88 TABOO AND GENETICS 



problem in the human species, then, we must 

 alwa^^s predicate a considerable group of people, 

 with such organization and division of activities 

 as to guarantee that all the processes necessary 

 to survival will be carried on. Sex is a group 

 problem. Considering the mutual interde- 

 pendence and the diversity of activities in 

 human society, to make the generalization that 

 one sex is superior to the other is on a par with 

 saying that roots and branches are superior 

 to trunks and leaves. It is sheer foolishness. 

 Yet oceans of ink have flowed in attempts to 

 establish one or the other of two equally absurd 

 propositions. 



Since the specialization to furnish the intra- 

 maternal environment for the young makes the 

 female part of the reproductive process 

 essentially and unavoidably more burdensome 

 than the male, it results that an economical 

 division of the extra-reproductive activities of 

 any group must throw an unequal share upon 

 the males. This specialization to carry the 

 young during the embryonic period is thus at 

 the base of the division of labour between the 

 sexes. It is the chief factor involved in the 

 problems of sex, and gives rise, directly or 

 indirectly, to most of the others. 



But the sex problem as a whole is one of 

 adaptation as well as of specialization. An 

 incident of the female specialization is a type 



