154 TABOO AND GENETICS 



suggestion. Moreover, because of the emphasis 

 on chastity and the taboos with which she was 

 surrounded, any neurotic tendencies which 

 might be inherent in her nature were sure to 

 be developed to the utmost. 



As Lombroso suggests, hysteria and other 

 neurotic phenomena are classed as evidence of 

 spirit possession by the untutored mind. Thus 

 it happened that observing the strange psychic 

 manifestations to which woman was periodically 

 subject, the ancient peoples endowed her with 

 spiritualistic forces which were sometimes held 

 to be beneficent and at other times malefic in 

 character. Whatever the attitude at any time 

 whether her mana were regarded as evil or 

 benignant, the savage and primitive felt that it 

 was well to be on his guard in the presence of 

 power ; so that the taboos previously outlined 

 would hold through the swing of man's mind 

 from one extreme to the other. 



As goddess, priestess and prophetess, woman 

 continued to play her role in human affairs 

 until the Christian period, when a remarkable 

 transformation took place. The philosophy of 

 dualism that emanated from Persia had affected 

 all the religions of the Mediterranean Basin 

 and had worked its way into Christian beliefs 

 by way of Gnosticism, Manicheanism, and Neo- 

 Platonism. Much of the writing of the church 

 fathers is concerned with the effort to harmonize 



