MASCULINITY
The predominance of male over female births is almost universal,
although varying greatly in different countries and under different
conditions. This fact has given rise to the term Masculinity, which
conveniently expresses the proportion of the sexes at birth. The
degree of masculinity is usually indicated by the average number of
male births to every 100 female births. The cause of this
preponderance of males is still a mystery, and will definitely be
known only when the causes of the determination of sex are known.
Since, however, it is well known that infant mortality is greater
among males than among females, positive masculinity is necessary to
keep up the balance of the sexes, and therefore seems to be an
essential characteristic of a vigorous and progressive race.
Within recent years the theory has prevailed among certain
sociologists that positive masculinity is stronger in the offspring of
consanguineous marriages than in the offspring of unrelated parents.
Professor William I. Thomas in his writings and lectures asserts this
as highly probable.[28] Westermarck,[29] to whom Professor Thomas
refers, quotes authorities to show that certain self-fertilized plants
tend to produce male flowers, and that the mating of horses of the
same coat color tends to produce an excess of males.[30]
[Footnote 28: _Sex and Society_, p. 12.]
[Footnote 29: _History of Human Marriage_, p. 476.]
[Footnote 30: _Goehlert, Ueber die Vererbung der Haarfarben bei den
Pferden._ Quoted by Westermarck, p. 476.]
Westermarck continues, quoting from Düsing:[31] "Among the Jews, many
of whom marry cousins, there is a remarkable excess of male births. In
country districts, where, as we have seen, comparatively more boys are
born than in towns, marriage more frequently takes place between
kinsfolk. It is for a similar reason that illegitimate unions show a
tendency to produce female births."
[Footnote 31: _Die Regulierung des Geschlechtsverhaeltnisses_, pp.
243-244.]
Westermarck comments: "The evidence for the correctness of his
deduction is, then, exceedingly scanty--if, indeed it can be called
evidence. Nevertheless, I think his main conclusion holds good.
Independently of his reasoning I had come to exactly the same result
in a purely inductive way." He then quotes a number of travelers to
the effect that marriage between members of different races produce a
phenomenal excess of female births. When we consider the extraordinary
proficiency in fiction attained by many travelers in strange lands, we
are forced to the belief that Westermarck based his own conclusion on
still more scanty evidence.
The statistics given by Dr. Düsing for Prussia[32] are as follows:
TABLE IX.
------------------------------------------------------------
| | | Other |
|Evangelical.| Catholic. | Christians.| Jews.
------------------------------------------------------------
Male births | 4,015,634 | 2,273,708 | 12,283 | 69,901
Female births| 3,775,010 | 2,136,295 | 11,548 | 64,939
Masculinity | 106.374 | 106.435 | 106.36 | 107.64
------------------------------------------------------------
[Footnote 32: _Das Geschlechtsverhaeltnis der Geburten in Preussen_,
pp. 24-25; in _Staatswissenschaftliche Studien_, vol. iii.]
and for mixed marriages:
TABLE X.
--------------------------------------------------------------
|Evangelical |Catholic and| Other | Jews and
|and Catholic.|Evangelical.| mixed. |Christians.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Male births | 157,755 | 189,733 | 4.464 | 2,958
Female births| 149,205 | 179,505 | 4.254 | 2,850
Masculinity | 105.73 | 105.70 | 104.9 | 103.8
--------------------------------------------------------------
In the face of these statistics it is impossible to deny that
endogamy within a great social class or an ethnic race may have some
tendency to produce an excess of male births, while exogamy in this
broad sense may diminish the masculinity. But the perpetuation of a
comparatively pure race by marriage within that race, and
consanguineous marriage in the narrower sense are different
propositions. It may easily be that the marriage of individuals of a
similar type regardless of consanguinity produces a greater excess of
male offspring. According to the percentage of first cousin marriages
among the Jews as given by Mulhall,[33] and allowing the average
number of children to a marriage, there would be only 3100 children of
such marriages among the Jewish births in Prussia, and in order that
these might raise the masculinity of Jewish births even from 106 to
107 the 3100 births would have to have a masculinity of 200. Among
Protestants, or especially among Catholics where the percentage of
cousin marriage is much smaller, it seems hardly reasonable that the
general masculinity would be appreciably affected. A much better case
can be made for similarity or difference of race as the cause of the
variation. The difference between Catholic and Protestant is, roughly
speaking, the difference between the brachycephalic brunette Alpine
race and the dolichocephalic blonde Baltic race. So that a mixed
marriage in Germany would almost always mean the crossing of two
distinct types.
[Footnote 33: _Dictionary of Statistics, op. cit._, p. 383.]
The investigations of M. Gache in Buenos Ayres covering the period
from 1884 to 1894 inclusive, show that cross breeding has had the
effect of _raising_ the masculinity. The births resulting from unions
of Italian, Spanish and French male immigrants with native-born
Argentine females, show a higher masculinity than the births produced
either by pure Argentine alliances or by pure alliances of any of
these nationalities of Buenos Ayres. Further, the unions of Argentine
males with females of foreign nationality provide a higher masculinity
than is common among Argentines themselves.[34] These facts do not
necessarily contradict the theory that any crossing of great racial
groups diminishes masculinity, for all of the nationalities involved
in this study are predominantly Mediterranean in blood. The theory is
borne out by the statistics of the negroes in the United States, a
large proportion of whom are of mixed blood. For taking as a basis the
number of children of negro descent born during the year ending June
1, 1900 reported by the Twelfth Census, the females predominated,
giving a negative masculinity of 99.8. Furthermore, the percentage of
consanguineous marriage is probably high in the colored population.
[Footnote 34: C.J. & J.N. Lewis, _Natality and Fecundity_, pp.
114-116.]
The following table compiled from Mulhall[35] and other sources fails
to show any correspondence between the percentage of first cousin
marriage and the masculinity:
TABLE XI.
---------------------------------------
Country. |Masculinity.| Per cent 1st
| |cousin marriage.
---------------------------------------
England | 104.5 | .75
France | 105.3 | 1.26
Italy | 107.0 | .69
Prussia | 105.8 | .67
U.S.[36] | 104.9 | 1.00
Jews[37] | 107.6 | 2.30
---------------------------------------
[Footnote 35: Op. cit., p. 92.]
[Footnote 36: Masculinity, _Twelfth Census, Vital Statistics_, Pt. 1.
Per cent of cousin marriage, estimated.]
[Footnote 37: Duesing, op. cit., p. 24.]
It is impossible to obtain the actual masculinity ratio for the United
States, for the Census gives the statistics for only one year in ten
and even then is untrustworthy on this point. In a few states birth
registration is attempted but the figures thus obtained do not
harmonize with the Census and the situation is not greatly
improved.[38] The masculinity varies considerably in different parts
of the country, and is generally higher in states where the rural
population predominates. This fact agrees with European statistics
which almost universally show a high masculinity in rural districts.
Table XII, illustrates this point:
TABLE XII.
_Masculinity in Scotland_.[39]
-------------------------------------------------------
| | | | Mainland |Insular
Period. |Principal|Large |Small | rural | rural
| towns. |towns.|towns.|districts.|districts.
-------------------------------------------------------
1855-1861| -- | -- | -- | 105.6 | 106.6
1862-1871| -- | -- | -- | 105.9 | 105.6
1872-1881| 105.0 | 105.6| 106.1| 105.3 | 108.0
1882-1891| 105.1 | 105.6| 105.5| 105.5 | 108.7
1892-1901| 104.7 | 104.6| 104.9| 105.2 | 107.1
-------------------------------------------------------
Average | 104.9 | 105.3| 105.5| 105.5 | 107.2
-------------------------------------------------------
[Footnote 38: Massachusetts _Census_, 103.1; Reg. 1891-1900, 105.6.
Vermont _Census_, 108.1; Reg. 1890-1896, 105.9. Connecticut _Census_,
103.9; Reg. 1887-1891, 107.2. Rhode Island _Census_, 103.8; Reg.
1854-1901, 104.9.]
[Footnote 39: Lewis and Lewis, op. cit., p. 128.]
This would seem to bear out the theory that masculinity is affected by
consanguineous marriage, for consanguineous marriage is more frequent
in rural districts, and especially in insular rural districts. But
unless consanguineous marriages can directly be shown to produce an
excess of male births greater than the normal, such indirect evidence
is valueless.
In the genealogical material previously considered, we have a sampling
of the American population throughout its whole history, but the data
so far collected are insufficient for more than an indication of what
might be expected in further research along the same line. In the
following table as before, the figures compiled from printed
genealogies are separated from those obtained through correspondence
and from miscellaneous sources. The "unrelated" marriages from
genealogies, are marriages of brothers and sisters of the persons who
have married first cousins, and their records were obtained from the
same sources as those in the next previous category. The "children of
first cousins" are the offspring of the first cousin marriages who
married persons not related to themselves by blood. The last category
includes distantly related marriages from correspondence and other
sources and marriages between persons of the same surname whose
relationship could not be traced.
TABLE XIII.
------------------------------------------------------------------
| | Sex of Children. |
|Number |-----------------------|Mascu-
Marriages. |Fertile.| Male.|Female.|Unknown.|linity.
------------------------------------------------------------------
1st cousin. Gene. | 125 | 318 | 314 | 40 | 101
Unrelated. Gene. | 629 | 1561 | 1559 | 64 | 100
Ch. of 1st cousins. Gene.| 170 | 402 | 375 | 48 | 107
Other cousin. Gene. | 301 | 736 | 666 | 15 | 111
1st Cousin. Cor. | 150 | 316 | 295 | 148 | 107
Ch. of 1st cousins. Cor. | 124 | 192 | 164 | 214 | 111
Miscellaneous | 88 | 210 | 205 | 50 | 102
------------------------------------------------------------------
Total | 1587 | 3735 | 3578 | 578 | 104.4
------------------------------------------------------------------
It is of course impossible to explain all the ratios in this table.
Much variation is here due to chance, and a few additional cases might
appreciably change any of the ratios. It will be noticed, however,
that the two categories whose masculinity is most similar (100 and
101), are derived from cases taken from the same families and from the
same environment, and differing only in that the first is closely
consanguineous while the second is not. The third and fourth groups,
separated from the first two by at least a generation, and probably
living in a different environment, differ greatly in masculinity from
them. In the fourth group are included 1-1/2, second, third, and a few
even more distant cousins, all more distantly related than first
cousins, and taken from the same genealogies as these; yet the
masculinity is much greater.
An analysis of the cases collected fifty years ago by Dr. Bemiss, of
course without thought of masculinity, gives the following result:[40]
TABLE XIV.
----------------------------------------------------------
| Sex of Children. |
|----------------------|
Marriage. |Number.| Male.|Female.|Masculinity.
----------------------------------------------------------
1st cousins and nearer| 709 | 1245 | 1171 | 106.3
2d and 3rd cousins | 124 | 264 | 240 | 110.0
All consanguineous | 833 | 1509 | 1411 | 106.9
Unrelated | 125 | 444 | 380 | 116.9
----------------------------------------------------------
[Footnote 40: Bemiss, _Report on Influence of Marriages of
Consanguinity_, pp. 420-423.]
In the "Marriage of Near Kin," Mr. Huth gives a list of cases of
consanguineous marriage collected by various persons from all over
Europe.[41] He is free to say that they are worse than useless for the
purpose for which they were collected, that of determining whether or
not such marriages produce degeneracy, but in so far as the sex of the
children is concerned they would not be biassed.
TABLE XV.
-----------------------------------------------------
|Sex of Children.|
|----------------|
Marriage. | Male.| Female. | Masculinity.
-----------------------------------------------------
1st cousins and nearer| 165 | 164 | 100
More distant cousins | 95 | 73 | 131
-----------------------------------------------------
[Footnote 41: Huth, _Marriage of Near Kin. Appendix._]
The unusual ratios are of course due principally to a "run of luck,"
and this table only shows that if consanguinity is a determining
factor in sex, its influence is negligible when a small number of
cases is considered. It is interesting accordingly to note that of 100
children of incestuous unions and from uncle-niece and aunt-nephew
marriages from Bemiss, Huth and other sources, the sex distribution
was 48 males and 52 females, giving a negative masculinity of 92.
While in general the evidence presented in this chapter is somewhat
conflicting, that which bears most directly upon the problem does not
substantiate the hypothesis of Westermarck. The evidence in favor of
the theory is all indirect and is open to other interpretations. It is
hardly safe to go to the other extreme and to assert that
consanguinity diminishes masculinity. The safest, and withal the most
reasonable conclusion is that consanguinity in the parents has no
appreciable effect upon the sex of the child.