infants; and this would effectually prevent preference being exerted on
either side according to personal appearance. But it would not prevent
the more attractive women from being afterwards stolen or taken by
force from their husbands by the more powerful men; and this often
happens in Australia, America, and elsewhere. The same consequences
with reference to sexual selection would to a certain extent follow,
when women are valued almost solely as slaves or beasts of burden, as
is the case with many savages. The men, however, at all times would
prefer the handsomest slaves according to their standard of beauty.
We thus see that several customs prevail with savages which must
greatly interfere with, or completely stop, the action of sexual
selection. On the other hand, the conditions of life to which savages
are exposed, and some of their habits, are favourable to natural
selection; and this comes into play at the same time with sexual
selection. Savages are known to suffer severely from recurrent famines;
they do not increase their food by artificial means; they rarely
refrain from marriage (16. Burchell says ( Travels in S. Africa, vol.
ii. 1824, p. 58), that among the wild nations of Southern Africa,
neither men nor women ever pass their lives in a state of celibacy.
Azara ( Voyages dans l Amerique Merid. tom. ii. 1809, p. 21) makes
precisely the same remark in regard to the wild Indians of South
America.), and generally marry whilst young. Consequently they must be
subjected to occasional hard struggles for existence, and the favoured
individuals will alone survive.
At a very early period, before man attained to his present rank in the
scale, many of his conditions would be different from what now obtains
amongst savages. Judging from the analogy of the lower animals, he
would then either live with a single female, or be a polygamist. The
most powerful and able males would succeed best in obtaining attractive
females. They would also succeed best in the general struggle for life,
and in defending their females, as well as their offspring, from
enemies of all kinds. At this early period the ancestors of man would
not be sufficiently advanced in intellect to look forward to distant
contingencies; they would not foresee that the rearing of all their
children, especially their female children, would make the struggle for
life severer for the tribe. They would be governed more by their
instincts and less by their reason than are savages at the present day.
They would not at that period have partially lost one of the strongest
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