Part 17 (1/2)

At all periods in the history of civilized races, pathology has also led to extra-conjugal s.e.xual intercourse. Here, h.o.m.os.e.xual love in general, and love of boys or pediastry, has always played the princ.i.p.al part. We shall speak of this in Chapter VIII. Among the Hebrews, Persians, Etruscans, and especially the Greeks, it was held in high esteem. The Greek philosophers regarded it as based on an ideal h.o.m.os.e.xual love, and not as a vile form of prost.i.tution. Solon, Aristides, Sophocles, Phidias, and Socrates were strongly suspected of h.o.m.os.e.xual practices, and they regarded this form of love as superior to the normal love of woman. Lesbian love, and other s.e.xual aberrations, such as sadism, have also played a historical role, as we shall see.

CONCLUSIONS

Primitive human marriage was probably of short duration; when man later on became carnivorous, and had to obtain food for his children by hunting, s.e.xual unions a.s.sumed a more constant character. It is not the cla.s.s or the tribe, but the family which const.i.tuted the primitive social condition of man, a condition in which marriage was a heritage from ”pithecomorphous” ancestors, _i.e._, related to monkeys.

Free s.e.xual intercourse before marriage and frequent changes in the latter were then no doubt very common, but true promiscuity has never been the rule in primitive man.

Patriarchism with its disastrous consequences has been the result of the preponderance of male power. In a higher degree of civilization this preponderance has produced marriage by purchase and polygamy. The barbarous form of the latter is now decreasing.

A true higher culture leads gradually to durable love based on altruism and ethics, _i.e._, a relative and free monogamy.

The development of marriage in civilization has gradually increased the rights of woman, and marriage contracts tend more and more in their modern forms to stipulate for complete equality of rights for both s.e.xes. As Westermark says: ”The history of human marriage is the history of a union in which women have gradually triumphed over the pa.s.sions, prejudices and egoism of men.” The term reemanc.i.p.ation of women is historically more correct than the simple term emanc.i.p.ation, for before the inst.i.tution of marriage, woman was free. Invented by the stronger male when he began to reason, marriage was at first only the servitude of woman. To give her complete liberty, it must be transformed afresh from top to bottom.

APPENDIX

=Influence of the Race on s.e.xual Life.=--If I were an ethnographer I should attempt to establish whether, and in what way, racial differences affect the s.e.xual life of man; but the question is so delicate that it would require a skilled specialist to settle it. With the exception of the pages dealing with the history of extra-conjugal intercourse, the statements in this chapter are based on the work of Westermark. The chief difficulty consists in separating, in the customs of each race, that which arises from habit and historical tradition from that which depends on more or less specific hereditary peculiarities. It is here very easy to fall into error in formulating false conclusions.

A good deal has been said concerning the hot blood of warm climates, and on the whole it appears true that people who inhabit these climates have a more violent and more precocious s.e.xual temperament than those who live in cold regions. But this is not a racial character. The Jews, who have preserved their race unaltered in all climates and under all possible conditions of existence, furnish an object lesson which is particularly appropriate to decide the question. The traits of their character are reflected in their s.e.xual life. Their s.e.xual appet.i.tes are generally strong and their love is distinguished by great family attachment. Their s.e.xual life is also influenced by their mercantile spirit, and we find them everywhere connected with the traffic of women and prost.i.tution. They are not very jealous and are much addicted to concubinage, at the same time remaining affectionate to their wife and family.

The Mongols also lead a very intense s.e.xual life. Among the polyandrous people of Thibet jealousy appears to be completely absent: this may be the result of custom or may be due to phylogenetic instinct. The Mormons, who are descended from monogamous races, confirm the idea that polygamy is not a specific racial character. It would be interesting to study the mixed races of North America from this point of view. At first sight, it seems that the Americanization of customs in the mixture of races of the United States is also extended to s.e.xual life, and that we cannot discover the fundamental differences between the Irish, Scandinavians, French, Germans and Italians who const.i.tute this mixture. But it is possible that this is only a superficial impression, and that a deeper study of the details would lead to another result. One thing appears to be unquestionable in the negro race; that is the violence of its s.e.xual pa.s.sion combined with its mental inferiority.

A striking trait is furnished by the French race which has remained pure in the eastern provinces of Canada, whose s.e.xual customs are very different from those of the present population of France. The French Canadian is extremely pure and chaste, leads a regular life and has a numerous family. Families of fifteen or twenty are not rare among French Canadians. We can here, therefore, observe the effect of climate and custom on a single race. For reasons mentioned above, I shall content myself with a few remarks, but I am certain that a profound study of the question would discover, in the character of the individuals, specific peculiarities of their race which are only marked externally by customs. It is obvious that such characters will be all the more distinct, the more the race differs from its congeners, and the purer its ethnical separation. As among animals, it is necessary to distinguish between slight variations, and races or sub-species which are more constant and more divergent. Hereditary or phylogenetic individual differences must also be distinguished from those of races or varieties.

=Weight of the Brain in Different Races and s.e.xes.=--Bebel has stated that among savages the difference between the brain of the men and women is less than among civilized people. This statement is quite wrong. Prof. Rudolph Martin, of Zurich, has given me statistics of the cranial capacity of the two s.e.xes in different races, drawn from reliable sources. According to Martin the weight of the brain represents about 87 per cent. of the cranial capacity. His table of statistics is given on the opposite page.

These figures show that the difference between the two s.e.xes is always about the same, while the average absolute weight of the brain in the two s.e.xes is lower in the lower races. Reckoning it 87 per cent. of the cranial capacity, it is in the Weddas 1111 grammes for males and 991 grammes for females, which corresponds to the weight of the brains of idiots or general paralytics with us. Martin a.s.sures me that in the Malay peninsula he has found as much difference between the men and women as in Europeans.

According to Martin, men living at the present day may be divided into three cla.s.ses according to their cranial capacity:

MEN. WOMEN.

Aristencephalous (large brains) over 1450 gr. over 1300 gr.

Euencephalous (medium brains) 1300 to 1450. 1150 to 1300.

Oligencephalous (small brains) under 1300. under 1150.

AVERAGE CRANIAL CAPACITY IN DIFFERENT RACES

Men Women Difference {Badois { 48 Craniums m. } 1513 1330 183 { { 26 ” f. } Civilized { {Bavarian {100 ” m. } 1503 1335 168 (11.2 %) { {100 ” f. }

{Malay { 26 ” m. } 1414 1223 191 { { 2 ” f. } Semi-Civilized { {Aino { 87 ” m. } 1462 1308 154 { { 64 ” f. }

Lowest Race { 22 ” m. } 1277 1139 138 (10.8%) Weddas { 10 ” m. }

CHAPTER VII

s.e.xUAL EVOLUTION

The evolution of every living being is twofold. We must distinguish: (1) its _ontogeny_, or the entire cycle of development of the individual from its conception till natural death at an advanced age; (2) its _phylogeny_, or the series of organic forms through which its ancestors pa.s.sed, by successive transformations, from the primitive cells of the oldest and most obscure geological periods, up to its present organization.