[181] Thus, Lubbock (Lord Avebury), in the _Origin of Civilization_, fifth
edition, 1889, brings forward a number of references in evidence of this
belief. More recently Finck, in his _Primitive Love and Love-stories_,
1899, seeks to accumulate data in favor of the unbounded licentiousness of
savages. He admits, however, that a view of the matter opposed to his own
is now tending to prevail.
[182] See "The Evolution of Modesty" in the first volume of these
_Studies_.
[183] The sacredness of sexual relations often applies also to individual
marriage. Thus, Skeat, in his _Malay Magic_, shows that the bride and
bridegroom are definitely recognized as sacred, in the same sense that the
king is, and in Malay States the king is a very sacred person. See also,
concerning the sacred character of coitus, whether individual or
collective, A. Van Gennep, _Rites de Passage, passim_.
[184] Spencer and Gillen, _Northern Tribes of Central Australia_, p. 136.
[185] _Religion of the Semites_, second edition, 1894, p. 454 _et seq._
[186] _History of Marriage_, pp. 66-70, 150-156, etc.
[187] _Golden Bough_, third edition, part ii, _Taboo and the Perils of the
Soul_. Frazer has discussed taboo generally. For a shorter account of
taboo, see art. "Taboo" by Northcote Thomas in _Encyclopædia Britannica_,
eleventh edition, 1911. Freud has lately (_Imago_, 1912) made an attempt
to explain the origin of taboo psychologically by comparing it to neurotic
obsessions. Taboo, Freud believes, has its origin in a forbidden act to
perform which there is a strong unconscious tendency; an ambivalent
attitude, that is, combining the opposite tendencies, is thus established.
In this way Freud would account for the fact that tabooed persons and
things are both sacred and unclean.
[188] "Essai sur le Sacrifice," _L'Année Sociologique_, 1899, pp. 50-51.
[189] _The Mystic Rose_, 1902, p. 187 et seq., 215 et seq., 342 et seq.
[190] _Das Weib_, vol. i, section 6.
[191] This statement has been questioned. It should, however, be fairly
evident that the sexual organs in either sex, when closely examined, can
scarcely be regarded as beautiful except in the eyes of a person of the
opposite sex who is in a condition of sexual excitement, and they are not
always attractive even then. Moreover, it must be remembered that the
snake-like aptitude of the penis to enter into a state of erection apart
from the control of the will puts it in a different category from any
other organ of the body, and could not fail to attract the attention of
primitive peoples so easily alarmed by unusual manifestations. We find
even in the early ages of Christianity that St. Augustine attached immense
importance to this alarming aptitude of the penis as a sign of man's
sinful and degenerate state.
[192] Lubbock, _Origin of Civilization_, fifth edition, pp. 69, 73;
Westermarck, _History of Marriage_, p. 357; Grosse, _Anfänge der Kunst_,
p. 236; Herbert Spencer, "Origin of Music," _Mind_, Oct., 1890.
[193] Spencer and Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central Australia_, p. 99; cf.
Finck, _Primitive Love and Love-stories_, p. 89 et seq.
[194] "The Phenomena of Sexual Periodicity." The subject has also been
more recently discussed by Walter Heape, "The 'Sexual Season' of Mammals,"
_Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science_, vol. xliv, 1900. See also
F.H.A. Marshall, _The Physiology of Reproduction_, 1910.
[195] This view finds a belated supporter in Max Marcuse
("Geschlechtstrieb des Urmenschens," _Sexual-Probleme_, Oct., 1909), who,
on grounds which I cannot regard as sound, seeks to maintain the belief
that the sexual instinct is more highly developed among savage than among
civilized peoples.