[244-8] On the gold coast, people become fathers in their 12th year even, and mothers at 10. (Ritter, Erdkunde, I, 313.) In the whole of the Soudan the climate is so exciting that the intercourse of the sexes is said to be a "physical necessity," and an unmarried man of eighteen is universally despised. But, indeed, the individual is little valued in Africa, on account of the great prolificacy of the African race. (Ritter, I, 385.)
[244-9] Herodot., IV, 26.
[244-10] Compare Machiavelli, at the beginning of his Istoria Fiorentina. The migration of the Germani is accounted for simply by the family and marriage relations of the Germans, which necessarily favored prolificacy: Severa matrimonia ... singulis uxoribus contenti sunt ... septae pudicitia ... paucissima adulteria ... publicatae pudicitiae nulla venia ... nemo vitia ridet ... numerum liberorum finire, flagitium habetur ... sua quemque mater uberibus alit ... sera juverum Venus eoque inexhausta pubertas ... quanto plus propinquorum, tanto gratiosior senectus. Tacit., Germ., 14. Entirely similar in character were the migrations of the Normans, which lasted just as long as the resistance to the countries they would invade, seemed to them a matter of less difficulty than the transition to a higher civilization in their own country. Malthus has corrected the extravagant notions concerning the former density of population in the North—the vagina nationum, according to Jornandes! (Malthus, I, ch. 6.) Compare, however, Friedrich M., in Antimachiavel, ch. 21, and the later view: Ouevres, IX, 196.
[244-11] Among the Bedouins even three children are considered a large family; and they even complain of that number. (Burckhardt.)
INFLUENCE OF A COMMUNITY OF WOMEN AND POLYGAMY.
Most barbarous nations live very unchaste;[245-1] so that, as Tacitus observes, the ancient Germans were a brilliant exception to the rule.[245-2] Vices of unchastity always limit the otherwise natural increase of population. Premature enjoyment exhausts the sources of fruitfulness in the case of many.[245-3] The life of the child conceived in sin is generally little valued by its parents. Hence the numerous instances of exposure and infanticide.[245-4] We have already seen how closely, psychologically speaking, a community of goods is allied to a community of women. (§ 85.) And, indeed, in the lower stages of civilization, we find as close an approximation to the latter as to the former; and it is difficult to believe that, among men living in a state of nudity, the marriage of one man to one woman could properly exist.[245-5] But it is as little possible to reconcile a community of women with density of population as great national wealth with a community of goods. Any one acquainted with the condition and capacities of new born children knows that the weak little flame easily goes out when not nursed by family care.[245-6]
Polygamy also is a hinderance to the increase of population. Abstract physiology must, indeed, admit that a man may, even without any danger to his health, generate more children than a woman can bear.[245-7] But, in reality, the simultaneous enjoyment of several women leads to excess and early exhaustion;[245-8] and if one of them is married after the other, the older who might still bear children for a long time are neglected by the man.[245-9] Monogamy is, doubtless, the Creator's law, since only in monogamous countries can we expect to find the intimate union of family life, the beauties of social intercourse and free citizenship.[245-10] "God made them male and female."[245-11] And yet in all countries with which we are statistically acquainted, there is a somewhat larger number of boys than of girls born;[245-12] but this excess is removed by the time that puberty sets in, by reason of the greater mortality of boys. Only extraordinary conditions which thin the ranks of males, such as war and emigration, leave a preponderance of the number of women.[245-13] Hence, among barbarous nations, who live in everlasting strife (§§ 67, 70), polygamy is very generally established. Men are seldom deterred therefrom by a solicitude concerning what they shall eat, since the women are treated as slaves, and rather support the men than are supported by them.[245-14] But in the civilized countries of the east, the polygamy of the great may actually lead to the compulsory singleness of many of the lower classes, as a species of compensation.[245-15] The monstrous institution of eunuchism, which has existed time out of mind in the east, is a consequence of this condition of things as well as of the natural jealousy of the harem.[245-16]
[245-1] Impurity of the Kamtschatdales, bordering on a community of women. (Klemm, Kulturgeschichte, I, 287 ff., 350 ff.; II, 206, 297 seq.) On Lapland, see Klemm, III, 55. In their purely nomadic period, even the Getes, afterwards remarkable for their noble character (Horat., Carm., III, 24), have had very loose relations of the sexes. (Menander, in Strabo, VII, 297.)
[245-2] Very unlike the Celts: Strabo, IV, 199. But the Germans even at the time when the compensation system alone prevailed, imposed a disgraceful death on the corpore infames. (Tacit., Germ., 12.) In keeping with this purity of the Germans was the deep gravity and the genuine heartiness of their ancient nuptial ceremonies. (Tacit., Germ., 18.) Similarly, in England throughout the middle ages. (Lappenberg, Engl., Gesch. I, 596.) Great moral severity of the Scandinavians (Weinhold, Altnord. Leben, 255), so that the gratification of the sexual appetite outside of marriage was punishable with death. (Adam Brem., IV, 6, 21.)