George Elliott Howard

“ The family union in which man originally finds himself is not an essentially human but likewise an animal fact, since that mode of common social life is found with the greater part of animals and always [100] among the higher. It is the necessity of rearing the young which unites the parents and gives them a common life for a shorter or longer period; indeed in some species this marriage of love and care continues throughout their whole existence. Hence the fact of family sociality is not an exclusive product of humanity, but of the universal laws of the whole animal life upon the earth. ”

“ The first series of relationships is seen in the Arunta tribe, where "no man will lend his wife to anyone who does not belong to the particular group with which it is lawful for her to have marital relations—she is, in fact, only lent to a man whom she calls Unwana, just as she calls her own husband, and though this may undoubtedly be spoken of as an act of hospitality, it may with equal justice be regarded as evidence of the very clear recognition of group relationship, and as evidence also in favor of the former existence of group marriage." ”

“ Now if we consider that one or more brothers may each become the husband of separate wives by virtue of having each paid a dower, and that younger brothers as they grow to age of maturity, and other brothers as they become widowed, may each either take separate wives or purchase shares in those already in the family, we can at once understand that any degree of complication in perfectly lawful wedded life may be met with, from the sample of the single man living with a single wife to that of the group of relatives married to a group of wives. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Sometimes, even among the same peoples, the woman has a reciprocal right, as will presently appear; but very often divorce is the sole prerogative of the man, or else the woman is grudgingly allowed the privilege only for the most serious cause. The unfavorable position in which she is thus placed is no doubt largely due to wife-capture, and especially to wife-purchase, through which she too often sinks to the level of a mere chattel or beast of burden. ”

“ Nugent, "it is certain, that proclamation of banns and a public marriage is against the genius and nature of our people; it shocks the modesty of a young girl to have it proclaimed through the parish, that she is going to be married; and a young fellow does not like to be exposed so long beforehand to the jeers of all his companions." ”

“ With the rise of property, industry, and a more complex social organization, giving birth to new desires and ambitions, contract by the guardian in part supersedes self-betrothal. Purchase and its occasional alternative, capture, depriving woman of her natural right of assent, tend to reduce the wife to concubinage and domestic slavery. But fortunately the victory is not complete. Just as monogamy is never displaced by polygyny as the natural type of marriage, so the consent of woman as the normal condition of matrimonial union is never entirely destroyed by wife-purchase. ”

“ Who that has experienced the keen delight afforded by watching the domestic habits of birds, from the building of the nest to the teaching of the young to make the first wavering trial of its wings, cannot bear witness to the high development of marriage and the family among them? The great work of Brehm supplies abundant evidence of their human-like social life. ”

“ In truth, in the primitive view, relationship is exactly limited by patria potestas. Where the potestas begins, kinship begins; and therefore adoptive relatives are among the kindred. Where the potestas ends, kinship ends; so that a son emancipated by his father loses all rights of agnation. And here we have the reason why the descendants of females are outside the limits of archaic kinship." Indeed "it is obvious that the organization of primitive societies would have been confounded, if men had called themselves relatives of their mother's relatives." ”

“ At a still more advanced stage of culture, under pressure of those influences which have led to the social elevation of woman, polygyny yields in turn to monogamy. "When the feelings of women are held in due respect, monogamy will necessarily be the only recognized form of marriage. In no way does the progress of mankind show itself more clearly [151] than in the increased acknowledgment of women's rights, and the causes which, at lower stages of development, may make polygyny desired by women themselves, do not exist in highly civilized societies. ”

“ Still, granting all that can be said for the conventual life, the motives which sustained it only throw into bolder relief the social evils of the age and the low ideal of marriage fostered by asceticism itself. History all too plainly shows that the benefits conferred by monasticism and the enforced celibacy of the secular clergy come far short of balancing the evils flowing from the conception of wedlock as a "remedy for concupiscence." The influence of the church did, indeed, tend to condemn the breach of conjugal fidelity by the husband as equally sinful with that of the wife ”

“ The man or the woman who arbitrarily dissolves the marriage, or whose guilty conduct is the cause of separation, usually suffers a decided disadvantage. Thus the woman must restore the dotal gift or the presents received from her husband; and the purchase price must be repaid by herself or by her kindred. On the other hand, the man who puts away his wife without just cause must often forfeit all claim to restitution of the bride-money, perhaps lose his children, and even suffer other penalties besides, such as the payment of alimony. ”

“ If, now, the cases in which capture and purchase appear together be carefully examined, decisive evidence is disclosed that the purchase contract is really the normal form of marriage, while capture is usually, if not always, merely an exceptional, even illegal, means of procuring a wife. It is not surprising, for instance, that uncivilized races, with well-established marital institutions, should occasionally steal women from hostile tribes. Thus the Macas Indians of Ecuador "acquire wives by purchase, if the woman belongs to the same tribe, but otherwise by force." ”

“ Thus "when an animal is forced to greater exertion, when it must work in order to exist, when unresistingly it can no longer suffer the stream of events to press upon it, but withstands it and seeks in it to follow its own course, then the separation of the sexes appears, and, indeed, as a division of labor created by nature for the purpose of developing species." With further evolution, male and female characteristics become more pronounced, in response to the special functions which each sex is called upon to perform. The same process continues in the case of man. ”

“ It may be doubted whether the ideas which actuate the modern plutocrat in such a transaction differ essentially from those of the rich savage or barbarian who succeeds in procuring a beautiful or high-born maiden in exchange for his flocks.
We have now traced the evolution of the marriage contract throughout its entire course, and are able to perceive in a measure its true place in the general history of the human family. Again the movement has been in a circle. As in the case of monogamy, the genesis of contract must be sought beyond the border-line between man and the lower animals. ”

“ In harmony with his view that marriage is juridical, not founded on sexual relations, he finds the origin of the horror of marriage between near kindred in the legal incongruity of such unions and in their danger to the peculiar constitution of the ancient family itself. Marriage between a brother and sister or between a mother and son would usually be impossible because the "son possesses nothing which he could offer to the father as purchase-money." To accomplish the purpose by force would be an "unheard-of crime among savages." ”

“ Ethically and historically, as suggested in the preceding chapter, the rise of a legal distinction between the purchase of property in the wife and the acquirement of authority over her is highly important. But, practically, when the powers of the husband are so great as they were among our ancestors, there can be little difference in popular conception between possession of the mund and ownership of the woman. [844] As a matter of fact, the old English laws speak bluntly of "buying a maid;" [845] and in Germany "to buy a wife" was a familiar phrase for marriage throughout the Middle Ages. ”

“ Thus "women-stealing" is an "incident of successful war." But a woman so taken has a double value. "Beyond her intrinsic value she has an extrinsic value. Like a native wife, she serves as a slave: [118] but unlike a native wife, she serves also as a trophy." A warrior possessing such a token of prowess gains social distinction. "In a tribe not habitually at war, or not habitually successful in war, no decided effect is likely to be produced on the marriage customs." ”

“ The bill instead of preventing polygamy—by which he means bigamy—will encourage it; "for it prescribes so many formalities for rendering a marriage good and valid in law, that a cunning fellow will always take care to have some of them omitted," so that he cannot be convicted of a breach of the statute. Marriage will still be difficult of proof; and by encouraging false promises of marriage the bill sets a cruel snare for the feet of the innocent. ”

“ There is nothing to indicate that the band of brothers, as such, take a wife in common; that is, that the marriage is the act of the whole community." Hence "polyandry belongs to the category of facts which have to do with the ordinary family communism;" and it does not forfeit its character of a marriage in which the individual does not quite lose his personality in the group. ”

“ Like the male among the lower animals, savage or barbarous man may be "rather indifferent to the welfare of his wife and children, ... but the simplest paternal duties are, nevertheless, universally recognized. If he does nothing else, the father builds the habitation, and employs himself in the chase and in war." [289]
But the argument for the pre-human origin of the elements of marriage and the family does not rest merely upon precedents of sexual habits. It is based rather upon the entire experience of animals in the hard struggle for existence. ”

“ Mother-right, implying kinship as well as succession to name and property exclusively in the maternal line, becomes fully established. The matriarchate, unlike the simple mother-group, is not a universal phase through which all mankind has run. In some cases the agnatic system or father-right may have followed immediately upon the earlier stage of mother-right. Incident to the matriarchate are the polygynous and polyandrous forms of the family. With these the institution of property grew apace; and so we reach the paternal system, whose triumph is powerfully aided by wife-capture. ”

“ Among savages, proofs of courage are often required as qualifications for marriage. Hence it is not surprising that the abduction of a foreign woman should be accepted as the best proof of all. "What more natural than that where many warriors of the tribe are distinguished by stolen wives, the stealing of a wife should become the required proof of fitness to have one? Hence would follow a peremptory law of exogamy." Spencer's interpretation, therefore, agrees with that of McLennan in finding the origin of exogamy in wife-capture and in implying that usage grows into law. ”

“ It is an encouraging sign of advancing culture that history is gaining a deeper and broader meaning. We are really becoming interested, not merely in our political, but also in our entire biological, psychological, and social evolution. Although such phrase-making is nearly always misleading, there would perhaps be more truth in saying that "history is past sociology and sociology present history" than in Freeman's well-known epigram. In particular, the human family, with all that the word connotes, is commanding greater attention. ”

“ Thus Lord 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. ”

“ Turning now to the human race, we find that the same law prevails. Savage and barbarous men are passionately fond of self-decoration and display. "There are peoples," says Westermarck, "destitute of almost everything which we regard as necessaries of life, but there is no people so rude as not to take pleasure in ornaments;" and he quotes Spencer's remark that, great as is the vanity of the civilized, it is exceeded by the vanity of the uncivilized. ”