Panorama of Man and Woman Through the Ages

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 234, 2 October 1937, Page 8 (Supplement)

Panorama of Man and Woman Through the Ages

Primitive Mates and the Development Of the Sexual Idea.

BETT.W'rorR In marriage depends upon a multiplicity of human traits. Underlying ninny of tlicso trait* is tho complicated question of sex. And underlying sex in the whole binlory of life itself—not only the complete story of the human race, but that of all living forms that have existed oil oarlh I'roni the very beginning.

Tlius it is that wlien wo seek to find explanation for normal human manifestations in sexual relations in marriage we must look not soi intently at th© immediate foreground, but rather to the untiro panorama of life as it has unrolled throughout the ages.

In tho animal kingdom (excluding man) the spoils belong to the victor —tile spoils lieing the females, which take it, passive part and are willing to jlvo themselves to any male, provided 'in is strong and clever. Bee.iuse of i his arrangement of nat ure, and since i hero are as many males as there aro females, thero obviously aro moro males than are necessary. As a result the males liattlo among themselves and many are killed, thus leaving tho strongest and cleverest in possession of the females aiul in position to reproduce themselves. The Master Male. When sex had progressed to tho herd iniinal stage thero appeared in tho world tho lmtn<Hliato ancestors of man, the primates— not, of course, tho gorilla, the urang, and tho chimpanzco as wo know them to-day, but similar creatures from which both the present-day apes and man sprang. Tho ancestors oj man developed tho Idea of monogamy, a practice still found among certain animals and birds to-day. This is an idea founded 011 what is best for th© offspring. Originally man, liko the apes, probably was a monogamous creature. With his development of intellect he turned to polygyny, becanso it was ploiwanfc for liim to always have a numIver of females at his command. Sine© he did what ape* do not do—that is, he avoided liis females at certain times— and also sine© he began to symbol is© sex and becam© moro desirous of sex at all times, ho required more and more females to satisfy his desires, Tn th© I family structure of early man, who was moro domineering than modern man, it was uommon practice for the women to 1m used as work "animals." The more work "animals" that a male possessed tho moro time he had for Indulging in pleasures. Even in all primitive peoples of to-day, whether on© deals with Eskimos, Sudanese, oir others, the fonnilos do virtually all of the work.

Tiie Old Man of the Tribe. Man In the early and the primitive singes always lias kept women under subjugation, merely seeing to it that all work has been done properly. This has k«»pfc him free (or hunting, fishing, dancing and attending to tribunal rite*. In other words, man in the early tribal civilisation enslaved his women. The contest for tho females therefore arose ugatn, since there were as many males as females. There were too many males for a situation in which each required several females.

At this point, aocording to a certain school of scientific thought, wo arrive at a very important development of the whole sexual idea—the old man of the trll>e. This old man, in one of the modern reconstruction# of human life of prehistoric times, possessed all of the females of Ills group, and whenever children wero born he claimed them as his own. But his attitude toward other males when they began *o reach puberty waa quite different from that toward females, A woman waa a distinct addition to his family and meant another work "animal" and another object of sexual pleasure. But In every other man the old man saw a rival. Any young male of the tribe on reaching manhood was In grave danger at the hands of his father, whose Inclinations were to kill the youth, drive him from the tribe, or emasculate him. Tile only way a young man could escape the wrath of the old man was by resorting to the protection of hla mother. The youth always took care to avoid the old man. to hang about the edges of the tribal settlement or camp, and to accept such food as his mother might smuggle to him.

Chaoa of Primitiva Society. The young women of the tribe, also according to one set of theories, had nothing to four from the head man, but their lots were made miserable by their mothers, who saw In them possible rivals for the old man's affections. Although persecution was not so active in the caso of the young women, their conditions in life were equally as difficult as 'those of the young men. They remained handmaidens of the older women and were compelled to do the hardeet work and attend to all the worst drudgery. Generally there came a time when tlie young men of the tribe would band together and attack and slay the old man, which was right and proper under a system such as that. With the patriarch of the tribe out of the way, the youths then would fight among themselves for the leadership of the tribe. In cases where the young men merely left the tribe, without killing the old man, tlie growing females were in Potion to accept one of two choices. They either could remain with the head of the tribe and court his favour or run away with the young men and help found new tribes. This state of society which lasted for hundreds of thousands of years, made tor constant turmoil. Death, destruction and hatred always wero associated with such primitive forms of society. Dawn of Wife Purchase,

An man became more Intelligent, after possibly about 500,000 yearn of this most primitive culture, the families or family tribes banded together Into larger tribes for better protection and ©no of the old men was selected as the! chief of each larger tribe. The chief's Job whs to keep order In the tribe, and though he always was exempt from rules, ho Imposed strict rules of behaviour on nil of the other members. Many of these rules concerned themselves with marriage.

The primary idea that the females wore the property of the old men still persisted, but after a while young men of the tribe were provided for by allowing ttiem to purchase girls from the old men. The youth could do this hy Wing an adept hunter, by performing useful it .

acts for the tribe or by delivering herd animals, sucli as oxen, sheep, and goats, to the old men. Growth of Totem and Taboo. Following this there developed another idea from the experience of the tribe. This was that continued interbreeding was not beneficial to the tril>e. Tribal

incest, as a result, was brought into extreme disrepute. It was decided then that a man must marry outside of his own tritie. In this decision were born a numlier of rituals having to do with primitive religion, chief of which dealt with the totem and the taboo.

Each family or clan within a tribe possessed a totem animal —a beast that it must not slay nml the flesh of which it must not cat. The totem animal was supposed to be the ancestor of the family or clan. In some instances families or clans remotely separated were in possession of the same totem. In that case these families or clans could not intermarry, although there might be no blood connection between the two. Through the adoption of the idea of the totem, which naturally was a slow process covering hundreds and hundreds of years, incest according to the primitive idea finally was abolished.

Rigorous Marriage Laws and Customs. At this stage in man's progress the sex idea was complicated indeed, but with the greater development of intellect it became even more complicated with symbolic ideas of desire. Certain males and females became more desirable from the standpoint of beauty, bearing, dress, wealth nnd the like. In addition an idea of nobility was founded. When tiie tribes reached a stage of development on a level with that of the ancient Mayas of Central America and tlio early Greeks of prehistoric times they were well organised into definite ideas as to how an individual should conduct his sexual relations. Marriage laws and customs became very rigorous, monogamy gradually grew out of this conglomerate of desires and feelings. Monogamy, it should be remembered, was practised originally by the first men before it was discarded in favour of polygyny. In order to clear up the diversified relationships of marriage and sex we | therefore have to develop a different way |of looking at the subject. Sigmund Frued, the originator of psycho-analysis, studied present-day relationships of marriage and sex and made them more or less coincide with primeval instincts. It is the opinion of certain of the scientific groups to-day that marriage and sex relations as now practised are not so much a question of physical attraction as they are the result of the interplay of many emotions, dealing with primitive instincts, organisation of society, and ancestral prejudices that have existed for hundreds of thousands of years and that reach hack not only into physical relationship of race but into psychic relationships which were founded during the tribal period of man's development.

Deaire Plus Fulfilment. One must remember that man, ding to a widely accepted belief has been on earth approximately one million years. A certain scientific 'opinion has it that at least half of this time, up to the period of the so-called Heidelberg man, the idea of the old man and the handmaidens persisted. It took about 480,000 years, more or less, for this idea to develop into the tribal structure which really did not exist until about the beginning of the Neolithic period.

We can look on sex in a simple way as desire plus fulfilment. The first desire of man is for food and has to do with eating, digesting, and expelling food. This desire is most apparent in the infant, in the stage termed the oral-anal-erotic period. Rightfully or wrongfully, this period has been associated by the super-Freudians with sex. The great mistake that Freud made was to use the term sex for something that did not connote sex to the ordinary person. The infant lias no sexual desires as understood by the average person, but he does possess desires which might be interpreted as sexual desires were they manifested in ail adult. In other words, the term sex as used by Freudians does not mean sex at aJI, but means desire plus fulfilment.

Much of the onus that has descended upon the followers of Freud is due to the misinterpretation of terms that have one meaning to the psycho-analyst, and another to the people at large. Pleasures of Narcissism. The primitive plea-sure of eating and digesting food is never forgotten by the individual. We all love good food, and many of our social functions are associated with the idea of eating. The mouth remains a source of tactile pleasure, which is later confused completely with pleasure in the form of a kiss.

As a child develops mentally it begins to derive pleasure from the world, and tlie first object it notices is its own bodv. Admiration of one's own body is termed narcissism, and the pleasures of narcissism as enjoyed by tlie little baby are never forgotten throughout * life. Associated with this and a part of it are the pleasures of being clean, admiring ourselves, and having others admire its. Women do not wear fine clothes solely to attract men, but <]uite as often with the idea of interesting other women or making them jealous. Men are (juite as

proud of having their athletic forms admired by other men as by women. This »lso 1b woven into the idea of sexual pleasure, because everyone wants to appear beautiful in the eyes of his or her mate and wants that mate to appear beautiful in the eyes of others.

There is Nothing New. Men cling to tlie pleasures of men's clubs, still meet together in sessions from which women are barred. It is the old taboo of the early tribal rituals still manifesting itself. Existing savage tribes maintain their taboos and enforce them in the enjoying of definite rights that are prohibited to women. The women of savage tribes also have taboos, which men may not violate.

In the vast majority of instances the youth, male or female, passes without any unusual difficulties into the heterosexual period. Marriage takes place and tlie normal physical and. psychic cycle is resumed.

Everything concerning "sexual relationship in marriage reverts to the beginning of the individual, to the beginning of the race, arid to the beginning of life itself. There is nothing new.—Tohn A. Menaugh in the "Chicago-Tribune."