140 TABOO AND GENETICS 



ceremonial, some act of purification, could man 

 hope to counteract these properties of woman ; 

 and thus the marriage ritual came into existence. 

 By the marriage ceremonial, the breach of 

 taboo was expiated, condoned, and socially 

 countenanced, (i : p. 200). This was very 

 evident in the marriage customs of the Greeks, 

 which were composed of purification rites and 

 other precautions. (55). The injunctions to the 

 Hebrews given in Leviticus illustrate the almost 

 universal fact that even under the sanction of 

 marriage the sexual embrace was taboo at cer- 

 tain times, as for example before the hunt or 

 battle. 



We are now prepared to admit that through- 

 out the ages there has existed a strongly 

 dualistic or " ambivalent " feeling in the mind of 

 man toward woman. On the one hand she is 

 the object of erotic desire ; on the other hand 

 she is the source of evil and danger. So firmly 

 is the latter feeling fixed that not even the 

 sanction of the marriage ceremony can com- 

 pletely remove it, as the taboos on intercourse 

 within the marital relationship show. 



There are certain psychological and physi- 

 ological reasons for the persistence of this 

 dualistic attitude in the very nature of the sex 

 act itself. Until the climax of the sexual 

 erethism, woman is for man the acme of supreme 

 desire ; but with detumescence the emotions 



