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. Similarly, Alfred Russell Wallace wrote of the
aborigines of the Amazon: "They believe that if a woman during her
pregnancy eats of any meat, any other animal partaking of it will
suffer; if a domestic animal or tame bird, it will die; if a dog, it
will be for the future incapable of hunting; and even a man will be
unable to shoot that particular kind of game for the future."[8] In
Fiji a pregnant wife may not wait upon her husband.[9] In the
Caroline Islands men may not eat with their wives when pregnant, but
small boys are allowed to do so.[10]

The avoidance of the menstruous woman is an even more widespread custom
than the shunning of pregnancy, probably because this function was