Even in this racial field,
it is unnecessary to remark, the homogamy attained is not, and could not
be, absolute; nor would it appear that such absolute racial homogamy is
even desired. A tall man who seeks a tall woman can seldom wish her to be
as tall as himself; a dark man who seeks a dark woman, certainly will not
be displeased at the inevitably greater or less degree of pigment which he
finds in her eyes as compared to his own.
But when we go outside the racial field this tendency to homogamy
disappears at once. A man marries a woman who, with slight, but agreeable,
variations, belongs to a like stock to himself. The abhorrence of incest
indicates that even the sexual attraction to people of the same stock has
its limits, for it is not strong enough to overcome the sexual
indifference between persons of near kin. The desire for novelty shown in
this sexual indifference to near kin and to those who have been housemates
from childhood, together with the notable sexual attractiveness often
possessed by a strange youth or maiden who arrives in a small town or
village, indicates that slight differences in stock, if not, indeed, a
positive advantage from this point of view, are certainly not a
disadvantage.
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