THE SOCIAL POSITION OF WOMAN AS AFFECTED BY “CIVILISATION.”
The legend which teaches that the first woman was formed out of one of
the ribs of the first man must surely be true, seeing that it agrees
perfectly with the position which woman holds among all primitive
peoples!
With few rights, if any, in this life, it is not surprising that her
subordination is continued in the spirit world, and that if she gains
admittance at all into the native heaven, it is usually under peculiar
circumstances. Thus, the Fijian women are voluntarily strangled or
buried alive at the funerals of their husbands, from the belief
that in _their_ company alone “can they reach the realms of bliss;”
to which is added the idea that she “who meets her death with the
greatest devotedness will become the favourite wife in the abode of
spirits.” What becomes after death of the women who do not die with
their husbands is, perhaps, uncertain, but there is reason to believe
that among many uncultured peoples as little thought is given to the
future state of such unfortunates as to that of animals killed for
food. In fact, among the Papuan tribes, and with many of the natives
of Australia, women are highly prized for cannibal purposes. Judging
from this fact, we shall not expect to find that, during life, they
are much cared for, unless it be on the principle which sometimes
leads cannibals to fatten their victims before preying on them. This
is not the case, however, with the natives of Australia, and women
among them not only have to endure many privations, but are most
barbarously treated. Wilkes states that they are considered as articles
of property. Among few peoples is the lot of woman so cruel as with the
aborigines of Australia.
In this respect, however, there is little difference with any
uncultured race. Marriages of affection are unknown to the Fijians,
and women remain faithful to their husbands from fear rather than
from love. “Like other property,” says Admiral Wilkes, “wives may be
sold at pleasure, and the usual price is a musket. Those who purchase
them may do with them as they please, even to knocking them on the
head.” Thus, among the Fijians, women are, in the true sense of the
word, “property,” and marriage is a matter of bargain and sale. This
remark is applicable to peoples less savage than the untamed Papuan.
Among the pastoral tribes of East Africa, and also the black tribes of
Madagascar, women are, if anything, thought less of than cattle. The
Kafirs, indeed, value them _in_ cattle, and girls pride themselves on
the price they fetch. The condition of the Kafir wife agrees with the
estimation in which she is held. Woman occupies much the same position
with the true Negro tribes, and even among the North African peoples
who have embraced Mohamedanism the woman is subject absolutely to the
will of her husband. Wives do not appear to be treated with cruelty,
however, and, according to Mr. Winwood Reade, they often, by force of
a certain public opinion, exercise a peculiar influence over the men
in domestic affairs. Among the Wahuma of East Africa, women, curiously
enough, are not regarded exactly as property, and their condition is
probably, on the whole, superior to what it is among the Negro or Kafir
tribes.
Women occupy among the American aborigines a position of, on the whole,
greater hardship. They are generally considered as inferior beings,
and their lives are spent in the lowest and most laborious drudgery.
Throughout both North and South America, with few exceptions, a wife is
treated as the property of her husband, who will lend her to a friend
with as little compunction as he would a hatchet. Moreover, as amongst
most uncultured peoples, she is always liable to instant divorce.
This arbitrary treatment, and the hardships which women suffer, have
probably much to do with the prevalence of infanticide, especially of
female children. The condition of woman among the Eskins appears to
be more bearable than with the true American tribes. This is shown by
the existence between husband and wife of a certain attachment, which
sometimes ripens into real affection; and yet, according to Sir John
Ross, the Eskino women are considered merely as property or furniture.
It is not far otherwise with the Greenlanders. Crantz declares that,
from their twentieth year, the life of their women is a mixture of
fear, indigence, and lamentation.
Among some of the Polynesian Islanders, and particularly the Samoans,
woman is more esteemed than with others, but usually she is treated
in the same manner as with most uncultured peoples. As shown by many
of their customs, she is looked upon as an inferior creature. Captain
King remarked that at the Sandwich Islands, when these were first
discovered, less respect was shown to women than at any of the other
Pacific Islands which Captain Cook’s expedition had visited. All the
best kinds of food were forbidden them. In domestic life they lived
almost entirely by themselves, and although no instance of positive
ill-treatment was actually observed, yet it was evident that “they had
little regard or attention paid them.”
The facts stated sufficiently establish that, among primitive peoples,
woman is regarded as “property.” Usually female children are thought
little of by their parents, and they are cared for only as having a
certain exchange value. In the more advanced stage represented by
the pastoral peoples they are more highly prized, because, although
a man may prefer his cattle to his daughters, these, if successfully
reared, will bring a certain addition to his stock. A curious relic of
this primitive idea of the exchange value of woman is yet extant in
Afghanistan, where crimes are atoned for by fines estimated, partly in
young women, and partly in money. It is not surprising that the man who
has purchased his wife should look upon her in the same light as any
other chattel which he has acquired, and this _property_ notion is at
the foundation of most of the social habits of savage life.
It must not be thought that women, even among the most uncultured
peoples, are altogether without influence, if not over their own
condition, yet over the minds of other. The wars, if such they can
be called, waged by the Australian aborigines, are generally due to
the old women, who incite the men with the most passionate language
to revenge any injury to the tribe, and they perform the same office
among other uncivilised peoples. It is well-known what influence over
the conduct of such peoples is exercised by the sorcerers or wizard
doctors, and in many parts of both Africa and America women as well as
men exercise that calling;. It is not often that among the more warlike
races women attain to the position of chief, but such a state of
things is not unknown to the African tribes; and in Madagascar and the
Polynesian Islands woman is as competent as man to occupy the throne.
With the American tribes who trace descent through females, women have
great influence in the election of the chiefs.
Nor is woman exactly without _rights_ among uncultured peoples.
At first these relate to the disposition of her own person before
marriage, and the existence of such a right is implied in the
widespread customs which have been thought to give evidence of the
primitive social phase described as “marriage by capture.” Mr.
Darwin, in his work, “The Descent of Man,” well points out that among
uncultured peoples girls have more choice in the matter of marriage
than is usually supposed.
It by no means follows that the position of a woman is, among
uncultured peoples, more bearable because she has managed to marry the
man whom she prefers. Where the marriage has been preceded by actual
attachment, no doubt it usually is so; and in that case, especially if
she has much intelligence, a wife may have great influence over her
husband. It is probable that polygamy has been an important instrument
in improving the condition of the married woman. With most uncultured
peoples who practise polygamy, a first wife is the head wife, and all
the succeeding ones are under her control. The former thus occupies a
position of influence in the household; she is less roughly treated by
her husband, and she gradually acquires certain rights. Mr. Shooter
says that, among the Kafirs, all the cows which a man possesses at
the time of his earliest marriage are regarded as the property of his
first wife, and after the birth of her first son they are called _his_
cattle. Theoretically, the husband can neither sell nor dispose of them
without his wife’s consent. Cattle are assigned to each of the wives
whom the husband subsequently takes, and the wife who furnishes the
cattle to purchase and endow a new wife, is entitled to her services,
and calls her “_my_ wife.” These rights of property are, however, in
reality of very slight value. On the death of the husband, the women
of his household descend to the son who is entitled to the cattle
belonging to each family division, and if he dies without direct heirs,
to the next male relative, who is nevertheless bound to provide for
them.
It is difficult to conceive that the improvement in the position of
woman witnessed among civilised peoples, can have been much affected by
any change that could take place in the relation between husband and
wife, so long as the latter is treated as mere property. I am disposed,
therefore, to trace that improvement to another source, and to look
upon it as springing from the maternal relationship. Stern as may be
the treatment experienced by a wife, it is seldom that a mother is not
honoured. This is especially the case among the African tribes. The
same feeling is not unknown to the Arabs, whose sacred book declares
that “a son gains Paradise at the feet of his mother.” Inconsistent as
it is with our ideas, there can be little doubt that the curious custom
of strangling parents, or burying them alive, when they have become
old and helpless, is looked upon as a mark of respect and regard.
Wilkes was assured by the missionaries that the Fijians were kind and
affectionate to their parents, and that they considered the strangling
custom as so great a proof of affection that none but children could be
found to perform it.
The Chinese have preserved the germs of the primitive idea, according
to which woman is a kind of property, and among them still a wife may
be sold, although only with her own consent, and as a wife and not as
a slave. These restrictions show a great advance, which is evidenced
also by the fact that wives possess equal rank with their husbands.
Moreover, mothers are allowed a certain degree of influence over their
sons, who are, indeed, obliged at particular seasons to pay homage
to them, the Emperor himself not being exempt from performing the
ceremonies of the _kotow_ before his mother. Where the filial piety is
so strong, it is not surprising that ancestral-worship extends to the
mother as well as the father, and that the memory of women celebrated
for their virtues is perpetuated. Nevertheless, Chinese women are
almost absolutely in the power of their fathers, husbands and sons, to
whom they owe obedience as the representatives of heaven.
In some of their customs the Romans bore considerable resemblance to
the Chinese. With the former, as among the latter, the father was
absolute within his family, and originally a woman, as part of her
husband’s _familia_, could be sold or put to death by him without
interference by the State. This was not so if the wife was only _uxor_
and retained her own familia, in which case, however, her children
belonged to her husband. The latter form of marriage, or the custom
known as “breaking the usus of the year,” gradually came to be the most
usual, and it resulted in the emancipation of women from the control to
which they had before been subjected.
The old Roman, Cato the elder, complained of their having much power in
political matters, and statues were even then erected in the provinces
to Roman ladies. Unfortunately the emancipation of woman among the
Romans was attended with a license which had the most deplorable
results, both moral and social.
In Greece the peculiar institutions established by Lycurgus gave the
Spartan women much influence, and they were even said by the other
Greeks to have brought their husbands under the yoke. On the other
hand, among the Athenians, women were generally viewed as inferior
to men, and wives were treated rather as household drudges than as
companions. Before marriage girls were kept in strict seclusion, a
habit which, in the middle and higher classes, was long retained after
marriage, wives seeing little even of their husbands or fathers. It
would appear, however, to have been different during the heroic age,
when the intercourse between husband and wife, says Mr. Gladstone, was
“thoroughly natural, full of warmth, dignity, reciprocal deference, and
substantial, if not conventional, delicacy.”
It is to the development of the emotion of love that the full
recognition of the true position to which woman is united must be
traced. The parent has influence because he or she is respected, and
love induces the same feeling in relation to the wife and woman in
general. Thus, at least, it would seem to be with Eastern peoples, who
probably closely agree in social habits with the ancient Greeks. Among
the Bedouins, in whose manners we may doubtless trace those of the
early Hebrews, women enjoy a considerable degree of liberty; and hence
marriages, although accompanied by the incidents of wife-purchase,
are often governed by choice, and husbands make real companions of
their wives. The respect paid to them is so great that, if a homicide
can succeed in concealing his head under the sleeve of a woman and
cry _fyardhék_, “under thy protection,” his safety is insured. Pallas
mentions an analogous custom as existing among the Circassians, who
also highly esteem woman. The same may be said of the Afghans, among
whom, although marriage is still a matter of purchase, love-matches
are by no means rare. Wives often exercise great influence in Afghan
households, the husband sometimes sinking into a secondary place.
How far the condition of women has been mitigated among the Bedouins
and other races by Mohammedanism is an open question. According to the
Koran, the Arabs were accustomed to treat them with great cruelty,
while one of the chief features of Mohammed’s teaching is the high
position accorded to them. In permitting polygamy, Mohammedan law
accommodates itself to the habits of an earlier stage of social
progress, and tends to perpetuate many of its objectionable features.
As remarked by Lord Kames, polygamy is intimately connected with the
treatment of woman as a slave to be purchased even in marriage. But,
great as are the evils attending that custom, they depend in great
measure on special circumstances, and they are capable, as Mohammedan
teaching shows, of considerable mitigation. Probably the practice of
polygamy has never, among a civilised people, been accompanied by more
baneful results than it exhibits in modern Egypt, if we can accept the
testimony of Miss Martineau. This lady somewhat unjustly remarks that,
“if we are to look for a hell upon earth, it is where polygamy exists;
and that, as polygamy runs riot in Egypt, Egypt is the lowest depth of
this hell.” Polygamy has not in India so degrading an effect, but, of
the six qualities ascribed to woman by the code of so-called Gentoo
laws, all are bad ones. A really good wife is, however, so highly
esteemed that, if a man forsake her of his own accord, he is to receive
the punishment of a thief. Perhaps the scarcity of such wives accounts
for the fact mentioned by Bishop Heber, that throughout India anything
is thought good enough for women, and that “the roughest words, the
poorest garments, the scantiest alms, the most degrading labour, and
the hardest blows, are generally of their portion.” No doubt women
of the lower castes are here referred to, and it cannot be supposed
that all women are thus treated. The Abbé Dubois, indeed, affirms
that among the Hindoos the person of a woman is sacred, and that,
however abject her condition, she is always addressed by every one by
the term “mother.” If we may believe the Abbé, who lived for thirty
years among the natives, the position of Hindoo women is far superior
to what Europeans in general believe. He says, “To them belong the
entire management of their household, the care of their children, the
superintendence over the menial servants, the distribution of alms
and charities. To them are generally entrusted the money, jewels, and
other valuables of the family; to them belong the care of procuring
provisions and providing for all expenses; it is they also who are
charged, almost to the exclusion of their husbands, with the most
important affairs of procuring wives for their sons, and husbands for
their daughters, and in doing it they evince a nicety of attention and
wisdom which are not certainly surpassed in any other country; while
in the management of their domestic business, they in general show a
shrewdness, a savingness, and a foresight, which would do honour to the
best housekeepers in Europe.... In short, although exposed outwardly in
public to the forbidden frowns of an austere husband, they cannot be
considered in any other view than as perfect mistresses in the house.
The influence of the Hindoo females on the welfare of families is so
well known, that the successes or misfortunes of the Hindoo are almost
entirely attributed to the good or bad management of the former; when
a person prospers in the world, it is the custom to say that he has
the happiness to possess an intelligent wife, and when any one runs to
ruin, it is the custom to say that he has the misfortune to have a bad
wife for a partner.”
Judging from the Abbé’s description, the properties of a good wife,
according to the compiler of the “Book of Proverbs,” would doubtless
meet with the perfect approval of the Hindoo.
Much as the emancipation of woman is aided by the development of love
between the sexes, she is indebted to religion for its completion.
The description given by Tacitus of the high honour in which women
were held by the ancient Germans, as being in some sense holy and as
having the gift of prophecy, may be somewhat exaggerated; but if it is
true that the safest mode of binding that people to their political
engagements was to require as hostages women of noble birth, we may
well believe that their regard for the female sex had a religious
basis. Tacitus adds, that the care of house and lands and of the family
affairs, was usually committed to the women, while the men spent their
time in feasting, fighting, and sleeping. A happy commentary this
on the question whether the former is capable of managing her own
affairs! The true position of woman, however, is not that assigned
to her by the ancient Germans, who gave her a fictitious superiority
based on superstition. We must look to the peoples among whom have
flourished the religions which have permanently influenced the world,
for evidences of the continued improvement of that position. That which
has had the most striking and lasting effect over the social status of
women in the East is undoubtedly Buddhism. Gautama preached salvation
to all human beings alike, rich and poor, male and female, and some
of his first converts were women. His teaching went to the root of
the prejudice so powerful in the East, which leads man to consider
woman his inferior,[302] and she was at once raised to a level with
him. Hence, in most Buddhist countries, women are treated as man’s
companions, and not as his slaves. The fact that the former are allowed
to take monastic vows reveals the true source of female emancipation.
It is a recognition of the capability of woman to attain to the
spiritual re-birth, and, as a consequence, not only to escape from the
material life with its continued evils, but to secure supreme bliss in
another state. The idea of the spiritual re-birth was at the foundation
of the ancient mysteries, and therefore the admission to them of woman
was a sign of her emancipation. The Zend-Avesta places men and women on
the same footing, and among the ancient Persians the latter sometimes
occupied even high sacerdotal positions. She was, moreover, freely
admitted to the secret mysteries. M. Lajard says that the monuments
show us women not only admitted as neophytes to the celebration of
the mysteries, but performing there sometimes the part of god-mother
(marraine), sometimes that of priestess and arch-priestess. In these
two characters they assist the initiating priest, and they themselves
preside at the initiation, assisted by a priest or an arch-priest.
The learned French writer concludes, therefore, that “women among the
peoples endowed with the institution of the mysteries found themselves
thus placed in a condition of equality with man.” That which had been
begun by Buddhism and Mazdaism was continued by Christianity, which
knows no distinction of sex or position, however much its principles
may from time to time have suffered at the hands of ignorant or
irrational legislators.