Page:The rights of women and the sexual relations.djvu/24

8 slave and beast of burden of the man. Polygamy is likewise in accordance with this state of barbarity; polyandry, on the other hand, is found rarely, — rather as a consequence of the presumption of the stronger, adultery is almost everywhere treated as a crime only on the part of women, while masculine adultery does not exist at all. But in spite of polygamy a selection is to be observed even among savages, a distinction of and temporary union with a single person. Rousseau, it is true, disputes this by maintaining that among Savages every woman had the same value; it can be shown, however, by facts as well as by à priori demonstration that even the rudest savage has an eye and discrimination for superiority and qualities suitable to him in this or that woman, and feels the need of uniting himself more closely with the one he prefers. The analogy of animals also points that way, as there is among many animals an entirely exclusive conjugal relation at least during the breeding period. Why special stress is laid on these facts will become clear in the discussion of marriage.

The savage state is followed by the semi-civilized period, in which man settles down and forms a family life, and in accordance with it the woman