There are certain psychological and physiological
reasons for the persistence of this dualistic attitude
in the very nature of the sex act itself. Until
the climax of the sexual erethism, woman is for man
the acme of supreme desire; but with detumescence
the emotions tend to swing to the opposite pole, and
excitement and longing are forgotten in the mood of
repugnance and exhaustion. This tendency would
be very much emphasized in those primitive tribes
where the corroboree with its unlimited indulgence
was common, and also among the ancients with their
orgiastic festivals. In the revulsion of feeling
following these orgies woman would be blamed for man’s
own folly. In this physiological swing from desire
to satiety, the apparent cause of man’s weakness
would be looked upon as the source of the evil—a
thing unclean. There would be none of the ethical
and altruistic element of modern “love”
to protect her. Students agree that these elements
in the modern sentiment have been evolved, “not
from the sexual instinct, but from the companionship
of the battlefield."[56] It is therefore probable that
in this physiological result of uncontrolled sex passion
we shall find the source of the dualism of the attitude
toward sex and womanhood present in taboo.
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