FURTHER EXAMPLES OF THE MATERNAL FAMILY
Pursuing our inquiry into the social organisation of mother-right, an
interesting example occurs among the peoples of the Malay States,
where, notwithstanding the centres of Hindu and Moslem influence, much
has been retained of the maternal system, once universally prevalent.
The maternal marriage, here known as the _ambel-anak_, in which the
husband lives with the wife, paying nothing to the support of the
family and occupying a subordinate position, may be taken as typical
of the former condition. But among the tribes who have come in contact
with outside influences the custom of the husband visiting the wife,
or residing in her house, is modified, and in some cases has
altogether disappeared.
From a private correspondent, a resident in the Malay States, I have
received some interesting notes about the present conditions of the
native tribes and the position of women. "In most of the Malay States
exogamous matriarchy has in comparatively modern times been superseded
by feudalism (_i. e._, the patriarchal rights of the father). But
where the old customs survive, the women are still to a large extent
in control. The husband goes to live in the wife's village; thus the
women in each group are a compact unity, while the men are strangers
to each other and enter as unorganised individuals. This is the real
basis of the women's power. In other tribes, where the old customs
have changed, the women occupy a distinctly inferior position, and
under the influence of Islam the idea of secluding adult women has
been for centuries spreading and increasing in force." Here, again,
clear proof is shown of the maternal system exercising a direct
influence on the position of women. And this statement is in agreement
with Robertson Smith, who, in writing of the maternal marriage, says:
"And it is remarkable that when both customs--the woman receiving her
husband in her own hut, and the man taking his wife to his--occur side
by side among the same people, descent in the former case is traced
through the mother, in the latter through the father."[82]
[82] _Marriage and Kinship in Early Arabia_, p. 74. See also
Marsden, _History of Sumatra_, p. 225.
In its ancient form the maternal communal family has notably persisted
among the Padang Highlanders of Sumatra. These people live in village
communities, with long timber houses placed in barrack-like rows, very
similar to the communal dwellings of the American Indians. The houses
are gay in appearance, and are adorned with carved and coloured
woodwork. One dwelling will contain as many as a hundred people, who
form a _sa-mandei_, or mother-hood. Again we find the family
consisting of the house-mother and her descendants in the female
line--sons and daughters, and the daughters' children. McGee thus
describes these maternal households--[83]
[83] "The Beginning of Marriage," _American Anthropologist_,
Vol. IX, p. 376.
"If the visitor, mounting the ladder steps, looks in at one
of the doors of the separate dwellings, he may see seated
beyond the family hearth the mother and her children, eating
the midday meal, and very likely the father, who may have
been doing a turn of work in his wife's rice-plot. If he is
a kindly husband, he is there much as a friendly visitor,
but his real home remains in the house in which he was
born."
The husband has no permanent residence in the woman's house, and at
dusk each evening the men may be seen walking across the village to
join their wives and families. The father has no rights over his
children, who belong wholly to the wife's _suku_, or clan. But this in
no way implies that the father is unknown, for monogamy is the rule;
as is usual the question is one rather of social right than of
relationship. The maternal uncle is the male head of the house, and
exercises under the mother the duties of a father to the children. The
brother of the eldest grandmother is the male head of the family
settlement and the clan consists of a number of these families. It
would seem that these male rulers act as the agents of the female
members, whose authority is great. This power is dependent on the
inheritance; as is the descent, so is the property, and its
transmission is arranged for the benefit of the maternal lineage. For
this reason daughters are preferred rather than sons.
This account of the Padang Malays may be supplemented by the Jesuit
missionary De Mailla's description of the maternal marriage in the
Island of Formosa.[84] Speaking of this marriage, McGee says: "If it
had received the notice it deserves, it might long ago have placed the
study of maternal institutions on a sounder basis."
[84] _Lettres edefiantes et curieux_, Vol. XVIII, p. 441,
copied in Dunhalde, _Description de la Clune_, Vol. I, p.
166, and cited by McGee.
"The Formosan youth wishing to marry makes music day by day
at the maid's door, till, if willing, she comes out to him,
and when they are agreed, the parents are told, and the
marriage feast is prepared in the bride's house, whence the
bridegroom returns no more to his father, regarding his
father-in-law's house as his own, and himself as the support
of it, while his own father's house is no more to him than
in Europe the bride's home is henceforth to her when she
quits it to live with her husband. Thus the Formosans set no
store on sons, but aspire to have daughters, who procure
them sons-in-law to become the support of their old age."
It will be noted that here the house is spoken of as the father's, and
not as belonging to the mother. The bridegroom is the suitor, and we
see the creeping in of property considerations always associated with
the rise of father-right. Though the husband has as yet no recognised
position and lives in the wife's home, he is valued for his service to
his father-in-law, clearly a step in the direction of property
assertion. Among many of the Malay hill tribes of Formosa the maternal
system is dying out, though the old law forbidding marriage within the
clan remains in force.
These changes must be expected wherever the transition towards
father-right has begun; the older forms of courtship and marriage, so
favourable to the woman, are replaced by patriarchal customs. One or
two curious examples of primitive courtship, in which the initiative
is taken entirely by the girl may be noted here. Among the Garos tribe
it is not only the privilege, but the duty of the girl to select her
lover, while an infringement of this rule is severely and summarily
punished. Any declaration made on the part of the young man is
regarded as an insult to the whole _mahári_ (motherhood) to which the
girl belongs, a stain only to be expiated by liberal presents made at
the expense of the _mahári_ of the over-forward lover. The marriage
customs are equally curious. On the morning of the wedding a ceremony
very similar to capture takes place, only it is the bridegroom who is
abducted. He pretends to be unwilling and runs away and hides, but he
is caught by the friends of the bride. Then he is taken by force,
weeping as he goes, in spite of the resistance and counterfeited grief
of his parents and friends, to the bride's house, where he takes up
his residence with his mother-in-law. It is instructive to find that
these marriages are usually successful. Although divorce is easy, it
is not frequent. "The Garos will not hastily make engagements,
because, when they do make them, they intend to keep them."[85]
[85] Dalton, _Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal_, pp. 64, 142.
See also Tylor, "The Matriarchal Theory," _Nineteenth
Century_, July 1896, p. 89.
In Paraguay, we are told, the women are generally endowed with
stronger passions than the men, and are allowed to make the
proposals.[86] So also among the Ahitas of the Philippine Islands,
where, if her clan-parents will not consent to a love match the girl
seizes the young man by the hair, carries him off, and declares she
has run away with him. In such a case it appears the marriage is held
to be valid whether the parents consent or not.[87] A similar custom
of a gentler character, is practised by the Tarrahumari Indians of
Northern Mexico, among whom, according to Lumboltz, the maiden is a
persistent wooer employing a _répertoire_ of really exquisite love
songs to soften the heart of a reluctant swain.[88] Again, in New
Guinea, where the women held a very independent position, "the girl is
always regarded as the seducer. Women steal men." A youth who
proposed to a girl would be making himself ridiculous, would be called
a woman, and laughed at by the girls. The usual method by which a girl
proposes is to send a present to the youth by a third party, following
this up by repeated gifts of food; the young man sometimes waits a
month or two, receiving presents all the time, in order to assure
himself of the girl's constancy, before decisively accepting her
advances.[89]
[86] Moore, _Marriage Customs: Modes of Courtship_, etc., p.
261. Rengger, _Naturgeschichte der Säugelliere von Paraguay_,
p. 11, cited by Westermarck, _op. cit._, p. 158.
[87] J. M. Wheeler, "Primitive Marriage," an article in
_Progress_, 1885, p. 128.
[88] McGee, "The Beginning of Marriage," _American
Anthropologist_, Vol. IX.
[89] Haddon, "Western Tribes of the Torres States," _Journal
of the Anthropological Society_, Vol. XIX, Feb. 1890. Cited
by Havelock Ellis, _Psychology of Sex_, Vol. III, p. 185.
It is clear that these cases, which I have chosen from a number of
similar courtship customs, differ very much from what is our idea of
the customary rôle of the girl and her lover. To me they are very
instructive. They show the error of the long-held belief in the
passivity of the female as a natural law of the sex.[90] Such openness
of conduct in courtship is impossible except where women hold an
entirely independent position. Here, then, is another advantage that
may be claimed as arising for women out of the maternal system. I
claim this: the woman's right of selection in love--yes, her greatest
right, one that is necessary for a freer and more beautiful mating.
[90] For further examination of this question of the supposed
passivity of the woman in courtship, see _The Truth about
Woman_, pp. 65-69, 251-257.
Terminating this short digression, I return to my examination of the
peoples among whom the family is especially maternal.
The Pelew Islanders of the South Sea have customs in many respects
the same as those of the Khasi tribes. They preserve strict maternal
descent, and like the Khasis, the deities of all the clans are
goddesses. The life and social habits of the people have been
described by Kubary, a careful and sympathetic observer, for long
resident in the island.[91] The tribes are divided into exogamous
clans, and intermarriage between any relations on the mother's side is
unlawful. These clans are grouped together in villages and the life is
of a communal character. Each village consists of about a score of
clans, and forms with its lands a petty independent state.
[91] _Die socialen Einrichtungen der Pelauer. Die Religion,
de Pelauer._ Mr. Frazer, _Golden Bough_, Part IV, _Adonis,
Attis, Osiris_, pp. 387 _et seq._, summarises the account of
Kubary. See also Waitz-Gerland, Vol. V, Part II, p. 106 _et
seq._, and an account of the Pelews given by Ymer.
Again we find the maternal system intimately connected with religious
ideas, and it is interesting to recall what was said by Bachofen:
"Wherever gynæcocracy meets us the mystery of religion is bound up
with it, and lends to motherhood an incorporation in some divinity."
Among these Islanders every family traces its descent from a
woman--the common mother of the clan. And for this reason the members
worship a goddess and not a god. In the different states there are,
besides other special deities, usually a goddess and a god, but as
these are held to be derived directly from a household-goddess, it is
evident that here, as among the Khasis, goddesses are older than the
gods. This is shown also by the names of the goddesses. There is
another fact of interest: some women are reputed to be the wives of
the gods, they are called _Amalalieys_ and have a great honour paid to
them, while their children pass for the offspring of the gods.
The reverence paid to the ancestral goddesses is explained by Mr.
Kubary as arising from the importance of women in the clans.
"The existence of the clan depends entirely on the life of
the women, and not at all on the life of the men. If the
women survive, it is no matter though every man in the clan
should perish, for the women will, as usual, marry men of
another clan, and their offspring will inherit their
mother's clan, and thereby prolong its existence. Whereas if
the women of the clan die out the clan necessarily becomes
extinct, even if every man in it should survive; for the men
must, as usual, marry women of another clan, and their
offspring will inherit their mother's clan and not the clan
of the father, which accordingly, with the death of the
father, is wiped off the community."
I quote this passage because it shows so clearly what I am claiming,
that descent through the mother, under the condition of strict
exogamy, conferred a very marked distinction on the female members of
the clan, whose existence depended on them; this cannot possibly have
failed to act favourably on their position. I may note, too, in
passing, the fallacy of Mr. McLennan's view that polyandry (which, it
will be remembered, he held to have been developed from and connected
with mother-descent) arose as a result of female infanticide. Such a
practice is clearly impossible in clans whose existence depends on the
life of its female members; daughters among them are prized more
highly than sons.
The case we are now examining affords the strongest confirmation of
the honour paid to women under the strict maternal system. Take alone
the titles that these Pelew islanders give to their women, as _Adhalál
a pelú_, "mothers of the land," and _Adhalál a blay_, "mothers of the
clan." The testimony of those who know their customs is that the women
enjoy complete equality with the men in every respect. Mr. Kubary
affirms the predominance of female influence in all the social life of
the clan. He asserts, without qualification, that the women both
politically and socially enjoy a position superior to that of the men.
The eldest women in the clans exercise the most decisive influence in
the conduct of affairs; the head men do nothing without full
consultation with them, and their power extends to affairs of state
and even to foreign politics. No chief would venture to come to a
decision without the approval of the mothers of the families. As one
consequence of this power the women have clubs of association similar
to the clubs of men that are common in so many tribes. A curious
privilege given to women is recorded: "The women have an unlimited
privilege of striking, fining, or if it be done on the spot, killing
any man who makes his way into their bathing places."[92]
[92] Semper, _Die Palau-Inseln_, p. 68, cited by Westermarck
_op. cit._, p. 211.
The marriage customs I shall pass over briefly, as they are similar to
those of other tribes under the maternal system, though changes may be
noted, such, for instance, as presents in the form of a kind of
bride-price being given by the bridegroom to the parents of the bride.
This is not a maternal custom, and although half of such presents
belongs by right to the girl, it is clearly a form of wife-purchase.
Then polygamy is practised, though it is expressly stated to be
uncommon.[93] There is now a marriage ceremony. Divorce still remains
free, and the conditions are favourable for the wife. Jealousy is said
to be prevalent both among the men and the women. The wedding
monologue is interesting and indicates the relative position of the
female and male members of the family. The salutation is as follows--
[93] Ymer, Vol. IV, p. 333.
"Hei, thou, oh mother; oh grandmothers; oh maternal uncle;
oh elder grandmother; oh younger grandfather; oh elder
grandfather! As the flesh has fallen the ring has been put
on.... You will all of you give ear [the ancestresses and
ancestors] you will continue giving strength and spirit that
they [the bride and bridegroom] may be well."
There is left an important fact to consider, which explains the
persistence of the women's authority under marriage conditions much
less favourable than the complete maternal form. The Pelew women have
another source of power; their position has an industrial as well as a
kinship basis. In this island the people subsist mainly on the produce
of their taro fields, and the cultivation of this, their staple food,
is carried out by the women alone. And this identification of women
with the industrial process has without doubt contributed materially
to the predominance of female influence on the social life of the
people. Wherever the control over the means of production is in the
hands of women, we find them exercising influence and even authority.
Among these islanders the women do not merely bestow life on the
people, they also work to obtain that which is most essential for the
preservation of life, and therefore they are called "mothers of the
land."[94] Now, considering this honour paid to the Pelew women, it is
clearly impossible to regard their work in cultivating the taro as a
sign of their subordinate position in the social order. The facts of
primitive life are often mistaken. This is a question to which I shall
refer again in a later chapter.
[94] Frazer, _op. cit._, p. 380.
In the same way among the Pani Kotches, tribes of Bengal, we find the
women in a privileged position, due to their greater industrial
activity and intelligence.
"It is the women's business to dig the soil, to sow and
plant, as well as to spin, weave and brew beer; they refuse
no task, and leave only the coarsest labour to the men. The
mother of the family marries her daughter at an early age;
at the feast of betrothal she dispenses half as much again
to the bride as to the bridegroom-elect. As for the grown-up
girls and the widows, they know very well how to find
husbands; the wealthy never lack partners. The chosen one
goes to reside with his mother-in-law, who both reigns and
governs, with her daughter for prime minister. If the
consort permits himself to incur expenses without special
authorisation, he must meet them as best he can. Fathers of
families have been known to be sold as slaves, the wives
refusing to pay the penalties they incurred. Under these
circumstances, it was lawful for them to marry again."[95]
[95] Hodgson, _Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal_, 1847
(Dalton).
Here, as among the Pelew islanders, special industrial conditions are
combined with the maternal system, and as a result we find what may,
perhaps, be termed "an economic matriarchy." Another cause of
authority, quite as powerful, is the possession by women of inherited
property. Among barbarous peoples the importance of this is not so
great, but where mother-descent has, for any reason, been maintained
up to a time when individual possession has been developed and
property is large, we meet with a remarkable "pecuniary matriarchate,"
based on the women holding the magic power of money.
An example may be found in the interesting Touaregs of the Sahara, a
race very far advanced in civilisation, who, even at the present day,
have preserved their independence and many of their ancient customs.
Among them all relationship is still maternal and confers both rank
and inheritance. "The child follows the blood of the mother," and the
son of a slave or serf father and a noble woman is noble. "It is the
womb which dyes the child," the Touaregs say in their primitive
language.[96] All property descends only through the mother, and by
means of accumulation the greatest part of the fortune of the
community is in the hands of women. This is the real basis of the
women's power. "Absolute mistress of her fortune, her actions, and her
children, who belong to her and bear her name, the Targui woman goes
where she will and exercises a real authority." The unusual position
of the wife is significantly indicated by the fact that, although
polygamy is permitted by the law, she practically enforces monogamy,
for the conditions of divorce are so favourable for a woman that she
can at once separate from a husband who attempts to give her a rival.
Again the initiative in courtship is taken by the woman, who chooses
from her suitors the one whom she herself prefers.[97]
[96] Duveyrier, _Toûareg du Nord_, p. 337 _et seq._
[97] Chavanne, _Die Sahara_, pp. 181, 209, 234.
It is interesting to note that the Targui women know how to read and
write in greater numbers than the men. Duveyrier states that to them
is due the preservation of the ancient Libyan and Berber writings.[98]
"Leaving domestic work to their slaves, the Targui ladies occupy
themselves with reading, writing, music and embroidery; they live as
intelligent aristocrats."[99] "The ladies of the tribe of Ifoghas, in
particular, are renowned for their _savoirvivre_ and their musical
talent; they know how to ride _mehari_ better than all their rivals.
Secure in their cages, they can ride races with the most intrepid
cavaliers, if one may give this name to riders on dromedaries; in
order, also, to keep themselves in practice in this kind of riding,
they meet to take short trips together, going wherever they like
without the escort of any man."[100] In the tribe of Imanan, who are
descended from the ancient sultans, the women are given the title
_Timanôkalîn_, "royal women," on account of their beauty and their
talent in the art of music. They often give concerts, to which the men
come "from long distances--decked out like male ostriches." In these
concerts the women improvise the songs, accompanying themselves on the
tambourine and a sort of violin or _rebâza_. They are much sought
after in marriage, because of the title of _cherif_ which they confer
on their children.[101]
[98] _Ibid._, p. 387.
[99] Duveyrier, _op. cit._, p. 430.
[100] _Ibid._, p. 362.
[101] _Ibid._, p. 347.
There is a touch of chivalrous sentiment in the relations between men
and women.[102] "If a woman is married," Duveyrier tells us, "she is
honoured all the more in proportion to the number of her masculine
friends, but she must not show preference to any one of them. The lady
may embroider on the cloak, or write on the shield of her chevalier,
verses in his praise and wishes for his good fortune. Her friend may,
without being censured, cut the name of the lady on the rocks or chant
her virtues. 'Friends of different sexes,' say the Touaregs, 'are for
the eyes and heart, and not for the bed only, as among the
Arabs.'"[103] Letourneau, in quoting these passages from Duveyrier,
makes the following comment: "Such customs as these indicate delicate
instincts, which are absolutely foreign to the Arabs. They strongly
remind us of the times of our southern troubadours and of the _cours
d'amour_, which were the quintessence of chivalry."[104]
[102] Chavanne, _op. cit._, p. 208 _et seq._
[103] Duveyrier, _op. cit._, p. 429.
[104] Letourneau, _The Evolution of Marriage_, pp. 180-181.
The foregoing example is exceedingly interesting; it shows women
holding the position that as a rule belongs to men, and is thus worthy
of most careful study, but at the same time we must guard against
according it a general value which it does not possess. Such a case is
exceptional, though it by no means stands alone, and the social
position of Targui women is analogous to that of the women of ancient
Egypt. It is important to note that their great independence arose
through the persistence of maternal descent, and could not have been
maintained apart from that system, which placed in their hands the
strong power of wealth. Here, then, is certain proof of the favourable
influence mother-descent may exercise on the status of women. It is
because of this I have brought forward this example of the Targui
women.
Enough has now been said. I have examined the institution of the
maternal family, both in the early communal stage and also under
later social conditions, where, in certain cases, mother-descent has
been maintained. In all the examples cited I have given the marriage
customs and domestic habits of the people as they are testified to by
authorities whose records cannot be questioned. Many similar examples,
it may be said, might be brought forward from other races, and the
proof of mother-right and mother-power greatly strengthened thereby.
There is, however, so much similarity in the maternal family, so much
correspondence in the marriage forms and social habits prevailing
among races widely separated, that the points of difference are little
in comparison with those they have in common. My object is not so much
to exhaust the subject as to bring into relief the radical differences
between the maternal communal clan, with its social life centred
around the mothers, and the opposite patriarchal form in which the
solitary family is founded on the individual father. I hold that,
other conditions being equal, the one system is favourable to the
authority of women, the other to the authority of men. The facts which
have been cited are, I submit, amply sufficient to support this view.
We have seen that the life of the maternal clan is dependent on the
women--and not upon the men; we have noted that the inheritance of the
family name and the family property passing through the women adds
considerably to their importance, and that daughters are preferred to
sons. We have found women the organisers of the households, the
guardians of the household stores, and the distributors of food, under
a social organisation that may be termed "a communal matriarchy." More
important than all else, we have noted the remarkable freedom of women
in the sexual relationships; in courtship they are permitted to take
the active part; in marriage their position is one of such power that,
sometimes, they are able to impose the form of the marriage; in
divorce they enjoy equal, and even superior, rights of separation;
moreover, they are always the owners and controllers of the children.
Nor is the influence of women restricted to the domestic sphere. We
have found them the advisers, and in some cases the dictators, in the
social organisation under the headmen of the clan. Then we examined
the cases in which the women's power has an industrial as well as a
kinship basis, and have proved the existence of an "economic
matriarchy." And further even than this, we have found women the sole
possessors of accumulated wealth, and noted that, under the favourable
conditions of such a "pecuniary matriarchy," they are able to obtain a
position in learning and the arts excelling that of the men. We have
even seen goddesses set above the gods, and women worshipped as
deities.
Now I submit to the judgment of my readers--what do these examples of
mother-right show, if not that, broadly speaking, women were the
dominant force in this stage of the family. No doubt too much
importance may be attached to the idea of women ruling. This is an
error I have tried to guard against. My aim throughout has been to
establish mother-right, not mother-rule. I believe it is only by an
extraordinary power of illusion that we can recognise, in the
favourable position of women under mother-descent Bachofen's view of
an Amazonian gynæcocracy. But this does not weaken at all my position.
I maintain that such customs of courtship, marriage and divorce, of
property inheritance and possession, and of the domestic and social
rights, as those we have seen in the cases examined, afford conclusive
proof of women's power in the maternal family. If this is denied, the
only conclusion that suggests itself to me is that, those who seek to
diminish the power of mother-right have done so in reinforcement of a
preconceived idea of the superiority of the man as the natural and
unchanging order in the relationships of the sexes. One suspects
prejudice here. To approach this question with any fairness, it is
absolutely essential to clear the mind from the current theories
regarding the family. The order is not sacred in the sense that it has
always had the same form. It is this belief in the immutability of our
form of marriage and the family which accounts for the prejudice with
which this question is approached. The modern civilised man cannot
easily accustom himself to the idea that in the maternal family the
dominion of the mother was regarded as the natural, and, therefore,
the right and accepted order of the family. It is very difficult for
us even to believe in a relationship of the mother and the father that
is so exactly opposite to that with which we are accustomed.