224 



dislike, either before or after marriage. Preference on the part of 

 the women, steadily acting in any one direction, would ultimately 

 affect the character of the tribe; for the women would generally 

 choose not merely the handsomest men, but those who were at 

 the same time best able to defend and support them. Such well- 

 endowed pairs would commonly rear a larger number of offspring 

 than the less favored. The same result would obviously follow in 

 a still more marked manner if there was selection on both sides, 

 that is, if the more attractive and powerful men were to prefer 

 and were preferred by the more attractive women. And this 

 double form of selection seems actually to have occurred, es- 

 pecially during the earlier periods of our long history." 



Further evidence hi the same direction is adduced by Wester- 

 marck who cites many illustrations that support his contention. 

 "It would be a mistake," this author observes, "to suppose that, 

 among the lower races, women are, as a rule, married without 

 having any voice of their own in the matter. Their liberty of 

 selection, on the contrary, is very considerable, and, however 

 down- trodden, they well know how to make their influence felt" 

 (History of Human Marriage, p. 2 1 2). Howard (History of Matri- 

 monial Institutions, I, 216) states that "The facts appear to 

 demonstrate that woman's original liberty of selection has never 

 been entirely lost. It is evident that wife-purchase, though 

 sometimes the means of degradation, even of marital bondage, is 

 compatible with a high degree of matrimonial choice." 



The evidence adduced by Darwin and Westermarck has been 

 criticised by Finck who attempts to show that female choice has 

 been so restricted by most uncivilized peoples that its influence 

 is practically a negligible factor. It is true that with child be- 

 trothals, marriage by purchase, or capture, the force of parental 

 authority, and the influence of custom, taboos, etc., woman is 

 commonly disposed of with as little regard to her inclinations 

 as if she were a cow or a sheep. Several recent studies of primitive 

 peoples, however, have yielded considerable evidence that sup- 

 ports the conclusions of Darwin and Westermarck. If there has 

 been a rather extensive period of our history hi which female 



