The Sexual Relations of Mankind

Don't ask me how I wound up with a copy of this book, because I don't know. It must've been in the depths of one of those library sale grab bags, once upon a time.

It's less science than a collection of hearsay, apocrypha, and late 19th century cultural imperialism and casual racism. For all that, I found it oddly fascinating. The author catalogs, for example, the marriage rituals of (I can only assume) every society he's ever heard of. Sometimes the lists cross the line into exhaustively repetitive and dull (especially since there's very little analysis), but I actually thought it was kind of neat to think about the big picture of humanity and how our beliefs and taboos and rituals vary from culture to culture.

Even Mantegazza, while clearly a product of his time, seemed oddly open-minded at moments. You have to roll your eyes at all his talk of “the lower races” and the role of women in marriage, and don't even get me started on his views of masturbation and homosexuality (mostly amusing, but also sad). But then he talks about the hypocrisy of religion and standards of fidelity, and how even modern Italian culture isn't so far removed from “the savages”.

Some of my favorite anecdotes:

“William Tegg states that the Ostiacks, by way of making sure that their women are virtuous, are in the habit of tearing out a tuft of hair from a bear's pelt and presenting them with it; if the woman unhesitatingly accepts this gift, it is for the reason that she is free of any sin; if she were not, she would refuse it, being sure that at the end of three years' time the bear would come to life and eat her.”

“Among the Loango Negroes... Marriage is not finally consummated until after three nights' experience. On the first two mornings, the girl leaves the young man at cock-crow; but on the third she stays with him until broad daylight, thus signifying that she is content with him.”

“[Among] the Aeta of the Phillipine Islands... The suitor asks the girl of her parents, and the latter send her into the forest before sun-up. The young man may not leave home until an hour later, when he must go and track her down, bringing her back home before sunset. Should he be unable to accomplish this, he must desist from any further attentions to her.”

“A man may be in love with a girl without his love being requited. He then seeks to procure a lock of her hair and, covering it over with grease and with red earth, he carries it about with him for a year. This makes the girl so sad that she frequently dies of a broken heart, and the result may be a bit of bloodthirsty vengeance.”

“In the customs of East Prussia... when a woman remarries for the second or the third time, musicians climb up on the roof of the house as the bridal pair enter and serenade them down the chimney, so that the couple may not be struck dead.”

“Among the Ossets of the Caucasus, there is still in use a ceremony reminiscent of others yet more ferocious. The widow and the saddle-horse of the deceased are led three times about the grave, after which the woman can no longer be the property of any other man, nor may the horse ever again be mounted by another.”

“The Assanian women, of an Arab tribe inhabiting the south of Kartum, reserve for themselves a fourth of their liberty; every fourth day, they may go to live with the lover of their choice. Outside of this, the Assanian women are no more immoral than any others.”

“Among the Naudowessis, the marriage rite consists in letting fly arrows at the heads of the bride and groom, who are placed one alongside the other for the purpose. Those who shoot the arrows are the nearest relatives of the couple. A simpler ceremony is that of the Navajos, which consists in eating porridge from the same vessel.”

“After the second marriage, if the husband does not like his wife, all he has to do is take the measurements of the first one according to the width of the coffin and put them up beside the bed where the new wife sleeps, and the latter will not be there to trouble him for more than a year.”

“Certain of the Californian aborigines, when they wish to keep their women in line, paint themselves with black and white streaks and jump out suddenly at the latter to frighten them; they believe that this keeps them quiet.”