TABOO AND GENETICS 127 



used by them during this seclusion are burned. 

 (20). The Ewe-speaking people think a mother 

 and babe unclean for forty days after childbirth. 

 (24). At menstruation and childbirth a Chippe- 

 way wife may not eat with her husband ; she 

 must cook her food at a separate fire, since any 

 one using her fire would fall ill. (10 : v. ii, 

 p. 457). The Alaskan explorer Dall found that 

 among the Kaniagmuts a woman was considered 

 unclean for several days both after delivery and 

 menstruation ; in either case no one may touch 

 her and she is fed with food at the end of a stick. 

 (25). Amongst the tribes of the Hindu Kush 

 the mother is considered unclean for seven days 

 after the birth of her child, and no one will eat 

 from her hand nor will she suckle her infant 

 during that period. In the Oxus valley north 

 of the Hindu Kush the period is extended to 

 fort}^ days. (26.) 



This attitude which primitive man takes 

 toward woman at the time of her sexual crises 

 — menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth — are but 

 an intensification of the feeling which he has 

 toward her at all times. Conflicting with his 

 natural erotic inclinations are the emotions of 

 awe and fear which she inspires in him as the 

 potential source of contagion, for there is always 

 some doubt as to her freedom from bad magic, 

 and it is much safer to regard her as unclean. 

 (27). Thus the every-day life of savage tribes 



