154 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



with puberty and marriage rites having fecundation for 

 their object, avowed or inferential, with the prohibitions 

 at piiberty and on other occasions for the purpose of 

 avoiding irregular fecundation, and lastly with the 

 positive beliefs current among various peoples as to the 

 fecundation of certain of the lower animals and even of 

 women by other than the natural means. 1 All are of 

 the same origin : stories practices and beliefs are all 

 inexplicably interwoven into one pattern. From their 

 consideration we are justified in concluding that it 

 was a widespread belief in early times that pregnancy 

 was caused otherwise than by sexual intercourse. 



Such a conclusion would be startling if the belief 

 we suppose had arisen in the midst of a civilised 

 society. It originated in an intellectual atmosphere 

 very different from that of modern civilisation. But the 

 difference of the intellectual atmosphere is not alone 

 sufficient to account for it : a difference of social 

 environment is also required. The general result of 

 anthropological evidence is to lead to the conviction 

 that mankind has evolved from a state socially as well 

 as mentally more backward than that of the lowest 

 savages now extant. To form an opinion on the 

 social conditions in which the belief in conception, and 

 consequently birth, by other than the natural cause 

 originated, it is necessary to undertake an inquiry 

 into certain social regulations and practices in the 

 lower culture. 



1 Of all these we have given examples. The argument would 

 have been strengthened if space had permitted a consideration of 

 agricultural rites. Fields and fruit-trees are often treated in a 

 manner analogous to the treatment of barren women. The treat- 

 ment of many of the lower animals by similar methods has been 

 noticed incidentally. 



