i88 TABOO AND GENETICS 



prostitute from the sanctuary to the stews and 

 the brothel, where she hves to-day. vShe has 

 become the woman shunned, while the wife and 

 mother who is the centre of the family with its 

 institutional taboos is the sacred woman, loved 

 and revered by men who condemn the prostitute 

 for the very act for which they seek her company. 

 Such is the irrational situation which has come 

 to us as a heritage from the past. 



Among the chief causes which have impelled 

 women into prostitution rather than into family 

 life are the following : (i) Slavery ; (2) poverty ; 

 (3) inclination. These causes have been ex- 

 panded and re-grouped by specialists, but the 

 only addition which the writer sees as necessary 

 in consequence of the study of taboo is the fact 

 that the way of the woman transgressor is 

 pecuHarly hard because of the sex taboo, the 

 ignorance and narrowness of good women, and 

 the economic limitations of all women. Ignor- 

 ance of the results of entrance into a life which 

 usually means abandonment of hope may be a 

 contributing cause. Boredom with the narrow- 

 ness of family life and desire for adventure are 

 also influences. 



That sex desire leads directly to the life of the 

 prostitute is unlikely. The strongly sexed class 

 comes into prostitution by the war of irregular 

 relationships with men to whom they have 

 been attached, and who have abandoned them 



