Taboo and Genetics Part 11

23. Bingham, Joseph. Antiquities of the Christian Church. 2 vols.

London, 1846.

24. Sumner, W.G. Witchcraft. Forum. Vol. 41, 1909, pp. 410-423.

25. Gaster, M. Two Thousand Years of a Charm Against the Child-stealing Witch. Folklore. Vol. XI, No. 2, June, 1900.

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

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

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

29. Michelet, J. La Sorciere. 488 pp. Paris, 1878. Trans. of Introduction by L.J. Trotter.

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

31. Avebury, Right Hon. Lord (Sir John Lubbock). Marriage, Totemism and Religion. 243 pp. Longmans, Green. London, 1911. Footnote, p. 127.

32. Wood, Wm. Witchcraft. Cornhill Magazine. Vol. V, 1898.

---- Lea, H.C. Superst.i.tion and Force. 407 pp. Philadelphia, 1866.

33. Bragge, F. Jane Wenham. 36 pp. E. Curll. London 1712.

34. Paulus, Nikolaus. Die Rolle der Frau in der Geschichte des Hexenwahns. Historisches Jahrbuch. XXIX Band. Munchen. Jahrgang 1918.

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

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

37. Lady Meux Mss. No. VI. British Museum. The Book of Paradise, being the Histories and Sayings of the Monks and Ascetics of the Egyptian Desert by Palladius, Hieronymus and others. English Trans. by E.A.

Wallis Budge. (From the Syriac.) Vol. I.

38. Gautier, Emile Theodore Leon. La Chevalerie. 850 pp. C. Delagrave.

Paris, 1890.

39. Maulde la Claviere, R. de. The Women of the Renaissance. Trans. by G.H. Ely. 510 pp. Swan Sonnenschein, 1900.

40. McCabe, Joseph. Woman in Political Evolution. Watts & Co. London, 1909.

41. Barnes, Earl. Woman in Modern Society. 257 pp. B.W. Huebsch. N.Y., 1913.

42. Putnam, Emily James. The Lady. 323 pp. Sturgis & Walton Co. N.Y., 1910.

43. Excellent examples of this literature are Kenrick's "The Whole Duty of a Woman, or A Guide to the Female s.e.x," published some time in the eighteenth century (a copy in the Galatea Collection, Boston Public Library); and Duties of Young Women, by E.H. Chapin. 218 pp. G.W.

Briggs. Boston, 1848.

CHAPTER III

THE DUALISM IN MODERN LIFE: THE INSt.i.tUTIONAL TABOO

The taboo and modern inst.i.tutions; Survival of ideas of the uncleanness of woman; Taboo and the family; The "good" woman; The "bad" woman; Increase in the number of women who do not fit into the ancient cla.s.sifications.

With the gradual acc.u.mulation of scientific knowledge and increasing tendency of mankind toward a rationalistic view of most things, it might be expected that the ancient att.i.tude toward s.e.x and womanhood would have been replaced by a saner feeling. To some extent this has indeed been the case. It is surprising, however, to note the traces which the old taboos and superst.i.tions have left upon our twentieth century social life. Men and women are becoming conscious that they live in a world formed out of the worlds that have pa.s.sed away. The underlying principle of this social phenomenon has been called the principle of "the persistence of inst.i.tutions."[1] Inst.i.tutionalized habits, mosaics of reactions to forgotten situations, fall like shadows on the life of to-day. Memories of the woman shunned, of the remote woman G.o.ddess, and of the witch, transmit the ancient forms by which woman has been expected to shape her life.

It may seem a far cry from the savage taboo to the inst.i.tutional life of the present; but the patterns of our social life, like the infantile patterns on which adult life shapes itself, go back to an immemorial past. Back in the early life of the peoples from which we spring is the taboo, and in our own life there are customs so a.n.a.logous to many of these ancient prohibitions that they must be accounted survivals of old social habits just as the vestigial structures within our bodies are the remnants of our biological past.

The modern preaching concerning woman's sphere, for example, is an obvious descendant of the old taboos which enforced the division of labour between the s.e.xes. Just as it formerly was death for a woman to approach her husband's weapons, so it has for a long time been considered a disgrace for her to attempt to compete with man in his line of work. Only under the pressure of modern industrialism and economic necessity has this ancient taboo been broken down, and even now there is some reluctance to recognize its pa.s.sing. The exigencies of the world war have probably done more than any other one thing to accelerate the disappearance of this taboo on woman from the society of to-day.

A modern inst.i.tution reminiscent of the men's house of the savage races, where no woman might intrude, is the men's club. This inst.i.tution, as Mr Webster has pointed out,[2] is a potent force for s.e.xual solidarity and consciousness of kind. The separate living and lack of club activity of women has had much to do with a delay in the development of a s.e.x consciousness and loyalty. The development of women's organizations along the lines of the men's clubs has been a powerful factor in enabling them to overcome the force of the taboos which have lingered on in social life. Only through united resistance could woman ever hope to break down the barriers with which she was shut off from the fullness of life.

Perhaps the property taboo has been as persistent as any other of the restrictions which have continued to surround woman through the ages.

Before marriage, the girl who is "well brought up" is still carefully protected from contact with any male. The modern system of chaperonage is the subst.i.tute for the old seclusion and isolation of the p.u.b.escent girl. Even science was influenced by the old sympathetic magic view that woman could be contaminated by the touch of any other man than her husband, for the principle of telegony, that the father of one child could pa.s.s on his characteristics to offspring by other fathers, lingered in biological teaching until the very recent discoveries of the physical basis of heredity in the chromosomes. Law-making was also influenced by the idea of woman as property. For a long time there was a hesitancy to prohibit wife-beating on account of the feeling that the wife was the husband's possession, to be dealt with as he desired. The laws of coverture also perpetuated the old property taboos, and gave to the husband the right to dispose of his wife's property.

The general att.i.tude towards such s.e.xual crises as menstruation and pregnancy is still strongly reminiscent of the primitive belief that woman is unclean at those times. Mothers still hesitate to enlighten their daughters concerning these natural biological functions, and as a result girls are unconsciously imbued with a feeling of shame concerning them. Modern psychology has given many instances of the rebellion of girls at the inception of menstruation, for which they have been ill prepared. There is little doubt that this att.i.tude has wrought untold harm in the case of nervous and delicately balanced temperaments, and has even been one of the predisposing factors of neurosis.[3]

The old seclusion and avoidance of the pregnant woman still persists.

The embarra.s.sment of any public appearance when pregnancy is evident, the jokes and secrecy which surround this event, show how far we are from rationalizing this function.

Even medical men show the influence of old superst.i.tions when they refuse to alleviate the pains of childbirth on the grounds that they are good for the mother. Authorities say that instruction in obstetrics is sadly neglected. A recent United States report tells us that preventable diseases of childbirth and pregnancy cause more deaths among women than any other disease except tuberculosis.[4]

The belief in the possession by woman of an uncanny psychic power which made her the priestess and witch of other days, has crystallized into the modern concept of womanly intuition. In our times, women "get hunches," have "feelings in their bones," etc., about people, or about things which are going to happen. They are often asked to decide on business ventures or to pa.s.s opinions on persons whom they do not know.

There are shrewd business men who never enter into a serious negotiation without getting their wives' intuitive opinion of the men with whom they are dealing. The psychology of behaviour would explain these rapid fire judgments of women as having basis in observation of unconscious movements, while another psychological explanation would emphasize sensitiveness to suggestion as a factor in the process. Yet in spite of these rational explanations of woman's swift conclusions on matters of importance, she is still accredited with a mysterious faculty of intuition.

A curious instance of the peculiar forms in which old taboos linger on in modern life is the taboos on certain words and on discussion of certain subjects. The ascetic idea of the uncleanness of the s.e.x relation is especially noticeable. A study of 150 girls made by the writer in 1916-17 showed a taboo on thought and discussion among well-bred girls of the following subjects, which they characterize as "indelicate," "polluting," and "things completely outside the knowledge of a lady."

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

2. Things "disgusting," such as bodily functions, normal as well as pathological, and all the implications of uncleanliness.

3. Things uncanny, that "make your flesh creep," and things suspicious.

4. Many forms of animal life which it is a commonplace that girls will fear or which are considered unclean.

5. s.e.x 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.