Volume 2

The history of human marriage / by Edward Westermarck.

  • Westermarck, Edward, 1862-1939.
Date:
1921
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The history of human marriage / by Edward Westermarck. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    protect his offspring. At the same time women’s admira¬ tion of manly strength may also, as Dr. Ellis suggests, be connected with the fact that the more energetic part in physical love belongs to the man, and that the spectacle of force is “ the visual expression of pressure energy.”1 Manly strength is closely connected with manly beauty. It has been said that beauty in the human species is above all a feminine attribute making its appeal to men, whereas the normal woman experiences no corresponding cult for the beauty of a man.2 But this seems to imply too narrow a conception of the meaning of beauty. Physical beauty may be defined as such qualities of the body as are apt to call forth aesthetic enjoyment; but at the same time these qualities, or at least some of them, have also a tendency to stimulate the sexual instinct of the opposite sex. And this is true both of men and women. If a maiden who has to choose between Adonis and Hercules turns to the latter, she may do so, not merely because she is more attracted by strength than by beauty, but because she prefers the mascu¬ line beauty of Hercules to the racial beauty of Adonis. It has, further, been said that personal beauty does not act as a sexual stimulant among savages.3 But this is quite contrary to numerous statements made by competent observers. Among the Thonga of South Africa, according to M. Junod, suitors prefer pretty girls to ugly ones.4 Win wood Reade says that West African negroes often discuss the beauty of their women.5 “ La beaute plastique d’une femme ne laisse pas d’emouvoir un Bambara.”6 In the 1 Ibid. (vol. iv.) Sexual Selection in Man, p. 191 sq. 2 Ibid. (vol. iv.) Sexual Selection in Man, p. 189 sq. 3 Finck, Primitive Love and Love-Stories, p. 270 sqq. Mr. Finck argues (ibid. p. 274) that savages can have no sense of personal beauty because they are habitually indifferent to personal clean¬ liness, “ the most elementary and imperative of esthetic require¬ ments.” Against this it may be said, first, that many savages are praised for their cleanliness (see my Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, ii. 346 sqq.), and, secondly, that uncleanliness does not prevent the enjoyment of beauty when the eye is used to it and no repulsion is felt for it. 4 Junod, Life of a South African Tribe, i. 183. 6 Reade, quoted by Darwin, Descent of Man, ii. 373 sq. e Henry, L’dme d'un peuple africain, p. 199.