The Basis of Social Relations: A Study in Ethnic PsychologyBrinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison)
Science
The Basis of Social Relations: A Study in Ethnic Psychology
Brinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison)
Ethnopsychology; Sociology
Sex feeling belongs distinctly to the animal and emotional side of human
nature. Where it is the dominating motive, neither individual nor group
can attain the highest development. This is noticeably the case in the
African. Coloured children in our public schools are equal to their
white associates up to the age of puberty. But that change is more
profound in the African than in the European constitution. After it has
occurred, the difference in favour of the white children becomes very
apparent. Their mental world is not so invaded by thoughts of sex, and
they are more inclined to study.
In a less degree, as I have before remarked, the same contrast exists
between the Teutonic and Latin peoples of Europe, and has been
acknowledged to have resulted in decided advantages for the former.
Virility—that is, the reproductive potency in the male—bears no relation
to the strength of the erotic passion.
In some the passion of sexual love is little more than an appetite.
Satisfied, it is indefinitely quiescent, not entering into the general
life; or, if it at times fires the emotions, they are easily restrained
or banished by the exercise of other mental powers. This has been the
case with many eminent men of notoriously ardent temperaments but never
subdued by them (Byron, Goethe).
It is also an ethnic trait, a characteristic of the Teutonic blood, in
sharp contrast to the so-called Latin peoples. With the latter, as is
obvious from the literature, the erotic feeling is an enduring and
overmastering passion, colouring the intelligence and often absorbing
into itself the activities of the life.
As virility in man, so fecundity in woman has no relation to sex
feeling; or, if any, in a reverse degree.
The famous calculations of Malthus, which cannot be disproved, and which
have been confirmed by the latest statistics, show that this fear of
population transcending the food-supply is real and ever present. Where
it is not immediate, as in modern life, it is nevertheless near and
visible in the division of the parental property among a large family of
children; in the increased difficulties of properly educating such a
family and giving each a proper position and start in life; and in
providing for such as are feeble or incompetent. This effort, extended
throughout a community, means more intense competition, a more bitter
struggle for property, a more constant occupation with sordid details,
to the neglect of reflection, study, and abstract thought.
Reproduction, therefore, to its utmost limits, would be of no advantage
to a community, but decidedly deleterious. Its effect on the collective
mind would be lowering, as it would centre the general attention on
material aims and personal interests.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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