Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/76

 62 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

The history of art is also closely associated with the fact of sex. Woman has been historically the bearer of social senti- ment, because of her capacity for feeling, and man has been the bearer of social will, because of his capacity for action. Art is a generalized expression of any affective phase of life. There are in art what we may call pure masculine motives, representing the disruptive, militant, katabolic nature of man : Prometheus and Hamlet and Laocoon in conflict with circumstance. Historical paintings and epic and dramatic poems frequently contain this motive. Again, such characters as Penelope, Antigone, Doro- thea Brooke stand for what we may call the feminine motive in art, representing the capacity of the female for sacrifice. But the artistic situation par excellence is the softened representation of the biological fact that the katabolic male seeks the anabolic female the affinity of Romeo and Juliet, of Caponsacchi and Pompilia.

The striking historical contrast and parallelism of the militant and industrial activities of society is a social expression of this sexual contrast. Man's katabolism predisposed him to activity and violence ; woman's anabolism predisposed her to a stationary life. The first division of labor was, therefore, an expression of the characteristic contrast of the sexes. War and the chase were suitable to man, because his somatic development fitted him for bursts of energy, and agriculture and the primitive industries were the natural occupation of woman. This allotment of tasks was not made by the tyranny of man, but exists almost uniformly in primitive communities because it utilizes most advantageously the energies of both sexes. The struggle is so fierce and con- stant that the primitive community which should let any energy go to waste would not long survive. Through war and amalga- mation the survival of the strongest ethnic type and the associa- tion of men in large numbers were secured, but this was only preliminary to the expansion (largely through the energies of man) of the industrial type of society represented from the beginning by the agriculture, arts, and manufactures of primitive woman. Devices for the artificial application of force were