Man and woman : a study of human secondary sexual characters / by Havelock Ellis.

  • Havelock Ellis
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Man and woman : a study of human secondary sexual characters / by Havelock Ellis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    27/452 page 9
    slaves. Even at the present time, anthropological writers whose faith in the future leads them to be unjustly scornful of the past, have unintentionally misrepresented and distorted the facts of savage life. A more complete statement of the facts, and the deeper insight which we now possess regarding their interpretation, enable us to assert that while among many races women have been to a greater or less extent in subordination to their more powerful mates, on the whole the wider control which women have had over the means of production, as well as the skill of women in diplomacy,^ have given them influence and even authority. To these results have con- tributed in many cases no doubt factors of a different order due to certain modes of marriage and filiation which have tended to give greater dignity to women. M'Lennan, Lubbock, and Letourneau are probably the most prominent anthropologists who have argued, apparently from their knowledge of civilised women, that among savages women are a source of weakness, and in consequence liable to oppression. But, as has often been pointed out by those who possess more than a second-hand acquaintance with savage life, although this is sometimes the case, it is not seldom the very reverse of the truth. Thus Fison and Howitt, who discuss this point, remark, in regard to Australian women: In times of peace, as a general rule, they are the hardest workers and the most useful members of the community. In times of war, again, they are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves at all times; and, so far from being an encumbrance on the warrior, they will fight, if need be, as bravely as the men, and with even greater ferocity (Fison and Howitt, Kamilaroi and Kiirnai, pp. 133-147, 358). Buckley, who lived for thirty-two years among Australian savages, mentions that when those he lived with were attacked by a numerous hostile party, they ^ Of the women of many races it may be said, as the Rev. C. Harrison says of the Haidas of the Queen Charlotte Islands, The women are great diplomats, and generally contrive to have their own way, and it is a great mistake to imagine that they are treated as slaves (Journal Anthropological InsliliUe, May 1892, p. 472), Among the Australian Dieyerie, Curr (Auslralian Races) states that the women act as ambassadors to arrange treaties, and invariably succeed in their missions.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3