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Show 358 SEXUAL SELECTION : l\1AN. PAnT H .. women, is not so s1.uprising as jt may at first appear; for I have elsewhere shewn 3 that negroes fully appreciate the importance of selection in the breeding of their domestic animals, and l could give from Mr. Heade additional evidence on this head. On the Causes which prevent ot· cheek the Action of Sea:/ual Selection with Savages.-The chief causes nrc, firstly, so-called communal marriages or promiscuous intercourse; secondly, infanticide, especially of female infants ; thirdly, early betrothals; and lastly, the low estimation in which women are hold, as mere slnves. These four points must be considered in some detail. It is obviou · that as long as the pairing of man, or of any other animal, is left to chance, with no choice exerted by either sex, there can be no sexual selection; and no effect will be produced on tho offt:Jpring by certain individuals having had an advantage over others in their courtship. Now it is asserted that there exist at the present day tribes which practise what Sir J. Lubbock by courtesy calls communal marriages ; that is, all the men and women in the tribe are husbands and wives to each other. The licentiousness of many savages is no doubt astonishingly great, but it seems to me· that more evidence is requisite before we fully admit that their existing intercourse is absolutely promiscuous. Nevertheless all those who have most closely studied the subject,4 and whose judgment is worth much more 3 ''l'he Variation of Animals and Plants umler Domestication,' vol. i. p. 207. • Sir J. Lubbock, 'The Origin of Civilisation,' 1870, chop. iii. especi-ally p. 60-67. Mr. M'Lennan, in his extremely valuable w01·k on • Primitive Marriage,' 1865, p. 1G3, speaks of the union of the sexes "in the earliest times ns loose, transitory, and in some degree promis" euous." Mr. M'Lcnnnn and Sir J. Lubbock hn.vc collected much evidonee on the extreme licentiousness of savages at the present lime. Mr. L. H. Morgan, in his interesting memoir on the classificatory system. C.:LIAP. XX. INTERFERING CAUSES. 359 than mine, believe that communal marriage was the original and universal form throughout tho world, including the intermarriage of brothers and sisters. The indir ct evidence in favour of this belief is extremely strong, and rests chiefly on tho terms of relationship which arc employed between tho members of the same tribe, implying a connection with the tribe alone, and not with either parent. But the subject is too largo and complex for oven an abstract to be here given, and I will confine myself to a few remarks. It is evident in the case of communal marriages, or where tho maniagetie is very loose, that the relationship of the child to its father eannot be known. But it seems almost incredible that the relationship of tho child to its mother should ever have been completely ignored, especially as the women in most savage tribes nurse their infants for a long time. Accordingly in many cases the lines of descent are traced through the mother alone, to tho -exclusion of the father. But in many other cases the terms employed express a connection with the tribe alone, to the exclusion even of the mother. It seems possible that the connection between the related members of the same barbarous tribe, exposed to all sorts of danger, might be so much more important, owing- to the need of mutual protection and aid, than that between i he mother and her child, as to lead to the solo use of terms expressive of the former relationships; but Mr. Morgan is convinced that this view of the case is by no means sufficient. The terms of relationship used in different parts of of rcl~tionsbip (' Proc. American Acad. of Sciences,' vol. vii. Feb. 1868, P- _ 47:>) co.ncluclcs that polygamy and all forms of marriage during pruucval,ttmcs were essentially unknown. It appears, also, from Sir J. Lubbock s work, that Bachofen likewise believes that communal intercourse originally prevailed. |