756 TSE DESCENT OF MAN 



pear; for I have elsewhere shown* that negroes fully appre- 

 ciate the importance of selection in the breeding of their do- 

 mestic animals, and I could give from Mr. Eeade additional 

 evidence on this head. 



The Causes which Prevent or Check the Action of Sexual 

 Selection with Savages. — The chief causes are, first, so-called 

 communal marriages or promiscuous intercourse; secondly, 

 the consequences of female infanticide; thirdly, early be- 

 trothals; and lastly, the low estimation in which women are 

 held, as mere slaves. These four points must be considered 

 in some detail. 



It is obvious that as long as the pairing of man, or of any 

 other animal, is left to mere chance, with no choice exerted 

 by either sex, there can be no sexual selection; and no effect 

 will be produced on the offspring by certain individuals hav- 

 ing had an advantage over others in their courtship. Now 

 it is asserted that there exist at the present day tribes which 

 practice what Sir J. Lubbock by courtesy calls communal 

 marriages; that is, all the men and women in the tribe are 

 husbands and wives to one another. The licentiousness of 

 many savages is no doubt astonishing, but it seems to me 

 that more evidence is requisite, before we fully admit that 

 their intercourse is in any case promiscuous. Nevertheless 

 all those who have most closely studied the subject,' and 

 whose judgment is worth much more than mine, believe 

 that communal marriage (this expression being variously 

 guarded) was the original and universal form throughout 



* "The Tariation of Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. i. p. 207. 



' Sir J. Lubbock, "The Origin of Civilization," ISIO, chap, iii., especially 

 pp. 60-61. Mr. M'Lenuan, in his extremely valuable work on "Primitive 

 Marriage," 1865, p. 163, speaks of the union of the sexes "in the earliest times 

 !is loose, transitory, and in some degree promiscuous." Mr. M'Lennau and Sir 

 J. Lubbock have collected much evidence on the extreme licentiousness of sav- 

 ages at the present time. Mr. L. H. Morgan, in his interesting memoir on the 

 classificatory system of relationship ("Proc. American Acad, of Sciences," vol. 

 vii., Feb. 1868, p. 475), concludes that polygamy and all forms of marriage 

 during primeval times were essentially unknown. It appears also,. from Sir J. 

 Lubbock's work, thai Bachofen likewise believes that communal intercourse 

 originally prevailed. 



