Note 297 — Chapter IV · A CRITICISM OF THE HYPOTHESIS OF PROMISCUITY

With reference to the Tahitians, Forster says (‘Voyage round the World,’ vol. ii. p. 132), ‘We have been told a wanton tale of promiscuous embraces, where every woman is common to every man: but when we inquired for a confirmation of this story from the natives, we were soon convinced that it must, like many others, be considered as a groundless invention of a traveller’s gay fancy.’ Regarding the Peruvian natives alleged to live in a state of promiscuity, Garcilasso de la Vega assures us (loc. cit. vol. ii. p. 443) that he saw them with his own eyes when on his way to Spain, for the ship stopped on their coast for three days.