The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-04-08
ALI WOMEN AKIN.
Traits The Same In Every Corner of
 The world.
BY PRor. FEnnEprcx .r.,,

| Hr PROF. FERDERICK STARR. In his Held work the ethnolosist ts constantly impressed with the fac,
 that all men are brothers. He con.
 stantly sees that women in saya~ery
 and barbsrism are the same in emo.
 tien. thought and aotion as their civil. I ixed sisters. This moral Identity of savage and barbArous women with the l civilized can be demonstrated by thousands of examples.
 Such identity shows itself from the l earliest childhood. The little rfri
 the same as among ourselves. She is modest and shy. expressing these char aotertstic in the same movements and actions as civilized children. She plays
 at housekeeping and she nurses doiis She follows her mother about her work
 and initiates her every action. She
 plays at hos-culture, bringing water,
 dressed skins. Not an incident in
 adult life escapes her observation and
 imitation. She is equally as observ.
 ant as the American child, whe direct cd all her play mates to represent
 mothers, explaining that they needed
 no fathers because they were going to
 play that they already had plenty of l moneyi s.s'
 Ths assunpsion is copstantiy made
 that modesty Is lacking and thRt imr popuIation exists ih the world without
 ideals. of conduct. Nakedness is not tmmodesty. zig
 It is the absencs of customary cov- ering which causes shame and not
 modesty. The Australian woman who
 wears bands of shell about her head and arms and . cord of human hair about her waist. feels ashamed with
 out them :snd yet from our point of view they are no covering. An Indian
 la South America feels ashamed when seen without hls body painting. The Ngombe woman cArryinhs burdens on | the road feels no shame. but undoubt
 edly. in any pleasure gathering. with
 out her heavy weight Of beads about
 her neck she would Dc ashamed. ts the intentional removal of the ordin. ary covering of decoration which makes a woman as immodest and should cause the blush of shame. In savage and bArbarous life we ind oc.
 casionally such imodssts, just as in civilization.
 Marital faithfuiness is as generally expected in barbarian as in our civ-
 ilised fife. but conditions vary from
 one people to another too much to per.
 nit of definite statement in our brief
 space. Where monogAmy exists and
 the woman owns and rules the house.
 conditions are simple. The husband who does not suit Is sent home and
 both parties are free to contract new
 relations. Though divorce is so easy in barbarous life, marriaees are often perrnanent--perhaps as much so as in
 Chicago or Dakota! Where a man has various wives. as in Central Africas
 economic reasons tell against too easy
 divorce. There men buy their wives t. In case of sepAfation--if the fault ts
 hers-ths price must oe returned; If
 his, 1t remains with her people. Thus only serious provocation or great cru' city preeipitates actual sephrations
 Femininity in lower culture shows
 itself in fondness for adornment. It is
 true that in savagery and barbarian
 there is little to choose between the
 venity of men and that of women, as shown in dress and decoration. While this as admitted. we may emphasize
 the fact that love of gaudy decoration
 presents itself in an extreme in women of lower culture. 4 woman well-got up in Central Africa is actually . work of art. Her body is smeared from head to foot with a thick coating
 of redwood dust mixed with oil. Zig
 gags, spirala. stripes and checkefings made by scraping through this coat ing, show handsomely In brown from the skin coloring below. Her neck may be loaded with strings of heavy beads chiefly blue and white in color; her arms and legs heavy with rings of copper, brass and iron. The girdle al her waist may terminate in front with
 a. little apron of native cloth. Tn hes