By far the greatest number of primitive peoples are monogamous. Only in relatively few cases is there polyandry. Polygyny often occurs among persons who are specially favoured, either economically or socially; but it is nowhere the form of marriage of the majority of the population. The polygyny reported among certain tribes generally refers only to chiefs, magic doctors, or some other special persons who have more than one wife. Sexual group communism at the side of monogamy or polyandry has been found in various places, but it is wrong to speak of it as "group marriage." This is evident from the previously quoted examples of thepirauruin Australia, the sex communities among the Chukchee, the Nandi, Masai, and others. It is possible, of course, that monogamy which now co-exists with certain cases of sex communism may have been a later addition, but this is not proven. It is more likely that the pairing instinct (not identical with the instinct of procreation) is characteristic of our sub-human ancestors. In fact, even in the animal world there are numerous examples of monogamy (P. Deegener).
It has been established that in Africa, Indonesia,Melanesia, and elsewhere, the small children remain with their parents, while the bigger children are lodged together in special boys' and girls' houses, and are, as it were, brought up communally. The relationship of the children to their own parents is not notably closer than that between them and other persons of the same age class. We must not look upon this child communism solely as a curiosity, but as the relic of a very ancient primitive institution. Most likely there is some connection between child communism and the interchange of children which is customary, for example, among the Dravidian races of India ("Ethnographical Survey of the Central India Agency") and on the Murray Islands, in the Torres Straits (Australia). According to W. H. R. Rivers (1907, p. 318), the interchange of children between families is very frequent here without the peoples being able to give any explanation of it. Nor do other social and religious institutions offer any indication as to the origin of this custom. Rivers surmises that it has been preserved from a social organisation in which "children were largely common to the women of the group so far as nurture was concerned." At any rate, this adoptionen massewill help civilised man to understand that less civilised peoples have ideas about parenthood different from those that exist among us, and also that group motherhood is not absurd. The existence of group motherhood among primitive communities—whose members were much more dependent on each other in the struggle forexistence than are the members of much more advanced societies—must often have been of considerable advantage to these communities. On the assumption of "group motherhood" it is easily explainable that children use the same mode of address for their own sisters and brothers as for all the other children of the group, and that all the women of equal ages are called "mother." Hence the classificatory system of relationship ceases to be puzzling. It becomes clear why under this system whole groups of persons designate each other as husbands and wives, and why the children of all the persons of these groups call each other brothers and sisters, etc. The assumption is justified that man in a low state of civilisation knew only group relationship; further distinctions were derived only later from these relationships, the present-day classificatory system arising ultimately from them. Among the peoples where Rivers could examine this system there were indications of a development in the direction of using it rather for the distinction of real blood and marriage relationship than for the distinction of social position, for which it was originally intended. A connection between marriage regulation and the classificatory system of relationships exists not only among the Dravidian races, but also among the North American Indians, and certainly among other branches of the human race. Rivers says: "The classificatory system in one form or another is spread so widely over the world as to make it probable thatit had its origin in some universal stage of social development"; and further he says: "The kind of society which most readily accounts for its chief features is one characterised by a form of marriage in which definite groups of men are the husbands of definite groups of women." Rivers does not mean thereby institutions like thepirauru, but a permanent group marriage. It may be objected against this latter assumption that permanent (not occasional) sex communism does not necessarily need to be connected with communism of children. It is quite possible that monogamy and child communism may exist side by side, as,e.g., among the Murray Islanders.
But even if group marriage did really exist in some places, and if the existence of child communism would prove this, it still cannot be asserted that it is a phase of development through which all human races have passed. For the assumption of a parallel development of all races is untenable. It is true the basic psychic organisation is the same for all human beings, being due to the common descent of mankind. But owing to the continual adaptation to changing environmental conditions, it was not preserved, but underwent different changes. There is no ground for the assumption that, while environmental changes brought about bodily modifications, mental changes did not take place also, therewith leading at the same time to differences in social culture. On the contrary, we must rather assume that together with anthropological variationsamong the races there also arose variations in social development, the different civilisations resulting from differentiated mental dispositions and deviating more and more from each other. Certain elements of the original primitive civilisation have been preserved in the various later developments, but not everywhere the same elements, nor were the differentiations that did take place all of the same degree. Certain fundamental conceptions may remain unchanged for long periods, and may produce analogous phenomena in different civilisations. Since deviations from monogamy are extremely rare among primitive peoples, the assumption is justified that monogamy is one of the fundamental factors of human civilisation. How could its practically universal occurrence be explained otherwise? There can be no question of convergence, nor has a world-wide transmission of a cultural element that has arisen later been proved up to the present.
The opinion, first expressed by L. H. Morgan, that the classificatory relationship system is evidence of the existence of group marriage (not merely in the form ofpirauruexisting at the side of monogamy), is contradicted by the etymological meaning of the terms used by primitive people, which are generally translated by "father," "mother," "grandfather," "brother," "sister," "child," etc. These collective names show nowhere an allusion to procreation, but only to age differences: father and mother are the "elder," the "big ones," the "grown-ups"; the children are the "little ones," the "youngones"; brothers and sisters are the "comrades." We often find that among the Australian negroes and the South Sea islanders no distinction is made between father and mother. All persons of an older generation of a horde or a totem (or of a phratry respectively) are simply the "elder," the "big ones." If a native wishes to indicate more clearly the sex of a person of an older class, he must add the word "man" or "woman" (or the adjective "male" or "female"). It often happens that grandparents and grandchildren use the same form of address, which in no way refers to descent (Cunow). Other facts point to the same conclusion. Where thepirauruexists in Australia, the same form of address is used for persons standing inpiraururelationship to the speaker as for members of the same age class who have no such relationship. This could not be so if the appellation had originated from common sexual relationship. Cunow rightly concludes: "Sexual communities can be proved to exist here and there among primitive peoples, but the nomenclature of the classificatory relationships has not grown out of such group relationships. These so-called group marriages are rather adventitious growths, playing only a secondaryrôlein the history of the family."
Buschan (1912, p. 254) looks upon the pre-marital sexual freedom of girls among many primitive peoples (most probably among the majority of them) as a relic of communal marriage from earlier times. Heassumes that the girls had promiscuous relationships with the other sex. This, however, is not the case. As a rule, couples meet together for a time, and only rarely does a person have relationship with several persons at the same time. The conditions are essentially the same as in Europe, except that amongst "savages" a love affair going as far as intercourse is not considered immoral. The assumption of many authors that man is polygynous is far from being proved, at least not in the sense that the majority of men are inclined to have relationship with several women at the same time. It cannot, however, be disputed that after some time the relationship between two people tends to lose its attraction, often causing a breaking of the marriage vow.
There is a custom among many peoples that a man's widow falls to his younger brother (or cousin)—thelevirate. According to another custom, a man has the right to marry the sisters of his wife. Both these customs have been explained as being relics of a form of marriage in which brothers married several sisters or sisters married brothers at the same time (Frazer, II., p. 144). But it seems much more likely that we have here before us merely a case of property rights.
Even if constancy in marriage is not the rule, especially among primitive people, yet we must still regard the permanent living together of one man and one woman as a state that has always prevailed amongsthuman beings (Westermarck). Many of the speculations, at first sight so learned, about the apparently intricate paths in the development of marriage, remain merely speculations which cannot stand the test of modern ethnological research. Heinrich Schurtz (p. 175) makes the pertinent remark that nothing excited the hostile camps of the sociological idealists and naturalists more than the dispute about promiscuity in primitive times. While the one party painted with zest the indiscriminate and irregular sex relationship of primitive races, claiming it as an established original stage in human development, the adherents of idealism rose in indignation against a theory that places primitive man far below the level of the higher animals, and that leaves the riddle unsolved how such a chaos could lead to the idea of sexual purity and a spiritualisation of the sexual impulse. In this battle for and against promiscuity even facts were unfortunately too often not respected, attempts being made to disregard them at any cost. This cannot be good for the ultimate victory of truth. Facts should not be passed over, but should be taken into full consideration. In this conflict of opinions the institution ofpirauruespecially has fared particularly badly. Some anthropologists wanted to do away with it altogether at any price (for instance, Josef Müller); others drew conclusions from it that are utterly unjustified. But even if this were not so, even if thepiraurucould be used as a proof of previous sexual promiscuity, it still does not followthat it was a general custom in man, for the majority of the peoples show no trace of it.
First of all, it must be noticed that even thepiraurupossesses various restrictions upon marriage with persons outside certain groups, which alone exclude unrestrained promiscuity. Furthermore, individual marriage, the binding force of which is undoubtedly even stronger and closer, is well known to exist beside it. There is a good deal of probability for the assumption of Schurtz that marriage regulations establishing the right of several men to one wife may first have arisen from mere friendly acts, or the original sexual licentiousness may have developed occasionally under specially favourable circumstances into the institution ofpirauru, while at other places such a systematic development did not take place. It is easily to be understood that lower civilisations will show a looser standard of the marriage bond than those where many interests of a rich cultural development require the strengthening of this bond. Sexual needs may also have brought about the origin of thepirauruinstitutions. Thus there exist in Australia tribes among which the loan of wives was customary owing to the scarcity of women. There is only one step from this state of affairs to thepirauru. Among many tribes complicated marriage restrictions make a "legitimate" marriage very difficult, and this may easily lead to other sex relationships taking the place of marriage.
It is a mistake to assume hastily that customsamong primitive people that appear strange to us must therefore be ancient and be relics of a primitive state. Every primitive race has a long history behind it, and it is not likely that it has remained static all the time. Primitive people are not stationary in development; there is much change among them in the course of generations. This applies also to customs and habits which seem absolutely stable. External conditions may produce new developments, or result in foreign influences. Not everything, therefore, that is peculiar to uncivilised races of the present day must be looked upon as primitive.
Polyandry deserves our special consideration. As a recognised social institution it has so far been definitely established only among the Indian peoples and castes, as well as in Tibet, on the borders of Northern India. In exceptional cases polyandry occurs among the Eskimos and the Asiatic Polar races. The older accounts of polyandry occurring in Australia are not confirmed by the new ethnographical literature. The reports about polyandry among the American Indians are also incorrect. John Roscoe (1907, pp. 99et seq.) has proved its existence among the Bahima and Baziba tribes of Central Africa, though here polyandry is not the rule, but is only practised occasionally. If a man is poor, if he cannot get together the number of cows required for the bride price, or if he is unable to support a wife, he can combine with one or several of his brothers and take a wife in common with them. It is easy toget the women for this purpose. Furthermore, among these tribes the housewife may be claimed by a guest, while exchange of wives also occurs.
In India polyandry is prevalent among the peoples of the Himalayan mountains and among some Southern Indian tribes. Some cases of this curious form of marriage are already mentioned in the ancient Indian literature. It may be assumed, therefore, that it was more prevalent formerly than at present. This institution was certainly never very general nor of great importance in the life of the people of India. At the present time it is restricted to a number of comparatively small tribes and castes. Two forms of polyandry can be distinguished among them, namely, the fraternal form, where several brothers or cousins have one wife in common, and the matriarchal form, where a woman has several husbands, not necessarily related to each other.
In Northern India polyandry is general among the Tibetans and Bhotias of the Himalayan border districts. Here, when the oldest of several brothers takes a wife, she has the right—but not the duty—to have sexual relationship with the other brothers living in the same household. If a younger brother also marries, the other still younger brothers have the choice in which household they wish to live. The surplus women become nuns. This system is said to be due to the poverty of the country. The Himalayan peoples, being intent on preventing the increase of thepopulation and a further reduction of the means of existence, consign many women to celibacy and childlessness. Yet at the same time they make it possible, by this system, for the socially privileged man to satisfy his sexual needs. The children of polyandrous marriages belong, as a rule, legally to the oldest brother. But it also occurs that each brother in turn, according to his age, has a child assigned to him regardless of whether the brother concerned was on the spot at the time of the child's conception. Sometimes the mother has the right to name the father of each of her children.
Fraternal polyandry also exists in Cashmir and among certain Sudra castes of the Punjab mountains. In the Punjab, however, the Rajputs and other castes of that neighbourhood are also influenced by polyandry. The ceremonies which take place at marriage in the Punjab bear traces of "marriage by capture." The dwellings of the polyandrous castes of this district consist of two rooms, one for the woman and one for the group of brothers. In Tibet, as also among the polyandrous Southern Indians, they have, however, mostly one room. The surplus women in the Punjab become objects of commerce. In the native State of Bashar, for instance, an active export trade is carried on with the surplus women, for whom sums up to 500 rupees are given.
Among the Dyats in the Punjab, the Gudyars in the United Provinces, as among all the Hindu castes in themountain districts of Ambala, polyandry existed until lately; but it is said not to do so there any longer. In Ambala not only brothers, but also first cousins, were considered to be husbands of the oldest brother's wife.
Further, in East India the Santal caste (2,138,000 persons in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa) is the only community among which a similar custom exists. Among the Santals not only have the younger brothers access to the wife of the older brother, but the husband also may have relations with the younger sisters of his wife. This state of affairs may perhaps be looked upon as sexual communism among a small group. In Ladakh, too, and in other places of Cashmir, the wife common to several brothers may bring with her her sister into the marriage as co-partner. In the Punjab the fraternal husbands may also marry a second and third wife.
Among Indian migratory labourers it seems to have been formerly the rule that the brother remaining at home served as a conjugal substitute for the husband temporarily absent. Nowadays this custom has almost disappeared.
In Southern India polyandry is a recognised institution among the Toda and Kurumba of the Nilgiri mountains, as also among a number of the lower castes, especially on the coast of Malabar. Here polyandry and polygyny occasionally co-exist side by side.
The polyandry among the Toda has been described in detail by W. H. R. Rivers. The whole tribe is divided into two endogamous groups, which, again, are split up into a number of exogamous sub-groups. The husbands shared in common by a woman are in most cases brothers; they are rarely other members of the same exogamous group and of the same age class. When the husbands are brothers, there never ensue any quarrels about access to the wife. All the brothers are reckoned as fathers of a child. Yet it often occurs that a Toda only calls one man his father. It is exclusively external circumstances that are here decisive; often one of the fathers is more influential and more respected than his brothers, and naturally the sons prefer to speak of him as their father. If only one of the fathers is alive, the offspring always describe him as their father. If the husbands are not real brothers, they live, like these, in one household, but the children are allotted to single definite fathers. That man is considered the father of a child who in the seventh month of the mother's pregnancy has gone with her through the ceremony of the presentation of bow and arrow (which is also customary in fraternal polyandry). The husbands may take turns in the practice of this ceremony at every pregnancy; it results, therefore, frequently that the first two or three children belong to one and the same man, the other husbands acquiring formal father-right only at the later births. If the husbands separate and give upthe common household, each one takes with him the children belonging to him by right of the bow-and-arrow ceremony. As everywhere else in India, polyandry has fallen into decay among the Toda. It may happen that several men have in common several wives, or that of a group of brothers each has his own wife. But polyandry has remained up to the present time the prevalent form of marriage among these hill-folk. The surplus girls used formerly to be killed without exception; and it is certain, says Rivers, that girl infanticide is still practised to some extent, although the Toda themselves deny this. It must be noted that child marriage exists among the Toda.
Matriarchal polyandry, which, in contradistinction to fraternal polyandry, goes with descent through the mother, still occurs among the Munduvars of the Travancore plateaus, the Nayars in some parts of Travancore and Cochin, the Western Kallan, and also among some other Southern Indian communities. Among numerous other races having mother descent, but not among all, relics of the former existence of matriarchal polyandry have been established. The secular authorities, and no less the European missions, are trying hard to exterminate this form of marriage.
It is difficult to trace any connection between the polyandry in the north and that in the south of India. It is most probable that this custom was carried into Southern India by the Tibetan conquerors in ancient times. Many Southern Indian polyandrous races,like the Toda and the Nayar, are distinguished from their real Dravidian neighbours by their more powerful build, lighter colouring, higher noses, etc. Furthermore, the architecture of the Malabar temples bears traces of Tibetan influence. The demon masks carved thereon show almost the same faces as the Tibetan masks. Among the Kallan the tradition of northern descent has been preserved up to the present time, and they bury their dead with their faces turned towards the north.
Exogamy is the custom which forbids the choice of partners for marriage within a certain group, and which has the effect of preventing near relations from sexual intercourse. It is found very frequently among primitive people, and is very prevalent, as Sir J. G. Frazer shows in his book "Totemism and Exogamy." This, however, does in no way justify the assumption that it was a general stage of civilisation of all mankind, and that it once existed even in those places where it is not found to-day.
Although European travellers, colonists and scientists had long been in contact with coloured races, it was the Scotsman J. F. McLennan who first discovered the existence of exogamy. He was led to this discovery by the study of that peculiar marriage custom which consists in the pretence of forcible bride capture, though the marriage of the couple concerned has been agreed to by both families beforehand. McLennantried to find an explanation for this custom, and came to the conclusion that capture of women, which only took place in pretence, must once have been practised in reality to a large extent. In searching for facts confirmatory of this assumption, he was struck by the fact that among savage and barbarous people the men married women not of their own, but of another, tribal group. He described this as "exogamy," in contradistinction to "endogamy," by which marriage partners are restricted in their choice to their own group. In a tribe or other social group both sexual arrangements may exist side by side, in such a manner that the tribe is closely endogamous and is divided into several exogamous groups.
The theory put forward by McLennan as an explanation of the origin of exogamy is very simple and on superficial examination very convincing. He assumed that exogamy arose from a scarcity of women, which forced men to obtain wives by capture from other groups and thus gradually led to a general preference for strange women. The cause of this assumed scarcity of women was considered to be the infanticide of new-born females, which was carried on systematically, for savage people foresaw that in the struggle for existence it would be a hindrance to have a great number of women, who could take no share in the battle with enemies, and who presumably would contribute less to the food supply than the men.
H. Cunow also traces back the origin of exogamyto the scarcity of women and wife capture. He starts from the assumption that among the Australian and other uncivilised races the number of persons in a horde is very limited. "If one assumes that the number of members of a horde is sixty, the youngest class would contain, according to present-day reckoning, about twenty-five persons, the middle class twenty, and the oldest class about fifteen persons. In the middle class there would, therefore, be only about ten women. Among these a young man entering the middle class would often not find a single woman that he could take for his wife, for, after pairing marriage had become general, the few existing women had already found a spouse; they had already been disposed of. There was nothing left for the young man but to capture a woman from a strange horde as soon as possible, or to try to persuade a comrade of the same age class to let him share in his marriage relationship on the understanding that his hunting bag would contribute towards the 'household of the three.' This multiple conjugal partnership is customary among most of the Australian tribes even to-day." To this it must be added that the man needs to show much less consideration for a captured strange woman than for one of his own tribe, who would run away if badly treated. Nor can the young man remain single, for he himself would then have to drag his property about, which would hinder him in the hunt and expose him to the ridicule of his companions. (In reality thereare many unmarried men even in Australia.) The search for wives led ultimately, according to Cunow, to wife capture and exogamy.
Infanticide, which McLennan assumes, is at present a rare exception among primitive people. Almost all explorers praise their great love for children, and even malformed children are not always killed. Even where infanticide does occur, the sex of the child is certainly not the factor that decides whether it is to be killed or not. The assumption that scarcity of women is brought about by girl infanticide is not correct. The female sex is, indeed, in the minority among uncivilised natives where they have been counted; but the excess of men is only small. Mutual capture of women could not alter this disparity, for it is unlikely that some tribes permitted the capture of their women without retaliation. Besides, even among primitive people men are careful in risking their lives. Capture of women is, therefore, nowhere the rule, but is everywhere the exception. Had it been the rule anywhere, the continuous fighting would have led to the extermination of the tribes in question. Frazer is right when he says: "If women are scarce in a group, many men will prefer to remain single rather than expose themselves to the danger of death by trying to capture women from their neighbours." This is what really happened among many tribes of the Australian natives who lived on a friendly footing with each other. It even happens that the old men who claim the womenexpressly forbid the young men to steal women from other tribes, because that will lead to bloodshed. Further, scarcity of women is most likely overcome, as previously mentioned, by several men's sharing one wife, which arrangement, unlike the capture of women, avoids arousing the hostility of neighbours. Among peaceable tribes, therefore, a numerical preponderance of men results not in exogamy, but in polyandry. But admitting that a warlike tribe has not sufficient women and therefore captures them from their neighbours, it is still unexplainable why the men should altogether avoid sexual relationship with their own women, few as they are, and have no desire for them whatsoever. This will certainly not be the result; on the contrary, the few women obtainable without force will be all the more in demand.
Frazer thinks that the origin of exogamy has been rightly explained by the American ethnologist L. H. Morgan, who for many years lived among the exogamic Indians as one of them, and thus came into direct contact with exogamy. Morgan assumed that sexual promiscuity was general at a very early period in the history of mankind, and that exogamy was instituted for the deliberate purpose of preventing cohabitation between blood relations, particularly between brothers and sisters, as was previously customary. This struck promiscuity at the root; it removed its worst peculiarity, and resulted at the same time in a powerful movement towards the establishment of sexual monogamy.
Frazer, in supporting Morgan's theory, relies exclusively on the Australian natives, who, according to him, though extremely primitive savages, "carry out the principle of exogamy with a practical astuteness, logical thoroughness, and precision such as no other race shows in its marriage system."
Frazer finds that the effects of the Australian marriage class system are in complete harmony with the deeply rooted convictions and feelings of the natives as regards sexual intercourse, and concludes that the successive tribal subdivisions have been brought about deliberately in order to avoid marriage of blood relations. According to him, it is not going too far to assert that "no other human institution bears the stamp of deliberate purpose more clearly than the exogamous classes of the Australians. To assume that they serve only accidentally the purpose that they actually fulfil, and which is approved by them unreservedly, would be to test our credulity nearly as much as if we were told that the complicated mechanism of a watch has originated without human design."
Nearly all Australian tribes have the system of division into marriage classes. Every tribe consists of two main groups (called in ethnographical literature phratries or moieties), and each of these groups is again divided into two, four, or eight classes. Sometimes the phratries and classes have special names, but not always. In the latter case it may be assumed that the names have been lost, while the division of thetribes into marriage groups remains. These groups are strictly exogamous. In no case are the members of the main group of the tribe (phratry) or of the same class allowed to marry each other. Only members of two given classes may marry, and their children are again assigned to given classes. Among some of the tribes there exists paternal descent, among others maternal descent. Which of the two modes of descent prevails in Australia can hardly be determined. Among some tribes property is inherited in the female line. Other rights of the female sex connected with mother descent are unknown. An example of the Australian marriage classes is given here, namely, that of the tribe Warrai, who live on the railway line running from Port Darwin to the south. Among this tribe indirect paternal descent is the custom;i.e., the children belong to the main group (phratry) of the father, but to other marriage classes.
The female marriage classes are marked with an asterisk.
Each member of a certain male marriage class mayonly marry a member of a marriage class of the other phratry, placed opposite in the table. Thus, for instance, an Adshumbitch man marries an Alpungerti woman, an Apungerti man an Aldshambitch woman, etc. The children always belong to the phratry of the men, but to another marriage group of theirs. Thus, for instance, the boys born from the union of an Adshumbitch man with an Apungerti woman belong to the Apularan class, and the girls born of this marriage belong to the Alpularan class. Further complications arise in consequence of the totem system, which exists among most of the Australian tribes. As the local groups of a tribe are numerically weak and consist of members of all marriage classes, the choice of mates is restricted to quite a small number of persons, being further limited to a great extent by the marriage of girls in childhood. But even when adults marry, they can rarely decide according to their own will, but are dependent on the circumstances of relationship. On the northern coast of Australia the marriage class system does not exist, but exogamy exists there, the members of certain local groups not being allowed to marry each other. The now extinct tribes in the south-east of the continent also had no marriage class system.
But it still remains a mystery how it was found out that marriages of blood relations were harmful. One objection is, that some of the Australians are ignorant of the process of generation; they do not even know that pregnancy is the result of cohabitation. It is alsodoubtful whether the Australian natives can in any case be considered as typical representatives of primitive man. If this were so, all mankind would still be in a very low state of civilisation, for the Australians appear incapable of progressive development. And further, if exogamous classes were purposely instituted in order to prevent cohabitation between blood relations, how is it that other people also are excluded from sexual intercourse who are not blood relations? Frazer's comparison with a watch is also badly chosen. We must take into consideration the intellectual stage of development of mankind at the time when exogamy arose, and when the watch was invented. Even if we do not admit that exogamy was instituted with a conscious purpose, this does not by any means, as Frazer says, do away altogether with will and purpose from the history of human institutions. There is no need to doubt that the Australian system of exogamy became more and more complicated through the deliberate action of man.
Frazer himself assumes that the Australians had an aversion to cohabitation between brothers and sisters even before it was definitely fixed by binding rules. Sexual aversion between parents and children, according to him, is universal among them, whether there be in vogue the two-, four- or eight-classes system,i.e., whether incest between parents and children is expressly forbidden or not. "In democratic societies like those of the Australian natives, the law sanctions only thoughts that havealready been long the mental possession of the majority of people." Hence the agreement of the marriage class system with the feelings of the people becomes explainable.
Since the aversion to sexual intercourse within certain classes was already in existence before the formation of marriage classes, the classificatory system being merely the formal expression of it, we have to find some explanation for it. For the appearance of this aversion marks the real beginning of exogamy, which cannot be explained by the complicated system of the Australians. It is possible that the sexual aversion towards blood relations is already a characteristic trait of the human race before its truly human development, and that it may have to be looked upon as an instinct. This is the opinion of F. Hellwald, which has also been upheld of late by A. E. Crawley. It is assumed that among brothers and sisters, as among boys and girls who have lived together from childhood, the pairing instinct generally remains in abeyance, because the conditions are wanting that are likely to awaken this instinct. Courting the favour of a person of the other sex is the process that gradually brings about the sexual excitement necessary for union. The possibility of sexual excitation between people who have lived together from childhood is decidedly lessened through habituation, if not completely inhibited. In this respect brothers and sisters reach already at puberty that state towards each other to which people married for a long time approachgradually, through the constant living together and the exhaustion of youthful passion. If brother and sister sometimes show passion for each other, it is generally the result of the same circumstances that are necessary to arouse it under normal conditions,e.g., a long separation. As the absence of sexual attraction between brother and sister who have grown up together is a natural thing, it is strange that cohabitation between them should have to be specially prohibited and enforced by strict measures among primitive peoples. The explanation, according to Crawley, is simple. "In many departments of primitive life we find a naïve desire to, as it were, assist Nature, to affirm what is normal and later to confirm it by the categorical imperative of custom and law. This tendency still flourishes in our civilised communities, and, as the worship of the normal, is often a deadly foe to the abnormal and eccentric, and too often paralyses originality. Laws thus made, and with this object, have some justification, and their existence may be due, in some small measure, to the fact that abnormality increasespari passuwith culture. But it is a grave error to ascribe a prevalence of incest to the period preceding the law against it." All the facts tend to show that the most primitive people procured their wives by friendly arrangements. From this standpoint it would be most practical if each tribe were divided into two groups, the men of each group marrying wives from the other group. This state ofaffairs is actually to be found among many uncivilised peoples that are divided into two exogamous groups or phratries. It has still to be discovered how this bipartition arose. It is unthinkable that a division into two groups was intentionally brought about by the members of the groups for the purpose of preventing marriages between blood relations of a certain grade. No tribe has ever been divided in such a manner; the division must therefore be explainable in another way. The phratries are large families (in the broad sense of the word); they descend from families (in the narrower sense of the word), reciprocally supplying each other with wives. The names of the phratries are generally unintelligible, in contradistinction to the names of the totem groups, and therefore most probably older. The totem groups, of which a phratry consists, are to be considered as younger branches of the original double family, which have arisen through wives being taken from other groups whose children again received the name of their mothers. If it should be asked why the members of two phratries should constantly intermarry, it should be pointed out that among communities in the lowest stage of civilisation women are not easily procurable, and the force of external circumstances would favour the unions just mentioned (Crawley, pp. 54et seq.).
A biological explanation of the origin of exogamy is given by Herbert Risley. Without basing it on the assumption that primitive people have a knowledge ofthe harmfulness of incest, he gives the following exposition: "Exogamy can be brought under the law of natural selection without extending it too far. We know that among individuals or groups of individuals there exists a tendency to vary in their instincts, and that useful variations (such as are suitable to the conditions of life) tend to be preserved and transmitted by inheritance. Let us assume now that in a primitive community the men varied in the direction towards choosing wives from another community, and that this infusion of fresh blood was advantageous. The original instinct would then be strengthened by inheritance, and sexual selection would be added in the course of time. For an exogamous group would have a greater choice of women than an endogamous one, ... and in the competition for women the best would fall to the strongest and most warlike men. In this way the strengthened exogamous groups would in time exterminate the endogamous neighbours, or at least take away their best marriageable maidens. Exogamy would spread partly through imitation, partly through the extermination of endogamous groups. The fact that we cannot explain how it came about that the people varied in the aforesaid direction is not fatal to this hypothesis. We do not doubt natural selection in the case of animals because we cannot give the exact cause of a favourable variation."
E. Westermarck holds a similar theory about the cessation of incest. He thinks that "among theancestors of man, as among other animals, there was, no doubt, a time when blood relationship was no bar to sexual intercourse. But variations here, as elsewhere, would naturally present themselves; and those of our ancestors who avoided in-and-in breeding would survive, while the others would gradually decay and ultimately perish. Thus an instinct would be developed which would be powerful enough, as a rule, to prevent injurious unions. Of course it would display itself simply as an aversion on the part of individuals to union with others with whom they lived; but these, as a matter of fact, would be blood relations, so that the result would be the survival of the fittest. Whether man inherited the feeling from the predecessors from whom he sprang, or whether it was developed after the evolution of distinctly human qualities, we do not know. It must necessarily have arisen at a stage when family ties became comparatively strong, and children remained with their parents until the age of puberty or even longer."
It may be surmised that the impulse towards the appearance of the exogamous tendency arose through economic progress, which led to an increase of the means of existence, and this in its turn produced a more friendly relationship between neighbouring groups that previously had quarrelled about food. The men thus came into contact with strange women, and this awakened a heightened sexual feeling, in other words the instinct which is said to have led to the avoidanceof incest. Thus among the peoples on a very low economic level (e.g., the Pigmies) no laws for the prevention of incest are to be found, a fact that may be held to confirm this idea. Primitive people could in any case not understand the harmfulness of incest, while it is certain that strange members of the opposite sex could exert a stronger attraction, and thus render the sexual impulse permanent, which previously was periodical, as among the animals.
The slow increase in the population of primitive peoples, which is also to be noticed wherever the conditions of life have not been influenced by European settlers and missionaries, is chiefly due to the want of proper midwifery, and no less to the frequent practice of abortion. The opinion is often met with, particularly in older writings, that among primitive people childbirth is extremely easy. But more extended knowledge has shown how dangerous childbirth is for the primitive mother also. Though childbirth is a natural physiological process, it does not always pass off quite without danger, no less under natural conditions than among highly civilised peoples. Primitive people know full well that the hour of childbirth is the hardest time in a woman's life, but not all have progressed far enough in the knowledge of physiology to be able to render efficient assistance to the woman in labour. Some people leave her, incredible as it may seem to us, without any assistance, either through indifference to life or through a superstitious fear of the mystery of life. Such cases are, however, very rare exceptions. Sometimes means are used for furthering the birth that are not only inefficacious, but actually injurious.Often, however, delivery is actually furthered by the assistance given. Internal manipulation is seldom resorted to, and operations are still more rare. R. W. Felkin's report about the operation of Cæsarian section among the negroes in Uganda seems to be unique. Ploss and Bartels have compiled a great deal of information about childbirth among primitive people. We add here some examples from the later literature.
Feticide occurs most likely among all primitive peoples to a larger or lesser degree, and injures them accordingly. The reasons are the same as with us: inability to support a large number of children or aversion to the worries of child-rearing. Unmarried girls procure abortion usually because the child might be a hindrance to a future marriage, particularly when the father of the expected child jilts the mother. Still pre-marital births are not always considered a disgrace among primitive people. The abortives resorted to are generally inefficacious, though some native peoples have discovered really effective remedies. Külz (p. 18) says quite rightly, "It is to be assumed that woman everywhere, even in a low state of civilisation, has her attention directed to the occurrence of involuntary premature birth by often recurring effective causes. Such external causes are not very remote from the mechanically and medically produced abortions. We only need to think of the fact that among all primitive peoples the chief work in the fields falls to the women, and that it is just heavy labour that has the tendencyto interrupt pregnancy. It required only some little thought to discover this frequently observed coincidence and to learn from the involuntary interruption of pregnancy how to produce it voluntarily.... In the same way the production of abortions by poisons can easily be derived from a rational application of chance remedies producing corresponding involuntary effects.... Just as primitive man discovered many medicinal plants by repeatedly partaking of them, so he also found out the specific use of some of these for feticide. This could happen the more readily as among abortive remedies in use there were many that in a way served him as food and condiment, such as nutmeg, or the papaia kernels, or others that he used at the same time for poisoning fish, or others, again, like the aperientCajanus indicus, which in moderate doses acts medicinally, in large doses, however, as an abortive."
The use of poisons and mechanical feticide not only brings about limitation of offspring, but often results in the death of the mother. Where they are very prevalent they contribute greatly to the scarcity of women, with all its attendant biological disadvantages. The contact of primitive people with Europeans generally increases the frequency of abortions. This is due partly to the desire for hiding the results of sexual intercourse with strangers, partly to the incitement to loose living which the acquaintance with European culture sometimes brings about.
How defective the state of midwifery is among primitive people is shown by many accounts in newer works of ethnology. Thus the missionary Endle writes (p. 41): "The native tribes of Assam and Burma have no special midwives. Every old woman may perform the duties of a midwife, and she does it without payment. There is no information about the treatment of the woman during parturition. The navel cord is generally cut off with a bamboo knife. The Katshári do not perform this with one cut, but make five cuts in the case of a boy and seven for a girl. The mother is considered unclean for several weeks after her confinement. This is also the case among many races of Southern and Eastern Asia, and in other parts of the world. Isolation even before the confinement sometimes occurs, and is due to the belief that women in this state are unclean."
Among the savage tribes of Formosa the birth of a child passes off so lightly that the lying-in woman is able to go on with her work on the following day. She only avoids heavy labour in the field for a month. After the birth certain superstitious ceremonies, according to old customs, are performed, such as driving away the devil, etc. Among many tribes twins are held to be a misfortune, and the second child is therefore killed. This also occurs frequently in other places (W. Müller, p. 230).
Among the Igorots of Bontoc (Philippines) the woman works in the field almost to the hour of herconfinement. There are no festivities or ceremonies connected with the birth. The father of the child, if he is the husband of the woman, is present, as is also the woman's mother, but no one else. The parturient woman bends her body strongly forward, holding firmly on to the beam of the house, or she takes up an animal-like position, so that hands and feet are on the ground. Medicines and baths are not resorted to for hastening the labour pains, but the people present massage the abdomen of the labouring woman. About ten days after the birth her body is washed with warm water. There is no special diet, but the mother refrains from field work for two or three months. If twins are born, it is believed to be due to an evil spirit who has had connection with the woman whilst she was asleep. No blame is attached to the mother, but the quieter of the children (and when both children are quiet, the longer one) is buried alive near the house immediately after birth. Abortion is practised by married women as well as by single girls, if for some reason the child is not wanted. The mother warns her unmarried daughter against abortion, telling her that a girl who produces abortion will not get a faithful husband, but will become the common partner of several men. The fœtus is driven off in the second month of pregnancy by hot baths and massage. Abortion is not considered a disgrace (Jenks).
Among the Kayan of Borneo there are everywhere older women who serve as midwives. One of them iscalled in good time to the pregnant woman. She examines her abdomen from time to time, and pretends to be able to give the child the right position. She hangs some magical remedies about the living room, and applies various remedies externally. The pregnant woman follows her usual occupation until the labour pains commence. Then the midwife and other old relatives or friends assist her. The husband may also remain in the room, but he is prevented by a screen from seeing the parturient woman, who gets hold tightly of a cloth hung over or in front of her. The pains are generally of short duration, rarely lasting more than two or three hours. In order to prevent the rising of the child, the women bind a cloth tightly round the abdomen of the parturient woman, and two of them press firmly on the womb on either side. After the delivery of the child the navel cord is cut with a bamboo knife. If the after-birth does not follow soon, the women become anxious; two of them lift up the patient, and if that has no result, the navel cord is fastened to an axe in order to prevent it from re-entering the body, and presumably also to hasten the delivery of the after-birth. Internal manipulations are not resorted to. The after-birth is buried. If the child is born with a caul, the caul is dried, pounded into powder, and used in later years as medicine for the child. If the labour pains are exceptionally severe or long-lasting, or if an accident happens, the news travels rapidly. Everybody is overcome by fear, asthe death of a parturient woman is particularly dreaded. The men and the boys take flight. If death actually ensues, most of the men remain in hiding for some time, and the corpse is quickly buried by old men and women who are least afraid of death.
The pregnant women of the Punan of Borneo continue with their usual work until the arrival of labour pains, and they resume it immediately after the confinement. To assist delivery the body is tightly bound above the womb. Nothing further is known about special help (Hose and McDougall, II., pp. 154, 185).
The Papua women are said to give birth easily, as a rule, but difficult deliveries and fatal cases do occur exceptionally. The custom exists in various places for the mother to throw the after-birth into the river or the sea after confinement (Williamson, p. 178; Seligmann, p. 85). Of the Mafulu Williamson says that when the after-birth is thrown into the river the mother gives the new-born child some water to drink. If the child partakes of it, it is considered a good omen; otherwise the child is believed not to be viable and is drowned. Williamson thinks that the purpose of this custom is to enable the mother to choose whether she wishes to keep the child alive or not. It also may happen that a childless woman accompanies the mother to the river and there adopts the child. Wilful abortion also occurs very often, not only in single girls, but also in married women, who thus keep their families small.
Among the Barriai in New Pomerania the woman is confined whilst sitting on a log of wood, being massaged from above downwards by an older woman. The husband is not allowed to be present. The birth generally passes off quite easily. The navel cord is cut off with an obsidian knife. The parents may not eat pork and certain kinds of fish until the child has begun to walk. Disregard of this prohibition is believed to bring about the death of the child. The parents abstain also during this time from sexual intercourse. Abortives do not seem to be known, though miscarriages sometimes occur through the rough treatment of pregnant women by men (Friederici, p. 89). In Polynesia abortion is generally produced by women professionally. This is brought about by the use of certain foods or drinks, by the application of mechanical means, etc. How widespread feticide is in Melanesia can be seen from a statement of Parkinson, according to whom in New Mecklenburg quite young girls make no secret of having produced abortion three or four times. Among the Jabim (Finschhafen) the mothers present their daughters with abortives when they get married (Buschan, I., p. 62).
On the eastern islands of the Torres Straits (Australia) the women chew as a prevention of pregnancy the leaves of Callicarpa, or of a Eugenia species calledsobe, also the leaves of a large shrub calledbok; but these remedies are inefficacious. Medicines and mechanical methods are used forabortion. Among the former are the leaves of the convolvulus, of Clerodendron,Pouzolzia microphylla,Macaranga tanarius,Terminala catappa, Eugenia,Hibiscus tiliaceus, and Callicarpa. If these do not help, the abdomen is beaten with large stones, with a rope or twigs or a wand, or a heavy load is put on it. Sometimes the woman leans with her back against a tree, and two men grasp a wand and press it against her abdomen, so as to bring about the delivery of the fœtus. This often results in the death of the mother.
On the Easter Island, in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, there were several men with a knowledge of midwifery, but recently only one of them has survived. Nowadays older women act as midwives. Walter Knoche writes (1912, pp. 659et seq.): "The birth takes place either in the open or in the house, the woman standing with legs spread out, or recently in a sitting position. The accoucheur stands behind the parturient woman, embracing her abdomen. The thumbs are spread out, and touch each other in a horizontal position somewhat above the navel, while the remainder of the hand is turned diagonally downwards. In this way massage is applied by a slow, rhythmical, strong and kneading movement vertically from above downwards. When the birth is sufficiently advanced, the child is drawn out; the assistant bites off the navel cord (among some Brazilian Indian tribes the husband does this, but on the Easter Island he takes no part in the delivery); then a knot is made a few centimetres from the navel.The after-birth is not specially dealt with; it is buried. The navel cord, however, is placed in a calabash, which is buried or put under a rock. After the event the lying-in woman lies down upon a mat in the house, and warm, flat, fairly heavy stones are applied to the abdomen. Perhaps this is the reason why even women who have had difficult confinements still preserve a good figure. The infant remains at the mother's breast for about a year." Knoche also heard that the women sometimes pass a piece of an alga into the vulva right up to the womb before intercourse with a stranger, believing this method to be a very safe one. It could, unfortunately, not be ascertained whether this precaution was formerly, as seems likely, resorted to generally in order to limit the number of children, or whether its use was only intended to keep the tribe untainted by foreign blood. The latter assumption is contradicted by the fact that "the Easter Island women have children from strangers living for some time on the Easter Island, and that nowadays the use of contraceptives in the case of strangers who come and go quickly may simply be due to the circumstance that at the birth of a child there would be no man to support it. It is most probable that the use of preventives had its origin in Malthusian principles. The little island, whose population has been variously estimated by travellers of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century at a few thousand, must herewith have reached its maximum number of inhabitants,which could of necessity not be exceeded. Deaths and births had therefore to balance. This employment of contraceptives in Polynesia is unique, and it may be truly reckoned as a sign of a higher civilisation, together with other facts, such as the existence of a script, of stone houses and of large stone idols, the Moai, which have made this lonely little island so famous. On the other Oceanic Islands, as, for instance, on the westward-situated Tahiti, infanticide, committed by the mother as many as ten times in succession, served to limit the number of children, either on account of economy or for reasons of convenience. Contraceptives are otherwise unknown in Oceania."
Of the Jao in East Africa Karl Weule relates (p. 61): "During the delivery the parturient woman lies upon her back on a mat on the floor of the hut. The older children and the husband are not allowed to be present, but a number of older women are there, amongst whom there is always a near relative of the husband, who takes special note of any evidence of extra-marital intercourse given by the parturient woman. It is the chief business of the midwives to submit the woman to a very strictquestionnaire: 'How many men have you had, three, or four, or even more? Your child will not come until you have mentioned the right father. Yes, you will die, if you do not tell us how many men you have had.' Such speeches are hurled at the woman from all sides. No mechanical help is given her. She rolls about in pain,under great bodily and mental torture, and shrieks and cries until all is over. The navel cord is cut off by an old woman. Ancient instruments, such as are used by the East African Bantu tribes, are unknown among the Jao. The cutting of the navel cord seems to be performed clumsily, for umbilical rupture, which has become an ideal of beauty in many places in Eastern Africa, is here frequent. The after-birth and the navel cord are buried, if possible without a witness. They are considered effective magical remedies. The new-born child is washed and then wrapped in a cloth or a piece of bark fabric. A real lying-in is not kept up; the mother gets up again the same or the following day. Sex intercourse can only be resumed again with the permission of the village elder. It is only given when the child can sit up, or when it is six or seven months old. Children are welcome; twins are no less joyfully received. But infanticide is said to occur. If, however, children are not wanted, married women as well as girls resort to abortion. Plant juices are generally used for this purpose, though sometimes mechanical means are resorted to. Abortion is in no way considered reprehensible. In order to prevent conception, the woman puts herself into communication with afundi, who understands something of making knots. Thefundigoes into the wood, seeks out two different barks, and twists them together into a cord. Into the cord he rubs the yolk of an egg, for to the Jao the curse of infertility abides in the egg. He knotsinto the cord three knots, saying at the same time, 'You tree are called thus and thus, and you thus; but you egg, you become a living animal. But now I do not want anything living.' He then twists the final knot. This cord is worn by the woman round her body. Boots are also placed under her head at night to prevent conception. If the woman wishes to become pregnant again, she needs only to untie the knots in the cord, to put it into water, and then drink the water. Afterwards the cord is thrown away."
Among the Makua, on the Makonda plateau in East Africa, at the first sign of labour pains the woman lies down upon her back on a mat in the house. A cloth is put under her back by the helping women, which is drawn tightly and pulled up when the pains become stronger. After the birth the navel cord is cut, not with a knife, but with a splinter from a millet stalk. Here, as in other phases in the life of man, an ancient implement has survived for sacred purposes long after the period of its common use. The navel cord is not tied, but dries off. The removed part is buried. The lying-in woman remains at home three or four days.
Among the Masai an old woman is always called in as midwife. If the birth goes on normally, no superstitious or useless operations are undertaken (Merker, pp. 189et seq.). Should an increase of labour pains appear necessary, the parturient woman is led round by the women for a few steps, and if this does not produce the desired result light massage is applied.Only when these remedies prove to be inefficacious an extreme step is taken: the labouring woman is slowly lifted up by her feet by several women until her body hangs perpendicularly and her head touches the ground, whereupon the midwife massages the body in the direction of the navel. Medicaments are seldom used for hastening the delivery. Internal manual or operative manipulations do not seem to be practised anywhere. In the case of a narrow pelvis preventing birth, no help is available; mother and child perish. The confinement takes place on all fours or in a sitting position; in the latter case the legs and the back are pressed against the posts of the hut. For the production of abortion a decoction of dried goat dung or ofcordia quarensisor some other remedy is used.
Of the Hottentots it has sometimes been reported that the women have easy births. According to Schulze's inquiries (p. 218), this is not always the case. The birth takes place in the side position. During very difficult births the women attempt to widen the vulva of the parturient woman. If that does not help, the perineum is deliberately torn up to the anus. No attempt is made to cure the perineal tear, for the belief exists that it would hinder the passage of the next child. All manipulations are carried out beneath the skin rug under which the woman lies. The navel cord is cut without delay; no one troubles about the delivery of the after-birth. The woman resumes her occupation generally on the seventh or eighth day.Feticide is not unusual among the Hottentots. A hot decoction of badger urine, drunk, if necessary, for several days in succession, is considered an effective abortive remedy. The procedure itself is characteristically called "drinking and falling" (Schulze, p. 320).
Among the Uti-Krag Indians of the Rio Doce (Espirito Santo, Brazil) the woman goes through the labour alone. She disappears in the bush, and herself bites off the navel cord; after the delivery she goes to the nearest stream to wash herself and the child, and rejoins her tribe immediately (Walter Knoche, 1913, p. 397).
Among the Indians of the Aiary, when a woman is taken with labour pains all the men leave their house, which is common to several families. The woman lies in her hammock in her part of the house, which is securely closed by a lattice railing. All the women remain with her and help at the birth. The navel cord and after-birth are buried immediately on the spot. After the birth the mother and the child remain strictly secluded for five days. The husband remains in the house during the lying-in period, but there is no realcouvade(the male lying-in custom).
The women of the Kobéua Indians give birth in the common family house, or in an outlying hut, or even in the wood, with the assistance of all married women, who first paint their faces red for the festive occasion. The navel cord is cut off by the husband's mother with a blade of scleria grass, and is immediately buried,together with the after-birth. Of twins the second born is killed, or the female if they are of different sexes. After the birth, the witch doctor performs exorcism. The parents keep up a five days' lying-in, and eight days after the birth a drinking feast is held (Koch-Grünberg, I., p. 182; II., p. 146).
Among the Bakairi of Brazil, according to Karl von den Steinen (p. 334), abortion is said to occur frequently. The women are afraid of the confinement. They prepare for it by drinking tea, and mechanical measures are also resorted to. The women are delivered on the floor in a kneeling position, holding firmly to a post. The hammocks must not be soiled. Women who have had experience declared with emphasis, and showed by pantomime, that the pains were great. But they soon get up and go to work, the husband going through the famouscouvade(the man's lying-in), keeping strict diet, not touching his weapons and passing the greatest part of his time in his hammock. He only leaves the house to satisfy his physical needs, and lives completely on a thinpogu, manioc cake crumbled into water. There exists the belief that anything else might injure the child, as if the child itself ate meat, fish or fruit. Thecouvadeonly ends when the remainder of the navel cord falls off.
Among the Bororo, according to the same author (p. 503), the woman is delivered in the wood. The father cuts the navel cord with a bamboo splinter, and ties it with a thread. For two days the parents do noteat anything, and on the third day they may only partake of some warm water. If the man were to eat he and the child would become ill. The after-birth is buried in the wood. The woman is not allowed to bathe until the reappearance of menstruation; but then, as generally after menstruation, she does it frequently. Abortion by the help of internal means is said to be frequent, especially among the Ranchao women. If the mother wishes to stop suckling, they squeeze the breasts out, and "dry the milk over the fire, whereupon it keeps away." Medicine for sick children, which the chemist had prepared, was swallowed by the parents, as among the Bakairi.
Among the Paressi the woman is confined in a kneeling position, being held by her mother under her breast. Thecouvadeis also customary among them.