Note 247 — Chapter XXVI · THE SUBJECTION OF WIVES

Professor Durkheim maintains (‘La prohibition de l’inceste et ses origines,’ in L’année sociologique, i. especially p. 48 sqq.) that the origin of the occult powers attributed to the feminine organism is to be found in primitive ideas concerning blood, any kind of blood, not only menstrual, being the object of similar feelings among savages and barbarians. Mr. Crawley justly remarks (op. cit. p. 212) that there is no flux of blood during pregnancy, when woman is regularly taboo; that her hair, nail-parings, and occupations can hardly be avoided from a fear of her blood; and that there is also the female side of the question to be taken into account.