128 TABOO AND GENETICS 



is hedged in by all manner of restrictions con- 

 cerning the females of their group. The men 

 have their own dwelling in many instances, where 

 no woman may enter. So, too, she may be 

 barred out from the temples and excluded from 

 the rehgious ceremonies when men worship their 

 deity. There are people who will not permit 

 the women of their nation to touch the weapons, 

 clothing, or any other possessions of the men, 

 or to cook their food, lest even this indirect 

 contact result in emasculation. The same idea 

 of sympathetic magic is at the root of taboos 

 which forbid the wife to speak her husband's 

 name, or even to use the same dialect. With 

 social intercourse debarred, and often no common 

 table even in family life, it is veritably true that 

 men and women belong to two castes. 



Of the primitive institution known as the 

 " men's house," Hutton Webster says : " Sexual 

 separation is further secured and perpetuated 

 by the institution known as the men's house, 

 of which examples are to be found among 

 primitive peoples throughout the world. It is 

 usually the largest building in a tribal settle- 

 ment . . . Here the most precious belongings 

 of the community, such as trophies and religious 

 emblems, are preserved. Within its precincts 

 . . . women and children . . . seldom or never 

 enter . . . Family huts serve as little more than 

 resorts for the women and children." (28). 



