CULTURAL DETERMINANTS OF BEHAVIOR 



1457 



to orgasm or detumescence or some other in- 

 dex of termination of a genitally localized 

 tension state, but as the entire manifestation 

 during the whole life of those bodily states 

 and acts of initiation and response which 

 contribute to mating and reproduction by 

 phvsicallv mature, child-rearing human 

 beings. 



It is also important to take into account 

 the relationship between a cultural pattern 

 and the individual differences among mem- 

 bers of the society, whether these individual 

 differences are to be attributed to differences 

 in strength of drive, to differences in con- 

 stitution (such as size, physical beauty, 

 etc.) which are given social significance in 

 various ways, or to differences in upbringing 

 which may be variously attributed to fac- 

 tors such as birth order, age of parents, 

 class, rank, or accidents such as being 

 orphaned. We may compare here patterns of 

 sex behavior with patterns of linguistic 

 behavior; any natural language, in contrast 

 to various artificial languages and codes, 

 must be of such a nature that it can be used 

 by every individual in a given society 

 (Mead, 1958), except those severely handi- 

 capped in hearing or in ability to enunciate 

 or learn. The requirements for the pattern- 

 ing of sex behavior are more complex. The 

 culture must provide for the disciplining 

 of sex behavior so that no behavior at any 

 age, by either sex, disturbs the orderly func- 

 tioning of the society to a point of social 

 disruption. If males are reared to respond 

 with sexual advances to naked females of 

 any state of maturation, small female chil- 

 dren must be disciplined into keeping their 

 clothes on in the presence of males. If the 

 courtship and marriage patterns are such 

 that girls are expected to remain unaware 

 of physiologic indices of sex desire until 

 after first intercourse, then rigorous taboos 

 on the manipulation of female children's 

 genitals by adults, older children, or the fe- 

 male children themselves, must be insti- 

 tuted, (cf. the precaution taken in some 

 Catholic countries to have girls clothed even 

 when bathing). If the system of sex be- 

 havior depends on a theory that females do 

 not menstruate except once, at menarche, 

 unless they have had sexual intercourse, 

 then some system (such as a cultivated 

 sense of shame) which will ensure that no 



woman ever discusses menstruation with 

 men is necessary to preserve this belief 

 (Manus, Mead, 1930). If individuals from 

 wholly different cultural backgrounds are to 

 mingle in a large city, police protection to 

 prevent rape will be necessary as it would 

 not be in a small homogeneous community 

 in which rape is virtually impossible. 



Secondly, if the society is to survive, the 

 culture must provide for the disciplining of 

 female receptivity, either by permitting fe- 

 males no opportunity for unconventional 

 responsiveness or by inculcating standards 

 of modesty and sexual ethics which prevent 

 the majority of females from according sex- 

 ual access to males to such a degree that 

 they jeopardize the marriage arrangements 

 through which males are persuaded to as- 

 sume the responsibilities of parenthood. 

 Correspondingly, the culture must channel 

 male activity along socially approved lines, 

 at the same time ensuring types of sexual 

 potency, which will result in the types of 

 reproductivity necessary for that society. ^^ 

 Every human society must deal simultane- 

 ously with two problems: the need for re- 

 ducing reproductivity in particular areas, as 

 among unmarried women or in families 

 larger than the economic arrangements will 

 support, and ensuring or increasing re- 

 productivity in other areas, as among cer- 

 tain classes in the population, etc. Stated in 

 individual terms, females must be reared 

 in such ways that they are receptive enough 

 but not too receptive, men so that they are 

 sexually neither too active nor too disin- 

 terested for reproductivity within author- 

 ized marriage arrangements. These prob- 

 lems may be met in various ways which 

 then define gender roles and differentiation 

 of gender roles: by balancing short periods 

 of sexual license with long periods of mar- 

 riage fidelity (Sumner and Keller, 1927), 



^^ There seems to be no social mechanism which 

 will ensure that a society will develop along lines 

 that make for survival rather than extinction. 

 Although members of the society may recognize 

 the rate of reproductivity which they need, they 

 may pursue some course which is socially suicidal, 

 as, for example, regarding a land shortage as a 

 shortage of people to work the land and so seek 

 population growth when actually population re- 

 striction is indicated, or, as is often done by 

 modern states, linking overpopulation and need 

 for more land to a war economy which demands a 

 higher birthrate. 



