HUMAN MARRIAGE—EVOLUTION OF THE PARENTAL INSTINCT—SOCIAL
CONDITIONS AMONG PAPUANS—CHILD’S PLACE IN THE TRIBE.
It is now believed by many scientists that the cradle of the human race
was the Indo-Malaysian intertropical lands.
The discovery of the remains of the _Pithecanthropus erectus_ in 1892
by Dr. Eugene Dubois in the pliocene beds of East Java, established
as a strong probability what was up to that time regarded as a mere
speculation. Keane[14] and Sir John Evans[15] now assert that man
originated in the East in this vicinity and migrated thence to Europe.
In this semi-glacial period, man, having taken on much of his human
character and being now an erect animal (although in physical and
mental respects he still resembled his nearest kin), had little
difficulty in migrating.
During the immensely long old Stone Age to which Peroché assigns a
period of some three hundred thousand years since the beginning of the
Ghellian epoch, the pleistocene precursors underwent very few or slight
specializations or developments, a fact due mainly to the moderate and
unchanging character of the climate during this long period. Progress
in the arts, however, there was, to such an extent that in some things
the period has not been equalled. Of this character are the exquisitely
wrought flints of the Silurian period, which cannot be reproduced now.
Primitive man as he existed in the Stone Age had very little in
common with the “primitive men” of today. There are savages today
who represent, in a way, a degree of savagery and a remoteness from
civilization that in some respects takes them farther down the social
ladder than any of the Aryan race of the Stone Age. “No pure primitive
race exists in any part of the world today.”[16] Contact with more
advanced races has invariably produced, sometimes a good and sometimes
an evil effect. Races are what climate, soil, diet, pursuits, and
inherited character make them,[17] and the Aryan savages of the Stone
Age had a different set of these conditions to face from the Negro
savages of today.
[Illustration: A WELL-CARED FOR ESKIMO INFANT
(COURTESY OF MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, NEW YORK)]
[Illustration: NATIVE EAST AFRICAN MOTHER AND INFANT
(COURTESY OF THE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, NEW YORK)]
It is not surprising to find today a race that in many respects
represents the Stone Age period of civilization, displaying, together
with the most barbarous customs, a wide knowledge of the arts,
indicating that there had been contact with some higher race or its
representatives.
Tribes grade into one another in the matter of culture so that it is
hard to classify them.[18] A struggle for existence may leave its mark
on an advanced tribe so that while it may in general retain prominent
barbaric or primitive characteristics, it will, in every other regard
but these, seem an advanced tribe. The Nigritans, for instance,[19]
have learned from their neighbours, the Abyssinians and the Arabs, the
use of iron; yet they have not arrived at the Stone and Bronze ages in
culture, and show in their social relations and domestic habits none of
the characteristics of the more advanced tribes.
So in the treatment of children. Wherever the treatment of the child
is at variance with the other customs or conditions of the race, it
will almost invariably be discovered that the change is due to economic
reasons or to contact with a stronger race. That it is this contact
with higher races that has helped undeveloped races to advance, is the
opinion of Sir H. H. Johnson.[20]
“In some respects I think the tendency of the Negro for several
centuries past has been an actual retrograde one. As we come to read
the unwritten history of Africa by researches into languages, manners,
customs, traditions, we seem to see a backward rather than a forward
movement going on for some thousand years past—a return towards the
savage and even the brute. I can believe it possible that, had Africa
been more isolated from contact with the rest of the world, and cut off
from the immigration of the Arab and the European, the purely Negroid
races, left to themselves, so far from advancing towards a higher type
of humanity, might have actually reverted by degrees to a type no
longer human.”
On the other hand, G. Stanley Hall says that our intercourse with the
African races “had been a curse and not a blessing. Our own Indians are
men of the Stone Age whom Bishop Whipple thought originally the noblest
men on earth. Look at them now!”[21]
Up to a short time ago men of authority asserted that marriage had
sprung up from a “state of promiscuity,” the believers in this theory
forgetting that even “among animals the most akin to man, this state of
promiscuity is rather exceptional.”
Most of the people cited as following this practice have been shown to
have individual marriage to the exclusion of other forms. Undoubtedly
in many cases what are called group marriages have been mistaken for
promiscuity. Almost equally low in the social scale is polyandry, where
one woman may have several husbands.
Whatever the origin of marriage, the fact is, however, that the idea of
marriage comes after the idea of the child—as in the animal world, the
family is established for the purpose of taking care of the children
that have been brought into the world.[22]
In _Mahabharata_, the Indian poem, we are told that marriage was
founded by Swetaketu, son of the Rishi Uddalaka; according to the
Chinese annals, the Emperor Fou-hi established the custom; the
Egyptians ascribed its introduction to Menes, and the Greeks to
Kekrops. Nowhere is it assumed as a condition of the race of all time.
Its origin, growth, and development are really the origin, growth, and
development of the idea of protecting human offspring.
A convincing scientific explanation of marriage, however, has been
set forth by Westermarck.[23] Among the great sub-kingdom of the
Invertebrata not even the female parent exhibits any anxiety about
the offspring. The heat of the sun hatches the eggs of the highest
order, the insects, and in most cases the mother does not even see her
young.[24]
Parental care is rare among the lowest vertebrata. Among fishes the
young are generally hatched without the assistance of the parents.
There are exceptions to this among the Teleostei, where the male
assumes the usual maternal functions of constructing a nest and
jealously guarding the ova deposited there by the female. The male of
certain species of the Arius, carries the ova in his pharynx. Nearly
all of the reptiles, having placed their eggs in a convenient sunny
spot, pay no more attention to them.
With few exceptions, the relations of the sexes of the lower vertebrata
can be described as fickle; they meet in the pairing time, part again,
and have little more to do with one another.
“The Chelonia form,” says Westermarck, “with regard to their domestic
habits, transition to the birds, as they do also from a zoölogical and
particularly from an embryological point of view.” He then goes on to
show that parental affection in the latter class, not only on the side
of the mother but on that of the father, has come to high development.
Members of the two sexes aid each other in nest-building, the females
bringing the materials and the males doing the work. Other duties
which come with the mating season are shared by both, the mother
being concerned with incubation and the father aiding her by taking
her position when she leaves the nest for intervals, providing her
with food which he gathers, and protecting her from dangers. When the
breeding season is over and the young have come, a new set of duties
is evolved. Young birds are not left alone by their parents, absences
being necessitated only by searches for food for all members of the
nest. When dangers threaten the nest both father and mother defend it
bravely.
[Illustration: FAMILY LIFE AMONG BIRDS. GROUP OF AMERICAN EGRET
(COURTESY OF MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, NEW YORK)]
All efforts are made to have the young shift for themselves as soon as
they have grown strong enough to make it feasible. Independence and
self-dependence come only after they are in all ways capable of meeting
their needs.
On the other hand, there are some species whose young, from the
beginning of their ultra-oval existence, require and receive no care
from the parents. The duck is one of a species which leaves all
parental care to the female. In general it may be said that both
parents share the parental duties, the chief duties, such as hatching
and rearing of the young, falling to the mother, while the father
gathers food and keeps off enemies.[25]
The relations of the two sexes are, therefore, very intimate, and
association lasts even after the breeding season has passed. And only
the birds of the Gallinaceous family are an exception to the rule of
making such association permanent once it has been started, death alone
ending it.
Real marriage is to be found only among birds.[26] For mammals the same
cannot be said, for though the mother generally gives much attention to
the young, the father does not always have as much concern. He even, in
some cases, is the enemy of his own offspring. Yet even in the cases of
mammals there are durable associations between the sexes. Very often
these last only during the rutting season, but among whales, seals,
hippopotami, the _Cervus campestris_,[27] gazelles,[28] the _Neotragus
Hemprichii_ and other small antelopes, reindeer, the _Hydromus coypus_,
squirrels, moles, the ichneumon, and certain carnivorous animals, among
the latter cats, martens, the yaguarundi of South America, and the
_Canis Brasiliensis_ and perhaps the wolf, there are durable matings.
Association between the sexes is common among all of these animals for
periods after the young have been born. And in all cases the male is
the family’s protector.
What is an exception among the lower mammals is, however, a rule among
the Quadrumana. According to the natives of Madagascar some species
of Prosimii are nursed by both male and female in common. Among the
_Arctopitheci_ the female is always assisted by the male in taking care
of the young.
Coming to the man-like apes, we are told by Lieutenant de Crespigny
that “in the northern part of Borneo they live in families—the male,
female, and young one. On one occasion,” he says, “I found a family in
which were two young ones, one of them much larger than the other, and
I took this as a proof that the family tie had existed for at least
two seasons. They build commodious nests in the trees which form their
feeding-ground, and, so far as I could observe, the nests, which are
well lined with dry leaves, are occupied only by the female and young,
the male passing the night in the fork of the same or another tree in
the vicinity. The nests are very numerous all over the forest, for they
are not occupied above a few nights, the mias (or orang-utan) leading a
roving life.”
Dr. Savage says that the gorillas live in bands and that but one male
is seen in every band. M. du Chaillu says that the male gorilla is
always accompanied by the female.
It is among the Negritians of Africa that we find today the at-hand
evidence of the attitude of man toward his progeny in the first
stages of culture, or perhaps the last stages of savagery. It must be
remembered that in Africa, however, habits of other races will be found
grafted on the negro stock, thereby causing them to appear sometimes
unusually gentle or again unusually advanced. In Africa the Semitic and
the Hamitic grafts on negro stock provide many varieties of mankind,
just as in Oceania, the Mongol (Malay) and the Caucasian (Indonesian)
grafts on the negro stock have produced many varieties there. As an
example of the methods of the lowest of savage tribes, there is,
however, no better example than the Papuans of New Guinea of whom the
ethnologist, Keane, says: “They stand in some respects on the lowest
rung of the social ladder.”
As an example of the low state of culture in which part of them exist
it is said that those near Astrolabe Bay on the north-west coast of
New Guinea had no knowledge of the metals, all their implements being
of stone, wood, or bones; neither had they knowledge of fire, the
grandfathers of the present generation being able to recall the time
when they had no fire at all, but ate their food raw. In the study
of these people we are studying contemporaries of our own neolithic
ancestors.
According to their most popular myth, a crocodile named Nugu was
responsible for the frequent disappearance of children until the tribe
made an agreement to supply him with pig’s fat instead. Here we have
the beginning of the theory of sacrifice.
[Illustration: A FAMILY OF ANTHROPOID APES. FROM A DRAWING BY DAN BEARD.
(COURTESY OF THE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, NEW YORK)]
[Illustration: FAMILY OF POLAR BEARS
(COURTESY OF MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. NEW YORK CITY)]
“In their treatment of children they are often violent and cruel,”
says Alfred Russell Wallace,[29] and an example of their idea of
kindness may be gathered from the following description of the
“ornamentation” of a young Papuan:
“The faces of both men and women are frequently ornamented all over
with cicatrices either circular or chevron-shaped. The operation is a
painful and costly one, as the professional tattooer has to be highly
paid for his trouble, and not every child’s friends can afford the
fee demanded. The instrument used is the claw of the flying-fox. The
unfortunate patient is not allowed to sleep for two or three nights
before the operation is performed, and then, when he is ready to drop
from weariness, the tattooer begins his work, and completes it at one
sitting. I never saw the actual process, but a child was brought for my
inspection whose face had just been finished off. It was in a painful
state of nervous irritation, and the face swelled to an enormous
size.”[30]
Of the condition of these people no one is better able to speak than
Lieutenant Governor J. H. P. Murray,[31] who describes tribes where the
savages have only weapons of wood, know nothing of the bow and arrow,
and are noted for their immorality.
“It is very often the case that the best of the young girls are
sold by their parents as courtesans, the native name being Jelibo. I
came across men married, and possessing, in addition, these women.
Young fellows, not having reached puberty, had clubbed together in
parties of three and four, and bought young girls from the parents to
make courtesans. At feasts, these girls are used for the purpose of
enriching themselves and their owners.”[32]
As to the attitude of the children, we gain some idea of the aboriginal
point of view by this statement:
“There are some villages in which children absolutely swarm, but there
are few large families; practically every one is married, but there
are many couples who have no children, or only one or two. In many
parts of the territory it is considered a disgrace for a woman to have
a child until she has been married at least two years; infanticide
and abortion, though rarely proved, are said to be common, and a
medical expert would probably discover the existence of other checks
to population. The result of all this is that in some districts the
population is increasing while in others it is not; such investigations
as we have been able to make lead, in the absence of definite
statistics, to the conclusion that the population in that part of
the territory which is under control is certainly not diminishing,
though the increase, if any, is probably very small. The reason why
the population does not increase as one would expect now that village
warfare has ceased is, as far as I can see, simply that neither men nor
women want children, which I take to be the chief cause that limits
population elsewhere. The reason why they do not want them is, I think,
partly because they find them a nuisance (which is a consideration that
was probably effective even before the white man came) and partly that,
in their present state of transition from one stage of development to
another, they do not exactly see what there will be for their children
to do.”
Another custom of these people is to bury children alive, when the
parents or some person of importance dies; the excuse given for this
practice is that the child will be needed to wait on the parent in the
other world, a practice that lasted long among the civilized Egyptians.
Cannibalism is rife among these people. Mr. Murray reports that on one
occasion a young man was brought before him for having murdered a man
in order to please a married woman with whom he was in love—a lover who
has not “killed his man” being considered lukewarm.
“On my remonstrating with him on the impropriety of paying attention to
a married woman he informed me that there were no girls in the village,
as they had all been killed and eaten in a recent raid. The position
of a young man who found himself in a village where all the women were
either married or eaten was no doubt a difficult one, and I hope that
I took it into consideration in passing sentence.”[33]
How little is the feeling among these people over the murder of
children, is shown from the fact that murder is the only outlet for
their feelings!
“I have known cases where a man, grieving over the loss of a relative
or over some slight that has been put upon him, has set fire to his
house, quite regardless of whether any one was inside, with the result,
occasionally, that a child is burnt to death, and I recently tried a
case of murder which was the direct outcome of grief over the death of
a pig. The prisoners were brothers, and their pig bore the pretty name
of Mehboma; but Mehboma died, and the brothers in their unquenchable
grief went forth and killed the first man they saw. The victim had
nothing to do with Mehboma’s death, but the mourning brothers did not
care for that—somebody had got to be killed over it. The prisoners told
me that it was the custom of the village to show their grief in this
way, so that their neighbours must occasionally have suffered rather
severely.”[34]
As the Australians are closely allied to the Papuans and represent
about the same period of culture, we may postulate their attitude
toward woman and a marriage from the description of an early Victorian
tribe-marriage given by Brough Smith and quoted by A. H. Keane, the
latter author remarking that “a common test of a people’s culture is
the treatment of their women, and in this respect the Australians must,
as Prof. R. Semon shows, be ranked below the Bushman and on a level
with the Fuegians.”
[Illustration: PRIMITIVE FAMILY LIFE AMONG THE HOPI INDIANS
(COURTESY OF THE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, NEW YORK)]
“A man having a daughter of thirteen or fourteen years of age,” says
Mr. Smith in his description of the marriage customs in vogue among the
Victorian tribes, “arranges with some elderly person for the disposal
of her; and, when all are agreed, she is brought out and told that her
husband wants her. Perhaps she has never seen him but to loathe him.
The father carries a spear and a waddy, or tomahawk, and, anticipating
resistance, is thus prepared for it. The poor girl, sobbing and
sighing, and muttering words of complaint, claims pity from those who
will show none. If she resists the mandates of her father, he strikes
her with his spear; if she rebels and screams, the blows are repeated;
and if she attempts to run away, a stroke on the head from the waddy
or tomahawk quiets her. The mother screams and scolds and beats the
ground with her _kan-nan_ (fighting-stick); the dogs bark and whine;
but nothing interrupts the father, who, in the performance of his
duty, is strict and mindful of the necessity of not only enforcing his
authority, but of showing to all that he has the means to enforce it.
Seizing the bride by her long hair he drags her to the home prepared
for her by her new owner. Further resistance often subjects her to
brutal treatment. If she attempts to abscond, the bridegroom does not
hesitate to strike her savagely on the head with his waddy, and the
bridal screams and yells make the night hideous.”[35]