SEX AND PRIMITIVE MORALITY
The function of morality is to regulate the activities of associated
life so that all may have what we call fair play. It is impossible to
think of morality aside from expressions of force, primarily physical
force. "Thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not bear
false witness; thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not remove
the ancient landmark;" and all approvals and disapprovals imply
that the act in question has affected or will affect the interest of
others, or of society at large, for better or for worse. And since
morality goes back so directly to forms of activity and their
regulation, we may expect to find that the motor male and the more
stationary female have had a different relation to the development of
a moral code.
As between nutrition and reproduction, in the struggle for life,
nutrition plays a larger role--in volume, at any rate--in the
life-history of the individual. A consideration of the causes of the
modification of species in nature shows that the changes in morphology
and habit of the animal which relate to food-getting are more
fundamental and numerous than those which relate to wooing.
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