122 TABOO AND GENETICS 



" sure death," not by the hand of man, but from 

 sheer fright. As a result, just as woman was 

 considered to have both the tendency and power 

 to impart her characteristics through contact, 

 so the sexual act, the acme of contact, became 

 the most potent influence for the emasculation 

 of the male. 



If we wish for proof that the primitive atti- 

 tude toward women was essentially that which 

 we have outlined, we have only to glance at the 

 tj/pical taboos concerning woman found among 

 ancient peoples and among savage races of our 

 own day. Nothing could be more indicative 

 of the belief that the power to bring forth 

 children was a mxanifestation of the possession 

 of mana than the common avoidance of the 

 pregnant woman. Her mystic power is well 

 illustrated by such beliefs as those described by 

 the traveller Im Thurn, who says that the 

 Indians of Guiana believe that if a pregnant 

 woman eat of game caught by hounds, they 

 will never be able to hunt again. Similarly, 

 Alfred Russell Wallace wrote of the aborigines 

 of the Amazon : " They beheve that if a woman 

 during her pregnancy eats of any meat, any other 

 animal partaking of it will suffer ; if a domestic 

 animal or tame bird, it will die ; if a dog, it 

 will be for the future incapable of hunting ; and 

 even a man will be unable to shoot that particu- 

 lar kind of game for the future." (8). In Fiji 



