It seems of high psychological interest to trace the developmental phases through which, in the course of the evolution of human culture to the morality and civilization of to-day, the sexual life has passed.[7] On primitive ground the satisfaction of the sexual appetite of man seems like that of the animal. Openness in the sexual act is not shunned; man and woman are not ashamed to go naked. To-day we see savages in this condition (comp. Ploss, “Das Weib,” p. 196, 1884); as, for example, the Australians, the Polynesians, and the Malays of the Philippines. The female is the common property of the males, the temporary booty of the strongest, who strive for the possession of the most beautiful of the opposite sex, thus carrying out instinctively a kind of sexual selection. Woman is a movable thing, a ware, an object of bargain and sale and gift; a thing to satisfy lust and to work. The appearance of a feeling of shame before others in the manifestation and satisfaction of the natural instinct, and modesty in the intercourse of the sexes, form the beginning of morality in the sexual life. From this arose the effort to conceal the genitals (“And they knew that they were naked”) and the secret performance of the sexual act. The development of this degree of culture is favored by the rigors of climate and the necessity for complete protection of the body thus entailed. Thus in part the fact is explained that among northern races modesty may be proved anthropologically earlier than among southern races. A further stage in the development of culture in sexual life is marked when the female ceases to be a movable thing. She becomes a person; and if still for a long time placed far below the male socially, yet the idea that the right of disposal of herself and her favors belongs to her is developed. Thus she becomes the object of the male’s wooing. To the barbarous sensual feeling of sexual desire the beginnings of ethical feeling are added. The instinct is intellectualized. Property in women ceases to exist. Individuals of the opposite sexes feel themselves drawn toward each other by mental and physical qualities, and show love for each other only. At this stage woman has a feeling that her charms belong only to the man of her choice, and wishes to conceal them from others. Thus, by the side of modesty, the foundations of chastity and faithfulness—as long as the bond of love lasts—are laid. Woman attains this degree of social elevation earlier when, at the transition from nomadic life to a state of fixed habitation, man obtains a house and home, and the necessity arises for him to possess in woman a companion for the household,—a housewife.