WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
stinct of polygyny. Slowly, through the influence of religion, the fear of penalties, and economic inhibitions, plurality in wives or concubines ceased to be the recognised practice of the prosperous European races. But the cessation of sanctioned polygyny did not annihilate the custom. That which was open became clandestine and furtive.
Diminishing polygamous relationships in the East will not come about through the acceptation of the religious creeds of the West. The bias against polygamy is a phase of the Feminist Movement, which is invading every quarter of the civilised globe. This is not the mere agitation of a disenfranchised sex, but a tremendous, clamant uprising of thoughtful women, aroused, after centuries of repression and inertia, to revolution and to the complete reconstruction of all social opinions, moral codes, and laws affecting their sex. In certain aspects, it is a strife for feminine supremacy. Undoubtedly, feminism is, in the main, a revolt against the sexual domination of man.
In these days of rapid and easy travel, there is a wide mingling of races. The West is beginning to learn some of the wisdom of the East, and the Orient is losing some of its conservativism. Far-reaching changes in the East and the West, through international intercourse, are likely to occur in the near future.
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