Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/269

 PSYCHOLOGY OF MODESTY AND CLOTHING 2$$

for promoting the growth of the breasts of the girl, which, in addition to laceration, is practiced in Central Australia." This simple type of attention to sex is an expression of a general interest in the activities of life and of reproduction, without any implication of modesty or dress.

Another occasion for attention to the organs of sex and attendant bodily habits is spirit interest in them. As a part of their belief in sympathetic magic, primitive men in many cases thought that they could be contaminated or weakened by the presence of women, and they particularly dreaded the blood of women as a likely carrier of the influence. In his papers on sexual taboo Crawley gives the following instances:'

Amongst the Damaras men may not see a lying-in woman, else they will become weak and will be killed in battle. In Ceram menstruous women may not approach the men lest the latter should be wounded in battle. In some South American tribes the presence of a woman just confined makes the weapons of the men weak. The same belief obtains among the Tschuk- tschoi, who accordingly remove all hunting and fishing implements from the house before a birth. In the Booandik tribe, if men see women's blood they will not be able to fight In the Encounter Bay tribe boys are told from infancy that if they see menstrual blood their strength will fail prematurely. .... Amongst the Maoris, if a man touches a menstruous woman, he becomes tapu ; if he has connection with her, or eats food cooked by her, he becomes tapu an inch thick. Amongst the Pueblo Indians, women must sepa- rate from the men at menstruation and before delivery, because if a man touch a woman at those times he will fall ill. An Australian, finding that his wife had lain on his blanket during menstruation, killed her and died of terror in a fortnight.

The spirit element comes out somewhat more clearly in a statement by Tregear of the Maoris : "The walls of a house are sacred. A chief would not lean against a wall, or, indeed, enter a house, if he could help it, except his own. It is said that the walls are made unclean by the Maori women hiding in the clefts the cloth polluted by the menses — this is called kahukahu, and engenders the kahukahu evil spirits mentioned above; "3 and

'Spencer and Gillen, loc. cii., p. 459.

'"Sexual Tahoo," Jour. An/A. Inst., Vol. XXIV, p. 124. I omit his references. 3E. Tregear, "The Maoris of New Zealand," Jour. Anth. Inst., Vol. XIX, p. 118.