oward the custom being so widespread, it is not
strange that it has established itself in religious organizations.

Two types of organized religious prostitution have to be
considered:[1952] there is the Babylonian (Mylitta) type, in which every
woman must thus yield herself before marriage; and there is the
attachment of a company of official public women to a temple permanently
or for a considerable time. The explanations that have been offered of
these institutions fall into two classes, one tracing their origin to
some nonreligious custom, the other regarding them as originally
religious (these classes are, however, not necessarily mutually
exclusive).

_Secular explanations._ It has been held that all such customs go back
to a period of sexual promiscuity,[1953] which has been modified in the
course of ages. It is doubtful whether such a period ever existed,[1954]
but it is certain that prenuptial license has been common, and this
laxity may have prepared the way for organized prostitution. More
particularly, reference is made to puberty defloration ceremonies, when
the girl is handed over to certain men no one of whom can, by tribal
rule, be her husband--that is, before marriage she becomes sexually the
property of the tribe through its regularly appointed representatives,
and is thus prepared for membership; then, it is added, at a later
period, when religious service has been established, the girl is given
over or devoted not to the tribe but to the tribal god, in whose shrine
she must submit to defloration, in accordance with rules fixed from time
to time. The act thus becomes religious--it is a recognition of the
sovereignty of the deity, and procures divine favor. Such may be a
possible explanation of the procedure in the temple of Mylitta and at
Byblos.[1955] But the meaning of the condition imposed at these places,
namely, that the man to whom the woman yields herself must be a
stranger, is not clear. It is hardly probable that an outsider was
called on to perform what was regarded as a dangerous duty--a stranger
would not be likely to undertake what a tribesman feared to do.[1956]
Nor is the power of a stranger to confer benefits so well established
that we can regard his presence as intended to bring a blessing to the
girl.[1957] More to the point, in one respect, is the conjecture that we
have here an attenuated survival of the exogamic rule--the girl must
marry out of her social group;[1958] the old so