University of Virginia Library

CONCLUSION

We have now traced the worship of sex, as recorded by the monuments of antiquity, through its various phases. In its simplest form, the generative organs are worshipped without disguise; the sexual act also forms a part of religious ceremonies. Later, a rude symbolism develops. As the race becomes more advanced, this becomes more elaborate, until finally a considerable degree of ingenuity and skill are evidenced. The worship of sex is not only expressed in religious usages, but comes to dominate early art as well;

it is also expressed in mythology, and so we find the same symbolical and allegorical expressions in early literature. In fact, the deepest thoughts of primitive races, as expressed in their religion, eventually dominate most of the customs and usages of every day life.

We may appropriately ask, why did primitive people deify the sexual organs? This question may be answered when we understand the religious ceremonies of primitive tribes. The earliest objects worshipped were those which were of known benefit to man. The Aborigines of Australia have very elaborate ceremonies which superficially seem meaningless but when understood have a very definite meaning. This aim is to ensure some certain product of the earth. If it is a Yam[5] ceremony, an elaborate procedure is carried out which is supposed to make yams grow. There is a secret ceremonial object which is a symbol of the yam and which bears to it more or less resemblance. Other ceremonies are carried out for similar purposes. The meaning of all these semi-religious performances, as clearly shown by Spencer Baldwin, is to ensure the benfits which nature gives. This, in brief, explains nature worship, and were it our object at present, it would be most interesting to show the peculiar resemblance of these ceremonies to those carried on in sex worship.

As the early races advanced in knowledge, they came to know that the perpetuation of the race depended upon generative attributes. For this reason human generative attributes were deified and appropriate ceremonies were held, just as in the case of nature worship. These are not "lewd practices," as they are not infrequently called. It is indeed regrettable that the subject of sex worship has been disregarded by many historians, as thereby erroneous impressions are given. The facts of nature worship have always been much better understood and its importance has been realized; those of sex worship have been less carefully recorded.

The literature and philosophy which we are accustomed to associate with Greek thought are of a later date. Once such abstract reasoning is possible, sex worship is no longer

seriously entertained. The symbolism remains, but is, associated now, not so much with religion as with art. Likewise in India, the early Buddhism, which was sex worship, has changed to the present day Buddhistic Philosophy, the symbols alone remaining.

From all this we are inclined to believe that in sex worship we are dealing with important motives in the development of the race. We make no presence of having exhausted the subject in this communication. The decadence of this religion, as observed in the early Christian period, and in fact well through the middle ages, forms a very interesting history. It is not our purpose, however, to deal with it at present. Likewise, it should be understood that the motives which we have been discussing are not necessarily the earliest manifested in racial development; we have a record of a time in the history of man when the worship of sex had not yet made its appearance but this period also is not a part of our present topic.

The influence of early racial motives upon present day civilization is a topic of great interest. Its importance is, in fact, the main object of studies of this kind. However, we wish our account to be mainly an historical one, and so will not at present make reference to a number of applications which arise. We have also refrained from making use of the modern writings on matters of sex, as we thereby avoid criticism to the effect that our findings have been drawn from biased sources. We feel that while the reader may disagree in certain details as here set forth, the universal appearance of sex worship at a certain stage of racial development is scarcely to be denied. The writers whom we have cited are all of a former generation, and they were searching for origins in religion, not in sexual life; inadvertently they found the latter, in fact could not avoid it, and so their conclusions are all the more valuable to us.