Taboo and Genetics | Page 2

more
rationalized system of social control in this field, its purpose will have been
accomplished.
THE AUTHORS.

CONTENTS

PART I
BY M. M. KNIGHT, PH.D.
THE NEW BIOLOGY AND THE SEX PROBLEM IN SOCIETY
CHAPTER
I.
THE PROBLEM DEFINED
What is sex? A sexual and mixed reproduction. Origin of sexual reproduction. Advantage
of sex in chance of survival. Germ and body cells. Limitations of biology in social
problems. Sex always present in higher animals. Sex in mammals--the problem in the
human species. Application of the laboratory method.
II. SEX IN TERMS OF INTERNAL SECRETIONS
Continuity of germ plasm. The sex chromosome. The internal secretions and the sex
complex. The male and the female type of body. How removal of sex glands affects body
type. Sex determination. Share of the egg and sperm in inheritance. The nature of
sex--sexual selection of little importance. The four main types of secretory systems. Sex
and sex instincts of rats modified by surgery. Dual basis for sex. Opposite sex basis in

every individual. The Free-Martin cattle. Partial reversal of sex in human species.
III. SEX AND SEX DIFFERENCES AS QUANTITATIVE
Intersexes in moths. Bird intersexes. Higher metabolism of males. Quantitative difference
between sex factors. Old ideas of intersexuality. Modern surgery and human intersexes.
Quantitative theory a Mendelian explanation. Peculiar complication in the case of man.
Chemical life-cycles of the sexes. Functional-reproductive period and the sex problem.
Relative significance of physiological sex differences.
IV. SEX SPECIALIZATION AND GROUP SURVIVAL
Adaptation and specialization. Reproduction a group--not an individual problem. Conflict
between specialization and adaptation. Intelligence makes for economy in adjustment to
environment. Reproduction, not production, the chief factor in the sex problem.
V. RACIAL DEGENERATION AND THE NECESSITY FOR RATIONALIZATION
OF THE MORES
Racial decay in modern society. Purely "moral" control dysgenic in civilized society.
New machinery for social control. Mistaken notion that reproduction is an individual
problem. Economic and other factors in the group problem of reproduction.

PART II
BY IVA LOWTHER PETERS, PH.D.
THE INSTITUTIONALIZED SEX TABOO
I. THE PRIMITIVE ATTITUDE TOWARD SEX AND WOMANHOOD
Primitive social control. Its rigidity. Its necessity. The universality of this control in the
form of taboos. Connection between the universal attitude of primitive peoples toward
woman as shown in the Institutionalized Sex Taboo and the magico-religious belief in
Mana. Relation of Mana to Taboo. Discussion of Sympathetic Magic and the associated
idea of danger from contact. Difficulties in the way of an inclusive definition of Taboo.
Its dual nature. Comparison of concepts of Crawley, Frazer, Marett, and others.
Conclusion that Taboo is Negative Mana. Contribution of modern psychology to the
study of Taboo. Freud's analogy between the dualistic attitude toward the tabooed object
and the ambivalence of the emotions. The understanding of this dualism together with the
primitive belief in Mana and Sympathetic Magic explains much in the attitude of man
toward woman. The vast amount of evidence in the taboos of many peoples of dualism in
the attitude toward woman. Possible physiological explanation of this dualistic attitude of
man toward woman found in a period before self-control had in some measure replaced
social control, in the reaction of weakness and disgust following sex festivals.

II. FROM THE DAWN OF HISTORY: WOMAN AS SAINT AND WITCH
Taboos of first chapter indicate that in the early ages the fear of contamination by woman
predominated. Later emphasis fell on her mystic and uncanny power. Ancient fertility
cults. Temple prostitution, dedication of virgins, etc. Ancient priestesses and prophetesses.
Medicine early developed by woman added to belief in her power. Woman's psychic
quality of intuition: its origin--theories--conclusion that this quality is probably
physiological in origin, but aggravated by taboo repressions. Transformation in attitude
toward woman in the early Christian period. Psychological reasons for the persistence in
religion of a Mother Goddess. Development of the Christian concept. Preservation of
ancient woman cults as demonology. Early Christian attitude toward woman as unclean
and in league with demons. Culmination of belief in demonic power of woman in
witchcraft persecutions. All women affected by the belief in witches and in the
uncleanness of woman. Gradual development on the basis of the beliefs outlined of an
ideally pure and immaculate Model Woman.
III. THE DUALISM IN MODERN LIFE: THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO
The Taboo and modern institutions. 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 classifications.
IV. DYSGENIC INFLUENCES OF THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO
Taboo survivals act dysgenically within the family under present conditions.
Conventional education of girls a dysgenic influence. Prostitution and the family.
Influence of ancient standards of "good" and "bad." The illegitimate child. Effect of fear,
anger, etc., on posterity. The attitude of economically independent women toward
marriage.

PART III
BY PHYLLIS