The Descent of Man

and would not have selected the more attractive
ones. But as soon as the practice of procuring
wives from a distinct tribe was effected
through barter, as now occurs in many places,
the more attractive women would generally
have been purchased. The incessant crossing,
however, between tribe and tribe, which necessarily
follows from any form of this habit,
would tend to keep all the people inhabiting
the same country nearly uniform in character;
and this would interfere with the power of
sexual selection in differentiating the tribes.
The scarcity of women, consequent on female
infanticide, leads, also, to another practice, that
of polyandry, still common in several parts of
the world, and which formerly, as Mr. M'Lennan
believes, prevailed almost universally: but
this latter conclusion is doubted by Mr. Morgan
and Sir J. Lubbock. (14. 'Primitive Marriage,' p.
208; Sir J. Lubbock, 'Origin of Civilisation,' p.
100. See also Mr. Morgan, loc. cit., on the for-