[CHAPTER XXIII]
SEXUAL MORALITY
The racial interest is also the cause of the double standard of sex-morality of the two sexes. This is best seen by the study of the evolution of sexual morality, or the history of marriage.[DR]
1) In the first stage, the lowest conceivable stage of savagery, when men still lived in hordes, mankind lived in a state of “promiscuous” intercourse like the gregarious animals. All the males of the horde protected the females and their offspring. In the prehuman period, when horde-life was not yet known, the semi-human creatures must have lived in pairs, where every male protected his female and her offspring. Without this protection the race would have died.
2) In the second stage the irregular state was abandoned and the “consanguineous family” developed. It was founded upon intermarriage of brothers and sisters, own or collateral, in a group. Marriage between parents and children, as in the preceding stage, is now decreed immoral and is prohibited.
3) In the third stage the prohibition of intermarriage in the same clan was decreed. Experience has taught even these primitive men that the offspring of consanguineous marriages were often deficient and degenerate. The prohibition of intermarriage in the same clan excluded own brothers and sisters from the marriage relations, or, in other words, incest is now considered immoral. This so-called “punaluan family”[DS] was founded upon intermarriage of several sisters, own or collateral, with each other’s husbands, in a group, the joint husbands not being necessarily kinsmen of each other, but all belonging to other tribes than their joint wives, or of several brothers with each other’s wives, in a group. In this so-called exogamous[DT] marriage each group of men were conjointly married to the group of women. Adultery was as yet unknown. The children, in all these three stages, could only know their mother. Inheritance follows in the female line, and gynocracy or matriarchate, the government by women, prevails. The common mother of the clan is the origin and ruler of the same.
4) In the fourth stage communal marriage is replaced by the “pairing family.” It is founded upon the marriage between single pairs, but without an exclusive cohabitation. The marriage is continued during the pleasure of the parties. Marriage between any relatives is entirely prohibited and considered immoral. Hence marriage in a group is now impossible. Marriage is still exogamous. The male leaves his clan and marries into another clan. When he dies, his personal property, which consisted of his arms and dress, is handed over to his former clan. The main fortune remains in the clan of the wife. The children may now know their father, yet they belong to their mother’s clan. Communistic housekeeping prevails throughout the whole clan. Matriarchate is still in force. The woman is still the undisputed mistress of the house and clan. The males have only to provide the clan with food from day to day, by hunting and fishing, and to fight the clan’s battles in its protection. Property and descent go in the female line, and kinship is counted through the mother.
5) During the fifth stage sources of wealth, hitherto unthought of, develop by the training of animals and the breeding of herds. The males, who have hitherto always been the providers of food for the clan, are consequently the possessors of the herds, which now form the main source of subsistence. Lest with the death of the man, his property, the flocks, should be handed over to the former clan, change of descent from the female to the male line is established. The man is now the ruler. The common ancestor, formerly only the leader in war, is now the head of the clan and manager of its possessions. Apart of the head other leaders were necessary in the frequent wars. The latter become preeminent among the other members of the clan and receive individual allotments from the common wealth of the clan.[DU] With the growth of their influence these allotments ripen finally into individual ownership and are inherited by the children.
6) The progress during the sixth stage was caused by the law of inheritance. Inheritance in the male line requires that the father should know his child. The strictest fidelity of the wife is, therefore, a condition sine qua non, her faithfulness is of the greatest racial importance. The woman no less than the man was interested in female purity, in the interest of her children. This strict fidelity, exacted from the wife by men and women alike, leads to the ‘patriarchal family’ as found in the Bible. It is founded upon the marriage of one man with one or more wives.[DV]
Now, polygamy is a physical impossibility. Where no man or woman remains unmated, general polygyny or polyandry is practically impossible. The number of the two sexes is nearly equal. If infanticide is not practiced (male infanticide has seldom been practiced, except in Egypt, Exod. I, 16), and war captives or slaves are not available, the general public must be content with one mate.[DW] Polygyny in this way led to “monogamy,” founded upon marriage between single couples with an exclusive cohabitation, as is now the rule in most of the civilized nations.
Female chastity.—All the changes in the marriage relations of the sexes were thus made out of altruistic motives, in the interest of the progeny with the sacrifice of personal comfort. Promiscuity, consanguineous marriage, punaluan family, and the pairing family followed each other in the interest of the health of the offspring. The last change to female monogamy was made in the economic interest of the progeny. The husband in sacrificing his own comfort, while providing food and shelter for his children, must be certain that he is the father of these children. Uncertainty would make him negligent, and the existence of the race would be jeopardized.[DX]