In addition to this fear of the woman as in possession of and in league
with supernatural powers, there was an additional motive to avoidance in
the fear of transmission of her weakness through contact, a fear based
on a belief in sympathetic magic, and believed with all the "intensely
realized, living, and operative assurance" of which the untutored mind
is capable. Crawley masses an overwhelming amount of data on this point,
and both he and Frazer show the strength of these beliefs. Indeed, in
many cases violation proved to be "sure death," not by the hand of man,
but from sheer fright. As a result, just as woman was considered to have
both the tendency and power to impart her characteristics through
contact, so the sexual act, the acme of contact, became the most potent
influence for the emasculation of the male.
If we wish for proof that the primitive attitude toward women was
essentially that which we have outlined, we have only to glance at the
typical taboos concerning woman found among ancient peoples and among
savage races of our own day. Nothing could be more indicative of the
belief that the power to bring forth children was a manifestation of the
possession of mana than the common avoidance of the pregnant woman. Her
mystic power is well illustrated by such beliefs as those described by
the traveller Im Thurn, who says that the Indians of Guiana believe that
if a pregnant woman eat of game caught by hounds, they will never be
able to hunt again.
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