90 TABOO AND GENETICS 



group, where child mortahty, lack of sanitation, 

 etc., necessitates an average of eight children 

 per woman (instead of three), the biological 

 origin of the division of labour between the 

 sexes is much more clearly seen than it is in 

 civilized societies. 



If men are better hunters or fighters than 

 women, the latter could nevertheless hunt and 

 fight — it is a question of superior or inferior 

 adaptation to particular activities. But it is 

 more than that. Only the women are biologically 

 specialized to the chief reproductive burden 

 (intra-parental environment and lactation). If 

 half the women should withdraw from child- 

 bearing, the remainder would be obhged to 

 average sixteen apiece. But even this is not all. 

 Unfortunately, the half of the women who would 

 be found best adapted to hunting and fighting 

 would be the more vigorous half. The new 

 generation would thus be born from the leftovers, 

 and would be poor quality. Such a division 

 of labour within a group would be fatally foolish 

 and entirely uncalled for — since there are plenty 

 of men adapted to hunting and fighting, but 

 entirely unspecialized to child-bearing and 

 nursing. 



Group survival being the fundamental thing, 

 the group is obliged to develop a division of 

 labour which directs the activities of the 

 individuals composing it to providing for its 



