CHAPTER I 



THE PRIMITIVE ATTITUDE TOWARD SEX AND 



WOMANHOOD 



Primitive social control ; Its rigidity ; Its necessity ; 

 Universality of this control in the form of taboos ; 

 Connection between the universal attitude of primitive 

 peoples towards woman as shown in the Institutional- 

 ized Sex Taboo and the magic-rehgious belief in 

 Mana ; Relation of Mana to Taboo ; Discussion 

 of Sympathetic Magic and the associated idea of danger 

 from contact ; Difficulties in the way of an inclusive 

 definition of Taboo ; Its dual nature ; Comparison 

 of concepts of Crawley, Frazer, Marett and others ; 

 Conclusion that Taboo is Negative Mana ; Contribution 

 of modern psychology to the study of Taboo ; Freud's 

 analogy between the dualistic attitude toward the 

 tabooed object and the ambivalence of the emotions ; 

 The understanding of this dualism together with the 

 primitive belief in Mana and Sympathetic Magic 

 explains much in the attitude of man toward woman ; 

 The vast amount of evidence in the taboos of many 

 peoples of dualism in the attitude toward woman. 

 Possible physiological explanation of this dualistic 

 attitude of man toward woman found in a period 

 before self-control had in some measure replaced social 

 control, in the reaction of weakness and disgust follow- 

 ing sex festivals. 



A study of the elaborate, standardized, and 

 authoritative systems of social control found 



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