THE INTEGRATION OF THE SEXES — MARRIAGE 267 



ground in assuming that one of the distinguishing charac- 

 teristics of the species Homo sapiens is his biological equip- 

 ment for group life. We may also agree with those who 

 regard human community Hfe as an expression of man's 

 original nature. Of course, it is not the mere matter of 

 Hving in a community that distinguished man, since some 

 other Hving forms maintain such group hfe; rather should 

 we bear in mind that the human community is in many 

 respects unique, at least, easily distinguishable from others. 

 Looked at from the outside a savage community is an 

 inbreeding, self-contained, group of human beings. The 

 number of males rarely differs markedly from the number 

 of females, on the average scarcely at all. In the discussion 

 of the sex ratio, the relatively small differences between 

 the number of males and females is given its due, but 

 considered from the standpoint of our problem, we are 

 justified in ignoring these smaller constant and local differ- 

 ences, at least for the present. So, one of the primordial 

 biological conditions in group life is the division of the 

 community into halves, one of which is male and the other 

 female. It is now quite the fashion to insist that rationaliza- 

 tion is something unreal and that it plays no part in the 

 shaping of social affairs; so we shall not say that savage 

 man rationalized on this matter. What we do propose is 

 that there is in anatomy, physiology, and behavior, such 

 an objective cleavage between the sexes, that human beings, 

 being what they are, could not help responding to it. Nor 

 could they well ignore what was always present and observ- 

 able. It appears, then, that sex is one of the most natural 

 objective lines of cleavage in a community. Consistent with 

 this are the sharply defined distinctions between what 

 women and men may or may not do. The line of sex cleavage 

 cross-sections the life of the community, and, whether 

 rationalized or not, it functions. In one way, it seems that 

 man has improved upon nature by widening the gap between 

 the sexes, by such secondary developments as costume, 

 division of labor, and social procedure. On the other hand, 

 there are evidences everywhere of more or less successful 

 integration of function within the group. One form of such 

 integration is marriage, the mated pair, and it is the knitting 



