Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/515

 THE RACE-PRESERVATION DOGMA 499

work the standard of female excellence;" and the great value attached to a woman's prolificness I have already mentioned. This double standard is, indeed, what might be anticipated from mere considerations of utility, for, "in the state of nature, next to a man's wives, the real servant, the only one to be counted upon, is the child."' When children become burdensome, they are often sold, destroyed, or exposed, and parental affection does not always extend beyond the limits of selfish calculation. A fact worthy of notice is that infanticide is generally practiced on female children, rather than on male ; although where want is extreme both males and females are indiscriminately sacrificed. As an illustration of the high value attached to the possession of sons I may refer to the authorized custom, prevalent among the men of some savage tribes, of repudiating their wives on the failure of the latter to give birth to male children, and of taking wife after wife until a boy is born to them.^

In civilized communities, if it is true that the love of offspring is often very great and in some sense disinterested, the "desire for offspring" has decreased very considerably; and it were blindness or stubbornness to deny that this decrease has been mainly due to an antagonism between the individual's wel- fare and the sacrifices entailed by parenthood. Children are no longer so useful tools as they were in primitive times, nor can they be converted into productive merchandise. They are, indeed, "a great comfort;" but this comfort is burdensome, and many prefer other comforts that may be enjoyed at less expense and without the sacrifice of personal independence, especially as civilization has created both new wants and new pleasures. And, as the intercourse of the sexes is not generally restricted to marriage, both men and women find happiness out- side the pale of domestic life. The result is that many dispense with marriage, and, even of those who marry, fna7iy abstain from having and rearing offspring. Here again the race- preservation postulate comes in conflict with the actual facts of experience.

■ Westermarck, op. cit., chap, xvi, p. 381 ; chap, xxi, p. 4go.

' Ibid., chap, xxi, pp. 488-9.