[188] It is a purely
negative phenomenon and it is quite unnecessary, even if it were
legitimate, to invoke any instinct for its explanation. It is probable
that the same tendency also operates among animals to some extent, tending
to produce a stronger sexual attraction toward those of their species to
whom they have not become habituated.[189] In animals, and in man also
when living under primitive conditions, sexual attraction is not a
constant phenomenon[190]; it is an occasional manifestation only called
out by the powerful stimulation. It is not its absence which we need to
explain; it is its presence which needs explanation, and such an
explanation we find in the analysis of the phenomena of courtship.
The abhorrence of incest is an interesting and significant phenomenon from
our present point of view, because it instructively points out to us the
limits to that charm of parity which apparently makes itself felt to some
considerable extent in the constitution of the sexual ideal and still more
in the actual homogamy which seems to predominate over heterogamy. This
homogamy is, it will be observed, a _racial_ homogamy; it relates to
anthropological characters which mark stocks.
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