92 TABOO AND GENETICS 



Through an infinite slaughter of the least fit, 

 such groups arrive at some kind of instinctive 

 adjustment to produce and protect the young. 

 The crudest human intelligence must have elim- 

 inated much of the waste involved, by 

 comprehending obvious cause-and-effect relations 

 which animals have to arrive at through trial 

 and error methods. 



For example, an intelligence capable of em- 

 ploying artificial weapons is also able to see that 

 the wielder of these for group defence cannot 

 be encumbered with baggage or children when 

 the group is in movement. Hence women be- 

 came the burden bearers, and took care of the 

 children, even after the nursing period. War 

 parties could not generally be mixed, for the 

 obvious reasons that such women as did not have 

 young children would be pregnant a good deal 

 of the time, or likely to become so. Moreover, 

 a hunter and fighter must not have his courage, 

 ferocity and physical initiative undermined by 

 unsuitable employments and associations. 



In a semi-settled group, the hunter and 

 warrior cannot be relied upon to keep hearth- 

 fires burning or tend crops, even though he may 

 occasionally have time for such activities. These 

 duties are therefore relegated to the women, 

 whose child-bearing functions impose upon them 

 a more sedentary existence. Women must re- 

 produce practically up to their full capacity to 



