Walter Matthew Gallichan

“ The complete ownership of a beautiful woman, or of more than one woman, affords them intense pleasure, apart from amatory reasons. This lust for the exclusive ownership of several women dominated the masterful barbarian, and was one of the influences in the institution of the primitive harem system. ”

“ Polygamous marriage in ancient communities grew in some instances through a preponderance in the number of women, just as polyandry arose through a preponderance of men in the tribe. This is not the sole and the invariable cause of either kind of marriage, but an excess of one sex over the other is, no doubt, a factor. In the Western nations of to-day, where the female population exceeds the male, there is no sanctioned and recognised polygamy. ”

“ The aggressive, virile man, who craved plurality of wives, or sexual consorts, was also undoubtedly a lover of the power yielded by possessions. When he stole or purchased women for his harem, he increased his prestige and dignity in the tribe. The passion of acquisitiveness is one of the sources of modern polygamy; and it is frequently this impulse, in England and America, which accounts for the lavish expenditure upon the maintenance of a mistress.
Many men are covetous and greedy by nature. They must own costly things. ”

“ With a cessation of the dangers of combat and the chase, more men survive in the community; and there is a tendency towards equalisation in the number of males and females. Celibacy being abhorred as contrary to nature, every man demands his right to a wife, and every woman claims a husband.
In cases where the women are more numerous than the men, among existing primitive people, the practice of polygamy is regarded as a natural necessity. ”

“ Many male birds and mammals are instances of that instinct of securing a plurality of sexual companions, which in the view of Voltaire, Schopenhauer, and other philosophers, is the natural impulse of mankind. ”

“ Wake, in his painstaking survey of early marriage customs, states that, in the oldest form of polygyny, all of a man's wives possessed equal rights. In another form there is a favourite, or principal, wife, or wives, and inferior wives, who are sometimes legal wives, and at others serf-wives or concubines.
An economic cause of polygamy must not be overlooked. When the dominant males of a community realised that the men of another group were willing to barter for women instead of fighting for them, they began to trade in their daughters and other women relatives. ”

“ It is often assumed that women in polygamic countries are the mere slaves of men, and that they are forced into plural marriage. This is scarcely the truth. Women as well as men have determined the forms of the sexual relationships in communities. Among animals living in polygamy, compulsion on the part of the males is very seldom apparent in their conduct towards the females. ”

“ The chief cause of polygamy in the past was economic. Moral reprobation of the practice has often been based on the assumption that polygamous marriage grew solely from the "vices " or the sexual acquisitiveness of men. This is not proved in the case of primitive polygamy. And though there is ample testimony showing that savage races are far less incontinent than highly civilised people, it is rarely that celibacy exists among them. Polygamy provides mates for the superfluous women of the group. Polyandry supplies partners for the redundant men. ”

“ Many Esquimaux fishermen lose their lives by drowning, and in conflict with animals. The widows are not left to languish in celibacy. A man is always willing to take the husbandless woman into his own home, and to adopt her children; an arrangement which is never resented by his first wife.
Polygamy arose naturally in the barbarous times, when it became imperative to capture women for the propagation of offspring and the maintenance of the group. If the conquering side bore off a large number of women, each man was able to secure three or four wives. ”

“ The chief with the largest number of wives commanded the largest number of assistants in hunting and industry, and sometimes in warfare. The source of polygamy is not invariably amatory; the system has been often forced upon the community through a scarcity of males. In the fighting and hunting age many men died in combat and the chase. But the preponderance of females has not always been brought about by the high mortality among males. There are races that tend to reproduce more females than males, or more males than females. ”

“ Leaving for the present, the consideration of Schopenhauer's assumption that every normal man desires more than one wife, let us glance for a moment at the sex-relations of the animals nearest to ourselves in the evolutionary chain. ”

“ Our monogamy is constantly varied by polygyny, or pseudo-polygamy, lacking the sanctions and responsibilities of Mohammedan plurality. Side by side with monogamic marriage, concubinage has always existed. ”

“ The housewife cannot leave the cooking and the care of her family for the chase, whereas the fortunate owner of several wives has companions for his hunting.
In Australia, according to Howitt, the natives of the interior obtain as many wives as they can afford, not only from passional ardour, but because they are of use to them. A husband can lend his wives for a gift to young men who are unmarried, and by this means he may acquire property.
The property value of women in primitive societies undoubtedly encouraged plurality of wives. ”

“ The typical polygamous man might be described as highly masculine in all his secondary sexual characteristics. He is predominantly male in a love of authority and of ownership. His instinct is for fighting and subjugation. ”

“ Celibacy is a state regarded by primitive people as unnatural, or as contrary to moral law, and according to such a conception, avoidance of celibacy must be provided for by an adjustment of the marriage customs. ”

“ It has been noticed generally by naturalists and hunters that the females voluntarily attach themselves to the powerful younger males owning several mates.
As there is not a wide difference between the instincts of the animal and that of primitive men, it seems beyond question that the great bulk of the women of the tribe do not disapprove of polygamous marriage. Doubtless there are a few malcontents, but the mass of the women approve the system. ”

“ Among the semi-civilised communities of our time, polygyny is far commoner than polygamy. The secondary wife, or concubine, is found amongst the Fijians, the tribes of the Pacific Coast, in Madagascar, in Uganda, Ashanti, and other parts of Africa. ”

“ There is not a stable form of sexual morality for all times and all peoples. Sheer biological necessity, quite apart from ethical ideas, has chiefly determined human sexual relationships throughout all the stages of man's development. ”

“ The great harem represents a man's dignity and position in society, while its maintenance involves a number of strict legal and social obligations towards wives and concubines.
As we shall see, primitive polygamy arose in many tribes through the labour potentiality of women. ”

“ Nevertheless, in spite of religious inhibitions, public opinion, psychic refinement in sexual appetite, poverty, and other obstacles to the gratification of polygamous yearnings, there are many instances of the expression of this innate and imperious passion for variety. Christianity and Christian legislation have not succeeded in annihilating the wandering sexual longings of those men and women in whom basic and pristine emotions survive. ”

“ Even in Puritan times there was a measure of toleration for those who could not remain continent with one woman; for we find a writer, in 1658, asserting that it may be in "every way consistent with the principles of a man fearing God and loving holiness to have more women than one to his proper use." ”

“ Besides their sexual attraction, several wives were valuable to a man in the hunting and battle days. The Sioux Indian is often assisted by his wives in the pursuit of wild animals for food or skins. Women are regarded as business assets. With their help a man can increase his possessions. ”

“ There is plenty of evidence in this matter. Dr. Livingstone is by no means the only traveller who has heard primitive women declare that they would not live in a country where a man is only permitted to marry one woman. ”

“ In the uncultured nations that bartered their women-folk, a woman was regarded merely as an article of exchange or sale. Later, however, the purchased woman secures certain important rights. She is not sold body and soul to her purchaser ”

“ The hawks are monogamous. There is sufficient evidence that the polygamous instinct is not general among animals. The farmyard cock and the male grouse are polygamists, but these are exceptions among birds. ”

“ The Primitive Family." marriage. Investigation proves, however, that it is a minor factor, at any rate in polygamy of early ages and among existing primitive tribes.
It is important to note that monogamy has always accompanied polygamy. Obviously, even when women have been redundant, there has not existed a sufficient number to enable each man to possess several wives. Polygamy is the luxury of the prosperous, and it stands for property-ownership. The poor man is bound to practise monogamy. ”

“ They have also human-like desires and appetites. Yet among the monkeys we note that polygamy is not the invariable form of union; for some of the species are rigidly monogamous. And so with birds, which are, generally speaking, excellent examples of fidelity to a single partner after courtship and pairing. ”

“ The polygamous birds are almost invariably addicted to conflict, and the males are usually bigger and more gaily-feathered than the females. Stags, especially among the red-deer, are very aggressive towards other males, and sometimes their battles end fatally. A young stag will fight for as many hinds as he can obtain ”

“ There exists among the Arabs of the White Nile district a rule giving to the purchased girl full liberty on two days of each week. As a wife she is only at the behest of her lord on four days out of the seven. ”

“ During this militant period, women conducted those peaceful and pastoral industries which are at the basis of civilisation. They tamed and domesticated animals; they wove the garments, prepared and cooked the food, and tended the infants and the sick. ”