Transcriber’s Notes
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations
in hyphenation and accents have been standardised but all other
spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.
The precise location of footnote 256 is speculative since it is not
indicated in the original.
Italics are represented thus _italic_.
The Sexes in Science
and
History
An Inquiry into the Dogma of Woman’s
Inferiority to Man
By
Eliza Burt Gamble
_A revised edition of “The Evolution of Woman”_
G. P. Putnam’s Sons
New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press
1916
COPYRIGHT, 1893
Under the title _The Evolution of Woman_, by
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
COPYRIGHT, 1916
for the revised edition, by
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
PREFACE TO NEW EDITION
This volume is a revised edition of _The Evolution of Woman_ published
by G. P. Putnam’s Sons in 1894.
In this later work much added evidence appears going to prove the
correctness of the theory advanced in the former work. In it the
subject of sex-development has been brought down to the present time
and in this later investigation it is found that each and every fact
connected with the biological and sociological development of the last
twenty years is in strict accord not only with the facts set forth in
_The Evolution of Woman_ but with the conclusions therein arrived at.
In the concluding chapters of this volume the results of the separate
development of the two diverging lines of sex demarcation are set
forth. I have endeavoured to show that present conditions are the
legitimate outcome of the ascendency gained during the later ages of
human history by the egoistic or destructive agencies over the higher
or constructive forces developed in human nature.
E. B. G.
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION
After a somewhat careful study of written history, and after an
investigation extending over several years of all the accessible facts
relative to extant tribes representing the various stages of human
development, I had reached the conclusion, as early as the year 1882,
that the female organism is in no wise inferior to that of the male.
For some time, however, I was unable to find any detailed proof that
could consistently be employed to substantiate the correctness of this
hypothesis.
In the year 1885, with no special object in view other than a desire
for information, I began a systematized investigation of the facts
which at that time had been established by naturalists relative to the
development of mankind from lower orders of life. It was not, however,
until the year 1886, after a careful reading of _The Descent of Man_,
by Mr. Darwin, that I first became impressed with the belief that
the theory of evolution, as enunciated by scientists, furnishes much
evidence going to show that the female among all the orders of life,
man included, represents a higher stage of development than the male.
Although at the time indicated, the belief that man has descended from
lower orders in the scale of being had been accepted by the leading
minds both in Europe and America, for reasons which have not been
explained, scientists, generally, seemed inclined to ignore certain
facts connected with this theory which tend to prove the superiority of
the female organism.
Scarcely considering at the outset whether my task would eventually
take the form of a magazine article, or whether it would be extended to
the dimensions of a book, I set myself to work to show that some of the
conclusions of the savants regarding the subject of sex-development are
not in accord with their premises.
While writing the first part of this volume, and while reasoning on the
facts established by scientists in connection with the observations
which have been made in these later years relative to the growth of
human society and the development of human institutions, it seemed
clear to me that the history of life on the earth presents an unbroken
chain of evidence going to prove the importance of the female; and,
so struck was I by the manner in which the facts of science and those
of history harmonize, that I decided to embrace within my work some
of the results of my former research. I therefore set about the task
of tracing, in a brief manner, the growth of the primary characters
observed in the two diverging sex-columns, according to the facts and
principles enunciated in the theory of natural development.
It is not perhaps singular, during an age dominated by theological
dogmatism, and in which no definite knowledge relative to the
development of life on the earth had been gained, that man should
have regarded himself as an infinitely superior being. Neither is it
remarkable that woman, who was supposed to have appeared later on the
scene of action than did her male mate, and who owed her existence to
a surgical operation performed upon him, should have been regarded
simply as an appendage, a creature brought forth in response to the
requirements of the masculine nature.
The above doctrines when enunciated by theologians need cause little
surprise, but with the dawn of a scientific age it might have been
expected that the prejudices resulting from those doctrines might
disappear. When, however, we turn to the most advanced scientific
writings of the present century, we find that the prejudices which
throughout thousands of years have been gathering strength are by no
means eradicated, and any discussion of the sex question is still
rare in which the effects of these prejudices may not be traced. Even
Mr. Darwin, notwithstanding his great breadth of mental vision and
the important work which he accomplished in the direction of original
inquiry, whenever he had occasion to touch on the mental capacities
of women, or more particularly on the relative capacities of the
sexes, manifested the same spirit which characterizes the efforts
of an earlier age; and throughout his entire investigation of the
human species, his ability to ignore certain facts which he himself
adduced, and which all along the line of development tend to prove the
superiority of the female, is truly remarkable.
We usually judge of a man’s fitness to assume the rôle of an original
investigator in any branch of human knowledge, by noting his powers
of observation and generalization, and by observing his capacity to
perceive connections between closely related facts; also, by tracing
the various processes by which he arrives at his conclusions. The
ability, however, to collect facts, and the power to generalize and
draw conclusions from them, avail little, when brought into direct
opposition to deeply rooted prejudices.
The indications are strong that the time has at length arrived when
the current opinions concerning sex capacity and endowment demand a
revision, and when nothing short of scientific deductions, untainted by
the prejudices and dogmatic assumptions of the past, will be accepted.
As has been stated, the object of this volume is to set forth the
principal data brought forward by naturalists bearing on the subject
of the origin and development of the two lines of sexual demarcation,
and by means of the facts observed by explorers among peoples in the
various stages of development, to trace, so far as possible, the
effect of such differentiation upon the individual, and upon the
subsequent growth of human society.
E. B. G.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION iii
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION v
PART I
_THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION_
CHAPTER
I.—DEVELOPMENT OF THE ORGANISM 3
II.—THE ORIGIN OF SEX DIFFERENCES 14
III.—MALE ORGANIC DEFECTS 35
IV.—THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOCIAL INSTINCTS AND THE MORAL SENSE 63
V.—THE SUPREMACY OF THE MALE 74
PART II
_PREHISTORIC SOCIETY_
I.—METHOD OF INVESTIGATION 95
II.—THE RELATIONS OF THE SEXES AMONG EARLY MANKIND 104
III.—THE GENS WOMEN UNDER GENTILE INSTITUTIONS 123
IV.—THE ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE 159
V.—THE MOTHER-RIGHT 203
VI.—THEORIES TO EXPLAIN WIFE-CAPTURE 215
PART III
_EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY_
I.—EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY FOUNDED ON THE GENS 243
II.—WOMEN IN EARLY HISTORIC TIMES 269
III.—ANCIENT SPARTA 285
IV.—ATHENIAN WOMEN 318
V.—ROMAN LAW, ROMAN WOMEN, AND CHRISTIANITY 347
VI.—THE RENAISSANCE 367
VII.—CONCLUSION 380
INDEX 403
The Sexes in Science and History
PART I
The Theory of Evolution
CHAPTER I
DEVELOPMENT OF THE ORGANISM
Sex is not only the basic fact underlying physical life but it is also
the fundamental principle involved in the origin and development of
religion. Throughout the history of mankind, the God-idea has ever
been, male or female, according to the relative importance of the two
sex principles in human affairs.
Scientists declare that they are now able to trace the development
of the two diverging lines of sex-demarcation from the time of their
separation, or from the time when these principles were confined within
one and the same individual. In order to understand the origin of sex,
it becomes necessary to recall, briefly, the theory of the development
of life on the earth as set forth by the savants.
As science deals only with matter, a mechanical theory of the universe
is inevitable. As science is wholly materialistic, it is perfectly
consistent in its declaration that the senses and the intellect
constitute the only means whereby truth may be discovered. Modern
philosophy, on the other hand, which deals less with matter itself
than with the causes which underlie the development of matter, affirms
that a character has been developed in human beings which in its
capacity to discern truth, far transcends the intellect. That character
is intuition. But as we are dealing only with scientific observations,
philosophical speculations do not here concern us.
The fundamental idea, which must necessarily lie at the bottom of all
natural theories of development, is that of a gradual development of
all (even the most perfect) organisms out of a single, or out of a
very few, quite simple, and quite imperfect original beings, which
came into existence, not by supernatural creation, but by spontaneous
generation.[1]
[1] Haeckel, _History of Creation_, 1884, vol. i., p. 75.
According to the theory of evolution as elaborated by scientists, the
history of man begins with small animated particles, or Monera, which
appeared in the primeval sea. These marine specks were albuminous
compounds of carbon, generated by the sun’s heat, which made their
appearance as soon as the mists which enveloped the earth were
sufficiently cleared away to permit the rays of the sun to penetrate
them and reach the surface of the globe. Concerning the origin of
the principle of life which these particles contained, or regarding
the development of organic bodies from inorganic substances, the
more timid among naturalists declare that in the present state of
human knowledge it is impossible to know anything, while others of
them, more bold, or more confident of the latent powers of the human
intellect, after having elaborated a natural or mechanical explanation
for the development of all organic forms, are not disposed to accept
a supernatural theory for the beginning of life. For example, since
organic structures represent the development of matter according to
laws governing the chemical, molecular, and physical forces inherent
in it, it is believed that the gulf separating organic and inorganic
substances is not so difficult to span as has hitherto been supposed.
Among those who hold this view may be ranked the celebrated naturalist,
Ernst Haeckel.
Regarding the phenomena of life this writer observes: “We can
demonstrate the infinitely manifold and complicated physical and
chemical properties of the albuminous bodies to be the real cause
of organic or vital phenomena.”[2] Indeed, in whatever manner the
vital force within them originated, naturalists agree that from these
particles have been derived all the forms, both animal and vegetable,
which have ever existed upon the earth.
[2] _History of Creation_, vol. i., p. 331.
As speculations concerning the origin of matter lie without the
domain of natural or scientific inquiry, they form no part of the
investigations of the naturalist. So far as is known, matter is
eternal, and all that may be learned concerning it must be gleaned
by observing the changes, chemical and molecular, through which it
is manifested. By those who have observed the laws which govern the
manifold changes in matter, the fact is declared that the various
manifestations in form and substance constitute the only creation
of which we may have any knowledge; and, moreover, that the genesis
of existence is going on as actively in our time as at any previous
period in the history of matter. So far as human knowledge extends, no
particle of matter has ever been created and none ever destroyed. This
continuous process of transmutation of substance and change of form, in
other words the phenomena designated Life, may have been in operation
during all the past, and may continue forever.
As all speculations concerning the origin of matter have been
unavailing, so all attempts to solve the problem of the origin of
life have proved futile. The experiments recently carried on in
the Rockefeller Institute, in which by means of chemical processes
detached organs from the bodies of animals have been made to perform
their normal functions, are interesting and instructive, but these
experiments furnish no clue to the origin of the force which animates
living organic matter. Why the nucleated cells which we call a heart
should pulsate whilst those which we call a liver should secrete bile,
nobody knows.
That all life on the earth has been derived from one, or at most from a
few original forms, is said to be proved by ontogeny, or the history
of the germ, which in its development passes through a number of the
forms which mark the ascending scale of life.
Through the study of comparative anatomy, the fact has been discovered
that the individuals composing the various orders of the great
vertebrate series are all moulded “on the same general plan”; that up
to a certain stage in the development of the several germs—for instance
those of the man, the ape, the horse, the dog, etc.,—they are not
distinguishable the one from the other, and that it is only at a later
stage of development that they take on the peculiarities belonging to
their own special kind. The number and variety of forms which appear
in the animal and vegetable world make it difficult to conceive of the
idea that all have sprung from one, or at most from a few original
types, yet the chain of evidence in support of this theory seems quite
complete.
Natural Selection, by which it is demonstrated that organized matter
must move forward simply through the chemical and physical forces
inherent in it, furnishes a key to all the phenomena of life, both
animal and vegetable, which have ever appeared on the earth. Natural
Selection, we are told, depends for its operation on the interaction of
two processes or agencies, namely, Inheritance and Adaptation. Through
Inheritance germs receive from their parents a plastic form which, as
all development is a function of external physical conditions, is
itself nothing more than a “manifestation of the remains of antecedent
physical impressions.” This inherited form causes them to go forward
in a predestined course, while through Adaptation there is a constant
tendency to change that predestined form imposed upon them by their
parents to one better suited to their changing physical conditions.
According to the theory of Natural Selection, organic structures vary
to meet the requirements of changed conditions; or, when existing
circumstances are such that they are forced into new and unusual modes
of life, they branch off into different directions; thus new varieties
are formed, or possibly new species. Such portions of a group, however,
as remain sheltered from conditions unsuited to their present line
of development, retain their ancient forms. This change of structure
by which organisms or portions of organic bodies are modified so as
to perform more complicated functions, or those better suited to
their environment, is denominated differentiation; hence the degree
of differentiation attained by a structure determines the stage of
development which it has reached.
But to return to our single-celled animal—the simplest form of life
on the earth. Except that by the action of the surrounding forces its
surface has become somewhat hardened, this little animal is the same
throughout, in other words, it is homogeneous. The hardening of the
outer portion constitutes the first process of differentiation, and
therefore the first step in the order of progress.
Comparing the simplest form of life, the little carbon-sac found in the
sea, with the germ from which animals and plants are derived, Haeckel
says:
Originally every organic cell is only a single globule of mucus, like
a Moneron, but differing from it in the fact that the homogeneous
albuminous substance has separated itself into two different parts, a
firmer albuminous body, the cell-kernel (nucleus), and an external,
softer albuminous body, the cell-substance or body (protoplasma).[3]
[3] _History of Creation_, 1884, vol. i., p. 187.
From its body, which, when at rest, is nearly spherical, it is almost
constantly casting forth certain “finger-like processes” which are
as quickly withdrawn, only to reappear on some other portion of its
surface. The small particles of albuminous matter with which it
comes in contact adhere to it, or are drawn into its semi-fluid body
by displacement of the several albuminous particles of which it is
composed, and are there digested, being “absorbed by simple diffusion.”
Its only activity consists in supplying itself with nourishment, and
even during this process it is said to display a negative or passive
quality rather than real action. The particles absorbed that are not
assimilated, are expelled through the surface of the body in the same
manner as they are taken into it.
At first, we are told, our animal is only a simple cell, in fact that
it is not a perfect cell, for as yet the cell-kernel or nucleus has
not been separated from the cell-substance or protoplasm. When its
limit of size has been reached it multiplies by self-division, or by
simply breaking into parts, each part performing the same functions
of nutrition and propagation as its predecessor. Later, however, when
a parent cell bursts, the newly developed cells no longer separate
from it, but, by cohering to it and to each other, form a cluster of
nucleated cells, while around this aggregation of units is formed a
wall. Still its food is absorbed. Subsequently, however, a mouth and
prehensile organs for seizing its food are developed, and the divisions
between the cells are converted into channels or pipes through which
nourishment is conveyed to every part of the body. In process of time,
limbs for locomotion appear, together with bones for levers, and
muscles for moving them. Finally, a brain and a heart are evolved, and
although at first the heart appears as only a simple pulsating vessel,
later this animal finds itself the possessor of a perfect system of
digestion, circulation, and excretion, by which food, after having been
changed into blood and aërated or purified by processes carried on in
the system, is pumped to every part of the body. With the formation
of different chemical combinations, and the development, through
increasing specialization of the various kinds of tissues, and finally
of the various organs, that intimate relationship observed between
the parts in homogeneous and less differentiated structures no longer
exists; hence, in response to the demand for communication between
the various organs, numberless threads or fibres begin to stretch
themselves through the muscles, and collecting in knots or centres in
the brain and spine, establish instantaneous communication between the
different parts, and convey sensation and feeling throughout the entire
organism.
A division of labour has now been established, and each organ, being
in working order and fashioned for its own special use, performs its
separate functions independently, although its activity is co-ordinated
with that of all other organs in the structure.
This far in the history of life on the earth sex has not been
developed, or, more correctly stated, as the two sexes have not been
separated, our animal is still androgynous or hermaphrodite—the
reproductive functions being confined in one and the same individual.
Within this little primeval animal, the progenitor of the human race,
lay not only all the possibilities which have thus far been realized by
mankind, but within it were embodied also the “promise and potency” of
all that progress which is yet to come, and of which man himself, in
his present undeveloped state, may have only a dim foreshadowing.
From the time of the appearance of life on the earth to that of the
separation of the sexes, myriads of centuries may have intervened.
Only when through a division of labour these elements became detached,
and the special functions of each were confided to two distinct and
separate individuals, did the independent history of the female and
male sexes begin.
No fact is more patent, at the present time, than that sex constitutes
the underlying principle throughout nature. Although it may not be
said of the simplest forms of life that sexual difference has been
established, yet we are assured that among the ciliated Infusorians
“male and female nuclear elements have been distinguished.” This
primitive condition, however, is supposed to be rather a state
antecedent to sex than a union of sexes in one organism. Among all the
higher orders of life, whether animal or vegetable, the sex elements,
female and male, are recognized as the two great factors in creation.
As, among all the animals in which there has been a separation of
sexes, there has been established a division of labour, the consequent
specialization of organs and the differentiation of parts form the
true line of demarcation in the march of the two diverging columns.
Doubtless in the future, when our knowledge of the history of life on
the earth has become more extended, it will be found that it is only
by tracing the processes of differentiation throughout the two entire
lines of development that we may hope to unravel all the mysteries
bound up in the problem of sex, or to understand the fundamental
differences in character and constitution caused by this early division
of labour.
CHAPTER II
THE ORIGIN OF SEX DIFFERENCES
We have observed that, according to naturalists, the earliest forms of
life which appeared on the earth were androgynous or hermaphrodite,
that the two elements necessary for reproduction were originally
confined within one and the same individual within which were carried
on all the functions of reproduction. Later, however, a division of
labour arose, and these two original functions became detached, after
which time the reproductive processes were carried on only through the
commingling of elements prepared by, or developed within, two separate
and distinct individuals.
As the belief is entertained by our guides in this matter that
greater differentiation, or specialization of parts, denotes higher
organization, it is believed that the division of labour by which the
germ is prepared by one individual and the sperm by another individual,
as is the case at the present time with all the higher orders of life,
constitutes an important step in the line of progress. Here this line
of argument ceases, and, until very recent times, concerning the
course of development followed by each sex little has been heard. This
silence on a subject of such vital importance to the student of biology
is not perhaps difficult to understand; the conclusion, however,
is unavoidable that the individual which must nourish and protect
the germ, and by processes carried on within her own body provide
nourishment for the young during its prenatal existence, and sometimes
for years after birth, must have the more highly specialized organism,
and must, therefore, represent the higher stage of development. Indeed,
it is admitted by scientists that the advance from the egg-layers to
the milk-givers indicates one of the most important steps in the entire
line of development; and yet the peculiar specialization of structure
necessary for its accomplishment was for the most part carried on
within the female organism.
Concerning the origin of sex in the individual organism little seems
to be known; as a result, however, of observations on the development
of the reproductive organs in the higher vertebrates, and especially
in birds, it is believed that there exists a “strict parallelism
between the individual and the racial history,”—that the three main
stages in the development of the chick, viz.: (1) germi-parity, (2)
hermaphroditism, and (3) differentiated unisexuality, correspond to the
three great steps of historic evolution.
By a careful investigation of the facts connected with the development
of unisexual forms, we are enabled to discover the early beginnings of
the characteristics which distinguish the two sexes throughout their
entire course. We are told that with animals which have their sexes
separate, in addition to strictly sexual difference
the male possesses certain organs of sense or locomotion, of which the
female is quite destitute, or has them more highly developed, in order
that he may readily find or reach her; or again the male has special
organs of prehension for holding her securely. These latter organs, of
infinitely diversified kinds, graduate into those which are commonly
ranked as primary.[4]
[4] Darwin, _The Descent of Man_, 1877, p. 207.
The female, on the other hand, in addition to those sexual characters
which are strictly primary, has “organs for the nourishment or
protection of her young, such as the mammary glands of mammals, and
the abdominal sacks of the marsupials.” In addition to these she is
frequently provided with organs for the defence of the community;
for instance, “the females of most bees are provided with a special
apparatus for collecting and carrying pollen, and their ovipositor is
modified into a sting for the defence of the larvæ and the community.”
We are assured by Mr. Darwin that many similar cases could be given.[5]
[5] _Ibid._, p. 208.
Here, then, with almost the first or primary step toward sexual
differentiation, may be observed the establishment of that peculiar
bias which upon investigation will be seen to extend all along the two
lines of sexual demarcation, and which (to anticipate the conclusions
of our argument), as soon as mankind is reached, appears in the male as
extreme egoism or selfishness, and in the female as altruism or care
for other individuals outside of self.
We are assured, however, that it is not alone to the reproductive
organs and their functions that we are to look for the chief
differences in the constitution and character of the sexes. Neither is
it entirely to Natural Selection that we are to seek for the causes
which underlie the specialization peculiar to the two diverging lines
of sexual demarcation; in addition to primary sexual divergences, there
are also “secondary sexual characters” which are of great importance to
their possessor. Indeed, from the prominence given to Sexual Selection
by Mr. Darwin, it would seem that it played a part in the development
of males quite equal to that of Natural Selection itself.
Now the difference between Natural Selection and Sexual Selection is
that, whereas, in the former, characters are developed and preserved
which are of use to the individual in overcoming the unfavourable
conditions of environment, by the latter, only those characters are
acquired and preserved which assist the individual in overcoming the
obstacles to reproduction; or, to use Mr. Darwin’s own language:
[Sexual Selection] depends on the advantage which certain individuals
have over others of the same sex and species solely in respect of
reproduction.... [Where] the males have acquired their present
structure, not from being better fitted to survive in the struggle
of existence, but from having gained an advantage over other males,
and from having transmitted this advantage to their male offspring
alone, sexual selection must here have come into action.... A slight
degree of variability leading to some advantage, however slight,
in reiterated deadly contests would suffice for the work of sexual
selection; and it is certain that secondary sexual characters are
eminently variable. Just as man can give beauty, according to his
standard of taste, to his male poultry, or more strictly can modify
the beauty originally acquired by the parent species, can give to
the Sebright bantam a new and elegant plumage, an erect and peculiar
carriage—so it appears the female birds in a state of nature, have by
a long selection of the more attractive males, added to their beauty
or other attractive qualities.[6]
[6] _The Descent of Man_, 1877, pp. 209-211.
Thus, according to Mr. Darwin, it is through a long selection by
females of the more attractive males that the present structure of the
latter has been acquired. If, in a short time, a man can give elegant
carriage and beauty to his bantams, according to his standard of
beauty, he can see no reason to doubt that female birds, by selecting
during thousands of generations the most melodious or beautiful males,
according to their standard of beauty, might produce a marked effect.
He says:
To sum up on the means through which, as far as we can judge, sexual
selection has led to the development of secondary sexual characters.
It has been shown that the largest number of vigorous offspring will
be reared from the pairing of the strongest and best armed males,
victorious in contests over other males, with the most vigorous and
best-nourished females, which are the first to breed in the spring. If
such females select the more attractive, and at the same time vigorous
males, they will rear a larger number of offspring than the retarded
females, which must pair with the less vigorous and less attractive
males.... The advantage thus gained by the more vigorous pairs in
rearing a larger number of offspring has apparently sufficed to render
sexual selection efficient.[7]
[7] _The Descent of Man_, 1877, p. 220.
Although the belief is common among naturalists that the appearance of
secondary sexual characters belonging to males is greatly influenced
by female choice, a majority of writers upon this subject are not
in sympathy with Mr. Darwin’s theory concerning the origin of these
variations. It is believed by them that Sexual Selection “may account
for the perfecting, but not for the origin, of these characters.”
It is useless, however, to rehearse the opinions of the various writers
who have dealt with this subject. It is perhaps sufficient to state
that the great beauty of males has usually been accepted as evidence
of their superiority over the females.
In his chapter, “The Male generally more Modified than the Female,”
Mr. Darwin remarks: “Appearances would indicate that not the male
which is most attractive to the female is chosen, but the one which
is least distasteful.” He says that the aversion of female birds for
certain males renders the season of courtship one of great anxiety and
discomfiture, not only to many of the more poorly endowed aspirants,
but to those also which are more magnificently attired—that the pairing
ground becomes a field of battle, upon which, while parading their
charms to the best advantage, is sacrificed much of the gorgeous
plumage of the contestants. On the wooing ground are displayed
for the admiration and approval of the females, all the physical
attractions of the males, as well as the mental characters correlated
with them, namely, courage, and pugnacity or perseverance. According
to Mr. Darwin, with the exception of vanity, no other quality is in
any considerable degree manifested by male birds, but to such an
extent has love of display been developed in many of them, notably
the pea-fowl, that, “in the absence of females of his own species,
he will show off his finery before poultry and even pigs.” We are
assured that the higher we ascend in the animal kingdom the more
frequent and more violent become two desires in the male: “the desire
of appearing beautiful, and that of driving away rivals.” According
to Mr. Darwin’s theory of development, because of the indifference
of the female among the lower orders of life to the processes of
courtship, it has been necessary for the male to expend much energy
or vital force in searching for her—in contending with his rivals for
possession of her person, and in performing various acts to please
her and secure her favours. While excessive eagerness in courtship is
the one all-absorbing character of male fishes, birds, and mammals,
we are assured that with the females, pairing is not only a matter of
indifference, but that courtship is actually distasteful to them, and,
therefore, that the former must resort to the various means referred to
in order to induce the latter to submit to their advances.
We are informed that the female is sometimes charmed through the power
of song; that at other times she is captivated by the diversified
means which have been acquired by male insects and birds for producing
various sounds resembling those proceeding from certain kinds of
musical instruments; and not unfrequently she is won by means of
antics or love dances performed on the ground or in the air. On the
pairing-ground, combs, wattles, elongated plumes, top-knots, and
fancy-coloured feathers are paraded for the admiration and approval of
the females. Led by the all-absorbing instinct of desire,
the males display their charms with elaborate care and to the best
effect; and this is done in the presence of the females.... To suppose
that the females do not appreciate the beauty of the males, is to
admit that their splendid decorations, and all their pomp and display,
are useless; and this is incredible.[8]
[8] _The Descent of Man_, 1877, p. 496.
Topknots, gaudy feathers, elongated plumes among birds, huge tusks,
horns, etc., among mammals, the mane of the lion, and the beard of
man, may be noticed among the many characters which have been acquired
through Sexual Selection.
Although the immense teeth, tusks, horns, and various other weapons or
appendages which ornament the males of many species of mammals, have
all been developed through Sexual Selection for contending with their
rivals for the favours of the females, it is observed that the “most
pugnacious and best armed males seldom depend for success on their
ability to drive away or kill their rivals,” but that their special aim
is to “charm the female.” Mr. Darwin quotes from a “good observer,” who
believes that the battles of male birds “are all a sham, performed to
show themselves to the greatest advantage before the admiring females
who assemble around.”[9]
[9] _Ibid._, p. 367.
In _The Descent of Man_ is quoted the following from Mr. Belt, who,
after describing the beauty of the _Florisuga mellivora_, says:
I have seen the female sitting on a branch, and two males displaying
their charms in front of her. One would shoot up like a rocket, then
suddenly expanding the snow-white tail, like an inverted parachute,
slowly descend in front of her, turning round gradually to show off
back and front.... The expanded white tail covered more space than
all the rest of the bird, and was evidently the grand feature in the
performance. Whilst one male was descending, the other would shoot up
and come slowly down expanded. The entertainment would end in a fight
between the two performers; but whether the most beautiful or the most
pugnacious was the accepted suitor, I know not.[10]
[10] _The Descent of Man_, 1877, p. 443.
Audubon, who spent a long life in observing birds, has no doubt that
the female deliberately chooses her mate. Of the woodpecker he says
the hen is followed by half a dozen suitors, who continue performing
strange antics “until a marked preference is shown for one.” Of the
red-winged starling it is said that she is pursued by several males
“until, becoming fatigued, she alights, receives their addresses, and
soon makes a choice.”[11] Mr. Darwin quotes further from Audubon, who
says that among the Virginia goat-suckers, no sooner has the female
“made her choice than her approved gives chase to all intruders, and
drives them beyond his dominions.”
[11] _Ibid._, p. 416.
It is said that among mammals the male depends almost entirely upon
his strength and courage to “charm the female.” With reference to the
struggles between animals for the possession of the females, Mr. Darwin
says:
This fact is so notorious that it would be superfluous to give
instances. Hence the females have the opportunity of selecting one
out of several males, on the supposition that their mental capacity
suffices for the exertion of a choice.[12]
[12] _The Descent of Man_, 1877, p. 212.
We are assured that among nearly all the lower orders of life the
female exhibits a marked preference for certain individuals, and that
an equal degree of repugnance is manifested towards others, but that
the male, whose predominant character is desire, “is ready to pair
with any female.” On this subject Mr. Darwin remarks: “The general
impression seems to be that the male accepts any female.” He says it
frequently occurs that while two males are fighting together to win
the favours of a female, she goes away with a third for whom she has
a preference. Mr. Darwin quotes from Captain Bryant, who says of a
certain species of seals:
Many of the females on their arrival at the island where they breed,
appear desirous of returning to some particular male, and frequently
climb the outlying rock to overlook the rookeries, calling out and
listening as if for a familiar voice. Then changing to another place
they do the same again.[13]
[13] _Ibid._, p. 523.
Little seems to be known of the courtship of animals in a state of
nature. Among domesticated species, however, many observations have
been made by breeders going to prove that the female exerts a choice
in pairing. Concerning dogs, Mr. Darwin quotes from Mr. Mayhew, who
says: “The females are able to bestow their affections; and tender
recollections are as potent over them as they are known to be in other
cases where higher animals are concerned.” Of the affection of female
dogs for certain males the same writer says it “becomes of more than
romantic endurance,” that they manifest a “devotion which no time can
afterwards subdue.”
On concluding his chapter on choice in pairing among quadrupeds, Mr.
Darwin remarks:
It is improbable that the unions of quadrupeds in a state of nature
should be left to mere chance. It is much more probable that the
females are allured or excited by particular males, who possess
certain characters in a higher degree than other males.[14]
[14] _The Descent of Man_, 1877, p. 525.
As the female among birds selects her partner, he thinks it would be a
strange anomaly if among quadrupeds, which stand higher in the scale
and have higher mental powers, she did not also exert a choice.[15]
[15] It should be noted, in passing, that, according to this reasoning,
the female of the human species would also be likely to exercise her
will power in the selection of a mate. Evidences are indeed at hand
going to prove that until a comparatively recent time in the history
of the human race women controlled the sexual relation. As will be
shown in Part II., during the primitive ages of human existence the
position of woman was much higher than was that occupied by man. During
the earlier ages, and under more natural conditions, women selected
their mates, and among the human species, as among the lower orders, it
became necessary for the male to please the female if he would win her
favours; hence, through Sexual Selection, it is believed, was acquired
the greater size of man.
Because of the indifference of the female to the attentions of the
male, in order to carry on the processes of reproduction, it was
necessary among the lower orders that the male become eager in his
pursuit of her, and as a result of this eagerness excessive passion
was developed in him. As the most eager would be the most successful
in propagating, they would leave the greatest number of offspring
to inherit their characters—namely, in males, passion and pugnacity
correlated with the physical qualities acquired through Sexual
Selection.
On the subject of the acquirement of secondary sexual characters, Mr.
Darwin says: “The great eagerness of the males has thus indirectly led
to their much more frequently developing secondary sexual characters.”
Indeed, by all naturalists, the fact is recognized that the appearance
of these characters is closely connected with the reproductive function.
Later experiments have confirmed the observations of Mr. Darwin
concerning the intelligence of the female among the lower orders of
life. Among these experiments are those recently made by Professor
Harper, of the Department of Biology, in the Northwestern University.
Professor Harper announces that in all the experiments conducted by
him, the female animal showed a greater degree of perception, or
intelligence, than the male. He says: “In all my experiments, I found
that the female displayed a remarkable quickness in grasping ideas
which the male after numerous sluggish efforts finally accomplished.”
Professor Harper declared that these facts regarding animals apply with
equal force to human beings.
Regarding the power of the female to appreciate the beauty of the
males, Mr. Darwin says:
No doubt this implies powers of discrimination and taste on the part
of the female which will at first appear extremely improbable; but by
the facts to be adduced hereafter, I hope to be able to show that the
females actually have these powers.[16]
[16] _The Descent of Man_, 1877, p. 211.
In commenting on the fact that the female Argus pheasant appreciates
the exquisite shading of the ball-and-socket ornaments, and the elegant
patterns on the wing-feathers of the male, Mr. Darwin writes:
He who thinks that the male was created as he now exists, must admit
that the great plumes which prevent the wings from being used for
flight, and which are displayed at courtship and at no other time,
in a manner quite peculiar to this species, were given to him as
ornaments. If so he must likewise admit that the female was created
and endowed with the capacity for appreciating such ornaments. Every
one who admits the principle of evolution, and yet feels great
difficulty in believing the high taste implied by the beauty of the
males, and which generally coincides with our own standard, should
reflect that the nerve cells of the brain in the highest as in the
lowest members of the vertebrate series are derived from those of the
common progenitor of this great kingdom.
In referring to the remarkable patterns displayed on the male Argus
pheasant, designs which have been developed through Sexual Selection,
Mr. Darwin says:
Many will declare that it is utterly incredible that a female bird
should be able to appreciate fine shading and exquisite patterns. It
is undoubtedly a marvellous fact that she should possess this almost
human degree of taste. He who thinks that he can safely gauge the
discrimination and taste of the lower animals may deny that the female
Argus pheasant can appreciate such refined beauty; but he will then
be compelled to admit that the extraordinary attitudes assumed by the
male during the act of courtship, by which the wonderful beauty of his
plumage is fully displayed, are purposeless; and this is a conclusion
which I, for one, will never admit.[17]
[17] _The Descent of Man_, 1877, p. 400.
Here, then, in the female bird we see developed in a remarkable degree
the power of discrimination, the exercise of taste, a sense of beauty,
and the ability to choose—qualities which the facts brought forward by
scientists show conclusively to have been acquired by the female and by
her transmitted to her offspring. Regarding males, outside the instinct
for self-preservation, which, by the way, is often overshadowed by
their great sexual eagerness, no distinguishing characters have
been acquired and transmitted, other than those which have been the
result of passion, namely, pugnacity and perseverance. This excessive
eagerness which prompts them to parade their charms whenever such
display is likely to aid them in the gratification of their desires is
developed only in the male line.
According to the law of heredity, those modifications of the male
which have been the result of Sexual Selection appear only in the sex
in which they originated. It will be well for us to remember that
according to Mr. Darwin’s theory of pangenesis, sexes do not differ
much in constitution before the power of reproduction is reached, but
that after this time the undeveloped atoms or
gemmules which are cast off from each varying part in the one sex
would be much more likely to possess the proper affinities for uniting
with the tissues of the same sex, and thus becoming developed, than
with those of the opposite sex.[18]
[18] _The Descent of Man_, 1877, p. 232.
We are given to understand that secondary sexual characters are
extremely variable, also that variability denotes low organization;
secondary sexual characters indicate that the various organs of the
structure have not become specialized for the performance of their
legitimate functions. Highly specialized forms are not variable.
To sum up the argument thus far: It has been observed that through
the separation of the sexes, and the consequent division of labour,
there have been established two diverging lines of development. While
the male pheasant has been inheriting from his male progenitors
fantastic ball-and-socket ornaments, and huge wings which are utterly
useless for their legitimate purpose, the female, in the meantime,
has been receiving as her inheritance only those peculiarities of
structure which tend toward uninterrupted development. Within her
have been stored or conserved all the gain which has been effected
through Natural Selection, and as a result of greater specialization
of parts, there have been developed certain peculiarities in her brain
nerve-cells, by which she is enabled to exercise functions requiring a
considerable degree of intelligence.
Although this power of choice, which we are given to understand
is exercised by the female throughout the various departments of
the vertebrate kingdom (evidences of it having been observed among
creatures even as low in the organic scale as fishes), implies a degree
of intelligence far in advance of that manifested by males, it is
admitted that the qualities which bespeak this superiority, namely, the
power to exercise taste and discrimination, constitute a “law almost as
general as the eagerness of the male.”[19]
[19] _The Descent of Man_, 1877, p. 222.
We are assured by Mr. Darwin that in the economy of nature those
ornaments of the male Argus pheasant which serve no other purpose
than to please the female and secure her favours, and which have
been acquired at great expense of vital force, are of the “highest
importance to him,” and that his success in captivating the female
“has more than compensated him for his greatly impeded power of
flight and his lessened capacity for running.” Yet it is plain that
his compensation for this immense expenditure of vital force has not
lain in the direction of higher specialization, but that while by the
acquirement of these characters the processes of reproduction have
doubtless been aided, the injury to the male constitution has been deep
and lasting.
Upon this subject Mr. Darwin himself says:
The development, however, of certain structures—of the horns, for
instance, in certain stags—has been carried to a wonderful extreme;
and in some cases to an extreme which, as far as the general
conditions of life are concerned, must be slightly injurious to the
male.[20]
[20] _Ibid._, p. 227.
He thinks, however, that
Natural Selection will determine that such characters shall not be
acquired by the victorious males if they would be highly injurious,
either by expending too much of their vital powers or by exposing them
to any great danger.
According to Mr. Darwin, as these characters enable them to leave a
more numerous progeny, their advantages are in the long run greater
than those derived from more perfect adaptation to their conditions of
life. It is plain, however, that this advantage, although it enables
them to gratify their desires, and at the same time to perpetuate their
species, does not imply higher development for the male organism.
We have been assured by our guides in these matters that in the
processes of evolution there is no continuous or unbroken chain of
progress, that growth or change does not necessarily imply development,
but, on the contrary, only as a structure becomes better fitted for
its conditions, and only as its organs become more highly specialized
for the performance of all the duties involved in its environment, may
it be said to be in the line of progress. If this be true, particular
attention should be directed to the fact that as secondary sexual
characters do not assist their possessor in overcoming the unfavourable
conditions of his environment, they are not within the line of true
development, but, on the contrary, as their growth requires a great
expenditure of vital force, and, as is the case among birds, they often
hinder the free use of the legs in running and walking, and entirely
destroy the use of the wings for flight, they must be detrimental to
the entire structure. For the reason that females have managed to do
without them, the plea that the great tusks, horns, teeth, etc., of
mammals have been acquired for self-defence, is scarcely tenable.
On the subject of the relative expenditure of vital force in the two
lines of sexual demarcation, Mr. Darwin remarks:
The female has to expend much organic matter in the formation of her
ova, whereas the male expends much force in fierce contests with his
rivals, in wandering about in search of the female, in exerting his
voice, pouring out odoriferous secretions, etc.... In mankind, and
even as low down in the organic scale as in the Lepidoptera, the
temperature of the body is higher in the male than in the female,
accompanied in the case of man by a slower pulse.[21]
Yet he concludes: “On the whole the expenditure of matter and force
by the two sexes is probably nearly equal, though effected in very
different ways and at different rates.”[21]
[21] _The Descent of Man_, p. 224.
However, as has been observed, the force expended by the male in fierce
contests with his rivals, in wandering about in search of the female,
and in his exertions to please her when found, does not constitute
the only outlay of vitality to which he is subjected; but in addition
to all this, there still remains to be considered that force which has
been expended in the acquirement of characters which, so far as his own
development is concerned, are useless and worse than useless; namely,
in birds, combs, wattles, elongated plumes, great wings, etc., and in
mammals great horns, tusks, and teeth—appendages which lie outside
the line of true development, and, as we have seen, are of no avail
except to aid in the processes of reproduction and to assist him in the
gratification of his desires; in fact, as these excrescences hinder
him in the performance of the ordinary functions of life, they may be
regarded in the light of actual hindrances to higher development.
CHAPTER III
MALE ORGANIC DEFECTS
We have observed that through the great sexual ardour developed at
puberty within the male of the lower species, numberless variations
of structure have been acquired, characters which, as they are the
result of undeveloped atoms cast off from the varying parts in his
progenitors, denote low organization. We have seen also that these
characters require for their growth an immense amount of vital force,
which, had the development of the male been normal, would have been
expended in perfecting the organism, or would have been utilized in
fitting it to overcome the adverse conditions of his environment.
Secondary sexual characters, being so far as males are concerned,
wholly the result of eagerness in courtship, cannot appear before
the time for reproduction arrives, and as it is a law of heredity
that peculiarities of structure which are developed late in life,
when transmitted to offspring, appear only in the sex in which they
originated, these variations of structure are confined to males.
According to Mr. Darwin’s theory little difference exists between the
sexes until the age of reproduction arrives. It is at this time, the
time when the secondary sexual characters begin to assert themselves,
that the preponderating superiority of the male begins to manifest
itself.
Although, according to Mr. Darwin, variability denotes low organization
and shows that the various organs of the body have not become
specialized to perform properly their legitimate functions, it is to
characters correlated with and dependent upon these varying parts
that the male has ultimately become superior to the female. If these
characters, namely, pugnacity, perseverance, and courage have been
such important factors in establishing male superiority, too much care
may not be exercised in analyzing them and in tracing their origin and
subsequent development.
Sexual Selection resembles artificial selection save that the female
takes the part of the human breeder. She represents the intelligent
factor or cause in the operations involved. If this be true, if it is
through her will, or through some agency or tendency latent in her
constitution that Sexual Selection comes into play, then she is the
primary cause of the very characters through which man’s superiority
over woman has been gained. As a stream may not rise higher than its
source, or as the creature may not surpass its creator in excellence,
it is difficult to understand the processes by which man, through
Sexual Selection, has become superior to woman.
He who admits the principle of Sexual Selection will be led to the
remarkable conclusion that the nervous system not only regulates most
of the existing functions of the body, but has indirectly influenced
the progressive development of various bodily structures and certain
mental qualities. Courage, pugnacity, perseverance, strength and
size of body, weapons of all kinds, musical organs, both vocal and
instrumental, bright colours, and ornamental appendages have all been
indirectly gained by the one sex or the other, through the exertion of
choice, the influence of love and jealousy, and the appreciation of
the beautiful in sound, colour, or form; and these powers of the mind
manifestly depend on the development of the brain.[22]
[22] _The Descent of Man_, 1877, p. 617.
While the female has been performing the higher functions in the
processes of reproduction, through her force of will, or through her
power of choice, she has also been the directing and controlling agency
in the development of those characters in the male through which, when
the human species was reached, he was enabled to attain a limited
degree of progress.
Since the origin of secondary sexual characters is so clearly manifest,
perhaps it will be well for us at this point to examine also their
actual significance, that we may be enabled to note the foundation upon
which the dogma of male superiority rests.
Although the gay colouring of male birds and fishes has usually
been regarded as an indication of their superiority over their
sombre-coloured mates, later investigations are proving that these
pigments represent simply unspecialized material, and an effort of
the system to cast out the waste products which have accumulated as a
result of excessive ardour in courtship. The same is true of combs,
wattles, and other skin excrescences; they show a feverish condition of
the skin in the over-excited males, whose temperature is usually much
higher than is that of females. We are assured that the skin eruptions
of male fishes at the spawning season “seem more pathological than
decorative.”[23] In the processes of reproduction, the undeveloped
atoms given off from each varying part are reproduced only in the male
line.
[23] Geddes and Thomson, _The Evolution of Sex_, 1890, p. 24.
The beautiful colouring of male birds and fishes, and the various
appendages acquired by males throughout the various orders below
man, and which, so far as they themselves are concerned, serve no
other useful purpose than to aid them in securing the favours of the
females, have by the latter been turned to account in the processes of
reproduction. The female made the male beautiful that she might endure
his caresses.
From the facts elaborated by our guides in this matter, it would seem
that the female is the primary unit of creation, and that the male
functions are simply supplemental or complementary. Parthenogenesis
among many of the lower forms of life would seem to favour this view.
We are given to understand that under conditions favouring katabolism,
the males among Rotifera wear themselves out, under which conditions
the females become katabolic enough to do without them.
Among the common Rotifera, the males are almost always very different
from the females, and much smaller. Sometimes they seem to have
dwindled out of existence altogether, for only the females are known.
In other cases, though present, they entirely fail to accomplish their
proper function of fertilization, and, as parthenogenesis obtains, are
not only minute, but useless.[24]
[24] _The Evolution of Sex_, 1890, p. 20.
So long as food is plentiful, the females continue to raise
parthenogenetic offspring, but with the advent of hard times, when
food is scarce or of a poor quality, the parthenogenetic series is
interrupted by the appearance of males. Although, unaided by the male,
the female of certain species is able to reproduce, he has never been
able to propagate without her co-operation.
Concerning the conditions which underlie the production of females and
males we have the following from _The Evolution of Sex_, by Geddes and
Thomson:
Such conditions as deficient or abnormal food, high temperature,
deficient light, moisture, and the like, are obviously such as would
tend to induce a preponderance of waste over repair—a katabolic habit
of body,—and these conditions tend to result in the production of
males. Similarly, the opposed set of factors, such as abundant and
rich nutrition, abundant light and moisture, favour constructive
processes, _i.e._, make for an anabolic habit, and these conditions
result in the production of females.[25]
[25] _The Evolution of Sex_, p. 50.
Among the lower orders of animal life, notably insects, we are
assured that an excess of females denotes an excess of formative
force, and that an excess of males indicates a deficiency on the
part of the parents. In the case of bees, the queen, which is the
highest development, is produced only under the best circumstances of
nutrition, while the birth of the drone, which is the lowest result of
propagation, is preceded by extremely low conditions.
The working bee which, being an imperfect female, may not be
impregnated, will, however, give birth to parthenogenetic offspring,
such offspring always being male. In the case of Aphides, the sex
depends on the conditions of nutrition. During the summer months while
food is plentiful and nutritious, females are parthenogenetically
produced, but with the return of autumn and the attendant scarcity of
food, together with the low temperature, only males are brought forth.
In seasons in which food is abundant, Cladocera and Aphides lose the
power to copulate; they nevertheless multiply parthenogenetically at a
marvellous rate of increase,
giving birth to generation after generation of parthenogenetic
females, so long as the environment remains favourable, but giving
birth, as soon as the conditions of life become less favourable, to
males and to females which require fertilization.[26]
[26] Prof. W. K. Brooks, _Pop. Science Monthly_, vol. xxvi., p. 327.
It is stated also that if caterpillars are shut up and starved before
entering the chrysalis stage, the butterflies which make their
appearance are males, while the highly nourished caterpillars are sure
to come out females. In the case of moths unnutritious food produces
only males.
Experiments show that when tadpoles are left to themselves the average
number of females is about fifty-seven in the hundred, but that under
favourable conditions the percentage of females is greatly increased.
The following is the result of one series of observations by Yung.
In the first brood, by feeding one set with beef, the percentage of
females was raised from fifty-four to seventy-eight; in the second,
with fish, the percentage rose from sixty-one to eighty-one, which in
the third set, when the nutritious flesh of frogs was supplied, only
eight males were produced to ninety-two females.[27]
[27] Geddes and Thomson, _The Evolution of Sex_, 1890, p. 42.
It is stated that although scarcity of food is an important factor
in determining the appearance of males, temperature also plays an
important part in their production. Kurg having found a few males in
midsummer in pools which were nearly dried up was induced to attempt
their artificial production. So successful was he, that “he obtained
the males of forty species, in all of which the males had previously
been unknown.” He proved that
any unfavourable change in the water causes the production of males,
which appear as it dries up, as its chemical constitution changes,
when it acquires an unfavourable temperature, or, in general, when
there is a decrease in prosperity.
From which observations and many others quoted from Düring, Professor
Brooks concludes that “among animals and plants, as well as in mankind,
a favourable environment causes an excess of female births, and an
unfavourable environment an excess of male births.”[28] According to
Rolph, also, the percentage of females increases with the increase of
favourable conditions of temperature and food.
[28] _Popular Science Monthly_, vol. xxvi., p. 328.
Among insects the males appear first, thus showing that less time is
required to develop them from the larval state. Of this Mr. Darwin
says: “Throughout the great class of insects the males almost always
are the first to emerge from the pupal state, so that they generally
abound for a time before any female can be seen.”[29]
[29] _The Descent of Man_, 1877, p. 212.
Recent observations show that among the human species nutrition
plays a significant part in determining sex. Statistics prove that in
towns and in well-to-do families there is a preponderance of girls,
while in the country, and among the poor, more boys are born; also,
that immediately following epidemics, wars, and famines, there is an
excess of male births. On examination, it was found that in Saxony “the
ratio of boy-births rose and fell with the price of food, and that the
variation was most marked in the country.”[30]
[30] W. K. Brooks, _Popular Science Monthly_, vol. xxvi., p. 326.
That the female represents a higher development than the male is
proved throughout all the various departments of nature. Among plants,
staminate flowers open before pistillate, and are much more abundant,
and less differentiated from the leaves, showing that they are less
developed, and that slighter effort, a less expenditure of force, is
necessary to form the male than the female. A male flower represents
an intermediate stage between a leaf and a perfect, or we might say, a
female flower, and the germ which produces the male would, in a higher
stage, produce the female.[31] In reference to the subject of the
relative positions of the female and male flowers in the Sedges, Mr.
Meehan observes:
[31] Thomas Meehan, _Native Flowers and Ferns_, vol. i., p. 47.
In some cases the spike of the male flowers terminates the scape; in
others the male flowers occupy the lower place; in others, again they
have various places on the same spike. It will be generally noted that
this is associated together with lines of nutrition,—those evidently
favoured by comparative abundance sustaining the female flowers.
To this Mr. Meehan adds:
And this is indeed a natural consequence, for, as vitality exists so
much longer in the female than the male flowers, which generally die
when the pollen has matured, it is essential that they should have
every advantage in this respect.[32]
[32] _Native Flowers and Ferns_, vol. i., p. 39.
The most perfect and vigorous specimens of coniferous trees are of the
female kind. In its highest and most luxuriant stage the larch bears
only female blossoms, but so soon as its vigour is lost male flowers
appear, after which death soon ensues.
In _The Evolution of Sex_, by Geddes and Thomson, is the following:
In phraseology which will presently become more intelligible and
concrete, the males live at a loss, are more katabolic,—disruptive
changes tending to preponderate in the sum of changes in their living
matter or protoplasm. The females, on the other hand, live at a
profit, are more anabolic,—constructive processes predominating in
their life, whence indeed the capacity of bearing offspring.[33]
[33] _The Evolution of Sex_, 1890, p. 26.
Among the lower orders of animals, there appears an excess of males,
and among the higher forms of life, man included, the fact that the
male is the result of the cruder, less developed germ, has been clearly
shown, not alone by the facts brought forward by Mr. Darwin, but by
those enunciated by all reliable writers on this subject. As a result
of the excessive eagerness in males, and the consequent expenditure
of vital force among the lower orders of life to find the female and
secure her favours, they are generally smaller in size, with a higher
body temperature and shorter life. Among the higher orders, the human
species, for instance, although man is larger than woman, he is still
shorter lived, has less endurance, is more predisposed to organic
diseases, and is more given to reversion to former types, facts which
show that his greater size is not the result of higher development. It
is noted that the liability to assume characters proper to lower orders
belongs in a marked degree to males of all the higher species—man
included.
Doubtless man’s greater size (a modification which has been acquired
through Sexual Selection) has been of considerable value to him in
the struggle for existence to which he has been subjected, but the
indications are already strong that after a certain stage of progress
has been reached, even this modification of structure will prove
useless, if not an actual hindrance to him. On mechanical principles,
every increase of size requires more than a corresponding increase of
strength and endurance to balance the activities and carry on the vital
processes, yet such have been the conditions of man’s development, that
his excess of strength does not compensate for his greater size and
weight, while his powers of endurance fall below those of women.
Although the conditions of the past have required a vast expenditure
of physical energy, the activities of the future will make no such
demand. Nature’s forces directed by the human will and intellect are
already lessening the necessity for an excessive outlay of bodily
strength. It may be truly said that electricity and the innumerable
mechanical devices now in use have well nigh supplanted the necessity
for great physical exertion. Even war, should it be continued, which
is not likely, will be conducted without it. Destructive weapons based
upon high-power explosives require little physical effort for their
manipulation. The pugilist represents the departing glory of male
physical strength.
We are informed by Mr. Darwin that by a vast number of measurements
taken of various parts of the human body in different races, during
his Novara Expedition, it was found that the men in almost every case
presented a greater range of variations than women, and, as Mr. Wood
has carefully attended to the variations of the muscles of man, Mr.
Darwin quotes from him that “the greatest number of abnormalities
in each subject is found in males.” He adduces also the testimony of
several others who have practically investigated this subject, all of
whom agree in their statements that variations in the muscles are more
frequent in males than in females. These variations usually consist in
a reversion to lower types—a reversion in which muscles proper to lower
forms of life make their appearance.
In an examination of forty male subjects, there was in nineteen of them
a rudimentary muscle found which is designated as the ischio-pubic, and
in three others of the forty was observed a ligament which represents
this muscle; but, in an examination by the same person of thirty female
subjects, in only two of them was this muscle developed on both sides,
whilst in three others the rudimentary ligament was present. Thus while
we observe that about fifty-five per cent. of the males examined were
possessed of muscles proper to lower orders, in only about seventeen
per cent. of the females under observation did this reversion appear.
In a single male subject, seven muscular variations proper to apes were
indicated.
Numberless cases might be cited in which reversions and abnormalities
have been developed only in the male line. Of the porcupine men of the
Lambert family who lived in London last century, Haeckel says:
Edward Lambert, born in 1717, was remarkable for a most unusual and
monstrous formation of the skin. His whole body was covered with
a horny substance, about an inch thick, which rose in the form of
numerous thorn-shaped and scale-like processes, more than an inch
long. This monstrous formation on the outer skin, or epidermis, was
transmitted by Lambert to his sons and grandsons, but not to his
granddaughters.[34]
[34] _History of Creation_, 1884, vol. i., p. 178.
According to the testimony of those who have made a study of the
various abnormalities in the human organism, the ears of men present
a greater range of variations than do those of women, and the cases
in which supernumerary digits appear in males are as two to one,
compared with females presenting the same structural defect. Of one
hundred and fifty-two cases of this kind tabulated by Burt Wilder,
eighty-six were males and thirty-nine females, the sex of the remaining
twenty-seven being unknown. Mr. Darwin wishes us to remember, however,
that “women would more frequently endeavour to conceal a deformity of
this kind than men.” Although it is quite natural for women to abhor
abnormalities and deformities, it is to be doubted if they would
succeed for any considerable length of time in concealing the deformity
of an organ which, like the hand, is usually uncovered, and which in
waking hours, is in almost constant use.
One of the principal characters which distinguishes the human animal
from the lower orders is the absence of a natural covering for the
skin. That mankind have descended from hair-covered progenitors is
the inevitable conclusion of all those who accept the theory of the
evolution of species, the straggling hairs which are scattered over the
body of man being the rudiments of a uniform hairy coat which enveloped
his ancestors.
We are informed that a hairy covering for the body, pointed ears which
were capable of movement, and a tail provided with the proper muscles,
were among the undoubted characters of the antecedents of the human
race. In addition to these, among the males, were developed great
canine teeth which were used as weapons against their rivals.
As the lack of a hairy coat for the body constitutes one of the
principal characteristics which distinguishes man from the lower
animals, it would seem that a knowledge of the order of time in which
the two sexes became divested of their natural covering would serve as
a hint to indicate their relative stages of development. In a paper
read some years ago at a meeting of the Anthropological Institute
in London, Miss Bird (Mrs. Bishop) the well-known traveller, gave a
description of the Ainos, a race of people found chiefly in the island
of Yezo, and who, it is thought probable, were the original inhabitants
of Japan. The peculiarity of this people is, that the men are covered
with a thick coat of black hair. The women, we are told, “are not
hairy like the men,” but “have soft brown skins.” Upon this subject of
hairiness, Mr. Darwin says:
As the body of woman is less hairy than that of man, and as this
character is common to all races, we may conclude that it was our
female semi-human ancestors who were first divested of hair, and that
this occurred at an extremely remote period before the several races
had diverged from a common stock.
After our female ancestors had acquired the new character, nudity, they
must have transmitted it to their own sex, and by continually selecting
their mates from among the least hairy, in process of time males too
would become divested of their animal covering. Whether or not our
semi-human ancestors were subjected to the scorching heat of the torrid
zone, nudity must have been better suited to their improved condition,
not wholly, however, because of its greater beauty and comfort, but
because it was a condition better suited to cleanliness; and, as the
hairy coat had become a useless appendage, or was not necessary to
their changed conditions, it disappeared from the bodies of females,
while doubtless for ages it was retained upon the bodies of males. That
hairiness denotes a low stage of development, Mr. Darwin incautiously
admits, yet in dealing with this subject he is not disposed to
carry his admission to its legitimate conclusion by treating its
appearance on the body of man as a test in determining the comparative
development of the female and male organisms.
Idiots, who, by the way, are more numerous among males than among
females, are frequently covered with hair, and by the acquirement of
other characters more often revert to lower animal types. Mr. Darwin
assures us that around sores of long standing stiff hairs are liable to
appear, thus showing that hair on the body is indicative of undeveloped
tissues and low constitutional conditions. The same writer, however,
does not neglect to inform us that the loss of man’s hairy covering
was rather an injury to him than otherwise; but whether or not the
diminution in the quality of prehension in his toes, the loss of
his canines, and the disappearance of his tail have likewise proved
detrimental to him, Mr. Darwin fails to state.
The fact that throughout the vertebrate kingdom males possess
rudiments of the various parts appertaining to the reproductive system
which properly belong to females, is regarded as evidence that some
remote progenitor of this kingdom must have been hermaphrodite, or
androgynous, especially as it has been ascertained that at a very early
embryonic period both sexes possess true male and female glands. As
high in the scale of life as the mammalian class, males are said to
possess rudiments of a uterus, while at the same time mammary glands
are plainly manifest; which fact would seem to show that in the high
state of development indicated by this great class, male organs have
not through the processes of differentiation become specialized for the
performance of their legitimate functions. In reference to the subject
of atavism Mr. Darwin cites as a case of reversion to a former type, an
instance in which a man was the possessor of two pairs of mammæ.
It is true that instances have been observed in which characters
peculiar to males have been developed in females. This phenomenon,
however, seldom appears among individuals of the higher orders, and
among the lower forms of life where it occurs, it is always manifested
under low circumstances of nutrition or in cases of old age, disease,
or loss of vitality. Instances are cited in which hens, after they have
become old or diseased, have taken on characters peculiar to males.
In all “old-settled” countries women are in excess of men, and this
is true, notwithstanding the fact that more boys are born than girls.
Regarding the excess of the male over female births, Mr. Darwin quotes
from Professor Faye, who says:
A still greater preponderance of males would be met with, if death
struck both sexes in equal proportion in the womb and during birth.
But the fact is, that for every one hundred still-born females, we
have in several countries from 134.6 to 144.9 still-born males.[35] #/
Statistics show that during the first four or five years of life, more
male children die than female.
[35] _The Descent of Man_, 1887, p. 243.
Although whenever throughout Mr. Darwin’s _Descent of Man_ he has been
pleased to deal with the subject of structural variations, he has
given us to understand that they are injurious to the constitution,
and although he has shown that their appearance is much more frequent
in men than in women, yet he does not seem to realize whither his
admissions are leading him. He has proved by seemingly well-established
facts that the female organism is freer from imperfections than the
male, and therefore that it is less liable to derangements; also, that
being more highly specialized, it is less susceptible to injury under
unfavourable conditions; yet, in attempting to explain the reason
why so many more male than female infants succumb to the exigencies
of birth, he expresses the opinion that the size of the body and
“especially of the head” being greater in males, they would be “more
liable to be injured during parturition.”
Among the reasons urged by Mr. Darwin to account for the excess of
women over men in all “old-settled” countries, is that of the exposure
of grown men to various dangers, and their tendency to emigrate.
Doubtless there is more emigration among men than among women, still
men do not usually emigrate to a wilderness and rarely to sparsely
settled countries. When men emigrate from one civilized country, they
usually go to another civilized country; yet in all old-settled
countries women are in excess of men. While the dangers to which men
are exposed because of their greater physical activity have been many,
and the accidents liable to occur from their harder struggle for
existence more numerous than those to which women have been subjected,
still it would seem that the danger to female life, incident to the
artificial relations of the sexes under our present semi-civilized
conditions, is more than an offset for that to which men are liable.
The fact must be borne in mind, however, that the diseases and
physical disabilities of women, at the present time, although
dangerous to health and life, are not organic, and will therefore
disappear as soon as through higher conditions they are allowed the
free expression of their own will in matters pertaining to the sexual
relation. As the diseases peculiar to the female constitution are not
caused by structural defects, but, on the contrary, are due to the
overstimulation of the animal instincts in her male mate, or, to the
disparity between her stage of development and his, they have not
materially injured her constitution nor shortened her average duration
of life, neither have they lessened her capacity for improvement.
With reference to the women of Greenland, Cranz says that while they
remain with their parents they are well off; but from twenty years of
age till death, their life is one series of anxieties, wretchedness,
and toil, yet, in spite of all their cares, toils, and vexations the
women commonly arrive at a greater age than the men.[36]
[36] _History of Greenland_, vol. i., p. 152.
That the imperfections of the male organism are already beginning
to interpose themselves between man and many of the occupations and
activities of advancing civilization, is only too apparent.
Sight, far more than any other sense, is the most intellectual,
yet in the development of the visual organs it has been proved
that men are especially deficient. Dr. Andrew Willson assures us
that “colour-blindness is a condition which is certainly capable
of transmission to the progeny. In one family the males alone were
affected through seven generations.”
In an examination which was carried on some years ago under the
supervision of Dr. Jeffries, among the pupils of the Boston schools, in
which were 14,469 boys and young men, and 13,458 girls and young women,
it was found that about one male in every twenty-five was colour-blind,
while the same defect among the girls and young women was extremely
rare, only 0.066 per cent. of them being thus affected.[37]
[37] _Pop. Science Monthly_, vol. xix., p. 567.
At a convention held in the city of Chicago for the purpose of
organizing an association for educational reform, the teacher of
drawing in the St. Paul schools made a statement that “four per cent.
of all male pupils were colour-blind, while only one-tenth of one per
cent. of female pupils were so affected.” No explanation was offered
for this strange fact; indeed, it was pronounced a mystery, “even
oculists and surgeons having given it up as impenetrable.”
That defective vision is beginning to interfere with the activities
of men, is shown by the fact that in many instances, in later times,
colour tests have been required to determine fitness of applicants for
positions in various departments of commercial enterprise. In this
country, during the last fifty years, much attention has been given
to the subject of visual defects in seamen, railroadmen, and other
persons occupying positions of responsibility in which unimpaired
vision is an important qualification. In response to a request sent by
the German Government through its minister to the Surgeon-General of
the United States Army, for statistical and other information on the
subject of colour-blindness, Mr. Charles E. Pugh, General Manager of
the Pennsylvania Railroad, in September, 1884, sent to William Thomson,
M.D., surgical expert for the same company, the following statement:
Total number examined on lines east of Erie 25,158
Colour-blind 481
Defective vision 661
Of this report Dr. Thomson says:
The apparently small percentage of colour-blind in this table may be
ascribed to the non-application of men who knew their deficiency,
and to the fact that men in the service, knowing their defect, would
leave the road before examination, and thus escape detection, and be
enabled to gain employment on other roads where no examinations are
required.[38]
[38] _Pop. Science Monthly_, vol. xxxi., p. 796.
In several departments of the national government, attempts have been
made to guard against the dangers resulting from imperfect sight. In
the examination of recruits, the War Department at Washington, some
years ago, issued orders that bits of coloured pasteboard, or “test
cards” be used for determining the power of individuals to distinguish
objects at a distance, while worsteds of various hues were employed
to ascertain their ability to distinguish colour. In the Treasury and
Naval Departments were ordered similar examinations, in which the power
to distinguish colour was a necessary qualification in the case of all
persons seeking employment therein.
In the examinations ordered by navigation and railroad companies to
protect themselves and the public against disaster resulting from
imperfect vision in their employees, tests have been made. Among
the requirements imposed by law, applying to engineers, brakemen,
and firemen, in the State of Connecticut, are the following:
“Unobstructed visual field, normal visual acuteness, and freedom from
colour-blindness.”
If Dr. Jeffries’s investigation in the Boston public schools and the
report of the officers of the Pennsylvania Railroad are to serve
as a criterion in judging of the extent to which impaired vision
is developed in men, or if among them one in every twenty-five is
defective in the colour sense, the inference seems unavoidable that the
proportion of them unfitted for railroad and steamboat service, for
military duty, and for various important government positions, must be
large. Hence, by these tests alone may be observed something of the
extent to which, under the higher conditions which are approaching, the
imperfect development in men of this one organ (the eye) may cripple
their energies and check those activities which, in many instances, are
best suited to their tastes and inclinations.
Nor is this defective vision developed in men a peculiarity which
is confined within the limits of our own country. In Europe,
investigations analogous to those instituted in America have been
followed by the same or similar results. Until a comparatively recent
time this subject has received little or no attention, for the reason
that the processes of civilization and the various activities of life
have not, hitherto, demanded a correct or highly developed colour
sense; but with the requirements of more highly civilized conditions,
in vocations demanding more diversified and complicated physical
and mental activities, it is plain that man, because of this organic
imperfection, must labour under continuous disadvantages. Then add
to defective vision his lack of physical endurance, his liability
to various organic affections caused by structural defects, and
his abnormal appetites which are constantly demanding for their
gratification the things which are injurious to his mental and physical
constitution, and we are enabled to judge, to some extent, of the
obstacles against which, in the struggle for existence, the future man
will find himself obliged to contend.
Not only is man’s sense of sight less perfectly developed than is
woman’s, but his sense of touch is less acute. The hand, directed as it
is by the brain, is the most completely differentiated member of the
human structure. It may almost be said of the hand, that it assists the
brain in performing its functions. The female hand, however, is capable
of delicate distinctions which the male has no means of determining. A
dispatch from Washington says of the women of the Treasury Department:
So superior is their skill in handling paper money that they
accomplish results that would be utterly unattainable without them. It
has been found by long experience that a counterfeit may go through
half the banks in the country without being detected, until it comes
back, often torn and mutilated, into the hands of the Treasury women.
Then it is certain of detection. They shut their eyes and feel of a
note if they suspect it. If it feels wrong, in half a minute they
point out the incongruities of the counterfeit.
Although throughout the ascending scale of life, the female has
been expending all her energy in the performance of her legitimate
functions—functions which, as we have seen, are of a higher order than
those performed by the male, through causes which will be discussed
farther on in these pages, within the later centuries of human
existence—she has been temporarily overcome by the destructive forces
developed in the opposite sex, forces which are without the line of
true development, and which through overstimulation and encouragement
have overleaped the bounds of normal activity, and have therefore
become disruptive and injurious.
During the past five thousand years, woman’s reproductive functions
have been turned into means of subsistence, and under the peculiar
circumstances of her environment, her “struggle for existence” has
involved physical processes far more disastrous to life and health
than are those to which man has been subjected. Owing to the peculiar
condition of woman’s environment, there has been developed within her
more delicate and sensitive organism an alarming degree of functional
nervousness; yet, with the gradual broadening of her sphere of
activity, and the greater exercise of personal rights, this tendency
to nervous derangement is gradually becoming lessened. That there is
reserve force in woman sufficient to overcome the evil results of the
supremacy of the animal instincts during the last five thousand or six
thousand years of human existence, from present indications seems more
than likely.
Commenting on the subject of nervousness, and the degree in which it
is manifested in civilized countries, and especially among civilized
women, Dr. Beard says:
Women, with all their nervousness—and, in civilized lands, women are
more nervous, immeasurably, than men, and suffer more from general
and special nervous diseases—yet live quite as long as men, if not
somewhat longer; their greater nervousness and far greater liability
to functional diseases of the nervous system being compensated for
by their smaller liability to acute and inflammatory disorders, and
various organic nervous diseases, likewise, such as the general
paralysis of insanity.[39]
[39] _American Nervousness_, p. 207.
According to Maudsley women “seldom suffer from general paralysis.”
This disease is frequently inherited, and is sometimes the result of
alcoholic and other excesses.[40]
[40] Maudsley, _Physiology and Pathology of the Mind_, p. 360.
Regarding the dangers to which women are exposed by excessive and
useless maternity, Dr. Beard remarks:
The large number of cases of laceration at childbirth and the
prolonged and sometimes even life-enduring illness resulting
from them, are good reasons for the terror which the processes of
parturition inspires in the minds of American women today.
However, that the dangers incident to parturition, and the excessive
nervousness which characterizes civilized women, are not necessary
adjuncts of civilization, but, on the contrary, are a result of the
unchecked disruptive forces developed in man, and the consequent drain
on the vital energies of woman, will be seen, so soon as through the
cultivation of the higher faculties developed in and transmitted
through females, the lower nature of males has finally been brought
within its legitimate bounds.
CHAPTER IV
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOCIAL INSTINCTS AND THE MORAL SENSE
Man is pre-eminently a social animal. He seeks companionship and
depends largely upon his fellows for security and happiness. Nor is
this dependence upon others confined to the human species. Association,
or combination of interests, is manifested throughout the entire
organic scale.
From Mr. Darwin’s reasoning it is evident that he regards association
as the basic principle underlying progress. He also thinks that
combination is impossible without sympathy or a desire for the welfare
of others outside of self. He is certain that associated animals have a
feeling of affection for the group and that “they sympathize with one
another in times of distress and danger.”[41]
[41] _The Descent of Man_, 1877, p. 102.
This writer thinks that an animal like the gorilla, which possessing
great size and strength is able to defend itself against all its
enemies, would not become social and therefore would be unable to
advance. And this too, notwithstanding the fact that such an animal has
already developed pugnacity, courage, and perseverance, the characters
which are regarded as the source of the remarkable mental endowment of
man.
We have seen that the greater size of the male is the result of Sexual
Selection and is therefore a secondary sexual character. “All the
secondary sexual characters of man are highly variable.”[42] In dealing
with this subject we must not lose sight of the fact that variability
denotes low organization. It shows that the organs of the body have not
become specialized to perform their legitimate functions.
[42] _The Descent of Man_, 1877, p. 559.
Among monogamous animals difference in size between the sexes is
slight, but among polygamous species the male is considerably larger
than the female, this difference being correlated with numerous
variations of structure.
Among early races males were considerably in excess of females so it
was customary for the former to fight desperately to win the favour
of the latter in much the same manner as their animal progenitors had
fought to secure their mates. These struggles were enacted in the
presence of the females, they always choosing the strongest and best
endowed leaving the weaker and uglier members of the group unmated
and therefore unable to propagate their misfortunes. This exercise of
choice by the female in pairing is the primary fact in the history of
human progress. The appalling effects of the withdrawal from women of
this fundamental prerogative will be referred to later in these pages.
That pugnacity, courage, and perseverance are the result of man’s
strong sexual nature is shown wherever this subject is touched upon in
_The Descent of Man_. Special attention is directed to the fact that
eunuchs are deficient in these qualities.
That the greater size and strength of the male, together with courage,
pugnacity, and perseverance, have been of great value to him in
deciding the contests between rivals in courtship is quite true. It is
clear, however, that these characters are in no wise responsible for
the origin and development of the higher faculties. Even Mr. Darwin’s
premises, when carried to their legitimate conclusions, furnish
sufficient evidence to prove that the social instincts and the moral
sense have been developed quite independently of these characters.
According to the reasoning of the savants it is only through that
specialization of organs which has resulted in the separation of the
sex elements, and the consequent division of functions, that the social
instincts have originated, and that it is to processes involved in such
specialization, or differentiation, that the higher faculties and the
moral sense have arisen. It is indeed plain from their reasoning that
matter, or perhaps I should say the force inherent in matter, had to be
raised to a certain dynamic order before the peculiar quality of brain
and nerve necessary for the development of these faculties could be
manifested through it.
As there are different kinds of matter, so there are different modes
of force, in the universe; and as we rise from the common physical
matter in which physical laws hold sway up to chemical matter and
chemical forces, and from chemical matter again up to living matter
and its modes of force, so do we rise in the scale of life from
the lowest kind of living matter with its corresponding force or
energy, through different kinds of histological elements, with their
corresponding energies or functions, up to the highest kind of living
matter and corresponding mode of force with which we are acquainted,
viz., nerve element and nerve force. But, when we have got to nerve
element and nerve force, it behooves us not to rest content with the
general idea, but to trace, with attentive discrimination, through
the nervous system the different kinds of nervous cells, and their
different manifestations of energy. So also shall we obtain the
groundwork for a true conception of the relations of mind and the
nervous system.[43]
[43] Maudsley, _Physiology and Pathology of the Mind_, p. 60.
We have seen that the nervous system not only regulates most of the
existing functions of the body, but that it has indirectly influenced
the development of various bodily structures and certain mental
qualities, and that these powers of mind depend on the development of
the brain.
By our guides in this matter, we are assured that the most important
difference observed between man and the lower animals is the
conscience; hence, if we would understand how it has been possible for
man to rise to his present position, we must know something of the
processes involved in the development of the social instincts, through
which have originated conscience and a desire for the welfare of others
outside of self. The importance of these instincts in the development
of conscience is thus set forth by Mr. Darwin:
Any animal whatever, endowed with well-marked social instincts, the
parental and filial affections being here included, would inevitably
acquire a moral sense or conscience, as soon as its intellectual
faculties had become as well, or nearly as well, developed as in man.
Sympathy, we are told, is the foundation-stone of the social instincts.
From facts which are everywhere presented among the forms of life
below man, it is evident that sympathy was developed at an early stage
of animal life. It is doubtless strongly manifested in our ape-like
progenitors, and it was probably this instinct which subsequently led
to a community of interest and the coherence of the tribe.
In a consideration, therefore, of this question of sex development
and the origin of the progressive principle, if, as we are assured,
sympathy constitutes the foundation-stone of the social instincts,
and if it is to these instincts that we are to look for the origin
of the moral sense, or conscience— a faculty which constitutes the
fundamental difference between the human species and the lower orders
of life—the question naturally arises: In which of the two diverging
lines of sexual demarcation has arisen sympathy, or an interest in
the well-being of others? For an answer to our question we must look
carefully to the facts connected with the development of the sexes
within one of which have been acquired characters tending toward the
welfare of society, or of individuals outside of self; within the
other, characters looking only toward selfish gratification. Within the
former, the maternal instinct predominates; within the latter, passion.
Mr. Darwin admits that “parental and filial affection lies at the base
of the social instincts,” and gives as his opinion that this quality is
the result of Natural Selection—that those individuals which bestowed
upon their offspring the greatest care and attention, would survive
and multiply at the expense of others in which this instinct was less
developed. Therefore, in pursuing the inquiry of sex-function and
sex-development, a question of considerable significance is at this
point suggested: Within which parent is observed the greater tendency
to bestow care and attention upon offspring?
We are assured that “the animal family is especially maternal.” So
soon as a female bird has laid her eggs, she is animated only by one
desire; neither the promise of abundant food nor the fear of bullets
is able to divert her purpose. Although the males among the more highly
developed birds assist in rearing the family, amongst various species
it is only the female which cares for the young. The male duck has
no interest in his progeny, neither has the male eider. Of the male
turkeys Mr. Letourneau says that they
do much worse: they often devour the eggs of their females, and
thus oblige the latter to hide them. Female turkeys join each other
with their young ones for greater security, and thus form troops of
from sixty to eighty individuals, led by the mothers, and carefully
avoiding the old males, who rush on the young ones and kill them by
violent blows on the head with their beaks.[44]
[44] _The Evolution of Marriage and the Family_, p. 29.
The males of various other species, jealous of the attentions of the
mothers during the time that their efforts are directed toward the
maintenance of their brood, often kill their young. Regarding the
subject of paternal care, Mr. Letourneau observes: “It is important to
notice that amongst birds, the fathers devoid of affection generally
belong to the less intelligent, and are most often polygamous.”
By observing the habits of cuckoos the fact has been ascertained
that among them the maternal instinct is almost entirely lacking.
Of the cuckoo it has been remarked that it is a “discontented,
ill-conditioned, passionate, in short, decidedly unamiable bird.” Its
note is typical of its habits and character.
The same abruptness, insatiability, eagerness, the same rage,
are noticeable in its whole conduct. The cuckoos are notoriously
unsociable, even in migration individualistic. They jealously guard
their territorial “preserves,” and verify in many ways the old myth
that they are sparrow-hawks in disguise. The parasitic habit is
consonant with their general character.
The species consist predominantly of males. The preponderance is
probably about five to one; though one observer makes it five times
greater. In so male a species, it is not surprising to find degenerate
maternal instincts.[45]
[45] Geddes and Thomson, _The Evolution of Sex_, p. 276.
Regarding spiders and the greater number of insects, we are told that
the males entirely neglect their young; it is
in the female that the care for offspring first awakens. And this is
natural, for the eggs have been formed in her body; she has laid them,
and has been conscious of them; they form, in a way, an integral part
of her individuality.... With insects maternal forethought sometimes
amounts to a sort of divining prescience which the doctrine of
evolution alone can explain.[46]
[46] Letourneau, _The Evolution of Marriage and the Family_, p. 22.
Among the males of mammals below man the love of offspring seems to be
almost entirely wanting.
We must here remark, that whatever the form of sexual association
among mammals, the male has always much less affection for his young
than the female. Even in monogamous species, when the male keeps with
the female, he does so more as chief than as father. At times he is
inclined to commit infanticide and to destroy the offspring, which, by
absorbing all the attention of his female, thwart his amours. Thus,
among the large felines, the mother is obliged to hide her young ones
from the male during the first few days after birth, to prevent his
devouring them.[47]
[47] _The Evolution of Marriage and the Family_, p. 34.
The fact is obvious that among the orders of life below man but little
paternal affection has been developed, and with a more extended
knowledge of the past history of the human race comes the assurance
that under earlier conditions of society, and in fact, until a
comparatively recent time, little notice was taken of the paternal
relation—that kinship and all the rights of succession were reckoned
through the mother. In other words, motherhood was the primary bond by
which society was bound together.
Although under higher conditions of civilized life, males have at
length come to manifest much interest in the well-being of their
offspring, yet that paternal affection is not a primary instinct
is shown by the fact that such interest, even at the present time,
extends only to those individuals born in wedlock. Men are solicitous
only for the welfare of those who are to succeed to their names and
fortunes; hence, although in later times the paternal instinct has been
considerably re-enforced, it is plain that the interest of fathers for
their offspring has in the past been largely the result of custom,
association, pride, desire for self-perpetuation or duplication, or
some other form of self-aggrandizement.
Mr. Darwin says: “The feeling of pleasure from society is probably
an extension of the parental or filial affections, since the social
instinct seems to be developed by the young remaining for a long time
with their parents.”[48] Although Mr. Darwin does not admit it, from
his reasoning it is plain that the maternal instinct is the root
whence sympathy has sprung, and that it is the source whence the
cohesive quality in the tribe originated. Regarding the importance of
association or combination in early groups Mr. Darwin remarks:
[48] _The Descent of Man_, p. 105.
When two tribes of primeval man, living in the same country, came
into competition, if (other circumstances being equal) the one tribe
included a great number of courageous, sympathetic, and faithful
members, who were always ready to warn each other of danger, to aid
and defend each other, this tribe would succeed better and conquer the
other.... Selfish and contentious people will not cohere, and without
coherence nothing can be effected. A tribe rich in the above qualities
would spread and be victorious over other tribes.... Thus the social
and moral qualities would tend slowly to advance and be diffused
throughout the world.[49]
[49] _The Descent of Man_, p. 130.
Since, then, it has been proved by scientists that without an
association of interests and the coherence of the tribe the social
instincts must have remained weak, and since it has been shown by them
that without concerted action the higher faculties, including the moral
sense, could not have been developed; and since, furthermore, the
influences which have led to this development are those growing out of
the maternal instincts, may we not conclude that all of those qualities
which make man pre-eminently a social animal—his love of society, his
desire for the good-will of his kind, his perception of right and
wrong, and, finally, that sympathy which at last gradually extending
beyond the limits of race and country proclaims the brotherhood of man
and the unity of life on the earth—all these characteristics, are but
an extension of maternal affection, an outgrowth of that early bond
between mother and child, which, while affecting the entire line of
development, still remains unchanged and unchangeable.
CHAPTER V
THE SUPREMACY OF THE MALE
An unprejudiced review of the facts relative to the differentiation
of the two sexes, as set forth by naturalists, reveals not only the
primary principles involved in human progress, but shows also the
source whence these principles originated. These facts serve also to
explain that “mental superiority” of man over woman observed by Mr.
Darwin and others in the present stage of human growth.
Notwithstanding the superior degree of development which, according
to the facts elaborated by scientists, must belong to the female in
all the orders of life below mankind, Mr. Darwin would have us believe
that so soon as the human species appeared on the earth the processes
which for untold ages had been in operation were reversed, and that
through courage and perseverance, or patience, qualities which were
the result of extreme selfishness, or which were acquired while in
pursuit of animal gratification, man finally became superior to woman.
The following furnishes an example of Mr. Darwin’s reasoning upon this
subject. He says:
The chief distinction in the intellectual powers of the two sexes
is shown by man’s attaining to a higher eminence, in whatever he
takes up, than can woman—whether requiring deep thought, reason, or
imagination, or merely the use of the senses and the hands. If two
lists were made of the most eminent men and women in poetry, painting,
sculpture, music (inclusive both of composition and performance),
history, and philosophy, with half-a-dozen names under each subject,
the two lists would not bear comparison....
Now, when two men are put into competition, or a man with a woman,
both possessed of every mental quality in equal perfection, save
that one has higher energy, perseverance, and courage, the latter
will generally become more eminent in every pursuit, and will gain
the ascendency. He may be said to possess genius—for genius has been
declared by a great authority to be patience; and patience, in this
sense, means unflinching, undaunted perseverance.[50]
[50] _The Descent of Man_, p. 564.
Doubtless, for the purpose of strengthening his position, Mr. Darwin
quotes the following from John Stuart Mill: “The things in which man
most excels woman are those which require most plodding and long
hammering at single thoughts.” And in summing up the processes by which
man has finally gained the ascendency over woman he concludes:
Thus man has ultimately become superior to woman. It is, indeed,
fortunate that the law of the equal transmission of characters to both
sexes prevails with mammals; otherwise it is probable that man would
have become as superior in mental endowment to woman, as the peacock
is in ornamental plumage to the peahen.[51]
[51] _The Descent of Man_, p. 565.
Notwithstanding this conclusion of Mr. Darwin, in view of the facts
elaborated by himself, we cannot help thinking that it is indeed
fortunate that the law of the equal transmission of characters to
both sexes prevails with mammals, otherwise it is probable that man
would never have had any higher ambition than the gratification of his
animal instincts, and would never have risen above those conditions in
which he struggled desperately for the possession of the female. All
the facts which have been observed relative to the acquirement of the
social instincts and the moral sense prove them to have originated in
the female constitution, and as progress is not possible without these
characters, it is not difficult to determine within which of the sexes
the progressive principle first arose. Even courage, perseverance,
and energy, characters which are denominated as thoroughly masculine,
since they are the result of Sexual Selection, have been and still are
largely dependent on the will or choice of the female.
In his zeal to prove the superiority of man over woman, and while
emphasizing energy, perseverance, and courage as factors in
development, Mr. Darwin seems to have overlooked the importance of
the distinctive characters belonging to the female organism, viz.,
perception and intuition, combined with greater powers of endurance,
the first two of which, under the low conditions occasioned by the
supremacy of the animal instincts, have thus far had little opportunity
to manifest themselves. A fairer statement relative to the capacities
of the two sexes and their ability to succeed might have been set forth
as follows:
When a man and a woman are put in competition, both possessed of
every mental quality in equal perfection, save that one has higher
energy, more patience, and a somewhat greater degree of physical
courage, while the other has superior powers of intuition, finer and
more rapid perceptions, and a greater degree of endurance (the result
of an organism freer from imperfections), the chances of the latter
for gaining the ascendency will doubtless be equal to those of the
former as soon as the animal conditions of life are outgrown, and the
characters peculiar to the female constitution are allowed expression.
Mr. Darwin’s quotation from J. Stuart Mill, that the things in which
man excels woman are those which require most plodding and long
hammering at single thoughts, is evidently true, and corresponds with
the fundamental premises in the theory of development as set forth
by all naturalists. The female organism is not a plodding machine,
neither is the telephone nor the telegraph, yet these latter devices
accomplish the work formerly done by the stagecoach much more rapidly,
and in a manner better suited to civilized conditions. So soon as women
are freed from the unnatural restrictions placed upon them through the
temporary predominance of the animal instincts in man, their greater
powers of endurance, together with a keener insight and an organism
comparatively free from imperfections, will doubtless give them a
decided advantage in the struggle for existence. While patience is
doubtless a virtue, and while during the past ages of human experience
it has been of incalculable value to man, it will not, under higher
conditions, be required in competing for the prizes of life.
Woman’s rapid perceptions, and her intuitions which in many instances
amount almost to second sight, indicate undeveloped genius, and
partake largely of the nature of deductive reasoning; it is reasonable
to suppose therefore that as soon as she is free, and has for a few
generations enjoyed the advantages of more natural methods of education
and training, and those better suited to the female constitution, she
will be able to trace the various processes of induction by which she
reaches her conclusions. She will then be able to reason inductively up
to her deductive conceptions.
The worthlessness of Mr. Darwin’s comparison between men and women in
performing the various activities of life is already clearly apparent.
Although less than half a century has elapsed since _The Descent
of Man_ was written women are already successfully competing with
men in nearly all the walks of life both high and low, and this too
notwithstanding the fact that these occupations have heretofore been
regarded as belonging exclusively to men. We have seen that Mr. Darwin
mentions music as a vocation in which man’s superiority over woman is
manifested, yet already in the United States, there is not one male
musician who would be willing to match his skill against that of any
one of the four best woman performers.
It is a well understood fact that neither individuals nor classes
which upon every hand have been thwarted and restrained, either by
unjust and oppressive laws, or by the tyranny of custom, prejudice, or
physical force, have ever made any considerable progress in the actual
acquirement of knowledge or in the arts of life. Mr. Darwin’s capacity
for collecting and formulating facts seems not to have materially aided
him in discerning the close connection existing at this stage of human
progress between the masculinized conditions of human society and the
necessary opportunities to succeed in the higher walks of life; in
fact, he seems to have forgotten that all the avenues to success have
for thousands of years been controlled and wholly manipulated by men,
while the activities of women have been distorted and repressed in
order that the “necessities” of the male nature might be provided for.
Besides, it seems never to have occurred to him that as man has still
not outgrown the animal in his nature, and as the intellectual and
moral age is only just beginning to dawn, the time is not yet ripe for
the direct expression of the more refined instincts and ideas peculiar
to the female organism, and, as thus far, only that advancement
has been made which is compatible with the supremacy of the lower
instincts, woman’s time has not yet come.
Although women are still in possession of their natural inheritance, a
finer and more complex organism comparatively free from imperfections,
and although, as a result of this inheritance, their intuitions
are still quicker, their perceptions keener, and their endurance
greater, the drain on their physical energies, caused by the abnormal
development of the reproductive energies in the opposite sex, has,
during the ages of man’s dominion over her, been sufficient to preclude
the idea of success in competing with men for the prizes of life.
Although an era of progress has begun, ages will doubtless be required
to eradicate abuses which are the result of constitutional defects, and
especially so as the prejudices and feelings of mankind are for the
most part in harmony with such abuses.
If we examine the subject of female apparel, at the present time, we
shall observe how difficult it is to uproot long-established prejudices
which are deeply rooted in sensuality and superstition; and this is
true notwithstanding the fact that such prejudices may involve the
comfort and even the health of half the people, and seriously affect
the welfare of unborn generations. An examination of the influences
which have determined the course of modern fashions in woman’s clothing
will show the truth of this observation.
Of all the senses which have been developed, that of sight is
undoubtedly the most refined, and when in the human species it is
cultivated to a degree which enables its possessor to appreciate the
beautiful in Nature and in Art, we are perhaps justified in designating
it as the intellectual sense. In point of refinement, the sense of
hearing comes next in order, yet among creatures as low in the scale of
being as birds, we find that females not only appreciate the beautiful,
but that they are charmed by pleasing and harmonious sounds, and that
if males would win their favour it must be accomplished by appeals
through these senses to the higher qualities developed within them.
Although the female of the human species, like the female among the
lower orders of life, is capable of appreciating fine colouring, and
to a considerable extent the beautiful in form, the style of dress
adopted by women is not an expression of their natural ideas of taste
and harmony. On the contrary, it is to Sexual Selection that we must
look for an explanation of the incongruities and absurdities presented
by the so-called female fashions of the past and present. The processes
of Sexual Selection, which, so long as the female was the controlling
agency in courtship, worked on the male, have in these later ages been
reversed. For the reason that the female of the human species has so
long been under subjection to the male, the styles of female dress and
adornment which have been adopted, and which are still in vogue, are
largely the result of masculine taste. Woman’s business in life has
been to marry, or, at least, it has been necessary for her, in order
to gain her support, to win the favour of the opposite sex. She must,
therefore, by her charms, captivate the male.
With the progress of civilization and since women as economic and
sexual slaves have become dependent upon men for their support, no male
biped has been too stupid, too ugly, or too vicious to take to himself
a mate and perpetuate his imperfections. This unchecked freedom of the
male to multiply his defects is responsible for present conditions.
As for thousands of years women have been dependent on men not only
for food and clothing but for the luxuries of life as well, it is
not singular that in the struggle for life to which they have been
subjected they should have adopted the styles of dress which would
be likely to secure to them the greatest amount of success. When we
remember that the present ideas of becomingness or propriety in woman’s
apparel are the result of ages of sensuality and servitude, it is not
remarkable that they are difficult to uproot, and especially so as many
of the most pernicious and health-destroying styles involve questions
of female decorum as understood by a sensualized age.
Mr. Darwin calls attention to the fact that women “all over the world”
adorn themselves with the gay feathers of male birds. Since the
beautiful plumage of male birds has been produced according to female
standards of taste, and since it is wholly the result of innate female
ideas of harmony in colour and design, it is not perhaps remarkable
that women, recognizing the original female standards of beauty, should
desire to utilize those effects which have been obtained at so great
an expenditure of vital force to the opposite sex, especially as men
are pleased with such display, and, as under present conditions of male
supremacy, the female of the human species is obliged to captivate the
male in order to secure her support.
Ever since the dominion of man over woman began a strict censorship
over her dress has been maintained. Although in very recent times women
are beginning to exercise a slight degree of independence in the matter
of clothes, still, because of existing prejudices and customs they have
not yet been able to adopt a style of dress which admits of the free
and unrestricted use of the body and limbs. It is believed that woman,
the natural tempter of man, if left to her own sinful devices, would
again as of old attempt to destroy that inherent purity of heart and
cleanliness of life which characterize the male constitution. Woman’s
ankles and throat seem to be the most formidable foes against which
innocent man has to contend, so the concealment of these offending
members is deemed absolutely necessary for his protection and safety.
Ecclesiastics, a class whose duty it has ever been to regulate and
control the movements of women, seem to think that the ankles and
throats of women were intended not for the use and convenience of their
possessors but as snares to entrap holy men.
It would thus appear that the present fashions for female apparel have
a deeper significance than we have been in the habit of ascribing
to them. We are still living under conditions peculiar to a sensual
age, and have not yet outgrown the requirements which condemn women
to a style of dress which hinders the free movements of the body and
which checks all the activities of life. In one way the woman of the
present time may be said to resemble the male Argus pheasant, whose
decorations, although they serve to please his mate, greatly hinder his
power of motion and the free use of his body and limbs.
When we consider that apparel is but one, and a minor one, of the
strictures under which women have laboured during the later era of
human existence and when we consider all the ignoble and degrading uses
to which womanhood has been subjected, the wonder is not that women
have failed in the past to distinguish themselves in the various fields
of intellectual labour in which men have achieved a limited degree of
success, but that they have had sufficient energy and courage left to
enable them even to attempt anything so far outside the boundary of
their prescribed “sphere,” or that they have been able to transmit to
their male offspring those powers through which they have gained their
present stage of progress.
With regard to Mr. Darwin’s comparison of the intellectual powers of
the two sexes, and his assertion that man attains to a higher eminence
in whatever he takes up than woman—that, for instance, he surpasses her
in the production of poetry, music, philosophy, etc., the facts at hand
suggest that if within mankind no higher motives and tastes had been
developed than those derived from selfishness and passion, there would
never have arisen a desire for poetry, music, philosophy, or science,
or, in fact, for any of the achievements which have been the result of
the more exalted activities of the human intellect. However, because
of the subjection of the higher faculties developed in mankind, the
poetry, music, and painting of the past betray their sensuous origin
and plainly reveal the stage of advancement which has been reached,
while history, philosophy, and even science, judging from Mr. Darwin’s
methods, have not yet wholly emerged from the murky atmosphere of a
sensuous age.
It will be well for us to remember that the doctrine of the Survival
of the Fittest does not imply that the best endowed, physically or
otherwise, have always succeeded in the struggle for existence.
By the term Survival of the Fittest we are to understand a natural
law by means of which those best able to overcome the unfavourable
conditions of their environment survive and are able to propagate their
successful qualities. We must bear in mind that neither the growth of
the individual nor that of society has proceeded in an unbroken or
uninterrupted line; on the contrary, during a certain portion of human
existence on the earth, the forces which tend toward degeneration have
been stronger than whose which lie along the line of true development.
We are assured that the principles of construction and destruction are
mutually employed in the reproductive processes, that continuous death
means continuous life,—the katabolic or disruptive tendencies of the
male being necessary to the anabolic or constructive habits of the
female. As it is in reproduction, so has it been through the entire
course of development. Side by side, all along the line, these two
tendencies have been in operation; the grinding, rending, and devouring
processes which we denominate Natural Selection, alongside those which
unite, assimilate, and protect. As a result of the separation of the
sexes there have been developed on the one side extreme egoism, or
the desire for selfish gratification; on the other, altruism, or a
desire for the welfare of others outside of self. Hence, throughout
the later ages of human existence, since the egoistic principles
have gained the ascendency, may be observed the unequal struggle for
liberty and justice, against tyranny, and the oppressors of the masses
of the human race. From present appearances it would seem, that the
disruptive or devouring forces have always been in the ascendency.
The philosophy of history however, teaches the contrary. With a
broader view of the origin and development of the human race, and the
unexpected light which within the last few years has been thrown upon
prehistoric society and the grandeur of past achievement, a close
student of the past is able to discern a faint glimmering of a more
natural age of human existence, and is able to observe in the present
intense struggles for freedom and equality, an attempt to return to
the earlier and more natural principles of justice and liberty, and so
to advance to a stage of society in which selfishness, sensuality, and
superstition no longer reign supreme.
The status of women always furnishes an index to the true condition
of society, one or two superficial writers to the contrary
notwithstanding. For this phenomenon there is a scientific reason,
namely: society advances just in proportion as women are able to
convey to their offspring the progressive tendencies transmissible
only through the female organism. It is plain, therefore, that mankind
will never advance to a higher plane of thinking and living until the
restrictions upon the liberties of women have been entirely removed,
and until within every department of human activity, their natural
instincts, and the methods of thought peculiar to them be allowed
free expression. The following is from Mr. Buckle’s lecture on “The
Influence of Women on the Progress of Knowledge”:
I believe and I hope before we separate to convince you, that so far
from women exercising little or no influence over the progress of
knowledge, they are capable of exercising, and have actually exercised
an enormous influence; that this influence, is, in fact, so great that
it is hardly possible to assign limits to it; and that great as it is,
it may with advantage be still further increased. I hope, moreover,
to convince you that this influence has been exhibited not merely
from time to time in rare, sudden, and transitory ebullitions, but
that it acts by virtue of certain laws inherent in human nature; and
that, although it works as an undercurrent below the surface, and is
therefore invisible to hasty observers, it has already produced the
most important results, and has affected the shape, the character, and
the amount of our knowledge.
Through the processes involved in the differentiation of sex and the
consequent division of functions, it has been possible during the past
six thousand or seven thousand years (a mere tithe of the time spent
by mankind upon the earth) for women to become enslaved, or subjected
to the lower impulses of the male nature. Through the capture of women
for wives, through the exigencies of warfare, the individual ownership
of land, and the various changes incident to a certain stage of human
existence, the finer sensibilities which characterize women have been
overshadowed, and the higher forces which originated within them
and which are transmitted in the female line, have been temporarily
subdued by the great sexual ardour inherent in the opposite sex; it is
not, therefore, singular that the degree of progress attained should
appear to be wholly the result of male activity and acumen. Yet,
notwithstanding the degradation to which women in the position assigned
them by physical force have been obliged to submit, their capacity for
improvement has suffered less from the influences and circumstances of
their environment than has that of men. As the higher faculties are
transmitted through women equally to both sexes, in the impoverishment
of their inheritance on the female side, men have suffered equally
with women, while, through their male progenitors, they have inherited
appetites and habits (the result of a ruder and less developed
structure) which weaken and degrade the entire constitution.
Doubtless, so soon as women have gained sufficient strength to enable
them to maintain their independence, and after the higher faculties
rather than the animal propensities rule supreme, men, through the
imperfections in their organism, and the appetites acquired through
these imperfections, will, for a considerable length of time, find
themselves weighted in the struggle for supremacy, and this, too, by
the very characters which under lower conditions are now believed to
have determined their success.
It is not unlikely, however, that through Sexual Selection the
characters or qualities unfavourable to the higher development of man
will in time be eliminated. The mother is the natural guardian and
protector of offspring; therefore, so soon as women are free they will
doubtless select for husbands only those men who, by their mental,
moral, and physical endowments are fitted to become the fathers of
their children. Only those women will become mothers who hope to secure
to their offspring immunity from the giant evils with which society
is afflicted. In this way, and this way only, may these evils be
eradicated.
Under purer conditions of life, when by the higher powers developed
in the race the animal propensities have become somewhat subdued by
man, we may reasonably hope that the “struggle for existence,” which
is still so relentlessly waged, will cease, that man will no longer
struggle with man for place or power, and that the bounties of earth
will no longer be hoarded by the few, while the many are suffering for
the necessities of life; for are we not all members of one family, and
dependent for all that we have on the same beneficent parent—Nature?
Although the two principles, the constructive and destructive, are
closely allied, the higher faculties have been acquired only through
the former—the highest degree of progress is possible only through
union or co-operation, or, through the uniting and binding force,
maternal love from which has been developed, first, sympathy among
related groups, and later an interest which is capable of extending
itself not only to all members of the human race, but to every sentient
creature. There is, therefore, little wonder that for thousands of
years of human existence, the female principle was worshipped over the
entire habitable globe as the source of all light and life—the Creator
and Preserver of the Universe.
We are only on the threshold of civilization. Mankind may as yet have
no just conception of their possibilities, but so soon as, through
the agencies now in operation for the advancement of the race, the
“necessities” of the male nature no longer demand and secure the
subjection of women and the consequent drain on the very fountain
whence spring the higher faculties, a great and unexpected impetus will
be given to progress.
The fact that a majority of women have not yet gained that freedom of
action necessary to the absolute control of their own persons, nor
acquired a sufficient degree of independence to enable them to adopt
a course of action in their daily life which they know to be right,
shows the extent to which selfishness, twin brother to sensuality,
has clouded the conscience and warped the judgment in all matters
pertaining to human justice. So closely has women’s environment been
guarded that in addition to all the restrictions placed upon their
liberties, a majority of them are still dependent for food and clothing
on pleasing the men, who still hold the purse-strings. Yet Mr. Darwin,
the apostle of original scientific investigation, concludes:
“If men are capable of decided prominence over women in many subjects,
the average mental powers in men must be above those of women.”
PART II
Prehistoric Society
CHAPTER I
METHOD OF INVESTIGATION
If the theory of the development of the human race, or more
particularly that of the two diverging lines of sex demarcation as set
forth in the foregoing chapters be correct, it is plain that by it a
new foundation is laid for the study of mankind.
If, contrary to the generally accepted idea, within the female organism
have been developed those elements which form the basis of human
progress, or, if the higher faculties are transmitted through the
mother, henceforth all examinations into primitive conditions and all
research into the causes which underlie existing institutions must
be carried on with reference to this particular fact. Only through
a thorough understanding of the principles or forces which govern
human development, and a just appreciation of the source whence these
principles have sprung, may we hope to gain a clear understanding
of the past history of the race, or to perceive the true course to
be pursued toward further development. Through the investigation of
facts revealed in the records of Geology, and through the study of
comparative Embryology and Anatomy, or through an understanding of
Zoölogy and Anthropology, man has well-nigh solved the problem of his
origin, or has almost proved his connection with and development from
the lower orders of life, but of the countless ages which intervened
between the era of our ape-like progenitors and the dawn of organized
society, little may be known without a correct knowledge of the
inheritance received by mankind from creatures lower in the scale of
being. Only by a careful study of the constitutional bias acquired
throughout the entire line of development, are we enabled to note the
motives or forces by which primitive society was controlled, or to form
a just conclusion relative to the early conditions of human society and
its subsequent progress.
Through the attention which in these later years has been directed
toward surviving tribes in the so-called middle and later stages of
savagery, and in the three successive periods of barbarism, have
doubtless been revealed many of the processes by which mankind have
reached their present condition. Much of the information, however,
which has been obtained by these inquiries still lacks that accuracy in
detail demanded by exact science; but, so soon as the array of facts
which the last half-century has brought to bear upon this subject shall
have been correctly interpreted, logically arranged, intelligently
classified, and without prejudice brought into line with the truths
involved in the theory of natural development, there will doubtless
be approximated a system of truth which will furnish a safe and
trustworthy foundation for a more thorough research into the history of
the human race.
Although the facts relative to existing undeveloped races, which
have been laid before the reading public through the patience and
industry of investigators in this particular branch of inquiry, have
been of incalculable value as furnishing a foundation for a correct
understanding of the origin of the customs, manners, ceremonies,
governments, languages, and systems of consanguinity and affinity of
a primitive race, and although without these efforts little knowledge
of the early history of mankind could be obtained, yet, as a majority
of the theories built upon these observations have been based on
long-established prejudices relative to the earliest conditions
surrounding human society and the forces by which it was controlled,
many false conclusions have been the inevitable result.
We have seen that owing to the ascendency which the masculine element
in human society gained during the period designated as the Latter
Status of barbarism, the popular ideas evolved since that time
concerning the origin and development of government, social usages,
religion, and law, have been in accordance with the then established
assumption that within the male organism lies not only the active,
aggressive element, but the progressive principle as well. It is
not, therefore, singular that at the present time all the lines of
investigation which are being directed toward man in a primitive state,
or which are being conducted for the avowed purpose of ascertaining the
successive steps by which our social, civil, and religious institutions
have been reared, should continue to be carried on under the _a priori_
assumption that the male organism is by nature superior to that of the
female.
As in all the theories relative to the development of species the
male is the principal factor, so in the theories brought forward to
explain the development of human institutions the female has played
only an insignificant part; but, as all later facts bearing upon this
subject furnish indisputable evidence of the early importance of the
female element, not only among the lower orders of life but under
earlier human conditions as well, we may reasonably expect from these
data the establishment, in the not distant future, of a complete chain
of evidence in support of a more rational and consistent theory of
development than has yet been put forth, not only of the origin of the
higher faculties, but of the organization of human society and the
growth of its various institutions.
As, hitherto, all the theories advanced relative to the evolution of
the human race and the establishment of society on a political and
territorial basis have been founded on preconceived notions of the
superiority of the characters peculiar to the male, it is believed, or
at least assumed, that the ascendency gained by man over woman during
the Latter Status of barbarism constitutes a regular, orderly, and
necessary step in the direct line of progress; and, as under masculine
supremacy, a certain degree of advancement has been possible, it is
assumed that the nobler animal, man, having gained the ascendency over
the weaker animal, woman, his progress in the future is to increase
in a sort of geometrical ratio, while she, still bound by physical
disabilities and weighted by the baneful effects of past limitations
and restrictions, must continue far in the rear of her better endowed
and more thoroughly equipped male mate. However, in this conception of
the facts of biology, woman is not left without a crumb of comfort;
for, in the forlorn and helpless condition to which it condemns her,
she is given to understand that if for many successive generations
girls be constantly trained in masculine methods, they may eventually
be able to admire, and possibly in a measure to comprehend, some of the
less stupendous mental achievements of their brothers; but, according
to the savants, any attempt on the part of women to compete with men in
the higher walks of life must result in increased physical weakness, in
the immediate degeneration of the female sex, and in disaster and ruin
to the entire race.
When we remember that investigations into the conditions surrounding
primitive society have for the most part been conducted under the
influence of prejudices similar to those which have prompted the
above assumptions, it is not singular that in a majority of cases in
which the early status of women has been discussed, and in which the
organization of society, the fundamental principles of government, the
origin of the institution of marriage, the monogamic family, and the
growth of the god-idea, have been the topics under discussion, the
conclusions arrived at have been not wholly warranted by the facts at
hand.
In an investigation of the subject of human development, we must
bear in mind the fact that all the principal existing institutions
have sprung from germs of thought which originated under primitive
conditions of the race. Government, language, marriage, the modern
family, and our present system of the accumulation and distribution
of wealth, have all been evolved from the necessities of early human
existence, or from primitive ideas conceived according to the peculiar
bias which had been given to the female and male organisms prior to
the appearance of mankind upon the earth, and which have since been
developed in accordance with the laws which govern human growth.
With their reasoning faculties still undeveloped, and, according to our
guides, wholly destitute of a moral sense, human beings at the outset
of their career could have had no guiding principle other than those
instincts which they inherited from their mute progenitors. Therefore,
in order fully to understand the status of the human race as it emerged
from its animal conditions, we must bear in mind the nature of the
inheritance which it had received during its passage from a formless
lump of carbon, or an infinitesimal jelly dot in the primeval sea, to a
creature endowed with sympathy, affection, courage, and perseverance.
We must not lose sight of the fact that passion, the all-absorbing
quality developed in males belonging to the orders lower in the scale
of being, must have been conveyed without diminution or material change
to man. Neither must we forget that those qualities in the female which
had been developed for the protection of the germ, and by which she
was enabled to hold in check the abnormally developed appetites of the
male, were still in operation.
That Nature disdains arbitrary rules, and that she pays little heed to
the proprieties established by man, are facts everywhere to be observed
among the lower orders of life. She nevertheless jealously guards the
germ and the young of the species. The mother is the natural guardian
of prenatal and infant life, and as such, under natural conditions, is
usually able to control the sexual relation.
Failing to note the fact that among the orders of life below mankind
the female chooses her mate, and failing also to observe that through
the natural adjustment of the sexual relations his instincts are
checked by her will, nearly if not all the writers upon this subject
have declared that women and men at the outset of the human career
lived in a state of “lawlessness” or “promiscuity,” similar no doubt to
that which at the present time would prevail in a community in which
women were utterly devoid of influence, and in which there were no laws
regulating the intercourse of the sexes.
By the most trustworthy writers on the subject of the primitive
conditions of the human race, it is believed that the most archaic
organization of society was that founded on the basis of sex, but, as
in the infancy of the race, prior to the inauguration of the system
based on sex, and during the long ages which were spent merely in
gaining a subsistence, no organized form of society existed, it is held
that the order which is observed among creatures lower in the scale
of life was suspended, and that the universal law which had hitherto
regulated the relations of the sexes, and which throughout the ages of
life on the earth had held in check the lower instincts of the male,
became immediately inoperative.
Here the common ground of belief ceases, and each writer branches off
upon his own peculiar line of argument, appropriating and arranging the
facts observed by explorers and investigators in the various lines of
inquiry according to his own preconceived notions, or as best suits the
particular scheme of development which he essays to establish.
In the following pages the attempt will be made to show that the facts
which in these later years have been brought to light concerning the
development of the human race are in strict accord with the facts as
enunciated by scientists relative to the development of the orders
of life below man, and that together they form a connected chain of
evidence going to prove not only that the higher faculties had their
origin in the female but that the progressive principle has also been
confided to her.
CHAPTER II
THE RELATIONS OF THE SEXES AMONG EARLY MANKIND
We have seen that an investigation of the instincts and habits of
creatures lower in the scale is necessary to an understanding of the
relations which must have existed between the sexes among primitive
races.
Among birds and mammals, the greater differentiation of the nervous
system and the higher pitch of the whole life is associated with
the development of what pedantry alone can refuse to call love. Not
only is there often partnership, co-operation, and evident affection
beyond the limits of the breeding period, but there are abundant
illustrations of a high standard of morality, of all the familiar
sexual crimes of mankind, and every shade of flirtation, courtship,
jealousy, and the like. There is no doubt that in the two highest
classes of animals at least, the physical sympathies of sexuality have
been enhanced by the emotional, if not also intellectual, sympathies
of love.[52]
[52] Geddes and Thomson, _The Evolution of Sex_, p. 266.
It has been observed that among the orders of life below mankind,
except among polygamous species, the female chooses the individual
which is best endowed—the one whose beauty appeals to her æsthetic
taste, or which through his stronger development is best fitted to
assist her in the office of reproduction.
Among the more intelligent species of birds, genuine affection has been
observed, strict monogamy and life-long unions having been established
between mated pairs. Among others, although the conjugal bond is not
life-lasting, so long as the mother-bird is caring for her brood,
constancy to one another is the undeviating rule. We are assured that
with the female Illinois parrot, “widowhood and death are synonymous,”
and that “when a wheatear dies, his companion survives him scarcely a
month.”[53]
[53] Letourneau, _The Evolution of Marriage and the Family_, p. 27.
All eagles are monogamous. Golden eagles live in couples and remain
attached to one another for a hundred or more years, without even
changing their domicile.[54] The conjugal unions of bald-headed eagles,
although they are under no “legal restrictions,” last until the death
of one of the partners. Among birds, although incubation rests with
the mother, the father usually assists his companion. He not only
takes her place if she desires to leave the nest for a moment, but
also provides her with food.[55] So perfect is the bird family life
that Brehm declares that “real genuine marriage can only be found
among birds.”[56] Upon this subject we are informed that “examples
of wandering fancy are for the most part rare among the birds, the
majority of whom are monogamous, and even superior to most men in the
matter of conjugal fidelity.”[57]
[54] J. G. Wood, _Natural History_, p. 262.
[55] Westermarck, _The History of Human Marriage_, p. 11.
[56] Brehm, _Bird-Life_.
[57] Letourneau, _The Evolution of Marriage and the Family_, p. 27.
Concerning mammals, it is observed that although polygamy is frequent
“it is far from being the conjugal regime universally adopted; monogamy
is common, and is sometimes accompanied by so much devotion that it
would serve as an example to human monogamists.”[58] Bears, weasels,
whales, and many other animals choose their mates and go in pairs.
Several kinds of monkeys are strictly monogamous.[59] Chimpanzees are
sometimes polygamous and sometimes monogamous. It is stated what when a
strong male has succeeded in driving away the other males of the group,
the females, although in a position to subjugate him, are nevertheless
kind and even tender toward him. They are doubtless too much occupied
with their legitimate functions to rebel, but so soon as the young
of the horde are grown, the usurper is driven from their midst. A
little observation will show us that even among polygamous species,
it is affection rather than strength which keeps the members of a
group together. Although among most of the lower orders the female
exercises a choice in the selection of her mate, still among animals of
polygamous habits the female is said to manifest genuine affection for
the father of her offspring.
[58] _Ibid._, p. 35.
[59] Darwin, _The Descent of Man_, p. 590.
The polygamic regime of animals is far from extinguishing affectionate
sentiments in the females towards their husband and master. The
females of the guanaco lamas, for example, are very faithful to
their male. If the latter happens to be wounded or killed, instead
of running away, they hasten to his side, bleating and offering
themselves to the shots of the hunter in order to shield him, while,
on the contrary, if a female is killed, the male makes off with all
his troop; he only thinks of himself.[60]
[60] Letourneau, _The Evolution of Marriage and the Family_, p. 32.
Although among animals a stray male will sometimes drive away or kill
all the other males of the group, and himself become the common mate of
all the females, they peaceably accepting the situation, so far as I
can find, female insects, birds, and mammals, although they generally
control the sexual relation, have never been given to polyandry; the
reason for this can be explained only through a careful analysis of
the fundamental bias of the female constitution. We must bear in mind
that although among the orders of life below mankind the male is ready
to pair with any female, she, on the other hand, when free to choose,
can be induced to accept the attentions only of the one which by his
courage, bravery, or personal beauty has won her favours. We have noted
the fact that in the earliest ages of the human race this choice was
exercised by women, but we have no reason to believe that anything
resembling “promiscuity” ever prevailed among primitive races. It is
true that under earlier conditions the institution of marriage as it
exists at the present time had not appeared; yet the law which had
been impressed on the higher organism of the female, until overcome by
males through means which will be treated of later in these pages, had
sufficed to keep the animal instincts under subjection, or at least on
a level with those of the lower species which structurally had been
left behind.
From facts to be gathered, not alone from among the lower orders, but
from observations among human beings as well, it would seem that any
degree of affection for more than one individual at the same time is
contrary to the female nature. A female insect, or bird, which feels a
preference for a particular mate will pair with no other, hence, among
orders where the female instincts control the relations between the
sexes, “lawlessness” or promiscuity would not prevail.
A little observation and reflection, I think, will show us that the
affection of the female is a character differing widely from the sex
instinct of the male—that, while selfishness constitutes the underlying
principle of the latter, the former involves not only care for the
young and the unity of the group, but, when human conditions are
reached, it involves also country, civilization, and the ultimate
brotherhood of mankind.
If we bear in mind the conditions surrounding the orders of life from
which the human race has sprung, and if we remember the nature of
the characters inherited by mankind from these orders, together with
the important fact that the lower instincts among them were under
subjection to the higher faculties, we shall be enabled to see that
the more degraded of the extant savage tribes cannot represent the
primitive race as it emerged from the animal type.
Mr. Tylor must have been mindful of the altruistic character of early
races when he remarked: “Without some control beyond the mere right
of the stronger, the tribe would break up in a week, whereas in fact
savage tribes last on for ages.”[61]
[61] _Anthropology_, p. 405.
Concerning the relations of the sexes under unorganized society nothing
may be known from actual observation, as, at the present time, no tribe
or race is to be found under absolutely primitive conditions. Perhaps
from no extant people is there so little information in reference to
the earliest human state to be gleaned as from the lowest existing
races. Among many of these tribes the rules which it has been necessary
to establish for the regulation of the relations between the sexes
are rigorously enforced, while among others a laxity prevails which
would seem to indicate an almost total lack of those higher instincts
which are observed among nearly all the lower orders of beings. The
following fact, however, in regard to these races, has been observed:
the more primitive they are, or the less they have come in contact with
civilization, the more strictly do they observe the rules which have
been established for the governance of the sexual relation. On this
subject Mr. Parkyns says:
I don’t believe that there exists a nation, however high in the scale
of civilization, that can pick a hole in the character of the lowest,
without being in danger of finding one nearly, if not quite, as big
in its own. The vices of the savage are, like his person, very much
exposed to view. Our own nakedness is not less unseemly than his,
but is carefully concealed under the convenient cloak which we call
“civilization,” but which I fear he, in his ignorance, poor fellow,
might, on some occasions, be led to look upon as hypocrisy.[62]
[62] _Life in Abyssinia_, vol. ii., p. 152.
In the West Indian Islands where Columbus landed, lived tribes which
are represented as having been “the most gentle and benevolent of the
human race.” Regarding these Mr. Tylor remarks:
Schomburgk, the traveller, who knew the warlike Caribs well in their
home life, draws a paradise-like picture of their ways, where they
have not been corrupted by the vices of the white men; he saw among
them peace and cheerfulness and simple family affection, unvarnished
friendship, and gratitude not less true for not being spoken in
sounding words; the civilized world, he says, has not to teach them
morality, for, though they do not talk about it, they live in it.[63]
[63] Tylor, _Anthropology_, p. 406.
The men who with Captain Cook first visited the Sandwich Islands
reported the natives as modest and chaste in their habits; but, later,
after coming in contact with the influences of civilization, modesty
and chastity among them were virtues almost entirely unknown. The same
is true of the people of Patagonia.
Barrow says of the Kaffir woman that she is “chaste and extremely
modest,” and we are told that among this people banishment is the
penalty for incontinence for both women and men. Of the reports which
from time to time come from the aborigines of certain portions of
Australia relative to the lewdness of the women, Mr. Brough Smyth says
that they are irreconcilable with the severe penalties imposed for
unchastity in former times amongst the natives of Victoria.[64] This
writer is of the opinion that the lewd practices reported are modern,
and that they are the result of communication with the poor whites. We
are assured that the women of Nubia are virtuous, that public women
are not tolerated in the country.[65] Also that in Fiji adultery is one
of the crimes generally punished with death.[66]
[64] Quoted by Westermarck, _History of Human Marriage_, p. 61.
[65] Burckhardt’s _Travels in Nubia_, p. 146.
[66] Seeman, _A Mission to Viti_, p. 191.
Marsden observes that in Sumatra “the old women are very attentive to
the conduct of the girls, and the male relations are highly jealous
of any insults that may be shown them.”[67] The same writer says that
prostitution for hire is unknown in the country; adultery is punishable
by fine, but the crime is rare. Regarding the conduct of men toward
women he remarks: “They preserve a degree of delicacy and respect
toward the sex which might justify their retorting on many of the
polished nations of antiquity the epithet of barbarism.”[68]
[67] _History of Sumatra_, p. 230.
[68] _Ibid._, p. 226.
Crantz says that among the Greenlanders single persons have rarely
any connection.[69] According to the testimony of St. Boniface, the
punishment for unchastity among the early Germans was death to the man,
while the woman was driven naked through the streets.[70]
[69] _History of Greenland_, vol. i., p. 145.
[70] _Epistle of St. Boniface to Ethelbald._
Among the Central Asian Turks we are assured that a fallen girl is
unknown. Mr. Westermarck, quoting from Klemm, states that although
among the Kalmucks and gypsies the girls take pride in having gallant
affairs, they are “dishonoured if they have children previous to
marriage.” The same writer quotes also from Winwood Reade, who says
that among the Equatorial Africans “a girl who disgraces her family by
wantonness is banished from her clan; and, in cases of seduction, the
man is severely flogged.”[71]
[71] _History of Human Marriage_, p. 62.
Mr. Westermarck adduces much testimony going to show that the
“lawlessness” of lower races is due not to inherent vicious tendencies,
but to the evil associations of civilized peoples. He is of the opinion
that the licentiousness among many of the South Sea Islanders owes its
origin to the intercourse of the natives with Europeans; and of the
tribes who once inhabited the Adelaide Plains, quoting from Mr. Edward
Stephens who went to Australia half a century ago, he says:
Those who speak of the natives as a naturally degraded race, either do
not speak from experience, or they judge them by what they have become
when the abuse of intoxicants and contact with the most wicked of the
white race have begun their deadly work. As a rule, to which there
are no exceptions, if a tribe of blacks is found away from the white
settlement, the more vicious of the white men are most anxious to make
the acquaintance of the natives, and that, too, solely for purposes of
immorality.... I saw the natives and was much with them before those
deadly immoralities were well known ... and I say it fearlessly, that
nearly all their evils they owed to the white man’s immorality and to
the white man’s drink.[72]
[72] _The History of Human Marriage_, p. 68.
We are informed that wherever certain vices prevail among the lower
races in America, Africa, or Asia, they have been carried to them by
the whites. Were it necessary to do so, scores of examples could be
adduced going to show that among primitive tribes, until corrupted by
our later civilization, chastity is the universal rule.
Although many of the writers who have dealt with this subject have
discoursed freely on the laxity of the conjugal bond among so-called
primitive tribes, and the lawlessness which characterizes lower races
in their sexual relations, they have failed to account satisfactorily
for some of the customs and usages which appear connected with many
of the early forms of marriage,—forms which would seem to indicate a
degree of modest reserve on the part of these peoples which fail to
comport with the popular theory concerning their lawlessness and innate
indecency.
We have seen that although among the orders of life below mankind there
are no arbitrary laws governing the relations of the sexes, there
nevertheless exists a system of natural marriage which in no wise
resembles promiscuity. Now it was under this natural system controlled
by the higher instincts developed within the female organism, that the
extreme “lawlessness” indicated by the savants prevailed—lawlessness
seeming to denote that state of female independence in which women were
personally free, or in which they were not held in actual bondage as
captive wives. In the reasoning of many of our guides in this matter it
is implied, if not actually asserted, that the freedom of women which
is now known to have prevailed in earlier times denotes a state of
laxity in morals, a condition of society directly contrary to the facts
which they themselves have recorded relative to existing tribes under
less advanced conditions of life, and which would seem to argue for
these peoples a sense of decency which among the masses in civilized
countries is almost entirely wanting. At the dawn of human existence,
had no higher instincts been developed than passion, or the desire for
selfish gratification, whence could have arisen this reserve, and these
ideas of chastity and modesty which are observed among many of the less
developed peoples, notably those which have not come in contact with
the higher races? Upon this subject Mr. Tylor remarks: “Yet even among
the rudest clans of men, unless depraved by vice or misery and falling
to pieces, a standard of family morals is known and lived by.”[73]
[73] _Anthropology_, chap, xvi., p. 405.
Observing the habits of the lower animals, Mr. Darwin cannot believe
that promiscuous intercourse prevailed among the early races of
mankind.
At a very early period, before man attained to his present rank in the
scale, many of his conditions would be different from what now obtains
amongst savages. Judging from the analogy of the lower animals he
would then either live with a single female, or be a polygamist.[74]
[74] _The Descent of Man_, p. 594.
We have much evidence going to prove that the marriage contracts among
the lower races are well kept. According to Cook, in Tahiti, although
nothing more is necessary for the consummation of a valid marriage than
an agreement between the parties, these contracts are usually well
kept. In case of the disaffection of either party, a divorce is easily
obtained. We are assured, however, that although the Tahiti women have
the undisputed right to dissolve the marriage contract at will, they
are nevertheless “as faithful to their husbands as in any part of the
world.” The Veddahs, who are ranked among the most primitive races, are
a strictly monogamous people.[75] Of the extreme modesty of married
pairs among many of the lower races we have much proof. Among the
Fijians, husbands and wives do not usually spend the night together,
except as it were by stealth, and it is said to be contrary to their
ideas of delicacy that they should sleep under the same roof.[76]
Wholly from a sense of reserve or modesty, the Arab wife remains for
months, possibly for a whole year, with her mother before taking up
her abode in her husband’s tent. The extreme delicacy of the customs
regulating the behaviour of married pairs in ancient Sparta are well
understood. According to Xenophon and Strabo, it was the custom, not
only among the Spartans but among the Cretans also, for married pairs
to meet clandestinely. The same custom prevailed in ancient Lycia.
Lafitau says that among the North American Indians the husband visits
his wife only by stealth.[77]
[75] _Ibid._, p. 591.
[76] Seeman, _A Mission to Viti_, p. 191.
[77] Quoted by Sir John Lubbock, _Origin of Civilization_, p. 82.
It is stated by trustworthy authorities that among various tribes,
during the period of gestation and lactation, the person of the wife
is sacred; that the rule of chastity, or continence, between married
pairs, during this season, is absolutely inviolate. In Fiji, women
furnish natural nourishment to their children for three or four years,
during which time their persons are respected.
The relatives of the women take it as a public insult if any child
should be born before the customary three or four years have elapsed,
and they consider themselves in duty bound to avenge it in an equally
public manner.
Mr. Seeman says:
I heard of a white man, who, being asked how many brothers and sisters
he had, frankly replied, “ten.” “But that could not be,” was the
rejoinder of the natives, “one mother could scarcely have so many
children.”
When told that these children were born at annual intervals, and that
such occurrences were common in Europe, they were very much shocked,
and thought it explained sufficiently why so many white people were
“mere shrimps.” After childbirth, among the Fijians, husband and
wife separate and live apart for three and even four years, “so that
no other baby may interfere with the time considered necessary for
suckling the children, in order to make them strong and healthy.”[78]
[78] Seeman, _A Mission to Viti_, p. 191.
Through such wise regulations as these, governing the sexual relations,
the drain on the vital forces observed among the women of civilized
countries is avoided, and it was doubtless to these rules and others
of a similar character that women, throughout untold ages of human
existence, were enabled to maintain a position of independence and
supremacy. We are informed that among the Fijians the birth of a child
is cause for a perfect jubilee; that parental and filial affection
is among the manifest virtues of this people. After referring to the
truthfulness and honesty of the Dyaks of Borneo, Mr. Wallace says that
“in several matters of morality they rank above most uncivilized, and
even above many civilized, nations. They are temperate in food and
drink, and the gross sensuality of the Chinese and Malays is unknown
among them.”[79] Although the usual checks to population are absent
among the Dyaks—namely, starvation, disease, war, infanticide, and
vice,—still the women in the Dyak tribe rarely had more than three or
four children. In a village in which there were one hundred and fifty
families, in only one of them were there six children, and only six
with five children.
[79] _The Malay Archipelago._
In whatever direction we turn, evidences are abundant going to prove
that under simpler and more natural conditions, and before corrupted by
our later civilization, mankind were governed largely by the instincts
developed within the female constitution, and that long after her
supremacy over the male was lost, the effects of these purer conditions
were manifest in the customs, forms, and usages of the people.
From the evidence at hand it seems more than likely that many of the
extant tribes have at some remote period been civilized, and that
through some natural catastrophe, the unfavourable conditions of
climate and soil, or some other equally disadvantageous cause, they
have again sunk to a low plane of existence from which they have been
unable to rise. From available facts one is almost led to believe
that at a period in the remote past, and while living under purer
conditions, a high stage of civilization was reached, a civilization
which in many respects was equal if not superior to that of the
present. Be this as it may, whenever the environment of a people is
such that after having reached a certain stage it is unable to advance,
it does not remain stationary, but on the contrary follows a line of
retrogression; or, whenever the conditions of a race or tribe are such
that the higher faculties which tend towards progress lie dormant,
the lower forces which incline toward retrogression and which are
peculiarly active in low organisms still continue in operation.
Although the social arrangement of the native Australians seems to be
founded on classes based on sex—the earliest form of society—still we
find them practising polygamy and monogamy side by side, at the same
time securing their wives by capture in exactly the same fashion as did
the early Greeks and Romans. It is apparent, therefore, that although
this people have not been able to advance in the arts of life, as far
as the relations of the sexes are concerned they have taken about
the same course as have all the other tribes and races in which the
supremacy of the male has been gained. For unknown reasons, during
thousands of years, the developing agencies have been quiescent, hence
no check to the animal instincts has been interposed; the Australians
have therefore departed widely from the conditions which surrounded
early human society—conditions under which the maternal instincts
developed in the lower orders of life were still sufficiently strong
to guard the constructive processes and to continue the chain of
uninterrupted progress.
As among the lowest existing tribes—peoples which during countless
ages have been unable to advance—only the ruder elements in the human
composition have been developed, it is plain that from these tribes
little if any information concerning an earlier or more natural age,
when the animal instincts were controlled by the higher characters
developed in human nature, may be obtained; but from those peoples
within the several successive stages of development whose environment
has been such as to admit of some degree of improvement in the arts of
life, and in whom therefore the higher characters developed in their
mute progenitors have not been in a state of retrogression, may be
obtained a clue to many of the processes by which our present social
fabric has been raised. Among such peoples will be retained certain
symbols, habits, and traditions representing former modes of life,
from which may be reconstructed much of the previous history of the
race. For instance, by means of the symbol of wife-capture, a form
of marriage which is universal among tribes in a certain stage of
development, has been furnished much trustworthy information relative
to the institution of marriage and the development of the modern
family. It matters not that the origin of these symbols is so remote
that their true significance is lost by the peoples who practise them,
they nevertheless repeat with unerring fidelity the past experiences
of the race and reveal the origin of later institutions.
As the various tribes and races of mankind have probably sprung from a
common progenitor, and as the “nerve cells in the brain of all classes
and orders have had the same origin,” their development, although not
identical as to time and manner of detail, has been similar in outline
and in general results; so it is thought that a correct knowledge of
the development of any tribe or race from savagery to civilization must
necessarily involve the general history of all the tribes and races of
mankind.
CHAPTER III
THE GENS—WOMEN UNDER GENTILE INSTITUTIONS
The earliest form of organized society was that into classes founded
on the basis of sex,[80] under which the right of individuals to
intermarry was restricted to one-fourth of the group. This division
of the early race, and the regulations prohibiting conjugal relations
with three-fourths the members of the related community, is thought
to represent the first coercive abridgment or formal restriction of
the then existing conjugal rights, and was inaugurated for the purpose
of averting the evil effects arising from intercourse between near
relations. Of this early form of society, however, and of the ages
during which no organized form existed, little may be known except that
which is suggested by the instincts and habits of the highest animals,
and that which may be inferred from an investigation of the next
higher organization, that into gentes on the basis of kin. Although
untold ages intervened between the ancient division of society into
classes founded on the basis of sex, and the higher and more important
organization into gentes on the basis of kin, this last-named plan for
the further development of mankind became universal at a comparatively
early stage of human history.
[80] Morgan, _Ancient Society_, p. 52.
By an investigation of the fundamental principles of the gens, we
shall be enabled to observe the similarity existing between the
instincts which governed early human action and those which controlled
the highest orders of life below mankind. All facts bearing on the
primitive conditions of the human race, which in these later times
have been brought to light through the investigations directed
toward peoples in the various stages of development, only serve to
emphasize the importance of the altruistic principle in the formation
of organized society and in the establishment of human institutions.
Although the gens is the earliest form of organized society of which we
have any accurate knowledge, still as within it were encysted the germs
of all the principles of justice and equality which our better human
nature is beginning again to recognize, and which must characterize a
higher stage of progress, a knowledge of its underlying principles is
necessary to a correct understanding, not only of the past development
of the race and all the existing human institutions, but of the course
to be pursued toward the future advancement of mankind. Of the gens,
Mr. Morgan says:
The gentile organization opens to us one of the oldest and most widely
prevalent institutions of mankind. It furnished the nearly universal
plan of government of ancient society, Asiatic, European, African,
American, and Australian. It was the instrumentality by means of which
society was organized and held together. Commencing in savagery, and
continuing through the three sub-periods of barbarism, it remained
until the establishment of political society, which did not occur
until after civilization had commenced. The Grecian gens, phratry,
and tribe, the Roman gens, _curia_, and tribe find their analogues
in the gens, phratry, and tribe of the American aborigines. In like
manner, the Irish _sept_, the Scottish _clan_, the _phrara_ of the
Albanians, and the Sanskrit _ganas_, without extending the comparison
further are the same as the American-Indian gens, which has usually
been called a clan. As far as our knowledge extends, this organization
runs through the entire ancient world upon all the continents, and it
was brought down to the historical period by such tribes as attained
to civilization.... Gentile society wherever found is the same in
structural organization and in principles of action; but changing from
lower to higher forms with the progressive advancement of the people.
These changes give the history of the development of the same original
conceptions.[81]
[81] _Ancient Society_, pp. 62, 63.
Early society, as observed under gentile institutions, was established
on purely personal and social relations, or, on the basis of the
relations of the individual to the rest of the community, a community
in which each member could trace her or his origin back to the head of
the gens who was a woman. Under gentile institutions, or until the
latter stage of barbarism was reached, each individual, female and
male, constituted a unit in an aggregation or community whose interests
were identical, and as such, to a certain extent, was held responsible
for the safety and general welfare of every member composing the group.
Extreme egoism, as it is the outgrowth of a later age, was unknown;
and sympathy, the chief promoter of the well-being of mankind, a
sprout from the well-established root, maternal affection, was the
predominant characteristic of these primitive groups and the bond
which held society together. Although the manner of reckoning descent
had been changed from the female to the male line, the purely social
organization of the gens, on the basis of kin, was, as has been
observed, in operation at the beginning of our present civilization, at
which time political society supervened, and individuals were no longer
recognized through their relations to a gens or tribe, but through
their relations to the state, county, township, or deme, to which
institutions they must henceforward look for protection and for the
redress of injuries done either to person or property.
Although, until a comparatively recent time, the writers who have dealt
with the subject of primitive society have been of the opinion that the
tribe constituted the earliest organization of society, and that the
gens and the family followed, later investigations show conclusively
that the gens, next to the remote and obscure division into classes,
represents the oldest and most widely spread form of organized society,
and that it was through segmentation or division of this archaic group
that the tribe was formed.
The natural way in which a tribe is formed is from a family or group,
which in time increases and divides into many households, still
recognizing one another as kindred, and this kinship is so thoroughly
felt to be the tie of the whole tribe, that even when there has been
a mixture of tribes, a common ancestor is often invented to make an
imaginary bond of union.[82]
[82] Tylor, _Anthropology_, p. 405.
The gens, until a comparatively recent time in the history of the human
race, was composed of a female ancestor, all her children and all the
children of her daughters, but not of her sons. The sons’ children and
their descendants belonged to the gens of their respective mothers. The
family, as it appears at the present time, was unknown. The gens was
founded on thoroughly democratic principles, each individual composing
the group, both female and male, having a voice in the regulation and
management of all matters pertaining to the general government of the
community. Any injury done to a gentilis was a wrong committed against
the entire gens of which she or he was a member, hence to her or his
kinsmen each individual looked for protection and for redress of
personal wrongs.
The fundamental doctrine of tribal life is unity of blood. Although the
early groups, under the system of female descent, were united by the
actual bond of kinship as traced through mothers, later, when descent
came to be traced through fathers, kinship was to a considerable extent
feigned. Kinship, under the system of male descent, meant not that
the blood of the great father actually flowed in the veins of all the
members of the group, but that under a pretence of unity of blood, they
were bound together by common duties and responsibilities from which
no one of them could escape. By the terms of the compact, every member
must stand by her or his own clan. In fact, in all their movements,
they must act as one individual; their interests were identical and the
quarrel of any member of the group became the quarrel of all counted
within the bond of kinship. If homicide were committed, they judged
and punished the culprit, but if one of their number was slain by an
outsider, the law of blood-feud, which demanded blood in return, was
immediately put into execution. Of the gens Mr. Morgan says:
Within its membership the bond of kin was a powerful element for
mutual support. To wrong a person was to wrong his gens; and to
support a person was to stand behind him with the entire array of this
gentile kindred.[83]
[83] _Ancient Society_, p. 76.
Although in the later ages of gentile government, all the members of
a group were not necessarily bound by blood, from the nature of the
rights conferred, and the obligations imposed, the bond uniting them
was doubtless stronger than that which now unites mere kindred. Of this
tie uniting early groups J. G. Frazer says:
All the members of a totem clan regard each other as kinsmen or
brothers and sisters, and are bound to help and protect each other.
The totem bond is stronger than the bond of blood or family in the
modern sense.[84]
[84] _Totemism_, p. 57.
As Arabia, at the time of Mohammed, was still under gentile
organization, there is perhaps at the present day no country which
affords a better opportunity for the study of several of the successive
stages of human development. At the time indicated, the entire
Arabian peninsula was composed of a multitude of groups varying
in civilization, which were bound together by common privileges,
obligations, and responsibilities and by a real or pretended bond of
kinship traced through males.
In early Arabia a group bound together by a real or feigned unity of
blood was the type or unit of society. Sometimes a confederation of
these smaller groups was formed, but so strong was the bond between
the more closely related groups that they soon broke up into their
original units. The genealogists assert that these groups which were
patriarchal tribes founded on male descent are subdivisions of an
original stock.
At the time of the Prophet the Arabians claimed to trace their descent
from two brothers the sons of Wâil. Prof. W. Robertson Smith informs
us, however, that the name of one of these “brothers” is a feminine
appellation and that it is the designation of a tribe and not of a
person. He says: “The gender shows that the tribal name existed before
the mythical ancestor was invented,” and adds: “The older facts down
to the time of Al-Farazdac personify Taghlib as the daughter not the
son of Wâil. It is not unlikely that the mythical legend of Taghlib and
Bakr originated at a time when the female principle in human affairs
and in the Deity was beginning to give place to the male.”[85]
[85] _Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia_, p. 14.
Within the traditions of the oldest races of which we have any account,
are evidences of a desperate struggle between two races or between the
followers of two opposing principles. In all parts of Arabia “these two
races maintained their ancestral traditions of bitter and persistent
feud.”
Although in Arabia, in the time of the Prophet, descent was traced in
the male line, the evidence is almost unlimited, going to show that
it was not always so, but, on the contrary, that at an earlier age,
relationships were reckoned through women, mothers being the recognized
heads of families and tribal groups. In his work on _Kinship and
Marriage in Early Arabia_, Prof. W. R. Smith says:
If a kinship tribe derives its origin from a great father, we may
argue with confidence that it had the rule that children were of
their father’s tribe and kin; while on the other hand if we find, in
a nation organized on the principle of unity of tribal blood, tribes
which trace their origin to a great mother instead of a great father,
we can feel sure that at some time the tribe followed the rule that
the children belong to the mother and are of her kin. Now among the
Arabs the doctrine of the unity of tribal blood is universal, as
appears from the universal prevalence of the blood-feud. And yet among
the Arab tribes we find no small number that refer their origin to a
female eponym. Hence it follows that in many parts of Arabia kinship
was once reckoned not in the male but in the female line.
In reply to the suggestion that the several families of polygamous
fathers might be designated by the names of their several mothers,
Professor Smith observes:
The point before us, however, is not the use of the mother’s name by
individuals for purposes of distinction, but the existence of kindred
groups whose members conceive that the tie of blood which unites them
into a tribe is derived from and limited by descent from a common
ancestress. That the existence of such a group proves kinship through
women to have been once the rule is as certain as that the existence
of patronymic groups is evidence of male kinship. In most cases of the
kind the female eponym is mythical, no doubt, and the belief in her
existence is a mere inference from the rule of female kinship within
the tribe, just as mythical male ancestors are inferred from a rule of
male kinship. But even if we suppose the ancestress to be historical,
the argument is much the same, for where the bond of maternity is so
strong that it binds together the children of the same mother as a
distinct kindred group against the other children of their father,
there also we may be sure that the children of one mother by different
fathers will hold together and not follow their father. And this is
the principle of female kinship.[86]
[86] _Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia_, pp. 26, 27.
It is stated that the designation of tribal unity by a feminine
appellation “is not an arbitrary fiction of later facts,” but that it
is “one of the old standing figures of Semitic speech.” In Hebrew,
_em_, which means mother, means also stock, race, or community.
The name for a tribal group in Arabia was _hayy_, a term which
indicates life. It is observed that in Hebrew and Arabic _hayy_ is used
in the same sense. “_Hawwa_ is simply a phonetic variation of _hayy_
with a feminine termination,” and “Eve, or _Hawwa_, is so called
because she is the mother of all living, or, more literally, of every
_hayy_.” We are given to understand that, originally, there was no rule
of reckoning kinship in Arabia except by the female line, and that the
change in descent from the female to the male line affected society to
its very roots.
There seems to be little, if any, doubt that a system of reckoning
descent through women once prevailed throughout all the tribes and
races of mankind. In Greece, as late as the beginning of the historic
period, traces of this early custom are to be observed, and, indeed, at
the present time, among many peoples, evidences of it are still extant.
The fact that throughout an earlier age of human existence descent
and all the rights of succession were traced through women, is at the
present time so well established as to require no detailed proofs to
substantiate it. Noting this custom among early races, and observing
also the natural conclusions to be drawn from such a state of society,
a few writers who have dealt with the subject of primitive races have
taken much pains to show that it does not naturally follow that under
these usages the influence of women was supreme; and their theories to
explain this (to them) no doubt singular phenomenon show the extent to
which prejudice and long-established habits of thought have influenced
their investigations. On this subject C. Staniland Wake remarks:
There is strong reason for believing that the practice of tracing
kinship in the female line was very widely observed from a very early
period, but this is very different from the establishment of the
supremacy of women. Where this was found it was due to the development
of the gentile institution and the female kinship which accompanied
it, on which, indeed, that institution was founded.[87]
[87] _Marriage and Kinship_, p. 16.
If, however, during the earlier ages of human existence a system of
kinship through women had been established which was able to produce
the gentile institution, or, if this institution, which was “founded”
on female kinship and dependent upon it, was able through untold ages
to direct all the processes of evolution, even though no other evidence
were at hand to prove it, then women’s influence must have been
well-nigh supreme.
So deeply intrenched has become the idea of woman’s subjection that it
is impossible for many male writers to contemplate a state of society
in which women are not dominated and controlled by men.
Mr. Herbert Spencer’s theory to explain the universal system of kinship
traced through woman involves the same idea of woman’s subserviency to
man, especially in the sexual relation, and is an illustration of the
reasoning usually employed in dealing with this subject.
Although “the very lowest races now existing, Fuegians, Australians,
and Andamanese, show us that, however informally they have originated,
sexual relations of a more or less enduring kind exist,” he is certain
that among the earliest races a state of “lawlessness” must have
prevailed and that “promiscuity” must have been the rule among them;
and this too notwithstanding the fact that among the lower orders
of life from which man has descended, and among the earliest races
of mankind the female chooses her mate and refuses to pair with any
individual except the one of her choice. To account for the universal
system of reckoning descent through the female, Mr. Spencer says that
as the connection between mother and child is more “obvious” than
that existing between the father and his offspring the custom arose
of reckoning descent through females.[88] The fact is observed that
maternal affection without which organized society would have been
impossible, and which alone can explain the system of kinship traced
through women, is entirely ignored by Mr. Spencer.
[88] _Sociology_ vol. i., p. 665.
Noting the reasoning employed by many writers to prove that in the
earliest ages of human existence, the maternal bond was ignored, and
that the child was accounted as being related only to the group, Mr.
Darwin remarks:
But it seems almost incredible that the relationship of the child
to its mother should ever be completely ignored, especially as the
women in most savage tribes nurse their infants for a long time, and
as the lines of descent are traced through the mother alone, to the
exclusion of the father.[89]
[89] _Descent of Man_, p. 588.
We must bear in mind that under archaic usages not only did mothers
nurse their infants two, three, and even four years, but that maternity
was the bond which held together related groups and the source whence
proceeded all property rights and tribal honours; also, that under
the system of female kinship, male parentage was known but habitually
disregarded. Notwithstanding all this, Mr. Spencer can see no reason
for concluding that in the most primitive groups there were no
“individual possessions of women by men.”[90]
[90] _Sociology_, vol. i., p. 665.
The late Sir A. Smith, who had travelled widely in South Africa and was
acquainted with the habits of savages there and elsewhere, expressed
the strongest opinion that “no race exists in which woman is considered
as the property of the community.”[91] The reasoning employed by Mr.
Spencer to disprove the early supremacy of women seems scarcely to
justify his lofty pretensions to intellectual greatness.
[91] Quoted by Darwin, _Descent of Man_, p. 588.
In a state of society in which women were the recognized heads of
families and eponymous groups where children took the mother’s name,
and in which all rights of succession were traced through them, it is
reasonable to suppose that female influence was in the ascendency over
that of the male, and especially so as primitive human beings were
largely controlled by instincts inherited from the orders of life in
which the female chooses her mate and controls the sex-functions.
A knowledge of the customs and tribal usages of the Iroquois Indians
throws much light on the early position of women. When this tribe first
came under the observation of Europeans it was in the first stage of
barbarism, and as the manner and order of development of the various
races of mankind are said to be substantially the same, and as many of
the facts connected with the history of this truly interesting people
through nearly three ethnical periods are accessible, it is thought
that by it, as well as by the Arabians, is afforded an excellent
opportunity for the study of the general history of mankind during
these periods. To Mr. Morgan we are indebted for the results of a
thorough research into the customs, manners, and laws of this people.
Through a knowledge of the rights, privileges, and obligations which
were conferred and imposed on the members of the Iroquois gens while
in the second state of barbarism, we are enabled to perceive the
principles of true democracy upon which gentile institutions are based;
and this is important, for the reason that later in this work I intend
to trace the decline of those principles of liberty and equality
established under female influence and to show the reasons for the
subsequent rise of monarchy, aristocracy, and slavery.
The rights, privileges, and obligations of the Iroquois tribe of
Indians, as enunciated by Mr. Morgan, are as follows:
The right of electing its sachem and chiefs. The right of deposing its
sachem and chiefs. The obligation not to marry in the gens. Mutual
rights of inheritance of the property of deceased members. Reciprocal
obligations of help, defence, and redress of injuries. The right of
bestowing names upon its members. The right of adopting strangers into
the gens. Common religious rites. A common burial place. A council of
the gens.[92]
[92] _Ancient Society_, p. 71.
As this writer truly remarks: “These functions and attributes gave
vitality as well as individuality to the organization, and protected
the personal rights of its members.”
Eligibility to the office of chief was based on personal merit, and
continuance in office depended on the acknowledged fitness of the
individual occupying it. The qualifications required for this office
were personal bravery, ability to lead, and eloquence in council.
The chief exercised no kingly authority over the tribe by which he
was appointed; on the contrary, his personality was respected and
his counsels heeded, not because of his official prerogatives, but
on account of the qualities by which his character was dignified;
therefore so soon as he proved himself unworthy of the trust confided
to him he was deposed by the same agency which had elected him. Hence
may be observed the truly democratic character of the gens.
Concerning the position occupied by women, and the influence which
they exerted in the management of the clan, Ashur Wright, who was for
many years missionary to the Senecas, in 1873, wrote to Mr. Morgan the
following:
As to their family system when occupying the old long houses, it
is probable that some one clan predominated, the women taking in
husbands, however, from the other clans; and sometimes, for a novelty,
some of their sons bringing in their young wives until they felt brave
enough to leave their mothers. Usually the female portion ruled the
house, and were doubtless clannish enough about it. The stores were in
common; but woe to the luckless husband or lover who was too shiftless
to do his share of the providing. No matter how many children or
whatever goods he might have in the house, he might at any time be
ordered to pick up his blanket and budge; and after such orders it
would not be healthful for him to attempt to disobey. The house would
be too hot for him; and, unless saved by intercession of some aunt or
grandmother, he must retreat to his own clan; or, as was often done,
go and start a new matrimonial alliance in some other. The women were
the great power among the clans, as everywhere else. They did not
hesitate, when occasion required, “to knock off the horns,” as it was
technically called, from the head of a chief, and send him back to
the ranks of the warriors. The original nomination of the chiefs also
always rested with them.[93]
[93] _Ancient Society_, p. 455.
In the Lower Status of barbarism we find intermarriage within the gens
prohibited, and the obligation not to marry those accounted as kin as
strong as a religious duty.
Although during the latter ages of savagery the idea of property was
slightly developed, it is thought that it lay nascent until the latter
part of the first period of barbarism. Indeed, until the first stage
of barbarism was reached, the idea of personal possession had gained
only a slight foothold in the mental constitution of mankind. Egoism,
selfishness, or the desire to better one’s individual condition at the
expense of the rest of the gens was unknown. All lands were controlled
by the group, and as the property of early society consisted for the
most part of personal effects and proprietary rights in communal houses
and gardens, one of the most fruitful causes for dissensions in more
advanced stages of society was avoided. Under primitive conditions,
quarrels arising over disputed ownership within the gens were unknown,
and liberty, equality, and fraternity, the cardinal virtues and
principles of early society were able to flourish undisturbed by the as
yet unheard of vices inherent in the excessive desire for property.
In reference to some of the small uncivilized communities which he
visited, Mr. Wallace says that each man respects the rights of his
fellow,
and any infraction of these rights rarely or never takes place. In
such a community all are nearly equal. There are none of those wide
distinctions of education and ignorance, wealth and poverty, master
and servant, which are the product of our civilization; there is none
of that widespread division of labour, which, while it increases
wealth, produces also conflicting interests; there is not that severe
competition and struggle for existence or for wealth which the dense
population of civilized countries inevitably creates.[94]
[94] _The Malay Archipelago._
Under the archaic rule of the gens, at the death of a male, whether
married or single, his possessions descended to his sister’s children;
while at the death of a female, her property, including her personal
effects, was distributed among her sisters and her children and the
children of her daughters, but the children of her sons were not
included among her heirs. The sons’ children belonged to the gentes
of their respective mothers, and as descent and all the relationships
to which rights of succession were attached were traced only in the
female line, and as property until the middle of the Second Status of
barbarism was strictly confined to the gens in which it originated,
children could receive nothing from their fathers. Wives and husbands,
as they belonged to separate gentes, received nothing from one another.
In later times, when tribal honours were confined within certain
families or groups, as descent and property rights were all traced
in the female line, each male was dependent upon his female blood
relations, not only for his common inherited privileges in the gens,
but for any civil or military distinction to which he might attain.
Where female kinship prevails, a Rajah’s son may become a hodman,
taking the state of his mother—while the son of the Rajah’s sister
mounts the throne.[95]
[95] McLennan, _Studies in Ancient History_, p. 103.
Among the Rocch tribe, a people among which descent is traced in the
female line, a man goes on marriage to live with his wife and her
mother, of whose family he is a subordinate member.[96]
[96] C. Staniland Wake, _Marriage and Kinship_, p. 306.
A Rocch man goes, on his marriage, like the _beena_ husband of Ceylon,
to live with his wife and her mother; on his marriage, all his
property is made over to his wife, and on her death her heirs are her
daughters.[97]
[97] _Studies in Ancient History_, p. 103.
For the same reason that wives and husbands were debarred from sharing
in each other’s property, their bodies, or more properly speaking,
their bones, were separated at death, as were also the bones of father
and child. The bones of the children always rested beside those of the
mother. It was impious to mix the bones of unrelated persons. To such
an extent was the Motherright recognized under archaic usages that the
child belonged exclusively to the mother and her relations, the father
having no recognized proprietary right to his offspring. Indeed, so
lightly was the paternal relation regarded that the father was supposed
to have little if any interest in his own children.
Although the bond between a man and his offspring was weak, toward his
sister’s children, as they belonged to the same gens with himself, a
considerable degree of manly interest was manifested; indeed, it has
been stated that about the same solicitude was evinced by him for their
welfare, as was shown at a later time by fathers for the members of
their own household.
Observing the care manifested for a sister’s children among various
tribes, certain writers have declared that the relationship existing
between a child and its mother’s brother is more important than any
other—that the brother is practically the head of his sister’s family.
However, if we bear in mind the relative positions of the sexes in
primitive groups, that women controlled their homes, and that all the
rights of succession were traced through them, we shall doubtless be
led to the conclusion that mothers themselves were the real heads
of their own families, and that although they may have delegated to
their brothers, who until marriage were permitted to reside with them,
certain manly offices, they nevertheless reserved to themselves the
exclusive right to the control and management of their own households.
As the land belonged to the gens, and as the gentes were controlled by
women, mothers were absolutely independent.
Each child received a name soon after birth, but at the age of sixteen
or eighteen this name was discarded and another adopted. Special
rights were thus conferred and specified obligations were imposed. On
receipt of this name, the incumbent took upon himself all the duties
and responsibilities devolving upon a member of the group and by it was
entitled to all its rights and privileges. The greatest precautions
were taken with respect to the adoption of names. The office of naming
the different members belonged to the female relations and the chiefs.
We are informed that the mother might, if she chose, transfer her child
to another gens. This was accomplished by simply giving it the name of
the gens in which she desired its adoption. It is claimed that among
the Shawnees and Delawares the mother claimed the right to transfer
her child to another gens than her own.[98] It would seem from this,
that among certain tribes, the mother, if she desires, may transfer
her child to the gens of its father. It is observed, however, that the
transference of a child from its mother’s gens is a “wide departure
from archaic usages, and exceptional in practice.”
[98] Morgan, _Ancient Society_, p. 79.
It has been shown that under early usages wealth was never transferred
from the gens in which it originated; but later, when property began
to be claimed by individuals, and wealth was amassed in the hands of
males, it is not unlikely that mothers, considering only the future
welfare of their children, in case the father was rich and powerful,
would occasionally take advantage of their established privileges to
remove their children to his gens, in order that they might share in
his possessions.
Something of the humanity practised in early groups may be observed in
the custom of adoption, which, at a certain stage in their development,
prevailed among them. In the earlier ages of gentile institutions,
women and children taken prisoners in war, were usually adopted into
some gens. Adoption not only conferred gentile rights, but also the
nationality of the tribe. A person adopted into a gens was treated ever
afterwards as though born within the group. “Slavery which in the Upper
Status of barbarism became the fate of the captive, was unknown among
tribes in the Lower Status in the aboriginal period.”[99]
[99] Morgan, _Ancient Society_, p. 80.
According to Mariner:
It is customary in the Tonga Islands for women to be what they call
mothers to children or grown-up young persons who are not their own,
for the purpose of providing them, or seeing that they are provided,
with all the conveniences of life.[100]
[100] Quoted by Lubbock, _Origin of Civilization_, p. 96.
According to Mr. E. J. Wood, among the Kaffirs, although the men
inherit the property, their influences being in the ascendency, every
woman has someone who acts as her father whether her own father be
living or not. Kaffir law provides for the protection of all women,
and so long as a male relation lives a girl has a protector. It goes
even farther than this, and protects women who have been bereft of all
their male relations. For such as these provision is made for their
adoption into other groups, in which case, although they are received
as dependents, they are protected as daughters.[101]
[101] _Uncivilized Races of the World_, vol. i., p. 78.
This practice of adoption is observed among various peoples. Among
certain tribes in which descent is traced through women, a woman offers
her breast to the person she is adopting, this being the strongest
symbol of the unity of blood. Thus may be noted the fact that the
fundamental idea, or principle, of tribal life is maternity, or the
maternal instinct—that the uniting force which binds a child to its
mother is the one which is supposed to unite the various members of a
primitive group. So strongly has the maternal instinct as a binding
principle taken root, that among certain peoples even where the manner
of reckoning descent and the rights of succession have been changed
from the female to the male line, whenever an individual wishes to
be adopted into a gens he takes the hand of the leader of the group
and sucking one of his fingers, declares himself to be his child by
adoption; henceforth the new father is bound to assist him as far as he
can.[102] Adoption “by the imitation of nature” was practised by the
Romans down to the time of Augustus.
[102] Parkyns, _Life in Abyssinia_, vol. i., p. 174.
It has been observed that under the matriarchal system the mother was
the only recognized parent, hence, when the father began to assume
the rights and prerogatives which had hitherto belonged only to her,
in order to make valid his claim, it was thought proper for him to go
through various of the preliminaries attendant on childbirth.
Of all the forms practised among lower races there is none, perhaps,
which is more singular than is that of putting the father instead of
the mother to bed in the event of the birth of a child. Concerning this
custom, Mr. Tylor quotes from Klemm the following:
Among the Arawaks of Surinam, for some time after the birth of his
child the father must fell no tree, fire no gun, hunt no large game;
he may stay near home, shoot little birds with a bow and arrow, and
angle for little fish; but his time hanging heavy on his hands, the
most comfortable thing he can do is to lounge in his hammock.[103]
[103] _Early History of Mankind_, p. 296.
Mr. Tylor quotes also from the Jesuit missionary, Dobrizhoffer, who
gives the following account of the Abipones:
No sooner do you hear that the wife has borne a child, than you will
see the Abipone husband lying in bed, huddled up with mats and skins,
lest some ruder breath of air should touch him, fasting, kept in
private, and for a number of days abstaining religiously from certain
viands; you would swear it was he who had had the child.
The custom of putting the father to bed when a child is born is called
_la couvade_, and traces of it are yet to be found in France. It is
also practised among the Basques, and according to C. Staniland Wake,
was anciently observed in Corsica, among the Iberians of Spain, and in
the country south of the Black Sea. It is still practised in Southern
India, in Yunnan, in Borneo, in Kamchatka, and in Greenland. It is said
also to be in use among the various tribes in South America.[104] The
persistency of this practice shows the importance formerly attached
to the maternal functions, and, as has been suggested, was doubtless
inaugurated at a time when descent was being changed from the female to
the male line.
[104] _Marriage and Kinship_, p. 262.
It was perhaps in the latter part of the Middle Status of barbarism
that descent and the rights of succession began to be traced through
males. When, through causes which will be noticed later in this work,
property began to accumulate in the hands of men, children became the
recognized heirs of their fathers and the foundation for the present
form of the family was laid. However, long after descent began to
be reckoned through males, absolute paternity was not necessary to
fatherhood. During the earlier ages of male supremacy, fatherhood, like
brotherhood, was a loose term and signified simply the head of a house,
or the “lord” or owner of the mother. It mattered little whether a man
had previously lent his wife to a friend, or whether he had shared
her favours with several brothers, all the children “born on his bed”
belonged to him and were of his family.
Later in these pages will be observed the fact that the change in
reckoning descent, which occurred at a comparatively late period in
the history of the human race, is directly connected with the means of
subsistence. So long as land was held in common by the members of the
gens, and so long as women were able to manage the means of support,
their independence was secure, and they were able to exercise absolute
control over their own persons, their homes, and their offspring. Under
these conditions men were obliged to please the women if they would win
their favours.
From facts which have been demonstrated by various writers on the
subject of the early conditions of the human race, it is more than
probable that women were the original tillers of the soil, and that,
during the first period of barbarism, while the hunters and warriors
were engaged in war and the chase, occupations best suited to their
taste, women first discovered the art of producing farinaceous food
through cultivation, and through this discovery a hitherto exclusive
diet of fish and game was changed for a subsistence in part vegetable.
It is conjectured also that the first domestication of animals was
brought about through a probable “freak of fancy.” That individuals
among these animals were first caught by hunters, conveyed by them to
their homes, and there tamed through the tenderness and sympathy of
women, is considered more than likely. There are, however, so far as I
know, no actual facts upon which to base such a conclusion.
The increase of subsistence through horticulture and the domestication
of animals marks an important era in the history of mankind. By this
means the human race was enabled to spread itself over distant areas,
and through the improved condition of nutrition alone, by which the
physical conditions were improved and the mental energies strengthened,
the arts of life were multiplied and the course of human activities
directed into higher and more important channels. Indeed, through the
numerous benefits derived from the one source of increased and improved
subsistence, the entire mode of life was changed or materially modified.
The religious idea, which subsequently comprehended a complicated
system of mythology based on phallic worship, at this early age,
consisted simply of a recognition of the bounties of earth. The
principal office connected with the religious ceremonies of the
Iroquois tribe of Indians, at the stage of development in which it was
first known to Europeans, seems to have been “Keeper of the Faith,”
a position occupied alike by both sexes. The Keepers of the Faith
were chosen by the wise members of the group; they were censors of
the people, with power to report the evil deeds of persons to the
council. “With no official head, and none of the marks of a priesthood,
their functions were equal.”[105] For the most part, their religious
services consisted of festivals held at stated seasons to celebrate
the return of the bounties of Nature. A notable fact in connection
with this subject is, that during the earlier ages of barbarism the
religious idea was thoroughly monotheistic, and idolatry was unknown,
religious worship, for the most part, consisting of a ceremony of
thanksgiving, with invocations to the Great Mother-Nature to continue
to them the blessings of life. As altruism waned and egoism advanced,
however, supernaturalism, or a belief in unseen forces, became more
and more pronounced, until, in the Latter Status of barbarism, when
the supremacy of man had become complete, the gens became merely the
“centre of religious influence and the source of religious development.”
[105] Morgan, _Ancient Society_, p. 82.
The earlier governmental functions were administered through a council
of chiefs elected by the gentes. The thoroughly democratic character
of the gens may be observed in the fact that any member, female or
male, who desired to communicate with the council on matters of public
interest, might express her or his opinion either in person or through
an orator of her or his own selection.[106] Hence, we observe that
government originated in the gens, which was a pure democracy.
[106] Morgan, _Ancient Society_, p. 117.
Regarding the council of the gens, Mr. Morgan remarks:
It was a democratic assembly because every adult male and female
member had a voice upon all questions brought before it. It elected
and deposed its sachem and chiefs, it elected Keepers of the Faith, it
condoned or avenged the murder of a gentilis, and it adopted persons
into the gens. It was the germ of the higher council of the tribe, and
of that still higher of the confederacy, each of which was composed
exclusively of chiefs as representatives of the gentes....
All the members of an Iroquois gens were personally free, and they
were bound to defend each other’s freedom; they were equal in
privileges and in personal rights, the sachem and chiefs claiming no
superiority; and they were a brotherhood bound together by the ties of
kin. Liberty, equality, and fraternity, though never formulated, were
cardinal principles of the gens. These facts are material because the
gens was the unit of a social and governmental system, the foundation
upon which Indian society was organized.... At the epoch of European
discovery the American Indian tribes generally were organized in
gentes with descent in the female line. The gens was the basis of the
phratry, of the tribe, and of the confederacy of tribes.[107]
[107] Morgan, _Ancient Society_, p. 85.
From the foregoing it would seem that the gens—the earliest
organization of society of which we have any accurate knowledge—was
founded on the “mother-right” or on the supremacy of women. We are
assured that the gentile organization is not confined to the Latin,
Grecian, and Sanskrit-speaking tribes, but that it has been found “in
other branches of the Aryan family of nations, in the Semitic, Uralian,
and Turanian families, among the tribes of Africa and Australia, and of
the American aborigines.”[108]
[108] _Ibid._, p. 64.
A tribe was composed of several gentes, the chiefs of which formed the
council. This council was invested with the power to declare war and to
regulate terms of peace, to receive embassies and make alliances; it
was in fact authorized to perform all the governmental functions of the
tribe. The duties performed by the council of chiefs may be regarded
as the first attempt at representative government. In process of time,
as the affairs of the tribe became more complicated, a need arose for
a recognized head, one who when the council was not in session could
lead in the adjustment of matters pertaining to the general interest
of the group. In response to this demand, one of the sachems was
invested with a slight degree of authority over the other chiefs. Hence
arose the military chieftain of the Latter Status of barbarism. That
the powers delegated to the incumbent of this office differed widely
from those of a modern monarch, is shown in the fact that as he had
been elected by the members of the group he could by them be deposed.
We have seen that the powers exercised by sachem and chief were alike
transmitted through women. The mother is the natural guardian of the
family; so soon therefore as the actions of the leaders of the group
were not in accord with those principles of equality and justice which
had characterized society since its organization, they were deposed,
or, as in the case of the Senecas described by Ashur Wright, they had
their “horns knocked off” through the influence of women.
At the head of the family, or gens, producing and controlling the
principal means of subsistence, and forming the line of descent and
inheritance, women, until the closing ages of the Middle Status of
barbarism, were without doubt the leading spirits, and thus far the
progress of mankind had been in strict accord with those principles
which since the separation of the sexes had governed development.
In process of time, however, the simple form of government which
has been described was found inadequate to meet the demands arising
from the more complicated requirements of increasing numbers and
the general growth of society; therefore, during the opening ages
of the Latter Status of barbarism, a form of government was evolved
which was better suited to their changed conditions. When the idea
of a coalescence of tribes, or of a combination of forces for common
defence had taken root, and when under such confederation the council
of chiefs had become co-ordinated with a military leader for the
general management and defence of the community, it was thought that an
important step had been taken in progressive governmental functions.
Yet, along with the higher development of the governmental idea is to
be observed also a growing tendency toward the usurpation of power.
Scarcely was the office of military chieftain created, than we find the
people inaugurating measures with which to protect themselves against
encroachments upon their liberties, and devising means whereby they
might be enabled to check the personal ambition of their leaders.
The extreme egoism developed within the male constitution was already
manifesting itself in the excessive greed for gain, and in the
inordinate thirst for military glory; hence, as a safeguard against
usurpation, in the earliest stages of the Latter Status of barbarism,
we find the tribe electing two military chieftains instead of one,
two leaders invested with equal powers and responsibilities and
subjected to the same restrictions and limitations in the exercise
of authority. The Spartan government upon its first appearance in
history is characterized by the existence of two war-chieftains, who,
by historians of later ages, have been designated as kings; a closer
investigation, however, of the functions performed by them shows that
they were lacking in nearly all the prerogatives which characterize a
modern sovereign.
So jealously had the rights of the people been guarded that the
_basileus_ or war-chief of the Latter Status of barbarism, who is said
to represent the germ of our present king, emperor, and president, had
not succeeded in drawing to himself the powers exercised by a monarch
of modern times. The selection of a military leader, during the Latter
Status of barbarism, doubtless represents the first differentiation
of the civil from the military functions of government, and indicates
a virtual acknowledgment of the fact that society had outgrown the
primary and more simple form of government administered by the council
of chiefs.
The third stage in the development of the idea of government was
represented by a council of chiefs, a military commander, and an
assembly of the people. In this further growth of the administrative
functions may be discovered the same solicitude for individual liberty
and the rights of the community which had characterized the former
stage of development, and also the fact that still greater precautions
were deemed necessary to insure the people against tyranny and
the usurpation of their established rights. The council of chiefs,
although representing a pure democracy, and co-ordinated with two
military chieftains, between whom was an equal division of power and
responsibility, was found to be an insufficient safeguard against
despotism; hence the measures devised for the management of the
confederacy must henceforth be subjected to an Assembly of the People,
which, although of itself unable to originate or propound any plan
of government, was invested with the power to accept or reject any
measures offered for adoption by the council.
The gens was able to carry mankind through to the opening ages of
civilization, at which time the council of chiefs was transformed
into a senate, and the Assembly of the People assumed the form of the
popular assembly, from which have been derived our present Congress and
the two houses of the English Parliament.
By a careful study of the growth of government, it is discerned that
liberty, fraternity, and equality were the original and natural
inheritance of the human family, and that tyranny, injustice, and
oppression are excrescences which subsequently fastened themselves upon
human institutions through the gradual rise of the egoistic principle
developed in human nature. We have seen that until the beginning of the
Latter Status of barbarism, the gens constituted a sovereign power in
the tribe; women controlled the gens, and sachem and chief were alike
invested with the authority necessary for leadership because they could
trace their descent to some female ancestor who was the acknowledged
head of the people, and whose influence and patronage must have
extended over all the individuals included within the recognized bond
of kinship.
With the deposing power in the hands of women, and with the precautions
which were taken by them against injustice or usurpation of rights, it
is plain that unless some unusual or unprecedented circumstances had
come into play, they never could have lost that supremacy which, as the
natural result of their development, had been maintained by females
since the separation of the sexes.
CHAPTER IV
THE ORIGIN OF MARRIAGE
I will be master of what is mine own;
She is my goods, my chattels; she’s my house,
My household stuff, my field, my barn,
My horse, my ox, my ass, my everything.
_The Taming of the Shrew._
It is an obvious fact that so far as her sex relations are concerned
the position of civilized woman is lower than that of the female animal.
The question which presents itself at this stage of our inquiry is:
What were the causes which led to the overthrow of female supremacy or
what were the processes by which man gained the undisputed right to the
control of woman’s person? By contrasting the industrial position of
women under gentile institutions with that of later times, after they
had become the sexual slaves of men, it will be seen that the question
of economics is deeply involved in this change. Although the early
independence of women is now recognized, the fact of their industrial
supremacy is for the most part ignored. Indeed the part performed by
woman in originating and developing human industries is seldom referred
to by those dealing with this subject.
As the activities best suited to the tastes of primitive man were
confined to war and the chase, those occupations and pursuits which
were necessary for the preservation of the group were carried on by
women. The reason for this is obvious. Fathers were not regarded as
being related to their offspring. The mother was the only recognized
parent. As the land was held in common, women were economically free.
They were absolutely independent of men for their support. Under these
conditions the importance of women’s position may be easily perceived.
Not only did women establish the first industries, but they invented
and constructed the tools and implements by which these industries
were carried on. Women were the first tillers of the soil. It was they
who conceived the idea of preserving seeds whereby farinaceous food
might be produced. Corn was not only raised by them but by them it
was ground and further prepared for use. They built clay granaries in
which to store their food products and tamed the cat to protect them.
Implements for tilling the soil, and devices for grinding the grain
were invented by women. They were the first architects and the first
builders. They first conceived the idea of making cloth with which to
protect the body. They were the first spinners and the first weavers.
They invented the first spindles and the first looms. Their attempts
at decoration were the beginning of art.
As these pioneers in industry were without means of transportation
other than their backs, some of the difficulties which they encountered
may be readily perceived. It must be borne in mind that for primitive
women there was no accumulated store of knowledge and no previous
race-experiences; neither were there any established rules or
precedents to guide them. All methods and utilities had to be worked
out by woman’s unaided brain. When the conditions under which these
pioneers in industry laboured are considered, and when one reflects
on the obstacles which must have presented themselves at every step
along their untried pathway, it would almost seem that their early
achievements were quite as remarkable as are those which have since
been accomplished by men.
The fact is observed that woman assumed the rôle of protector and
provider, not as is commonly asserted because she was compelled by
man to become a beast of burden, but because she was the recognized
guardian not only of infant life but of the public welfare. Later,
after the primitive groups began to coalesce to form the tribe, after
wife-capture became prevalent and men thereby secured the right to the
control and ownership of individual women, a right which they still
claim, then and not till then did women become beasts of burden. Then
and not till then did man gain the right to the control of woman’s
person.
It is now known that wife-capture is the origin of our present form
of marriage, and that the establishment of the family with man at its
head rests on the same basis. It is also known that through forcible
marriage and the economic conditions which it entailed, woman became
a dependent, a mere appendage to her male mate. The dominion of man
and the assumed inferiority of woman are the direct results of the
authority which he was able to exercise over her in the marital
relation.
We have seen that prior to the decline of female influence women taken
prisoners in war were not regarded as the legitimate property of their
captors. On the contrary, female captives were adopted into the gens
and invested with the same status of personal independence enjoyed by
the original members of the group. Later, however, female prisoners
began to be regarded as the special booty of their captors, and as
belonging exclusively to them; and although in primitive times marriage
outside the limits of related groups was prohibited, owing to the
esteem in which military chieftains came to be held, this claim was at
length allowed them. Any courageous young warrior, conscious of his
popularity, might gather about him a band of his clansmen and march
against a neighbouring tribe, the women taken prisoners during such
expeditions being the special prizes of their captors.
These prisoners were entitled to none of the privileges of the
community into which they were taken; and as the hostility felt toward
unrelated tribes had become so strong as to be shared by women, the
captive woman could no longer look for pity even from her own sex.
From this time in the history of the race may be traced the decline
of woman’s power and the subjection of the natural female impulses.
As, at this stage, within the limits of their own tribe, women held
the balance of power in their own hands, and as they still exercised
unqualified control over their own persons, the acknowledged ownership
of one woman, who, being a “stranger,” was without power or influence,
would be an object much to be desired, and one for which a warrior
would not hesitate to brave the dangers of a hostile camp. Hence,
female captives were in demand, and the women of warring tribes were
sought after singly and in groups. In process of time wars for wives
became general and under the new regime women had the fear of captivity
constantly before their view as a condition more to be dreaded than
death.
In the _Mahabharata_ of India it is stated that formerly “women were
unconfined and roved about at their pleasure, independent.” Finally,
marriage was instituted and a woman was bound to a man for life. One
of the eight forms of legalized marriage in the code of Manu was that
of capture _de facto_ and was called _Racshasa_. This particular form
of conjugal union was practised exclusively by the military classes,
among which, the women taken in battle were the acknowledged booty of
their captors. A definition of this kind of marriage is as follows:
“The seizure of a maiden by force from her house while she weeps and
calls for assistance, after her kinsmen and friends have been slain in
battle or wounded, and their houses broken open, is the marriage called
_Racshasa_.”
Capture as the prescribed form of marriage for warriors may be traced
through thousands of years and among various peoples. Of the three
legalized forms of marital union in Rome, that by capture was the one
in use among the plebeians, the patricians at the same time practising
_Confarreatio_ and _Usus_. In Arabia, as late as Mohammed’s time, the
carrying off of women was recognized as a legal form of marriage.[109]
[109] W. Robertson Smith, _Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia_, p. 73.
That capture constituted a legal form of marriage among the Israelites,
or that women taken captives in war were appropriated as sexual slaves,
is shown by their religious history, in which the instructions given
to the Lord’s chosen people after they had taken a city was to “smite
every male thereof with the edge of the sword: But the women, and the
little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city” they were to
take unto themselves. This, it will be noticed, is to be done “unto
the cities which are very far off,” and which “are not of the cities of
these nations.”[110]
[110] Deuteronomy, chap. xx., 13, 14, 15.
When the Israelites 12,000 strong marched against the Midianites, they
were commanded by Moses to slay all the males, adults and children,
and all the women except the virgins. These virgins of whom there
were 32,000 were to be spared and utilized as wives by the victorious
Israelites. The fact will be noted that these women had been taken
from their own people, hence they were wholly without influence or
power. They were dependents and therefore subject to the will of their
masters. They were sexual slaves or wives.
In Australia, among the North American Indians, the tribes of the
Amazon and the Orinoco, in Hindustan and Afghanistan, marriage by
actual capture is still practised, and many of the details connected
with the _modus operandi_ have been given by various writers. The
following from Sir George Gray, relative to this form of marriage as it
exists at the present time among some of the native Australian tribes,
is quoted by Mr. J. F. McLennan.
Although a woman give no encouragement to her admirers,
many plots are laid to carry her off, and in the encounters which
result from these, she is almost certain to receive some violent
injury, for each of the combatants orders her to follow him, and in
the event of her refusing, throws a spear at her. The early life of a
young woman at all celebrated for beauty is generally one continued
series of captivity to different masters, of ghastly wounds, of
wanderings in strange families, of rapid flights, of bad treatment
from other females, amongst whom she is brought a stranger by her
captor; and rarely do you see a form of unusual grace and elegance,
but it is marked and scarred by the furrows of old wounds; and many
a female thus wanders several hundred miles from the home of her
infancy, being carried off successively to distant and more distant
points.[111]
[111] _Studies in Ancient History_, p. 40.
In an account describing the search for wives by the natives of Sydney,
Collins says:
The poor wretch is stolen upon in the absence of her protectors. Being
first stupefied with blows, inflicted with clubs or wooden swords,
on the head, back, and shoulders, every one of which is followed by
a stream of blood, she is then dragged through the woods by one arm,
with a perseverance and violence that it might be supposed would
displace it from its socket. This outrage is not resented by the
relations of the female, who only retaliate by a similar outrage when
they find an opportunity. This is so constantly the practice among
them that even the children make it a play game, or exercise.[112]
[112] Quoted by Sir J. Lubbock, _Origin of Civilization_, p. 108.
By various travellers and explorers, the fact has been observed that
certain symbols representing force in their marriage ceremonies are in
use among nearly if not all extant tribes which have reached a certain
stage of growth. To such an extent, in an earlier age, has the forcible
carrying-off of women prevailed, that among most of these tribes a
valid marriage may not be consummated without the appearance of force
in the nuptial ceremonies. In reference to these symbols, we have the
following passage from Mr. McLennan:
Meantime, we observe that, whenever we discover symbolical forms,
we are justified in inferring that in the past life of the people
employing them, there were corresponding realities; and if, among the
primitive races which we examine, we find such realities as might
naturally pass into such forms on an advance taking place in civility,
then we may safely conclude (keeping within the conditions of a sound
inference) that what these now are, those employing the symbols once
were.[113]
[113] _Studies in Ancient History_, p. 5.
Among primitive tribes, the area controlled by each was small,
therefore vigilance in maintaining their possessions was one of their
chief duties, and hostility to surrounding tribes a natural condition.
Subsequently, however, when friendly relations began to be established
with hitherto hostile tribes, they are found entering into negotiations
to furnish each other with wives. It was at this time that marriage by
sale or contract was instituted, an arrangement by which the elder men
in the tribe could be accommodated with foreign wives, at the same time
that their own daughters and sisters became to them a source of revenue.
In Uganda many men obtain wives by exchanging daughters and sisters
with each other. Of this practice C. Staniland Wake says:
This is not an unusual mode of proceeding in different parts of
the world. The perpetuation of the monopoly of women enjoyed to a
great extent by the older men of the tribe among the Australians
is, according to Mr. Howitt, encouraged by those having sisters or
daughters to exchange with each other for wives.[114]
[114] _Marriage and Kinship_, p. 207.
Not unfrequently actual capture is practised side by side with
fiction—violent seizure being in active operation among the same tribes
at the same time with the symbol, the frequency of actual violence
depending partly on the extent to which hostility prevails between the
tribes, and partly on the degree of “uniformity established by usage in
the prices paid for wives.” Among certain tribes, when a dispute arises
concerning the price to be paid for a bride, if the man is able to
seize the woman and carry her off to his tent, the law recognizes her
as his wife and nothing is left for the relations to do in the matter
but to accept his terms as to the price.
The peoples among which actual capture is at present practised, and
those among which wives are procured by sale or contract, represent two
different stages in the development of the institution of marriage, and
it is owing to this fact that the symbols used among the latter may be
traced to the realities in which they originated.
Of the Bedouins of Mt. Sinai, Burckhardt says that marriage is a
matter of sale and purchase, in which the inclination of the girl is
disregarded.
The young maid comes home in the evening with the cattle. At a short
distance from the camp she is met by the future spouse and a couple
of his young friends, and carried off by force to her father’s tent.
If she entertains any suspicion of their designs she defends herself
with stones, and often inflicts wounds on the young men, even though
she does not dislike the lover, for, according to custom, the more she
struggles, bites, kicks, cries, and shrieks, the more she is applauded
ever after by her own companions.[115]
[115] Quoted by E. J. Wood, _The Wedding Day_, etc., p. 60.
In reference to the Mezeyne Arabs the same writer observes that a
similar custom prevailed within the limits of the Sinai Peninsula, but
not among the other tribes of that province.
A girl having been wrapped in the Abba at night, is permitted to
escape from her tent, and fly into the neighbouring mountains.
The bridegroom goes in search of her next day, and remains often
many days before he can find her out, while her female friends are
apprised of her hiding-place, and furnish her with provisions. If
the husband finds her at last (which is sooner or later, according to
the impression that he has made upon the girl’s heart), he is bound
to consummate the marriage in the open country, and to pass the night
with her in the mountains. The next morning the bride goes home to her
tent, that she may have some food; but again runs away in the evening
and repeats these flights several times, till she finally returns to
her tent. She does not go to live in her husband’s tent until she is
far advanced in pregnancy; if she does not become pregnant, she may
not join her husband till a full year from the wedding-day.[116]
[116] Quoted by E. J. Wood, _The Wedding Day_, etc., p. 60.
Cranz says that in Greenland “some females, when a husband is proposed
to them will fall into a swoon, elope to a desert place, or cut off
their hair.... In the latter case they are seldom troubled with further
addresses.” The refractory bride is dragged
forcibly into her suitor’s house, where she sits for several days
disconsolate, with dishevelled hair, and refuses nourishment. When
friendly exhortations are unavailing, she is compelled by force and
even with blows to receive her husband. Should she elope, she is
brought back and treated more harshly than before.[117]
[117] _History of Greenland_, vol. i., p. 146.
Wherever friendly relations have been established between the tribe of
the wife and that of the husband, he pays a price to her relatives
for the privilege of removing her to his camp. This purchase price,
together with the simulated hatred of the woman’s friends, signifies a
sacrifice on the part of the wife and her family. In Nubia when a man
marries he presents his wife with a wedding-dress, and gives her also
a pledge for three or four hundred piastres, half of which sum is paid
her in case of a divorce. Divorces, however, are very rare.[118]
[118] Burckhardt, _Travels in Nubia_, p. 34.
Among the Circassians, after the preliminaries have been settled by
the parents, the lover meets his bride-elect by night in some secluded
spot, and with the assistance of two or three of his best friends
seizes her and carries her away. Sometimes the pretended capture takes
place in the midst of a noisy feast. The woman is usually conducted
into the presence of a mutual friend, where, on the following day,
her friends, simulating anger, seek her and demand a reason for her
abduction. Although the affair is usually settled at once by the
bridegroom paying the accustomed price for his bride, custom requires
that there shall be still further manifestations of anger on the part
of her friends; so, on the following day, all the relatives of the
bride, armed with sticks, proceed to the place where the bride is in
waiting, there to meet the bridegroom and his friends who have come to
carry off the bride. A sham fight ensues, in which the bridegroom and
his party are always victorious. Among certain of the Arabian tribes
the bridegroom must force his bride to enter his tent, and in France,
as late as the seventeenth century, a similar custom prevailed.
In describing a wedding dance in Abyssinia, Parkyns observes:
This dance is performed by men armed with shields and lances, who
with bounds, feints, and springs attack others armed with guns, so as
to approach them, and at the same time avoid their fire, while the
gunners make similar demonstrations, and at last fire off their guns
either in the air or into the earth, and then, drawing their swords,
flourish them about as a finish.
Finally the bridegroom fires off a gun and immediately rushes across to
where the bride and her female relations are stationed.[119]
[119] _Life in Abyssinia_, vol. ii., p. 49.
Tylor informs us that a Scandinavian warrior generally sought to gain
his bride by force, that he conceived it beneath his dignity to win
her by pacific means. That the affair might appear more heroic, he
waited until the object of his choice was about to wed another, and was
actually on her way to the nuptial ceremony, when with his friends he
would surprise the wedding cortege, seize the bride, and carry her off.
It has been said of Scandinavian marriages that they were matters of
deep anxiety to the friends both of the bride and groom, who, until the
wedding was over, remained at home in suspense fearing an attack of
the kind already mentioned. It was customary for a party of young men
to station themselves at the church door, and, as soon as the ceremony
was completed, to carry the news to the homes of the wedded pair.
“Within a few generations the same old practice was kept up in Wales,
where the bridegroom and his friends, mounted and armed as for war,
carried off the bride,” and in Ireland they used even to hurl spears at
the bride’s people, though at such a distance that no one was hurt.[120]
[120] _Anthropology_, p. 404.
In the Amazon valley the bride is always carried away by violence.
Among the Zulus, although a purchase price is paid for a woman, custom
requires that a wife, after having been captured, shall make three
attempts to return to her own home.
Of the marriage customs in ancient Sparta, Plutarch says: “In their
marriages the bridegroom carried off the bride by violence.”[121]
In Rome we have the familiar example of the Sabine women, who were
captured or carried off by force.
[121] _Lycurgus._
A notable fact in connection with the subject of capture is, that the
mother of the bride, or, in case the mother is dead, the nearest female
relative, is the individual who assumes the part of the principal
defender in this ceremony. She it is who attempts to rescue the bride,
and who more than any other mourns the fate of the captured wife. Among
primitive peoples, with the exception of the symbol of wife-capture
in marriage ceremonies, there is perhaps none more significant than
that typifying the hatred of the mother for the captor of her daughter.
Customs indicating estrangement or, actual aversion to sons-in-law,
usually, if not always, accompany marriage by capture.
The fact that the change in the relative positions of the sexes, as
indicated by the _sadica_ and _ba’al_ forms of marriage in Arabia,
was not easily or speedily accomplished, is apparent not only in the
symbols of wife-capture everywhere practised among peoples in a certain
stage of development, but is strongly suggested also by the aversion
found to exist among these same peoples between mothers-in-law and
sons-in-law, whether appearing as a reality or as a symbol.
Among the Arawaks of South America, it is unlawful for the son-in-law
to look upon the face of his mother-in-law. If they live in the same
house a partition separates them, and if by chance they must enter the
same boat, she must precede him so as to keep her back toward him.
Among the Caribs, all the women talk with whom they will, but the
husband dare not converse with his wife’s relations except on
extraordinary occasions.[122] Mr. Tylor refers to the fact that
[122] Quoted by Tylor, _Early History of Mankind_, p. 290.
In the account of the Floridian expedition of Alvar Nuñez, commonly
known as Cabeca de Vaca, or Cow’s Head, it is mentioned that the
parents-in-law did not enter the son-in-law’s house, nor he theirs,
nor his brother-in-law’s, and if they met by chance, they went a
buckshot out of their way, with their heads down and eyes fixed on the
ground, for they held it a bad thing to see or speak to one another.
It is observed by Richardson, an author quoted by Tylor, that among the
Crees, while an Indian lives with his wife’s family, his mother-in-law
must not speak to or look at him. In some portions of Australia, “the
mother-in-law does not allow the son-in-law to see her, but hides
herself if he is near, and if she has to pass him makes a circuit,
keeping carefully concealed within her cloak.”
Among some of the tribes in Central Africa, from the moment a marriage
is contracted, the lover may not behold the parents of his future
bride. When a young man wishes to marry a girl, he dispatches a
messenger to negotiate with her parents regarding the presents required
and the number of oxen demanded. This being arranged, he may not again
look upon the father and mother of his intended wife; “he takes the
greatest care to avoid them, and if by chance they perceive him they
cover their faces as if all ties of friendship were broken.” We are
told, however, that this indifference is only feigned, that they feel
the same friendship as before, and in conversation extol one another’s
merit. Mr. Caillie says that this custom extends beyond the relations;
if the lover is of a different camp, he must avoid all the inhabitants
of the lady’s camp, except a few intimate friends who are permitted
to assist him in his love-making. A little tent is set up for him in
the neighbourhood, under which he is to remain during the day. If he
has occasion to cross the camp he must cover his face. He may not see
the face of his intended throughout the day, but at nightfall he may
creep silently to her tent and remain with her until the dawn. These
clandestine visits are continued for a month or two when the marriage
is solemnized. At the wedding festival the women collect round the
bride singing her praises and extolling her virtues.[123]
[123] _Travels through Central Africa_, vol. i., p. 94.
Gubernatis is authority for the statement that, in many parts of
Italy the bride is compelled to go through the process of weeping on
her wedding-day, also for the fact that one of the marriage customs
prevalent in Sardinia is identical with that which appeared among the
plebeians at Rome, namely, the pretence of tearing the bride from the
arms of her mother.[124]
[124] See McLennan’s _Studies in Ancient History_, p. 189.
From the facts which have been obtained relative to the practice of
wife-capture, it is only natural to suppose that the mother of the
captured wife would be her chief ally and defender; that such has been
the case seems to be clearly shown by the symbols of distrust and
aversion everywhere manifested between mothers-in-law and sons-in-law
among the various existing uncivilized races. The practice of
wife-capture exists either as a reality or as a symbol entering into
the marriage ceremonies among the tribes of Central Africa, the Indians
of North and South America, in Australia, in New Zealand, in Arabia, in
the hill tracts of India, among the Fuegians, and in the islands of the
Pacific Ocean, and wherever this system is found the symbol of hatred
between mother-in-law and son-in-law also prevails.
The simulated anger and sham violence connected with marriage
ceremonies among friendly peoples, which are so far removed from a
time when actual capture was practised as to be ignorant of the true
significance of these symbols, show the extent to which marriage is
based on the idea of force on the one side and unwilling submission on
the other.
As the numerous Arabian clans in the time of Mohammed represented the
varying stages of advancement from the second period of barbarism to
civilization, the constitution of Arab society at that time affords an
excellent opportunity for observing the growth of the institution of
marriage, and the various processes by which the former supremacy of
women was overthrown.
One of the principal objects of war at the time of the Prophet is said
to have been the capture of women for wives, a practice which was
recognized as lawful. Under Islam the custom of forcibly carrying off
women for wives was universal and was carried on side by side with the
system of marriage by contract or sale. The position of the captured
woman, however, differed somewhat from that of the purchased wife.
The former, having been forcibly carried away from her home, lost the
protection of her friends, while the purchased wife, although she
relinquished the authority which had formerly been exercised by women
within the gens, and although she surrendered her person to her “lord,”
did not forfeit her right to the protection of her own family in case
of abuse.
Although in Arabia, under the form of marriage by sale or contract,
the wife lost the right to the control of property belonging to her
own gens, she did not, as in Rome, forfeit her claim to the protection
of her kindred. If she received ill treatment within the home of her
husband, her relatives, who were still her natural protectors, were
bound to redress her wrongs. In Rome, on the contrary, under a system
representing a later stage in the development of marriage, the wife
was adopted into the stock of her husband whose rights over her person
were supreme, at the same time that her kindred renounced the right to
interfere in her behalf.
It is to the fact, that in early Arabia the wife never relinquished her
hold upon her own relations, that we are to look for an explanation of
the high social position of Arabian women. We are assured that it is
“an old Arab sentiment, and not Moslem,” that women are entitled to
the highest respect, and that as mothers of the tribe they “are its
most sacred trust.”
According to Professor W. R. Smith in Mohammed’s time, in addition
to the two forms of marriage mentioned, namely, that by capture and
that by sale or contract, there existed also a more ancient form
known as the _sadica_—a form of conjugal union which was a remnant of
the matriarchal system. By observing the facts connected with this
last-named institution, we shall be enabled to understand something
of the position occupied by women during the earlier ages of human
existence before wife-capture became prevalent.
Among certain tribes just prior to Islam, upon the event of marriage,
the man presented the woman with a sum of money, which offering was
simply an acknowledgment of the favour which she was conferring upon
him. The husband went to live with the wife in her tent, and as the
contract was for no specified length of time, he was at liberty to go
whenever he tired of the conditions imposed on him by his wife and her
relations. Any children, however, that were born as a result of this
union belonged to the mother and became members of her _hayy_. If she
desired him to go, she simply turned the tent around, “so that if the
door had faced east it now faced west, and when the man saw this he
knew that he was dismissed and did not enter.” In relation to these
marriage customs Professor Smith says: “Here, therefore, we have the
proof of a well-established custom of that kind of marriage which
naturally goes with female kinship in the generation immediately before
Islam.” Of this kind of marriage the same writer observes:
The _motă_ marriage was a purely personal contract, founded on consent
between a man and a woman, without any intervention on the part of
the woman’s kin.... Now the fact that there was no contract with the
woman’s kin—such as was necessary when the wife left her own people
and came under the authority of her husband—and that, indeed, her
kin might know nothing about it, can have only one explanation: in
_motă_ marriage the woman did not leave her home, her people gave up
no rights which they had over her, and the children of the marriage
did not belong to the husband. _Motă_ marriage, in short, is simply
the last remains of that type of marriage which corresponds to a law
of mother-kinship, and Islam condemns it, and makes it “the sister
of harlotry,” because it does not give the husband a legitimate
offspring, _i. e._, an offspring that is reckoned to his own tribe and
has rights of inheritance within it.[125]
[125] Prof. W. R. Smith, _Kinship and Marriage_, p. 69.
Before the separation of the Hebrews and Aramæans, the wife remained
within her own tent where she received her husband, the children of
such unions taking her name and becoming her heirs. This kind of
conjugal union is known to have been in existence in many portions of
the world. In Ceylon it is designated as the _beena_ marriage.
In ancient Arabia, not only did women control their own homes, but
they owned flocks and herds, and were absolutely independent of male
relations. As late as the fourteenth century of our era, although the
women of certain Arabian tribes were willing to marry strangers, they
never followed them to their homes.
Among the Bedouins it is a rare thing for a woman at marriage to leave
her home and kindred. When a woman marries a man he settles among her
kinsmen, and, as she presents him with a spear and a tent by way of
dowry, it would seem that he is expected to join her relations and
assist in the common defence. The marks of authority under gentile
rule are the possession of a tent and a lance; yet we find that these
are the objects which, under matriarchal usages, the wife tenders her
husband when he enters her family; the first doubtless as a symbol of
her protection, the second as indicating her authority and the services
which he is expected to render her and her people. Until a late period
in Rome it was the custom, during the solemnities of marriage, to pass
a lance over the head of the wife in token of the power which the
husband was about to gain over her.[126]
[126] Ortolan, _History of Roman Law_, p. 80.
Under the two types of marriage—namely, _motă_ and _ba’al_—the
positions of women were so diametrically opposed that both could not
continue, hence when under the pressure brought to bear upon them,
women began to accept the _ba’al_ form of marriage within their own
_hayy_, _motă_ unions were doomed. Of the more ancient form of marriage
in Arabia, under which the woman chooses her mate, evidences of which
are still extant in that country, and that by capture under which she
becomes the slave of her lord, Professor Smith says:
There is then abundant evidence that the ancient Arabs practised
marriage by capture. And we see that the type of marriage so
constituted is altogether different from those unions of which
the _motă_ is a survival, and kinship through women the necessary
accompaniment. In the one case the woman chooses and dismisses her
husband at will, in the other she has lost the right to dispose of her
person and so the right of divorce lies only with the husband; in the
one case the woman receives the husband in her own tent, among her own
people, in the other she is brought home to his tent and people; in
the one case the children are brought up under the protection of the
mother’s kin and are of her blood, in the other they remain with the
father’s kindred and are of his blood.
All later Arabic marriages under the system of male kinship, whether
constituted by capture or by contract, belong to the same type; in all
cases, as we shall presently see in detail, the wife who follows her
husband and bears children who are of his blood has lost the right
freely to dispose of her person; the husband has authority over her
and he alone has the right of divorce. Accordingly the husband, in
this kind of marriage, is called not in Arabia only, but also among
the Hebrews and Aramæans, the woman’s “lord” or “owner,” and wherever
this name for husband is found we may be sure that marriage is of the
second type, with male kinship, and the wife bound to the husband and
following him to his home.[127]
[127] _Kinship and Marriage_, p. 75.
Notwithstanding the humane enactments of Mohammed in the interest of
women, their position steadily declined, such enactments having been
overbalanced by the establishment of marriages of dominion, by the
growing idea that _sadica_ or _motă_ marriages were not respectable,
and that women could not depend upon their relations to take their
part against their husbands. The history of religion shows that
its growth has always followed the same course as have the ideas
concerning the relative importance of the sexes. The god-idea and the
fundamental doctrines of religion are always found to be in harmony
with the established principles and ideas relative to sex domination
and superiority. The religion of Mohammed was essentially masculine,
all its principles being in strict accord with male supremacy; it is
not, therefore, singular that when the weight of religion was added to
the already growing tendency toward _ba’al_ marriages that _sadica_
marriages were doomed.
In Arabia, as elsewhere, the duties of the purchased wife were
specific. The present which under the older form of marriage had been
given to the bride as a love-token, or as an acknowledgment of the
husband’s devotion to her, subsequently took the form of a purchase
price, and was claimed by her father and brothers as a compensation for
the loss sustained by the group through the removal of her offspring,
whose services belonged to their mother’s people. In other words, the
husband paid a price to the wife’s relations for the right to raise
children by her which should belong exclusively to his kin—children
which should she remain within her own home would belong to her
kindred. The wife was therefore removed to the husband’s _hayy_, where,
so far as the sexual relation was concerned, his rights over her were
supreme.
We have observed that wherever the possessions of the gens continued
to be the property of all its members, and were controlled by women,
the man at marriage went to live with the woman; so soon, however, as
men began to claim the soil, and property began to accumulate in their
hands, the wife went to reside with her husband and his family as a
dependent. Among various tribes, the form of marriage in use depends on
the means of the contracting parties; if the man is able to pay to the
woman’s father or brothers the full price charged for her, she goes to
him as his slave—she is his property as much as is his dog or his gun;
if, however, he is unable to pay the amount charged, he goes to live
with her and her family, and becomes their slave.
In Japan, among the higher classes, upon the marriage of the eldest
son, his bride accompanies him to his paternal home; but, on the other
hand, when the eldest daughter marries, her husband takes up his abode
with her parents. Eldest daughters always retain their own names, which
their husbands are obliged to assume. As the wife of an eldest son
becomes a member of her husband’s family, and the husband of an eldest
daughter joins the family of his wife and assumes her name, the eldest
son of a family may not marry the eldest daughter of another family.
Regarding the younger members of the household, if the husband’s family
provides the house, the wife takes his name, while if the bride’s
family furnishes the home the bridegroom assumes the name of the
wife.[128]
[128] Quoted by C. S. Wake from Morgan’s _System_, etc., p. 428.
In the marriage customs of various nations, and in their ideas relative
to the ownership and control of the home, may be observed something
more than a hint of the principal causes underlying the decline of
female power. Wherever women remain within their own homes, or with
their own relations, they are mistresses of the situation; but when
they follow the fathers of their children to their homes, they become
dependents and wholly subject to the will and pleasure of their
husbands.
It is plain, however, that under a system of marriage by sale or
contract, although a woman might exercise little influence in the home
of her husband, so long as her relations stood ready to defend her she
would enjoy an immunity from abuse. The fact that a woman can count
upon her relations for protection against her husband, shows plainly
that in a certain stage of marriage by contract or sale, women are not
the abject slaves which they have been represented to be. Although in
the Fiji Islands a man may seize a woman and take her to his home, she
does not remain with him unless agreeable to her inclinations.[129]
[129] Darwin, _The Descent of Man_, p. 598.
Amongst the Abipones, a man, on choosing a wife bargains with her
parents about the price. But it frequently happens that the girl
rescinds what has been agreed upon between the parents and the
bridegroom, obstinately rejecting the very mention of marriage.[130]
[130] _Ibid._, p. 598.
Among the Charruas of South America, divorce is quite optional. In
Sumatra, if a man carries off a virgin against her will, he incurs a
heavy fine, or if a man carries off a woman under pretence of marriage,
“he must lodge her immediately with some reputable family.”[131]
[131] Marsden, _History of Sumatra_, p. 193.
Although in the earlier ages of marriage by sale or contract, daughters
were regarded as the property of their fathers, still that stage had
not been reached at which women were accounted simply as sexual
slaves. The Arabs practised marriage by sale or contract, yet they
jealously watched over their women,—they “defended them with their
lives and eagerly redeemed them when they were taken captive.” They
thought it better to bury their daughters than to give them in marriage
to unworthy husbands.[132] According to the testimony of J. G. Wood,
Kaffir women are very tenacious about their relations, probably, it
is thought, for the reason that husbands are more respectful toward
wives who have friends near them, than they are to those who have no
relations at hand to take their part.[133] Usually among the Kaffirs,
according to Mr. Shooter, although a man pays a price to the parents of
the woman whom he wishes to marry, the affair is by no means settled;
on the contrary, he must undergo the closest scrutiny by her before she
will consent to accept him. Bidding him stand, she surveys first one
side of him, then the other, the relations in the meantime standing
about awaiting her decision. Upon this subject Mr. Wood remarks: “This
amusing ceremony has two meanings: the first that the contract of
marriage is a voluntary act on both sides; and the second, that the
intending bridegroom has as yet no authority over her.”[134]
[132] Professor Smith, _Kinship and Marriage_, p. 79.
[133] _Uncivilized Races_, etc., p. 78.
[134] _Ibid._, p. 79.
Although under the system of marriage by sale or contract a woman
has a voice in the selection of her husband, and although she can
count on her kinsmen to protect her against abuse, still, practically,
the contract brings the wife under the same condition as a captured
wife; she follows her husband to his home, where, as a dependent, he
exercises control over her person and her children. In Arabia prior
to the time of the Prophet the wife could claim the protection of her
kindred against her husband, yet the principle underlying marriage by
contract and that by capture was the same, except that under the former
the husband paid a price for the woman’s sexual subjection, while under
the latter, not only in sexual matters, but in all others as well, he
was her “lord” and master.
The Prophet says: “I charge you with your women, for they are with
you as captives (_awânî_).” Professor Smith informs us that according
to the lexicons _awânî_ is actually used in the same sense as married
women generally.[135] For long ages after _ba’al_ marriages had been
established, so degrading was the office of wife that women of rank
were considered too great to marry.
[135] _Kinship and Marriage_, p. 77.
After relating some interesting accounts of certain practices in common
with the custom of capture among the Brazilian tribes, Sir John Lubbock
says:
This view also throws some light on the remarkable subordination of
the wife to the husband, which is so characteristic of marriage,
and so curiously inconsistent with all our avowed ideas; moreover it
tends to explain those curious cases in which Hetairæ were held in
greater estimation than those women who were, as we should consider,
properly and respectably married to a single husband. The former were
originally fellow-countrywomen and relations; the latter captives and
slaves.[136]
[136] _Origin of Civilization_, p. 127.
With the development of the egoistic principle, or when selfishness
and the love of gain became the rule of action, the protection of
her kindred, which in an earlier age a woman could count on against
her husband, was withdrawn, and daughters came to be looked upon as
a legitimate source of gain to their families. On this subject C.
Staniland Wake remarks:
Women by marriage became slaves, and it was the universal practice for
a man who parted with his daughter to be a slave to require a valuable
consideration for her. Moreover, as a man can purchase as many slaves
as he likes, so he can take as many wives as he pleases.[137]
[137] C. Staniland Wake, _Marriage and Kinship_, p. 199.
Thus arose polygamy.
In Rome, in the Latter Status of barbarism and the opening ages
of civilization, woman, at marriage, forfeited all the privileges
belonging to her as a member of her own family, while within that
of her husband no compensatory advantages were granted her. Even a
proprietary right in her own children was denied her, and from a legal
point of view the wife became the daughter of her husband, and not
unfrequently the ward of her own son.
After the power gained by man over woman during the latter ages of
barbarism had reached its height, the family was based not on the
marriage of a woman and a man, but upon the power of a man over a woman
and her offspring, or upon the absolute authority of the male parent.
In Rome a man’s wife and children were members of his family not
because they were related to him but because they were subject to his
control. At this stage in the development of the family, the father had
the power of “uncontrolled corporal chastisement” and of life and death
over his children.[138] If it was his will to do so, he could even sell
them. Indeed, a son’s freedom from paternal tyranny could be gained
only by the actual sale of his person by his father. Relating to the
control exercised by the father over his children, it is observed that
he had the right “during their whole life to imprison, scourge, keep to
rustic labour in chains, to sell or slay, even though they may be in
the enjoyment of high state offices.”[139] If a father granted freedom
to his son, that son was no longer a member of his family.
[138] Maine, _Ancient Law_, p. 133.
[139] Ortolan, _History of Roman Law_, p. 107.
That, with the exception of force, there is no quality in the male
constitution capable of binding together the various individuals born
of the same father, is apparent from the past history of the human
race. Mr. Parkyns, referring to the character of the Abyssinians,
observes that the worst point in the constitution of their society is
the want of affection among relations, “even though they be children of
one father.” He says that the animosities which keep the tribes in a
constant state of warfare do not exist among the offspring of the same
mother and father, but, as the children of polygamous fathers are more
numerous than own brethren, fraternal affection is a rare thing.[140] A
comparison between the family group under archaic usages at a time when
woman’s influence was in the ascendency, and the Roman family under
the older Roman law, will serve to show the wide difference existing
between the altruistic and egoistic principles as controlling agencies
in the home and in society.
[140] _Life in Abyssinia_, p. 156.
A significant fact in connection with this subject is here suggested,
that, although for untold ages women were leaders of the gens, so long
as their will was supreme, no human right was ever invaded, and no
legitimate manly prerogative usurped; but, on the contrary, all were
equal, and the principles of a pure democracy were firmly grounded.
Liberty and justice had not at that time been throttled by the extreme
selfishness inherent in human nature.
Although the processes by which women at a certain stage of human
development lost their independence were gradual, they are by no means
difficult to trace. The history of human marriage as gathered from the
various tribes and races in the several stages of growth shows the
primary idea of the office of wife to have been that of sexual slavery,
and discloses the fact that it was the desire for foreign women who,
shorn of their natural independence, could be controlled, which caused
the overthrow of female supremacy.
As during the earlier ages of human existence the women of the group
were absolutely independent of men for the means of support, they were
able to so control their own movements. Only foreign women—captives
stolen from their homes and friends—taken singly or in groups could
be subjugated or brought into the wifely relation. Indeed, until
the systematic practice of capturing women from hostile tribes for
sexual purposes had been inaugurated, and the subsequent agency of
repression—namely, ownership of the soil by males, had followed as a
natural consequence, the usurpation by man of the natural rights and
privileges of woman was impossible. The male members of the group had
not at that time the power to sell their sisters and other female
relations, but, on the contrary, defended them manfully against the
assaults of hostile tribes. The foreign captor, the wife-catcher, was
an enemy who was both feared and hated, and upon him were showered the
maledictions of the entire group upon which the assault had been made.
In retaliation for his offence, the men who had been bereft of a sister
must in their turn commit a like depredation; thus, through the removal
of women, the men of early groups gradually gained control of the
common possessions at the same time that they were being supplied with
foreign wives over whom they exercised absolute control. In process of
time, when wealth began to accumulate in the hands of men, and when
friendly relations began to be established between neighbouring tribes,
foreign wives, without influence, were received in exchange for the
free-born women of a man’s own clan; henceforward a resort to capture
was unnecessary. Distant tribes, however, were still liable to attack.
Wars were waged against the men, who were sometimes slain, sometimes
taken prisoners, the invaders taking possession of the lands and
compelling the women to accept the position of wife to them. Finally,
negotiations were entered into whereby women were uniformly taken from
their homes to become wives in alien groups. Later, the _ba’al_ form
of marriage came to prevail within the tribe. Professor Smith, quoting
from the advice given by an Arab to his son, says: “Do not marry in
your own _hayy_, for that leads to ugly family quarrels,” to which he
adds,
there was a real inconsistency in the position of a woman who was
at once her husband’s free kinswoman and his purchased wife. It was
better to have a wife who had no claims of kin and no brethren near to
take her part.[141]
[141] _Kinship and Marriage_, p. 105.
Under earlier conditions of the human race women as bearers and
protectors of the young were regarded as the natural land-owners;
hence, they did not leave their own homes to follow the fathers of
their children. The woman who left her own relations for the _hayy_ of
her husband could no longer exercise control over the possessions of
her own gens, neither could she at a later period inherit property from
her kindred for the reason that her interests were identical with those
of her children and her children belonged to another clan. As property
could not be transferred from the group in which it originated, she was
disinherited. Through marriage women gave up their natural right to
the soil, and consequently to independence. A knowledge of the facts
connected with the origin of the institution of marriage, reveals the
fact that women lost their influence and power, not because of their
weakness, but because they were foreigners and dependents in the homes
of their husbands.
The statement was made at the beginning of this chapter that the origin
of marriage and the establishment of the family with man at its head
involve the subject of economies.
When property began to accumulate in the hands of men, when women
were forced to relinquish their right to the soil and thus to become
dependent on men for their support, their slavery was inevitable.
Later, when through the exigencies of the situation, woman went without
protest to the home of her master, there to become a pensioner upon his
bounty, her slavery was complete.
In process of time, women bound to foreign tribes by the children which
they had borne, began to accommodate themselves to the situation, and
even to claim an interest in the home of their adoption, whereupon
friendly relations began to be established between the tribe of the
mother and that of the father. Hence may be observed the fact that
the maternal instinct was the agency by which the barriers between
unrelated groups were gradually broken down, and by which a spirit
of friendliness was established between hitherto hostile tribes. As
the coherence of the group and the combination of the gentes to form
the tribe had been possible only by means of this instinct, so the
confederacy of tribes to form the nation was accomplished in the same
manner.
The change from female supremacy to male dominion is among the most
important of the evolutionary processes. From the facts underlying the
development of human society, and especially those underlying the two
diverging lines of sex-demarcation, it is evident that evolution does
not proceed in an undeviating line toward progress. It is perceived,
that seeming retrogressions always involve a gain—a gain which could
have been accomplished in no other way.
Among the benefits derived from this change in the positions of the
sexes was the development of altruism in man. When fathers began to
take an interest in their own offspring, to care for them and to become
responsible for their welfare, an important step had been taken toward
the establishment of the principle of brotherhood among mankind.
The evolutionary processes indicate a constant tendency toward the
solidarity of the race, they may be said to represent a resistless
force ever drawing the human family together in a closer bond of union
and sympathy. Under female supremacy, combination, or association of
interests, was confined to the gens. The extension of these interests
which resulted from the new order was necessary before humanity could
proceed on its onward course. These changes could not have taken place
under the early system based on the supremacy of women.
The facts brought out by scientists going to prove that the progressive
principle is confided to the female are accentuated by those
connected with the origin and subsequent development of marriage and
the family. That within the female lie the elements of progress is
clearly indicated, not only in the position which the female occupied
among the orders of life lower in the scale of being, and during the
earlier ages of human history, but also by her career as the slave of
man. Simply by means of the characters developed within the female
constitution, without material resources, and deprived of recognized
influence, women have been able to a certain extent, to dignify the
family and the home.
It is more than likely that in the not distant future, even the
institution of marriage, through which women have been degraded, will
become so purified and elevated that its results, instead of being a
menace to higher conditions will constitute a continuous source of
progress and a promise of still higher achievement. Before this may be
accomplished, mothers must be absolutely free and wholly independent
of the opposite sex for the means of support. Marriage must be a co
partnership in which neither sex has the right to control the other.
Although our present system of marriage took its rise in the practice
of forcing women into the marital relation, it must be borne in mind
that it was not inaugurated for the purpose of establishing monogamy.
On the contrary, the privileges of the captor remained the same within
his tribe as before the foreign woman was stolen. The theft was
committed for no other purpose than to augment the hitherto restricted
range of sexual liberties, and to give to the father absolute dominion
over the individuals born in his house.
The system of marriage in vogue at the present time has never
restricted men to the possession of a single woman. Monogamy, as
established under male supremacy, means one husband for one woman,
while a man may have as many women as he is able or willing to support.
As women are still dependent upon men for the necessities of life, the
supply of the former is regulated by the demands of the latter.
Marriage still retains its original meaning and significance, namely,
the ownership and control of women. With the exception of physical
force all the ceremonies, customs, ideas, and usages of primitive
marriage have been preserved. When a woman marries she is “given” to
her husband by her father or some other male relative. She promises
to obey her master and accepts a ring as a badge of her dependence
upon him. She relinquishes her own name and family, accepting as her
own the name and family of her husband. She follows him to his home
where, as she is supported by his bounty, she is subject to his will
and pleasure. Until women are economically free they will remain sexual
slaves.
Of all the forms of human slavery which have ever been devised there
has probably never been one so degrading as is that which has been
practiced within the marital relation, nor one in which the extrication
of the enslaved has been a matter of such utter hopelessness. The
present struggle of women for freedom shows how deeply rooted is the
instinct which demands their subjection.
The descent of woman has encompassed the lowest depths of human
degradation, but the end of the long and weary road which she has
traversed is nearly reached. Already the evolutionary processes which
are to release her from bondage are in operation.
From available facts relative to the development of early mankind,
it is certain that it must have required centuries upon centuries of
time to subjugate women and bring them into harmonious relations with
men while occupying a position of sexual slavery; first, physical
force, second, dependence, and third the substitution of masculine
opinions for the instincts and ideas which are peculiar to the female
constitution. This accomplished the processes were begun which were to
rivet the chains by which they were bound and by means of which women
themselves in their weakened condition were to acquiesce in their own
degradation. Religion was the means employed. Apollo, according to
Greek mythology, issued an edict declaring that man is superior to
woman and must rule, and Athene herself finally accepted the edict.
Through religion, women came to regard themselves simply as appendages
to men, as tools or instruments for their pleasure and gratification,
and as possessing no inherent right either to liberty or happiness.
Religion has its root in sex. As we have already seen the creative
force has ever been regarded as masculine or feminine according to
the relative importance of the two sexes in human society and in the
reproductive processes. So long as woman’s influence and power were in
the ascendency the mother was the only recognized parent. She was the
creator of offspring. Later, the abstract idea of female reproductive
power was manifested in the female deities. It required thousands upon
thousands of years to subdue women. It also required millenniums to
dethrone the female deities.
When, with the rise of male power, man began to assume the rôle of
parent, he assumed also all the functions which had formerly belonged
to woman. As has been noted in another portion of this work he even
went to bed when a child was born. With this change in the physical
relations of the sexes, the creative principle soon began to assume
a masculine aspect. Male deities began to appear associated with the
goddesses. In process of time, as male power increased, the god-idea
became wholly masculine. The Jewish god is a personified idea of male
power and reproductive energy. This subject will be referred to later
in these pages.
Thus the ancient plan of government which was the outgrowth of the free
maternal instinct, and which had guided humanity on its course for
thousands of years, finally succumbed to a system based on physical
force. When we remember the conditions surrounding early society we may
well believe that civilization was gained, not because of the fact that
male power succeeded in gaining the ascendency over female influence,
but in spite of it.
Given a combination of circumstances involving the supremacy of the
lower instincts in mankind, and the individual ownership of land, the
subjection of women, monarchy, and slavery, with all their attendant
evils, namely, poverty, disease, crime, and misery were sure to follow.
When we consider the fundamental bias of the two diverging lines of
sexual demarcation, it is not perhaps singular that the strong sexual
nature which has prompted males to vigorous physical action should for
a time have gained the ascendency over the higher qualities peculiar to
females; yet the material progress achieved under the inspiration and
direction of agencies like this will not, in a more enlightened stage
of existence, be regarded as embodying the results of the best efforts
of human activity, or as representing the highest capabilities of the
race.
Probably no one will deny that the accumulation of wealth by
individuals, and the subsequent change in the relative positions of
the sexes, were necessary steps toward the establishment of society
on a political or territorial basis, or toward the breaking up of
kindred groups and the acknowledgment of the idea of the unity of the
entire human family. Neither will the proposition be contradicted
that the evils attending these changes namely, monarchy, slavery,
and the inordinate love of gain have been unavoidable adjuncts to
the development of the race; yet, who will doubt that under higher
conditions, as the animal recedes in the distance, these blots on the
records of human history will be regarded not as regular steps in the
advancement of mankind, but as by-paths which, owing to the peculiar
bias which had been given to the male organism among the lower forms
of life, the human race has been obliged to take in order to reach
civilization?
CHAPTER V
THE MOTHER-RIGHT
Among the most conspicuous of the writers who have dealt with the
subject of primitive society are Herr Bachofen, Mr. J. F. McLennan,
Sir John Lubbock, and Mr. L. H. Morgan. In 1861, the first-named of
these writers, a Swiss jurist, published an extensive work on the early
condition of society, entitled _Das Mutter-recht_ (The Motherright),
in which was first given to the world the fact that prior to the
establishment of a system of kinship through males, there everywhere
existed a system based on female supremacy, under which descent was
reckoned through women.
Bachofen was first led to a belief in a former state of society in
which women were the recognized leaders through the evidence which
everywhere underlies the traditions and mythologies of extant nations.
Upon investigation he found indisputable evidence going to prove that
every family of the human race had undergone the same processes of
development or growth, and that among all peoples female influence was
once supreme.
According to Bachofen’s theory, as there were at this early stage
of human existence no “laws” regulating the intercourse between the
sexes, human beings lived in a state of lawlessness, or hetairism.
Recognizing the difference in the reproductive instinct as manifested
in the two sexes, he says that becoming disgusted with their manner
of living women rebelled, and rising in arms, conquered their male
persecutors by sheer superiority in military skill; and that after they
had overthrown the degrading practices of communal or lawless marriage,
they established monogamy in its stead, under which system woman became
the recognized head of the family.
Children, although they had hitherto succeeded to the father’s name,
were now called after the mother, and all rights of inheritance were
thereafter established in the female line. Not only did women take upon
themselves the exercise of domestic authority and control, but, acting
under a strong religious impulse, they seized the reins of popular
government and completed their title to absolute dominion by wielding
the political sceptre as well, thus declaring themselves unconditional
masters of the situation.
At this juncture in human affairs, the belief began to be entertained
that motherhood was divine while the paternal office was regarded only
in the light of a human relation. Thus, through religion, women were
raised from a state of hetairism, or sexual slavery, to a position of
independence and self-respect. But that which was gained through a
supernatural impulse they were destined subsequently to lose through
the same source; for, when in Greece, the doctrine was promulgated that
the spirit of the child is derived from its father, paternity at once
assumed a divine character, and, as under the new order, the functions
of the mother were only to clothe the spirit, or simply to act as
“nurse” to the heaven-born production of the father, women lost their
supremacy, and under the new régime, maternity and womanhood again
trailed in the dust.
According to Bachofen, however, the cause of mothers did not at once
cease to be the subject of contention and conflict, but ever and
anon fresh battles and renewed struggles proclaimed the discontent
and uneasiness of women and heralded the fact that the contest for
supremacy had not yet ended. But, in process of time, as resistance
proved ineffectual, mothers themselves gradually succumbed to the
new idea of the divine character of the father, and, without further
murmuring or complaint, accepted gracefully the position of nurse to
his children.
The father now became the recognized head of the family, and men at
once seized the reins of government. Descent was henceforth traced in
the male line, and children took the father’s instead of the mother’s
name; in fact all relationships to which rights of succession were
attached were thereafter traced through fathers only. The complete
and final triumph of males having been established by the all-powerful
authority of Roman jurisprudence, the conflict between the sexes was
ended forever. Thus, according to Bachofen, was the supremacy of women
gained and lost.
Through a profound study of the traditions, legends, symbols, and
mythologies of antiquity, this writer was enabled to discover the fact
that at an earlier age in human history women were the recognized
leaders of mankind; that their influence and authority were supreme
over both the family and the community, and that all relationships to
which rights of succession were attached were traced through them.
In attempting to account for this early period of gynecocracy (the
existence of which to Bachofen’s mind no doubt presented a singular
and intricate problem) it first became necessary to set forth a theory
concerning a former condition of society out of which such a state
could have been evolved. But as at the time _Das Mutter-recht_ made its
appearance, the theory of the development of the human species from
pre-existing orders had not been adopted by scientists, and as many
of the various means at present employed for obtaining a knowledge of
primitive races had not been brought into requisition, even the vast
learning of Bachofen did not suffice to furnish a satisfactory solution
of the problem.
We have seen that in addition to the discovery that at an early age
in human experience female influence was supreme, he had arrived at
the conclusion that the natural instincts of women differ from those
of men; yet, notwithstanding this, so accustomed had he become to
the predominance of the masculine instincts in every branch of human
activity as to be unable to conceive of a state of society in which
the characters belonging to females could have controlled the sexual
relations. Evidently he was unable to connect these two facts, or to
perceive that that tendency or quality required for the protection of
the germ and the species, and which so early characterized the female
sex, had constituted the most primitive influence by which the human
race had been governed. As in the earliest ages of human existence no
arbitrary laws regulating marriage and the relations of the sexes had
been in operation, he could discern no condition under which society
could have existed other than that of “lawlessness” or “hetairism”—a
condition under which women were slaves, and men ruled supreme.
As Herr Bachofen was doubtless unaware of the fact that the human
animal is a descendant from creatures lower in the scale of life,
the idea of connecting his history with theirs had probably by him
never been thought of; therefore, judging primitive society, not by
the instincts and the natural laws governing them which mankind had
inherited from their progenitors, but, on the contrary, measuring them
by the standards of later ages when the grosser or disruptive elements
had gained dominion over the finer or constructive qualities in human
nature, he was unable to discern any way in which the conditions of
female supremacy everywhere indicated in the traditions and mythologies
of antiquity could have originated, except in an uprising of women, and
a resort to arms for the protection of their womanly dignity.
In referring to the military exploits of the women of Lycia, and,
in fact, of various portions of Africa and Asia, at a comparatively
late stage in human history, Bachofen says that the importance of
Amazonianism as opposed to Hetairism for the elevation of the feminine
sex, and through them of mankind, cannot be doubted.
There seems to be considerable evidence going to prove that there have
been times in the past history of the race in which women were brave
in war and valiant in defending their rights. Indeed, the accounts
given of the struggles of the Amazons in maintaining their independence
against surrounding nations—notably, the Greeks—are tolerably well
authenticated.[142]
[142] Concerning one of the encounters of this warlike people, the
following has been recounted by Plutarch (_Theseus_):
“And it appears to have been no slight or womanish enterprise; for they
could not have encamped in the town, or joined battle on the ground
about the Pynx and the Museum, or fallen in so intrepid a manner upon
the city of Athens, unless they had first reduced the country round
about. It is difficult, indeed, to believe (though Hellanicus has
related it) that they crossed the Cimmerian Bosphorus upon the ice; but
that they encamped almost in the heart of the city is confirmed by the
names of places, and by the tombs of those that fell.”
Although the fact seems to be well substantiated that in certain
portions of the earth, and at various periods in the history of the
race, women have maintained their independence and protected their
interests by force of arms, it seems quite as certain that actual
warfare carried on by them has been confined to peoples among which
male supremacy had but recently been gained, and among which a resort
to arms represented the last act of desperation to which they were
driven to maintain their dignity and honour. We have reason to believe,
however, that even these cases have been exceptional; at least, from
the facts at hand, we have no reason for thinking that at any stage in
the history of women’s career, armed resistance to masculine authority
has been uniform or protracted among them.
According to scientists, among the lower orders of life, males are
considerably in the excess of females, and among less developed
races men are more numerous than women. It has been shown in a
former portion of this work that the advancement of civilization is
characterized by a corresponding increase in the number of women
among the adult population; hence their evident lack of numbers among
primitive peoples, to say nothing of their probable aversion to war
and bloodshed, would at once preclude the idea that their dominion
was achieved through armed resistance to a foe so superior in numbers
and in fighting qualities. By a natural law governing propagation—
a law which determines the numerical proportion of the sexes, and
which creates an excess in the number of that sex best suited to its
environment, primitive women, had they relied on physical force, would
have had little chance to maintain their independence.
In a former portion of this work it has been observed that it was
neither to lack of numbers nor to their want of physical force that
women were divested of their power; that it was not through their
weakness, but through the peculiar course which the development or
growth of males had taken, that under certain conditions women became
enslaved.
Not merely from the facts laid down by naturalists regarding the
peculiar development of the male, but from later researches into the
conditions and causes which have influenced progress, it is plain that
no restrictions on the range of sexual liberties could have originated
in males. Hence the demand for a more refined state of society must
have begun with females. This fact seems to have been perceived by
Bachofen, but, as according to his reasoning, at an early period of
human existence, women were slaves, exercising none of the powers
necessary to personal control, it is difficult to conceive of any
manner in which it was possible for them to rise to the social position
and moral dignity ascribed to them in _Das Mutter-recht_.
According to the theory set forth by this writer, however, religion
was the cause of the important change which at this time took place
in the positions of the sexes. Although, according to him, the
religion which prevailed during the ages of “lawlessness” was of a low
“telluric chthonic” type, it was nevertheless the cause, or at least
one of the causes which led to the abandonment of promiscuity and the
establishment of the monogamic family. It will doubtless be remembered,
however, that this age of lawlessness or hetairism which Bachofen
has described, represents a very early stage of human existence, in
which, according to his reasoning, the baser instincts ruled supreme;
nevertheless, within it, he would have us believe that a religious
system had been evolved capable of lifting women from a state of
degradation to which they had been consigned by nature, or at least to
which they had always been committed, to a position of influence and
womanly dignity in which they were able to assume supreme control over
the forces by which they had been enslaved. With sexual desire as the
controlling influence in human affairs, and with women in bondage to
this power, it is difficult to conceive of any manner in which such a
religion could have arisen.
As all religious systems are believed to represent growths, and to
indicate a result of the degree of progress attained, it is evident
that had a religion appeared at this early age which was capable of
elevating women from a condition of degradation, as indicated by the
early state described by Bachofen it could not have been the result of
natural development, but, on the contrary, must have proceeded directly
from a divine source; in which event it would doubtless have remained
upon the earth still further to aid development and bless the race.
Such, however, was not the outcome of this remarkable but premature
religion; for it is asserted by this writer that what women gained by
religion they afterward lost through the same source—that in Greece,
the loss first came through the oracle of Apollo, which declared the
father to be the real parent of the child.
Bachofen assures us, also, that through the Bacchanalian excesses which
followed the dominion of males in Greece, hetairism was again restored,
and through this means gynecocracy reappeared. From this it would seem
that although under the earliest stage of hetairism women were without
power and wholly under the control of men, with the return, at a later
age, of a like state of society, the basis was at once laid for female
supremacy.
It is evident that Herr Bachofen’s confusion arises from a
misconception of the early importance of women. Although perhaps more
than any other writer upon this subject he has been able to recognize
the true bias of the female constitution, yet, as he has mistaken
the relative positions of women and men at the outset of the human
career, and as he has been unable to perceive the previously developed
influences which governed these relations, he has failed to furnish
a satisfactory solution of the problem of the early supremacy of
women, which from the evidence adduced, not only by the traditions and
mythologies of past ages, but by later developments in ethnology, may
not be doubted.
Prior to the appearance of mankind on the earth, had there been
developed within the female no higher element than that which
characterized the male, and had she appeared on the scene of human
action as the willing and natural tool of her less-developed male mate,
it is plain that she would have been unable to elevate herself to the
position of dignity which Bachofen assigns her, and which, until a
comparatively recent period in the human career, she had occupied.
As among the orders of creation below mankind the structural organism
of the male has been materially changed through his efforts to please
the female and secure her favours, it is evident that under earlier and
more natural conditions of human life, the appetites developed within
him were still largely controlled by her will. From logical conclusions
to be drawn from the hypotheses of naturalists, it is not likely that
at the outset of human life those restrictions on the nature of the
male imposed by the female throughout the animal kingdom were suddenly
withdrawn, or that the destructive elements which all along the line
of progress had been in abeyance to the higher powers developed in
organized matter, were immediately and without good cause put in
absolute command over the constructive forces of life.
With a better knowledge of the past history of mankind, comes the
assurance that such was not the case, but, on the contrary, that for
thousands of years women were the ruling spirits in human society; that
the cohesive quality—sympathy, which is the result of the maternal
instinct, and which conserves the highest interests of offspring, was
the underlying principle which governed human groups—in fact, that
it was the principle which made organization possible and progress
attainable.
CHAPTER VI
THEORIES TO EXPLAIN WIFE-CAPTURE
The prevalence of wife-capture and the extent to which the symbol of
force in marriage ceremonies appears among tribes and races in the
various stages of development, have given rise to numerous speculations
and theories relative to the origin of these “singular phenomena.”
Notable among the works dealing with this subject are _Primitive
Marriage_, by Mr. J. F. McLennan, and the _Origin of Civilization_, by
Sir John Lubbock, both of which works followed closely the publication
of _Das Mutter-recht_ by Herr Bachofen.
As at the time these works were published the fact of man’s descent
from the lower orders of life had not been established, and as nothing
was then known of the origin and development of organized society it
is not remarkable that theories concerning the early relations of the
sexes should prove worthless except perhaps to show the extent to which
established prejudices may warp the judgment and dwarf the intellectual
faculties even of those who are honestly seeking after truth.
The avowed object of Mr. McLennan’s volume was to trace the origin
of wife-capture which is found to exist either as a legal symbol in
marriage ceremonies, or as a stern reality among peoples which have not
yet reached civilized conditions. This writer declares: “In the whole
range of legal symbolism there is no symbol more remarkable than that
of capture in marriage ceremonies.”
After setting forth numerous examples to prove the prevalence of
wife-capture among uncivilized tribes and races, and after denouncing
as absurd the theories relative to the symbol of force entering into
the marriage ceremonies in Sparta and in Rome, Mr. McLennan observes:
The question now arises, what is the meaning and what the origin of a
ceremony so widely spread that already on the threshold of our inquiry
the reader must be prepared to find it connected with some universal
tendency of mankind?
Mr. McLennan’s answer to his own query is as follows:
We believe the restriction on marriage to be connected with the
practice in early times of female infanticide which rendering women
scarce led at once to polyandry within the tribe and the capture of
women from without.
In another portion of this work it has been shown that although
marriage was restricted within the gens, the earliest form of organized
society, this restriction did not extend to the tribe. Marriage was
forbidden among closely related groups. The gentes coalesced to form
the tribe. Although a man might not marry within his own gens, he was
not forbidden to marry within the tribe.
In Mr. Morgan’s work on _Primitive Society_, published in 1871, are
to be found the systems of consanguinity and affinity of 139 tribes
and races representing, numerically, four-fifths of the entire human
family. These systems show conclusively that the restrictions on
marriage observed in the gens did not extend to the tribe. The author
of _Primitive Marriage_ has evidently mistaken a rule of the gens for a
binding tribal decree.
Mr. McLennan’s theory relative to female infanticide is found to be
equally fallacious. Noting the numerical difference in the two sexes
among lower races, he says that as subsistence was scarce, and as war
was the natural and constant condition of primitive groups, only those
of their members would be spared who could contribute to the defence of
the tribe, or who would be able to aid in the supply of subsistence.
Males were possessed of strength, they were by organization and
inclination adapted to war and the chase, and could therefore be
depended upon to assist in defending the tribe against the assaults of
its enemies and in securing the necessary food for its requirements.
On the other hand, women being worthless in war and in the chase were
regarded as useless appendages, and as they constituted a source of
weakness to the tribe, large numbers of them were destroyed at birth.
Through this practice the balance of the sexes was greatly disturbed,
and wives could be obtained only by means of stealth or a resort
to force. Thus in process of time, the stealing of women became a
legitimate practice, and each warrior depended on his skill in this
particular direction to provide himself with a wife.
Finally the children of these alien women began to intermarry and thus
the necessity for wife-capture no longer existed, and the practice
of stealing women for wives was superseded by a system through which
wives from other tribes were habitually obtained either by gift or
sale. Thereafter the symbol of wife-capture was retained in marriage
ceremonies.
With a better understanding of peoples in a less developed state of
society, it is found that infanticide has been less prevalent among
them than was formerly supposed; that when through scarcity of food it
has been practised it has not been confined to females, neither has it
been carried on by tribes in the lowest stages of barbarism.
Regarding this custom in Arabia, Prof. W. R. Smith says that our
authorities “seem to represent the practice of infanticide as having
taken a new development not very long before the time of Mohammed.”
This writer declares that the chief motive for infanticide was
“scarcity of food which must always have been felt in the desert.”
Much has been written in the attempt to explain the practice of
infanticide which to some extent seems to have prevailed during a
certain stage of human development; but with the exception of those
cases in which children of both sexes were slain because of scarcity
of food, the one cause, namely, the dread of capture, is sufficient to
explain this unnatural practice.
Although to a considerable extent, men had come to depend on foreign
tribes for their wives, they nevertheless found little pleasure in
furnishing their quota of women in return, and as mothers doubtless
preferred the death of their female children to the degradation and
suffering which was inevitable in case of capture, female infanticide
no doubt seemed the wisest and in fact the only expedient.
The blood-tie of ancient society which bound together all those born
of the women of the group irrespective of their fathers, must have
emphasized the influence of mothers in the matter of infanticide. It is
not reasonable to suppose that the law of sympathy which had united the
members of a clan by a bond stronger than that which binds together the
members of a modern family was reversed without some deeper cause than
has thus far been assigned for it. It is indeed difficult to believe,
in opposition to all the facts before us, that a practice which
involved the destruction of the female members of the group would have
gained the sanction of the tribe to such an extent that it would have
become an established rule among them.
Regarding the destruction of female infants among early races, Mr.
Darwin remarks:
They would not at that period have lost one of the strongest of all
instincts common to all lower animals, namely the love of their young
offspring, and consequently they would not have practised female
infanticide.[143]
[143] _Descent of Man_, p. 594.
Another reason why female infanticide could not have prevailed to any
considerable extent is seen in the fact that any diminution in the
number of females, would have involved a scarcity of warriors, thus
weakening their means of defence. From available facts it is quite
evident that the practice of female infanticide throws no light on
wife-capture.
Mr. McLennan declares that women among rude tribes are usually depraved
and inured to scenes of depravity from their earliest infancy; hence
when property began to amass in the hands of men, in order to assure
paternity, it became necessary, that women be brought under subjection.
As the female, when free, is unwilling to pair with individuals for
whom she feels no affection, and as under earlier conditions of human
society women chose their mates, and so long as they remained together
were true to them, it is reasonable to suppose that paternity was
known, or at least that it might have been readily determined.
Mr. Morgan informs us that the “Turanian, Ganowánian, and Malayan
systems of consanguinity show conclusively that kinship through males
was recognized as constantly as kinship through females,” that a man
had brothers and sisters, grandfathers and grandmothers traced through
males as well as through females. Although under gentile institutions
descent and all rights of succession were traced through mothers,
kinship through fathers was easily ascertained.
Hence it is plain that Mr. McLennan’s assumption that women were
enslaved in order to assure paternity, that they became subject to the
dominion and control of men so that fathers might not be compelled to
support children not their own, is not supported by the evidence at
hand.
That it was through capture, the forcible carrying away of women at
first singly and later in groups to foreign tribes, in which as aliens
and dependents they were shorn of their right to the soil, that males
were first enabled to arrogate to themselves the individual right to
property is a fact which has been overlooked by Mr. McLennan.
From the facts at hand relative to the earliest social regulation
of mankind, that into classes on the basis of sex, it is evident
that it was inaugurated for no other purpose than the restriction
of the marital relation—a restriction to prevent the pairing of
near relations. Yet Mr. McLennan would have us believe that “the law
compelling marriage outside the recognized limit of near relationship
originated in no innate or primary feeling against marriage with
kinsfolk.”
The repugnance of females among the lower orders of life to pairing
with those individuals which were distasteful to them, or for which
they felt no genuine affection, has already been referred to in these
pages. At the earliest dawn of human life there probably existed within
woman a naturally acquired aversion to pairing with near relations,
yet doubtless many ages elapsed before an idea of kinship sufficiently
definite to be incorporated into an arbitrary law for the government of
the group was formulated; but in due course of time, with the further
development of the higher characters, the idea of relationship began
to take shape, whereupon was inaugurated a movement which doubtless
represents one of the most important steps ever taken toward human
advancement.
As the female among all the orders of life, when free, is unwilling
to pair with individuals for which she feels no affection, and as the
sex-instinct has ever been restricted or held in abeyance by her, and
as according to the savants, it was through the efforts of women that
from time to time during the earlier ages of human existence the range
of conjugal rights was abridged, it is reasonable to suppose that it
was woman who first objected to the pairing with near relations.
The statement of Mr. McLennan that the women of primitive races were
depraved, that they were inured to scenes of depravity from their
earliest infancy is not borne out by facts. It has been shown in
another portion of this work that the most trustworthy writers, those
who have personally investigated tribes and races in the various stages
of development, agree that chastity was an unvarying rule among them,
that before they were corrupted by civilization, a condition of morals
existed nowhere to be found among the so-called higher races.
After referring to a state of advanced social existence in which every
person knowing what is right would feel an irresistible impulse toward
right-living, Mr. Wallace remarks that among peoples low in the scale
of development “we find some approaches to such a perfect social
state.” He observes: “It is not too much to say that the mass of our
population have not at all advanced beyond the savage code of morals,
and have in many cases sunk below it.”
Most of the reports which come to us regarding the immorality of lower
races are brought by missionaries, who, although unacquainted with the
language, customs, and habits of thought of the peoples whose countries
they visit, nevertheless feel called upon to furnish lengthy reports
of those benighted races which are “utterly destitute of Christian
training.”
As the restrictions on marriage among early peoples were limited to
closely related groups, it is evident that the capture of wives was
not carried on because of any established law of exogamy, neither
was it practised because of the scarcity of women resulting from
female infanticide nor because of a desire for recognized paternity.
Wife-capture arose from a demand for foreign women, aliens, who, torn
from their homes and deprived of the protection of their own kinsfolk,
had no alternative but sexual slavery. These women were much more
desirable than the free-born women of a man’s own tribe.
After having created a false and wholly unwarrantable hypothesis, an
hypothesis in which exogamy and endogamy, two principles which as
applied to tribes never existed, play a conspicuous part, Mr. McLennan
has thrust nearly all the facts which he has observed relative to
primitive society into false positions and forced them to do duty in
bolstering up his thoroughly imaginative theory to account for the
origin of wife-capture. It is perhaps needless to say that the whole
subject, so far as his contribution is concerned, is as much a mystery
as before he attempted a solution of the problem.
* * * * *
Sir John Lubbock, like J. F. McLennan, assumes that the earliest
organization of society was that of the tribe, and that a man was first
regarded as belonging only to a group. Subsequently, as the maternal
bond is stronger than that which unites a father to his offspring,
kinship with his mother and her relations was established. In course of
time he was accounted as a descendant of his father only, and lastly he
became equally related to both parents.
Numerous illustrations are cited by this writer, going to show that
among certain peoples descent is still reckoned in the female line, and
that all the rights of succession, both as regards property and tribal
honours, are traced through women.
In his _Origin of Civilization_ the fact is noted that in Guinea,
when a wealthy man dies, his property passes by inheritance, not to
his sons, but to the children of his sister. He quotes also from
Pinkerton’s _Voyages_ to show that the town of Loango is governed by
four chiefs who are sons of the king’s sisters, and from Caillie who
observes that in Central Africa the sovereignty remains always in the
same family, but that the son never succeeds to his father’s position.
These and numerous other instances, similar in character, are cited
from various parts of the world, going to prove that a system of
descent and inheritance through women was once general throughout the
races of mankind.
With Herr Bachofen and Mr. McLennan, Sir John Lubbock is of the opinion
that the earliest conjugal unions of the human race were communal.
Communal marriage was founded on the supremacy of males, or, was based
on the undisputed right of men to the control of women. According to
this writer, communal marriage was succeeded by individual marriage
through capture.
Although Lubbock coincides with McLennan in the belief that under
certain circumstances infanticide has been practised by the lower
races, he does not agree with him as to the extent to which it has
prevailed among them; neither is he of the opinion that it was confined
to the female sex. On the contrary, he cites trustworthy authority to
prove that boys were as frequently disposed of as were girls.
Although with McLennan, Lubbock recognizes the prevalence of
wife-capture and the principle of exogamy, yet, according to the theory
of the former, marriage by capture arose from exogamy, while, according
to the latter, exogamy arose from marriage by capture.
Lubbock accounts for wife-capture by the following theory: As under the
communal system, women of the tribe were the “common property” of the
men of the group, no individual male among them would have attempted
to appropriate one of these women to himself, for the reason that
such appropriation would have been regarded as an infringement on the
rights of the remaining males in the community. A warrior, however,
upon capturing a woman from a hostile people, might claim her as his
rightful possession, and hold her as against all the other members of
the tribe. Since the women of the group were so emphatically the common
property of the men, the exclusive right to one of them in progressive
tribes which had reached a state of friendliness would involve a symbol
of capture to make valid such a claim. This symbol, according to
Lubbock, has no reference to those from whom the woman has been stolen,
but is intended to bar the rights of other members of the tribe into
which she is brought. He thinks that “the exclusive possession of a
wife could only be legally acquired by a temporary recognition of the
pre-existing communal rights,” and cites the account given by Herodotus
of the custom existing in Babylonia, where every woman once during
her lifetime must present herself at the temple, there to accept the
proposals of the first man who requests her to follow him.
Although Lubbock declares that the symbol of violence in marriage
ceremonies “can only be explained by the hypothesis that the capture
of wives was once a stern reality,” he claims not to believe that the
early conditions under which men were compelled to capture their wives
by violence, or do without them, were in any degree the result of
feminine will in the matter.
In referring to the fallacious theory of Mr. McLennan, that the capture
of women for wives arose from the practice of female infanticide,
which, by producing a scarcity of women, created a necessity for
marriage without the limits of the tribe, Sir John Lubbock, although
seemingly unable to recognize the actual force which was in operation
to prevent the “appropriation” of women by men, has nevertheless shown
himself able to perceive the reason why foreign women were captured,
and what the tendency in males was which demanded their presence.
After referring to the fact that no male could appropriate to himself a
female belonging to the tribe, he says:
Women taken in war were, on the contrary, in a different position. The
tribe, as a tribe, had no right to them, and men surely would reserve
to themselves exclusively their own prizes. These captives then would
naturally become wives in our own sense of the term.
Foreign women would become dependents, their captors having the
undisputed right to the control of their persons.
At the outset, Sir John Lubbock finds himself confronted with the
fact that a system of reckoning descent through women once prevailed
over the habitable globe. According to his own reasoning, this system
presupposes a condition of society under which property rights and
all rights of succession were traced through women, still we find
him offering the following belief concerning the matter. “I believe,
however, that communities in which women have exercised the supreme
power are rare and exceptional, if, indeed, they ever existed at all.”
Were we not already acquainted with the prejudices of most of the
writers who have thus far dealt with this subject, in view of the facts
everywhere represented going to prove that a system of gynecocracy once
prevailed over the entire earth, this “belief” of Mr. Lubbock would be
truly remarkable, especially when we learn the reason given by him for
his conclusion. He says:
We do not find in history, as a matter of fact, that women do assert
their rights, and savage women would, I think, be peculiarly unlikely
to uphold their dignity in the manner supposed.[144]
[144] _Origin of Civilization_, p. 99.
It is quite true that it is not observed “in history” that women assert
their rights. It has been shown, however, that prior to the historic
age, through capture and the individual ownership of land, women had
become dependent upon men and wholly subject to their control. After
thousands of years of subjection to male influence, the movements of
women, who are still dependent upon men, furnish little satisfactory
information regarding the character of free women at a time before
they had succumbed to the exigencies of brute force, and the unbridled
appetites of their male masters. Slaves seldom assert their rights, or,
if they do, of what avail is it?
Were we in possession of no other facts in support of the theory of
an early age of female supremacy than that all relationships to which
rights of succession were attached were formerly traced through women,
the evidence in its favour would be sufficient to prove it true, but
this manner of reckoning descent represents only one of the many
indications of such an age which Lubbock himself has been constrained
to record; yet, because—during the historic age—an age throughout which
the masculine element has ruled supreme, women have not asserted their
rights, this writer feels inclined to ignore all the evidence bearing
upon the subject, at the same time declaring that women could not
have “upheld their dignity in the manner supposed”; that the female,
on gaining human conditions, could not have exercised the instincts
inherited by her from her dumb progenitors.
If the females among insects, birds, and many species of mammals are
able to control the relations between themselves and their male mates,
why should it not be inferred that the female of the human species
would still be able to uphold the natural dignity of the female sex?
As an argument in support of his theory that the influence of women
was never supreme, Sir John Lubbock alludes to the position of
Australian women as being one of “complete subjection,” and as the
native Australians represent perhaps the lowest existing stage of human
society, he doubtless thinks his argument unassailable. However, that
the position of Australian women cannot be taken as a reliable guide in
estimating primitive womanhood is shown by the writer’s own reasoning
when he says:
It must not be assumed, however, that the condition of primitive
man is correctly represented by even the lowest of existing races.
The very fact that the latter have remained stationary, that their
manners, habits, and mode of life have continued almost unaltered for
generations, has created a strict, and often complicated, system of
customs, from which the former was necessarily free, but which has in
some cases gradually acquired even more than the force of law.[145]
[145] _Origin of Civilization_, p. 2.
Yet we find him comparing primitive women with this race which for
thousands upon thousands of years, because of its environment, or
through some cause which is not understood, has been unable to advance.
While this writer perceives clearly that foreign women were much more
desirable for wives than those belonging to a man’s own tribe, he has
not been able to discover the reason why this was so, but, continuing
to babble about the “rights” of the men of the group, overlooks the
fact that native-born women were free, and as only those women who had
first been torn from their friends and shorn of their independence
could at this stage of human existence be forced into the position of
wife, it became necessary to secure them by violence from surrounding
tribes. He is not blind to the fact that it was a desire to extend
the limit of conjugal liberties on the part of males which prompted
wife-capture; yet he would have us believe that although women were
absolutely independent of men, and although they were the recognized
heads of families, and the source whence originated all the privileges
of the gens, it was in no degree owing to their influence that the
conjugal liberties of males were restricted within the tribe, but, on
the contrary, that this restriction was enforced out of regard for
the “proprietary rights” of the men of the group. He says: “We must
remember that under the communal system the women of the tribe were
all common property. No one could appropriate one of them to himself
without infringing on the general rights of the tribe.”
As well might we say of the female bird for whose favours the male
fights until overcome by exhaustion and loss of blood, that she belongs
to him, or that he may appropriate her, as to say that the men of early
groups could “appropriate” women. From all the facts relative to the
condition of early society, it is plain that if either sex could with
propriety be designated as property it must have been the male. It is
evident that women were stolen from distant tribes for the express
purpose of sexual slavery, a position to which free, native-born women
could not be dragged; therefore, when Lubbock assures us that these
foreign women naturally “became wives in our own sense of the term,”
we may be sure that he is neither unmindful of the origin of our
present social system, nor of the true significance attached to the
position of wife. Indeed, he informs us that the “origin of marriage
was independent of all sacred and social conditions,” and proves
the same by actually producing the evidence. He has no hesitancy in
declaring that marriage is a masculine institution, established in the
interest (or supposed interest) of males; that it was “founded not on
the rights of the woman, but of the man,” and that there was not on
the woman’s part even the semblance of consent. In fact he declares
that he regards it as an illustration of the good old plan that “he
should take who has the power, and he should keep who can.” He says
also that it had nothing to do with mutual affection or sympathy,
that it was invalidated by no appearance of consent, and that it was
symbolized not by any demonstration of warm affection on the one side
and tender devotion on the other, but by brutal violence and unwilling
submission. To prove that the connection between force and marriage
is deeply rooted, Sir John Lubbock, like Mr. McLennan, has furnished
numerous examples of peoples among whom marriage by actual capture
still prevails, as well as many among which the system has passed into
a mere symbol. He is quite certain that the complete subjection of
the woman in marriage furnishes an explanation to those examples in
barbarous life in which women are looked upon as being too great to
marry—and cites the case of Sebituane, chief of the Bechuanas, who told
his daughter, Mamochisáne, that all the men were at her disposal—“she
might take any one, but ought to keep none.”
This instance, together with numberless others which might be cited,
proves that long after the practice of appropriating solitary women for
sexual purposes had become general, the position of wife was considered
too degrading to be occupied by women of rank.
Attention has been called to Lubbock’s idea concerning the “rights”
of the males of the group. We have seen that it is his opinion that
the exclusive possession of a woman could only be legally acquired by
a temporary recognition of the pre-existing communal rights, and that
the account in Herodotus of the debasement of Babylonian women was
cited by him as evidence to prove his position. He seems, however, to
forget that this custom, which was practised in various nations, is a
religious rite, and was inaugurated at a time when the adoration of the
sun, as the source of all life and light, had degenerated into the most
degrading phallic worship. To those who have given attention to the
growth of the god-idea, the supposed cases of “expiation for marriage,”
cited by Lubbock, are to be explained by the peculiar practices
inaugurated under fire and passion worship at a time long subsequent to
the establishment of _ba’al_ marriages.
In his chapter on “The Origin of Marriage by Capture,” this writer
says:
That marriage by capture has not arisen from female modesty, is, I
think, evident, not only because we have no reason to suppose that
such a feeling prevails especially among the lower races of man; but
also, firstly, because it cannot explain the mock resistance of the
relatives; and, secondly, because the very question to be solved
is why it became so generally the custom to win the female not by
persuasion but by force.[146]
[146] _Origin of Civilization_, p. 106.
That female modesty may not account for marriage by capture will
scarcely be disputed; it is not impossible, however, that disgust, or
aversion, on the part of women, may, in a measure, serve to explain it.
Sir John Lubbock should bear in mind that “choice” in the matter of
pairing was an early prerogative of the female; that true affection, a
character differing widely from the sex instinct developed in the male
was necessary before she could be induced to accept the attentions of
the male. While the women among primitive peoples abhorred strangers or
foreigners, it may scarcely be said of them that they were too modest
to accept them as suitors. Evidently, modesty is not the term to be
employed in this connection.
In seeking a reason to explain why force rather than persuasion was
used in the consummation of early marriages, we have to remember the
wide difference existing between the position of free women and that
of those who were obliged to accept the _ba’al_ form of marriage. If,
as we have reason to believe, as late as the beginning of the second
or Middle Status of barbarism, instead of following the father of her
children to his house as his slave, a woman remained in a home owned,
or at least controlled jointly by herself, her mother, her sisters, and
her daughters, it is plain that a state of female independence existed
which was incompatible with female subjection. Add to this the fact
that a woman’s children belonged exclusively to herself, or to her
family, and that all hereditary honours and rights of succession were
traced through females, and we have a set of circumstances which would
seem sufficient to explain why force was necessary to bring women into
the marital relation.
That the capture of women for wives arose because the independence
of free women was a bar to the gratification of the lower instincts
in man, can, in the presence of all the facts at hand, scarcely be
doubted; and that women submitted to the position of wife only when
obliged to do so, or when deprived of liberty and dragged from home and
friends, is only too apparent. While modesty as a cause for capture
may not account for the resistance of the relations, the sacrifice of
a daughter may serve to explain even this knotty point. If the capture
of a free and independent girl from her mother by a band of marauders
from a hostile tribe for purposes of the most degrading slavery, cannot
account for the resistance of the mother-in-law, among most of the
so-called lower races, then indeed it is difficult to conjecture any
provocation or any set of circumstances which can account for it.
This writer’s assertion that it is “contrary to all experience that
female delicacy diminishes with civilization,” proves conclusively that
he regards the slight degree of reserve which he is pleased to accredit
to women in modern times, as a result of civilization—a civilization,
too, which he evidently considers as wholly the result of masculine
achievement; in other words, he doubtless thinks that the degree of
self-respect observed among women at the present time is the result not
of the innate tendencies in the female constitution, but of masculine
tuition and training, an assumption which, when viewed by the light
which in recent years has been thrown upon the development of the two
diverging sex columns, is as absurd as it is arrogant and false. Some
time will doubtless elapse before Sir John Lubbock and the class of
writers which he represents will be willing to admit that civilization
has been possible only because of the checks to the animal nature of
the male, which are the natural result of the maternal instinct.
With a system, however, under which for six thousand years every
womanly instinct has been smothered, and under which female activity
has been utilized in the service of the strong sex instinct developed
in males, the outward expression of female delicacy has doubtless
diminished; and, in their weakened mental and physical condition,
women, dependent not only for all the luxuries but the necessities
of life as well, upon pleasing the men, have doubtless given them,
blinded as they have become by the conditions of their own peculiar
development, some reason for believing that within the female as within
the male, passion has been the ruling characteristic.
Sir John Lubbock, as well as other writers who have dealt with this
subject, should bear in mind the fact that female delicacy is a subject
which can be satisfactorily discussed only in relation to free and
independent women; hence the degree of its manifestation at any time
during the past six thousand years may bear little testimony concerning
the natural tendencies of women, or the condition of society under a
system where female influence was in the ascendency.
To those individuals whose minds are not clouded by prejudice, the fact
will doubtless be apparent, that the valuable information which has
been presented by three of the foremost writers on the subject of the
early relations of the sexes and the origin of marriage, instead of
serving as evidence to substantiate the fallacious theories which they
have propounded, is found to lie in a direct line with the facts and
principles which have been put forward by scientists in the theory of
natural development.
A review of the theories set forth by these three writers shows
that about the only point on which they agree is the lawlessness, or
promiscuity, of early races. As they have all started out with a false
premise, it is not singular that none of them has succeeded in setting
forth a consistent and reasonable hypothesis to account either for the
symbol of wife-capture, or for the early supremacy of women.
PART III
Early Historic Society
CHAPTER I
EARLY HISTORIC SOCIETY FOUNDED ON THE GENS
The result of recent research into the early organization of society,
the growth of the governmental idea, and the development of the
family, among tribes in the ascending scale, serve to throw new and
unexpected light upon the customs, ideas, institutions, and legends
of early historic peoples. Upon investigation it is observed that the
construction of Greek and Roman society corresponds exactly with that
of existing tribes occupying a lower plane in the scale of development,
and that all the institutions of these nations, although in a higher
state of advancement, involve the same original principles and ideas.
That the Greek and Roman tribes before reaching civilization had
passed through exactly the same processes of development as have been
witnessed in the ascending scale among the North American Indians,
the Arabians, and all other extant peoples, is shown not alone by
the manner in which early society was organized and held together,
but by the similarity observed in their myths, legends, traditions,
institutions, and social usages.
Whether or not a more advanced stage of civilization had been attained
by the progenitors of the Greeks and Romans is a question that does not
here concern us; for, if at any time prior to the appearance of these
peoples in history, a higher plane of life had been reached, it is
reasonable to suppose that such a state was gained under gentile forms
of society, especially as their various institutions at the beginning
of the historic period represent them as still to a considerable extent
governed by the ideas peculiar to the gens.
The earliest authentic accounts which we have of the Greeks represent
them as composed of the Doric tribes, who were Hellenes, and the
Ionians, who were of Pelasgic origin. The Dorians were a conservative
people, exclusive in their tastes and intolerant of innovations, while
the Ionians, who occupied the seacoasts and the adjacent islands,
were restless, fond of novelty, and not averse to intercourse with
surrounding nations.
Of the original inhabitants of Rome, it is observed that they consisted
of wandering tribes, bands of outlaws, and refugees from various
countries. Concerning the true origin of these peoples, however, and
of the history of their earliest settlements, they themselves were
evidently ignorant, and the fragmentary accounts of them which have
been preserved to us, when viewed independently of the light reflected
upon them by recent investigation, furnish but a dim picture in the
outline of which the most prominent figures appear only as indistinct
shadows or as objects without definite shape. It is true there was no
lack of myths and traditions which had come down to the Greeks and
Romans as genuine history, and which were doubtless regarded by them
as trustworthy accounts of their ancestors. Theseus who united the
Attic tribes, and Romulus who founded Rome, were heroes in whom the
divine and human were so nicely adjusted and so evenly balanced that
the history of their earthly career presents no shade of error either
in public or in private life. Indeed, both had sprung from immortal
sources, and their exploits were such as might be expected from the
mythical heroes of a forgotten age.
Although Greek society when it first came under our observation was
under gentile organization, the gens had passed out of its archaic
stage. This ancient institution, which had carried humanity through
to civilization, was gradually losing its vitality; it had lost its
efficiency as a governing agency, and was about to give place to
political institutions.
With the facts at present accessible regarding peoples in the lower
and middle stages of barbarism, the various steps in the growth of
government as administered in the upper or latter stage of barbarism
are clearly observed; also by close attention to the conditions
surrounding extant peoples in the latter stage of barbarism and the
opening ages of civilization, the processes involved in the transfer
of society from gentile to political institutions are easily traced,
together with the principal ideas and motives underlying the growth of
all the institutions belonging to early historic nations.
Until civilization was reached the gens constituted the unit of
organized society. This fact, however, until a comparatively recent
time, seems to have been overlooked. Without attempting to explain
the origin of the gens and phratry as they existed in Greece, Mr.
Grote observes: “The legislator finds them pre-existing, and adapts or
modifies them to answer some national scheme.” Unacquainted as this
writer evidently was with the construction of primitive society, he
failed to observe that originally, in Greece, all the powers of the
legislator himself were derived from and circumscribed by the gens.
Indeed, that this organization upon which the superstructure of Grecian
society rested was the original source whence proceeded all social
privileges and all military rights and obligations, is a condition
which until a comparatively recent time has been overlooked. While
discussing the relations of the family to the gens, the gens to the
phratry, and the phratry to the tribe, Mr. Grote says: “The basis of
the whole was the house, hearth, or family—a number of which, greater
or less, composed the gens, or genos.”[147]
[147] _History of Greece_, vol. iii., p. 54.
Mr. Morgan has shown, however, that the family could not have
constituted the basis of the gens, for the reason that the heads of
families belonged to separate gentes. We are assured that the gens is
much older than the monogamic family, and therefore that the latter
could not have formed the basis of the gentile organization; but even
had the family preceded the gens in order of development, as its
members belonged to different gentes it could not have constituted the
unit of the social series.
In order to gain a clear understanding of the processes and principles
involved in the early Grecian form of government, it first becomes
necessary briefly to review the various steps in the growth of the
governmental functions through two ethnical periods.
The tribe is a community of related individuals possessed of equal
rights and privileges, and bound by equal duties and responsibilities.
It has been shown that in the Lower Status of barbarism the government
consisted of only one power—a council of chiefs elected by the people.
During the Middle Status of barbarism two powers appear,—the civil and
military functions have become separated, the duties of a military
commander being co-ordinated with those of a council of chiefs. The
military commander, however, has not succeeded in drawing to himself
the powers of a ruler or king. In the Second Status of barbarism
tribes have not begun to confederate. A single tribe, its members
bound together by the tie of kinship and united by common rights and
responsibilities, owning their lands in common, and each contributing
his share toward the common defence, so long as it was able to maintain
its independence, had little need for an elaborate form of government.
As yet no strifes engendered by envy and extreme selfishness had arisen
to disturb the simplicity of their lives, or to check the development
of those early principles of liberty and fraternity which were the
natural inheritance of the gens. A council of chiefs elected by the
gentes and receiving all its powers from the people had thus far
performed all the duties of government.
After the Upper Status of barbarism is reached we find confederated
tribes dwelling together in walled cities surrounded by embankments,
and a state of affairs existing which called for a further
differentiation of the functions of government, and a redistribution of
the powers and responsibilities of the people. In process of time, with
the accumulation of property in masses in the hands of the few, and
the consequent rise of an aristocracy, a government founded on wealth,
or on a territorial basis, rather than on the personal relations of an
individual to his gens, was demanded; and, finally, those principles,
rights, and privileges which constitute a pure democracy, and which
had always formed the basis of gentile institutions were gradually
ignored; that personal influence which was originally exercised by each
and every gentilis being transferred to a privileged class—a class
which controlled the wealth, and at the head of which was the military
commander or _basileus_. Such was the condition of Grecian society as
it first appears in history.
A comparison instituted by Mr. Morgan between the Iroquois gens and
that of the Greeks shows the former at the time when it first came
under European observation to have been in the archaic stage, with
descent and all the rights of succession traced in the female line;
while the latter, at the time designated as the heroic age, had not
only changed the manner of reckoning descent from the female to the
male line, but was evidently about to give place to political society
which, instead of being founded on kinship, was based on property and
territory, or upon a man’s relations to the township or deme in which
he resided.
While the Iroquois tribe of Indians represents the gens in its original
vitality, the Greeks appear to have reached a stage at which the
archaic form of government instituted on the basis of kin was found
inadequate to meet their necessities; hence the confusion arising
from disputed authority, at the almost interminable struggle between
the various classes which had arisen, and the evident disaffection
and unrest manifest among the entire Grecian people during the ages
intervening between Codrus, nearly eleven hundred years B.C., and
Clisthenes, five hundred years later.
That degree of jealousy with which individual liberty was guarded
during the earlier ages of historic Greece, that thirst for freedom,
and that restlessness under tyranny which characterized the Grecian
people throughout their entire career, are explained by the fact that
prior to the age of Clisthenes they were under gentile institutions,
the fundamental principles of which were liberty, equality, and
justice. From all the facts which may be gathered bearing upon this
subject, it is evident that although at the beginning of the historic
period the Greeks had lost much of that independence which belonged to
an earlier stage of human development, their institutions still partook
of the character of a democracy.
Of the similarity of the customs and institutions of early historic
Greece and those of a more primitive age we have ample evidence. In
ancient Greece, as among the Iroquois tribe of Indians, “property
was vested absolutely in the clan, and could not be willed away from
it.”[148] Not only did the members of a clan hold their property in
common, but they were obliged to help, defend, support, and even
avenge those of their number who required their assistance. Young
females bereft of near relations were either furnished with husbands or
provided with suitable portions. Descent must still have been reckoned
in the female line, for foreigners admitted to citizenship were not
members of any clan, neither were their descendants, unless born of
women who were citizens. Citizens were enrolled in the clan and phratry
of their mothers.[149]
[148] George Rawlinson, book v., essay ii.
[149] _Ibid._
In the administration of the government, however, are to be noted a
few important changes. The complications which had arisen as a result
of the individual ownership of property, the change in the reckoning
of descent from the female to the male line which followed, and the
growth of the aristocratic element, had produced a corresponding change
in the control and management of the government. Solicitude for the
common weal, although still felt by the great mass of the people, had
among the rulers given place to extreme egoism, and that association
and combination of interests, which since the dawn of organized society
had characterized the gens, was rapidly giving way before the love of
dominion, the thirst for power, and the greed of gain—characters which
in process of time came to represent the mainspring of human action.
With the changes which took place in the conditions of the people,
it is seen that the administrative functions became still further
differentiated. Co-ordinate with the Greek _basileus_ or war-chief are
to be observed not only a council of chiefs who were the heads of the
gentes, but also an assembly of the people, these three governmental
functions corresponding in a general way to our President, Senate, and
House of Representatives.
The Ecclesia or general assembly at Sparta was originally composed
of all the free males who dwelt within the city. Although this body
originated no measures, it was invested with authority to adopt or
reject any proposed legislation or plan of action devised by the
chiefs. “All changes in the constitution or laws, and all matters of
great public import, as questions of peace or war, of alliances, and
the like, had to be brought before it for decision.”[150] Thus may be
observed the precautions which during the latter stages of barbarism
had been taken to guard the rights of the people, and to insure them
against individual and class usurpation.
[150] George Rawlinson, book v., essay i.
Curtius assures us that the Dorian people
did not feel as if they were placed in a foreign state, but they were
the citizens of their own—not merely the objects of legislation, but
also participants in it, for they only obeyed such statutes as they
themselves had agreed to.[151]
[151] _History of Greece_, book ii., chap. i.
Although Mr. Grote would have us believe that the assembly of the
people was simply a “listening agora,”[152] it is plain that it was
originally invested with sufficient power to protect the people against
despotism. In the further differentiation of the administrative
functions the powers of the subordinate officers are all drawn from
the sum of the powers invested in the three principal branches of
the government, the ill-defined duties of each giving rise to those
unabated dissensions and fierce and unrelenting strifes which in course
of time became such a fruitful source of devastation and bloodshed.
[152] Vol. ii., p. 348.
From what is known at the present time regarding Greek society prior
to the age of Theseus, it is not at all likely that it was organized
on monarchial principles, or that any form of government prevailed in
Greece other than that of a military democracy. It is true that by most
of the writers who have dealt with the subject of the government of the
early Greeks, the _basileus_ has been designated as king, and that he
has been invested by them with all the insignia of a modern monarch.
In later times, however, with a better understanding of the principles
underlying early society, this view of the matter is seen to be false.
Mr. Morgan, a writer who as we have seen has given much attention to
the constitution of gentile society, informs us that in the Lower and
also in the Middle Status of barbarism the office of chief was elective
or during good behaviour, “for this limitation follows from the right
of the gens to depose from office.”[153]
[153] _Ancient Society_, p. 262.
When descent was in the female line this office descended either to a
brother of the deceased chief or to a sister’s son, but later, when
descent began to be traced in the male line, the eldest son was usually
elected to succeed his father. Upon this subject Mr. Morgan says
further:
It cannot be claimed, on satisfactory proof, that the oldest son of
the _basileus_ took the office, upon the demise of his father, by
absolute hereditary right.... The fact that the oldest, or one of
the sons, usually succeeded, which is admitted, does not establish
the fact in question; because by usage he was in the probable line of
succession by a free election from a constituency. The presumption on
the face of Grecian institutions is against succession to the office
of _basileus_ by hereditary right; and in favour either of a free
election, or of a confirmation of the office by the people through
their recognized organization, as in the case of the Roman rex. With
the office of _basileus_ transmitted in the manner last named, the
government would remain in the hands of the people. Because without an
election or confirmation he could not assume the office; and because,
further, the power to elect or confirm implies the reserved right to
depose.[154]
[154] _Ancient Society_, p. 262.
There is no lack of evidence at the present time going to prove
that all these early tribes were originally organized on thoroughly
democratic principles, and that there never was any dignity conferred
on the leader of the early Grecian hosts answering to the present
definition of king; also that prior to the time of Romulus, no
chieftain of the Latin tribes was ever invested with sufficient
authority to have constituted him an imperial ruler. The term
_basileus_, as applied to a leader of a military democracy in the early
ages of Grecian history, doubtless implies simply the war-chief of the
primitive tribe, an officer chosen from among the chiefs of the gentes
as a leader of the hosts in battle, but as claiming no civil functions,
and as possessing no authority outside the office of military
chieftain.
The Homeric writings, which contain the earliest direct information
which we have of the Greeks, and in which are doubtless mirrored forth
a tolerably correct picture of the customs, institutions, and manners
of this people, when read by the light of more recently developed facts
relative to the early constitution of society, are invested with new
interest, and a fresh charm and a new significance are added to every
detail connected with the narrative. As to the extent of authority
attached to the office of military leader among the Greeks, Homer has
given us a fair illustration in the person of Agamemnon—“shepherd of
the people.” That the position of this chieftain differs widely from
that occupied by the king of succeeding ages is apparent. At the outset
we find the injured Achilles, after he has taunted the chieftain with
being the “greediest of men,” addressing him in the following language:
Ha, thou mailed in impudence
And bent on lucre! Who of all the Greeks
Can willingly obey thee, on the march,
Or bravely battling with the enemy![155]
[155] _The Iliad_, book i., Bryant’s translation.
Then Pelides takes up the strain and with opprobrious words thus
addresses the son of Atreus:
Wine-bibber with the forehead of a dog
And a deer’s heart. Thou never yet hast dared
To arm thyself for battle with the rest,
Nor join the other chiefs prepared to lie
In ambush,—such thy craven fear of death.
Better it suits thee, midst the mighty host
Of Greeks, to rob some warrior of his prize
Who dares withstand thee.[156]
[156] _The Iliad_, book i., Bryant’s translation.
Even the brawler Thersites,
Squint-eyed, with one lame foot, and on his back
A lump, and shoulders curving towards the chest,
dares to insult this chief—this king as he is represented by most
modern writers, and to his face taunt him with his injustice towards
Achilles. To Agamemnon he says:
Of what dost thou complain; what wouldst thou more,
Atrides? In thy tents are heaps of gold;
Thy tents are full of chosen damsels, given
To thee before all others, by the Greeks,
Whene’er we take a city. Dost thou yet
Hanker for gold, brought by some Trojan knight,
A ransom for his son, whom I shall lead—
I, or some other Greek—a captive bound?
Or dost thou wish, for thy more idle hours,
Some maiden, whom thou mayst detain apart?
Ill it beseems a prince like thee to lead
The sons of Greece, for such a cause as this,
Into new perils. O ye coward race!
Ye abject Greeklings, Greeks no longer, haste
Homeward with all the fleet, and let us leave
This man at Troy to win his trophies here,
That he may learn whether the aid we give
Avails him aught or not, since he insults
Achilles, a far braver man than he.[157]
[157] Book ii.
It is true Ulysses smote Thersites as he upbraided him for this insult
to Agamemnon. It is plain, however, that the chastisement was of a
private nature. It seems not to have been a crime openly to berate
their chief. Indeed the position of “shepherd of the people” was not
one of such dignity that any warrior among the hosts might not with
impunity freely speak his mind concerning him, or to his face confront
him with improper behaviour. When Agamemnon compared unfavourably
the valour of Diomed with that of his father, Tydeus, Sthenelus, the
honoured son of Capaneus, hesitated not to remind the chief of his
folly, and to his face upbraid him. “Atrides, speak not falsely when
thou knowest the truth so well.”[158]
[158] Book iv.
Regarding the office of king, Mr. Morgan says:
Modern writers, almost without exception, translate _basileus_ by
the term _king_, and _basileia_ by the term _kingdom_, without
qualification, and as exact equivalents. I wish to call attention
to this office of _basileus_, as it existed in the Grecian tribes,
and to question the correctness of this interpretation. There is no
similarity whatever between the _basileia_ of the ancient Athenians
and the modern kingdom or monarchy.... Constitutional monarchy is
a modern development, and essentially different from the _basileia_
of the Greeks. The _basileia_ was neither an absolute nor a
constitutional monarchy; neither was it a tyranny nor a despotism. The
question then is, what was it?
Mr. Morgan’s answer to the question is as follows:
The primitive Grecian government was essentially democratical,
reposing on gentes, phratries, and tribes organized as self-governing
bodies, and on the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity.
This writer says further:
Our views upon Grecian and Roman questions have been moulded by
writers accustomed to monarchical government and privileged classes,
who were perhaps glad to appeal to the earliest known governments of
the Grecian tribes for a sanction of this form of government, as at
once natural, essential, and primitive.[159]
[159] _Ancient Society_, p. 247.
We have noted the precautions which during the second and latter
periods of barbarism were necessary to keep in check the increasing
thirst for power, and it may not be doubted that through the growth of
the aristocratic tendency during the latter ages of the existence of
the gens, the office of _basileus_ gave to its incumbent a degree of
distinction closely allied to that of king.
In the eleventh century B.C. upon the death of Codrus, so necessary
had it become to check the continually increasing power of the military
chieftains that the office was abolished and the archonship established
in its place; but as an election or confirmation was necessary before
the duties of either office could be entered upon, it is plain that at
the period referred to a democratic form of government still prevailed.
Now archon is the term which had been applied to the chief of the
early gentes at a time when fraternity, liberty, and equality were
the cardinal virtues of society; and the abolition of the office of
_basileus_, to which had become attached a considerable degree of
power, was doubtless an attempt on the part of the people to return
to the simpler and purer methods of government which had formerly
prevailed; but the institution known as the Agora, Ecclesia, or
Appella, which had proved the great bulwark of safety to early
democratic institutions, had, through the strengthening of the
aristocratic element, become gradually weakened, hence the nobles
were in a position to draw to themselves not only much of the power
originally exercised by the military commander, but that also which
had formerly belonged to the assembly of the people. We have observed
that not only among the Greeks of the heroic age, but among the
tribes and nations which preceded them, as far back in the history
of the past as the close of the second stage of barbarism, there had
always been an assembly of the people whose duty it was to guard the
rights of the tribe, to protect it against usurpation, and to keep
down the rising tendency toward imperialism. Of this institution, Mr.
Rawlinson says: “Thus at Athens, as elsewhere, in the heroic times,
there was undoubtedly the idea of a public assembly consisting of all
freemen.”[160]
[160] George Rawlinson, book v., essay ii.
Theseus, _basileus_, or military chieftain of the Athenian tribes,
a personage who belongs to the legendary period, was the first to
perceive the insufficiency of gentile institutions to meet the needs
of the people. Although the primary idea involved in the establishment
of political society was the transference of the original governmental
functions from the gens to a territorial limit, so deeply had the
instincts, ideas, and associations connected with the personal
government of the gens taken root that several centuries were required
to accomplish the change. To establish the deme or township, in which,
irrespective of kinship or personal ties, all its inhabitants (except
slaves) should be enrolled as citizens, with rights, privileges, and
duties adjusted according to the amount of property owned by each, and
which should be a unit of the larger and more important institution—the
State,—was an undertaking the mastery of which although seemingly
simple, nevertheless involved intricacies and obstacles of such
magnitude as to baffle all attempts of the Greeks from the time of
Theseus to that of Clisthenes, at which time political society was
established, and the gens, shorn of its utility and power, remained
only as the embodiment of certain social ideas, or survived as a
religious centre, over which their eponymous ancestor, as hero or god,
still presided.
The age of Theseus could not have been later than 1050 B.C., and the
final overthrow of gentile government did not, as we have seen, occur
until the age of Clisthenes, five hundred years later. Throughout the
intervening time between Theseus and Clisthenes little real advancement
is noted among the Greeks; none, perhaps, except that connected with
the growth of the idea of government as indicated by the change
from gentile to political institutions, and even this growth, when
we observe that nearly five centuries and a half were required to
establish it, or to substitute the deme or township in the place of the
gens as the unit in the governmental series, can scarcely be regarded
as evidence of remarkable genius, or as indicating a notable degree
of ingenuity. In the transference of society, however, from gentile
to political institutions may be observed a progressive principle,
inasmuch as by it the limits of the gens and tribe were gradually
broken down or obliterated, and the enlarged conception of the state
established in their stead. After the age of Clisthenes an isolated
community bound together by kinship, and with interests extending no
further than the tribe of which it was a part, no longer constituted
the fundamental basis upon which the superstructure of society was to
rest; but, on the contrary, the deme or township, with all its free
inhabitants, of whatsoever tribe or gens, was to become the recognized
unit in organized society.
Prior to the age of Theseus, Attica was divided into petty states,
each with a council-house of its own. According to the testimony of
Thucydides, from the time of Cecrops to Theseus
the population of Athens had always inhabited independent cities, with
their own guild-halls and magistrates; and at such times as they were
not in fear of any danger they did not meet with the king to consult
with him, but themselves severally conducted their own government, and
took their own counsel.[161]
[161] Thucydides, _The History of Peloponnesian War_.
The _basileus_ or war-chief exercised no civil functions,[162] and his
services were never called into requisition except in times of danger.
[162] Morgan, _Ancient Society_, p. 250.
Theseus upon receiving the office of military chieftain “persuaded” the
people in the adjacent country to remove to the city.[163] According
to Plutarch he “settled all the inhabitants of Attica in Athens and
made them one people in one city.”[164] He persuaded them to abolish
their independent city governments and to establish in their stead,
at Athens, a council-house which would be common to all. Thus, under
his direction, the Attic peoples coalesced, or were united under
one government. Theseus, we are told, divided the people into three
classes, irrespective of gentes, on the basis of property and social
position. The chiefs of the several gentes with their families, and
the citizens who through their great wealth had become influential,
constituted the first class; the second class were the husbandmen,
and the third the mechanics. All the principal offices both of the
government and the priesthood were in the hands of the nobles or the
moneyed and aristocratic classes. Thucydides refers to the fact that
“when Greece was becoming more powerful, and acquiring possessions
of money still more than before, tyrannies were established in the
cities.”[165]
[163] Thucydides, book ii., 14.
[164] _Theseus._
[165] Book i., 13.
Upon this subject Mr. Rawlinson says:
All important political privilege is engrossed by the Eupatrids, who
consist of a certain number of “clans” claiming a special nobility,
but not belonging to any single tribe, or distinguishable from the
ignoble clans, otherwise than by the possession of superior rank and
riches. The rest of the citizens constitute an unprivileged class,
personally free, but with no atom of political power, and are roughly
divided, according to their occupation, into yeoman-farmers and
artisans. The union of the Eupatrids in the same tribes and phratries
with the Geomori and Demiurgi, seems to show that the aristocracy of
Athens was not original, like that of Rome, but grew out of an earlier
and more democratical condition of things—such, in fact, as we find
depicted in the Homeric poems.... Thus at Athens, as elsewhere, in the
heroic times, there was undoubtedly the idea of a public assembly,
consisting of all free-men; but this institution seems entirely to
have disappeared during the centuries which intervened between Codrus
and Solon.[166]
[166] Rawlinson, book v., essay ii.
During the three hundred years which followed the death of Codrus,
nothing of great importance is observed concerning the growth of
Grecian institutions. Doubtless their development was characterized
only by the strengthening of the aristocracy and the stimulation of
those egoistic principles which are essential in the establishment of
an oligarchy. That in course of time the power attached to the office
of archon also became a menace to the people’s liberties is shown in
the fact that in the first year of the seventh Olympiad, B.C., 752, the
life archonship was brought to a close and the term of office reduced
to ten years. Although the office was still limited to the family of
Codrus, the incumbent became amenable to the elders or chiefs for his
acts. However, that this movement was not wholly in the interest of the
masses of the people is shown in the fact that during the following
thirty years the Eupatrids, or members of the aristocratic party, had
drawn to themselves all the power belonging to the archonship. It
is observed that during the reign of the fourth decennial archon, a
pretext having been found to depose him, the reigning family or gens
was declared as having forfeited its right to rule and the office was
thrown open to all Eupatrids. Nine archons from among the aristocratic
party, with all the powers formerly belonging to the supreme archon,
conveyed to them, were chosen as a governing board,[167] and were
to continue in office for one year. Selected by and from among the
Eupatrids, their legislation was wholly in the interest of the wealthy
and privileged classes.
[167] Rawlinson, book v., essay ii.
From 684 B.C. to 624 B.C., the aristocratic party exercised unlimited
control over the Athenian state, and during the entire sixty years used
their great power to crush out even a semblance of free institutions.
The thirst for power among them was equalled only by their greed for
gain; hence while wielding the former, they gratified their cupidity
by gathering into their own coffers almost the entire wealth of the
nation. With the machinery of legislation turned against them, the
middle and lower classes were soon robbed even of their means of
support. Most of the land was mortgaged, and the persons of the owners
held by the Eupatrids for debt. Men sold their children and their
sisters to satisfy the demands of creditors,[168] and such was the
inequality existing between various classes that dissensions arose on
every hand, and a general state of confusion, disorder, and discontent
prevailed. Thus may be observed some of the processes by which the
early principles of fraternity, liberty, and justice were overthrown.
[168] _Ibid._
At length the sufferings of the people caused by the injustice and
rapacity of their rulers became unbearable, and by means of various
signs of discontent, notably that of a popular demand for written
laws, it became evident that a crisis had been reached. The Eupatrids,
pretending to heed the popular demand, elected Draco, one of their
number, to the office of archon, with the understanding that a code of
written laws defining the rights of the several classes be prepared.
As the Greeks of the Draconian and Solonic age were but a few
centuries removed from a time when individual liberty and equality had
constituted the cardinal principles upon which society was founded, we
may believe that that spirit of personal independence and self-respect
which had been inherited from gentile institutions, although it had
perhaps slumbered, had never been crushed; therefore, a condition
of subjection or slavery, although for a time endured, could not be
willingly accepted as a settled fact.
As the laws prepared by Draco tended only to aggravate the abuses
of which the people complained, it is quite evident that no reform
was intended; the Eupatrids, however, had mistaken the temper of the
people, and the fact soon became manifest, even to the members of the
governing classes themselves, that certain concessions must be made
to the popular demand for justice. An idea of the rapacity, greed,
dishonesty, and cupidity which prevailed at this stage of Greek life
may be obtained from the writings of Theognis, a poet of Grecian Mega,
who lived about five hundred and seventy years B.C. Among his Maxims
appear the following:
Now at length a sense of shame hath perished among mankind, but
shamelessness reigns over the earth. Everyone honours a rich man but
dishonours a poor: And in all men there is the same mind.... No one of
the present race of men doth the sun look down upon, being entirely
good and moderate.... When I am flourishing, friends are many; but
should any calamity have chanced upon me, few retain a faithful
spirit. For the multitude of men there is this virtue only, namely, to
be rich: But of the rest, I wot, there is no use.
The fact is obvious that already in the history of the Greeks the love
of property and the rise of the aristocratic spirit had gained such a
foothold that a democracy was no longer desired by the more influential
citizens, and that it was the moneyed classes and the aristocratic
party who were growing restless under institutions which acknowledged
the equality of all free-born citizens.
Doubtless the power which had been hitherto exercised by the gentes
had already been drawn to the moneyed classes; still, this attempt to
organize society into classes on the basis of property and station was
perhaps the first regulated movement openly to curtail the hitherto
recognized power of the individual members of the gens, and doubtless
constituted the first formulated step towards the subsequent removal of
this ancient institution from its original position as the unit in the
governmental series.
From accessible facts to be gathered relative to early Greek society,
it is plain that individual liberty perished with the gens, and that
monarchy, aristocracy, and slavery were the natural results of the
decline of the altruistic principles upon which early society was
founded.