THE STUDY OF SEX 11 



Mr. Heape has maintained, that the ancient 

 systems of custom and belief which we know 

 as Exogamy and Totemism are in origin 

 characteristically Male and Female expres- 

 sions respectively. The specialisation of the 

 mother and home-maker made the consolida- 

 tion of the family possible. The division 

 of labour between the sexes increased the 

 likelihood of invention and opened up different 

 lines of occupation, discipline, and culture, 

 which have often crossed and influenced one 

 another. In many ways, intellectual, emo- 

 tional, and ethical, there has been alternate 

 stimulus between the sexes. There has been 

 a mutual culture, and sometimes a mutual 

 degradation. Love and passion have stimu- 

 lated, if not indeed created, music and dance, 

 painting and other arts ; they have been 

 among the mainsprings of poetry ; they have 

 entered into the heart of religion from the 

 widespread ancient phallic worships (which 

 have been too harshly judged, from their 

 defects and vices alone), down to much in the 

 latest cults of to-day. Sex-prompted enthu- 

 siasms have led to high ethical endeavours, 

 as in chivalry and its quests, and even in 

 wars, though these may have left the world 

 the poorer after them. 



To those who may think that we are making 

 too much of the r61e of sex in history we would 

 suggest that they read, for instance, Karl 

 Pearson's Chances of Death. From his interest- 

 ing study of the Aryan terms for sex and 

 kinship, he concludes " that the sex-instinct, 

 as one of the two chief motors of primitive 

 life, has been chiefly instrumental in creating, 



