Sex and Culture, J. D. Unwin, 1934

Sex and Culture, J. D. Unwin, 1934
Excerpts:

Professor W. McDougall puts the matter in clear terms when he says that 'the interval between the modern man of scientific culture and the average citizen of our modern states is far greater than that between the latter and the savage'. (p. 101)

The Samoans and the Tongans demanded the tokens of virginity, and their cultural condition conformed to the same pattern as that of those Melanesian, African, and American societies which had adopted the same custom. The Maori, on the other hand, allowed a girl who had not been betrothed to indulge in free pre-nuptial intercourse, a betrothed girl, taumou, being expected to confine her sexual qualities to her betrothed. The cultural behaviour of the Maori differed from that of the Samoans and the Tongans, and was similar to that of those Melanesian and African societies whose pre-nuptial regulations afforded a similar sexual opportunity. Thus it is becoming clear that (1) in a similar geographical environment a higher or lower cultural condition accompanies a lesser or a greater sexual opportunity, (2) in different geographical environments a similar cultural condition accompanies a similar sexual opportunity. (pp. 71-72)

The point I wish to make is that among the eighty societies with which we are concerned there is no evidence that 'every rock and hill', &c, was peopled with an indwelling spirit. Indeed, it is certain that these uncivilized men did not think in that manner. The ubiquity of 'spirits' is a false inference from the fact that the word translated 'spirits' was applied to many unusual, supernormal, uncomprehended natural phenomena. To the undeveloped intelligence of the savage these outstanding phenomena seem to have possessed a common quality. It is the word which denoted this quality which cannot be translated into a civilized tongue. No civilized equivalent exists. The conception of and reaction against the strange quality in anything unusual or beyond comprehension seems to be the basis of all human culture, civilized or uncivilized. And any one who possesses this key to the understanding of human conceptions will not be surprised, indeed he will predict, that whenever there is an advance in the knowledge of the physical universe, a revolution in ideas must necessarily follow. The word which uncivilized men used to denote the quality in anything unusual or beyond comprehension was used in a variety of contexts. It was applied to an unusual or uncomprehended sickness as well as to unusual natural phenomena. It was also used in reference to a corpse or the dead or ghosts or some ghosts. (The evidence in connexion with the dead is a little complicated.) It was also applied to an unusual man, to a man in an unusual condition and to a man of unusual ability. (p. 89)

We return to the experimental society. So far we have energized it by a complete reduction of its pre-nuptial opportunity, first in two stages, then in one stage, and by placing varying limitations on its post-nuptial opportunity. In order to make it display expansive energy, we reduced its sexual opportunity to a minimum. Now let us retain that opportunity at a minimum for at least three generations. The society now begins to display such energy as the world has seldom seen. Indeed, among the societies we have discussed, there are only three indisputable instances of such behaviour. I refer to the Athenians, Romans, and English. When I compared certain aspects of the universal process with certain aspects of the cultural process, I noticed one detail in which the events in these processes differed. A star, for instance, seems to begin by having a large mass and a low density; the effect of its radiation is to reduce its mass and to increase its density. After inconceivable aeons have passed, its component atoms are locked together against one another. At first, we are told, it squanders its energy profusely, like any youth; then the pace  slackens ; and in the end the star emits energy in the mature, measured manner that we associate with old age. The opposite is the case with a human society. We begin with a number of individuals locked together by their uniform ideas and behaviour. The first energizing, painful though it is (para. 163), produces few cultural results; with subsequent energizings cultural effects become more noticeable; under the influence of still greater sexual checks, the society bursts its boundaries, conquers, slays, subdues, and explores; but, if this intense continence remains part of the inherited tradition for two generations, the energy increases abundantly, changes its form, and displays attributes which up to now remained hidden. The energy increases, indeed, in what seems to be geometrical progression. The society expands in all its multifarious activities, exhibits a terrific mental energy that is manifest in the arts and sciences, refines its craftsmanship, changes its opinions on every conceivable subject, exerts considerable control over its environment, and manifests its potential powers in the loftiest forms yet known. Its inherited tradition is augmented by the products of its abundant energy, and refined by human entropy. A rationalistic stratum separates itself from the main body and forms another belt outside the deistic one (Figs. F, G). The cultural state of such a society can also be represented by a cone, with a rationalistic top, a deistic centre, perhaps a manistic stratum too, and a zoistic base (Figs. F, G). Such is the manner in which human energy seems to be produced and exerted. In the past no human society has displayed great energy for an extended period. Moreover, societies which have displayed it have always been dominated by the stratum which manifested the greatest relative energy. No society has ever aimed at displaying energy for its own sake; every burst of energy seems to have been fortuitous. Furthermore, no man has yet proved that human energy is a desirable thing. All we know is that in the past it has been displayed in uneven quantities, and that the amount displayed by any society has varied from time to time. In the past, too, the greatest energy has been displayed only by those societies which have reduced their sexual opportunity to a minimum by the adoption of absolute monogamy (para. 168). In every case the women and children were reduced to the level of legal nonentities, sometimes also to the level of chattels, always to the level of mere appendages of the male estate. Eventually they were freed from their disadvantages, but at the same time the sexual opportunity of the society was extended. Sexual desires could then be satisfied in a direct or perverted manner; no dissatisfaction demanded an outlet; no emotional stress arose. So the energy of the society decreased, and then disappeared. (pp. 430-432)

Although the external properties of any chemical element are simply the outward expression of its structure, it may be either stable or unstable. If in each atom the number of sentinel electrons (as they are sometimes called) produces equilibrium, the atom will be stable, and the element inert, inactive. Helium seems to be an example of an inert, inactive element. But if the atom has one sentinel electron too many, or one too few, it is unstable. Under such conditions the inherent nature of the atom seems to be such that its unsatisfied requirements, positive or negative, must be satisfied; so the atom or the element combines with another atom or element which has an opposite charge unsatisfied. As a result of this combination, a new event in the universal process comes into existence. An event in the cultural process is created in a similar manner. By virtue of its inherent nature each human organism possesses certain requirements which must be satisfied. If the members of any society have no unsatisfied requirements, the society is stable, inert, inactive; but, if some of the requirements are unsatisfied, it is restless and unstable. If the unsatisfied requirements are those of hunger and thirst, the society is likely to stampede, but it settles down again as soon as its hunger is appeased, its thirst quenched. If, however, the unsatisfied requirements are those of sex, and if these cannot be directly satisfied, some satisfaction must be sought elsewhere. And the evidence is that the effect of this dissatisfaction is to awaken the potential powers to which I have referred, and to create what I have called human energy. As a result of a display of this energy, uniquely human, the society rises in the cultural scale. No such rise occurs, or apparently can occur, unless a sexual requirement is unsatisfied; but as soon as there is any sexual dissatisfaction (biological fitness being assumed, para. 160), a rise in the cultural scale must occur. Conversely, if, after a period of dissatisfaction, complete direct satisfaction becomes the rule, the energy of the society begins to decrease, and the society falls in the cultural scale. (p. 424)

The history of the Arabs affords the best illustration of these complications. The Arabs are an authenticated instance of a society which, after permitting pre-nuptial intercourse, instituted pre-nuptial chastity, reduced its sexual opportunity to a minimum, displayed some expansive energy, faltered under the influence of absolute polygamy, and then, by marrying women of other societies, increased its energy again and again. Among the early Arabs women were not compelled to be pre-nuptially chaste; but, in the generations that immediately preceded the birth of Mohammed, they began to replace mot'a marriage by baal marriage. Pre-nuptial chastity being introduced, the Arabs necessarily became deistic. Moreover, the effect of baal marriage was to create some expansive energy, for at first baal marriage reduced the post-nuptial opportunity of the males to a minimum; but, when this marital authority became part of the inherited tradition of a new generation, the question arose, Of how many women could a man be baal} It is clear that the problem was being  discussed when the Prophet was alive, for he published an explicit answer to the question. After charging his followers to 'reverence the wombs' that bore them, he said, 'And if ye are apprehensive that ye shall not deal fairly . . . marry but two, or three, or four; and if ye still fear that ye shall not deal fairly, then but one only.' The energy created by baal marriage carried the Arabs to Egypt, but they were unable to proceed farther. They stayed in Egypt for more than a generation, and there married Christian women, who had not only been reared in an atmosphere of intense continence but also encouraged, perhaps commanded, to adopt a life-long virginity. The sons of these women conquered North Africa. Then Berber men under Berber leaders led the way to Spain; and there once more the Arabs married Christian women, and Jewish women too. Soon an incipient rationalism began to appear, and flourished spasmodically for two, perhaps for three, centuries. It failed to mature greatly, however, for soon there were no more women who had been reared in an atmosphere of intense sexual continence. (pp. 429-430)

Again, in the universal process certain radio-active elements emit energy, and transform themselves. Thus uranium becomes thorium, then radium; from radium comes an emanation. From this fact physicists have concluded that it may be theoretically possible to transmute elements artificially, and from radium emanation to produce lead, from lead mercury, and from mercury gold. Similarly, in the past, human societies have continually transmuted their cultural condition, fortuitously; but theoretically it seems possible to transmute, consciously and artificially, the culture of any society, simply by decreasing or increasing the amount of its energy. It might even be possible to change the structure of a society in such a way that it would display energy unceasingly. In that case it would appear that every subsequent change in its cultural condition would be in the Direction of the Cultural Process. (p. 423)

In the study of human history this is not always remembered; yet a few examples make it clear. When we speak, for instance, of Hellenic culture, we refer either to a few rich rationalists who left Asia Minor and settled in Hellas and Italy or to a few notable Athenians; we overlook the thousands of less cultivated Ionians who preserved their old superstitions and submitted to the Persians; we also forget the number of less developed Athenians who did not understand the anger of Euripides or the taunts of Aristophanes. Again, when we speak of modern architecture, we refer to a few isolated buildings, or to the plans of buildings that are contemplated or hoped for; we forget the vast acreage that groans under bungaloid and other growths that no cultivated architect could ever have conceived or proud craftsman ever have built. It is the same with any society. The number of those by whose behaviour we assess its cultural state bears a small proportion to the whole society; and in the past the higher the society has risen in the cultural scale the smaller has been the proportion of those who have reached the highest cultural heights. (pp. 420-421)

The second primary law applies only to those societies which manifest productive energy. It is this: No society can display productive social energy unless a new generation inherits a social system under which sexual opportunity is reduced to a minimum. If such a system be preserved a richer and yet richer tradition will be created, refined by human entropy. There is no need for the whole society to suffer the same continence. So long as the sexual opportunity of one social stratum is maintained at a minimum, the society will display productive energy. (p. 414)

If I were asked to define a sophist, I should describe him as a man whose conclusion does not follow from his premise. Sophistry is appreciated only by those among whom human entropy is disappearing; they mistake it for sound reasoning. It flourishes among those people who have extended their sexual opportunity after a period of intense compulsory continence. (p. 413)

Such, in brief but sufficient outline, were the postnuptial regulations of these vigorous societies; such were their methods of regulating the relations between the sexes. In each case they reduced their sexual opportunity to a minimum by the adoption of absolute monogamy; in each case the ensuing compulsory continence produced great social energy. The group within the society which suffered the greatest continence displayed the greatest energy, and dominated the society. When absolute monogamy was preserved only for a short time, the energy was only expansive, but when the rigorous tradition was inherited by a number of generations the energy became productive. As soon as the institution of modified monogamy, that is, marriage and divorce by mutual consent, became part of the inherited tradition of a complete new generation, the energy, either of the whole society or of a group within the society, decreased, and then disappeared. It is in this manner that the behaviour of these societies was controlled by their methods of regulating the relation between the sexes. In no case was sexual opportunity reduced to a minimum unless married women, and usually unmarried women also, were compelled to suffer legal and social  disadvantages. The manner in which the marital and parental authorities were modified was the same in each society. In every case the same situations arose; the same sentiments were expressed; the same changes were made; the same results ensued. The history of these societies consists of a series of monotonous repetitions; and it is difficult to decide which aspect of the story is the more significant: the lamentable lack of original thought which in each case the reformers displayed, or the amazing alacrity with which, after a period of intense compulsory continence, the human organism seizes the earliest opportunity to satisfy its innate desires in a direct or perverted manner. Sometimes a man has been heard to declare that he wishes both to enjoy the advantages of high culture and to abolish compulsory continence. The inherent nature of the human organism, however, seems to be such that these desires are incompatible, even contradictory. The reformer may be likened to the foolish boy who desires both to keep his cake and to consume it. Any human society is free to choose either to display great energy or to enjoy sexual freedom; the evidence is that it cannot do both for more than one generation. (pp. 411-412)

Married women were granted rights over their estates in 1870; in 1882 they were empowered to contract, acquire, and to do all other things relating to their separate property.711 And just as private practice preceded the public renunciation of ancient custom by Riho-riho, king of Hawaii (para. 48), and just as in their private lives the English nobility anticipated the legal extension of their sexual opportunity, so also the English middle classes took matters into their private hands. By their behaviour they assumed the legal equality of the sexes before it had been legally enacted; and they accepted without comment the greater laxity in sexual conduct which in public was not acknowledged until a generation later. Before the middle of the twentieth century a modified monogamy had become general throughout the society; and, just as under the same conditions marriage became unpopular among the Athenians and Romans, so among the English middle classes there were many men who preferred a mistress to a' wife. Middle-class dramatists presented to middle-class audiences the same sentiments and the same situations as those which Congreve and Webster had treated according to the manner of their time; the captions of the daily press repeated the same shallow sentiments as had amused the fourth-century Athenians. Except among those who preserved a dying tradition, pre-nuptial chastity was neither demanded by the males nor practised by the females; homosexuality was not unknown. Furthermore sexual freedom was accompanied by one of its usual manifestations, namely, the artificial prevention of conception. Casuists to the last, however, in anything that concerned sexual matters, the English did not openly express their desire to indulge in sexual intercourse without the risk of the Organic results that so often attend it; they preferred to justify their use of contraceptives by professing a concern for the abundance of the population. (p. 411)

We have already seen (para. 172) that married women had ceased to be recognized as legal entities; likewise the parental authority had been reinforced. Thus the sexual opportunity of the English was reduced to a minimum, the stringent law being accompanied by the same marital and parental authorities as among the early Babylonians, Athenians, Romans, and Anglo-Saxons. The English were deistic and monarchical. Soon they began to display tremendous social energy. They founded the greatest empire which the world had ever seen, established a large foreign commerce, sent out colonists to every part of the world, and conquered less energetic nations. Later they displayed productive as well as expansive energy; the most developed cultural stratum became rationalistic. Thenceforward the changes in their method of regulating the relations between the sexes, and consequently the changes in their cultural condition, were the same as those with which we are now familiar. After the ruling clan had lost its energy, a powerful minority dominated the society. When the aristocrats had modified their absolute monogamy, they lost their supremacy to the rising middle classes, who preserved (or adopted) Pauline absolute monogamy. Nominally until the nineteenth century marriage was indissoluble; but throughout their history the English were casuists in any matter which concerned the relation between husband and wife, and, by passing a special bill through a parliament which they dominated, the nobles proclaimed the dissolution of the indissoluble bond. In the middle of the nineteenth century the control of post-nuptial regulations was transferred from the ecclesiastical to the civil authorities, a special court being created for the hearing of matrimonial causes. Once again absolute monogamy had proved itself an intolerable institution. Then the middle classes in their turn discarded their rigorous habits. Less stringent sexual customs began to prevail. By the twentieth century marriage and divorce by mutual consent was the theory, and, among the rich and the brave, the practice. Meanwhile married women were freed from their legal disadvantages; but, having obtained some legal recognition, the English married women do not appear to have demanded, even if they desired, the cancellation of the marital authority which a husband still enjoyed, and the testamentary power of the male was not qualified. The parental authority was limited, special courts being empowered to override a father's decision; but no widow and no child had any legal claim on the estate. This was one of the details in which the English were less advanced than, for example, the Babylonians and the Anglo-Saxons. Towards the middle of the twentieth century some failure of nerve was apparent throughout the society; there were signs, too, that the middle classes were losing their supremacy. No further records are available, and the productive energy of the English remained tremendous, for marriage, sexual intercourse, and divorce by mutual consent had not become part of the inherited tradition of a complete new generation. Indeed the majority of the population still insisted on some degree of compulsory continence. Evidence is not lacking, however, that such customs were falling into desuetude. Those noble families who preserved the old tradition maintained their position as national leaders. (p. 406-407)

The Roman historian, Tacitus, writing about the end of the first century, has described the social condition of some of the tribes, but we do not know from which area his information was collected. As if contrasting by implication the habits of the Teutons with those of his own contemporaries, Tacitus says that the Teutons did not laugh at vice, nor regard it as the fashion to corrupt and be corrupted. For a woman to limit the number of her offspring, he adds, was accounted 'infamous', 'good habits here being more effectual than good laws elsewhere'. These absolutely monogamous Teutons overran the Western Roman Empire, and founded new kingdoms throughout western Europe; but so deep an impression had the gravitas of Rome made upon them that, even after capturing the city and conquering the Western Empire, some of them acknowledged the suzerainty of Rome. (p. 400)

Soon the emancipation of women received official sanction. The parental authority also was abolished almost completely. Gradually the old forms of government, outwardly preserved, ceased to function. The comitia lost even the shadow of authority; it was simply incapable of possessing it. It was the same with the senate. 'There can be little doubt', Sir Samuel Dill observes, 'that there were men who dreamed of a restored senatorial power. It is equally certain that the senate was incapable of asserting it.' The extension of sexual opportunity had done its work. The Romans satisfied their sexual desires in a direct manner. Consequently they had no energy for anything else. In some parts of the Empire, however, the old Roman traditions were preserved. In Italy, Gaul, Illyria, and Spain, the old idea of the family was still put into practice. The ladies even did their hair in the old-fashioned way, long discarded by those who lived in the city. The sons of these women went to Rome, succeeded to high office, and controlled the Empire. They entered the senate and restored some of its old authority. From this provincial stock came Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines. It is often supposed that in the second century the Roman Empire was at its strongest. These provincials were the men who gave it strength, conditions in the provinces being such as to produce social energy. Then in their turn the provincials reversed the habits of their fathers by extending their sexual opportunity. Paederasty also was not unknown. The lack of energy displayed by their sons and grandsons is apparent in the records of the third century. Yet once more there emerged a group of men who had spent their early years in an atmosphere of compulsory continence. I mean the Christians. They had survived many violent persecutions; eventually they dominated the Empire, which in the fourth century recovered the strength it had shown in the second century. The Edict of Milan may have been a political move, but Constantine was right in thinking that the Christians were the men on whom he should rely. (p. 398-399)

In early times some of the plebeians seem to have married by cohabitation, simply. Some authorities maintain that such cohabitation was a survival of forcible abduction and that in course of time capture gave way to mutual consent. However that may be, there was no compulsory continence about the sexual union, a separated couple being regarded as no longer married. Naturally such a custom was severely condemned by the patricians, who made no secret of their disgust; but since among them any property which had been held for a year became legally acquired (in rnanu), they appear to have held that a woman who had lived with a man for a year automatically incurred manus. Thus in the Twelve Tables it was enacted that cohabitation for a year produced manus. Yet plainly from the plebeian point of view this decision contravened the fundamental character of the union, so (apparently this was the reason) the trinoctium was introduced, by means of which it was ordained that if a woman wished to escape manus she must absent herself for three successive nights in each year. In this manner the conflicting points of view were adjusted, for the patricians were unable to conceive of marriage without manus, and the device of the trinoctium was their method of giving legal recognition to the customs of the despised plebs. Thus before the fifth century the compulsory continence suffered by the plebeians was less than that of the patricians. Immediately after the publication of the Twelve Tables the former began to discard their old customs (if indeed they had not done so already) and to adopt those of the patricians, including confarreatio. First they gained the right of  intermarriage. This was the most significant revolution of all, but the privilege was not obtained without difficulty, the loose character of plebeian sexual regulations being the point at issue. It was only after 'much strong language,' Muirhead says, 'much contemptuous denunciation of the  looseness of the matrimonial relations of the lower order, sanctioned by no auspices, and hallowed by no sacrifice, and much declamation, more or less sincere, about the divinity of the commonwealth, that the patricians accepted the motion'. There is no evidence that the patricians ever compromised in any way. Indeed it is certain that they adhered to their principles. The evidence is that they permitted the plebeians to take public office only after the latter had discarded marriage by usus and adopted confarreatio. This is proved by the passing of the Lex Ogulnia (300 B.C.). This law enabled a plebeian to be pontifex maximus. Now no man was allowed to hold that high office unless he was the son of a woman married by confarreatio and unless his own marriage had been sanctified by the same holy rite. Thus for two generations at least before 300 B.C. (say sixty years) some plebeians must have been married in that manner, and, moreover, the number of plebeian confarreatio marriages cannot have been small, for, if only a small minority of the plebeians had adopted confarreatio, the patricians would hardly have passed the Lex Ogulnia. The dates on which the various public offices were thrown open reveal the fact that the patricians never accepted plebeian officials until, from the patrician point of view, the plebeians had mended their ways. After the patricians were convinced of plebeian orthodoxy, however, plebeian successes were continuous, they being admitted to the consulate in 367, to the dictatorship in 356, and to the censorship in 350; but even though the praetorship was opened in 360 no plebeian succeeded to that important office until 337, so reluctant were the patricians to permit any break with the old traditions. By the end of the fourth century the extended populus Romanus was absolutely monogamous, homogeneous, deistic, and extremely energetic. (395-396)

Such was the compulsory continence, such the severe discipline, suffered by the men who expelled the reges and assumed control of Rome. It is difficult to imagine a more complete reduction of sexual opportunity or a more rigid cancellation of personal impulses. To the period of patrician domination belong the stories of Cincinnatus, Coriolanus, Camillus, and Cloelia. It was the patricians who defended Rome against the Tuscans and who gained the victory of Lake Regillus. They gave Rome her gravitas. Their honourable dealings became proverbial as the pistis ton 'Pomaion (as the Hellenistic people called it), which towards the end of the Republic disappeared. Before the fifth century there had been no written law. The fas was an oral heritage, handed on from one generation to another. Soon the plebeians, having gained some standing by virtue of their membership of the comitia centuriata, seem to have complained both of their ignorance of the law and of the uneven justice with which they were treated. The patricians replied by a contemptuous reference to the loose sexual behaviour of the plebs. (p. 394)

I have said that when a society changes its sexual regulations the same sentiments are always expressed. The point is well illustrated by the literature of the fourth century B.C. Thus, when first the girls insisted on choosing their own husbands, the parents first used the familiar arguments concerning modesty and maidenly shame; in the fifth century these had been extolled as the greatest of feminine virtues. In a significant dialogue a middle-class mother is depicted as remonstrating with her daughter who announces her inability to control her desire for a certain man. The mother suggests a dose of hellebore (an alleged cure for insanity). It became the custom, too, for middle-class women to embellish their features by means of artificial devices. This is a constant theme in contemporary literature. Of a lady who delighted in these factitious aids to beauty, it is said: 'And with frequent glances she surveyed her person and looked to see if others noticed her.' This kind of literature would have been quite impossible in the fifth century. Alexis remarked that no sensible man ever married; his nephew, Menander, seems to have shared his views. Doubtless, too, when they coined the following epigrams the later dramatists were giving their public what it wanted: 'marriage is worse than disenfranchisement'; 'why do girls prefer old wine but young men'; 'love is a severe god, especially to the old'; 'the sudden effects of a kiss'; 'a respectable woman does not dye her hair'; 'a wife is an expensive luxury'. Such bright little sayings could be quoted almost indefinitely from the Middle Comedy. They illustrate the shallow superficiality of the Athenians who were conquered by Philip. (pp. 391-392)

The evidence, such as it is, suggests that among the Athenian aristocracy of the sixth century a less intense sexual continence was suffered than formerly. Towards the end of that century the aristocrats began to lose their supremacy; by the middle of the fifth century the sovereign power had been transferred to those whom the once energetic aristocrats had dominated for at least two, possibly for three, centuries. Meanwhile the monogamy of the lower classes remained absolute. Apparently some of them had retained the habit of selling their womenfolk, for Solon forbade the practice. Anyway the old rigours were preserved. At the time when the aristocratic ladies were enjoying considerable freedom, the ordinary Athenian girl was still brought up in the strictest seclusion. Her very existence pointed towards her ultimate fate, for the Athenians did not hesitate to expose an unwanted female child. A girl's marriage was arranged by her legal guardian (kurios), and when she was about fifteen or sixteen she was handed to her husband. A special part of the house was set aside for her; to those rooms she was confined. She was not present when her husband entertained his guests, and her activities outside the house were limited to participation in religious festivals. She was not allowed to walk the streets unaccompanied; even if she was seen looking out of a window, she was shamed. It was to the sons of these women that the sovereign power was transferred; it was their sons who defeated the Persians at Marathon and at Salamis; they were the mothers of the men who displayed such tremendous mental and productive energy that their influence on human thought, religion, architecture, and aspirations is still felt by the Western European, two thousand four hundred years later. For a time the Athenians remained deistic; then their most developed cultural stratum became rationalistic. By the end of the fifth century, however, the old customs had disappeared, the sexual opportunity of both sexes being extended. There was no compulsory continence; sexual desires could be satisfied in a direct manner. Divorce became easy and common; paederasty appeared; the men possessed mistresses as well as wives; the women broke bounds, consoling themselves with both wine and clandestine love-affairs. The energy of the Athenians declined. Three generations later the once vigorous city, torn by dissension, was subject to a foreign master. (pp. 389-390)

We do not possess the complete Code, so all the details of subsequent legislation are not known to us; but in the days of the last independent kings of Ur the same conditions prevailed as among the Babylonians in the time of Hammurabi. Women, from being legal nonentities, had become free and equal citizens; they could possess real estate; they could contract, administer, buy, and sell. They were granted a definite legal status, and could appeal to the court in their own names. A wife could even prosecute her husband. Sons and daughters married without their parents' consent. Adultery, punished in the old days by drowning, was regarded with more lenience. The introduction of these customs was followed by the fall of the great Sumerian race. Even at the end of Shulgi's reign the Semites were  becoming restless. Later Gimil-sin built a great wall in a futile attempt to keep them back; but the Sumerians were in rapid decline. Their energetic days were done. They had reduced their sexual opportunity to a minimum and, displaying tremendous energy, flourished greatly; they then extended their sexual opportunity, and declined. (p. 386)

The inhabitants of the village of Babylon came from Amurru. They reduced their sexual opportunity to a minimum and, displaying tremendous energy, flourished greatly; they then extended their sexual opportunity, and declined. (p. 385)

In my survey of the facts the points I wish to make are:
1. that when they began to display great social energy the societies had reduced their sexual opportunity by the adoption of absolute monogamy;
2. that in each case the society was dominated by the group which displayed the greatest relative energy;
3. that as soon as the sexual opportunity of the society, or of a group within the society, was extended, the energy of the society, or of the group within it, decreased and finally disappeared;
4. that whatever the racial extraction of the people, and whatever the geographical environment in which they lived, the manner in which they modified their absolute monogamy was the same in every case. (p. 382)

With these two exceptions the same changes were made successively by the Sumerians, Babylonians, Athenians, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, and Protestant English. These societies lived in different geographical  environments; they belonged to different racial stocks; but the history of their marriage customs is the same. In the beginning each society had the same ideas in regard to sexual regulations. Then the same struggles took place; the same sentiments were expressed; the same changes were made; the same results ensued. Each society reduced its sexual opportunity to a minimum and, displaying great social energy, flourished greatly. Then it extended its sexual opportunity; its energy decreased, and faded away. The one outstanding feature of the whole story is its unrelieved monotony. (p. 381)

Furthermore, in most cases the demand for pre-nuptial chastity was relaxed. In this manner the sexual opportunity of each society was extended; and as soon as a lack of compulsory continence became part of the inherited tradition of a complete new generation the energy of the society faded away. Sexual impulses could be satisfied in a direct manner; there was no compulsory continence, and consequently no energy. (p. 380)

Some writers attempt to whitewash the native. According to their accounts the savage may be a savage, but at any rate he is a moral savage. I do not know what exact meaning is attached to the word 'moral', but I suspect that a moral judgement varies according to the judge and according to the tradition in which the judge was reared or against which he has reacted. Would a modern writer, for instance, give the same account of the Arreoi Society as was written by the early travellers and missionaries to Tahiti ? The latter condemned the sexual conduct of that Society in no uncertain terms; yet its members behaved in a manner which some modern reformers would like all white men and women to emulate. Sometimes we read that 'chastity is held in high esteem', or that 'the girls are modest and beautiful, the majority chaste'. Such statements have a high romantic interest but lack precise meaning. The opposite tendency is apparent in the writings of the early travellers and missionaries. The statements of the latter concerning the licentious behaviour of the native women, true as they may be, are not always free from a desire to paint the heathen in lurid colours; and while the travellers may have had the same, and other, reasons for remarking on the receptive character of the pagan females, we must not forget that the attitude of a native towards a white man, especially on a first acquaintance, is not by any means the same as the attitude of the same native towards a member of his or her own tribe. (p. 25)

There were very few uncivilized societies who compelled a girl to confine her sexual activity to one man throughout her life; these societies, as we shall see, occupied the highest position in the uncivilized cultural scale. I do not know of a single case in which a man was compelled to limit his sexual qualities to one woman; this custom has been in force only in some civilized societies. Those societies which have maintained the custom for the longest period have attained the highest position in the cultural scale which the human race has yet reached. (pp. 24-25)

Briefly stated, my final conclusion is that the cultural behaviour (as defined) of any human society depends, first, on the inherent nature of the human organism, and, secondly, on the state of energy into which, as the result of its sexual regulations, the society has arrived. According to the amount of continence they compelled, the sexual regulations adopted by human societies in the past divide themselves into six classes. These have produced six distinct states of energy, three lesser, three greater. All the uncivilized societies were in one or other of the three states of lesser energy; civilized societies have always been in one or other of the three states of greater energy. Each of the three states of lesser energy produces a definite cultural condition; I call these cultural conditions zoistic, rnanistic, deistic. Only one of the three states of greater energy produces a definite cultural condition, rationalistic; the other states of greater energy are those of expansive and productive energy. A deistic society can display expansive energy, but not productive energy, unless it first becomes rationalistic. If a rationalistic cultural stratum retains its energy for about one generation (the records do not justify a more definite statement), its cultural tradition seems to be augmented by an element I have called human entropy. Just as the second law of thermodynamics, or the Law of Entropy, appears to reveal the Direction of the Universal Process, so this new element appears to reveal the Direction of the Cultural Process (hence its name); and so long as the stratum continues to display great energy its cultural behaviour changes in the Direction of the Cultural Process. If, however, its energy decreases, its behaviour changes away from the Direction. So far as my knowledge goes, no stratum can be shown to have moved in the Direction for more than one-half of a generation after the appearance of human entropy. The possibility of its doing so must appeal to the imagination of any speculative philosopher. (Ibid. xv)

The evidence is that in the majority of cases compulsory continence produces social energy; only rarely does the consequent derangement of the nervous system lead to what is technically called neurosis. (S*x and Culture, J. D. Unwin, Preface xiii)