CHAPTER XVII
EROTIC ART
When from the discouraging examination of decorative arts as connected with sexual selection we turn our attention to the department of poetry and drama, we reasonably expect to attain some less ambiguous results. In every work of literary art one should think that the subject ought to afford some indication as to its purpose. The dances, songs, and pantomimes of the lower tribes are, however, in this respect not very instructive. No doubt there can be quoted a great number of artistic manifestations in which love is represented or described in all its phases. But we are not thereby justified in assuming that these dramas, pantomimes, and poems were called into existence by the preferences of the other sex. It would be absurd to adduce the pornographic art of modern times as proof of sexual selection. And it is equally absurd to cite in favour of Darwin’s thesis travellers’ tales of indecent dances or ceremonies in which no mention is made of the presence of the opposite sex.
On the other hand, it must be conceded that the influence of sex on the evolution of art cannot, as Mr. Spencer seems to think, be completely disproved by an appeal to the mere fact that erotic motives occupy so insignificant a space in the most primitive art.[345] Even if there were any certainty that the existing dearth of information on erotic dances and poems corresponds with a real lack of erotic art, it might still be maintained that the favour of the other sex was the aim of all the purely lyrical kinds of music and dance. And the analogy with our own stage of culture might be adduced as a witness that activities and manifestations which in their original purpose are anything but erotic may still be used as effective means of courtship. War dances, for example, in which all the qualities of the male body are displayed must of course be eminently capable of charming the opposite sex. Although undoubtedly called into existence by the need of military exercise and warlike stimulation, this kind of dramatic art may therefore have been assisted in its development by the encouraging influence of female spectators.[346] In which cases such an influence has operated, and how great have been its effects, can only be determined by a close examination not only of the works of art themselves, but also, and chiefly, of the circumstances connected with the performance of them. As poetry and drama on primitive stages generally have reference to a particular occasion, these circumstances ought to appear with greater clearness than in the case of pictorial arts.
For the purposes of this research there is, however, a great deficiency of reliable information. In the descriptions of dances and pantomimes which can be gathered from the literature of travel the most important point is generally omitted—whether the performances in question were executed in the presence of the other sex or not. From the general records of savage life one may indeed draw some conclusions bearing upon this question. But these conclusions, even when, taken apart, they seem to be sufficiently reliable, are, when considered collectively, full of contradiction. With regard to a great number of tribes the strict separation between the sexes which prevails in all phases of social life—in work as well as in amusements—provides a negative argument against the theory of female influence on art. This circumstance has of course been adduced by opponents of the selection theory; and it was Mr. Gurney’s chief objection to Wagner’s assertion that the earliest popular dances were erotic pantomimes.[347] But the adherents of Darwin’s theory are no less able to support their assertion by ethnological facts. This is made obvious, for instance, by Wallaschek’s Primitive Music, which work, as far as we know, gives the most complete account existent of primitive dances and pantomimes. After having enumerated a great variety of tribes in which the sexes are separated when dancing, the author says, “As a rule, however, both sexes dance together.” And he then corroborates this statement by a still greater number of instances in which dances, often of a decidedly erotic character, are performed either by both sexes together or by one sex before the other.[348] Thus facts confront facts in a most bewildering contradiction which is indeed trying to the believer in ethnological argumentation. No sound statistician would base any conclusions on majorities made up of such confused masses of contradictory instances. The question of sex influence on art would therefore be for ever undecided if there were no expedient for classifying the units and balancing them against each other in greater groups.
Such a classification is of course no less possible than it is necessary. But it presupposes a close examination of every single instance quoted. Owing to our insufficient knowledge of some of the most interesting tribes, a satisfactory arrangement is therefore as yet involved in great difficulty. In this work, at any rate, it would not be possible to enter into all these detailed researches. We shall restrict ourselves to a few short indications of the mode in which we think that this much-debated question is to be solved.
In all that has been written against Darwin’s Descent of Man there is perhaps nothing that is so relevant to the main issue as Mr. Hudson’s criticism. He observes that Darwin has gathered together from all regions of the globe unconnected facts about various species without closely examining the habits and actions of these species.[349] It goes without saying that such an examination would be extremely difficult with regard to animals, the social life of which is as yet so insufficiently known. For one not a zoologist, at least, it would be too audacious to present any classification of the instances, and therefore we did not even mention this possibility in the treatment of animal art. In this connection, however, one may suggest, without positively asserting, that perhaps even the animal manifestations of dance and music may be classified in groups which correspond to the prevailing social conditions of the respective species. There is at least a striking similarity between the types of song, serene with all their passion, with which the males of the monogamous songsters entertain their mates—those mates which, if one may believe the brothers Müller, have been chosen even before the pairing season.[350] And, on the other hand, these graceful and harmonious utterances stand in the strongest contrast to the vehement display of promiscuous wood-birds and polygamous fowl.
However presumptuous it may be to draw any general conclusions from these coincidences, it is evidently indispensable, when treating of sexual selection in man, to look for some connection between the various forms of courtship and prevailing social institutions. This necessity was fully understood by Darwin himself.[351] But it has been too much overlooked by his successors, who, when discussing his thesis, have defended or attacked it by promiscuous collections of facts in which barbaric Malays and degenerate Polynesians are quoted alongside primitives like the Veddas and Fuegians. If this confusion is disentangled by a proper arrangement of the instances according to stages of culture, the seeming inconsistency of the ethnological evidence will be removed.
There is a prima facie ground for believing that the employment of art for gaining the favour of the other sex is characteristic of a certain advance in social development. The tribes in which we have most reason to suppose that the practice of self-decoration does not rest on political or religious grounds, and may thus aim exclusively at pleasing, are to be found among the Polynesians, the Malays, and some of the nations of India. From Polynesia also Berchon derived his chief support for the curious assertion—which seems to be true of scarcely any other ethnological province—that the patterns used in tattooing are quite indifferent, provided only that they effectually embellish the decorated part of the body;[352] in short, that tattooing has a purely decorative purpose. With regard to dancing, there also is practised in Tahiti, by the dramatic society of the Areoi, a dance most typical of the kind which aims at an erotic excitement in the spectators.[353]
As is well known, the “oriental” dancing, such as is performed in the barbaric Negro states and in the Mohammedan communities of Northern Africa, as well as in Persia, Turkey, China, and Japan, is mainly a gross pantomime of physical love executed by a woman to the delight of her male spectators.[354] In most of these cases, however, the dancers are outcast women, who are paid with money for their performance.
Somewhat closer, it seems, is the connection between erotic dance and sexual selection in the native population of the East Indian Islands.[355] And finally, among the aboriginal tribes of India, the Mundaris, Rasas, Kolhs, Sonthals, Bhuiyas, Chukmas, and Khyoungthas, courtship is pervaded by art and æsthetic activities.[356] In some of the villages there still survives the same kind of romantic love-making which is so well known from the old Indian poems and tales. The Bhuiya youths pay visits to the camp of the girls, and are received by them with dances and songs; and, says Mr. Dalton, “after such daylong festivals the morning dawns on more than one pair of pledged lovers.”[357] In the Bayar tribe one of the “methods of bringing about marriage” is a dance, performed by both sexes, who face each other in rows and exchange impromptu love couplets. Similar festivals are also met with among the Bendkars and Khonds.[358] The Hos and Mundaris, on the other hand, afford an example of sexual selection in its grossest form at their yearly festivals, during which excited dionysiac dances and obscene and blasphemous speeches are connected with wild promiscuous orgies.[359]