Chapter 19

[355]"Among the lower hunters there is no matriarchate, but—if indeed one may make the distinction—only a patriarchate or rather an androcracy (Mannesherrschaft). Even in those Australian tribes where the custom of maternal succession exists, the woman follows the man into his horde and becomes his property. Their children remain in his horde, and not she but he has the disposition of the offspring.... This primitive patriarchate, of course, has nothing to do with that of the later patriarchal family. It is not based on any reflection regarding descent or the man's share in procreation; it rests simply on the right of the stronger, on the rude physical superiority of man, his position as winner of the greater share of the food and as protector" of the family community.—Cunow,op. cit., 115, 116.

[356]Spencer,Principles of Sociology, I, 649-52. It should be noted that McLennan really ascribes the origin of exogamy to wife-capture, though, inadvertently seemingly, in one passage he refers it to a "primitive instinct."

[357]SeeStarcke,op. cit., 217, who thinks Spencer inconsistent with his own theory; for "if the rape of women can be practised within the tribe, it need no longer be assumed that a young man's ambition impels him to take a wife from another tribe."

[358]Origin of Civilization, 111, 130.

[359]Starcke,op. cit., 217, 218.

[360]Spencer,op. cit., I, 652-60. Spencer is criticised byWestermarck,op. cit., 311 ff.;Starcke,op. cit., 215 ff.

[361]Lubbock,op. cit., 86, 98, 103, 104-43.Cf.the criticism ofStarcke,op. cit., 220, 221;Westermarck,op. cit., 316;McLennan,Studies, I, 329-47.

[362]Starcke,op. cit., 220;Lubbock,op. cit., 109 ff.

[363]McLennan,op. cit., I, 344, 345, 329 ff.

[364]On a Method of Investigating the Development of Institutions, 267, 268;cf.Westermarck,op. cit., 316, 317.

[365]Kohler, "Indisches Ehe- und Familienrecht,"ZVR., III, 360-62;Post,Familienrecht, 79, 83.Tylor,op. cit., 365, 366, denies that capture and exogamy are related as cause and effect.

[366]Westermarck,op. cit., 290.

[367]Spencer,op. cit., I, 636 ff.

[368]Lubbock,op. cit., 133.

[369]Morgan,Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, VII, 469;Ancient Society, 69, 424 ff.;cf.Starcke,op. cit., 323;Westermarck,op. cit., 317.

[370]Peschel,Races of Man, 224;Westermarck,op. cit., 317, 318; alsoDarwin,Animals and Plants under Domestication, II, 124;Lubbock, "Customs of Marriage and Systems of Relationship among the Australians,"Jour. Anth. Inst., XIV, 300.

[371]Maine,Early Law and Custom, 228.

[372]Darwin,op. cit., II, 103, 104, acceptsHuth'sview (Marriage of Near Kin), that there is no "instinctive feeling in man against incest any more than in gregarious animals."

[373]This is the view ofMorgan,Ancient Society, 512-14; also ofMaine,op. cit., 221 ff.;Fison and Howitt,Kamilaroi and Kurnai, 117, 138 ff.;Westermarck,op. cit., 363.

[374]Starcke,op. cit., 212, 223, 224.

[375]In this part of his argument Starcke's generalizations are scarcely sustained by the evidence. See the criticism ofCunow,Australneger, 180-84, who urges the well-known fact that many of the lowest peoples are not acquainted with wife-purchase at all; and even where wife-purchase exists, it might seem to be of as much advantage to a father to marry his daughter to her brother as, for instance, to allow the son to obtain a wife by offering his sister in exchange.

[376]Starcke,op. cit., 233, 229, 230.

[377]Ibid., 227, 228.

[378]Westermarck,op. cit., chaps. xiv, xv, xvi, 290-382. These chapters should be read in the light of the results obtained in those on "Law of Similarity," the "Means of Attraction," "Sexual Selection," and the "Liberty of Choice."

[379]For the evidence of incestuous marriages, seeWestermarck,op. cit., 292 ff., 331 ff.;Starcke,op. cit., 44, 209 ff.;Spencer,Principles of Sociology, I, 636;Giraud-Teulon,Origines, 60 ff.

[380]This may perhaps explain why half-sisters and half-brothers may marry among the Todas where relationship is in the male line:Marshall,A Phrenologist amongst the Todas, 206, 221.

[381]Here and there among low races one finds examples of alleged incest recorded. Thus among the New England Indians marriages between brothers and sisters are said to have existed:Waitz,Anthropologie, III, 106. "Among these people only," says Turner of the Innuit on the Labrador coast, "have I heard of a son who took his mother as a wife, and when the sentiment of the community compelled him to discard her he took two other women, who were so persecuted by the mother that they believed themselves to be wholly under her influence." "Ethnology of the Ungava District,"XI. Rep. of Bureau of Eth., 180. So alsoD'Evreuxsuspects incest, not marriage, between brothers and sisters among the Brazilian Indians:Voyage dans le Nord du Brésil, 1613-14, 85-95. On the other hand,Dobrizhoffersays the Abipones abhor marriage with near kindred:Relation, II, 212; and the same appears to be true of the Kafirs:Ratzel,History of Mankind, II, 435. See also the examples mentioned byGrosse,Die Formen der Familie, 129, 130.

[382]Westermarck,op. cit., 297;Powers,Tribes of California, 192.

[383]Westermarck,op. cit., 297, 305, 306.

[384]Ibid., 318, 320, 321.Wake,Marriage and Kinship, 55, 56, expresses a similar view.

[385]Westermarck,op. cit., 321, citingEgede,Description of Greenland, 141;Nansen,The First Crossing of Greenland, II, 330.

[386]Westermarck,op. cit., 321, citingMacpherson,Memorials of Service in India, 69.

[387]Tylor,On a Method of Investigating the Development of Institutions, 268;Piedrahita,Historia general(1688), 11;Westermarck,op. cit., 321.

[388]Ibid., 322;Wallace,Travels on the Amazon, 497.

[389]Morgan,Houses and House-Life of the American Aborigines;Fiske,Discovery of America, I, 64 ff.;Westermarck,op. cit., 324.

[390]Maine,Early History of Institutions, 7, 78, 106, 195, 200,passim;Early Law and Custom, chap, viii;Krauss,Sitte und Brauch der Südslaven, 14, 64, 72, 79 ff., 84, etc.;Kohler, "Indisches Ehe- und Familienrecht,"ZVR., III, 362;cf.Lyall,Asiatic Studies, chap. vii.

[391]Lewis,Ancient Laws of Wales, 56, 57, 196.

[392]Westermarck,op. cit., 323-28.

[393]Tylor,On a Method of Investigating the Development of Institutions, 261 ff.;cf.Westermarck,op. cit., 328, 329.

[394]Westermarck,op. cit., chap, xiii, and compare chap, xv, 334 ff.

[395]On sterility as the result of crossing in species, seeWallace,Darwinism, 152-86;Darwin,Animals and Plants under Domestication, II, 78 ff.; and on the good effects of crossing and the evil effects of close interbreeding,ibid., II, 92-126, 104.Cf.Quaterfages,The Human Species, 85-88 (crossing species), 276-86 (effects of crossing in mixed races);Mitchell, "Blood-Relationship in Marriage," inMemoirs of London Anth. Society, 1865, II, 402-56; andWithington,Consanguineous Marriages, 2 ff., who believes the injurious effects of such unions on the offspring have been overestimated. On the other hand, it has been maintained that under primitive conditions the advantages of close intermarriage may have outweighed all disadvantages:Mucke,Horde und Familie, 245-47, combating Westermarck's view.

[396]Darwin,Effects of Cross and Self-Fertilization in the Vegetable Kingdom, 436.

[397]Cunow,Australneger, 184 ff., rejects Westermarck's theory, first, on the ground that the prohibition of intermarriage in the cases cited often extends far beyond the local group; and secondly, because where the members of agensdo not at the same time form a local community, marriage is not forbidden in the group of persons actually living together. But Westermarck is dealing with origins; and he does not mean to say that all the existing complex systems of kinship which have gradually been developed through association of ideas or other influences actually now conform to the principle for which he contends. On the other handHellwald,Die mensch. Familie, 178 ff., followingWagner, inKosmos, 1886, I, 21, 24-34, reaches a conclusion essentially like that obtained by Westermarck. He finds the origin of exogamy in a dread of close intermarriage producing a horror of incest. During the period of the endogamous mother-group such marriages were the rule. With the rise of fixed habitations for the group, beginning in the glacial age and carried farther in the diluvial period, came more permanent sexual relations, the prototype of real marriage. This close living together, because of its deadening effect on sexual attraction, produced a dislike of unions in the group, leading to exogamy, often accompanied by wife-capture; although neither rape nor exogamy must be regarded as a universal stage of social evolution.Crawley,Mystic Rose, 222, 223, 443 ff., rejects Westermarck's theory of a general human "instinct" against inbreeding. He insists that neither incest nor promiscuity was "ever anything but the rarest exception in any stage of human culture, even the earliest; the former being prevented by the psychological difficulty with which love comes into play between persons either closely associated or strictly separated before the age of puberty, a difficulty enhanced by the ideas of sexual taboo, which are intensified in the closeness of the family circle, where practical as well as religious considerations cause parents to prevent any dangerous connections." Westermarck's theory, he holds, does not account for all the facts; for example, "that to no little extent brothers and sisters, mothers and sons, fathers and daughters, donotlive together. This is a result of sexual taboo, and is originally a part of the cause why such marriage is avoided, and not a result of avoidance of incest." In short, it "is the application of sexual taboo to brothers and sisters, who, because they are of opposite sexes, of the same generation, and are in close contact, and for no other reasons, are regarded as potentially marriageable, that is the foundation of exogamy and the marriage system."Cf.Lang,Social Origins, 10-34, 238-40 note, whose criticism of Westermarck and McLennan follows similar lines; andAtkinson,Primal Law, 209-40, who believes that jealousy may have set up a bar to sexual unions within the "fire-circle" before totems or the idea of incest arose.

[398]Consult the very interesting chapter ofWestermarckon "Selection as Influenced by Affection and Sympathy, and by Calculation,"op. cit., 356 ff. "Affection depends in a very high degree upon sympathy. Though distinct aptitudes, these two classes of emotions are most intimately connected: affection is strengthened by sympathy, and sympathy is strengthened by affection.... If love is excited by contrast, it is so only within certain limits. The contrast must not be so great as to exclude sympathy."—Ibid., 362. "Civilization," he adds, "has narrowed the inner limit, within which a man or woman must not marry;" while "it has widened the outer limit within which a man or womanmaymarry and generally marries. The latter of these processes has been one of vast importance in man's history."—Ibid., 376.

[399]McLennan,Studies, I, 116,passim;cf.Spencer,Principles of Sociology, I, 679.

[400]See, especially,Westermarck,op. cit., chaps. xx-xxiii;Starcke,Primitive Family, 128-70;Wake,Marriage and Kinship, chaps. v, vi, vii; and compareHellwald,Die mensch. Familie, 241 ff. For the literature of polyandry, see p. 80, n. 2, above.

[401]For the literature relating to the levirate and similar customs, see above p. 84, n. 2.

[402]This may be the explanation of the levirate among the Todas:Marshall,A Phrenologist amongst the Todas, 206-9, 213. Similar practical motives influenced the rise of the levirate elsewhere:Dorsey, "Omaha Sociology,"III. Rep. of Bureau of Eth., 258;cf.Martius,Ethnographie, 117, notes;idem,Rechtszustande, 64.

[403]Spencer,Principles of Sociology, I, 679-81, 748 ff., 750. See, however, the criticism ofStarcke,op. cit., 151-53, 159 ff.; and compareWestermarck,op. cit., 510 ff.;McLennan,Studies, I, 108 ff.;Fortnightly Review(1877), 701; andSpencer's"Short Rejoinder,"ibid., 897. But elsewhere Spencer thinks the levirate may arise in the duty of caring for the brother's children—a general cause of polygyny:op. cit., 691, 692. For examples of inheritance of widows, seeKohler, "Das Recht der Azteken,"ZVR., XI, 54; "Das Negerrecht, namentlich in Kamerun,"ibid., XI, 416, 423; and for widower inheritance among the Chins,idem,ibid., 186 ff.

[404]Starcke,op. cit., 141 ff. For his theory of juridical fatherhood seeibid., 121-27, 135, 139; and compare the similar view ofWake,Marriage and Kinship, 78 ff. This author gives an interesting discussion of the case of Boaz and Ruth,op. cit., 172-78, which may be compared withMcLennan,Studies, I, 109 n. 3. On the evidence for juridical fatherhood among the Arabs, consultSmith,Kinship and Marriage, 119, 120.

[405]Westermarck,op. cit., 455-57.

[406]Ibid., 457-59, 113-17;cf.especiallyStarcke,op. cit., 135.Hellwald,Die mensch. Familie, 264 ff., gives many interesting details.

[407]Spencer,Principles of Sociology, I, 673-75, 678, 679. Insufficient food-supply may cause polygynic and monogamic families to die out; and it is favorable to the survival of the polyandrous family. But the infertility of polyandrous families is unfavorable to their survival, for there are fewer members available for defense.—Ibid., 681.

[408]Polyandry is favored by poverty and scarcity of women; but it is essentially the outgrowth of ancient sexual relations:Hellwald,op. cit., 258-61; agreeing withLippert,Kulturgeschichte, II, 10.Marshall,A Phrenologist amongst the Todas, 223 ff., follows Lubbock and McLennan in regarding polyandry as a survival of communism. On the other hand,Fritsch,Die Eingeborenen Süd-Afrikas, 227, is decidedly of the opinion that polyandry among the Kafir Herero is the direct result of poverty and low condition (niedrige Gesinnung); it is, he says, "keine Sitte, sondern eine Unsitte," harmonizing with the laxity of their moral ideas.

[409]Smith,Kinship and Marriage, 125 ff., 128.

[410]Wake,Marriage and Kinship, 172, 134-78.

[411]Starcke,op. cit., 135, 139, 128-70.

[412]Westermarck,op. cit., chap. xxi, in connection with chaps. xx and xxii.

[413]ThusLord Kames,Sketches of the History of Man, I, 277 ff., declares "polygyny to be an infringement of the law of nature, basing his opinion on the false assumption that, 'in all countries and at all times,' males and females are equal in number, and supporting it by the consideration that the 'God of nature has enforced conjugal society, not only by making it agreeable, but by the principle of chastity inherent in our nature.'"—Wake,op. cit., 198 ff., who shows this assumption to be unfounded.

[414]The facts are collected byWestermarck, with elaborate reference to authorities:op. cit., 460-66.

[415]Marshall,A Phrenologist amongst the Todas, 100;Westermarck,op. cit., 467.

[416]Bruce,Travels to Discover the Sources of the Nile, I, 284 ff.;Westermarck,op. cit., 467, 468.

[417]Oettingen,Moralstatistik in ihrer Bedeutung für eine Socialethik, 55;Westermarck,op. cit., 469.Darwin,Descent of Man, chap, viii, discusses the numerical proportion of the sexes, showing their inequality.Cf.Ploss,Das Weib, I, 244-46, giving a table of the number of male and female births for European countries and for several of the commonwealths of the United States, the male predominating.

[418]Thus, according toSadler,The Law of Population, II, 333 ff., andHofacker and Notter,Ueber die Eigenschaften welche sich bei Menschen und Thieren von den Eltern auf die Nachkommen vererben, "more boys are born if the husband is older than the wife, more girls if the wife is older than the husband." But Noirot and Breslau have reached the opposite result; and Berner, from Norwegian statistics, has shown that "the law is untenable." From the registers of births in Alsace-Lorraine,Stieda,Das Sexualverhältniss der Geborenen, proves "that neither the relative nor the absolute ages of the parents exercise this sort of influence." Platter "concludes from the examination of thirty million births that the less the difference in the age of the parents the greater is the probability of boys being born." For these authorities and others seeWestermarck,op. cit., 469, 470; and compareThompson and Geddes,Evolution of Sex, 32 ff., for a review of theories, particularly the comparative table, p. 35, and the bibliography, p. 40.

[419]The authorities are compared byWestermarck,op. cit., 470; and there is an interesting discussion of this point byWake,Marriage and Kinship, 223 ff.Cf.Darwin,Descent of Man, chap. viii, 215 ff.Ploss,Das Weib, I, 239-44, gives a comparative view of the notions of various peoples as to the knowledge of sex before the birth of the child.

[420]Düsing,Die Regulierung des Geschlechtsverhältnisses bei der Vermehrung der Menschen, Tiere, und Pflanzen(Jena, 1884), 121-237.

[421]As summarized byWestermarck,op. cit., 470, 471.

[422]Ploss,Ueber die das Geschlechtsverhältniss der Kinder bedingenden Ursachen, 21 ff., 30,passim.

[423]CompareGeddes and Thompson,Evolution of Sex, 32-54, who discuss the literature relating to sex-determination; andGeddes, article "Sex" inEncycl. Brit.See the bibliographies of the subject inGeddes and Thompson,op. cit., 40, 53, 54.Marshall,A Phrenologist amongst the Todas, 110, 111, regards the tendency to produce more males than females as due to natural selection, practiced by an in-and-in breeding people, made necessary originally by female infanticide. Thus a "male-producing variety of man is formed."

[424]Consistent with the rule is the fact that the majority of illegitimate births are female.

[425]Düsing,op. cit., 237.

[426]Powers,Tribes of California, 403, 149;Starckweather,The Law of Sex, 159 ff.;Westermarck,op. cit., 476-80, who cites many other authorities.

[427]Ibid., 481, 482.

[428]Westermarck,op. cit., 475, 476, citingStulpnagel, inIndian Antiquary, VII, 135.Cf.Spencer,Principles of Sociology, I, 688.

[429]Westermarck,op. cit., 482, 483.Cf.Marshall,A Phrenologist amongst the Todas, 110, 111, 221,passim, for illustrations.

[430]Westermarck,op. cit., 515.

[431]On polygyny seeSwinderen,Disputatio de polygynia(1795);Weinhold,Die deutschen Frauen, II, 13 ff.;Post,Familienrecht, 63 ff.;Geschlechtsgenossenschaft, 17 ff., 26 ff.;Kovalevsky,Tableau, 101 ff.;Hellwald,Die mensch. Familie, 367-437;Mason,Woman's Share in Primitive Culture, 222 ff.;Darwin,Descent of Man, chaps. viii, xx;Lubbock,Origin of Civilization, 143;Letourneau,L'évolution du mariage, chaps. viii, ix, x, xi;Wake,Marriage and Kinship, chap. vi;Spencer,Principles of Sociology, I, 682-97;Starcke,Primitive Family, 261 ff.,passim;Westermarck,Human Marriage, 431 ff., and Index. For examples of polygyny seeKohler, inZVR., VII, 370, 379 (Papuas); VIII, 114 (Dekkan); IX, 324 (Bengal); X, 55 (Azteks); 97-99 (Bombay); XI, 432, 433 (Kamerun);Henrici, "Das Recht der Epheneger,"ZVR., XI, 134;Post, "Die Kodification des Rechts der Amaxosa,"ibid., XI, 232, 233;Rehme, "Das Recht der Amaxosa,"ibid., X, 36.

[432]For instance,Spencer,Principles of Sociology, I, 672, 688.

[433]See the enumeration of polygynous peoples inWestermarck,op. cit., 431-35;Spencer,op. cit., I, 682, 683;Wake,Marriage and Kinship, 181 ff.;Mason,Woman's Place in Primitive Culture, 222 ff.

[434]Hellwald,Die mensch. Familie, 366 ff.;Grosse,Die Formen der Familie, 104 ff.

[435]See the lists of monogamous peoples inWestermarck,op. cit., 435-38; and compareDarwin,Descent of Man, 591;Post,Familienrecht, 73;Letourneau,L'évolution du mariage, chap. xi; and especiallyGrosse,Die Formen der Familie, as above summarized, chap. ii.

[436]Sarasin,Die Weddas von Ceylon, I, 457-75. These investigators, sustaining Westermarck's view of social evolution, regard the monogamy of the Veddahs as a typical primitive institution. Of course, asKohler,Zur Urgeschichte der Ehe, 10 ff., 14 ff., urges against Westermarck and the Sarasin brothers, the accumulation of a great number of examples of peoples among whom monogamy prevails does not necessarily constitute proof of the original condition of man. It is possible, for example, that the Veddahs are far advanced beyond their former condition, or, conversely, that they are a degraded race. Still the existence of these examples of the single pairing family among barbarous and savage men, as well as those found among the anthropoid mammals, puts the burden of proof on the other side. At any rate, it must not be lightly assumed that this kind of evidence has been used more critically by the adherents of the theory of promiscuity than by those who take the opposite view.

[437]Polygyny is found, for example, among the Innuit, but monogamy is the rule, though marriages are often of very short duration. Occasionally there are two, three, four, or in very rare cases even five wives:Turner, "Ethnology of the Ungava District,"XI. Rep. of Bureau of Eth., 182, 188, 189. Among the Point Barrow Eskimo Murdoch found usually one wife, and never heard of more than two: "Point Barrow Expedition,"ibid., 411. "Rich men" among the Thlinkets often have two wives:Niblack, "Coast Indians,"Rep. Smith. Inst., 1888, 367, 368;Krause,Die Tlinkit Indianer, 220. The Pima Indian has more than one wife when he can support them, for "the wife is the slave of the husband":Grossmann, "The Pima Indians of Arizona,"Rep. Smith. Inst., 1871, 415, 416. A Ponca chief married four wives at one time, took them at once to his wigwam, and all got on well:Rep. Smith. Inst., 1885, 64. The Wyandottes allow polygyny if the wives are taken from differentgentes, but polyandry is prohibited:Powell, "Wyandotte Society,"A. A. A. S., XXIX, 681. Sometimes "duogamy" is found among the Seminoles:MacCauley, inV. Rep. of Bureau of Eth., 495. Among the Sioux "a plurality of wives is required of a good hunter, since in the labors of the chase women are of great service":Dorsey, "Siouan Sociology,"XV. Rep. of Bureau of Eth., 225; but the "maximum number of wives that one man (an Omaha Sioux) can have is three,e. g., the first wife, her aunt, and her sister or niece, if all be consanguinities. Sometimes the three are not kindred":idem, "Omaha Sociology,"III. Rep. of Bureau of Eth., 261; and compareKohler,Zur Urgeschichte der Ehe, 65 ff., 82, who finds here an evidence of group-marriage. One wife is the rule among the South American Abipones:Dobrizhoffer,Account, II, 209, 210; and Appiacás:Guimarães, "Memoria,"Revist. Trimens. Hist., VI, 307; and in general it is the prevalent form in South America:Martius,Ethnographie, II, 104;idem,Rechtszustande, 53. Two wives is the average number among theSeri:McGee, inXVII. Rep. of Bureau of Eth., Part I, 279.

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