be purely speculative. ]

Like the Free-Martin cattle, some accident has resulted in a mixture ofmale and female characteristics. This accident occurs after a certainamount of embryonic development has taken place under the influence ofthe original predisposition of the fertilized egg. The delicatesecretory balance, so complex in man, is upset. With partially developedorgans of one type and with a blood-chemistry of the opposite one, somecurious results follow, as the illustrative plates in Dr Bell's bookshow. 

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 theother glands may upset the balance as well as one to the sex glandsthemselves. For example, 15% of Neugebauer's[22] cases of female tubularpartial hermaphroditism had abnormal growths in the suprarenals. 

Thus in the human species, it is possible for one type of sex glands toexist in the opposite type of body, as we saw it to be incattle--though it apparently could not occur unless compensated for insome way by the other secretions. This is a very great departure frombirds, rats and guinea pigs, whose bodies change over their sex typewhen the gonads are transplanted. Birds take on the male appearance whenthe sex glands are removed (or retain it, if they are males). This isnot true of man. The chemical life processes of the two sexes afterpuberty in the human species are quite characteristic. The male andfemale types are both very different from the infantile. When it becomesnecessary to desex men, the resulting condition is _infantile_, notfemale. [23]

The desexed man is of course the eunuch of ancient literature. Ifdesexed near maturity, he might look like a normal man in many respects;but if the operation were performed before puberty, his development issimply arrested and remains infantile--incomplete. Only in 1878 was thepractice of desexing boys to get the famous adult male soprano voicesfor the Sistine Choir discontinued. 

Removal of the ovaries in women likewise produces an infantilecondition, which is pronounced only in case the operation takes placevery young. [24] From his clinical experience, Dr Bell [2, p. 160]concludes that no very definite modifications can be produced in anadult woman by withdrawal of the ovarian secretion alone. "There mustbe, " he says, "some gross change in those parts of the endocriticsystem, especially apart from the genital glands, which normally producemasculinity--potentiality that appears to be concentrated in thesuprarenals, the pituitary and probably in the pineal. "

What, then, do we mean by "male" and "female" in man? Take Dr RussellAndrews' patient: photographs[2, plate opposite p. 243] show a roundedbodily outline, hairless face, well-developed mammæ--the female sexcharacteristics 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 operationscannot be performed on all those with female-type bodies who do not bearchildren, to determine the primary sex, and conversely with men. Thisdoes, however, point the obvious question: Are not some we classify asmen _more male_ or masculine than others--some we classify as women_more feminine_ than others? Bearing in mind the fact that the geneticbasis for both sexes exists in each individual, are not some women moremasculine than others, some men more feminine than others? However muchwe may object to stating it just that way, the biological fact remainsthus. The Greeks called these intermediate types _urnings_--modernbiology knows them as "intersexes. "

Only within the past few years have the general phenomena ofintersexuality been cleared up to any considerable extent--naturally onthe basis of the secretory explanation of sex. This secretory orendocrine idea has also given us an entirely new view of sexdifferences. These are best discussed as functional rather than asstructural. To correlate this material, we must next give a rude sketchof 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 inAchievement. 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 theSexes 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 ofintersexuality; Modern surgery and human intersexes; Quantitative theorya Mendelian explanation; Peculiar complication in the case of man;Chemical life cycles of the sexes; Functional-reproductive period andthe 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 certaincrosses produced females which bore a distinctly greater resemblance tothe male type than others, and _vice versa_. One of these hybrids of"intersexes, " as he calls them, would always possess some female andsome male sexual characters. He found that he could separate the malesand females, respectively, into seven distinct grades with respect totheir modification toward the opposite-sex type, and could produce anyone 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 andproducing fewer than the normal number of eggs; (3) Appearance of thebrown (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 lessattracted; reproduction impossible; (5) Male colouration over almost theentire wing; abdomen almost male, with few ripe eggs; instinctsintermediate between male and female; (6) Like males, but withrudimentary 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. Theirinstincts likewise became more and more female as the type was modifiedin that direction. That is, a moth would be 12% or 35% female, and soon. 

Goldschmidt watched the crosses which produced seven different grades ofmaleness in his females. The moth material, like the birds and mammals, suggested a dual basis for sex in each individual. The grades ofmaleness and femaleness made it seem probable that the factor whichdetermines sex must be stronger in some instances than in others, i. E. , that the difference between two of these grades of female is originallyquantitative, not qualitative--in amount rather than in kind. 

Mating European moths with European, or Japanese with Japanese, producedpure, uniform sex-types, male and female. But a cross of European withJapanese 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. Oneof these he called Andrase, enzyme producing maleness, the other Gynase, enzyme producing femaleness. Further, (3) since each chemical sexdeterminer is present in both individuals in every cross, there must betwo chemical "doses" of maleness and two of femaleness struggling formastery in each fertilized egg. (4) If the total dose of malenessexceeds the total dose of femaleness, the sex will be male, and_vice versa_. (5) These quantities get fixed by natural selectionin a single race which always lives in the same environment, i. E. , thedoses of maleness and femaleness in a given sex always bear practicallythe same relation to each other. Hence the types are fixed and uniform. (6) But different races are likely to have a different strength ofchemical sex-doses, so that when they are crossed, the ratios ofmaleness 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. Goldschmidtwas able to work out the strengths of the doses of each sex in hisvarious individuals, and thereby to predict the exact grade ofintersexuality which would result from a given cross. 

Riddle's work on pigeons [5, 6] brings us much nearer to man, andsuggests the results noted by both Goldschmidt and Lillie. As in theFree-Martin cattle, there is an apparent reversal of the sexpredisposition of the fertilized egg. As in the gypsy moths, differentgrades of intersexes were observed. In the pigeons, it was found thatmore yolk material tended to produce a larger proportion of females. Themost minute quantitative measurements were made of this factor, toeliminate any possibility of error. 

The chromosome mechanisms practically force us to suppose that abouthalf the eggs are originally predisposed to maleness, half tofemaleness. A pigeon's clutch normally consists of two eggs, one with alarge yolk and one with a small yolk. But the half-and-half numericalrelation of males to females varies considerably--i. E. , not all thelarge-yolked eggs produce females or all the small-yolked ones males. 

Wild pigeons begin the season by throwing a predominance of males, andthe first eggs of the clutches also tend to produce males all along. Inboth cases, the male-producing eggs were found to be the ones with thesmaller yolks. Family crosses also produce small yolks, which hatch outnearly all males. Some pairs of birds, however, have nearly all femaleoffspring. Riddle investigated a large number of these cases and foundthe amount of yolk material to be large. In other words, there seems tobe a definite relation between the amount of yolk and sex. 

A great number of clever experiments were carried out to find out ifeggs originally predisposed to one sex were actually used to produce theother. Selective fertilization with different kinds of sperm wasimpossible, since in these birds there is only one type of sperm--two ofeggs--as to the sex chromosome. For instance, by overworking females ategg-production, the same birds which had been producing more males thanfemales were made to reverse that relation. 

One of the interesting results of the experiments was the production ofa number of intersexual types of various grades. This was easilyverifiable by colour and other characteristics. To make sure that theinstincts were correspondingly modified, behaviour was registered onmoving-picture films. Where the first egg of a clutch (the one with asmall, normally male-producing yolk) produces a female, she is usuallyfound to be more masculine than her sister from the second egg with thelarger 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 birdswere often killed by the testicular extract, the more masculine by theovarian extract. Finally, to make assurance doubly sure, some femaleswhich should theoretically have been the most feminine were dissectedand shown to be so. That is, out-crosses which produced a predominanceof females in the fall were mated with females which had been overworkedat egg production until they threw nearly all females. Dissecting thefemales thus produced, they were shown to have _right ovaries_, whichmeans _double femaleness_, since normally the pigeon is functional onlyin the left ovary, like other birds. The right one usually degeneratesbefore or at hatching and is wholly absent in the week-old squab. 

In pigeons, Riddle thinks the "developmental energy" of the eggs is inan inverse ratio to their size. The last and largest eggs of the seasondevelop least and produce most females. The second egg of a clutch islarger than the first, but develops less and the bird produced isshorter-lived. Overworking and other conditions tending to produce largeeggs and females also throw white mutants and show other signs ofweakness. Old females lay larger eggs than do young ones. These eggsproduce more females. They store more material, have a lower metabolismand less oxidizing capacity than do the earlier male-producing eggs. 

It would be unsafe to draw specific conclusions about mammals from thesebird and insect experiments. Both the secretory action and thechromosome mechanisms are different. The quantitative nature of sex, andalso the existence of intersexual types, between males and females, would seem to be general phenomena, requiring rather slightcorroboration from the mammals themselves. We have such mammalian casesas the Free-Martin cattle, and some convincing evidence ofintersexuality in the human species itself, which will be reviewedpresently. 

The notion of more "developmental energy" or a higher metabolism inmales is borne out in the human species. Benedict and Emmes[7] haveshown by very careful measurements that the basal metabolism of men isabout 6% higher than that of women. Riddle cites the work of Thury andRussell on cattle to show that a higher water value (as he found in thepigeon eggs), associated with increased metabolism, helps to producemales. 

In males, the secretion of the sex glands alone seems to be ofparticular importance, again suggesting this idea of "strength" whichcomes up over and over again. Removal of these glands modifies the malebody much more profoundly than it does the female. [8] It is quitegenerally supposed that the action of this one secretion may have muchto do with the superior size and vigour of males. For example, Patonsays[9]: "The evidence thus seems conclusive that in the male the gonad, by producing an internal secretion, exercises a direct and specificinfluence upon the whole soma, increasing the activity of growth, moulding the whole course of development, and so modifying themetabolism of nerve and muscle that the whole character of the animal isaltered. " It used to be said that the male was more "katabolic, " thefemale more "anabolic. " These expressions are objectionable, inasmuch asthey hint that in a mature organism, with metabolism rather stable, tearing down, or katabolism, could go on faster than building up, oranabolism, or that one of two phases of the same process might go onfaster than the other. It seems safer to say merely that a lowermetabolism in the female is accompanied by a tendency to storematerials. 

A long time will doubtless be required to work out the details ofdifferences in metabolism in the two sexes. Some of the main facts areknown, however, and the general effects of the two diverse chemicalsystems upon the life cycles of the sexes are quite obvious. What wecall the "quantitative theory of sex" has, besides a place in exactscience, an interesting relation to the history of biological thought, especially as applied to society. It is thus in order to state asclearly as possible what it now is; then, so that no one may confuse itwith what it is not, to run over some of the old ideas which resembleit. 

Experiments with transplanted sex glands, with sex-gland extracts(testicular and ovarian) and the observation of infusions of a male-typeblood-stream into a female body, as occurs in nature in some cattle andin the so-called human "hermaphrodites, " indicate a gross chemicaldifference between the respective determiners for femaleness and formaleness. So the chemicals involved, though not yet isolated, must bepresumed to be _qualitatively_ different, since they produce suchdifferent results. 

But such experiments also indicate that both determiners must be presentin some proportions in every individual of either sex. The basis forboth sexes being present, the one which shall predominate or beexpressed in the individual must depend upon the _quantitative_ relationbetween the determiners which come together at fertilization. Thequantitative theory merely means that this predominance of one factor orthe other (maleness or femaleness--Gynase or Andrase) is more pronouncedin some cases than in others. 

In brief, then, the quantitative theory of sex is merely the mostreasonable explanation of the known fact that intersexes exist--that is, females with some male characteristics, or with all their charactersmore like the female type than the average, and _vice versa_. Laboratorybiology has established the phenomena of intersexuality beyond question, and the word "inter-sex" has become a scientific term. But the fact thatthis word and the idea it represents are new to _exact science_ does notmean that it is new in the world. 

Intersexes in the human species--not only the extreme pathological casesrepresented by the so-called "hermaphrodites, " but also merely masculinewomen and effeminate men--have been the subject of serious remarks aswell as literary gibes from the earliest times. The Greeks called thesepeople _urnings_. Schopenhauer was interested in the vast ancientliterature and philosophy on this subject. The 19th century produced acopious psychological treatment of warped or reversed sexual impulses bysuch men as Moll, Krafft-Ebing and Havelock Ellis. Otto Weiniger[10]collected a mass of this philosophy, literature, psychology, folkloreand gossip, tied it together with such biological facts as were thenknown (1901) and wove around it a theory of sex _attraction_. [A] Thesame 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 observingphysical type, people who would be sexually attracted to each other. There is much ground for scepticism about this. To begin with, thebiological experiments indicate that intersexes are peculiarly likely toappear where two or more races are mixed. So far, there is no exactknowledge about the amount or kind of sex difference in each race. AsBateson remarks (Biol. Fact & the Struct. Of Society, p. 13), oneunversed in the breeds even of poultry would experience great difficultyand make many mistakes in sorting a miscellaneous group of cocks andhens into pairs according to breed. If this is true in dealing with purebreeds, "in man, as individuals pure-bred in any respect are very rare, the operation would be far more difficult. " In the human species sexualattraction also obviously depends upon many factors which are not purelybiological; it is rather a complicated sentiment than an instinct. ]

George's statement that "there are no men and . .. No women; there areonly sexual majorities"[p. 61, op. Cit. ] has been widely quoted. Thefeminists, he adds, "base themselves on Weininger's theory, according towhich the male principle may be found in woman, and the female principlein man. " Unfortunately, George does not make clear what he means by"principle, " so his theory, if he has one, is impossible to appraise inbiological terms. From the embryonic idea expressed above, he deduces avery positive social philosophy of sex. The feminists, he says, "recognize no masculine or feminine '_spheres_' and . .. Propose toidentify absolutely the conditions of the sexes. " So, while George seemsto think much more highly of women than does Weininger, theirphilosophies come together, for quite different reasons, on thepractical procedure of disregarding reproduction and letting the race gohang[10, p. 345]. Weininger seems to recognize the dual basis for sex;George evidently does not quite follow him. Both entirely misconceivedthe real issues involved, as well as the kind of evidence required tosettle them, as we shall see later in discussing adaptation andspecialization. 

Dr Blair Bell[14, 15] has collected a mass of evidence on intersexes inthe human species. This includes his own surgical and other cases, aswell as many treated by his colleagues, and a very considerable reviewof the medical literature. He not only believes in degrees of femininityin women, but has worked out classifications which he claims to havefound of great practical value in surgery. [14, pp. 166-7] As noted above, Riddle discovered that his more feminine female pigeons were oftenkilled by a dose of testicular extract which was practically harmless toa partially masculinized female. Sex in the human species being a matterof all the glands organized into a complex, the quantitative "strength"of that complex would be useful to know before removing any onesecretion from it. Dr Bell states that the oöphorectomy operation(removal of ovaries) may be performed upon a masculine type of womanwith "little disturbance of the metabolism. .. " But he thinks that thedegree of masculinity should always be carefully observed beforeundertaking such operations, which in some cases have most undesirableeffects. 

At one end of the scale, this surgeon places the typically femininewoman in all her characteristics--with well-formed breasts, menstruatingfreely and feminine in instincts--he says "mind. " The intermediategrades consist, he says, of women whose metabolism leans toward themasculine type. Some have sexual desires but no maternal impulse. Othersdesire maternity but take no interest in sex activity, or positivelyshun it. The physical manifestations of masculine glandular activitytake the form of pitch of voice, skin texture, shape and weight ofbones, etc. Some of the inter-grades are a little hard to define--thehuman species is such an inextricable mixture of races, etc. ; but DrBell does not hesitate to describe the characteristically masculinewoman of the extreme type, who "shuns both sexual relations andmaternity. .. (She) is on the fringe of femininity. These women areusually flat-breasted and plain. Even though they menstruate, theirmetabolism is often for the most part masculine in character:indications of this are seen in the bones which are heavy, in the skinwhich is coarse, and in the aggressive character of the mind. .. If awoman have well-developed genitalia, and secondary characteristics, sheusually is normal in her instincts. A feebly menstruating woman withflat breasts and coarse skin cannot be expected to have strongreproductive instincts, since she is largely masculine in type. .. "

The glandular and quantitative explanation of sex, instead of beingabstruse and complicated, brings the subject in line with the knownfacts about inheritance generally. The dual basis for femaleness andmaleness in each individual simply means that both factors are present, but that only one expresses itself fully. The presence of such a dualbasis is proved by the fact that in castration and transplantationexperiments both are exhibited by the same individual in a singlelifetime. In the case of the Free-Martin cattle, even the femalesex-glands are modified toward the male type to such an extent that theywere long mistaken for testes. The same applies to some glands found inhuman "hermaphrodites, " as Dr Bell's plates show. 

The peculiar complication of the chemical complex determining sex inthese mammalian forms, involving all the glands and hence the entirebody, makes it problematical whether a complete (functional) reversal ispossible, at least after any development whatever of the embryo hastaken place. On the other hand, the fact that such completetransformations have not so far been observed by no means proves theirnon-existence. Their being functional, and hence to all externalappearances normal, would cause such animals to escape observation. 

Latent traits of the opposite sex of course immediately suggestrecessive or unexpressed characters in the well-known Mendelianinheritance phenomena. In the bird-castration cases, we saw that toremove the inhibiting sex glands caused previously latent characters toact like dominant or expressed ones. The case of horns in sheep, investigated by Professor Wood[16], is so similar that it seems worthsummarizing, by way of illustration. 

Both sexes in Dorset sheep have well-developed horns; in the Suffolkbreed both sexes are hornless. If the breeds are crossed, all the ramsin the first (hybrid) generation have horns and all the ewes arehornless. If these hybrids are mated, the resulting male offspringaverages three horned to one hornless; but the females are the reverseof this ratio--one horned to three hornless. This is an example ofMendel's principle of segregation--factors may be mixed in breeding, butthey do not lose their identity, and hence tend to be sorted out orsegregated again in succeeding generations. 

In the horned Dorsets, we must suppose that both males and females carrya dual factor for horns--technically, are _homozygous_ for horns. Thehornless Suffolks, on the contrary, are homozygous for _absence_ ofhorns. Thus the dual factor in the zygotes or fertilized eggs at thebasis of the first filial (hybrid) generation consists of a singlefactor for horns and a single factor for their absence. If we representhorns 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 afemale--that is, horns are _recessive_ in females--the factor is presentbut unexpressed. 

Mating two _HA_ hybrids, the _H_ and _A_ of course split apart in theformation of the gametes, as the _HH_ and _AA_ did in the previousgeneration; so that we get an equal number of single _H_ and _A_factors. In reuniting in fertilized eggs, the chance is just half andhalf 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 ofgetting _HA_ to each chance of getting either _AA_ or _HH_. Half thezygotes will be _HA_, one-fourth _HH_ and one-fourth _AA_. 

If we consider four average males, one will have two _A's_ (absence ofthe 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--aswill also the two _HA's_ since a single dose of horns expresses them ina male. So we have the three-to-one Mendelian ratio. 

But four females with exactly the same factors will express them asfollows: The one _HH_ (double factor for horns) proves sufficient toexpress horns, even in a female. The _AA_, lacking the factor entirely, cannot have horns. Nor will the two _HA_ females have horns, a singledose being insufficient to express them in a female. Again we get ourthree-to-one Mendelian ratio, but this time it is three hornless to onehorned. 

Especially Goldschmidt's carefully graded experiments point to a similardifference in the strength of the dose or doses of the sex factors. Instead of the two doses of horns required to express them in thepresence of the female secretory balance in Professor Wood's sheep, Goldschmidt found it took six doses of maleness to completely express iton a female basis in his moths. But even with three doses, the femalewas incapable of reproduction. A single dose in excess of the ordinarycombination to produce normal females modified the type of body, alsoreducing the number of eggs. 

In the case of the horns, only two types were possible, absence orpresence of the character. Likewise there are only two types of primarysex, i. E. , of sex glands proper. But seven different types or grades ofbody for each sex were found to exhibit themselves in the moths. In morecomplicated bodies, we should of course expect many more, and where manyraces (instead of two) are mixed, as in man, a classification merely onthe basis of physical characteristics would be much more complicated. Indeed, we may well be sceptical as to the possibilities of cataloguingdifferences of the sort between men and women by body type alone. 

In society, however, we are much more interested in the mental than thepurely physical qualities of the two types of bodies, especially sincethe use of machines has so largely replaced brute strength with skill. Most employments do not even require a muscular skill beyond thatpossessed by ordinary individuals of both sexes. 

Even this ignores the primary consideration in the sex problem insociety, the first of the following two parts into which the wholeproblem may be divided: (1) _How to guarantee the survival of the groupthrough reproduction_ of a sufficient number of capable individuals; and(2) How to make the most economical use of the remaining energies, firstin winning nutrition and protection from the environment, second inpursuing the distinctly human values over and above survival. The sexproblem as a whole is concerned with adjusting two different generaltypes of individuals, male and female, to the complicated business ofsuch group life or society. The differences between these two sex-typesbeing fundamentally functional, the best way to get at them is to tracethe respective and unlike life cycles. 

We have already shown in rude outline how a difference (apparentlychemical) between two fertilized eggs starts them along two differentlines of development in the embryonic stage. One develops thecharacteristic male primary and secondary sex characters, the other thefemale. Throughout the embryonic or intra-maternal stage thisdifferentiation goes on, becoming more and more fixed as it expressesitself in physical structures. Childhood is only a continuation of thisdevelopment--physically separate from the mother after the period oflactation. Until puberty, when sex ceases to be merely potential andbecomes functional (about 12-14 in girls and 14-16 boys), thedifferences in metabolism are not very marked. Neither are they in oldage, after sex has ceased to be functional. It is during the period whensex is functional (about 35 years in women and considerably longer inmen) that the gross physiological differences manifest themselves. 

Before puberty in both sexes, calcium or lime salts are retained in thetissues and go to build up the bony skeleton. (A mere sketch of calciummetabolism is all that can be given here--for details consult such worksas 15 and 17 in bibliography; summary in 14; pp. 34f. & 161f. ) Note thatpuberty comes earlier in girls than in boys, and that the skeletontherefore remains lighter. During the reproductive period in women thesesalts are heavily drawn upon for the use of the reproductive system. Themale reproductive system draws upon them as well, though the drain isvery slight as compared to that in women. In old age these salts producesenility through deposit in the tissues, especially in the arteries. 

At the pubertal age in girls begins the phenomenon known asmenstruation, in which there is a large excretion of calcium salts. Inpregnancy these are needed for building the skeleton of the foetus, andat delivery go to the breasts to assist in lactation. Bell states thatthere is a noticeable connection between early menstruation and shortstature, and _vice versa_. What is commonly known as menstruation lastsonly a few days, and is merely the critical period in a monthly cycle orperiodicity which goes with the female sex specialization. This periodinvolves the gradual preparation of the uterus or womb for a guest, together with the maturing of the ova. Then the Graafian folliclescontaining the ova break and these latter enter the uterus forfertilization. 

If fertilization takes place, the fertilized egg buries itself in thewall and development of the embryo proceeds. Menstruation stops, thecalcium salts being required for the growing embryo. There is likely tobe no menstruation for a considerable time after delivery if the childis nursed, as is normal. This gives the uterus time for devolution tothe normal, before a surplus of calcium salts sets the periodicity goingagain. If the egg which passes from the ovary to the uterus is notfertilized, it is excreted, the uterus goes through another monthlycycle of preparation for the period of intra-maternal environment, andso 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 nolonger support the strain of reproduction. A surplus of calcium bringson senility, as noted above. Withdrawal of the interests which centre insex, together with the marked accompanying physical changes, involves ashift of mental attitude which is also frequently serious. A Britishcoroner 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 occurduring menstruation. Krugelstein and Lombroso, respectively, remark thesame tendencies. [18]

It is a matter of almost everyday observation that men and women in theneighbourhood of fifty suddenly find themselves disoriented in theworld. Tolstoi, for example, who had written passionately of passion inhis earlier years, suddenly awoke, according to his "Confessions, " fromwhat seemed to him afterward to have been a bad dream. In this case, theresult was a new version of religion as a new anchorage for the man'slife. It may be pacifism, prohibition, philanthropy, or any one of avery large number of different interests--but there must usually besomething to furnish zest to a life which has ceased to be a sufficientexcuse for itself. 

If freed from worry about economic realities, it is not infrequentlypossible for the first time for these people to "balance" theirlives--to find in abstraction a rounded perfection for which earlier inlife we seek in vain as strugglers in a world of change. Thus old peopleare often highly conservative, i. E. , impatient of change in their socialenvironment, involving re-orientation; they wish the rules of the gamelet alone, so they can pursue the new realities they have created forthemselves. 

Socially, the old are of course a very important factor since a changedmetabolism sets them somewhat outside the passionate interests whichdrive people forward, often in wrong directions, in the prime of life. Hence in a sense the old can judge calmly, as outsiders. Like youthbefore it has yet come in contact with complicated reality, they oftensee men and women as "each chasing his separate phantom. "

While such conservatism, in so far as it is judicial, is of value tosociety, looking at it from the viewpoint of biology we see also somebad features. _Senex_, the old man, often says to younger people, "Thesethings you pursue are valueless--I too have sought them, later abandonedthe search and now see my folly;" not realizing that if his blood wereto resume its former chemical character he would return to the quest. 

Elderly people, then, biological neuters, come especially within theproblem of the economical use of the social as distinguished from thebiological capacities of the race. They affect the sex problem proper, which applies to a younger age-class, only through their opinions. Someof these opinions are hangovers from the time in their own lives whenthey had stronger sexual interests, and some are peculiar to people oftheir readjusted glandular activity. Their reproductive contribution tosociety has been made. 

Pre-pubertal childhood and youth, on the contrary, has its biologicalcontributions to society still before it. The glandular activity of boysand girls is perhaps not so unlike as to justify society in giving thema different kind of education and preparation for group life. The excusefor two sorts of training is that the two sexes will not do the samework after puberty. Hence the question of youthful training issociological almost entirely--not biological--or rather, it rests uponthe biology, not of childhood but of the reproductive period, whichsociety 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 asa social problem, the emphasis must be upon the human life cycle duringthe functional-reproductive period. Other biological data than thatwhich concerns this period is merely introductory or explanatory. Theextent to which the sociological problem involved is linked up withgeneral biological considerations like natural selection, adaptation andspecialization will be summarized in a separate chapter. 

Earlier female maturity and puberty, as well as lighter structure, havealready been accounted for by the metabolism, especially of the calciumsalts. These have also been shown to be the key fact in the monthlyperiodicity of the mammalian female. Nearly all of the anatomical andphysiological sex differences catalogued by such pioneer workers asEllis, Ploss, Thomas and Bucura are simply what we should expect fromthe less active and in some ways peculiar metabolism of woman. 

Among such differences are the size and shape of bones and other bodystructures, the more plentiful hæmoglobin in male blood during thereproductive period, and such blood peculiarities as the production ofmore carbonic acid or the higher specific gravity in the male. Thegreater percentage of fat as compared with muscle in women[19], if it isgenerally true, is what we should expect from a lower metabolism and atendency to store materials. The long list of diseases which are more orless sex-limited [20; 14, pp. 160f. ; 18] are largely endocrine. Even thosewhich do not primarily concern the internal secretory system would beexpected to work somewhat differently in the presence of unlike bloodstreams. As to the greater average weight of the male brain, this istrue of the whole body. Brain weight, either absolute or relative tobody weight, is not positively known to be in any way correlated (innormal people) with mental capacity. 

A library might be stocked with the vast literature devoted tosummarizing and cataloguing sex differences; and most of it would beuseless from the standpoint of sociology. Unaccompanied by thecriticisms a biologist would have to make on the method of theirascertainment and validity, not to mention their significance, suchlists can easily do--and probably have done--more harm than good. Onesimple and reasonable criterion would reduce this catalogue to fairlymodest proportions, so far as social science is concerned: _Which oneshave an obvious or even probable social significance?_ Over and abovethat, while such contrasts may be of speculative interest, they leadimaginative people to argue from them by analogy and thus cloud the realissues. 

What are the outstandingly significant sex differences which applicationof the above criterion leaves? (1) A less active and more unevenmetabolism of woman; (2) Associated with this, less physical strength onthe average--hence an inferior adaptability to some kinds of work, resulting in a narrower range of choice of occupation, disadvantageousin competitive society; (3) But the one fundamental difference, to whichall the others are as nothing, is the specialization of the mammalianfemale body and metabolism to furnish the intra-maternal environment(approximately nine months in the human species) for the earlydevelopment of the young and lactation for some months afterward. 

This last may be said to include the former two, which were arbitrarilyplaced first because they are always in evidence, whether reproductionis undertaken or not. This takes us out of cell and endocrine biologyand into the general problem in group adjustment to environment whichthat 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 inInheritance 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 onmoths, birds and various forms by many biologists. 

5. Riddle, Dr Oscar. Quantitative Basis of Sex as indicatedby 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 ofMen and Women. Jour. Biol. Chem. Vol. 20. No. 3. 1914. 

8. Schäfer, Sir E. A. Endocrine Glands and Internal Secretions. StanfordUniversity, 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 InternalSecretions. London, 1916, pp. 106f. 

CHAPTER IV

SEX SPECIALIZATION AND GROUP SURVIVAL

Adaptation and specialization; Reproduction a group not an individualproblem; Conflict between specialization and adaptation; Intelligencemakes for economy in adjustment to environment; Reproduction, notproduction, the chief factor in the sex problem. 

From the facts briefly stated in the preceding chapters it is quiteevident that the general superiority of man over woman or _vice versa_cannot be proven by biology. Such an idea arises from a careless andunscientific use of language. Superiority is a term which, when used toexpress the rather exact ideas of biology, is employed in a carefullylimited 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 notspecifically mentioned. Wolves, for example, might be found to possesssuperior chances for survival over foxes, beaver or partridges in agiven environment. A biologist would probably use more exact and lessambiguous terms to express such a fact, and say that wolves were thebest _adapted_ to the given surroundings. If all these animals continuedto live side by side in the given environment, they could be comparedonly as to specific details--size, strength, cunning, fleetness inrunning, swimming or flying, concealment from enemies, etc. Then thebiologist would probably make his meaning perfectly clear by statingthat one is _specialized_ in one direction or another. 

Especially is general superiority a vague idea when the things comparedare different but mutually necessary or complementary. If theirfunctions overlap to some extent (i. E. , if certain acts can be performedby either), we may say that one is better adapted to a certain activitythan the other. Thus it may be that women are generally better adaptedto caring for young children than are men, or that men are on the wholebetter adapted to riveting boiler plates, erecting skyscrapers, orsailing ships. Where their activities do not overlap at all, even theword 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, tothis particular activity, any attempt at comparison is obviouslyfruitless, since one term is always zero. This specialization, absolutely necessary to the survival of human groups, is either presentor it is absent in a given individual. Any attempt to formulate ageneral proposition about superiority either attaches purely arbitraryvalues to different kinds of activity or is absurd from the standpointof the most elementary logic. 

From the standpoint of biology, reproduction is not an individual but agroup problem, however many problems of detail it may give rise to inindividual 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. (Thisstatement applies only to the reproductive process, as obviously themale and female gametes contribute equally to the formation of the newindividual). Neither part (the male or the female) of this process ismore necessary than the other, both being _absolutely_ necessary. Butthe female specialization for furnishing the intra-maternal environmentmakes her share more burdensome. 

Biologically considered, not even two individuals (male and female), together with their offspring, can be more than an arbitrary "unit" asconcerns sex, since inbreeding eventually impoverishes the stock. Henceoutcrosses are necessary. To intelligibly consider the sex problem inthe human species, then, we must always predicate a considerable _group_of people, with such organization and division of activities as toguarantee that all the processes necessary to survival will be carriedon. Sex is a group problem. Considering the mutual interdependence andthe diversity of activities in human society, to make the generalizationthat one sex is superior to the other is on a par with saying that rootsand branches are superior to trunks and leaves. It is sheer foolishness. Yet oceans of ink have flowed in attempts to establish one or the otherof two equally absurd propositions. 

Since the specialization to furnish the intra-maternal environment forthe young makes the female part of the reproductive process essentiallyand unavoidably more burdensome than the male, it results that aneconomical division of the extra-reproductive activities of any groupmust throw an unequal share upon the males. This specialization to carrythe young during the embryonic period is thus at the base of thedivision of labour between the sexes. It is the chief factor involved inthe problems of sex, and gives rise, directly or indirectly, to most ofthe others. 

But the sex problem as a whole is one of adaptation as well as ofspecialization. An incident of the female specialization is a type ofbody on the average smaller, weaker and less well adapted to some otheractivities than is the male body, even when reproduction is notundertaken. A great complication is added by the fact that some women, and also some men, are better adapted than others to nonreproductiveactivities. This is another way of saying that the type of bodyassociated with either type of sex glands varies a good deal, forreasons and in respects already pointed out. 

The most important fact about this reproductive specialization is thatbeyond fertilization it is _exclusive_ in the female. Since the malescannot furnish the intra-parental environment for the young, the entireburden must fall on half the group. If this aggregation is to even holdits own numerically, its women must have, on an average, two childreneach, _plus about one more_ for unavoidable waste--death in infancy orchildhood, sterility, obvious unfitness for reproduction, etc. , i. E. , _three_ in all. If one woman has less than her three children, thenanother 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, theterrific wastage makes a much higher birth-rate necessary, several timesas high in many cases. If we suppose such a group, where childmortality, lack of sanitation, etc. , necessitates an average of eightchildren per woman (instead of three), the biological origin of thedivision of labour between the sexes is much more clearly seen than itis in civilized societies. 

If men are better hunters or fighters than women, the latter couldnevertheless hunt and fight--it is a question of superior or inferioradaptation 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 shouldwithdraw from child-bearing, the remainder would be obliged to average_sixteen_ apiece. But even this is not all. Unfortunately, the half ofthe women who would be found best adapted to hunting and fighting wouldbe the more vigorous half. The new generation would thus be born fromthe leftovers, and would be poor quality. Such a division of labourwithin a group would be fatally foolish and entirely uncalled for--sincethere are plenty of men adapted to hunting and fighting, but entirelyunspecialized to child-bearing and nursing. 

Group survival being the fundamental thing, the group is obliged todevelop a division of labour which directs the activities of theindividuals composing it to providing for its necessities, regardlessof any interference with their own desires. That is, if group survivalrequires that woman use her specialization to child-bearing instead ofany adaptation she may possess in other directions, one of two thingsinevitably result: (1) Either the group finds or evolves some socialcontrol machinery which meets the necessity, or (2) it must give way tosome other group which can do so. In either case, the result is adivision of labour, which we see more clearly in primitive peoples. Theless efficient group is not necessarily exterminated, but if it losesout in the competition until some other group is able to conquer it andimpose _its_ division of labour the result is of course the extinctionof the conquered group as an integral part of society. This is simplynatural selection working on groups. Natural selection works chiefly inthis manner on the human species, _because that species lives ingroups_. Such group control of the component individuals as has beendescribed has led to a division of labour between the sexes in everyprimitive society. All this means is that the group adopting such adivision has greater survival value, and hence is more likely to berepresented in later ages. 

It must not be supposed that such systems of control were alwayslogically thought out or deliberately planned. Even animals which livein herds or colonies have divisions of labour. 

Through an infinite slaughter of the least fit, such groups arrive atsome kind of instinctive adjustment to produce and protect the young. The crudest human intelligence must have eliminated much of the wasteinvolved, by comprehending obvious cause-and-effect relations whichanimals have to arrive at through trial and error methods. 

For example, an intelligence capable of employing artificial weapons isalso able to see that the wielder of these for group defence cannot beencumbered with baggage or children when the group is in movement. Hencewomen became the burden bearers, and took care of the children, evenafter the nursing period. War parties could not generally be mixed, forthe obvious reasons that such women as did not have young children wouldbe pregnant a good deal of the time, or likely to become so. Moreover, ahunter and fighter must not have his courage, ferocity and physicalinitiative undermined by unsuitable employments and associations. 

In a semi-settled group, the hunter and warrior cannot be relied upon tokeep hearth-fires burning or tend crops, even though he may occasionallyhave time for such activities. These duties are therefore relegated tothe women, whose child-bearing functions impose upon them a moresedentary existence. Women must reproduce practically up to their fullcapacity to fill up the gaps made by war, accident and disease as wellas death from old age. To this biological service which they alone canperform are added those which lie nearest it and interfere least withcarrying it out. 

We must therefore keep in view _all_ the activities of any group inwhich the sex problem is being studied. There is a certain tendency todisregard the female specialization to child-bearing, and to regard thesex 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 toguarantee reproduction by keeping women out of lines of endeavour whichmight endanger that fundamental group necessity. Primitive societieswhich got stabilized within a given territory and found their birth-ratedangerously _high_ could always keep it down by exposing or destroyingsome of the unfit children, or a certain per cent of the femalechildren, or both. 

In primitive groups, the individual was practically _nil_. But moderncivilized society is able to survive without the rigid control ofindividual activities which the old economy entailed. Man comes tochoose more and more for himself individually instead of for the group, uniformity weakens and individualism becomes more pronounced. Ascontrol of environment becomes more complete and easy, natural selectiongrows harder to detect. We turn our interests and activities toward thesearch for what we want and take survival largely for granted--somethingthe savage cannot do. Natural selection becomes unreal to us, becausethe things we do to survive are so intricately mixed up with those we dofor other reasons. Natural selection in gregarious animals operates upongroups rather than upon individuals. Arrangement of these groups isoften very intricate. Some have territorial boundaries and some havenot. Often they overlap, identical individuals belonging to several. Hence it is not strange that natural selection phenomena often escapeattention. 

But this must not lead us to suppose that natural selection is whollyinoperative in civilized society. We see some nations outbreedingothers, or dominating them through superior organization. Withinnations, some racial and religious groups outbreed others and thusgradually supplant them--_for the future is to those who furnish itspopulations_. 

CHAPTER V

RACIAL DEGENERATION AND THE NECESSITY FOR RATIONALIZATION OF THE MORES

Racial decay in modern society; Purely "moral" control dysgenic incivilized society; New machinery for social control; Mistaken notionthat reproduction is an individual problem; Economic and other factorsin the group problem of reproduction. 

From the discussion in the preceding chapter, it becomes apparent thatfor the half of the female element in a savage society possessing themost vigor and initiative to turn away from reproduction would in thelong run be fatal to the group. Yet this is what occurs in large measurein modern civilized society. Reproduction is a biological function. Itis non-competitive, as far as the individual is concerned, and offers nomaterial rewards. The breakdown of the group's control over the detailedconduct and behaviour of its members is accompanied by an increasingstress upon material rewards to individuals. So with growingindividualism, in the half of the race which can both bear children andcompete in the social activities offering rewards, i. E. , the women whoare specialized to the former and adapted to the latter, there is agrowing tendency among the most successful, individualized strains, tochoose the social and eschew the biological functions. 

Racial degeneration is the result. Recorded history is one succession ofbarbarous races, under strong, primitive breeding conditions, swampingtheir more civilized, individualized neighbours, adopting the dysgenicways of civilization and then being swamped in their turn by barbarians. This is especially pronounced in our own times because popularizedbiological and medical knowledge makes it possible for a tremendousclass of the most successful and enlightened to avoid reproductionwithout foregoing sex activity. 

In primitive groups, a "moral" control which kept all women atreproduction was neither eugenic nor dysgenic unless accompanied bysystematic destruction of the least fit children. By "moral" control ismeant the use of taboo, prejudice, religious abhorrence for certain actsand the like. The carefully nurtured moral ideas about sex andreproduction simply represent the system of coercion which groups havefound most effective in enforcing the division of reproductive and otheractivities among the individual members. When this social machinery grewup, to regulate sexual activity was in general to regulatereproduction. The natural sex desire proved sufficiently powerful andgeneral to still seek its object, even with the group handicaps andregulations imposed to meet the reproductive necessity. Butcontraceptive knowledge, etc. , has now become so general that toregulate sex activity is no longer to regulate reproduction. The tabooor "moral" method of regulation has become peculiarly degenerating torace quality, because the most intelligent, rationalized individuals areleast 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 beto rationalize reproduction--so that _nobody_ shall reproduce thespecies through sheer ignorance of how to evade or avoid it. This done, some type of social control must be found which will enable civilizedsocieties to breed from their best instead of their worst stock. Underthe old scheme, already half broken down, natural selection favoursprimitive rather than civilized societies through decreased birth-ratesand survival of the unfit in the latter. Even this is true only wherethe savage groups are not interfered with by the civilized, a conditionrapidly disappearing through modern occidental imperialism and theinoculation of primitive peoples with "civilized" diseases such assyphilis, rum-drinking and rampant individualism. 

To continually encourage the racially most desirable women to disregardtheir sexual specialization and exploit their social-competitiveadaptation must, obviously destroy the group which pursues such apolicy. The only way to make such a course democratic is to carefullyinstruct all women, rich and poor, wise and ignorant, in the methods ofavoiding reproduction and to inject the virus of individualism in allalike. Then the group can get its population supply only by a new systemof control. To remove any economic handicaps to child-bearing iscertainly not out of harmony with our ideas of justice. 

In removing the economic handicaps at present connected with thereproductive function in women, care must also be taken that the verymeasures which insure this do not themselves become dysgenic influences. Such schemes as maternity insurance, pensions for mothers, and most ofthe propositions along this line, may offer an inducement to women ofthe poorer classes to assume the burdens connected with theirspecialization for child-bearing. But their more fortunate sisters, whofind themselves so well adapted to modern conditions that they are evenmoderately successful in the competition for material rewards, willhardly find recompense thus for turning from their social to theirbiological functions. To these highly individualized modern women mustbe presented more cogent reasons for taking upon themselves the burdenof reproducing the group. 

It is obvious that from just this energetic female stock we shouldobtain a large part of the next generation if we are at all concernedover the welfare of the group and its chances of survival. Onesuggestion is that we may be able to turn their very individualism toaccount and use it as a potent factor in the social control of theirreproductive activities. If we can demonstrate on the basis of soundbiological data that the bearing of children is necessary for the fulland complete development of the individual woman, physically andmentally, we shall have gone a long way toward securing voluntarymotherhood. Only such argument will induce the highly individualized, who may also be the most vital, woman to turn of her own accord fromcompetitive social activities to the performance of the biologicalfunction for which she is specialized. This is especially true, as hasbeen intimated above, since contraceptive knowledge now permits theexercise of sexual functions without the natural consequences, and theavoidance of motherhood no longer involves the denial of expression tothe sexual urge. 

Even if we are able to utilize this method of control, it will notobtain the requisite number of offspring to maintain the eugenic qualityof the group, since the bearing of one or two children would be all thatindividual development would require. If the group must have on theaverage three children from each of its women in order to replaceitself, the larger part of the reproductive activities will still beconfined to the more ignorant, or if they also make use of contraceptiveknowledge, the group will simply die out from the effects of its owndemocratic enlightenment. Thus it becomes apparent that we must findsome more potent force than this narrow form of self-interest toaccomplish the social purposes of reproduction. When reproduction isgenerally understood to be as thoroughly a matter of group survival asfor example the defensive side in a war of extermination, the samesentiment of group loyalty which now takes such forms as patriotism canbe appealed to. If the human race is unsocial it will perish anyway. Ifit has not become unsocial--and it does not display any such tendency, but only the use of such impulses in mistaken directions--then a groupnecessity like reproduction can be met. Whatever is required of theindividual will become "moral" and "patriotic"--i. E. , it will bewreathed in the imperishable sentiments which group themselves aroundsocially necessary and hence socially approved acts everywhere andalways. 

In whatever races finally survive, the women of good stock as well aspoor--perhaps eventually the good even more than the poor--willreproduce themselves. Because of our ideals of individual liberty, thismay not be achieved by taboo, ignorance or conscription for motherhood. But when it is found to be the personal interest to bear children, bothas a means of complete physical and mental development and as a way ofwinning social approval and esteem, it will become as imperative forwoman to fulfil the biological function to which she is specialized asit was under the old system of moral and taboo control. The increasingemphasis on the necessity of motherhood for the maintenance of a normal, health personality, and the growing tendency to look upon this functionas the greatest service which woman can render to society, are manifestsigns that this time is approaching. There is little doubt that womanwill be as amenable to these newer and more rationalized mores as humannature has always been to the irrationally formed customs and traditionsof the past. 

To ignore the female specialization involved in furnishing theintramaternal environment for three children, on an average, to thegroup, is simply foolish. If undertaken at maturity--say fromtwenty-two to twenty-five years of age--and a two-year interval leftbetween the three in the interest of both mother and children, it putswoman in an entirely different relation toward extra-reproductiveactivities than man. It does imply a division of labour. 

In general, it would seem socially expedient to encourage each woman tohave her own three children, instead of shifting the burden upon theshoulders of some other. If such activities of nursing and caring forthe very young can be pooled, so much the better. Doubtless some womenwho find them distasteful would be much more useful to society at otherwork. But let us not disregard fundamentals. It is obviouslyadvantageous for children of normal, able parents to be cared for in thehome environment. In a _biologically healthy_ society the presumptionmust be that the average woman has some three children of her own. Sincethis obviously includes nurses and governesses, we see at once thefutility of the oft-proposed class solution of hiring single women tocare for the children of the fortunate. If such a servant isundesirable, she is not hired; if normal, in a biologically healthysociety she would have her own children. 

The female handicap incident to reproduction may be illustrated by thecase of Hambletonian 10 mentioned in Chapter II. We saw that a femalecould not have borne the hundredth part of his colts. This simply meansthat the effort or individual cost of impressing his characters upon thenew generation is less than one one-hundredth that required of a female. 

Among domestic animals this is made use of to multiply the better malesto the exclusion of the others, a valuable biological expedient which weare denied in human groups because it would upset all our socialinstitutions. So we do the next best thing and make the males do morethan half in the extra-biological activities of society, since they areby their structure prevented from having an equal share in thereproductive burden. This is an absolutely necessary equation, and therewill always be some sort of division of labour on the basis of it. 

Since reproduction is a group, not an individual, necessity, whatevereconomic burden it entails must eventually be assumed by society anddivided up among the individuals, like the cost of war or any othergroup activity. Ideally, then, from the standpoint of democracy, everyindividual, male or female, should bear his share as a matter of course. This attitude toward reproduction, as an individual duty but a groupeconomic burden, would lead to the solution of most of the problemsinvolved. Negative eugenics should be an immediate assumption--if thestate must pay for offspring, the quality will immediately begin to beconsidered. A poor race-contribution, not worth paying for, wouldcertainly be prevented as far as possible. 

Some well-meaning radical writers mistakenly suppose that theemancipation of women means the withdrawal by the group of any interestin, or any attempt to regulate, such things as the hours and conditionsof female labour. That would simply imply that the group takes nointerest in reproduction--in its own survival. For if the group does notmake some equation for the greater burden of reproduction upon women, the inevitable result will be that that particular service will not berendered by those most desirable to be preserved. 

Given the fundamental assumption that the group is to survive--to beperpetuated by the one possible means--if it withdraws all solicitudeabout the handicap this entails to women as a whole, introducing aspirit of laissez-faire competition between men and women, the womenwith sense enough to see the point will not encumber themselves withchildren. For each one of these who has no children, some other womanmust have six instead of three. And some people encourage this in thename of democracy!

The most involved problems must inevitably centre around the women who, to quote Mrs. Hollingworth, "vary from the mode, " but are yetfunctional for sex. Some have no sex desires at all, some no craving foror attachment to children, some neither of these. It is a question stillto be solved whether some of them ought, in the interest of the race, tobe encouraged to reproduce themselves. In less individualized primitivesociety, seclusion, taboo and ignorance coerced them into reproduction. Any type of control involving the inculcation of "moral" ideas is opento the objection that it may work on those who should not reproducethemselves as well as those who should. 

In a sense, this problem will tend to solve itself. With thesubstitution of the more rationalized standards of self-interest andgroup loyalty for the irrational taboo control of reproductiveactivities, there will be as much freedom for women to choose whetherthey will accept maternity as there is now, in the period of transitionfrom the old standards to the new. The chief difference will be thatmany of the artificial forces which are acting as barriers to motherhoodat the present time--as for example the economic handicap involved--willbe removed, and woman's choice will therefore be more entirely inharmony with her native instinctive tendencies. Thus those women endowedwith the most impelling desire for children will, as a rule, have thelargest number. In all probability their offspring will inherit thesame strong parental instinct. The stocks more poorly endowed with thisimpulse will tend to die out by the very lack of any tendency toself-perpetuation. It is only logical to conclude, therefore, that as weset up the new forces of social control outlined in this chapter, we areat the same time providing more scope for natural selection, and thatthe problem of aberrant types consequently becomes only a transitoryone. 

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 ofthis control in the form of taboos; Connection between the universalattitude of primitive peoples towards woman as shown in theInstitutionalized Sex Taboo and the magic-religious belief in Mana;Relation of Mana to Taboo; Discussion of Sympathetic Magic and theassociated idea of danger from contact; Difficulties in the way of aninclusive definition of Taboo; Its dual nature; Comparison of conceptsof Crawley, Frazer, Marett and others; Conclusion that Taboo is NegativeMana; Contribution of modern psychology to the study of Taboo; Freud'sanalogy between the dualistic attitude toward the tabooed object and theambivalence of the emotions; The understanding of this dualism togetherwith the primitive belief in Mana and Sympathetic Magic explains much inthe attitude of man toward woman; The vast amount of evidence in thetaboos of many peoples of dualism in the attitude toward woman. Possiblephysiological explanation of this dualistic attitude of man toward womanfound in a period before self-control had in some measure replacedsocial control, in the reaction of weakness and disgust following sexfestivals. 

A study of the elaborate, standardized, and authoritative systems ofsocial control found among all primitive peoples gives a vividimpression of the difficulty of the task of compelling man to die tohimself, that is, to become a socius. The rigors and rituals ofinitiation ceremonies at adolescence impressed the duties of socialityat that impressionable period. The individual who refused to bow hishead to the social yoke became a vagabond, an outcast, an excommunicate. In view of the fierceness of the struggle for food and the attitudetoward the stranger among all primitives, the outcast's life chanceswere unenviable. It was preferable to adapt one's self to the socialorder. "Bad" traits were the more easily suppressed in return for there-enforcement of power which was the striking feature of group life;power over enemies, power over nature, and a re-enforcement of theemotional life of the individual which became the basis on which werebuilt up the magico-religious ceremonies of institutionalized religion. 

It is the purpose of this study to consider a phase of social life inwhich there can be traced a persistence into modern times of a primitiveform of control which in a pre-rational stage of group life madepossible the comparatively harmonious interplay of antagonistic forces. This form of control is called Taboo. A student of the phenomenon, arecognized authority on its ethnological interpretation, says of it: "Toillustrate the continuity of culture and the identity of the elementaryhuman ideas in all ages, it is sufficient to point to the ease withwhich the Polynesian word _tabu_ has passed into modernlanguage. "[1, p. 16]

We shall attempt to show that at least one form of taboo, theInstitutionalized Sex Taboo, is co-extensive with human socialexperience, and exists to-day at the base of family life, the socializedform of sex relationship. The family as a social institution has beenscarcely touched until a very recent historical period by therationalizing process that has affected religious and politicalinstitutions. Economic changes resultant upon the introduction of anindustrial era which showed the importance of women in diverse socialrelations were causes of this new effort at adaptation to changingconditions. It became apparent that taboos in the form of customs, ceremonials, beliefs, and conventions, all electrically charged withemotional content, have guarded the life of woman from change, and withher the functions peculiar to family life. There has doubtless beenpresent in some of these taboos "a good hard common-sense element. " Butthere are also irrational elements whose persistence has resulted inhardship, blind cruelty, and over-standardization. 

In order to comprehend the attitude of early man toward sex andwomanhood, and to understand the system of taboo control which grew outof this attitude, it is only reasonable to suppose that the prehistoricraces, like the uncivilized peoples of the present time, were inclinedto explain all phenomena as the result of the action of spiritisticforces partaking of both a magical and religious nature. Thissupernatural principle which the primitive mind conceived as anall-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 toan unusual degree with this _mana_, and hence are to be regarded as holyand held in awe. Inasmuch as man may wish to use this power for his ownpurposes, a ceremonial cult would naturally grow up by which this wouldbecome possible. Otherwise, to come in contact with these objectsdirectly or indirectly, besides profaning their sanctity would beexceedingly dangerous for the transgressor, because of this same powerof transmission of a dread and little understood force. Therefore, allsuch persons, animals or objects are taboo and must be avoided. Underthese circumstances it can be seen that taboos are unanalyzed, unrationalized "Don'ts, " connected with the use and wont which havecrystallized around the wish of man to manipulate the mysterious andoften desirable features of his environment, notably those connectedwith possession, food, and sex. 

[Footnote A: The Australians call it Arunkulta, the Iroquis IndiansOrenda 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; thedivine being as well as the criminal; the sick, outcasts, andforeigners; animals as well as men; women especially, the married womanas well as the sacred virgin; food, clothes, vessels, property, house, bed, canoes, the threshing floor, the winnowing fan, a name, a word, aday; all are or may be taboo because dangerous. This short list does notcontain one-hundredth part of the things which are supposed to bedangerous; but even if it were filled out and made tolerably complete, it would, by itself, fail to give any idea of the actual extent andimportance of the institution of taboo. "]

The idea of the transmission of _mana_ through contact is concomitantwith the notion of _sympathetic magic_, defined as the belief that thequalities of one thing can be mysteriously transferred to another. Themost familiar illustration is that of the hunter who will not eat theheart 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 courageof that beast. [A] This belief becomes so elaborated that the qualitiesof one object are finally thought to be transferred to another which hasnever come into direct contact with the first, the transition beingaccomplished through the agency of a third object which has been incontact with both the others and thus acts as the conducting mediumthrough which the qualities of one pass into the other. 

[Footnote A: E. B. Tylor[3] has called attention to the belief that thequalities of the eaten pass into the eater as an explanation of the foodtaboos 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 withit, or lest it be denied by human touch and its divine essence beaffected, so the unclean thing is also made taboo lest it infect manwith its own evil nature. Even as the savage will not have his idolpolluted by contact with his own personality, however indirect, so hewould himself avoid pollution in similar fashion by shunning that whichis unclean. Here also the avoidance of the tabooed person or thing isbased on the principle of sympathetic magic understood as a method oftransference of qualities, and on belief in the possibility of infectionby contact. 

The dual nature of taboo as the avoidance of both the sacred and theunclean is noted by authorities on the subject who differ in otherrespects as to the definition of taboo, such as in the relation of tabooto the magical ceremonies by which man undertook to mould hisenvironment to his wishes. Whether the tabooed object be regarded in onelight or the other, the breaking of taboo is associated with dread ofthe unknown--besides the fear of infection with the qualities of thetabooed object according to the laws of sympathetic magic. There isalso the fear of the mysterious and supernatural, whether conceived asthe mana force or as a principle of "bad magic. "

Dr. J. G. Frazer has collected into the many volumes of "The GoldenBough" a mass of evidence concerning the taboos of primitive society. Onthe basis of his definition of magic as "a misapplication of the ideasof association by similarity and contiguity, " Dr. Frazer divided magicinto "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 shouldhappen. '"[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 aNegative Magic?"[5] called attention to the very evident fact that Dr. Frazer's definition would not cover the characteristics of some of thebest known taboos, the food taboos of Prof. Tylor to which we havepreviously alluded in this study, as a consequence of which "the fleshof timid animals is avoided by warriors, but they love the meat oftigers, boars, and stags, for their courage and speed. "[3, p. 131. ] Arenot these food taboos rather, Dr. Marett asks, a "misapplication of theideas of association by similarity and contiguity" amounting to thesympathetic taboos so carefully described by such writers on Magic asMM. Hubert and Mauss of L'Année Sociologique? Still another kind oftaboos mentioned by Dr. Frazer but amplified by Mr. Crawley in "TheMystic Rose, " the taboos on knots at childbirth, marriage, and death, are much better described by the term "sympathetic taboo. " Moreover, iftaboo were a form of magic as defined by Dr. Frazer, it would be asomewhat definite and measurable quantity; whereas the distinguishingcharacteristic of taboo everywhere is the "infinite plus of awfulness"always accompanying its violation. As Dr. Marett observes, there may becertain definite results, such as prescribed punishment for violationsagainst which a legal code is in process of growth. There may be alsosocial "growlings, " showing the opposition of public opinion to whichthe 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 itinto 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 clearlythe deficiencies in these explanations--to the "classic well-nighuniversal major taboo" of the woman shunned. Dr. Marett uses her as hismost telling argument against the inclusiveness of the concepts of Dr. Frazer and of MM. Hubert and Mauss. He says: "It is difficult toconceive of sympathy, and sympathy only, as the continuous, or even theoriginally efficient cause of the avoidance. " Mr Crawley had calledattention to the fact that savages fear womanly characteristics, thatis, effeminacy, which is identified with weakness. While noting withgreat psychological insight the presence of other factors, such as thedislike of the different, he had gone so far as to express the opinionthat the fear of effeminacy was probably the chief factor in the SexTaboo. This is probably the weakest point in Mr. Crawley's study, for heshows so clearly the presence of other elements, notably mystery, theelement that made woman the potential witch against whom suspicionconcentrated in so tragical a fashion up to a late historical period. 

Because of the element of mystery present in taboo we are led toconclude that taboo is more than negative magic if we accept so definitea concept as "a false association of ideas. " The presence of power inthe tabooed object turns our attention to _mana_ as giving us a betterunderstanding of why man must be wary. Mana must however be liberallyinterpreted if we are to see to the bottom of the mystery. It must bethought 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 isshown by the social position of the magicians who deal with the Mana ofthe Pacific and with the Orenda of the Iroquois. It implies"wonder-working, " and may be shown in sheer luck, in individual cunningand power, or in such a form as the "uncanny" psychic qualities ascribedto women from the dawn of history. With this interpretation of mana inmind, taboo may be conceived as negative mana; and to break taboo is toset in motion against oneself mystic wonder-working power. 

Our study thus far has made it clear that there are mystic dangers to beguarded against from human as well as extra-human sources. There isweakness to be feared as well as power, as shown by the food and sextaboos. And once again there is mystery in the different, the unusual, the unlike, that causes avoidance and creates taboos. Man's dislike ofchange from the old well-trodden way, no matter how irrational, accountsfor the persistence of many ancient folkways[6] whose origins are lostin mystery. [A] Many of these old and persistent avoidances have beenexpanded in the development of social relationships until we agree withMr. Crawley that taboo shows that "man seems to feel that he is treadingin slippery places. " Might it not be within the range of possibilitythat in the study of taboo we are groping with man through the firstblind processes of social control?[B]

[Footnote A: Prof. Franz Boas explains this tendency: "The morefrequently an action is repeated, the more firmly it will becomeestablished . .. So that customary actions which are of frequentrepetition become entirely unconscious. Hand in hand with this decreaseof consciousness goes an increase in the emotional value of the omissionof these activities, and still more of the performance of acts contraryto custom. "[7]]

[Footnote B: No study of the tabu-mana theory, however delimited itsfield, can disregard the studies of religion and magic made by thecontributors to L'Année Sociologique, notably MM. Durkheim andLevy-Bruhl, and in England by such writers as Sir Gilbert Murray, MissHarrison, Mr A. B. Cook, Mr F. M. Cornford, and others. In their studiesof "collective representations" these writers give us an account of thedevelopment of the social obligation back of religion, law, and socialinstitutions. They posit the sacred as forbidden and carry origins backto a pre-logical stage, giving as the origin of the collective emotionthat started the representations to working the re-enforcement of poweror emotion resulting from gregarious living. This study is concerned, however, with a "social" rather than a "religious" taboo, --if such adistinction can somewhat tentatively be made, with the admission thatthe social scruple very easily takes on a religious colouring. ]

It is worthy of note that the most modern school of analyticalpsychology 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 towardthe tabooed object as both sacred and unclean and the ambivalentattitude of the neurotic toward the salient objects in his environment. We must agree that in addition to the dread of the tabooed person orobject there is often a feeling of fascination. This is of courseparticularly prominent in the case of the woman tabooed because of thestrength of the sex instinct. As Freud has very justly said, the tabooedobject is very often in itself the object of supreme desire. This isvery obvious in the case of the food and sex taboos, which attempt toinhibit two of the most powerful impulses of human nature. The twoconflicting streams of consciousness called ambivalence by thepsychologist may be observed in the attitude of the savage toward manyof his taboos. As the Austrian alienist cannily remarks, unless thething were desired there would be no necessity to impose taboorestrictions concerning it. 

It is by a knowledge of the mana concept and the belief in sympatheticmagic, clarified by recognition of the ambivalent element in theemotional reaction to the thing tabooed, that we can hope to understandthe almost universal custom of the "woman shunned" and the sex taboos ofprimitive peoples. This dualism appears most strongly in the attitudetoward woman; for while she was the natural object of the powerfulsexual instinct she was quite as much the source of fear because she wasgenerally supposed to be endowed with spiritistic forces and in leaguewith supernatural powers. During the long period when the fact ofpaternity was unrecognized, the power of reproduction which was thusascribed to woman alone made of her a mysterious being. Her fertilitycould be explained only on the basis of her possession of an unusuallylarge amount of mana or creative force, or by the theory of impregnationby demonic powers. As a matter of fact, both explanations were acceptedby primitive peoples, so that woman was regarded not only as imbued withmana but also as being in direct contact with spirits. Many of thedevices for closing the reproductive organs which abounded among savagetribes were imposed as a protection against spirits rather than againstthe males of the human species. The tradition of impregnation by gods ordemons was not confined to savage tribes, but was wide-spread in thedays of Greece and Rome and lasted into biblical times, when we read ofthe sons of heaven having intercourse with the daughters of men. 

In addition to this fear of the woman as in possession of and in leaguewith supernatural powers, there was an additional motive to avoidance inthe fear of transmission of her weakness through contact, a fear basedon a belief in sympathetic magic, and believed with all the "intenselyrealized, living, and operative assurance" of which the untutored mindis capable. Crawley masses an overwhelming amount of data on this point, and both he and Frazer show the strength of these beliefs. Indeed, inmany 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 haveboth the tendency and power to impart her characteristics throughcontact, so the sexual act, the acme of contact, became the most potentinfluence for the emasculation of the male. 

If we wish for proof that the primitive attitude toward women wasessentially that which we have outlined, we have only to glance at thetypical taboos concerning woman found among ancient peoples and amongsavage races of our own day. Nothing could be more indicative of thebelief that the power to bring forth children was a manifestation of thepossession of mana than the common avoidance of the pregnant woman. Hermystic power is well illustrated by such beliefs as those described bythe traveller Im Thurn, who says that the Indians of Guiana believe thatif a pregnant woman eat of game caught by hounds, they will never beable to hunt again. Similarly, Alfred Russell Wallace wrote of theaborigines of the Amazon: "They believe that if a woman during herpregnancy eats of any meat, any other animal partaking of it willsuffer; if a domestic animal or tame bird, it will die; if a dog, itwill be for the future incapable of hunting; and even a man will beunable to shoot that particular kind of game for the future. "[8] InFiji a pregnant wife may not wait upon her husband. [9] In theCaroline Islands men may not eat with their wives when pregnant, butsmall boys are allowed to do so. [10]

The avoidance of the menstruous woman is an even more widespread customthan the shunning of pregnancy, probably because this function wasinterpreted as a symptom of demonic possession. Primitive man had noreason to know that the phenomenon of menstruation was in any wayconnected with reproduction. The typical explanation was probably verymuch like that of the Zoroastrians, who believed that the menses werecaused by the evil god Ahriman. A woman during the period was uncleanand possessed by that demon. She must be kept confined and apart fromthe faithful, whom her touch would defile, and from the fire, which hervery look would injure. To this day there is in the house of the Parseea room for the monthly seclusion of the women, bare of all comforts, andfrom it neither sun, moon, stars, fire, water, nor any human being canbe seen. [11]

All the ancient civilizations had such taboos upon the menstruous woman. According to Pliny, the Romans held that nothing had such marvellousefficacy as, or more deadly qualities than, the menstrual flow. TheArabs thought that a great variety of natural powers attachedthemselves to a woman during the menstrual period. [12, p. 448] Rabbiniclaws demand that "a woman during all the days of her separation shall beas 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 Assyriantexts shows that the law of the unclean taboo on the woman in hercourses holds for them. Up to the present time the Semitic woman iscarefully segregated from the rest of the tribe, often for a long time, and becomes taboo again on each successive occasion. [13] Peoples in theeastern Mediterranean region will not permit a woman in her courses tosalt or pickle; whatever she might prepare would not keep. This beliefsurvives among the folk to-day in America, and was evidently broughtearly in the history of the country, for it is common among pioneerstock. 

There are very similar taboos among the savage races. Among the Tshipeoples of West Africa women are not allowed to remain even in the townbut retire at the period to huts erected for the purpose in theneighbouring bush, because they are supposed to be offensive to thetribal deities at that time. [14] The Karoks of California have asuperstition like that of the Israelites. Every month the woman isbanished without the village to live in a booth by herself. She is notpermitted to partake of any meat, including fish. If a woman at thistime touches or even approaches any medicine which is about to be givento a sick man, it will cause his death. [15] Amongst other Indian tribesof North America women at menstruation are forbidden to touch men'sutensils, which would be so defiled by their touch that their subsequentuse would be attended by certain misfortune. The Canadian Dénés believethat the very sight of a woman in this condition is dangerous tosociety, so that she wears a special skin bonnet to hide her from thepublic gaze. [16] In western Victoria a menstruous woman may not takeanyone's food or drink, and no one will touch food that has been touchedby her. [17] Amongst the Maoris, if a man ate food cooked by a menstrouswoman, he would be "tapu an inch thick. "[18] Frazer quotes the case ofan Australian blackfellow who discovered that his wife had lain on hisblanket at her menstrual period, and who killed her and died of terrorhimself within a fortnight. [19] Australian women at this time areforbidden on pain of death to touch anything that men use or even towalk on a path that men frequent. [20] Among the Baganda tribes amenstruous woman is not permitted to come near her husband, cook hisfood, 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 associationby similarity and contiguity, " the function of childbirth, unlike thatof pregnancy, where the emphasis seems to have been placed in most caseson the mana principle, was held to be unclean and contaminating, and wasfollowed by elaborate rites of purification. It may be that the pains ofdelivery were ascribed to the machinations of demonic powers, orpossession by evil spirits, --we know that this has sometimes been thecase. The use of charms and amulets, and the chanting of sacred formulæat this dangerous time all point to such beliefs. At any rate, althoughthe birth of the child would seem in every respect except in thepresence of blood to be more closely connected with the phenomena ofpregnancy than with that of menstruation, as a matter of fact the tabooson the woman in child-bed were intimately associated with those onmenstruous women. 

Among the ancients, the Zoroastrians considered the woman unclean atchildbirth as at menstruation. [22] In the Old Testament, ritualuncleanness results from contact with a woman at childbirth. [23]

Likewise among savage tribes the same customs concerning childbirthprevail. Among the Australian aborigines women are secluded at childbirthas at menstruation, and all vessels used by them during this seclusionare burned. [20] The Ewe-speaking people think a mother and babe uncleanfor forty days after childbirth. [24] At menstruation and childbirtha Chippeway wife may not eat with her husband; she must cookher food at a separate fire, since any one using her fire would fallill. [10, v. Ii, p. 457] The Alaskan explorer Dall found that among theKaniagmuts a woman was considered unclean for several days both afterdelivery and menstruation; in either case no one may touch her and sheis fed with food at the end of a stick. [25] Amongst the tribes of theHindu Kush the mother is considered unclean for seven days after thebirth of her child, and no one will eat from her hand nor will shesuckle her infant during that period. In the Oxus valley north of theHindu Kush the period is extended to forty days. [26]

This attitude which primitive man takes toward woman at the time of hersexual crises--menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth--are but anintensification of the feeling which he has toward her at all times. Conflicting with his natural erotic inclinations are the emotions of aweand 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 itis much safer to regard her as unclean. [27] Thus the every-day life ofsavage tribes is hedged in by all manner of restrictions concerning thefemales of their group. The men have their own dwelling in manyinstances, where no woman may enter. So, too, she may be barred out fromthe temples and excluded from the religious ceremonies when men worshiptheir deity. There are people who will not permit the women of theirnation to touch the weapons, clothing, or any other possessions of themen, or to cook their food, lest even this indirect contact result inemasculation. The same idea of sympathetic magic is at the root oftaboos which forbid the wife to speak her husband's name, or even to usethe same dialect. With social intercourse debarred, and often no commontable even in family life, it is veritably true that men and womenbelong to two castes. 

Of the primitive institution known as the "men's house, " Hutton Webstersays: "Sexual separation is further secured and perpetuated by theinstitution known as the men's house, of which examples are to be foundamong primitive peoples throughout the world. It is usually the largestbuilding in a tribal settlement . .. Here the most precious belongings ofthe community, such as trophies and religious emblems, are preserved. Within its precincts . .. Women and children . .. Seldom or neverenter . .. Family huts serve as little more than resorts for thewomen and children. "[28]

Many examples among uncivilized peoples bear out this description ofthe institution of the men's house. Amongst the Indians of Californiaand in some Redskin tribes the men's clubhouse may never be entered by asquaw under penalty of death. The Shastika Indians have a town lodge forwomen, and another for men which the women may not enter. [15] Among theFijis women are not allowed to enter a _bure_ or club house, which isused as a lounge by the chiefs. In the Solomon Islands women may notenter the men's _tambu_ house, and on some of the islands are not evenpermitted to cross the beach in front of it. [29] In the MarquesasIslands the _ti_ where the men congregate and spend most of their timeis taboo to women, and protected by the penalty of death from thepollution of a woman's presence. [30]

Not only is woman barred from the men's club house, but she is alsooften prohibited from association and social intercourse with theopposite sex by many other regulations and customs. Thus no woman mayenter the house of a Maori chief, [31] while among the Zulus, even if aman 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] TheOjibway Indian Peter Jones says of his people: "When travelling the menalways walk on before. It would be considered a great presumption forthe wife to walk by the side of her husband. "[33] In many islands of theSouth Seas the houses of important men are not accessible to theirwives, who live in separate huts. Among the Bedouins a wife may not sitin any part of the tent except her own corner, while it is disgracefulfor a man to sit under the shadow of the women's _roffe_ (tentcovering). [34] Among the Hindus, no female may enter the men'sapartments. In the Society and Sandwich Islands the females werehumiliated by taboo, and in their domestic life the women lived almostentirely by themselves. The wife could not eat the same food, could noteat in the same place, could not cook by the same fire. It was said thatwoman would pollute the food. [35] In Korea a large bell is tolled atabout 8 p. M. And 3 a. M. Daily, and between these hours only are womensupposed to appear in the streets. [36] In the New Hebrides there is acurious segregation of the sexes, with a dread among the men of eatinganything female. [37]

Among many tribes this segregation of the women and the separation ofthe 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 boysusually go about with the father, while the girls remain with themother. This is true in Patagonia, where the boys begin to go with thefather at ten, the daughters with the mother at nine. [39] In Korea boysand girls are separated at seven. From that time the Korean girl isabsolutely secluded in the inner court of her father's home. Mrs Bishopsays: "Girl children are so successfully hidden away that . .. I neversaw one girl who looked above the age of six . .. Except in the women'srooms. "[36] Among the northern Indian girls are from the age of eight ornine prohibited from joining in the most innocent amusements withchildren of the opposite sex, and are watched and guarded with such anunremitting attention as cannot be exceeded by the most rigid disciplineof an English boarding-school. [40] Similar arrangements are reportedamong the Hill Dyaks, [41] certain Victorian tribes, [17] and many others. As already instanced, the separation of the sexes extends even tobrothers and sisters and other close relatives. Thus in Fiji brothersand sisters are forbidden by national and religious custom to speak toeach other. [9] In Melanesia, according to Codrington, the boy begins toavoid his mother when he puts on clothing, and his sister as soon as sheis tattooed. [42] In the exclusive Nanburi caste of Travancore brothersand sisters are separated at an early age. 

Women are more often than not excluded also from religious worship onaccount of the idea of their uncleanness. The Arabs in many cases willnot allow women religious instruction. The Ansayrees consider woman tobe an inferior being without a soul, and therefore exclude her fromreligious services. [34] In the Sandwich Islands women were not allowedto share in worship or festivals. [35] The Australians are very jealouslest women should look into their sacred mysteries. It is death for awoman to look into a Bora. [20] In Fiji women are kept away from worshipand excluded from all the temples. [9] The women of some of the Indianhill-tribes may not sacrifice nor appear at shrines, nor take part inreligious festivals. In New Ireland women are not allowed to approachthe temples. [43] In the Marquesas Islands the Hoolah-hoolah ground, where festivals are held, is taboo to women, who are killed if theyenter or even touch with their feet the shadow of the trees. [30] Womenare also excluded from the sacred festivals of the Ahts. [44] In theAmazon region, the women are not even permitted to see the objects usedin important ceremonies. If any woman of the Uaupes tribe happens to seethe masks used in the tribal ceremony she is put to death. [45]

Crawley has explained the taboos on the sexes eating together and on thecooking of food by women for men as due to the superstitious beliefthat food which has come in contact with or under the influence of thefemale is capable of transmitting her properties. Some southern Arabswould die rather than accept food from a woman. [12] Among the oldSemites it was not the custom for a man to eat with his wife andchildren. Among the Motu of New Guinea when a man is helega, he may noteat food that his wife has cooked. [46] South Australian boys duringinitiation are forbidden to eat with the women, lest they "grow ugly orbecome grey. "

It was probably some fear of the charm-weaving power of woman which layat 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 againsthim. For instance, a Zulu woman was forbidden to speak her husband'sname; if she did so, she would be suspected of witchcraft. [47] Herodotustells us that no Ionian woman would ever mention the name of herhusband, nor may a Hindu woman do so. [48]

Frazer says that the custom of the Kaffir woman of South Africa not tospeak the name of her own or husband's relations has given rise to analmost entirely different language from that of the men through thesubstitution of new words for the words thus banned. Once this "women'sspeech" had arisen, it would of course not be used by the men because ofthe universal contempt for woman and all that pertained to her. This mayhave been the origin of the use of different dialects in some tribes, such as the Japanese, the Arawaks, some Brazilian tribes, andothers. [49]

Although the division of labour between the sexes had a naturalbiological basis, and indeed had its beginning in the animal world longbefore man as such came into existence, the idea of the uncleanness ofwoman was carried over to her work, which became beneath the dignity ofman. As a result, there grew up a series of taboos which absolutelyfixed the sphere of woman's labour, and prohibited her from encroachingon the pursuits of man lest they be degraded by her use, quite as muchas they barred man from her specific activities. In Nicaragua, forexample, it is a rule that the marketing shall be done by women. InSamoa, where the manufacture of cloth is allotted to the women, it istaboo for a man to engage in any part of the process. [30] Among theAndamanese the performance of most of the domestic duties falls to thelot of the women and children. Only in cases of stern necessity will thehusband procure wood or water. [50] An Eskimo even thinks it an indignityto row in an _umiak_, the large boat used by women. 

They also distinguish very definitely between the offices of husbandand wife. For example, when a man has brought a seal to land, it wouldbe a stigma on his character to draw it out of the water, since that isthe duty of the female. [51] In the Marquesas Islands, the use of canoesin all parts of the islands is rigorously prohibited to women, for whomit is death even to be seen entering one when hauled on shore; whileTapa-making, which belongs exclusively to women, is taboo to men. [30]Among the Betchuanas of South Africa the men will not let women touchthe cattle. [52] The Baganda think that if a woman steps over a man'sweapons they will not aim straight or kill until they have beenpurified. [21] Among many South African tribes, if a wife steps over herhusband's assegais, they are considered useless from that time and aregiven to the boys to play with. This superstition rings many changes andis current among the natives of all countries. 

The taboos which have thus been exemplified and reviewed are based onthe 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 shemay contaminate man with her weakness. It is very probable that many ofthese taboos originated even as far back as the stage of society inwhich the line of descent was traced through the mother. There seemslittle doubt that the framework of ancient society rested on the basisof kinship, and that the structure of the ancient gens brought themother and child into the same gens. Under these circumstances the gensof the mother would have some ascendancy in the ancient household. Onsuch an established fact rests the assumption of a matriarchate, orperiod of Mutterrecht. The German scholar Bachofen in his monumentalwork "Das Mutterrecht" discussed the traces of female "authority" amongthe Lycians, Cretans, Athenians, Lemnians, Lesbians, and Asiaticpeoples. But it is now almost unanimously agreed that the matriarchalperiod was not a time when women were in possession of political oreconomic power, but was a method of tracing descent and heritage. It isfairly well established that, in the transition from metronymic topatronymic forms, authority did not pass from women to men, but from thebrothers and maternal uncles of the women of the group to the husbandsand sons. Such a method of tracing descent, while it doubtless had itsadvantages in keeping the woman with her child with her blood kindred, would not prevent her from occupying a degraded position through theforce of the taboos which we have described. [53]

With the development of the patriarchal system and the custom ofmarriage by capture or purchase, woman came to be regarded as a part ofman's property, and as inviolate as any other of his possessions. Underthese 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 aftermarriage were developed, and in many instances went so far as toconsider a woman defiled if she were accidentally touched by any otherman than her husband. Here we have once more the working of sympatheticmagic, where the slightest contact works contamination. 

We have in other connections alluded to the seclusion of young girls inKorea, among the Hindus, among the North American Indians, and in theSouth Seas. One of the most beautiful examples of this custom is foundin New Britain. From puberty until marriage the native girls areconfined in houses with a bundle of dried grass across the entrance toshow that the house is strictly taboo. The interior of these houses isdivided into cells or cages in each of which a girl is confined. Nolight and little or no air enters, and the atmosphere is hot andstifling. 

The seclusion of women after marriage is common among many peoples. Inthe form in which it affected western civilization it probablyoriginated among the Persians or some other people of central Asia, andspread to the Arabs and Mohammedans. That it did not originate with theArabs is attested by students of their culture. It was common among theGreeks, whose wives were secluded from other men than their husbands. Inmodern 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 haveaccidentally touched their hands. [36, p. 341]

The saddest outcome of the idea of woman as property was the status ofwidows. In uncivilized society a widow is considered dangerous becausethe ghost of her husband is supposed to cling to her. Hence she must beslain that his spirit may depart in peace with her, as well as with theweapons and other possessions which are buried with him or burned uponhis funeral pyre. The Marathi proverb to the effect that "the husband isthe 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 Britishgovernment is a vivid illustration of the strength of these ancientcustoms. The Laws of Manu indicate that the burning of widows waspractised by primitive Aryans. In the Fiji Islands, where a wife wasstrangled on her husband's grave, the strangled women were called "thecarpeting of the grave. "[54] In Arabia, as in many other countries, while a widow may escape death, she is very often forced into the classof vagabonds and dependents. One of the most telling appeals made bymissionaries is the condition of child widows in countries in which theunfortunates cannot be killed, but where the almost universal stigma ofshame is attached to second marriages. A remarkable exception to this, when in ancient Greece the dying husband sometimes bequeathed his widowto a male friend, emphasized the idea of woman as property. 

Although the taboos which are based on the idea of ownership aresomewhat aside from the main theme of our discussion, they neverthelessreinforce the other taboos of the seclusion and segregation of woman asunclean. Moreover, as will be shown in a later chapter, the propertyidea has certain implications which are important for the properunderstanding of the status of woman and the attitude toward her at thepresent time. 

In the face of the primitive aversion to woman as the source ofcontamination through sympathetic magic, or as the seat of some mysticforce, whether of good or evil, it may well be asked how man ever daredlet his sexual longings overcome his fears and risk the dangers of sointimate a relationship. Only by some religious ceremonial, some act ofpurification, could man hope to counteract these properties of woman;and thus the marriage ritual came into existence. By the marriageceremonial, the breach of taboo was expiated, condoned, and sociallycountenanced. [1, p. 200] This was very evident in the marriage customs ofthe Greeks, which were composed of purification rites and otherprecautions. [55] The injunctions to the Hebrews given in Leviticusillustrate the almost universal fact that even under the sanction ofmarriage the sexual embrace was taboo at certain times, as for examplebefore the hunt or battle. 

We are now prepared to admit that throughout the ages there has existeda strongly dualistic or "ambivalent" feeling in the mind of man towardwoman. On the one hand she is the object of erotic desire; on the otherhand she is the source of evil and danger. So firmly is the latterfeeling fixed that not even the sanction of the marriage ceremony cancompletely remove it, as the taboos of intercourse within the maritalrelationship show. 

There are certain psychological and physiological reasons for thepersistence of this dualistic attitude in the very nature of the sex actitself. Until the climax of the sexual erethism, woman is for man theacme of supreme desire; but with detumescence the emotions tend toswing to the opposite pole, and excitement and longing are forgotten inthe mood of repugnance and exhaustion. This tendency would be very muchemphasized in those primitive tribes where the _corroboree_ with itsunlimited indulgence was common, and also among the ancients with theirorgiastic festivals. In the revulsion of feeling following these orgieswoman would be blamed for man's own folly. In this physiological swingfrom desire to satiety, the apparent cause of man's weakness would belooked upon as the source of the evil--a thing unclean. There would benone of the ethical and altruistic element of modern "love" to protecther. Students agree that these elements in the modern sentiment havebeen evolved, "not from the sexual instinct, but from the companionshipof the battlefield. "[56] It is therefore probable that in thisphysiological result of uncontrolled sex passion we shall find thesource of the dualism of the attitude toward sex and womanhood presentin 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 theEvolution of Kings. 2 vols. Macmillan. London, 1911. 

5. First published in Anthropological Essays presented to E. B. Tylor inhonour 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 RioNegro. 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 NorthAmerican Ethnology, Third Volume. Washington, 1877. 

16. Morice, Rev. Father A. G. The Canadian Dénés. Annual ArcheologicalReport, 1905. Toronto, 1906. Quoted from Frazer, Taboo and the Perils ofthe Soul. 

17. Dawson, James. Australian Aborigines. 111 pp. , with Appendix. GeorgeRobertson. Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide, 1881. Citation from Latinnote to Chap. XII. 

18. Tregear, Edward. The Maoris of New Zealand. Journal of theAnthropological 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 theSoul. 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. SwanSonnenschein & 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 ItsInhabitants. 713 pp. 2d. Ed. Macintosh. London, 1870. 

32. Shooter, Rev. Joseph. The Kaffirs of Natal and the Zulu Country. 403pp. 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. FlemingH. 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'sBay 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 KoiariTribes 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 ofcontamination by woman predominated; Later, emphasis fell on her mysticand 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'spsychic quality of intuition: its origin--theories--conclusion that thisquality is probably physiological in origin, but aggravated by taboorepressions; Transformation in attitude toward woman in the earlyChristian period; Psychological reasons for the persistence in religionof a Mother Goddess; Development of the Christian concept; Preservationof ancient women cults as demonology; Early Christian attitude towardwoman as unclean and in league with demons; Culmination of belief indemonic power of woman in witchcraft persecutions; All women affected bythe belief in witches and in the uncleanness of woman; Gradualdevelopment on the basis of the beliefs outlined of an ideally pure andimmaculate Model Woman. 

From the data of the preceding chapter, it is clear that the early agesof human life there was a dualistic attitude toward woman. On the onehand she was regarded as the possessor of the mystic _mana_ force, while on the other she was the source of "bad magic" and likely tocontaminate man with her weaknesses. Altogether, the study of primitivetaboos would indicate that the latter conception predominated in savagelife, and that until the dawn of history woman was more often regardedas a thing unclean than as the seat of a divine power. 

At the earliest beginnings of civilization man's emotions seem to haveswung to the opposite extreme, for emphasis fell on the mystic anduncanny powers possessed by woman. Thus it was that in ancient nationsthere was a deification of woman which found expression in the belief infeminine deities and the establishment of priestess cults. Not until thedawn of the Christian era was the emphasis once more focussed on womanas a thing unclean. Then, her mystic power was ascribed to demoncommunication, and stripped of her divinity, she became the witch to beexcommunicated and put to death. 

All the ancient world saw something supernatural, something demoniacal, in generation. Sometimes the act was deified, as in the phallicceremonials connected with nature worship, where the procreativeprinciple in man became identified with the creative energy pervadingall nature, and was used as a magic charm at the time of springtimeplanting to insure the fertility of the fields and abundant harvest, [1]It was also an important part of the ritual in the Phrygian cults, thecult of the Phoenician Astarte, and the Aphrodite cults. These mysteryreligions were widely current in the Græco-Roman world in pre-Christiantimes. The cult of Demeter and Dionysius in Greece and Thrace; Cybeleand Attis in Phrygia; Atagartes in Cilicia; Aphrodite and Adonis inSyria; Ashtart and Eshmun (Adon) in Phoenicia; Ishtar and Tammuz inBabylonia; Isis, Osiris and Serapis in Egypt, and Mithra in Persia--allwere developed along the same lines. [2] The custom of the sacrifice ofvirginity to the gods, and the institution of temple prostitution, alsobear witness to the sacred atmosphere with which the sex act wassurrounded among the early historic peoples. [3] It was this idea of themysterious sanctity of sex which did much to raise woman to her positionas divinity and fertility goddess. 

The dedication of virgins to various deities, of which the classicexample is the institution of the Vestal Virgins at Rome, and the factthat at Thebes and elsewhere even the male deities had their priestessesas well as priests, are other indications that at this time woman wasregarded as divine or as capable of ministering to divinity. Theprophetic powers of woman were universally recognized. The oracles atDelphi, Argos, Epirus, Thrace and Arcadia were feminine. Indeed theSibylline prophetesses were known throughout the Mediterranean basin. [A]

[Footnote A: Farnell[4] found such decided traces of feminine divinityas to incline him to agree with Bachofen that there was atone time an age of Mutterrecht which had left its impress onreligion as well as on other aspects of social life. As we havesaid before, it is now fairly well established that in the transitionfrom metronymic to patronymic forms, authority did not passfrom women to men but from the brothers and maternal unclesof the women of the group to husbands and sons. This factdoes not, however, invalidate the significance of Farnell's datafor the support of the view herein advanced, i. E. , that womanwas at one time universally considered to partake of the divine. ]

The widespread character of the woman-cult of priestesses andprophetesses among the peoples from whom our culture is derived isevidenced in literature and religion. That there had been cults ofancient mothers who exerted moral influence and punished crime is shownby the Eumenides and Erinyes of the Greeks. The power of old women aslaw-givers survived in Rome in the legend of the Cumæan Sibyl. [5] Anindex of the universality of the sibylline cult appears in the list ofraces to which Varro and Lactantius say they belonged: Persian, Libyan, Delphian, Cimmerian, Erythrian, Trojan, and Phrygian. [6] These sibylswere believed to be inspired, and generations of Greek and Romanphilosophers never doubted their power. Their carmina were a court oflast resort, and their books were guarded by a sacred taboo. 

Among the Greeks and neighbouring nations the women of Thessaly had agreat reputation for their charms and incantations. [7] Among the writerswho 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 futureevents by women. Strabo says of the Cimbri that when they took the fieldthey were accompanied by venerable, hoary-headed prophetesses, clothedin long, white robes. Scandinavians, Gauls, Germans, Danes and Britonsobeyed, esteemed and venerated females who dealt in charms andincantations. These sacred women claimed to foretell the future and tointerpret dreams, and among Germans, Celts and Gauls they were the onlyphysicians and surgeons. The druidesses cured disease and were believedto have power superior to that of the priests. [8] The Germans neverundertook any adventure without consulting their prophetesses. [9] TheScandinavian name for women endowed with the gift of prophecy was_fanae_, _fanes_. The English form is _fay_. The ceremonies of fays orfairies, like those of the druidesses, were performed in secludedwoods. [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 remainedtogether down to the middle ages. Old herbals largely compiled from thelore of ancient women form a link in the chain of tradition, the firstring of which may have been formed in Egypt or in Greece. There is nodoubt that women from an early date tried to cure disease. Homer makesmention of Hecamede and her healing potions. There seems little doubtthat there were Greek women who applied themselves to a complete studyof medicine and contributed to the advance of medical science. Thistraditional belief in the power of women to cure disease survives in thefolk to-day. [10]

In view of the widespread veneration of a peculiar psychic quality ofwoman, a power of prophecy and a property of divinity which has made heran object of fear and worship, it may be well to review the modernexplanations of the origin of this unique feminine power. HerbertSpencer was of the opinion that feminine penetration was an ability todistinguish quickly the passing feelings of those around and was theresult of long ages of barbarism during which woman as the weaker sexwas obliged to resort to the arts of divination and to cunning to makeup for her lack of physical force and to protect herself and heroffspring. [11] In like vein Käthe Schirmacher, a German feminist, says:"The celebrated intuition of woman is nothing but an astonishingrefinement of the senses through fear. .. . Waiting in fear was made thelife task of the sex. "[12]

Lester F. Ward had a somewhat different view. [13] He thought thatwoman's psychic power came from the sympathy based on the maternalinstinct, which "though in itself an entirely different faculty, earlyblended with or helped to create, the derivative reason-born faculty ofaltruism. " With Ward's view Olive Schreiner agrees, saying: "We have nocertain proof that it is so at present, but woman's long years ofservitude and physical subjection, and her experience as childbearer andprotector of infancy, may be found in the future to have endowed her . .. With an exceptional width of human sympathy and instinctivecomprehension. "[14]

In all probability Lombroso came nearer to the truth in his explanationof feminine penetration. "That woman is more subject to hysteria is aknown fact, " he says, "but few know how liable she is to hypnoticphenomena, which easily opens up the unfoldment of spiritualfaculties. .. . The history of observation proves that hysteria andhypnotism take the form of magic, sorcery, and divination or prophecy, among savage peoples. 'Women, ' say the Pishawar peoples, 'are allwitches; for several reasons they may not exert their inborn powers. '. .. In the Slave Coast hysterical women are believed to be possessedwith spirits. The Fuegians believed that there had been a time whenwomen wielded the empire through her possession of the secrets ofsorcery. "[8, pp. 85f. ]

The history of modern spiritualism has so well confirmed this view ofLombroso's that we are safe in accepting it as the partial explanationof the attribute of a mysterious and uncanny power which man has alwaysgiven to the feminine nature. The power of prophecy and divination whichwas possessed by women at the dawn of history and for some timethereafter was probably not different in its essentials from themanifestations of hysterical girls who have puzzled the wisestphysicians or the strange phenomena of those spiritualistic mediums whohave 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 beso much more subject than man to hysterical seizures and to hypnoticsuggestion, we shall probably find that it is an essential part of herfemininity. Modern psychology and physiology have pointed out that themenstrual cycle of woman has a vast influence not only on her emotionalnature but on her whole psychic life, so that there are times when sheis more nervously tense, more apt to become hysterical or to yield tothe influence of suggestion. Moreover, because of the emphasis onchastity and the taboos with which she was surrounded, any neurotictendencies which might be inherent in her nature were sure to bedeveloped to the utmost. 

As Lombroso suggests, hysteria and other neurotic phenomena are classedas evidence of spirit possession by the untutored mind. Thus it happenedthat observing the strange psychic manifestations to which woman wasperiodically subject, the ancient peoples endowed her withspiritualistic forces which were sometimes held to be beneficent and atother times malefic in character. Whatever the attitude at any timewhether her _mana_ were regarded as evil or benignant, the savage andprimitive felt that it was well to be on his guard in the presence ofpower; so that the taboos previously outlined would hold through theswing of man's mind from one extreme to the other. 

As goddess, priestess and prophetess, woman continued to play her rôlein human affairs until the Christian period, when a remarkabletransformation took place. The philosophy of dualism that emanated fromPersia had affected all the religions of the Mediterranean Basin and hadworked its way into Christian beliefs by way of Gnosticism, Manicheanism, and Neo-Platonism. Much of the writing of the churchfathers is concerned with the effort to harmonize conflicting beliefsor to avoid the current heresies. To one who reads the fathers itbecomes evident to what extent the relation of man to woman figures inthese controversies. [16]

The Manicheanism which held in essence Persian Mithraism and which hadso profound an influence on the writings of St. Augustine gave body andsoul to two distinct worlds and finally identified woman with the body. But probably as a result of the teachings of Gnosticism with itsNeo-Platonic philosophy which never entirely rejected feminineinfluence, some of this influence survived in the restatement ofreligion for the folk. When the restatement was completed and wasspreading throughout Europe in the form which held for the nextmillennium, it was found that the early goddesses had been acceptedamong the saints, the priestesses and prophetesses were rejected aswitches, while the needs of men later raised the Blessed Virgin to aplace beside her son. 

Modern psychology has given us an explanation of the difficulty oferadicating the worship of such a goddess as the Great Mother of AsiaMinor from the religion of even martial peoples who fear thecontamination of woman's weakness; or from a religion obsessed withhatred of woman as unclean by men who made the suppression of bodilypassions the central notion of sanctity. The most persistent humanrelationship, the one charged with a constant emotional value, is notthat of sex, which takes manifold forms, but that of the mother andchild. It is to the mother that the child looks for food, love, andprotection. It is to the child that the mother often turns from themate, either because of the predominance of mother love over sex or inconsolation for the loss of the love of the male. We have only recentlylearned to evaluate the infantile patterns engraved in the neural tissueduring the years of childhood when the mother is the central figure ofthe child's life. Whatever disillusionments may come about other womenlater in life, the mother ideal thus established remains a constant partof man's unconscious motivations. It is perhaps possible that thisinfantile picture of a being all-wise, all-tender, all-sacrificing, haswithin it enough emotional force to create the demand for amother-goddess in any religion. 

To arrive at the concept of the Madonna, a far-reaching process ofsynthesis and reinterpretation must have been carried out before theBible could be brought into harmony with the demands made by a cult of amother goddess. Just as the views brought into the church by celibateideals spread among heathen people, so the church must have been in itsturn influenced by the heathen way of looking at things. [17] One of thegreat difficulties was the reconciliation of the biological process ofprocreation with divinity. But there had for ages been among primitivepeoples the belief that impregnation was caused by spirit possession orby sorcery. This explanation had survived in a but slightly altered formin the ancient mythologies, all of which contained traditions of heroesand demi-gods who were born supernaturally of a divine father and ahuman mother. In the myths of Buddha, Zoroaster, Pythagoras and Plato, it was intimated that the father had been a god or spirit, and that themother had been, and moreover remained after the birth, an earthlyvirgin. These old and precious notions of the supernatural origin ofgreat men were not willingly renounced by those who accepted the newreligion; nor was it necessary to make such a sacrifice, because menthought that they could recognize in the Jewish traditions somethingcorresponding to the heathen legends. [18]

The proper conditions for the development of a mother cult withinChristianity 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 ofthe same nature as the Father. The question of the nature of Mary thencame to the fore. The eastern fathers, Athanasius, Ephraim Syrus, Eusebius and Chrysostom, made frequent use in their writings of theterm Theotokos, Mother of God. When Nestorius attacked those whoworshipped the infant Christ as a god and Mary as the mother of Godrather than as the mother of Christ, a duel began between Cyril ofAlexandria and Nestorius "which in fierceness and importance can only becompared with that between Arius and Athanasius. "[19]

In 431 A. D. The Universal Church Council at Ephesus assented to thedoctrine that Mary was the Mother of God. Thus Ephesus, home of thegreat Diana, from primitive times the centre of the worship of a goddesswho united in herself the virtues of virginity and motherhood, couldboast of being the birthplace of the Madonna cult. And thus Mary, ourLady of Sorrows, pure and undefiled, "the church's paradox, " became theideal of man. She was "a woman, virgin and mother, sufficiently high tobe worshipped, yet sufficiently near to be reached by affection. . .. Ifwe judge myths as artistic creations we must recognize that no god orgoddess has given its worshippers such an ideal as the Mary of Christianart and poetry. "[19: p. 183] [20: v. Ii. , pp. 220f. ]

Although Christianity thus took over and embodied in its doctrines thecult of the mother-goddess, at the same time it condemned all the riteswhich had accompanied the worship of the fertility goddesses in all thepagan religions. The power of these rites was still believed in, butthey were supposed to be the work of demons, and we find them strictlyforbidden in the early ecclesiastical laws. The phallic ceremonialswhich formed so large a part of heathen ritual became marks of thedevil, and the deities in whose honour they were performed, althoughlosing none of their power, were regarded as demonic rather than divinein nature. Diana, goddess of the moon, for example, became identifiedwith Hecate of evil repute, chief of the witches. "In such a fashion thereligion of Greece, that of Egypt, of Phoenicia and Asia Minor, ofAssyria and of Persia, became mingled and confused in a simpledemonology. "[21]

In addition to the condemnation of Pagan deities and their ritualisticworship, there was a force inherent in the very nature of Christianitywhich worked toward the degradation of the sex life. After the death ofChrist, his followers had divorced their thoughts from all thingsearthly and set about fitting themselves for their places in the otherworld. The thought of the early Christian sects was obsessed by the ideaof 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. Thisemphasis on the spiritual as opposed to the fleshly became fixatedespecially on the sex relationship, which came to be the symbol of thelusts of the body which must be conquered by the high desires of thesoul. Consequently the feelings concerning this relation becamesurcharged with all the emotion which modern psychology has taught usalways attaches to the conscious symbol of deeply underlying unconsciouscomplexes. In such a situation man, who had come to look with horror onthe being who reminded him that he was flesh as well as spirit saw inher "the Devil's gateway, " or "a fireship continually striving to getalong 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 toChristianity . .. But in the first three centuries I have not been ableto see that Christianity had any favourable effect on the position ofwoman. "]

With the rejection of the idea of the sanctity of sex as embodied in thephallic rituals of the pagan cults, the psychic power of woman becameonce more a thing of fear rather than of worship, and her uncleannesswas emphasized again more than her holiness, even as in primitive times. The power of woman to tell the course of future events which in otherdays had made her revered as priestess and prophetess now made her hatedas a witch who had control of what the Middle Ages knew as the BlackArt. [23] The knowledge of medicine which she had acquired through theages was now thought to be utilized in the making of "witch's brew, " andthe "ceremonies and charms whereby the influence of the gods might beobtained to preserve or injure"[21: v. 1, p. 12] became incantations to theevil 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 herallurements, and as a result woman came to be feared and loathed as thearch-temptress who would destroy man's attempt to conform to celibateideals. This sex antagonism culminated in the witchcraft persecutionswhich make so horrible a page of the world's history. 

Among the pagans, witches had shared with prophetesses and priestesses adegree of reverence and veneration. Medea had taught Jason to tame thebrazen-footed bulls and dragons which guarded the Golden Fleece. Hecatewas skilled in spells and incantations. Horace frequently mentions withrespect Canidia, who was a powerful enchantress. Gauls, Britons andGermans had obeyed and venerated women who dealt in charms andincantations. The doctrines of Christianity had changed the venerationinto hatred and detestation without eradicating the belief in the powerof the witch. It was with the hosts of evil that she was now believed tohave her dealings, however. When this notion of the alliance betweendemons and women had become a commonplace, "the whole tradition wasdirected against woman as the Devil's instrument, basely seductive, passionate and licentious by nature. "[24] Man's fear of woman found afrantic and absurd expression in her supposed devil-worship. As aresult, the superstitions about witchcraft became for centuries not onlya craze, but a theory held by intelligent people. 

Among the female demons who were especially feared were: Nahemah, theprincess of the Succubi; Lilith, queen of the Stryges; and the Lamiæ orVampires, who fed on the living flesh of men. Belief in the Vampiresstill persists as a part of the folklore of Europe. Lilith tempted todebauchery, 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 ancientapocryphal book called the Testament of Soloman, and dates probably fromthe first or second century of the Christian Era. [25]

[Footnote A: The name of Lilith carries us as far back as Babylon, andin her charms and conjurations we have revived in Europe the reflectionof old Babylonian charms. ]

Laws against the malefici (witches) were passed by Constantine. In theTheodosian Code (_Lib. 9. Tit. 16. Leg. 3. _) they are charged withmaking attempts by their wicked arts upon the lives of innocent men, anddrawing others by magical potions (philtra et pharmaca) to commitmisdemeanours. They are further charged with disturbing the elements, raising tempests, and practising abominable arts. The Council ofLaodicea (343-381. _Can_. 36) condemned them. The Council of Ancyraforbade the use of medicine to work mischief. St. Basil's canonscondemned witchcraft. The fourth Council of Carthage censuredenchantment. [26] John of Salisbury tells of their feasts, to which theytook unbaptized children. William of Auverne describes the charms andincantations which they used to turn a cane into a horse. William ofMalmesbury gives an account of two old women who transformed thetravellers who passed their door into horses, swine or other animalswhich they sold. From some of the old Teuton laws we learn that it wasbelieved that witches could take a man's heart out of his body and fillthe cavity with straw or wood so that he would go on living. 

One of the famous witchcraft trials was that of the Lady AliceKyteler, [27] whose high rank could not save her from the accusation. Itwas claimed that she used the ceremonies of the church, but with somewicked changes. She extinguished the candles with the exclamation, "Fi!Fi! Fi! Amen!" She was also accused of securing the love of herhusbands, who left much property to her, by magic charms. These claimswere typical of the accusations against witches in the trials which tookplace. 

By the sixteenth century, the cumulative notion of witches hadpenetrated both cultivated and uncultivated classes, and was embodied ina great and increasing literature. "No comprehensive work on theology, philosophy, history, law, medicine, or natural science could whollyignore it, " says Burr, "and to lighter literature it afforded the mosttelling illustrations for the pulpit, the most absorbing gossip for thenews-letter, the most edifying tales for the fireside. "[28]

As a result of this belief in the diabolic power of woman, judicialmurder of helpless women became an institution, which is thuscharacterized by Sumner: "After the refined torture of the body andnameless mental sufferings, women were executed in the most cruelmanner. These facts are so monstrous that all other aberrations of thehuman race are small in comparison. .. . He who studies the witch trialsbelieves himself transferred into the midst of a race which hassmothered all its own nobler instincts, reason, justice, benevolence andsympathy. "[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 hertemperament. By birth a fay, by the regular recurrence of her ecstasyshe becomes a sibyl. By her love she grows into an enchantress. By hersubtlety . .. She becomes a witch and works her spells. "[29]

Just how many victims there were of the belief in the power of women aswitches will never be known. Scherr thinks that the persecutions cost100, 000 lives in Germany alone. [30] Lord Avebury quotes the estimate ofthe inquisitor Sprenger, joint author of the "Witch Hammer, " that duringthe Christian period some 9, 000, 000 persons, mostly women, were burnedas witches. [31] Seven thousand victims are said to have been burned atTreves, 600 by a single bishop of Bamburg, 800 in a single year in thebishopric of Wurtzburg. At Toulouse 400 persons perished at a singleburning. [29: ch. 1] [20: v. 1. Ch. 1] One witch judge boasted that heexecuted 900 witches in fifteen years. The last mass burning in Germanywas said to have taken place in 1678, when 97 persons were burnedtogether. The earliest recorded burning of a witch in England is inWalter Mapes' _De Nugis Curialium_, in the reign of Henry II. An oldblack letter tract gloats over the execution at Northampton, 1612, of anumber of persons convicted of witchcraft. [32] The last judicialsentence was in 1736, when one Jane Wenham was found guilty ofconversing familiarly with the devil in the form of a cat. [33]

The connection between the witchcraft delusion and the attitude towardall women has already been implied. [34] The dualistic teaching of theearly church fathers, with its severance of matter and spirit and itsinsistence on the ascetic ideal of life, had focussed on sexuality asthe outstanding manifestation of fleshly desires. The contact of thesexes came to be looked upon as the supreme sin. Celibacy taught thatthrough the observance of the taboo on woman the man of God was to besaved from pollution. Woman was the arch temptress who by the naturalforces of sex attraction, reinforced by her evil charms andincantations, made it so difficult to attain the celibate ideal. Fromher ancestress Eve woman was believed to inherit the natural propensityto lure man to his undoing. Thus the old belief in the uncleanness ofwoman was renewed in the minds of men with even greater intensity thanever before, and in addition to a dangerous adventure, even within thesanction of wedlock the sex act became a deed of shame. The followingquotations from the church fathers will illustrate this view:

Jerome said, "Marriage is always a vice; all we can do is to excuse andcleanse it. . .. In Paradise Eve was a virgin. Virginity is naturalwhile wedlock only follows guilt. "[35]

Tertullian addressed women in these words: "Do you not know that you areeach 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 teachingof the early church. The child was looked upon as the result of an actof sin, and came into the world tainted through its mother with sin. Atbest marriage was a vice. All the church could do was to cleanse it asmuch as possible by sacred rites, an attempt which harked back to theorigin of marriage as the ceremonial breaking of taboo. Peter Lombard'sSentences affirmed marriage a sacrament. This was reaffirmed at Florencein 1439. In 1565, the Council of Trent made the final declaration. Butnot even this could wholly purify woman, and intercourse with her wasstill regarded as a necessary evil, a concession that had to beunwillingly made to the lusts of the flesh. 

Such accounts as we have of the lives of holy women indicate that theyshared in the beliefs of their times. In the account of the life of asaint known as the Blessed Eugenia preserved in an old palimpsest[36] weread that she adopted the costume of a monk, --"Being a woman by naturein order that I might gain everlasting life. " The same account tells ofanother holy woman who passed as a eunuch, because she had been warnedthat it was easier for the devil to tempt a woman. In another collectionof lives of saints is the story[37] of a holy woman who never allowedherself to see the face of a man, even that of her own brother, lestthrough her he might go in among women. Another holy virgin shut herselfup in a tomb because she did not wish to cause the spiritual downfall ofa young man who loved her. 

This long period of religious hatred of and contempt for woman includedthe Crusades, the Age of Chivalry, [38] and lasted well into theRenaissance. [39] Students of the first thousand years of the Christianera like Donaldson, [22] McCabe, [40] and Benecke argue that the socialand intellectual position of women was probably lower than at any timesince the creation of the world. It was while the position of woman aswife and mother was thus descending into the slough which has beentermed the Dark Age of Woman that the Apotheosis of the Blessed Virginwas accomplished. The attitude toward human love, generation, therelation of the earthly mother to the human child because of Eve's sin, all made the Immaculate Conception a logical necessity. The doctrine ofthe virgin birth disposed of sin through the paternal line. But if Marywas conceived in sin or was not purified from sin, even that of thefirst parent, how could she conceive in her body him who was withoutsin? The controversy over the Immaculate Conception which began as earlyas the seventh century lasted until Pius IX declared it to be an articleof Catholic belief in 1854. Thus not only Christ, but also his motherbecame purged of the sin of conception by natural biological processes, and the same immaculacy and freedom from contamination was accorded toboth. In this way the final step in the differentiation between earthlymotherhood and divine motherhood was completed. 

The worship of the virgin by men and women who looked upon the celibatelife as the perfect life, and upon the relationship of earthlyfatherhood and motherhood as contaminating, gave the world an ideal ofwoman as "superhuman, immaculate, bowing in frightened awe before theangel with the lily, standing mute and with downcast eyes before herDivine Son. "[41] With all its admitted beauty, this ideal representednot the institution of the family, but the institution of the church. Chivalry carried over from the church to the castle this concept ofwomanhood and set it to the shaping of The Lady, [42] who was finallygiven a rank in the ideals of knighthood only a little below that towhich Mary had been elevated by the ecclesiastical authorities. Thisconcept of the lady was the result of the necessity for a new socialstandardization which must combine beauty, purity, meekness and angelicgoodness. Only by such a combination could religion and family life befinally reconciled. By such a combination, earthly motherhood could bemade to approximate the divine motherhood. 

With the decline of the influence of chivalry, probably as the result ofindustrial changes, The Lady was replaced by a feminine ideal which maywell be termed the "Model Woman. " Although less ethereal than herpredecessor, The Lady, the Model Woman is quite as much an attempt toreconcile the dualistic attitude, with its Divine Mother cult on the onehand, and its belief in the essential evil of the procreative processand the uncleanness of woman on the other, to human needs. Thecharacteristics of the Model Woman must approximate those of the HolyVirgin as closely as possible. Her chastity before marriage isimperative. Her calling must be the high art of motherhood. She must bethe incarnation of the maternal spirit of womanhood, but her purity mustremain unsullied by any trace of erotic passion. 

A voluminous literature which stated the virtues and duties of theModel Woman blossomed out in the latter part of the eighteenth and firsthalf of the nineteenth century. [43] The Puritan ideals also embodiedthis concept. It was by this attempt to make woman conform to astandardized ideal that man sought to solve the conflict between hisnatural human instincts and desires and the early Christian teachingconcerning 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 theCorn 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. 508pp. Fratelli Bocca. Milano, 1915. 

4. Farnell, L. R. Sociological Hypotheses Concerning the Position ofWoman in Ancient Religion. Archiv für Religionswissenschaft. SiebenterBand, 1904. 

5. Fowler, W. Warde. The Religious Experiences of the Roman People. 504pp. Macmillan. London, 1911. 

6. For a description of these sibyls with a list of the works in whichthey 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 MoyenAge. 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 andhistory concerning sacred women, see:

---- Alexander, W. History of Women from the Earliest Antiquity to thePresent 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 AncientGreece 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 SciencesPsychiques, 1907. 

16. The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Translation by the Rev. Alexander Robertsand James Donaldson, LL. D. , and others. American Reprint of theEdinburgh Edition. Buffalo, 1889. 

17. Hatch, Edwin. Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the ChristianChurch. 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. AndLondon, 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 EarlyChristians. 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-stealingWitch. Folklore. Vol. XI, No. 2, June, 1900. 

26. For discussion of the dates of the Church Councils see Rev. CharlesJ. Hefele, Councils of the Church. Trans, fr. The German by C. W. Bush, 1883. 

27. Alice Kyteler. A contemporary narrative of the Proceedings againstDame Alice Kyteler, prosecuted for sorcery by Richard de Ledrede, Bishopof Ossory, 1324. Edited by Thomas Wright. London, 1843. 

28. Burr, George L. The Literature of Witchcraft. Papers of the AmericanHistorical Association. Vol IV, pp. 37-66. G. P. Putnam's Sons. N. Y. , 1890. 

29. Michelet, J. La Sorcière. 488 pp. Paris, 1878. Trans. OfIntroduction by L. J. Trotter. 

30. Scherr, Johannes. Deutsche Frauenwelt. Band II. 

31. Avebury, Right Hon. Lord (Sir John Lubbock). Marriage, Totemism andReligion. 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 desHexenwahns. Historisches Jahrbuch. XXIX Band. München. Jahrgang 1918. 

35. Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the ChristianChurch. 2d. Series. Vol. 6, Letter xxii, Ad Eustachium. 

36. Studia Sinaitica No. IX. Select Narratives of Holy Women from theSyro-Antiochene or Sinai Palimpsest as written above the old SyriacGospels by John the Stylite, of Beth-Mari Ianun in A. D. 778. Edited byAgnes Smith Lewis, M. R. A. S. London, 1900. 

37. Lady Meux Mss. No. VI. British Museum. The Book of Paradise, beingthe Histories and Sayings of the Monks and Ascetics of the EgyptianDesert 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. ByG. 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 Dutyof a Woman, or A Guide to the Female Sex, " published some time in theeighteenth century (a copy in the Galatea Collection, Boston PublicLibrary); 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 uncleannessof woman; Taboo and the family; The "good" woman; The "bad" woman;Increase in the number of women who do not fit into the ancientclassifications. 

With the gradual accumulation of scientific knowledge and increasingtendency of mankind toward a rationalistic view of most things, it mightbe expected that the ancient attitude toward sex and womanhood wouldhave been replaced by a saner feeling. To some extent this has indeedbeen the case. It is surprising, however, to note the traces which theold taboos and superstitions have left upon our twentieth century sociallife. Men and women are becoming conscious that they live in a worldformed out of the worlds that have passed away. The underlying principleof this social phenomenon has been called the principle of "thepersistence of institutions. "[1] Institutionalized habits, mosaics ofreactions to forgotten situations, fall like shadows on the life ofto-day. Memories of the woman shunned, of the remote woman goddess, andof the witch, transmit the ancient forms by which woman has beenexpected to shape her life. 

It may seem a far cry from the savage taboo to the institutional life ofthe present; but the patterns of our social life, like the infantilepatterns on which adult life shapes itself, go back to an immemorialpast. Back in the early life of the peoples from which we spring is thetaboo, and in our own life there are customs so analogous to many ofthese ancient prohibitions that they must be accounted survivals of oldsocial habits just as the vestigial structures within our bodies are theremnants of our biological past. 

The modern preaching concerning woman's sphere, for example, is anobvious descendant of the old taboos which enforced the division oflabour between the sexes. Just as it formerly was death for a woman toapproach her husband's weapons, so it has for a long time beenconsidered a disgrace for her to attempt to compete with man in his lineof work. Only under the pressure of modern industrialism and economicnecessity has this ancient taboo been broken down, and even now there issome reluctance to recognize its passing. The exigencies of the worldwar have probably done more than any other one thing to accelerate thedisappearance 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 MrWebster has pointed out, [2] is a potent force for sexual solidarity andconsciousness of kind. The separate living and lack of club activity ofwomen has had much to do with a delay in the development of a sexconsciousness and loyalty. The development of women's organizationsalong the lines of the men's clubs has been a powerful factor inenabling them to overcome the force of the taboos which have lingered onin social life. Only through united resistance could woman ever hope tobreak down the barriers with which she was shut off from the fullness oflife. 

Perhaps the property taboo has been as persistent as any other of therestrictions which have continued to surround woman through the ages. Before marriage, the girl who is "well brought up" is still carefullyprotected from contact with any male. The modern system of chaperonageis the substitute for the old seclusion and isolation of the pubescentgirl. Even science was influenced by the old sympathetic magic view thatwoman could be contaminated by the touch of any other man than herhusband, for the principle of telegony, that the father of one childcould pass on his characteristics to offspring by other fathers, lingered in biological teaching until the very recent discoveries of thephysical basis of heredity in the chromosomes. Law-making was alsoinfluenced by the idea of woman as property. For a long time there was ahesitancy to prohibit wife-beating on account of the feeling that thewife was the husband's possession, to be dealt with as he desired. Thelaws of coverture also perpetuated the old property taboos, and gave tothe husband the right to dispose of his wife's property. 

The general attitude towards such sexual crises as menstruation andpregnancy is still strongly reminiscent of the primitive belief thatwoman is unclean at those times. Mothers still hesitate to enlightentheir daughters concerning these natural biological functions, and as aresult girls are unconsciously imbued with a feeling of shame concerningthem. Modern psychology has given many instances of the rebellion ofgirls at the inception of menstruation, for which they have been illprepared. There is little doubt that this attitude has wrought untoldharm in the case of nervous and delicately balanced temperaments, andhas 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 arefrom rationalizing this function. 

Even medical men show the influence of old superstitions when theyrefuse to alleviate the pains of childbirth on the grounds that they aregood for the mother. Authorities say that instruction in obstetrics issadly neglected. A recent United States report tells us that preventablediseases of childbirth and pregnancy cause more deaths among women thanany other disease except tuberculosis. [4]

The belief in the possession by woman of an uncanny psychic power whichmade her the priestess and witch of other days, has crystallized intothe modern concept of womanly intuition. In our times, women "gethunches, " have "feelings in their bones, " etc. , about people, or aboutthings which are going to happen. They are often asked to decide onbusiness ventures or to pass opinions on persons whom they do not know. There are shrewd business men who never enter into a serious negotiationwithout getting their wives' intuitive opinion of the men with whom theyare dealing. The psychology of behaviour would explain these rapid firejudgments of women as having basis in observation of unconsciousmovements, while another psychological explanation would emphasizesensitiveness to suggestion as a factor in the process. Yet in spite ofthese rational explanations of woman's swift conclusions on matters ofimportance, she is still accredited with a mysterious faculty ofintuition. 

A curious instance of the peculiar forms in which old taboos linger onin modern life is the taboos on certain words and on discussion ofcertain subjects. The ascetic idea of the uncleanness of the sexrelation is especially noticeable. A study of 150 girls made by thewriter in 1916-17 showed a taboo on thought and discussion amongwell-bred girls of the following subjects, which they characterize as"indelicate, " "polluting, " and "things completely outside the knowledgeof a lady. "

1. Things contrary to custom, often called "wicked" and "immoral. "

2. Things "disgusting, " such as bodily functions, normal as well aspathological, 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 willfear 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 thosewhich the concept of the Model Woman has ruled out of the life of thefeminine half of the world. 

As might well be expected, it is in the marriage ceremony and thecustoms of the family institution that the most direct continuation oftaboo may be found. The early ceremonials connected with marriage, as MrCrawley has shown, counteracted to some extent man's ancient fear ofwoman 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 formsperpetuates 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 whichkeep men and women apart under other circumstances. 

The new family as a part of the social order comes into existencethrough the social recognition of a relationship which is consideredespecially dangerous and can only be recognized by the performance ofelaborate rites and ceremonies. It is taboo for men and women to havecontact with each other. Contact may occur only under ceremonialconditions, guarded in turn by taboo, and therefore socially recognized. The girl whose life from puberty on has been carefully guarded bytaboos, passes through the gateway of ceremonial into a new life, whichis quite as carefully guarded. These restrictions and elaborate ritualswhich surround marriage and family life may appropriately be termedinstitutional taboos. They include the property and division of labourtaboos in the survival forms already mentioned, as well as otherreligious and social restrictions and prohibitions. 

The foundations of family life go far back of the changes of recentcenturies. The family has its source in the mating instinct, but thisinstinct is combined with other individual instincts and socialrelationships which become highly elaborated in the course of socialevolution. The household becomes a complex economic institution. Whilethe processes of change may have touched the surface of these relations, the family itself has remained to the present an institution establishedthrough the social sanctions of communities more primitive than ourown. The new family begins with the ceremonial breach of taboo, --thetaboo which enjoins the shunning of woman as a being both sacred andunclean. Once married, the woman falls under the property taboo, and isas restricted as ever she was before marriage, although perhaps inslightly different ways. In ancient Rome, the wife was not mistress ofthe hearth. She did not represent the ancestral gods, the lares andpenates, since she was not descended from them. In death as in life shecounted only as a part of her husband. Greek, Roman and Hindu law, allderived from ancestor worship, agreed in considering the wife aminor. [5]

These practices are of the greatest significance in a consideration ofthe modern institutional taboos which surround the family. Studentsagree that our own mores are in large part derived from those of thelowest class of freedmen in Rome at the time when Christianity took overthe control which had fallen from the hands of the Roman emperors. Thesemores were inherited by the Bourgeoisie of the Middle Ages, and werepassed on by them as they acquired economic supremacy. Thus thesepractices have come down to us unchanged in spirit even if somewhatmodified in form, to fit the changed environment of our times. 

The standardization of the family with its foundations embedded in aseries of institutional taboos, added its weight to the formulation ofthe Model Woman type referred to at the close of the preceding chapter. The model wife appears in the earliest literature. In _The TrojanWomen_, Hecuba tells how she behaved in wedlock. She stayed at home anddid not gossip. She was modest and silent before her husband. Thepatient Penelope was another ideal wife. To her, her son Telemachussays:

"Your widowed hours apart, with female toil, And various labours of theloom, beguile, There rule, from palace cares remote and free, That careto man belongs, and most to me. "

The wifely type of the Hebrews is set forth in Proverbs xxxi, 10-31. Hervirtues consisted in rising while it was yet night, and not eating thebread of idleness. In her relation to her husband, she must neversurprise him by unusual conduct, and must see that he was well fed. 

The Romans, Hindus, and Mohammedans demanded similar virtues in theirwives and mothers. The wives of the medieval period were to remainlittle girls, most admired for their passive obedience. Gautier putsinto the mouth of a dutiful wife of the Age of Chivalry the followingsoliloquy:

"I will love no one but my husband. Even if he loves me no longer, Iwill love him always. I will be humble and as a servitor. I will callhim my sire, or my baron, or domine. .. "[6]

The modern feminine ideal combines the traits demanded by the worship ofthe madonna and the virtues imposed by the institutional taboos whichsurround the family. She is the virgin pure and undefiled beforemarriage. She is the protecting mother and the obedient, faithful wifeafterward. In spite of various disrupting influences which are tendingto break down this concept, and which will presently be discussed, thisis still the ideal which governs the life of womankind. The averagemother educates her daughter to conform to this ideal woman type whichis the synthesized product of ages of taboo and religious mysticism. Home training and social pressure unite to force woman into the mouldwrought out in the ages when she has been the object of superstitiousfear 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 wonderthat only in recent years has she had any opportunity to show what shein her inmost soul desired, and what capabilities were latent within herpersonality. 

In sharp contrast to the woman who conforms to the standards thuscreated for her, is the prostitute, who is the product of forces asancient as those which have shaped the family institution. In thestruggle between man's instinctive needs and his mystical ideal ofwomanhood, there has come about a division of women into twoclasses--the good and the bad. It is a demarcation as sharp as thatinvolved in the primitive taboos which set women apart as sacred orunclean. In building up the Madonna concept and requiring the women ofhis family to approximate this mother-goddess ideal, man made them intobeings too spiritual to satisfy his earthly needs. The wife and mothermust be pure, as he conceived purity, else she could not be respected. The religious forces which had set up the worship of maternity hadcondemned the sex relationship and caused a dissociation of two elementsof human nature which normally are in complete and intimate harmony. Oneresult of this divorce of two biologically concomitant functions was theinstitution of prostitution. 

Prostitution is designed to furnish and regulate a supply of womenoutside the mores of the family whose sex shall be for sale, not forpurposes of procreation but for purposes of indulgence. In the ancientworld, temple prostitution was common, the proceeds going to the god orgoddess; but the sense of pollution in the sex relation which came to beso potent an element in the control of family life drove the prostitutefrom 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 thecentre of the family with its institutional taboos is the sacred woman, loved and revered by men who condemn the prostitute for the very act forwhich they seek her company. Such is the irrational situation which hascome to us as a heritage from the past. 

Among the chief causes which have impelled women into prostitutionrather than into family life are the following: (1) Slavery; (2)poverty; (3) inclination. These causes have been expanded and re-groupedby specialists, but the only addition which the writer sees as necessaryin consequence of the study of taboo is the fact that the way of thewoman transgressor is peculiarly hard because of the sex taboo, theignorance and narrowness of good women, and the economic limitations ofall women. Ignorance of the results of entrance into a life whichusually means abandonment of hope may be a contributing cause. Boredomwith the narrowness of family life and desire for adventure are alsoinfluences. 

That sex desire leads directly to the life of the prostitute isunlikely. The strongly sexed class comes into prostitution by the war ofirregular relationships with men to whom they have been attached, andwho have abandoned them or sold them out. Many authorities agree on thefrigidity of the prostitute. It is her protection from physical andemotional exhaustion. This becomes evident when it is learned that thesewomen will receive thirty men a day, sometimes more. A certain originallack of sensitiveness may be assumed, especially since theinvestigations of prostitutes have shown a large proportion, perhapsone-third, who are mentally inferior. It is an interesting fact thatthose who are sensitive to their social isolation defend themselves bydwelling on their social necessity. Either intuitively or by a tradetradition, the prostitute feels that "she remains, while creeds andcivilizations rise and fall, blasted for the sins of the people. " Abeautiful young prostitute who had been expelled from a high grade houseafter 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 girlshave got to pay. "

The lady, dwelling on her pedestal of isolation, from which she commandsthe veneration of the chivalrous gentleman and the adoration of thepoet, is the product of a leisure assured by property. At the end of thesocial scale is the girl who wants to be a lady, who doesn't want towork, and who, like the lady, has nothing to sell but herself. The lifeof the prostitute is the nearest approach for the poor girl to the lifeof a lady with its leisure, its fine clothes, and its excitement. Solong as we have a sex ethics into which are incorporated the tabooconcepts, the lady cannot exist without the prostitute. The restrictionswhich surround the lady guard her from the passions of men. Theprostitute has been developed to satisfy masculine needs which it is notpermitted the lady to know exist. 

But in addition to the married woman who has fulfilled the destiny forwhich she has been prepared and the prostitute who is regarded as asocial leper, there is a large and increasing number of unmarried womenwho fall into neither of these classes. For a long time theseunfortunates were forced to take refuge in the homes of their luckiersisters who had fulfilled their mission in life by marrying, or to adoptthe life of the religieuse. Economic changes have brought an alterationin their status, however, and the work of the unattached woman isbringing her a respect in the modern industrial world that the "oldmaid" of the past could never hope to receive. 

Although at first often looked upon askance, the working woman by thesheer force of her labours has finally won for herself a recognizedplace in society. This was the first influence that worked against theold taboos, and made possible the tentative gropings toward a newstandardization of women. The sheer weight of the number of unattachedwomen 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. Itis estimated that at the end of the war at least 25% of English womenare doomed to celibacy and childlessness. In Germany, the industrialcensus of 1907 showed that only 9-1/2 millions of women were married, orabout one-half the total number over eighteen years of age. In theUnited States, married women constitute less than 60% of the womenfifteen years of age and over. 

The impossibility of a social system based on the old sex taboos underthe new conditions is obvious. There must be a revaluation of woman onthe basis of her mental and economic capacity instead of on the mannerin which she fits into a system of institutional taboos. But the oldconcepts are still with us, and have shaped the early lives of workingwomen as well as the lives of those who have fitted into the oldgrooves. Tenacious survivals surround them both, and are responsible formany of the difficulties of mental and moral adjustment which make thewoman question a puzzle to both conservative and radical thinkers on thesubject. 

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 ofSocial 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. 504pp. Macmillan. London, 1911. 

---- Fustel de Coulanges, Numa Denis. The Ancient City. Trans. From thelatest 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 presentconditions; 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. , onposterity; The attitude of economically independent women towardmarriage. 

It is evident that in the working of old taboos as they have beenpreserved in our social institutions there are certain dysgenicinfluences which may well be briefly enumerated. For surely the test ofthe family institution is the way in which it fosters the production anddevelopment of the coming generation. The studies made by the GaltonLaboratory in England and by the Children's Bureau in Washington combinewith our modern knowledge of heredity to show that it is possible to cutdown the potential heritage of children by bad matrimonial choices. Ifwe are to reach a solution of these population problems, we must learnto approach the problem of the sex relation without that sense ofuncleanness which has led so many generations to regard marriage asgiving respectability to an otherwise wicked inclination. The task ofdevising a sane approach is only just begun. But the menace ofprostitution and of the social diseases has become so great that societyis compelled from an instinct of sheer self-preservation to drag intothe open some of the iniquities which have hitherto existed under cover. 

In the first place, the education of girls, which has been almostentirely determined by the standardized concepts of the ideal woman, hasleft them totally unprepared for wifehood and motherhood, the verycalling which those ideals demand that they shall follow. The wholeeducation of the girl aims at the concealment of the physiologicalnature of men and women. She enters marriage unprepared for therealities of conjugal life, and hence incapable of understanding eitherherself or her husband. When pregnancy comes to such a wife, the oldseclusion taboos fall upon her like a categorical imperative. She isoverwhelmed with embarrassment at a normal and natural biologicalprocess which can hardly be classified as "romantic. " Such an attitudeis neither conducive to the eugenic choice of a male nor to the propercare of the child either before or after its birth. 

A second dysgenic influence which results from the taboo system ofsexual ethics is the institution of prostitution, the great agency forthe spread of venereal disease through the homes of the community, andwhich takes such heavy toll from the next generation in lowered vitalityand defective organization. 

The 1911 report of the Committee on the Social Evil in Baltimore showedthat at the time there was in that city one prostitute to every 500inhabitants. As is the case everywhere, such statistics cover onlyprostitutes who have been detected. Hospital and clinic reports forBaltimore gave 9, 450 acute cases of venereal disease in 1906 as comparedwith 575 cases of measles, 1, 172 cases of diphtheria, 577 of scarletfever, 175 of chickenpox, 58 of smallpox and 733 cases of tuberculosis. 

Statistics on the health of young men shown by the physical examinationsof the various draft boards throughout the country give us a morecomplete estimate of the prevalence of venereal disease among theprospective fathers of the next generation than any other figures forthe United States. In an article in the _New York Medical Journal_ forFebruary 2, 1918, Dr. Isaac W. Brewer of the Medical Reserve Corpspresents tables showing the percentage of rejections for variousdisabilities among the applicants for enlistment in the regular armyfrom January 1, 1912, to December 31, 1915. Among 153, 705 white and11, 092 coloured applicants, the rejection rate per 1, 000 for venerealdisease was 196. 7 for whites and 279. 9 for coloured as against 91. 3 forwhites and 75. 0 for coloured for heart difficulties, next on the list. In foreshadowing the results under the draft, Dr. Brewer says: "Venerealdisease is the greatest cause for rejection, and reports from thecantonments where the National Army has assembled indicate that a largenumber of the men had these diseases when they arrived at the camp. Itis probably true that venereal diseases cause the greatest amount ofsickness in our country. "

Statistics available for conditions among the American ExpeditionaryForces must be treated with great caution. Detection of these diseasesat certain stages is extremely difficult. Because of the courtesyextended to our men by our allies, cases were treated in French andEnglish hospitals of which no record is available. But it is fairly safeto say that there was no such prevalence of disease as was shown by theExner Report to have existed on the Mexican Border. It may even bepredicted that the education in hygienic measures which the men receivedmay in time affect favourably the health of the male population andthrough them their wives and children. But all who came in contact withthis problem in the army know that it is a long way to theunderstanding of the difficulties involved before we approach asolution. We do know, on the basis of the work, of Neisser, Lesser, Forel, Flexner and others, that regulation and supervision seem toincrease the incidence of disease. Among the reasons for this are: (1)difficulties of diagnosis; (2) difficulties attendant on theapprehension and examination of prostitutes; (3) the infrequency ofexamination as compared with the number of clients of these women; andperhaps as important as any of these reasons is the false sense ofsecurity involved. 

The model woman of the past has known very little of the prostitute andvenereal disease. It is often stated that her moral safety has beenmaintained at the expense of her fallen and unclean sister. But suchstatements are not limited as they should be by the qualification thather moral safety obtained in such a fashion is often at the expense ofher physical safety. If the assumption has a basis in fact that there isa relation between prostitution and monogamic marriage, the complexityof the problem becomes evident. It is further complicated by thepostponement of marriage from economic reasons, hesitation at theassumption of family responsibilities at a time of life when ambition aswell as passion is strong, when the physiological functions arestimulated by city life and there is constant opportunity for relief ofrepression for a price. It is here that the demarcation between theman's and the woman's world shows most clearly. It may well be that theonly solution of this problem is through the admission of a newfactor--the "good" woman whom taboo has kept in ignorance of a problemthat is her own. If it be true that the only solution for the doublestandard whose evils show most plainly here is a new single standardwhich has not yet been found, then it is high time that we find whatthat standard is to be, for the sake of the future. 

The third dysgenic influence which works under cover of theinstitutional taboo is akin to the first in its ancient standards of"good" and "bad. " We are only recently getting any standards for a goodmother except a man's choice and a wedding ring. Men's ideals ofattractiveness greatly complicate the eugenic situation. A goodmatchmaker, with social backing and money, can make a moron moreattractive than a pushing, energetic girl with plenty of initiative, whose contribution to her children would be equal or superior to that ofher mate. A timid, gentle, pretty moron, with the attainment of a girlof twelve years, will make an excellent match, and bring into the worldchildren who give us one of the reasons why it is "three generationsfrom shirt-sleeves to shirt-sleeves. " For such a girl, the slave toconvention, exactly fits the feminine ideal which man has built up forhimself. And she will be a good wife and mother in the conventionalsense all her life. This following of an ideal feminine type conceivedin irrational processes in former days inclines men to marry women withinferior genetic possibilities because they meet the more insistentsurface requirements. The heritage of our children is thus cut down, andmany a potential mother of great men remains unwed. 

The same survival of ancient sex taboos is seen in the attitude towardthe illegitimate child. The marriage ceremony is by its origin and bythe forms of its perpetuation the only sanction for the breaking of thetaboo on contact between men and women. The illegitimate child, thevisible symbol of the sin of its parents, is the one on whom mostheavily falls the burden of the crime. Society has for the most partbeen utterly indifferent to the eugenic value of the child and hasconcerned itself chiefly with the manner of its birth. Only thesituation arising out of the war and the need of the nations for men hasbeen able to partially remedy this situation. 

The taboos on illegitimacy in the United States have been less affectedby the practical population problems growing out of war conditions thanthose of other countries. As compared with the advanced stands of theScandinavian countries, the few laws of progressive states lookpainfully inadequate. Miss Breckinridge writes:[1]

"The humiliating and despised position of the illegitimate child needhardly be pointed out. He was the son of nobody, filius nullius, withoutname or kin so far as kinship meant rights of inheritance or ofsuccession. In reality this child of nobody did in a way belong to hismother as the legitimate child never did in common law, for, while theright of the unmarried mother to the custody of the child of her shamewas not so noble and dignified a thing as the right of the father to thelegitimate child, she had in fact a claim, at least so long as the childwas of tender years, not so different from his and as wide as the skyfrom the impotence of the married mother. The contribution of the fatherhas been secured under conditions shockingly humiliating to her, inamounts totally inadequate to her and the child's support. In Illinois, $550 over 5 years; Tennessee, $40 the first year, $30 the second, $20the third. (See studies of the Boston Conference on Illegitimacy, September, 1914, p. 47. ) Moreover, the situation was so desperate thatphysicians, social workers and relatives have conspired to save thegirl's respectability at the risk of the child's life and at the cost ofall spiritual and educative value of the experience of motherhood. Thishas meant a greatly higher death rate among illegitimate infants, ahigher crime and a higher dependency rate. "

The fifth of the dysgenic influences which has been fostered by theinstitutional taboo is uncovered by recent studies of the effect ofcertain emotions on the human organism. The life of woman has long beenshadowed by the fact that she has been the weaker sex; that even whenstrong she has been weighted by her child; and that throughout theperiod of private property she has been the poor sex, dependent on somemale for her support. In an age of force, fear has been her strongemotion. If she felt rage it must be suppressed. Disappointment anddiscouragement had also to be borne in silence and with patience. Ofsuch a situation Davies says:

"The power of the mind over the body is a scientific fact, as isevidenced by hypnotic suggestion and in the emotional control over thechemistry of health through the agency of the internal secretions. Thereproductive processes are very susceptible to chemic influences. Thusthe influences of the environment may in some degree carry through tothe offspring. "[2]

The studies of Drs Crile and Cannon show that the effects of fear on theganglionic cells are tremendous. Some of the cells are exhausted andcompletely destroyed by intensity and duration of emotion. Cannon'sexperiments on animals during fear, rage, anger, and hunger, show thatthe entire nervous system is involved and that internal and externalfunctions change their normal nature and activity. The thyroid andadrenal glands are deeply affected. In times of intense emotion, thethyroid gland throws into the system products which cause a quickenedpulse, rapid respiration, trembling, arrest of digestion, etc. When thesubjects 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, thenervous system of the subject, and the intensity and duration of theshock must all have consideration. Griesinger, Amard and Daguinemphasize especially the results of pain, anxiety and shock, claimingthat they are difficult or impossible to treat. 

To the bride brought up under the old taboos, the sex experiences ofearly married life are apt to come as a shock, particularly when theprevious sex experiences of her mate have been gained with women ofanother class. Indeed, so deeply has the sense of shame concerning thesexual functions been impressed upon the feminine mind that many wivesnever cease to feel a recurrent emotion of repugnance throughout themarital relationship. Especially would this be intensified in the caseof sexual intercourse during the periods of gestation and lactation, when the girl who had been taught that the sexual functions existed onlyin the service of reproduction would see her most cherished illusionsrudely dispelled. The effect of this long continued emotional state withits feeling of injury upon the metabolism of the female organism wouldbe apt to have a detrimental effect upon the embryo through the bloodsupply, or upon the nursing infant through the mother's milk. There canbe no doubt that anxiety, terror, etc. , affect the milk supply, andtherefore the life of the child. 

The sixth dysgenic effect of the control by taboos is the rebellion ofeconomically independent women who refuse motherhood under the onlyconditions society leaves open to them. The statistics in existence, though open to criticism, indicate that the most highly trained women inAmerica are not perpetuating themselves. [3] Of the situation in England, Bertrand Russell said in 1917: "If an average sample were taken out ofthe population of England, and their parents were examined, it would befound that prudence, energy, intellect and enlightenment were lesscommon among the parents than in the population in general; whileshiftlessness, feeble-mindedness, stupidity and superstition were morecommon than in the population in general . .. Mutual liberty is makingthe old form of marriage impossible while a new form is not yetdeveloped. "[4]

It must be admitted that to-day marriage and motherhood are subject toeconomic penalties. Perhaps one of the best explanations of the strengthof the present struggle for economic independence among women is thefact that a commercial world interested in exchange values had refusedto properly evaluate their social contribution. A new industrial systemhad taken away one by one their "natural" occupations. In the modernman's absorption in the life of a great industrial expansion, home lifehas been less insistent in its claims. His slackening of interest andattention, together with the discovery of her usefulness in industry, may have given the woman of initiative her opportunity to slip away fromher ancient sphere into a world where her usefulness in other fieldsthan that of sex has made her a different creature from the model womanof yesterday. These trained and educated women have hesitated to facethe renunciations involved in a return to the home. The result has beenone more factor in the lessening of eugenic motherhood, since it isnecessarily the less strong who lose footing and fall back on marriagefor support. These women wage-earners who live away from the traditionsof what a woman ought to be will have a great deal of influence in thechanged relations of the sexes. The answer to the question of theirrelation to the family and to a saner parenthood is of vital importanceto 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 thesexual impulse; Vicarious expression of the sexual impulse; Unconsciousfactors of the sex life; Taboo control has conditioned the naturalbiological tendencies of individuals to conform to arbitrary standardsof masculinity and femininity; Conflict between individual desires andsocial standards. 

An adequate treatment of the sex problem in society must necessarilyinvolve a consideration of the sexual impulse in the individual membersof that society. Recent psychological research, with its laboratoryexperiments and studies of pathology has added a great deal ofinformation at this point. The lately acquired knowledge of the warpingeffect of the environment upon the native biological endowment of theindividual by means of the establishment of conditioned reflexes, thediscovery that any emotion which is denied its natural motor outlettends to seek expression through some vicarious activity, and therealization of the fundamental importance of the unconscious factors inshaping emotional reactions, --such formulations of behaviouristic andanalytic psychology have thrown a great deal of light upon the natureof the individual sex life. 

There are certain modifications of the erotic life which are explicableonly when we recollect that under environmental influences situationswhich originally did not call up an emotional response come later to doso. This fact, which was first noted by Setchenov, was experimentallydemonstrated by Pavlov and his students. [7] They found that when someirrelevant stimulus, such as a musical tone or a piece of coloured paperwas presented to a dog simultaneously with its food for a sufficientlylong period, the presentation of the tone or paper alone finally causedthe same flow of saliva that the food had originally evoked. Theirrelevant stimulus was named a _food sign_, and the involuntary motorresponse of salivary secretion was called a _conditioned reflex_ todifferentiate it from the similar response to the biologically adequatestimulus of food, which was termed an _unconditioned reflex_. 

"The significance of the conditioned reflex is simply this, that anassociated stimulus brings about a reaction; and this associatedstimulus may be from any receptor organ of the body; and it may beformed of course not merely in the laboratory by specially devisedexperiments, but by association in the ordinary environment. "[1] Thus itis evident that the formation of conditioned reflexes takes place inall fields of animal and human activity. 

Watson has recently stated that a similar substitution of one stimulusfor another occurs in the case of an emotional reaction as well as atthe level of the simple physiological reflex response. [8] This meansthat when an emotionally exciting object stimulates the subjectsimultaneously with one not emotionally exciting, the latter may in time(or even after one joint stimulation) arouse the same emotional responseas the former. Kempf considers this capacity of the emotion to becomethus conditioned to other than the original stimuli "of the utmostimportance 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 becomea food sign, so the study of neurotics has shown that the sexual emotioncan be fixed upon almost any love object. For example, a singlecharacteristic of a beloved person (e. G. , --eye colour, smile posture, gestures) can become itself a stimulus to evoke the emotional responseoriginally associated only with that person. Then it happens that theaffection may centre upon anyone possessing similar traits. In mostpsychological literature, this focussing of the emotion upon someparticular characteristic is termed _fetishism_, and the stimulus whichbecome capable of arousing the conditioned emotional response is calledan _erotic fetish_. In extreme cases of fetishism, the sexual emotionscan only be aroused in the presence of the particular fetish involved. Krafft-Ebing[6] and other psychopathologists describe very abnormalcases of erotic fetishism in which some inanimate object becomesentirely dissociated from the person with whom it was originallyconnected, so that it serves exclusively as a love object in itself, andprevents a normal emotional reaction to members of the opposite sex. 

The development of romantic love has depended to a great extent upon theestablishment of a wide range of stimuli capable of arousing the eroticimpulses. As Finck has pointed out, this romantic sentiment isinseparable from the ideals of personal beauty. [3] As criteria of beautyhe lists such characteristics as well-shaped waist, rounded bosom, fulland red underlip, small feet, etc. , all of which have come to beconsidered standards of loveliness because the erotic emotion has beenconditioned to respond to their stimulation. Literature is full ofreferences to such marks of beauty in its characters (_Jane Eyre_ isalmost the only well-known book with a plain heroine), and is thereforeone of the potent factors in establishing a conditioned emotionalreaction to these stimuli. 

The erotic impulse may have its responses conditioned in many other waysthan the building up of erotic fetishes. Kempf has observed that theaffective reactions of the individual are largely conditioned by theunconscious attitudes of parents, friends, enemies and teachers. Forinstance, one boy is conditioned to distrust his ability and another tohave confidence in his powers by the attitude of the parents. Similarly, the daughter whose mother is abnormally prudish about sexual functionswill surely be conditioned to react in the same manner towards her ownsexual functions, unless conditioned to react differently by theinfluence of another person. [5] Through the everyday associations in thesocial milieu, therefore, the erotic impulse of an individual may becomemodified in almost any manner. 

Just as an emotional reaction may become conditioned to almost any otherstimulus than the one which originally called it forth, so there is atendency for any emotion to seek a vicarious outlet whenever its naturalexpression is inhibited. Were any member of the group to give free playto his affective life he would inevitably interfere seriously with thefreedom of the other members. But the fear of arousing the disapprovalof his fellows, which is rooted in man's gregarious nature, inhibits thetendency to self-indulgence. "A most important factor begins to exertpressure upon the infant at birth and continues throughout its life, "says Kempf. "It is the incessant, continuous pressure of the herd . .. Toconventionalize its methods of acquiring the gratification of itsneeds. "[5] The emotions thus denied a natural outlet seek other channelsof activity which have received the sanction of social approval. 

It is obvious that the rigid social regulations concerning sexualactivities must enforce repression of the erotic impulses morefrequently than any others. The love which is thus denied its biologicalexpression transmutes itself into many forms. It may reach out toenvelop all humanity, and find a suitable activity in social service. Itmay be transformed into the love of God, and find an outlet in thereligious life of the individual. Or it may be expressed only inlanguage, in which case it may stop at the stage of erotic fantasy andday-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 symbolicwords and phrases which have a hidden erotic meaning attached to them. 

According to Watson, the phenomena seen in this tendency of emotionsinhibited at one point to seek other outlets are too complex to beexplained on the basis of conditioned reflex responses. All that we cansay at present is that too great emotional pressure is drained offthrough whatever channel environmental and hereditary factors makepossible. [8] This vicarious mode of expression may become habitual, however, and interfere with a return to natural activities in a manneranalogous to that in which the development of the erotic fetish oftenprevents the normal reaction to the original stimulus. 

Because the conditioned emotional reactions and substitutions ofvicarious motor outlets take place at neurological and physiologicallevels outside the realm of consciousness, they are called unconsciousactivities of the organism. There are many other unconscious factorswhich also modify the sex life of the human individual. The mostfundamental of these are the impressions and associations of the infancyperiod, which may well be classed as conditioned reflex mechanisms, butare sufficiently important to receive separate consideration. 

It is generally conceded by students of child psychology that the socialreactions of the child are conditioned by the home environment in whichthe earliest and most formative years of its life are passed. It is notsurprising, therefore, that the ideal of the opposite sex which the boyor girl forms at this time should approximate the mother or father, since they are the persons best loved and most frequently seen. Theideals thus established in early childhood are very often theunconscious influences which determine the choice of a mate in adultlife. Or the devotion to the parent may be so intense as to prevent thetransference of the love-life to another person and thus entirelyprohibit the entrance upon the marital relation. Elida Evans has givensome very convincing cases in illustration of these points in her recentbook, "The Problem of the Nervous Child. "[2]

On the other hand, in those unfortunate cases where the father or motheris the object of dislike, associations may be formed which will be sopersistent as to prevent the normal emotional reaction to the oppositesex in later years. This, too, results in the avoidance of marriage andthe establishment of vicarious outlets for the sexual emotions, or lessoften in homosexual attachments or perversions of the sex life. Conditioned emotional reactions such as these play a dominant role inthe social problem of sex, as will become apparent in succeedingchapters. 

In addition to the influences which naturally act to condition theoriginal sexual endowment of the individual, there are artificial forceswhich still further qualify it. The system of taboo control whichsociety has always utilized in one form or another as a means ofregulating the reproductive activities of its members, has set uparbitrary ideals of masculinity and femininity to which each man andwoman must conform or else forfeit social esteem. The feminine standardthus enforced has been adequately described in Part II of this study. DrHinkle has also described this approved feminine type, as well as thecontrasting masculine ideal which embodies the qualities of courage, aggressiveness, and other traditional male characteristics. From herpsychoanalytic practice, Dr Hinkle concludes that men and women do notin reality conform to these arbitrarily fixed types by native biologicalendowment, but that they try to shape their reactions in harmony withthese socially approved standards in spite of their innate tendencies tovariation. [4]

The same conclusion might be arrived at theoretically on the grounds ofthe recent biological evidence of intersexuality discussed in Part I, which implies that there are no absolute degrees of maleness andfemaleness. If there are no 100% males and females, it is obvious thatno men and women will entirely conform to ideals of masculine andfeminine perfection. 

In addition to the imposition of these arbitrary standards ofmasculinity and femininity, society has forced upon its membersconformity to a uniform and institutionalized type of sexualrelationship. This institutionalized and inflexible type of sexualactivity, which is the only expression of the sexual emotion meetingwith social approval, not only makes no allowance for biologicalvariations, but takes even less into account the vastly complex andexceedingly different conditionings of the emotional reactions of theindividual sex life. The resulting conflict between the individualdesires and the standards imposed by society has caused a great deal ofdisharmony in the psychic life of its members. The increasing number ofdivorces and the modern tendency to celibacy are symptomatic of thecumulative 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 ofAbnormal 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 dePsychologie, 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 assumptionthat _all_ women are adapted to as well as specialized for reproduction;Neurotic tendencies which unfit women for marriage--the desire fordomination; Sexual anæsthesia another neurotic trait which interfereswith marital harmony; The conditioning of the sexual impulse to theparent ideal and the erotic fetish as factors which determine mating;Homosexual tendencies and their part in the sex problem; The conflictbetween the desire for marriage and egoistic ambitions; The socialregulations from the viewpoint of individual psychology. 

The institutionalized forms of social control into which the old sextaboos have developed impose upon all members of the group a uniformtype of sexual relationship. These socially enforced standards whichgovern the sex life are based upon the assumption that men and womenconform closely to the masculine and feminine ideals of tradition. Theemphasis is much more strongly placed on feminine conformity, however;a great many sexual activities are tolerated in the male that would beunsparingly condemned in the female. Thus the sex problem becomes inlarge measure a woman's problem, not only because of her peculiarbiological specialization for reproduction, which involves an enormousresponsibility but also because her life has for so many generationsbeen hedged in by rigid institutionalized taboos and prohibitions. 

The traditional conception of marriage and the family relation impliesthat all women are adapted to as well as specialized for motherhood. Inreality, if the biological evidence of intersexuality be as conclusiveas now appears, there are many women who by their very nature are muchbetter adapted to the activities customarily considered as pre-eminentlymasculine, although they are still specialized for childbearing. Thereis no statistical evidence of any high correlation between the sexualand maternal impulses. Indeed, a great many traits of human behaviourseem to justify the inference that these two tendencies may often beentirely dissociated in the individual life. Dr Blair Bell (as noted inPart I, Chapter III) believes that it is possible to differentiate womenpossessing a maternal impulse from those lacking such tendencies by thevery anatomical structure. It is obvious that a woman endowed with astrong erotic nature requires a kind of sexual relationship differentfrom one whose interests are predominantly in her children. And both thesexual and maternal types require different situations than the womanwho combines the two instincts in her own personality for a normalexpression of their emotional life. 

According to social tradition, sexual activity (at least in the case ofwomen) is to be exercised primarily for the reproduction of the group. Thus the institutions of marriage and the family in their present formprovide only for the woman who possesses both the sexual and maternalcravings. Contraceptive knowledge has enabled a small number of women(which is rapidly growing larger) to fit into these institutions inspite of their lack of a desire for motherhood. There have been a fewhardy theorists who have braved convention to the extent of suggestingthe deliberate adoption of unmarried motherhood by women who areconsumed by the maternal passion but have no strongly erotic nature. Whether their problem will be solved in this manner, only the course ofsocial evolution in the future can show. 

Besides the differences in natural instinctive tendencies which make itdifficult for many women to fit into a uniform type of sexualrelationship, modern society, with its less rigid natural selection, has permitted the survival of many neurotic temperaments which findmarriage a precarious venture. The neurotic constitution, as Adler[1, 2]has pointed out, is an expression of underlying structural or functionalorganic deficiency. It is a physiological axiom that whenever one organof the body, because of injury, disease, etc. , becomes incapable ofproperly discharging its functions, its duties are taken over by someother organ or group of organs. This process of organic compensation, whereby deficiency in one part of the body is atoned for by additionallabours of other parts, necessarily involves the nervous mechanism inways which need not be discussed in detail here. 

In children the process of compensation, with its formation of newnervous co-ordinations, is manifest in the inability to cope with theircompanions who have a better biological endowment. This gives rise to afeeling of inferiority from which the child tries to free itself byevery possible means, ordinarily by surpassing in the classroom theplaymates whom it cannot defeat on the playground. The feeling ofinferiority continues throughout life, however, although the mechanismof physiological compensation may have become so perfected that thefunctioning of the organism is quite adequate to the needs of theenvironment. As a result, the ruling motive of the conduct becomes thedesire to release the personality from this torturing sense of inabilityby a constant demonstration of the power to control circumstances or todominate associates. 

This abnormal will to power finds expression in the marital relationshipin the desire for supremacy over the mate. The domineering husband is afamiliar figure in daily life. The wife who finds it more difficult torule her husband by sheer mastery achieves the same ends by developing afit of hysterical weeping or having a nervous headache when denied herown way in family affairs. 

By far the easiest way for the woman to satisfy her craving for power isthe development of an interesting illness which makes her the centre ofattention. The history of nervous disease furnishes many cases ofneurosis where this uncontrollable longing for domination is the chieffactor in the etiology of the illness. It is not at all unusual to meetwives who hold their husbands subservient to every whim because of"delicate nervous organizations" which are upset at the slightestthwarting of their wishes so that they develop nervous headaches, nervous indigestion, and many other kinds of sickness unless theirpreferences meet with the utmost consideration. This tendency oftenbecomes a chronic invalidism, which, at the same time that it bringsthe longed-for attention, incapacitates the individual for sexual andmaternal activities and makes the married life an abnormal and unhappyone. 

Another more or less neurotic trait which acts as a cause of disharmonyin the marital relationship is the sexual anæsthesia which is not at alluncommon in modern women. The absence of any erotic passion is held tobe a matter of physiological makeup by many authorities, but it isprobably more often due to the inhibition of natural tendencies inaccordance with concepts built up by social tradition. In order tounderstand how social suggestion can have so powerful an effect upon thereactions of the individual, we must revert once more to the principlesof behaviouristic psychology. 

According to Watson, [4] whenever the environmental factors are such thata direct expression of an emotion cannot occur, the individual has tohave recourse to implicit motor attitudes. The best example in everydaylife is probably seen in the case of anger, which can seldom bepermitted to find an outlet in the natural act of striking, etc. It isapparent, however, in the facial expression and in a certain muscularposture which can best be described as a "defiant" attitude. Anothergood example is the submissive attitude which often accompanies theemotion of fear. It is manifest in shrinking, avoiding movements, sometimes of the whole body, but more often of the eyes or some otherspecial organ. 

"In the sphere of love, " Watson remarks, "there are numerous attitudesas 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 therange of stimuli to which the person is sensitive. The attitude of shameconcerning their sexual functions, which has been impressed upon womenas a result of ages of thinking in harmony with taboo standards, thus isable to prevent the normal biological response to a situation whichshould call out the emotions of love. In women who have an unstablenervous system this shameful feeling often results in a definitephysiological shrinking from the physical manifestations of sexualityand renders the individual insensitive to all erotic stimulation. 

This attitude of shame in connection with the love life came intoexistence as a socially conditioned emotional reaction set up under theinfluence of the traditional ideal of the "model woman" who was picturedas a being of unearthly purity and immaculacy. It has been passed onfrom generation to generation through an unconscious conditioning of thedaughter's attitude by suggestion and imitation to resemble that of themother. Thus it happens that although an increasing amount of liberty, both social and economic, and a more rational and scientificunderstanding of the womanly nature, have quite revoked this ideal intheory, in actual practice it still continues to exert its inhibitoryand restrictive influence. 

Because the standardized family relationship involves so much moreradical a readjustment in the life of woman than of man, it has almostalways been the feminine partner who has taken refuge in neuroticsymptoms in order to escape the difficulties of the situation. After themarriage ceremony, the man's life goes on much as before, so far as hissocial activities are concerned, but woman takes up the new dutiesconnected with the care of the home and her child-bearing functions. Moreover, the sexual life of woman is in many ways more complex thanthat of man. She has been subjected to more repressions and inhibitions, and as a result there has been more modification of her emotionalreactions in the field of love. This greater complexity of her love lifemakes adaptation to marriage more problematical in the case of woman. 

Although the neurotic tendencies of modern women have been an importantfactor for the production of disharmony in the family life, there arecertain variations of the individual sex life which are more universallysignificant. The conditioned emotional reactions which environmentalinfluences have built up around the sexual impulse of each member ofsociety invariably determine the choice of the mate and give rise toextremely complicated problems by the very nature of the selectiveprocess. It is largely a matter of chance whether the mate chosen inaccordance with the ideals of romantic love and because of somefascinating trait which acts as an erotic fetish or in conformity with aparental fixation will prove a congenial companion through life. 

But the complexity of the situation lies in the fact that the eroticimpulses may become conditioned to respond to an indefinite number ofsubstituted stimuli. For example, the parental fixation may becomereconditioned by focussing upon some special characteristic of thefather or mother, which becomes an erotic fetish. If the mate isselected on the basis of this fetishistic attraction, he (or she) mayprove to be so unlike the parent in other respects as to lose all theaffection which was originally inspired. A concrete illustration ofthese conflicting emotional reactions is the case of the girl whodeclared that she feared her fiancé as much as she loved him, but feltthat she must marry him nevertheless. An investigation showed that heralmost compulsive feeling about her lover was due to the fact that hisgestures and manner of regarding her, in fact his whole bearing, reminded her of her dead father, while in other respects he was totallyrepugnant to her because his character traits were so far removed fromthose of her father ideal. 

The conflict between the parental ideal and other phases of the sexualimpulse 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 lifeof her children, so that the son's fixation upon her is necessarily moreintense than the daughter's affection for the father. Yet on the otherhand, the sexual desire of the male is more easily aroused than that ofthe female, and is more apt to centre upon some member of the oppositesex who possesses certain physical attractiveness but is not at all likethe mother ideal. Thus it happens that men often enshrine on theirhearthstone the woman who approximates the worshipped mother, while theyseek satisfaction for their erotic needs outside the home. In otherwords, in the masculine psyche there is often a dissociation of thesexual impulse in its direct manifestations and the sentiment of love inits more idealistic aspects. This partially explains the fact that itis possible for a man to be "unfaithful" to his wife while actuallyloving her devotedly all the time. 

A different solution of the unconscious conflict between the motherfixation and the sexual desires at lower levels is seen in those casesin which the man impulsively marries the woman who has this transientattraction for him. When the first passion of such an alliance has wornaway, there is no lasting bond to take its place, and the man must findsolace in some such way as an intimate friendship with a woman whorecalls the maternal impressions of his childhood. A famous example ofthis is found in the beautiful affection of Auguste Comte for hisidolized Clotilde de Vaux. Although Comte was bound to a woman whom hehad married in the flush of erotic desire and whom he found entiretyuncongenial, Clotilde became the inspiration of his later life, and heldhis affection without the aid of any material bond because she soclosely 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 ofloved, is as unfortunate as the choice of a partner who is utterlyunlike a beloved father or mother. Indeed, when all the possiblecomplications are clearly visualized, taking into account the numerousways in which the sexual emotions can be modified, it is plain thatthese unconscious factors which determine the choice of a mate are notalways conducive to a happy married life. 

Quite recently the tendency to homosexuality has been emphasized as animportant factor in the psychological problem of sex. At theInternational Conference of Medical Women (New York, 1919) it was statedthat homosexual fixations among women are a frequent cause of femalecelibacy 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, itis probable that by far the largest part is due to a conditioning of thesexual impulse by the substitution of members of the same sex as theerotic stimulus in place of the normal response to the opposite sex. 

This substitution is facilitated by certain facts in the social life ofwomen. The frequent lack of opportunity to be with men during adolescentschool days, and a certain amount of taboo on male society for theunmarried woman, are in direct favour of the establishment of homosexualreactions. There is also an increasing sex antagonism, growing out ofwoman's long struggle for the privilege of participating in activitiesand sharing prerogatives formerly limited to men, which acts as aninhibitory force to prevent the transference of the sexual emotion toits normal object in the opposite sex. Moreover, the entrance of womaninto a manner of living and lines of activity which have heretofore beenexclusively masculine, has brought out certain character traits which inother times would have been repressed as incompatible with the socialstandards of feminine conduct, but which are conducive to the formationof homosexual attachments, since the qualities admired in men can now befound also in women. 

In this connection the term _homosexuality_ is used very loosely todenote any type of emotional fixation upon members of the same sex whichis strong enough to prevent a normal love life with some individual ofthe opposite sex. Among American women, at least, this tendency isseldom expressed by any gross physical manifestations, but often becomesan 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 beconsidered in any inclusive attempt to explain the homosexual attachmentof women. The woman who, on account of lack of attraction for men or forany other reason, is denied the normal functioning of the love life inmarriage, is forced to find some other expression for her eroticemotions, and it is only natural that she should find it in an affectionfor other women. Again, the voluntary celibacy of a large class ofmodern women, who prefer to retain their economic independence ratherthan to enter into family life, also necessitates finding vicariousemotional activities. Whenever their work throws a number of these womeninto constant association, it is almost inevitable that homosexualattachments will spring up. 

We meet all these types of homosexual fixations in daily life. Thecollege girl who is isolated from men for four years has her sworncomrade among the girls, and is sure that she will never marry but willlove her chum always. Very often it is some time after she leavescollege before she begins to take an interest in male companionship. Theyoung professional woman looks up to the older woman in her line of workwith the same admiration for her courage and brilliancy that used to bereserved for the husband alone in the days when women were permittedonly a strictly feminine education and occupation. The business womanrefuses to give up her high salaried position for marriage, and consolesherself with her feminine friends. These are the common manifestationscharacteristic of female homosexuality. As has been suggested, the termis loosely applied to such cases as these, but the tendency of recentpsychological literature is to consider them as highly sublimatedexpressions of this tendency. 

As has been intimated, the modern woman who has entered into theeconomic competition is often reluctant to abandon this activity for theresponsibilities of wifehood and motherhood, which involve a withdrawalfrom the business world. Just as the materialistic rewards of economicactivities often prove more attractive than the emotional satisfactionsof family life, so, too, the intellectual ambitions of the professionalwoman may deter her from the exercise of her reproductive functions. Thus the egoistic and individualistic tendencies which modern socialorganization fosters in the personality of its feminine members makesthem unwilling to sacrifice their ambitious plans in the performance oftheir natural biological functions. 

In the present speeding up of competition, the entrance upon family lifebecomes almost as burdensome to man as to woman, although in a differentmanner. Free as he is from the biological responsibilities connectedwith childbearing which fall to a woman's lot, he finds the economicresponsibilities which the care of children entails equally grilling. His choice of a profession can no longer be decided by his ownpreferences, but must be determined by the economic returns. He cannever afford to sacrifice financial gain for personal recognition, because of his obligation to provide for his family. Thus it happensthat marriage often presents a situation in which no outlet for personalambitions is possible and the egoistic desires and emotions must besternly repressed. There is therefore an increasing hesitancy on thepart of the men of to-day to assume responsibilities so grave andinvolving so much personal sacrifice. 

It is evident from even such a casual inquiry as this, that there aremany facts of individual psychology which have not been taken intoaccount by society in the development of the mores which govern thesexual relationships of its members. The traditional institution of thefamily, which would shape all women into model wives and mothers, hasneglected to consider the fact that not all women are biologicallyadapted for these particular activities. The choice of a mate which isdetermined by irrational and unconscious motives may or may not prove tobe a wise selection, as we have seen in the course of our discussion. Most significant of all for the social problem of sex, is theoverwhelming tendency to individuation which is making both men andwomen frankly question whether marriage and parenthood are worth whilewhen they involve so much personal sacrifice. 

From the viewpoint of psychology, we may briefly summarize the wholesituation by saying that society has imposed upon its members a uniformand inflexible type of sexual relationships and reproductive activitieswith a total disregard of individual differences in its demand forconformity to these traditions. When the infinite number of variationsand modifications possible in the sexual life of different individualsis taken into consideration, it is obvious that there must be a certaindisharmony between personal inclinations and social standards. Becausethe power of the group control is very great, its members usuallyrepress emotions which are not in accord with its regulations, and shapetheir conduct to meet with its approval. If such a restriction of thepersonality and emotional life of the individual is necessary for thewelfare of the whole race and for social progress, its existence isentirely justified. It is our next task, therefore, to determine in whatrespects a rigid and irrational social control is conducive to humanbetterment, 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 PsychicCompensation. 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 ASOCIAL THERAPY

Mating determined by unconscious psychological motives instead ofeugenic considerations; Some of the best male and female stock refusingmarriage and parenthood; The race is reproduced largely by the inferiorand average stocks and very little by the superior stock; As atherapeutic measure, society should utilize psychological knowledge as anew method of control; Romantic love and conjugal love--a new ideal oflove; The solution of the conflict between individual and groupinterests. 

From the viewpoint of group welfare, the present psychological situationof human reproductive activities undoubtedly has its detrimentalaspects. As we have seen, the choice of a mate is determined byirrational motives which lie far below the levels of consciousness. These unconscious factors which govern sexual selection far outweigh themore rational considerations of modern eugenic thought. The marks ofpersonal beauty around which romantic love centres and which thereforeplay a prominent part in mating are not necessarily indicative ofphysical and mental health that will insure the production of soundoffspring. The modern standards of beauty (at least in so far asfeminine loveliness is concerned) have gone far from the ancient Greciantype of physical perfection. Influenced perhaps by the chivalric idealsof "the lady, " the demand is rather for a delicate and fragileprettiness which has come to be regarded as the essence of femininity. The robust, athletic girl must preserve this "feminine charm" in themidst of her wholesome outdoor life, else she stands in great danger oflosing her erotic attraction. 

Surface indications of the truth of this statement are easilydiscovered. The literature which before the war ran riot with athleticheroines pictured them with wind-blown hair and flushed cheeks receivingthe offer of their male companion's heart and hand. The golf course orthe summer camp was simply a charming new setting for the development ofthe eternal love theme. Even fashion has conspired to emphasize thefeminine charm of the girl who goes in for sports, as a glance at themodels of bathing costumes, silken sweaters, and graceful "sport" skirtsplainly reveals. 

Just as the love which is directed in accordance with an emotionalreaction conditioned to respond to some erotic fetishism or to a parentideal may be productive of individual unhappiness, so it is alsoentirely 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 doesnot conform to eugenic ideals as upon one who does. The mate selectedupon the basis of these unconscious motives is very likely to bequeath aneurotic constitution or an otherwise impaired physical organism to theoffspring of the union, since those possibilities were not taken intoconsideration in making the choice. 

It becomes apparent that while certain forces in the life of theindividual and in the social inheritance have united to condition theemotional reactions of the sex life, these conditionings have not alwaysbeen for the benefit of the race. Indeed, it would almost seem thatsociety has been more concerned with the manner of expression of thelove life in the individual members than in its effects upon the nextgeneration. In its neglect or ignorance of the significance ofartificial modifications of the emotions, it has permitted certaindysgenic influences to continue in the psychic life of generation aftergeneration, regarding with the utmost placidity a process of sexualselection determined by irrational and irresponsible motives. 

The most potent dysgenic influence in the present phase of the sexproblem is the conflict between the interests of the individual and thegroup regulations. The traditional type of marriage and family life hasa cramping effect upon the personal ambitions which lessens itsattractiveness materially. The enterprising young business orprofessional man has no desire to restrict his opportunities by theassumption of the responsibilities that accompany family life. He mustbe free to stake all his resources on some favourable speculationwithout the thought that he cannot take chances on impoverishing hiswife and children. Or if he has professional aspirations, he must beable to take the long difficult pathway of scientific research with noanxiety about the meagre salary that is insufficient for the support ofa home. Thus the most vital and aggressive male stocks as well as themost highly intelligent tend to avoid the hampering effects of familylife, and their qualities are often lost to the next generation, sinceeven if they marry they will feel that they cannot afford offspring. 

As women enter more and more into the competition for economic andsocial rewards, this becomes equally applicable in their case. Indeed, it would be strange were there not an even greater tendency to shun theties of family life on the part of ambitious women than of men, sinceit involves greater sacrifices in their case on account of theirbiological specialization for motherhood. It appears, therefore, that weare losing the best parental material for the coming generations on boththe paternal and maternal sides. Thus the conflict between the egoisticdesires and the social institution of the family is segregating justthose energetic, successful individuals from whom the race of the futureshould spring if we hope to reproduce a social organism capable ofsurvival in the inter-group struggle. 

If it be true that the best stock, both male and female, for variousreasons refuses to assume the duty of reproduction, the group willnecessarily be replaced from individuals of average and inferior (butnot superior) eugenic value. Even within these limits there is atpresent no conscious eugenic selection, and the irrational andunconscious motives which govern sexual selection at the present timemay induce the choice of a mate from among the weaker individuals. Onceagain it becomes a matter of chance whether or not the matings prove tobe for the welfare of the group and of the race. 

It might be contended that the very fact that certain individualswithdraw from reproductive activities is sufficient proof of their lackof normal emotional reactions adapting them to the performance of thosefunctions. But a clearer insight shows that the group standards permitthe exercise of the reproductive activities only in accord witharbitrary regulations which have coalesced in the institutions ofmarriage and the family. These institutions have been developed to fit adefinite ideal of manhood and womanhood which grew up out of a manner ofthinking in accord with taboo control and ignorant superstitions ratherthan in harmony with the actual facts of the situation. Now that we arefacing reality and trying to rationalize our thinking, we find that thevariation from these masculine and feminine ideals does not necessarilyimply biological or psychological abnormality, since the ideals werethemselves established without reference to biological and psychologicaldata. 

The traditional marriage and family arrangement tends to enforce aselection of individuals who conform most nearly to these artificialtypes as parents for the succeeding generations. It is not at allcertain that such a selection is advantageous to the group. It wouldseem rather that in so complex a social system as that of the presentday with its increasing division of labour on other than purely sexualdistinctions, we need a variety of types of individuals adapted to thevaried activities of modern life. 

If society is to successfully meet the present situation it mustutilize its psychological insight to remedy conditions which areobviously dysgenic and detrimental to the welfare of the race. If theegoistic and highly individualized modern man and woman are induced tosacrifice personal ambitions in the interests of reproduction, forinstance, it will only be because society has learned to turn those sameegoistic impulses to its own ends. This will never be accomplished bythe forces of tradition or by any such superimposed method of control asconscription for parenthood. There is too much of a spirit of freedomand individual liberty in the social mind to-day for any such measure tomeet with success. The same spirit of freedom which formerly burst thebonds of superstition and entered into the world of science is now asimpatient of restraint of its emotional life as it formerly was ofrestriction of its intellectual search for the truth. 

Therefore society can no longer depend upon taboo standards crystallizedinto institutionalized forms as a means of control. It must appeal tomore rational motives if it expects to have any degree of influence overits most intelligent and energetic members. Only when the production ofeugenic offspring brings the same social approval and reward that ismeted out for other activities will the ineradicable and irrespressibleegoistic desires that now prevent individuals from assuming theresponsibilities of family life be enlisted in the very cause to whichthey are now so hostile. When the same disapproval is manifested for theshirking of reproductive activities by the eugenically fit that is nowdirected toward lack of patriotism in other lines, the number ofvoluntary celibates in society will be materialy decreased. 

The greatest triumph of society in the manipulation of the sexual andreproductive life of its members will come when it is able to conditionthe emotional reaction of the individual by the substitution of theeugenic ideal for the parental fixation and to focus the sentiment ofromantic love upon eugenic traits. When this is accomplished, theselection of the mate will at least be favourable for racialregeneration even if individual disharmonies are not entirelyeliminated. That there are great difficulties in the way of thisaccomplishment may be admitted at the outset. The conditioned responsesto be broken down and replaced are for the most part formed in earlychildhood, and have had a long period in which to become firmlyimpressed upon the organism. But psychological experiments have proventhat even the best established conditioned reactions can be broken downand others substituted in their place, so that the situation is not sohopeless. When we recollect that for ages the traditional ideals ofmasculinity and femininity have been conditioning the emotional life ofmen and women to respond to their requirements with a remarkable degreeof success, there is ground for the belief that the same forces ofsuggestion and imitation may be turned to more rational ends andutilized as an effective means of social therapy. 

If we are to have a more rationalized form of social control, then, itwill undoubtedly take into consideration the necessity of forming thesocially desirable conditionings of the emotional life. The importanceof the emotional reactions for social progress has been very wellsummarized by Burgess, who says that emotion can be utilized forbreaking down old customs and establishing new ones, as well as for theconservation of the mores. Society can largely determine around whatstimuli the emotions can be organized, this author continues, and thegroup has indeed always sought to control the stimuli impinging upon itsmembers. One policy has been to eliminate objectionable stimuli, as inthe outlawing of the saloon. The other is to change the nature of theaffective response of the individual to certain stimuli in theenvironment where the natural or organic responses would be at variancewith conduct considered socially desirable. [3]

Modern psychological knowledge enables us to understand the mechanismof this last method of social control as the building up of theconditioned emotional response. If our civilization is to endure it mustlearn to apply this method of control to the sex life of the individualso that reproduction will fall to the lot of the most desirable eugenicstock instead of being left to the workings of chance as it is at thepresent time. 

From the viewpoint of individual psychology, one of the principalproblems of the erotic life is to find a smooth transition from theromantic love of the courtship period to the less ethereal emotions ofthe married state. Indirectly, this is also socially significant, because of the overwhelming effect of the home environment in shapingthe reactions of the next generation. As a rule, only the children whohave grown up in a happy and wholesome atmosphere of sincere parentalcomradeship and affection can have an entirely sane and healthy reactionto their own erotic functions in later years. 

Although romantic love in its present expression may often lead touncongenial marriages and even involve dysgenic mating, its æsthetic andrefining influences are such as to make it desirable in spite of thesedrawbacks. Its influence upon literature has been noted by Bloch[2]while its potency in the formation of a deep and tender feeling betweenmen and women has been elaborately discussed by Finck. [4] Thus it isevident that its individual and social advantages more than balance itsdisadvantages. 

Unfortunately, with the entrance into the marital relationship and therelease of the erotic emotion into natural channels so that it no longerseeks the vicarious outlets which were partly supplied in theidealization of the lovers, there is a tendency for this romanticelement to fade from their affection. The conjugal affection whichreplaces it is built on quite other foundations. It is not composed ofday dreams about the beloved, but is wrought out of mutual interests, ofjoys and sorrows shared together, of the pleasure of unrestrictedcompanionship, and of the common care of offspring. The danger lies inthe possibility that these foundations for conjugal love will not havebeen lain by the time that romantic sentiments begin to grow dim. It isthis crisis in the married life which seems disappointing in theafterglow of the engagement and honeymoon. 

Of late there have been attempts to build up a new conception of lovewhich shall incorporate the best features of romantic love and at thesame time make the transition to the conjugal affection less difficult. This new conception has grown up through the increasing freedom ofwomen and the constant association of the sexes in the educational andbusiness world as well as in the social life. This free companionship ofmen and women has done much to destroy the illusions about each otherwhich were formerly supposed to be so necessary a component of romanticlove, but it has also created the basis for a broader sympathy and adeeper comradeship which is easily carried over into the marriedrelation. 

The new ideal of love which is being thus developed combines completeunderstanding and frankness with erotic attraction and the tenderness ofromanticism. It implies a type of marital relationship in which there ispreservation of the personality and at the same time a harmony and unionof interests that was often absent from the old-fashioned marriage, whenthe wife was supposed to be more limited in her interests than herhusband. It may well be that the evolution of this new ideal of love, which grants personal autonomy even within the marriage bond, will solvea great deal of the present conflict between the individualisticimpulses and the exercise of the erotic functions as permitted by thegroup. 

It is, of course, an open question as to how far the interests of theindividual and the group can be made to coincide. Group survival demandsthat the most vital and intelligent members shall be those to carry onthe reproductive functions. Therefore from the social viewpoint, it isquite justified in setting up the machinery of social approval and inestablishing emotional attitudes by this means that will insure thatthis takes place. On the other hand, it may be that the individuals whowill be thus coerced will be as rebellious against new forms of socialcontrol as they are restless under the present methods of restraint. 

If we free ourselves from a manner of thinking induced by inhibitionsdeveloped through ages of taboo control, and look at the problemrationally, we must admit that the chief interest of society would be inthe eugenic value of the children born into it. At the present time, however, the emphasis seems to be chiefly upon the manner of birth, thatis, the principal concern is to have the parents married in thecustomary orthodox fashion. Only in view of the necessities of therecent war have the European nations been forced to wipe out the stainof illegitimacy, and in America we are still blind to this necessity. Only Scandinavia, under the leadership of such minds as Ellen Key's, wasroused to this inconsistency in the mores without external pressure, andenacted legislation concerning illegitimacy which may well serve as amodel to the whole world. The main points of the Norwegian Castberg billare as follows: The child whose parents are unmarried has a right tothe surname of the father, and the right of inheritance from apropertied father; the court has full power to clear up the paternity ofthe child; the man is held responsible for the child's support even ifother men are known to have had intercourse with the mother. In order todiscourage immorality in women for the purpose of blackmailing wealthymen, the mother is also compelled to contribute to the child'ssupport. [1]

No psychologist of discernment, in insisting on eugenic standards ratherthan a marriage certificate as the best criterion for parenthood wouldencourage any tendency to promiscuous mating. The individual sufferinginvolved in such a system of sexual relationships would be too great topermit its universal adoption even if it should be found to have nodeleterious social effects. But the very fact that transient mating doesinvolve so much human agony, especially on the part of the woman, is allthe more reason why it is needless to add artificial burdens to thosealready compelled by the very nature of the emotional life. 

The study of child psychology, too, would tend to discourage any generaltendency to temporary sexual relationships. Modern research has shownthat nothing is more necessary for the normal development of the child'semotional life than a happy home environment with the presence of bothfather and mother. Only in these surroundings, with the love of bothparents as a part of the childhood experience, can the emotionalreactions of the child be properly conditioned to respond to the socialsituations of adult life. 

In one respect, at least, society can do a great deal to better theexisting situation, and to solve the struggle between the individual andgroup interests. At the same time that it endeavours to set up emotionalresponses that shall be conducive to eugenic mating and to a happy lovelife, as well as for the welfare of the child, it should also leave awide margin of personal liberty for the individuals concerned to workout a type of sexual relationship which is in harmony with their naturalinclinations. The institution of monogamy is too deeply founded in theneeds of the individual and of the child to suffer from this increase infreedom and responsibility. Were it so frail a thing as to need theprotection of the church and state as well as public opinion to insureits survival, it would be so little adapted to the needs of humanitythat it might better disappear. 

There are no indications that there would be any wider deviation fromthe monogamous relationship were variations frankly recognized that nowtake place in secret. By its present attitude, society is notaccomplishing its purpose and preventing all sexual relationships exceptthose which conform to its institutionalized standards. It is merelyforcing what should be always the most dignified of human relationshipsinto the shamefulness of concealment and furtiveness. Moreover, becauseit visits its wrath on the child born of unions which are not strictlyconventionalized, it prevents the birth of children from mothers whomight be of great eugenic value, but whom fear of social disapprovalkeeps from the exercise of their maternal functions but not of theirsexual activities. 

In the final analysis, it will probably be demonstrated that for acertain type of personality there can be no compromise which willresolve the conflict between the egoistic inclinations and the interestsof the group. For those whose deepest desires are so out of harmony withthe social life of the times there is no alternative but to sacrificetheir personal desires or to forfeit the pleasure of feeling in completerapport with their fellows. In such natures, the ultimate course ofconduct will be determined by the relative strengths of theindividualistic and gregarious impulses, other things being equal. Insome instances this will mean the choice of a line of conduct out ofharmony with the general trend of group life; in others, it will meanthe repression of personal inclinations and conformity to socialstandards. 

For the majority of people, however, it is likely that a more rationalform of social control, freed from the long ages of taboo restrictions, and based upon accurate biological and psychological knowledge, willsolve the disharmony between the individual and the group to a greatextent. Such a rationalization will take into account the value of a newideal of love which shall be built up from a sane relationship betweenthe sexes and in accordance with eugenic standards. It will also grant agreat deal of personal autonomy in the determination of sexualrelationships in so far as this can be correlated with the welfare ofthe children of the race. Last of all, it will attempt to condition theemotional reactions to respond to stimuli which shall insure eugenicmating naturally and without the intervention of legislation. 

Unless modern civilization can set up some such form of rational controlfor the sexual and reproductive life of its members, the presentconflict between individuation and socialization will continue and thedysgenic factors now operative in society will steadily increase. In theend, this internal conflict may become so powerful as to act as anirresistible disintegrating force that will shatter the fabric of modernsocial organization. Only the evolution of a rationalized method ofcontrol 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.