WCP5030

Parkstone, Dorset

March 12th. 1891.

My dear Sir

Notwithstanding your full and ingenious discussion of the origin of sexual modesty ^{in Chap. IX} & of the concealment of the organs of generation, I cannot feel quite satisfied with it. Although there are many instances among savages of perfect nudity in one or both sexes, these are, after all, very few in comparison with those in which some regular concealment by clothing occurs. This is so general that I should think nine-tenths of all savages use it. There are several considerations which place the concealment of the sexual organs in a different category from [2] concealment by clothing of other parts of the body. Sexual union among all peoples occurs normally at night, and there are I believe no people recorded among whom it is practised openly, at all times, and with no concealment. This may have arisen partly from the helplessness against attack of both parties, and also because the females, even of animals, require a considerable amount of solicitation or courting ^{to obtain consent}. Why this if there is no feeling that the act is different from all other acts, — a feeling of shame or modesty? Again, the erect attitude of man exposes the sexual organs more to accidental blows or wounds, or to be seized by an enemy, and this would naturally lead to the bandaging of the penis, especially among people who did not [3] constantly carry shields to protect the body. Even the completely naked women of the Uaupes showed great sense of modesty in their attitudes, always turning sideways on meeting a man, and when sitting, so disposing the legs as to well conceal the pudenda.

I am therefore disposed to think that a sense of sexual modesty arose in man with the erect posture, and that the comparatively few cases in which it now appears to be non-existent are perversions or reversions, and me do not ^show the normal condition of savage man. Perhaps if you think over the subject from this point of view you may add a par[agraph]. but I [4] do not wish you to quote anything I have said here, which is merely a suggestion for your consideration.

Yours very faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

Edw[ar]d. Westermarck Esq.

P. S. I would add that travellers are apt to exaggerate nudity or the absense of modesty and that their statements not unfrequently apply to the exception rather to the rule.

A. R. W.