TABOO AND GENETICS ^7 



specialization, absolutely necessary to the sur- 

 vival of human groups, is either present or it 

 is absent in a given individual. Any attempt 

 to formulate a general proposition about superi- 

 ority either attaches purely arbitrary values 

 to different kinds of activity or is absurd from 

 the standpoint of the most elementary logic. 



From the standpoint of biology, reproduction 

 is not an individual but a group problem, 

 however many problems of detail it may give 

 rise to in individual lives. Sex involves the 

 division of the reproductive process, without 

 the exercise of which any human group would 

 perish very shortly, into two complementary, 

 mutually necessary but unequal parts. (This 

 statement applies only to the reproductive 

 process, as obviously the male and female 

 gametes contribute equally to the formation 

 of the new individual). Neither part (the male 

 or the female) of this process is more necessary 

 than the other, both being absolutely necessary. 

 But the female specialization for furnishing the 

 intra-maternal environment makes her share 

 more burdensome. 



Biologically considered, not even two indi- 

 viduals (male and female), together with their 

 offspring, can be more than an arbitrary " unit " 

 as concerns sex, since inbreeding eventually 

 impoverishes the stock. Hence outcrosses are 

 necessary. To intelligibly consider the sex 



