342 SEXUAL SELECTION: ,MAN. [Part II. 



fully appreciate the importance pf selection in the breed- 

 ing of their domestic animals, 3 and I could give from Mr. 

 Reade additional evidence on this head. 



On the Causes which prevent or check the Action of 

 Sexual Selection with Savages. — The chief causes are, 

 firstly, so-called communal marriages or promiscuous in- 

 tercourse ; secondly, infanticide, especially of female in- 

 fants ; thirdly, early betrothals ; and lastly, the low esti- 

 mation in which women are held, as mere slaves. These 

 four points must be considered in some detail. 



It is obvious that as long as the pairing of man, or of 

 any other animal, is left to chance, with no choice exerted 

 by either sex, there can be no sexual selection ; and no 

 effect will be produced on the offspring by certain indi- 

 viduals having had an advantage over others in their 

 courtship. Now it is asserted that there exist at the pres- 

 ent day tribes which practise what Sir J. Lubbock by 

 courtesy calls communal marriages ; that is, all the men 

 and women in the tribe are husbands and wives to each 

 other. The licentiousness of many savages is no doubt 

 astonishingly great, but it seems to me that more evi- 

 dence is requisite before we fully admit that their existing 

 intercourse is absolutely promiscuous. Nevertheless all 

 those who have most closely studied the subject, 4 and 



3 ' The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,' vol. i. 

 p. 207 



4 Sir J. Lubbock, • The Origin of Civilization,' 18*70, chap. iii. espe- 

 cially pp. 60-67. Mr. McLennan, in his extremely valuable work on 

 * Primitive Marriage,' 1865, p. 163, speaks of the union of the sexes "in 

 the earliest times as loose, transitory, and in some degree promiscuous." 

 Mr. McLennan and Sir J. Lubbock have collected much evidence on tbe 

 extreme licentiousness of savages at the present time. Mr. L. H. Mor- 

 gan, in his interesting memoir on the classificatory system of relationship 

 ('Proc. American Acad, of Sciences,' vol. vii. Feb. 1868, p. 475) con- 

 cludes that polygamy and all forms of marriage during primeval times 



