The Descent of Man, 1871, excerpts on Sexual Selection
Sexual Selection has been treated at great length in this work; for, as I have
attempted to show, it has played an important part in the history of the organic world. I
am aware that much remains doubtful, but I have endeavoured to give a fair view of the
whole case. In the lower divisions of the animal kingdom, Sexual Selection seems to have
done nothing: such animals are often affixed for life to the same spot, or have the sexes
combined in the same individual, or what is still more important, their perceptive and
intellectual faculties are not sufficiently advanced to allow of the feelings of love and
jealousy, or of the exertion of choice. When, however, we come to the Arthropoda and
Vertebrata, even to the lowest classes in these two great Sub-Kingdoms, Sexual Selection
has effected much.
In the several great classes of the animal kingdom - in mammals, birds, reptiles,
fishes, insects, and even crustaceans - the differences between the sexes follow nearly
the same rules. The males are almost always the wooers; and they alone are armed with
special weapons for fighting with their rivals. They are generally stronger and larger
than the females, and are endowed with the requisite qualities of courage and pugnacity.
They are provided, either exclusively or in a much higher degree than the females, with
organs for vocal or instrumental music, and with odoriferous glands. They are ornamented
with infinitely diversified appendages, and with the most brilliant or conspicuous
colours, often arranged in elegant patterns, whilst the females are unadorned. When the
sexes differ in more important matters, it is the male which is provided with special
sense-organs for discovering the female, with locomotive organs for reaching her, and
often with prehensile organs for holding her. These various structures for charming or
securing the female are often developed in the male during only part of the year, namely
the breeding-season. They have in many cases been more or less transferred to the females;
and in the latter case they often appear in her as mere rudiments. They are lost or never
gained by the males after emasculation. Generally they are not developed in the male
during early youth, but appear a short time before the age for reproduction. Hence in most
cases the young of both sexes resemble each other: and the female somewhat resembles her
young offspring throughout life. In almost every great class a few anomalous cases occur,
where there has been an almost complete transposition of the characters proper to the two
sexes; the females assuming characters which properly belong to the males. This surprising
uniformity in the laws regulating the differences between the sexes in so many and such
widely separated classes, is intelligible if we admit the action of one common cause,
namely Sexual Selection.
Sexual Selection depends on the success of certain individuals over others of the same
sex, in relation to the propagation of the species; whilst Natural Selection depends on
the success of both sexes, at all ages, in relation to the general conditions of life. The
sexual struggle is of two kinds; in the one it is between the individuals of the same sex,
generally the males. In order to drive away or kill their rivals, the females remaining
passive; whilst in the other, the struggle is likewise between the individuals of the same
sex, in order to excite or charm those of the opposite sex, generally the females, which
no longer remain passive, but select the more agreeable partners. This latter kind of
selection is closely analogous to that which man unintentionally, yet effectually, brings
to bear on his domesticated productions, when he preserves during a long period the most
pleasing or useful individuals, without any wish to modify the breed.
The laws of inheritance determine whether characters gained through Sexual Selection by
either sex shall he transmitted to one and the same sex, or to both; as well as the age at
which they shall be developed. It appears that variations arising late in life are
commonly transmitted to one and the same sex. Variability is the necessary basis for the
action of selection, and is wholly independent of it. It follows from this, that
variations of the same general nature have often been taken advantage of and accumulated
through Sexual Selection in relation to the propagation of the species, as well as through
Natural Selection in relation to the general purposes of life. Hence secondary sexual
characters, when equally transmitted to both sexes can be distinguished from ordinary
specific characters only by the light of analogy. The modifications acquired through
Sexual Selection are often so strongly pronounced that the two sexes have frequently been
ranked as distinct species, or even as distinct genera. Such strongly-marked differences
must be in some manner highly important; and we know that they have been acquired in some
instances at the cost not only of inconvenience, but of exposure to actual danger.
The belief in the power of Sexual Selection rests chiefly on the following
considerations. Certain characters are confined to one sex; and this alone renders it
probable that in most cases they are connected with the act of reproduction. In
innumerable instances these characters are fully developed only at maturity, and often
during only a part of the year, which is always the breeding- season. The males (passing
over a few exceptional cases) are the more active in courtship; they are the better armed,
and are rendered the more attractive in various ways. It is to he especially observed that
the males display their attractions with elaborate care in the presence of the females;
and that they rarely or never display them excepting during the season of love. It is
incredible that all this should be purposeless. Lastly we have distinct evidence with some
quadrupeds and birds, that the individuals of one sex are capable of feeling a strong
antipathy or preference for certain individuals of the other sex.
Bearing in mind these facts, and the marked results of man's unconscious selection,
when applied to domesticated animals and cultivated plants, it seems to me almost certain
that if the individuals of one sex were during a long series of generations to prefer
pairing with certain individuals of the other sex, characterized in some peculiar manner,
the offspring would slowly but surely become modified in this same manner. I have not
attempted to conceal that, excepting when the males are more numerous than the females, or
when polygamy prevails, it is doubtful how the more attractive males succeed in leaving a
larger number of offspring to inherit their superiority in ornaments or other charms than
the less attractive males; but I have shown that this would probably follow from the
females - especially the more vigorous ones, which would be the first to breed -
preferring not only the more attractive but at the same time the more vigorous and
victorious males.
Although we have some positive evidence that birds appreciate bright and beautiful
objects, as with the bower-birds of Australia, and although they certainly appreciate the
power of song, yet I fully admit that it is astonishing that the females of many birds and
some mammals should be endowed with sufficient taste to appreciate ornaments, which we
have reason to attribute to Sexual Selection; and this is even more astonishing in the
case of reptiles, fish, and insects. But we really know little about the minds of the
lower animals. It cannot he supposed, for instance, that male birds of paradise or
peacocks should take such pains in erecting, spreading, and vibrating their beautiful
plumes before the females for no purpose. We should remember that fact given on excellent
authority in a former chapter, that several peahens, when debarred from an admired male,
remained widows during a whole season rather than pair with another bird.
Nevertheless I know of no fact in natural history more wonderful than that the female
Argus pheasant should appreciate the exquisite shading of the ball-and-socket ornaments
and the elegant patterns on the wing-feathers of the male. He who thinks that the male was
created as he now exists must admit that the great plumes, which prevent the wings from
being used for flight, and which are displayed during courtship and at no other time in a
manner quite peculiar to this one species, were given to him as an ornament. If so, he
must likewise admit that the female was created and endowed with the capacity of
appreciating such ornaments. I differ only in the conviction that the male Argus pheasant
acquired his beauty gradually, through the preference of the females during many
generations for the more highly ornamented males; the aesthetic capacity of the females
having been advanced through exercise or habit, just as our own taste is gradually
improved. In the male through the fortunate chance of a few feathers being left unchanged,
we ran distinctly trace how simple spots with a little fulvous shading on one side may
have been developed by small steps into the wonderful ball-and-socket ornaments; and it is
probable that they were actually thus developed.
Everyone who admits the principle of evolution, and yet feels great difficulty in
admitting that female mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish, could have acquired the high
taste implied by the beauty of the males, and which generally coincides with our own
standard, should reflect that the nerve-cells of the brain in the highest as well as in
the lowest members of the Vertebrate series, are derived from those of the common
progenitor of this great Kingdom. For we can thus see how it has come to pass that certain
mental faculties, in various and widely distinct groups of animals, have been developed in
nearly the same manner and to nearly the same degree.
The reader who has taken the trouble to go through the several chapters devoted to
Sexual Selection, will be able to judge how far the conclusions at which I have arrived
are supported by sufficient evidence. If he accepts these conclusions he may, I think,
safely extend them to mankind; but it would be superfluous here to repeat what I have so
lately said on the manner in which Sexual Selection apparently has acted on man, both on
the male and female side, causing the two sexes to differ in body and mind, and the
several races to differ from each other in various characters, as well as from their
ancient and lowly-organized progenitors.
He who admits the principle of Sexual Selection will be led to the remarkable
conclusion that the nervous system not only regulates most of the existing functions of
the body, but has indirectly influenced the progressive development of various bodily
structures and of certain mental qualities. Courage, pugnacity, perseverance, strength and
size of body, weapons of all kinds, musical organs, both vocal and instrumental, bright
colours and ornamental appendages, have all been indirectly gained by the one sex or the
other, through the exertion of choice, the influence of love and jealousy, and the
appreciation of the beautiful in sound, colour or form; and these powers of the mind
manifestly depend on the development of the brain.
Man scans with scrupulous care the character and pedigree of his horses, cattle, and
dogs before he matches them; but when he comes to his own marriage he rarely, or never,
takes any such care. He is impelled by nearly the same motives as the lower animals, when
they are left to their own free choice, though he is in so far superior to them that he
highly values mental charms and virtues. On the other hand he is strongly attracted by
mere wealth or rank. Yet he might by selection do something not only for the bodily
constitution and frame of his offspring, but for their intellectual and moral qualities.
Both sexes ought to refrain From marriage if they are in any marked degree inferior in
body or mind but such hopes are Utopian and will never be even partially realized until
the laws of inheritance are thoroughly known. Everyone does good service, who aids towards
this end. When the principles of breeding and inheritance are better understood, we shall
not hear ignorant members of our legislature rejecting with scorn a plan for ascertaining
whether or not consanguineous marriages are injurious to man.
The advancement of the welfare of mankind is a most intricate problem: all ought to
refrain from marriage who cannot avoid abject poverty for their children; For poverty is
not only a great evil, but tends to its own increase by leading to recklessness in
marriage. On the other hand, as Mr Galton has remarked, if the prudent avoid marriage,
whilst the reckless marry, the inferior members tend to supplant the better members of
society. Man, like every other animal, has no doubt advanced to his present high condition
through a struggle for existence consequent on his rapid multiplication; and if he is to
advance still higher, it is to be feared that he must remain subject to a severe struggle.
Otherwise he would sink into indolence, and the more gifted men would not be more
successful in the battle of life than the less gifted. Hence our natural rate of increase,
though leading to many and obvious evils, must not be greatly diminished by any means.
There should be open competition for all men; and the most able should not be prevented by
laws or customs from succeeding best and rearing largest number of offspring. Important as
the struggle for existence has been and even still is, yet as far as the highest part of
man's nature is concerned there are other agencies more important. For the moral qualities
are advanced, either directly or indirectly, much more through the effects of habit, the
reasoning powers, instruction, religion, etc., than through Natural Selection; though to
this latter agency may he safely attributed the social instincts, which afforded the basis
for the development of the moral sense.
The main conclusion arrived at in this work, namely that man is descended from some
lowly organized form, will, I regret to think, be highly distasteful to many. But there
can hardly be a doubt that we are descended from barbarians. The astonishment which I felt
on first seeing a party of Feugians on a wild and broken shore will never be forgotten by
me, for the reflection at once rushed into my mind--such were our ancestors. These men
were absolutely naked and bedaubed with paint, their long hair was tangled, their mouths
frothed with excitement, and their expression was wild, startled, and distrustful. They
possessed hardly any arts, and like wild animals lived on what they could catch; they had
no government, and were merciless to every one not of their own small tribe. He who has
seen a savage in his native land will not feel much shame, if forced to acknowledge that
the blood of some more humble creature flows in his veins. For my own part I would as soon
be descended from that heroic little monkey, who braved his dreaded enemy in order to save
the life of his keeper, or from that old baboon, who descending from the mountains,
carried away in triumph his young comrade from a crowd of astonished dogs - as from a
savage who delights to torture his enemies, offers up bloody sacrifices, practises
infanticide without remorse, treats his wives like slaves, knows no decency, and is
haunted by the grossest superstitions.
Man may he excused for feeling some pride at having risen, though not through his own
exertions, to the very summit of the organic scale: and the fact of his having thus risen,
instead of having been aboriginaIIy placed there, may give him hope for a still higher
destiny in the distant future. But we are not here concerned with hopes or fears, only
with the truth as far as our reason permits us to discover it; and I have given the
evidence to the best of my ability. We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems to me, that
man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with
benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with
his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the
solar system - with all these exalted powers - Man still bears in his bodily frame the
indelible stamp of his lowly origin.
Source:
Charles Darwin: The Descent of Man, 1871
This text is part of the Internet
Modern History Sourcebook. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and
copy-permitted texts for introductory level classes in modern European and World history.
Unless otherwise indicated the specific electronic form of the document is copyright.
Permission is granted for electronic copying, distribution in print form for educational
purposes and personal use. If you do reduplicate the document, indicate the source. No
permission is granted for commercial use of the Sourcebook.
© Paul Halsall, July 1998
