Primitive eugenics / by A.E. Crawley.

  • Crawley, A. E. (Alfred Ernest), 1869-1924.
Date:
[1910?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Primitive eugenics / by A.E. Crawley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/6
    PRIMITIVE EUGENICS By A. E. Crawley, M.A. Behind the stories of a Golden Age and a Garden of Eden there is a biological truth. By his own act man banished him¬ self from the life natural; he is now trying to find his way back again “ carefully and with tears.” The life of savages to-day is rarely pure; it is generally contaminated by some Western influence, by the missionary no less than the whiskey dealer, but from it we can infer something of the life of primitive man. The age before history was not an age of gold, but neither was it an age of shoddy. This life, so close to nature, so far from civilisation, exhibits several conditions which belong to Nature’s eugenic system. There is, first, the general environment, which need not be described, except by saying that the only drawback to its eugenic perfection is a certain irregularity about meals. We shall consider here some primitive conditions which favour (i) the best unions, and (2) the best results for birth and for rearing. Sexual selection among savages is a very interesting process. Marriage is the rule ; the idea of celibacy is as foreign to the savage as is the idea of libertinage. But though every man marries, it is the best men who win the best women. It is remarkable how high in physique and capacity the average is ; there are very few degenerates or incompetents in a savage tribe. But the man’s eye for a woman is very shrewd; and it will generally be found that the best man physically takes the best woman, the next best takes the next best, and so on. An old and influential man, the terms are almost synonymous,, frequently accumulates young wives ; at his death they are taken by younger men. Courage and strength, dexterity and cunning of hand and