The impossibility of a social system based on the old sex taboos under the new conditions is obvious. There must be a revaluation of woman on the basis of her mental and economic capacity instead of on the manner in which she fits into a system of institutional taboos. But the old concepts are still with us, and have shaped the early lives of working women as well as the lives of those who have fitted into the old grooves. Tenacious survivals surround them both, and are responsible for many of the difficulties of mental and moral adjustment which make the woman question a puzzle to both conservative and radical thinkers on the subject.
1. Davis, Michael M. Psychological Interpretations of Society. 260 pp. Columbia University. Longmans. Green & Co. N.Y., 1909.
2. Webster, Hutton. Primitive Secret Societies. 227 pp. Macmillan. N.Y., 1908.
3. Blanchard, Phyllis. The Adolescent Girl. 243 pp. Kegan Paul & Co., London, 1921.
---- Peters, Iva L. A Questionnaire Study of Some of the Effects of Social Restrictions on the American Girl. Pedagogical Seminary, December, 1916, Vol. XXIII, pp. 550-569.
4. Report of the U.S. Children's Bureau, 1917.
5. Fowler, W. Warde. The Religious Experience of the Roman People. 504 pp. Macmillan. London, 1911.
---- Fustel de Coulanges, Numa Denis. The Ancient City. Trans. from the latest French edition by Willard Small. 10th ed. Lee and Shepard. Boston, 1901. 529 pp.
6. Gautier, Emile Théodore Léon. La Chevalerie. 850 pp. C. Delagrave. Paris, 1890.
DYSGENIC INFLUENCES OF THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO
Taboo survivals act dysgenically within the family under present conditions; Conventional education of girls a dysgenic influence; Prostitution and the family; Influence of ancient standards of "good" and "bad." The illegitimate child; Effect of fear, anger, etc., on posterity; The attitude of economically independent women toward marriage.
It is evident that in the working of old taboos as they have been preserved in our social institutions there are certain dysgenic influences which may well be briefly enumerated. For surely the test of the family institution is the way in which it fosters the production and development of the coming generation. The studies made by the Galton Laboratory in England and by the Children's Bureau in Washington combine with our modern knowledge of heredity to show that it is possible to cut down the potential heritage of children by bad matrimonial choices. If we are to reach a solution of these population problems, we must learn to approach the problem of the sex relation without that sense of uncleanness which has led so many generations to regard marriage as giving respectability to an otherwise wicked inclination. The task of devising a sane approach is only just begun. But the menace of prostitution and of the social diseases has become so great that society is compelled from an instinct of sheer self-preservation to drag into the open some of the iniquities which have hitherto existed under cover.