us for the female as the
weaker.[945]

+590+. _Taboos connected with death._ The danger to the living arising
from a death is of a twofold nature: the corpse, as a strange, uncanny
thing, is a source of peril; and there are possible external
enemies--the spirit that produced the death, and the ghost of the
departed. Against these dangerous things avoidance of the corpse is the
common precaution--a dead body must not be touched, or, if it is
touched, he who touches must undergo purification.[946] Perhaps the
various modes of disposing of corpses (exposure, inhumation, cremation)
were originally attempts to get rid of their dangerous qualities; later
other motives came in. The body of a suicide was especially feared, and
was staked down on a public way to prevent its reappearance; it was
perhaps the abnormal and desperate character of the death that produced
this special fear. The dread of a corpse is, however, not universal
among savages--in many cases it is eaten, simply as food or to acquire
the qualities of the deceased, or for other reasons. It is feared as
having hurtful power, it is eaten as being sacred or helpful.

+591+. The house in which a death occurs shares the evil power of the
dead body, and sometimes must be destroyed, together with all its
furniture, or abandoned or purified.[947] Death diffuses its baleful
influence through the atmosphere, making it unfavorable for ordinary
work, which, accordingly, is often then suspended for a time.[948]
Seclusion is sometimes enjoined on widower or widow,[949] and mention of
the name of the deceased is forbidden--the identity of spouse or name
with the dead effects the transmission of what is dangerous in him. In
another direction the earthly dwelling of a dead person is protected--a
curse is pronounced on one who violates it.[950]

+592+. _Taboos connected with woman and the relations between the
sexes._ Among many peoples there is dread of the presence of women and
of their belongings under certain circumstances.[951] The ground of this
fear may lie in those physiological peculiarities of woman which are
regarded as mysterious and dangerous, and the antagonism of feeling may
have been increased by the separation between the sexes consequent on
the differences in their social functions and their daily pursuits.
Woman seems to move in a sphere different from that of man; she acts in
ways that are strange to him. Whatever its ground, the feeling of dread
is a real