TABOO AND GENETICS 177 



of the woman shunned, of the remote woman 

 goddess, and of the witch, transmit the ancient 

 forms by which woman has been expected to 

 shape her Hfe. 



It may seem a far cry from the savage taboo 

 to the institutional hfe of the present ; but the 

 patterns of our social hfe, hke the infantile 

 patterns on which adult life shapes itself, go 

 back to an immemorial past. Back in the early 

 life of the peoples from which we spring is the 

 taboo, and in our own life there are customs so 

 analogous to many of these ancient prohibitions 

 that they must be accounted survivals of old 

 social habits just as the vestigial structures 

 within our bodies are the remnants of our 

 biological past. 



The modern preaching concerning woman's 

 sphere, for example, is an obvious descendant 

 of the old taboos which enforced the division 

 of labour between the sexes. Just as it formerly 

 was death for a woman to approach her hus- 

 band's weapons, so it has for a long time been 

 considered a disgrace for her to attempt to 

 compete with man in his Une of work. Only 

 under the pressure of modern industrialism and 

 economic necessity has this ancient taboo been 

 broken down, and even now there is some 

 reluctance to recognize its passing. The exigen- 

 cies of the world war have probably done more 

 than any other one thing to accelerate the dis- 



N 



