Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/636

 620 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

summation of marriage. Again, when the priest-god of the kingdom of Congo left his residence to visit other places within his jurisdiction, all married people had to observe strict continence the whole time he was out. Frazer gives this fact in illustration of sexual tabu ; 37 but, after a close scrutiny of other facts about this Congo people, it is possible that we might conclude that this practice was a worn-down survival of sexual hospitality during the journeys of the priest-god.

I also refrain from discussing the practice of male chastity as a religious rule. As in religious defloration and conjugal con- tinence, sexual tabu and self-sacrifice are undoubtedly important factors. But here, too, they need to be carefully analyzed in rela- tion to other social facts. At present we need only note that religious male chastity may also develop from religious female chastity by the process of false analogy, which plays such an important part in many other social phenomena. When the origin of religious female chastity in divine proprietorship is lost sight of, and the state is considered only one of self-sacrificing worship, it is naturally thought of as fit for male worshipers as well. 38 This process is part of the general development of male from female chastity. When prematrimonial chastity and con- jugal fidelity come to be valued as abstract social virtues, they cease to be thought of as specifically female characteristics. I suggest that the practice of sexual abstinence by men as a form of religious self-sacrifice may also have developed in the same way as the religious practice of fasting has been thought to develop. The Chinese practice of abstaining from sexual inter- course during mourning is interesting in this connection. De Groot writes :

"Golden Bough, Vol. I, p. 113.

Sisupatnam, which represents a crude stage of male sacrifice. Sita, the goddess- wife of Vishnu, is being worshiped by six Indian penitents who appear to be offer- ing up to her their virile members. (Des divinit&s gen&ratices, p. 80.) According to Ovid (Fast., 4, 223), priests of Attis emasculated themselves because of the like act of Attis. The myth relates that Attis, a Phrygian youth, aroused the love of the goddess. She made him her temple servant, and made him take a vow of absolute chastity. He broke his vow from love of a nymph, and then from remorse emasculated himself.
 * Dulaure describes a sacred bas-relief on the town-gate of one of the towns of