(1934). International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 15:354-355 Those who are easily intimidated by the sheer weight of statistical - 354 -enumeration will at once succumb to the thesis of this book—that in human society there is a positive correlation between the degree of sexual restraint and the height of culture. The critical reader may indeed observe that the conclusion is somewhat wider than the premise. Dr. Unwin measures the degree of sexual restraint in any society by the pre-nuptial chastity of its marriageable girls (p. 8), and he selects as the main characteristic of a high culture the presence of temples for the worship of the gods (p. 1). Thus the actual, as opposed to the inferential, result of his statistical research would seem to be that men are religious in those societies in which their unmarried daughters are either prostitutes or chaste. Dr. Unwin bridges the gap between this premise and his conclusion by assuming some degree of chastity in women to be symptomatic of chastity in general and temple buildi [This is a summary or excerpt from the full text of the book or article. The full text of the document is available to subscribers.] |
