THE MARRIAGE SYSTEM[74]
There are two systems of kinship nomenclature current among Fijians, one
indicating consanguinity, and the other kinship in relation to marriage.
This latter system radiates from the central idea of Concubitancy, and
it is this system that is now to be discussed. The word "Concubitant" is
adopted because, besides being a fair translation of the Fijian word
_vei-ndavolani_ (_vei_ = reciprocal affix, _ndavo_ = to lie down), it
expresses the Fijian idea that persons so related ought to cohabit.
In order to understand the system it is necessary to free the mind from
the ideas associated with the English terms of relationship, and to
adopt the native terms, which are as follows:--
(1) _Tama_--Father, or paternal uncle.
_Tina_--Mother, or maternal aunt.
_Tuaka_--Elder brother, sister, or cousin (not concubitant).
_Tathi_--Younger brother, sister, or cousin-german (not
concubitant). _Luve_--Child.
_Tuka_--Grandfather.
_Mbu_--Grandmother.
_Makumbu_--Grandchild.
_Tumbu_--Great-grandparent.
(2) _Ngane_(reciprocal form, _vei-nganeni_)--The relationship of a
male and female of the same generation between whom marriage is
forbidden, _i.e._ brother and sister, both real and artificial.
_Ndavola_ (reciprocal form, _vei-ndavolani_)--The relationship of
males and females of the same generation between whom marriage is
right, and even obligatory--consequently sister-in-law.
_Tavale_ (reciprocal form, _vei-tavaleni_)--Male cousins who would
be concubitant if one were a female, consequently a man's
brother-in-law.
_Ndauve_ (reciprocal form, _vei-ndauveni_)--Female cousins who
would be concubitant if one were a male--consequently a woman's
sister-in-law.
_Vungo_--Nephew, _i.e._ son of a man's sister or woman's brother,
also son-in-law or daughter-in-law, also used reciprocally.
_Ngandina_--Maternal uncle or father-in-law; vocative form in the
case of father-in-law, is _ngandi_ or _momo_.
_Nganeitama_--Paternal aunt or mother-in-law; vocative form in the
case of mother-in-law, is _nganei_.
[Pageheader: THE CONCUBITANT RELATIONSHIP]
Besides these there are compound names for some of the more remote
relationships, and names for certain connections, such as _karua_
(_i.e._ "the second," reciprocal form, _vei-karuani_), used of wives of
a bigamous household, and also of children of the same father by
different mothers.
I propose to call the Ngane (reciprocal form, _vei-nganeni_) tabu,
because marriage between them is forbidden. _Vei-ndavolani_ I call
"concubitants," because marriage between them is right and proper.
The tabu relationship occurs--
(1) Between the son and daughter of the same parents.
(2) Between children respectively of two brothers or the children
respectively of two sisters, such children being male and female.
From a Fijian point of view, in both these cases the relationship is
exactly the same. The father's brother and the mother's sister share
with the father and the mother an almost equal degree of paternity. Thus
a man or a woman, referring to his or her father's brother calls him
_Tamanku_ (my father), and if he is asked _Tamamu ndina?_ (your real
father?) he will answer _A Tamanku lailai_ (my little father). The same
applies to the mother's sister. The tabu relationship also occurs
artificially between the children respectively of concubitants who have
broken through the system, and have not married, but to this I will
refer in its proper place.
_Concubitants._--This relationship occurs between persons whose parents
respectively were brother and sister. The opposition of sex in parents
not only breaks down the barrier of consanguinity, but even constitutes
the child of the one a marital complement of the child of the other. The
young Fijian is from his birth regarded as the natural husband of the
daughters of his father's sister and of his mother's brother. The girls
can exercise no choice. They were born the property of their male
concubitant if he desire to take them. Thus the custom, if generally
followed, would enclose the blood of each family within itself, and
obstruct the influx of a new strain at every third generation. The
natural tendency towards the renovation of the blood would be checked,
and its stagnation be continued. Thus--
A. (m) marries B. (f)
|
------------------
E. (f) = C. (m) tabu D. (f) = F. (m)
| |
G. (f) Concubitants H. (m)
[Pageheader: INTOLERANCE OF THE SYSTEM]
A. and B. were concubitants, their children tabu. G. and H. being the
children of tabu relations are concubitants. They marry, and of course
their children being brother and sister are again tabu. But if D. had
been a male who had married F. a female, G. and H. would have been tabu.
It will thus be seen that the concubitant and the tabu alternate
generation after generation. The children of concubitants must be tabu,
and the children respectively of tabu must be concubitant.
It must of course happen that persons who are concubitant have a mutual
dislike to one another and do not marry, or, since a man cannot marry
all his concubitants, or a woman all her concubitants, the system is
dislocated by some of them marrying persons who are in no way related to
them. Thus--
(m)A. = B.(f)
|
--------------------
| |
W.(f) = C.(m) D.(f) = X.(m)
| |
Y.(f) = G.(m) Concubitant
| with H.(f) = Z.(m)
| |
L.(m) tabu J.(f)
G. and H. are concubitant, born husband and wife, as were their
grandparents A. and B., but they grow up and take a dislike to one
another and each marries some one else. Yet the system takes no account
of such petty interruptions as likes and dislikes. They were born
married, and married they must be so far as their children are
concerned. They have each married outside the tribe, yet their children
L. and J. are tabu just as much as if G. and H. had married and they
were the offspring of the marriage. G. and H. have in fact dislocated
the system for all posterity, but the system goes on, refusing to admit
the injury done to it. The most striking feature in the system is this
oppressive intolerance. It is so indifferent to human affections that if
a man dares to choose a woman other than the wife provided for him his
disobedience avails him nothing. His concubitant is still his wife, and
her children are his children. It will, it is true, give way so far as
to recognize as his wife the woman he has chosen, but only on the
condition that she becomes his fictitious concubitant, and that all her
relatives fall into their places as if she had actually been born his
concubitant.
This brings us to a fresh starting-point from which the concubitous
relationship is established. Since a man who is the concubitant of a
woman is necessarily also the concubitant of all her sisters, by a
natural evolution, if he marries a woman unrelated to him by blood, and
_ipso facto_ makes her his concubitant, all her sisters become his
concubitants also. In the past they would have been his actual wives,
for a man could not take one of several sisters--he was in honour bound
to take them all. In the same way a woman and her sisters became the
concubitants of all her husband's brothers, and upon his death, she
passed naturally to her eldest brother-in-law if he cared to take her.
This does not imply polyandry or community among brothers, but rather
what is known to anthropologists as Levirate, a woman's marriage to her
brother-in-law being contingent on her husband's death.
_Tabu Relationships._--Hitherto we have dealt with persons sprung from
the respective marriages of a brother and sister, and have not touched
upon the offspring respectively of two brothers or two sisters. These
are tabu to one another, being, as I have said, regarded as being as
closely consanguineous as actual brothers and sisters.
A. B. brothers
| |
X.(m) = C.(f) tabu D.(m) = Y.(f)
| |
G.(f) = H.(m) Concubitant.
C. and D., being the offspring of two brothers, are tabu. They marry
respectively their concubitants, and their offspring G. and H. are
concubitant. Thenceforward the concubitant and tabu relationships occur
in alternate generations. It must not be understood, however, that in
these remote occurrences the tabu relationships are always strongly
tabu, or that the concubitant relationships always entail marriage. The
fact is remembered, that is all. "They are _vei-nganeni_!" "But they are
married!" "Yes, but their _vei-nganeni_-ship is remote." (_Ia ka sa yawa
nondrau vei-nganeni._)
[Pageheader: CONCUBITANT MARRIAGE IS DECREASING]
It will be well at this point to examine the exact nature of the
obligation existing between concubitants. The relationship seems to
carry with it propriety rather than obligation. Concubitants are born
husband and wife, and the system assumes that no individual preference
could hereafter destroy that relationship; but the obligation does no
more than limit the choice of a mate to one or the other of the females
who are concubitants with the man who desires to marry. It is thus true
that in theory the field of choice is very large, for the concubitant
relationship might include third or even fifth cousins, but in practice
the tendency is to marry the concubitant who is next in
degree--generally a first cousin--the daughter of a maternal uncle. A
very good illustration of this occurred a few years ago among the
grandchildren of the late king Thakombau. The concubitant of his
granddaughter Audi Thakombau was Ratu Beni, chief of Naitasiri, but for
various rascalities he had been deported to the island of Ono. Meanwhile
her relations proposed an alliance with the powerful chief family of
Rewa, and she was formally betrothed to the young chief Tui Sawau. But
just before the marriage Ratu Beni was liberated, returned home, and at
once laid claim to his concubitant. The claim was allowed by her
relatives, the match broken off, and for some time the relations between
Mbau and Rewa were so strained that the chiefs went in bodily fear of
one another.
I have always been assured by the natives that the practice of
concubitancy has greatly decreased since the introduction of
Christianity and settled government. From the fact that thirty per cent,
still marry their concubitants, it may be guessed how universal the
custom must formerly have been. Now that free communication exists
between the islands, and men have a far larger field of selection, they
are said to choose rather not to marry their concubitants. Ratu Marika
explained this by saying: "One has no zest for one's _ndavola_. She is
too near. When you hear man and wife quarrelling, one says, 'What else?
Are they not _vei-ndavolani_?'" The result is curious. They do not marry
as they did formerly, but they commit adultery either before or after
marriage. No sooner is a girl married than her concubitant comes and
claims her, and so strong is custom that she seldom repulses him. It is
said that about fifty per cent of the adultery cases brought before the
criminal courts of the colony are offences between concubitants, but a
number never come before the courts because the husband does not care to
prosecute. There are few prosecutions for fornication between
concubitants, because the complainants, the parents of the girl, do not
feel themselves to be aggrieved.
_Vei-tavaleni._--It is natural to expect some peculiarity in the
relations between males, who would, if they were male and female, be
concubitants. This relationship is called _vei-tavaleni_. To break
through for once the rule of not using European terms, I may remark that
_vei-tavaleni_ must of necessity mean both cousin and brother-in-law,
and the reason is sufficiently obvious. Your _tavale_ is a brother of
the woman to whom you were born married; _ergo_, your brother-in-law.
The fact that you do not marry her makes no difference. She is your
natural wife, and he is your natural brother-in-law. Even if your
_tavale_ has no sister, he is still your brother-in-law, because,
potentially, a sister might be born to him, who would be your wife. At
this point I thought that I had found an inconsistency in the logic of
the system. As the children of _vei-ndavolani_ (concubitants) are tabu,
I supposed, naturally, that the children of _vei-tavaleni_ would be tabu
also; but I found, to my surprise, that this was not so. Their children
became _vei-ndavolani_ (concubitants). It seemed illogical, but I
supposed that it was done as a compensation. The parents could not marry
because they were of the same sex; therefore, to compensate the system
for the loss of a concubitant marriage, their children were made to
repair the accident by being concubitants.
I pointed this out to Mr. Fison, and he, looking at the system purely
from the point of view that it was a development of group marriage, when
the entire tribe was divided into two exogamous marrying classes, said
that he saw no inconsistency at all. We worked the problem out on paper,
and discovered that, with the class marriage as a clue, this fact became
perfectly consistent and logical--
|
____________________
| |
an X. woman = A.^{o} (m) B.^{o} (f) = an X. man
___________ |
| | |
C.^{o} (f) D.^{o}(m) = G.^{x} (f) E.^{x} (m) = F.{o} (f)
| |
H. (m)^{o} |
|
J.^{x} (f).
Let us suppose the population to be divided into two great classes, X.
and O. Descent, in Fiji, follows the father, therefore the two
_vei-tavaleni_ D. and E. belong to opposite classes. D. O. marries an X.
woman. E. X. marries an O. woman. Their children obviously belong to two
opposite classes. They cannot therefore be tabu, and, through their
relationship, they become concubitant. We thus stumbled upon an analogy
that goes far to uphold the theory that concubitancy is merely a
development of exogamous group marriage.
[Pageheader: LOGIC OF THE SYSTEM]
_Vei-ndauveni._--Let us now consider the relations between females who
would have been concubitants had they been of opposite sexes. They are
called _vei-ndauveni_, which, according to our phraseology, would mean
cousin and sister-in-law, for in the concubitant system these terms are
one and the same thing. As in the case of the concubitants, the
_vei-ndauveni_ is curiously stretched to cover the case of a man
marrying a stranger woman unrelated to him. She becomes _vei-ndauveni_
to his sister as a logical deduction from the fiction that she is
concubitant with him, and as the children of _vei-ndauveni_ must be
concubitant, so her children and her sister-in-law's children are
concubitants.
_Ngandina._--The system extends even to the earlier generations. The
_ngandina_ means in our phraseology both mother-in-law and uncle and
father-in-law, for since your wife is the daughter of your mother's
brother, it is obvious that he must stand to you in both those
relations. A man may marry a woman unrelated to him, yet his
father-in-law becomes forthwith his uncle (_ngandina_), for by the
marriage he has constituted his wife concubitant with him, and this
entails the fiction that her father was tabu to his mother (_i.e._ her
brother), and therefore his uncle.
_Vungo._--Nephew, _i.e._ son of a man's sister or woman's brother, also
son-in-law or daughter-in-law, used reciprocally, as _vei-vungoni_.
My mother's brother is my _vungo_; my sister's son is my _vungo_; my
daughter's husband is my _vungo_. Under our system there seems little
akin between these three relationships, but in the Fijian system they
are one and the same.
D.^{x} (m) = C.^{o} (f), sister of E.^{o} = F.^{x} (f)
| |
A.^{x} B.^{o} (f)
Concubitants.
A.'s mother's brother, A.'s _vungo_, has a daughter B., who is
concubitant with A. Whether she marries him or not, A was born her
husband, and he is therefore her father's _vungo_, son-in-law and
nephew. It is to be remembered that marriage is never permitted between
relations of different generations. Under no circumstances must
_vei-vungoni_ marry, though under the rules of exogamous marrying
classes they would, unless specially forbidden, have been permitted to
marry. In the above table, A. being an X., his mother's brother is an O.
On no account must the latter marry G., A.'s sister, who is an X., but
if A.'s _vungo_ has a daughter B. O., the marriage between A. and B. at
once becomes obligatory. Here is to be found a reason for the curious
custom of the avoidance of a mother-in-law among the Australians and
other tribes. Many theories have been advanced for this, but, with the
exception of Mr. Fison, I believe that no one has propounded the true
explanation. It is that in uterine descent a man's mother-in-law belongs
to the class from which he must take his wife. But she, being of a
different generation, is tabu to him; hence he must avoid her
absolutely, lest he be tempted by her charms to break through the law of
the system.
This marriage system is practised generally throughout the Fiji Islands,
with the following exceptions and modifications:--
In the province of Namosi the descendants of two brothers or of two
sisters are regarded as tabu throughout as many generations as their
parentage can be remembered, and are strictly forbidden to intermarry.
The children of concubitants who have neglected to intermarry do not, as
in Mbau, become tabu, but are made to repair their parents' default by
themselves becoming concubitants.
[Pageheader: CONCUBITANCY UNKNOWN IN POLYNESIA]
In Lau, Thakaundrove, and in the greater portion of Vanualevu, the
offspring of a brother and sister respectively do not become concubitant
until the second generation. In the first generation they are called
tabu, but marriage is not actually prohibited. The children of two
brothers or of two sisters are, as in Mbau, strictly forbidden to
intermarry.
Inquiries that have been made among the natives of Samoa, Futuna,
Rotuma, Uea, and Malanta (Solomon Group), have satisfied me that the
practice of concubitant marriage is unknown in those islands; indeed, in
Samoa and Rotuma, not only is the marriage of cousins-german forbidden,
but the descendants of a brother and sister respectively, who in Fiji
would be expected to marry, are there regarded as being within the
forbidden degrees as long as their common origin can be remembered. This
rule is also recognized throughout the Gilbert Islands, with the
exception of Apemama and Makin, and is there only violated by the high
chiefs. In Tonga, it is true, a trace of the custom can be detected. The
union of the grandchildren (and occasionally even of the children) of a
brother and sister is there regarded as a fit and proper custom for the
superior chiefs, but not for the common people. In Tonga, other things
being equal, a sister's children rank above a brother's, and therefore
the concubitant rights were vested in the sister's grandchild, more
especially if a female. Her parents might send for her male cousin to be
her _takaifala_ (_lit._, "bedmaker") or consort. The practice was never,
however, sufficiently general to be called a national custom. So
startling a variation from the practice of the other Polynesian races
may be accounted for by the suggestion that the chiefs, more autocratic
in Tonga than elsewhere, having founded their authority upon the fiction
of their descent from the gods, were driven to keep it by intermarriage
among themselves, lest in contaminating their blood by alliance with
their subjects their divine rights should be impaired. A similar
infringement of forbidden degrees by chiefs has been noted in Hawaii,
where the chief of Mau'i was, for reasons of state, required to marry
his half-sister. It is matter of common knowledge that for the same
reason the Incas of Peru married their full-sister, and that the kings
of Siam marry their half-sisters at the present day.
_Origin of the custom._--I venture to offer here three possible
explanations of the origin of this custom, leaving it to the
acknowledged authorities upon the history of marriage to point out what
in their opinion is the true explanation:--
1. It may be a survival of an earlier custom of group-marriage and
uterine descent such as is to be found in the Banks Islands, where the
entire population is divided into two groups, which we will call X. and
O. A man of the X. group must marry an O. woman, and _vice versa_. The
children, following the mother, are O.'s, and are, therefore, kin to
their mother's brother rather than to their own father. Their mother's
brother, an O., marries an X. woman, whose children are X.'s, and are
potential wives to their first cousins; although in the Banks group the
blood relationship is not lost sight of, and close marriages are looked
upon as improper, whilst in Fiji such a union would be obligatory.[75]
The children of two brothers of the X. group, following their mothers,
would be O.'s, and therefore forbidden to marry; and so also would be
the children of two sisters. Thus far the results of the two customs are
the same; but in the Banks group consanguineous marriage is checked by
public opinion, which in Fiji favours such marriages. Group-marriage on
precisely the same lines has been noticed in Western Equatorial
Africa[76] and among the Tinne Indians in North-West America.[77]
In Fiji, agnatic has generally taken the place of the uterine descent
(although in some parts of Vanualevu traces of the custom still appear
to linger), but the existing system of _vasu_, which gives a man
extraordinary claims upon his maternal uncle, may be an indication that
concubitant marriage is a survival of the more ancient custom. The
_vasu_ system is found to some extent among all peoples who trace
descent through the mother. Tacitus, speaking of the ancient Germans,
says that the tie between the maternal uncle and his nephew was a more
sacred bond than the relation of father and son.[78]
[Pageheader: ORIGIN OF CONCUBITANCY]
2. It is also possible that concubitant marriage is a relaxation of the
stricter prohibition in force amongst the Polynesians. The origin of
these prohibitions may, perhaps, be found in some such occurrence as
that described in the "Murdu" legend of Australia, quoted by Messrs.
Fison and Howitt in _Kamilaroi and Kurnai_--
"After the Creation brothers and sisters and others of the closest kin
intermarried promiscuously, until, the evil effects becoming manifest, a
council of the chiefs was assembled to consider in what way they might
be averted."
Some such crisis must have been reached in every group of islands that
was peopled by the immigration of a single family, and the natural
solution in every case would have been to prohibit the marriage of both
classes of cousins-german. But, little by little, the desire for
alliances among chief families, for the restoration of the claims of
_vasu_, and for the restoration of an equivalent of the tillage rights
given in dowry, may have chafed against the prohibitions until these
were so far relaxed as to allow the marriage of cousins in the degree
most effective for promoting an interchange of property. For a similar
reason Moses ordered the daughters of Zelophehad to marry men of their
father's tribe, in order that their property should not pass out of the
tribe, and "their inheritance remained in the tribe of the family of
their father" (Numbers xxxvi. 12).
3. A third solution may be found in the transition from uterine to
agnatic descent, a change that came about gradually as social
development prompted the sons to seize on the inheritance of their
father to the exclusion of the nephew (_vasu_). With the admission of
the father's relationship to his son grew the idea that he was the
life-giver and the mother the mere vehicle for the gestation of the
child, and the child came to be regarded as related to his father
instead of to his mother.[79] Thus Orestes,[80] arraigned for the
murder of his mother, Clytemnestra, asks the Erinyes why they did not
punish Clytemnestra for slaying her husband Agamemnon; and, upon their
answer that she was not kin to the man she slew, he founds the plea that
by the same rule they cannot touch him, for he is not kin to his mother.
The plea is admitted by the gods. By this rule, a man is not kin to his
father's sister's daughter, she being kin to her father only; but her
affinity to him would render their marriage convenient as regards the
family possessions. From long usage a sense of obligation would be
evolved, and such cousins come to be regarded as concubitant. The
children of sisters would still be within the forbidden degrees, for,
although not kin through their mothers, their fathers, being presumably
the concubitant cousins of their mothers, would be near kin.
I incline to accept the first explanation--that the custom of
concubitancy has been evolved from an earlier system of group-marriage
and uterine descent. I think that it dates from the remote period when
there was indiscriminate intercourse between the members of two
exogamous marrying classes, when it was impossible to say who was the
actual father of the children born. Under such a system the reputed
offspring of two brothers might in reality be the children of only one
of them, and the children of two sisters might have a common father, and
their union be incestuous. But the children of a brother and sister
respectively could not possibly have a common parent, and their
intercourse was therefore innocuous. For the same reason the children of
concubitants who were not known to have cohabited were still held to be
tabu to each other, for the male concubitant had a right of cohabitation
with the female of which he might at any time have availed himself, and
their offspring reputed to be by their other partners might in reality
be half brother and sister without their knowledge.
[Pageheader: CENSUS OF CONSANGUINEOUS MARRIAGES]
Though the Fijian system of relationships is closely allied to those of
the Tamils in India and the Two-mountain Iroquois, and the Wyandots in
North America, none of these, except the Tamils, I believe, recognize
the principle of concubitant cousinship. The custom must be regarded, I
think, as being one of limited range, evolved from marriage laws of far
wider application. It undoubtedly exercises upon the Fijians a marked
influence in promoting consanguineous marriages--an influence from which
the other races in the Pacific are comparatively free, if we except the
inhabitants of the island of Tanna in the New Hebrides and possibly some
other islands not yet systematically investigated.
_Concubitancy in practice._--The fact of a race of men habitually
marrying their first cousins promised to exhibit such remarkable
features in vital statistics that we did not stop short at investigating
the theory alone. We caused a census to be taken of twelve villages, not
selected from one province, but chosen only for convenience of
enumeration in the widely separated provinces of Rewa, Colo East, Serua,
and Ba. I am indebted to the late Mr. James Stewart, C.M.G., for the
analysis of the returns which follows:--
In the twelve villages there were 448 families. The couples forming the
heads of these families have had born to them as children of the
marriage 1317 children, an average of 2.94 to each marriage. But of
these 1317 children, only 679 remain alive, 638 being dead. The heads of
these families therefore do not replace themselves by surviving
children, for only 51.5 per cent. survive, while 48.5 are lost.
We divided the married couples into four classes--
(1) Concubitant relations who have married together. These we found to
be on inquiry in nearly every case actual first cousins. They formed
29.7 per cent. of the total number of families.
(2) Relations other than concubitant cousins who have intermarried.
Two-fifths of these are near relations, uncle and niece, and
non-marriageable cousins-german, brother and sister according to the
Fijian ideas. But the remaining three-fifths are more distantly related
than are the concubitants. These form 12.3 per cent. of the total
number of families.
(3) Fellow villagers--natives of the same village, but not otherwise
related--who have married together. These form 32.1 of the total number
of families.
(4) Natives of different villages, not being relations who have
intermarried. These form 25.9 of the total number of families.
Thus it will be seen that the concubitant and other relations who have
intermarried number over two-fifths of the people, while one-third of
the married people have been brought up together in the same village,
and only one-fourth, not being relations, have come from different
villages.
When we examined the relative fecundity of these divisions the result
was not a little startling--
133 concubitant couples have had 438 children, or 3.30 children per
family.
55 families of relations have had 168 children, or 3.06 children per
family.
144 families of fellow-villagers have had 390 children, or 2.71 children
per family.
116 families of natives of different villages have had 321 children, or
2.77 children per family.
It will thus be seen that as regards fecundity, concubitant marriages
are greatly superior to any of the other classes.
But since fecundity does not necessarily mean vitality, the question is,
how many of the children born to these respective divisions have
survived? and we find the unexpected result that whereas the other
classes have changed places, the concubitants again show themselves to
be superior.
Of 133 families of concubitants, there were 438 children, of whom 232
survive, and 206 are dead.
Of 55 families of relations, not concubitants, there were 168 children,
of whom 72 survive, and 96 are dead.
Of 144 families of townspeople, there were 390 children, of whom 212
survive, and 178 are dead.
Of 116 families of natives of different villages, there were 321
children, of whom 163 survive, and 158 are dead.
[Pageheader: VITALITY OF INBRED CHILDREN]
The concubitants with an average surviving family of 1.74 show,
therefore, not only a higher birth-rate, but far the highest vitality of
offspring.
The relations other than concubitants show, it is true, the highest
fecundity next to the concubitants, but their rate of vitality is the
lowest of the four classes, since more of their children have died than
are now living.
Second in point of vitality come the fellow-villagers, but they are far
behind the concubitants.
From our preconceived ideas of the advantages of out-breeding we should
expect to find that the offspring of natives of different villages would
have shown, if not the highest fecundity, at least the highest vitality,
for this is the class in which the parents are not related. On the
contrary, we find that the families of these unrelated people are only
third in point of vitality.
In view of the unfavourable position which the "relations other than
concubitants" hold in this analysis, it is well to divide the group into
two sub-classes. Of the fifty-five families of "relations," thirty-three
are stated to be _kawa vata_ (_i.e._ of the same stock, but not
necessarily of the same family or generation). The remaining twenty-two
families, on the other hand, consist of such unions (incestuous from the
Fijian point of view) of _vei-nganeni_ or _vei-tathini_, that is to say,
brother and sister, or cousins not concubitant; _vei-vungoni_, uncle
and niece, or aunt and nephew; _vei-tamani_, father and daughter, or
paternal uncle and niece; and _vei-luveni_ or _vei-tinani_, maternal
aunt and nephew, or mother and son. We have therefore, for purposes of
identification, divided the group into--first, relations distant;
second, relations specified.
----------------------+------------+----------------------------------
| |
Divisions. | Number of | Children of the Marriage.
| Families. +----------------------------------
| | Alive. | Dead. | Total.
----------------------+------------+-------------+---------+----------
Relations (distant) | 33 | 49 | 61 | 110
Average per family | -- | 1.48 | 1.85 | 3.33
| | | |
Relations (specified) | 22 | 23 | 35 | 58
Average per family | -- | 1.05 | 1.59 | 2.64
----------------------+------------+-------------+---------+----------
Total | 55 | 72 | 96 | 168
----------------------+------------+-------------+---------+----------
Average per family | 1.31 | 1.75 | 3.6
----------------------+------------+-------------+---------+----------
The fecundity of these distant relations thus appears to be much higher
than that of the specified relations, and a little higher even than that
of the concubitants--the highest of the four groups. The comparative
figures are as follows--
------------------------------------+----------------------------------
| Average Family.
------------------------------------+-----------+---------+------------
| Alive. | Dead. | Total.
------------------------------------+-----------+---------+------------
_Vei-ndavolani_ (concubitants) | 1.74 | 1.56 | 3.30
Relations (distant) | 1.48 | 1.85 | 3.33
------------------------------------+-----------+---------+------------
The vitality therefore is much less in the case of relations distant
than among the children of the concubitants.
The fecundity of the division, "relations specified," is lower than that
of any of the four groups, and the vitality of their progeny is greatly
inferior to any of the other classes.
For the last twenty years the Fijians have been either stationary,
slightly increasing, or decreasing, according to the prevalence of
foreign epidemics, the balance being in favour always of decrease. The
different figures show that no class of the population replaces itself
by surviving children of the marriage. But the deficiency is made up by
the children of former marriages, and illegitimate children, who form a
large portion of the population, but whose case it was not necessary to
consider for the purposes of this chapter. But we find the startling
fact that the class that most nearly succeeds in replacing itself is
that of the concubitants, which, consisting of 133 families, or 266
individuals, have, out of a total number of children born to them of
438, a surviving progeny of 232. If we add the surviving step-children
of these individuals, their total surviving progeny becomes 317, thus
replacing the heads of existing families, and leaving 51 children to
replace the parents of the step-children. In every respect the
concubitants appear to be the most satisfactory marriage class. They
amount to only 29.7 per cent. of the population, but they bear 33.3 per
cent. of the children born, and they rear 34.2 of the children reared;
and, including step-children, they rear 34.7 of the children who
survive.
[Pageheader: CONCUBITANCY JUSTIFIED BY RESULTS]
It is not a little remarkable that the two extremes of vitality should
occur in the two classes in which in-breeding prevails. The larger class
of the concubitants (in which class also is found the highest fecundity)
shows the highest vitality of the four groups. The smaller class, the
relations other than concubitants, second in point of fecundity,
discloses the lowest vitality, and yet the proportion of these marriages
which would be regarded as incestuous by our system is small. It is not
to be forgotten, however, that in marriages which are regarded by the
people as socially right and proper, more care may be bestowed upon the
offspring both by the relations of the parents who nurse the mother and
child and by the parents themselves. By the same reasoning it is
probable that the offspring of marriages regarded as incestuous are
neglected by the relations of the parents, and, as a consequence, that
less pride is taken in them by the parents themselves.
It has not been found that concubitants marry either earlier or later in
life than the members of the other classes, and it is to be remembered
that concubitants are very often natives of different villages, which
may tend to prevent the relations attending upon the mother in her
confinement. One of our native witnesses assured us, moreover, that the
union of concubitants was seldom a happy one. Quarrels between husband
and wife would certainly outweigh any advantages in favour of
child-bearing which the social propriety or fitness might be held to
create. But even supposing that the influences at work to make
concubitancy so satisfactory a procreative element in the population are
of a moral nature, the difference is so marked that there is a balance
over to be accounted for by some other explanation. That they rear a
larger proportion of their children may be partly or wholly due to the
fact that their relationship to each other gives them a higher sense of
responsibility, but that they bear more children capable of being reared
argues a superior physical fitness for procreation. I am aware that the
figures are far too small to allow of any generalization from them, but
at the same time it is to be remembered that the inhabitants of these
twelve villages represent a fair sample of the population, and also that
we found the relative positions of the married classes to be generally
the same in each village taken individually.
We have here a phenomenon probably unique in the whole range of
anthropology--a people who for generations have married their first
cousins and still continue to do so, and among whom the offspring of
first cousins were not only more numerous but have greater vitality than
the children of persons unrelated. Nay more, the children of
concubitants--of first cousins whose parents were brother and
sister--have immense advantages over the children of first cousins who
were the children of two brothers or two sisters respectively. In no
other part of the world does there exist so favourable material for
investigating the phenomena of in-breeding among human beings. Is it
possible that we have stumbled upon an important truth in our physical
nature? Throughout Europe there is a widespread prejudice against the
union of first cousins, a prejudice that must have arisen from the
observation of chance unions. Two French scientists, MM. Lagneau and
Gueniot, have lately attempted to combat this prejudice that marriage of
first cousins is in itself productive of evil in the offspring. By
classifying the people of Batz, who, they affirm, are the offspring of
generations of consanguineous marriages, they found the population to be
comparatively free from the morbid characteristics usually attributed to
consanguinity, and they traced the cases of scrofula and similar morbid
taints back to its origin in the parents and grandparents. From this
they argued, that if scrofulous or rickety children are born of parents
nearly related, it is due to the fact that hereditary taint of disease
on one or both of them has not been diluted by marriage with a person
unrelated to them. It is a pity that in their investigations they did
not trace the exact tie of consanguinity between the parents. It might
have been seen, whether in Europe as in Fiji, the union of the children
respectively of a brother and sister is innocuous, while that of the
children of two brothers or two sisters respectively produces evil
effects upon the offspring.
[Pageheader: COUSIN MARRIAGE POSSIBLY BENEFICIAL]
The point at issue, therefore, is this. Is the classificatory system of
relationships after all more logical in an important respect than our
own? Is there really a wide physical difference between the relationship
of cousins who are offspring of a brother and sister respectively and
that of cousins whose parents respectively were two brothers or two
sisters? Ought marriage in the one case to be allowed or even
encouraged, and in the other case as rigidly forbidden as if it were
incestuous? More complete and detailed statistics than it is possible to
give within the limits of this chapter are at the service of any one who
will attempt to answer these questions by going more deeply into the
subject.
Due allowance being made for local variations, the marriage customs of
Fijians of the middle class in heathen times may be thus summarized.
The man's parents, having ascertained that their overtures would be
acceptable, sent betrothal gifts (_ai ndunguthi_) to the parents of the
girl. The token of acceptance was sometimes a miniature _liku_ (apron).
If _vei-ndavolani_ (concubitants), they were often betrothed in early
childhood; sometimes, however, a girl child was thus promised to a man
old enough to be her grandfather. In either case the girl's parents kept
strict watch over her, for any lapse on her part would cover them with
shame and dishonour. If the betrothed whom she thus dishonoured was a
man of rank her own relations would not scruple to put her to death, as
was done by the great chief Ritova in 1852, when his sister thus
disgraced him. While the girl is growing up her friends were supposed to
"nurse" (_vei-mei_) her, or they might take her to the bridegroom's
parents to be cared for till the marriage. When she reached puberty the
bridegroom's friends prepared a quantity of property, consisting of mats
and bark-cloth, and called the _yau-ni-kumu_, or the _solevu_, and
presented it formally to the parents of the girl, and marriages were
often delayed for years when the bridegroom's family were too poor to
acquire property commensurate with their pride. It was this pecuniary
element, and also the custom of _vasu_, which gave every Fijian a lien
over the property of his mother's family, that made each clan so jealous
in counting the interchange of wives. "_Veka!_" they would exclaim when
a fresh proposal was made, "they have had already five women from us,
and we but three from them, and now they ask us for a sixth!"
The actual ceremony varied very much with the rank of the parties to the
marriage. There was no religious element, and the priests took no part
in it. But however humble the couple there were two indispensable
ceremonies--the wedding feast, provided by the bridegroom, and the
_vei-tasi_, or clipping of the bride's hair. I have failed to discover
the author of the fiction, quoted by so many anthropologists, that
marriage in Fiji was consummated in the bush. This was never the case.
On the night of the feast the bride was taken to her husband's house,
which had been either built specially for her, or was lent by the
groom's parents. There the marriage was consummated, without any
ceremony except in the case of high chiefs, when the announcement was
made by a great shouting. On the morrow was the feast of the clipping,
when the long tresses (_tombe_) grown behind each ear as a token of
virginity were cut off.[81] In the inland districts the girl's head was
shorn, and she entered forthwith upon her labour as a hewer of wood and
a drawer of water, ugly enough by this disfigurement to discourage any
admirer. The old women of the bridegroom's family had ascertained
meanwhile whether the bride had had a right to wear these love-locks,
and if the result of their inquiries was unsatisfactory, the feast was
made the occasion for putting her friends to shame. By a slash of a
knife the carcasses of the pigs, which were presented whole to the
visitors in the village square, were so mutilated as to intimate in the
grossest imagery that the bride had had a history. The Fijians,
however, always preserved a delicacy in these matters which was
strangely wanting in the Samoans and Tongans. In Samoa the innocence of
the bride was tested in the sight of the whole village by a sort of
surgical operation performed by a third person (_digito intruso_); in
Tonga the nuptial mat was paraded from house to house.[82]
[Pageheader: FIJIAN LOVE LETTERS]
There was, in some parts of the group, an occasional "marriage by
capture" that would have gladdened the heart of Maclennan, but it was
ceremonial, and I doubt whether it ever could be described as a custom.
The betrothal gifts having been accepted some time before, the girl was
waylaid and carried off. If she was unwilling she ran away to some one
who could protect her; if she was content the marriage feast was made on
the following morning.
Though as a rule the wishes of the bride were not consulted, there were
certainly matches of _vei-ndomoni_ (mutual affection), and young people
sometimes eloped with one another to the bush. But the flame of passion
soon burnt itself out; the couple soon settled down into the comfortable
relations of mutual convenience; there was never a trace of idealizing
sentiment between lovers.
The _ndunguthi-ni-alewa_ has now given place to the _vola-ni-alewa_, and
the former phrase is obsolete. _Vola-ni-alewa_ (writing to a woman)
includes both the betrothal gift and the letter which accompanies it.
Very artless and business-like are some of these proposals. "If you love
me I love you, but if you love me not, never mind, neither do I love
you; only let us have certainty." Sometimes the women write the letter.
One that came into my hands soared to a poetic height. "Be gentle like
the dove, and patient like the chicken," but concluded somewhat lamely
with, "When you have read this my letter, throw it down the drain."
In September 1875, a few months after the cession of the group, the
Council of Chiefs recommended the prohibition of betrothal gifts on the
ground that they tended to infant betrothals, and consequently to the
compulsory marriage of ill-assorted couples, who separated immediately
without consummating it; that girls should be free to marry whom they
chose on attaining the age of sixteen; that the licence should be
granted by native magistrates after due inquiry; and that the ceremony
should be performed either by a European magistrate or by a minister of
religion. These recommendations, liberal enough when one considers how
recently those who framed them had been freed from the bonds of custom,
were embodied in a native regulation, to which was added three years
later the sensible provision that the bridegroom should first be
provided with a house of his own. But as the betrothal gifts, which were
of no great value, seemed on consideration to be less objectionable than
was at first supposed, a Regulation was afterwards passed to make them
legal.
The real obstacle to marriage proved to be the _yau-ni-kumu_. While it
consisted only of native manufactures there were few men who could not
provide it with the help of their relations, but as soon as it became
fashionable to give knives, print, etc., for which money was required,
there were difficulties. The unhappy bridegroom, knowing how lightly a
Fijian girl may change her mind, had the ceremony performed on the
understanding that the marriage should not be consummated until he was
able to pay for his bride. While he was accumulating the property to
redeem her, the bride lived with her parents. Months passed, and in many
cases a prosecution for adultery took the place of the promised
festivities, though the marriage had never been consummated. This state
of things appeared to be more common on the north-east coast of Vitilevu
than elsewhere.
[Pageheader: OBSTACLES TO MARRIAGE]
In 1892, therefore, a Regulation was passed again prohibiting betrothal
gifts, and making it illegal to keep married people apart because the
_yau-ni-kumu_ had not been presented, and provided a penalty for
enticing married women from their husbands. There still remained the
magistrate's power to refuse a licence if the relations advanced
"reasonable objections," for by the law of custom objections to
intermarriage with a tribe of traditional enemies were reasonable. The
native chiefs, mindful of their own feelings if their daughters were to
make a _mesalliance_, clung to this power of veto, and without their
co-operation it was useless to attempt more legislation. And, since
there is probably no community in which poverty, or class distinctions,
are not obstacles to marriages of inclination, the Fijians have little
to complain of.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 74: The information in this chapter was collected by the
Commission on the Native Decrease (1891), of which the author was a
member.]
[Footnote 75: Thus, John X. marries Mary O. They have two children, male
O. and female O. (belonging to the mother's group). These marry female
X. and male X. (father's group). Their children would be X.'s and O.'s
respectively, following their mothers, and, if of opposite sex, could
intermarry, although public opinion regards the union as improper in
consequence of the near relationship of the parents.]
[Footnote 76: Du Chaillu, _Trans. Ethn. Soc._, N.S., Vol. I, p. 321.]
[Footnote 77: _Smithsonian Report_, 1866, p. 315.]
[Footnote 78: De Mor., Germ., XX., quoted by Sir John Lubbock.]
[Footnote 79: We find it stated by Dr. Codrington that there is a
remarkable tendency throughout the islands of Melanesia towards the
substitution of a man's own children for his sister's children and
others of his kin in succession to his property; and this appears to
begin where the property is the produce of the man's own industry.]
[Footnote 80: Quoted by Sir John Lubbock, _Origin of Civilization_.]
[Footnote 81: In these degenerate days the _tombe_ are worn by many
unmarried girls who have no right to them.]
[Footnote 82: I remember a high chief in Fiji, who had married a Tongan
girl, complaining bitterly of the invasion of his privacy by the bride's
aunt, who insisted upon officiating as a witness, and relating with glee
how, in the small hours, he had forcibly bundled the old lady out into
the night.]