is clearly evident. If this was the case, we might expect it to be
almost universal, whereas in reality, instead of the 18 cases which
the average should give us, we find only 9. It really had its origin
in the reason we have already given, of sexual jealousy as a primary
cause, and was later augmented as serving to impress on many the
classificatory distinction between M and D, who otherwise, as far as
totems went, were eligible to the same person. Where both father-in-law
and mother-in-law are in avoidance, we may surmise a change in descent
from the F to the M in the tribe, the converse change of M to F of
course never occurring. The question of change of descent will explain
problems in the nomenclature of Morgan’s tables as regards nephews and
sons, which have been overlooked.[17]
NOTE TO CHAPTER VII
Mr. Crawley reckons three interpretations of the origin of the
avoidance of mother-in-law and son-in-law. 1. Fison (_Kamilaroi and
Kurnai_, p. 103), ‘It is that the rule is due to a fear of intercourse
which is unlawful, though theoretically allowed on some classificatory
systems.’ Mr. Crawley remarks, ‘this explanation is the one most
likely to occur to explorers who have personal knowledge of savages,’
which was Mr. Atkinson’s case. Mr. Crawley objects the antecedent
improbability of any man, ‘not to mention a savage, ever falling in
love with a woman old enough to be his mother or mother-in-law, and
the improbability of so many peoples being afraid of this.’ Now ‘in
love’ is one thing, and an access of lust is another. Moreover, the
mother-in-law, in prospective, not infrequently is her daughter’s
rival, even in modern life. She has to be guarded against, even if
the son-in-law is less dangerous. And he is very apt to be ‘a general
lover.’ ‘Theoretically the mother-in-law is marriageable in many
systems,’ says Mr. Crawley, ‘and so there would be no incest ...’ But
Mr. Atkinson is not contemplating the danger of incest as the cause
of mother-in-law avoidance; his theory postulates jealousy--that of
the mother-in-law’s husband, and, for what it is worth, that of the
mother-in-law’s daughter. Mr. Crawley’s objection, I think, does not
invalidate Mr. Atkinson’s theory; especially as he does not reflect
that the possible mother-in-law may have a caprice for her son-in-law,
while the would-be son-in-law, less frequently, may follow the course
of Colonel Henry Esmond.
2. Sir John Lubbock’s (Lord Avebury’s) theory, of enmity caused by
capture, Mr. Atkinson has dealt with; it is rejected by Mr. Crawley.
3. Mr. Tylor’s theory (_Journal Anthrop. Institute_, xviii. 247), is
that of ‘cutting’ ‘an outsider,’ not one of the family, not recognised
till his first child is born. For various reasons, Mr. Crawley rejects
this explanation, rightly, I venture to think. Mr. Crawley holds that
the mother-in-law avoidance ‘seems to be causally connected with
a man’s avoidance of his own wife,’ which he regards as only one
aspect of the tabu between the two sexes, superstitiously regarded as
dangerous to each other. But, like Mr. Atkinson, I much doubt whether
the ‘avoidance,’ as far as it goes, of husband and wife is, in the
main, the result of this superstition, though it plays its part on
special occasions, as before the women sow the crops, and before the
men go forth to war. Mr. Crawley’s suggestion that, as husband and wife
are perpetually breaking the alleged sexual tabu, the mother-in-law
becomes ‘a substitute to receive the onus of tabu,’ ‘a good instance of
savage make-believe’ does not carry conviction. Mr. Atkinson’s theory
seems ‘as good as a better’ (_Mystic Rose_, pp. 400-414).--A. L.
[Footnote 1: Well-known instances of this marital shyness are the
Spartan and Red Indian usage of only entering the wife’s bower,
or wigwam, under cover of darkness. There are also Fijian and New
Caledonian cases (Crawley, pp. 39-40). Mr. Crawley would regard these
as cases of ‘sexual tabu,’ but various other cases may be readily
conjectured.--A. L.]
[Footnote 2: See Note at the end of chap. V.]
[Footnote 3: With the consequent accession of power to the resident
female thus accruing, capture would have become more rare. In any case
it would certainly become connected in the minds of the more advanced
and powerful tribes with the rape of women, other than their own, and
probably inferior in type, mentally and physically; the comparison
of this degraded captive in their midst with their own free females
would not be at all likely to have led in connection with her to any
spontaneous idea of symbolic consecration in marriage, or aught else.]
[Footnote 4: When two groups, despite the isolating tendency of the
habit of capture, did at length form a union sufficiently close to
permit of marriage by consent between the respective group members,
then, with capture as regards outsiders still rife amongst them, we can
understand how the symbol would come to be attached to the peaceful
connubium.]
[Footnote 5: ‘Phratries’ are here meant, where the word ‘clan’ is used,
or local totem groups.--A. L. Cf. Note, p. 260.]
[Footnote 6: The exact relation of each to the females being defined by
the classificatory system by generations.]
[Footnote 7: As mentioned by Tylor.]
[Footnote 8: Here I really do not know what ‘clan’ is meant to
denote--‘phratry,’ I think.--A. L.]
[Footnote 9: See Mr. Crawley’s ‘Sexual tabu’ theory of this avoidance,
_Mystic Rose_, pp. 399-414.--A. L.]
[Footnote 10: Apparently ‘clans’ here = totem kins, Mr. Atkinson seems
to think that totem kins kept on being added to the two original
‘phratries.’--A. L.]
[Footnote 11: Lubbock, _Origin of Civilisation_, p. 13 _et seq_.]
[Footnote 12: _Hlonipa_, to avoid mention of his name, &c.]
[Footnote 13: _Origin of Civilisation_, p. 14. Lubbock quoting ‘Report
of Select Committee on Aborigines,’ Vict. 1859, p. 73. Tylor, _Early
History of Mankind_, p. 288.]
[Footnote 14: Among the Veddahs the fact that the avoidance begins
after puberty, and in each case in relation to the opposite sex, is
evidence that here the sexual feelings are concerned.]
[Footnote 15: Tylor, _Early History of Mankind_, p. 291.]
[Footnote 16: E. B. Tylor. On a method of investigating the development
of institutions: applied to laws of marriage and descent. _J. A. I_.
1889, xviii. No. 3, 245-269.]
[Footnote 17: The matter here is highly technical, and must be
compared, if it is to be understood, with Mr. Tylor’s essay, cited in
the previous note. W stands for Wife, H for Husband, D is Daughter, F
is Female, M is Mother, and is also Male! A is Avoidance.--A. L.]
CHAPTER VIII
THE CLASSIFICATORY SYSTEM
The classificatory system.--The author’s theory is the opposite
of Mr. Morgan’s, of original brother and sister marriage.--That
theory is based on Malayan terms of relationship.--Nephew,
niece, and cousin, all named ‘sons and daughters.’--This fact of
nomenclature used as an argument for promiscuity.--The author’s
theory.--The names for relationship given as regards the group,
not the individual.--The names and rules evolved in the respective
interests of three generations.--They apply to food as well as to
marriage.--Each generation is a strictly defined class.--Terms
for relationship indicate, _not kinship_, but relative seniority
and rights in relation to the group.--The distinction of age in
generations breaks down in practice.--Methods of bilking the letter
of the law.--Communal marriage.--Outside suitors and cousinage.
--The fact of cousinage unperceived and unnamed.--Cousins are still
called brothers and sisters; thus, when a man styles his sister’s
son his son, the fact does not prove, as in Mr. Morgan’s theory,
that his sister is his wife.--Terms of address between brothers
and sisters.--And between members of the same and of different
phratries.--These corroborate the author’s theory.--Distinction as
to sexual rights yields the classificatory system.--Progress outran
recognition and verbal expression.--Errors of Mr. Morgan and Mr.
McLennan.--Conclusion.--Note.--’ ‘Group marriage.’
In the gradual evolution of the group into the tribe during the long
period of transition, the modifications in the internal organisation,
which took place as the necessary result in the march in progress,
should have left traces which we may also be able to follow in living
custom. The immigration of the outside suitor, in its synchronism
with the decay of paternal incest, must have entailed continual
complications demanding regulation, and the resolution of each problem
would lead to an almost mechanical step in advance. When by force of
circumstances of environment or others such a step became retrograde,
then we may expect an aberrant form whose very anomalism should lead
to a facile recognition, and prove equally fertile in interpretation.
Indeed, a curious vestige of the effect in action of the habit of
incest, when brought into inevitable contact with progressive social
evolution, is to be discerned in the nomenclature of that earliest
phase of the classificatory system which Mr. L. H. Morgan has called
the Malayan. From the general prevalence among lower races of a
division into classes by generations of the members of group, and
the deduction we see drawn in _Ancient Society_ from the Hawaiian
terms of relationship therein detailed, as to a previous state of
general promiscuity, it will be desirable thoroughly to examine the
whole question of the so-called classificatory system. It is doubly
imperative in view of our own hypothesis, which, as regards the primary
origin of society, may be said to be exactly the reverse of that of Mr.
Morgan, in as far as the sexual inter-relations of brother and sister
are concerned.
We have tried to portray the imperative evolution of a primal law as
the sole possible condition of the first steps in social progress,
a law which had so specially in view the bar to sexual intercourse
between a brother and sister that it might, if a name for it were
needed, be called the _anadelphogamous_ law. [Mr. Atkinson wrote
‘asororogamic,’ which is really too impossible a word for even science
to employ.] Mr. Morgan, on the contrary, says,[1] ‘The primitive or
consanguine family was founded upon the inter-marriage of brothers and
sisters own and collateral in a group.’ He adds,[2] ‘The Malayan system
defines the relationship that would exist in a consanguine family,
and it demands the existence of such a family to account for its own
existence.’ And again,[3] ‘It is impossible to explain the system as
a natural growth, upon any other hypothesis than the one named, since
this form of marriage alone can furnish a key to its interpretation.’
He bases his argument on the fact that[4] ‘under the Malayan system all
consanguines, near and remote, fall within some one of the following
relationships, viz. parent, child, grandparent, grandchild, brother
and sister--no other blood relationships are recognised,’ and says,
speaking of promiscuity, that[5] ‘a man calls his brother’s son, his
son, because his brother’s wife is _his_ wife as well as his brother’s,
and his sister’s son is also _his_ son because his sister is his wife.’
Now that a brother’s son should be called a son is quite simple,
as being a natural effect of the group marriage of brothers, the
prevalence of which as a habit, and its effects, MM. Lorimer and
Fison so well show among the Australians.[6] But that a sister’s son
should also be termed, by her brother, a ‘son’ is certainly a very
different thing indeed, despite Mr. McLennan’s and other arguments
to the contrary. In this verbal detail lies the whole crux of the
matter as regards Mr. Morgan. That it should have given rise to such
diversity of opinion and suggested his theory of brother and sister
marriage need hardly be matter of surprise. For it is at once, evident
that a group holding such nomenclature ignored cousinship, even if it
existed. To all later seeming my sister’s son must be nephew to _ego_
quite necessarily. That at any stage he should be unrecognised as such
seems the more astonishing, as even in the very early times when totems
first arose, and arose probably and precisely to distinguish cousins
as such,[7] each cousin is of a different totem to the other, and
thus not only eligible in marriage with another cousin, but in many
lower races the born spouse each of the other. The whole question thus
resolves itself into the exact value of the term we find used in the
Hawaiian designation of the sister’s son by her brother. Now it is
important to note that two causes might have for effect the form of
nomenclature in which a brother and sister each call the child a son,
and thus ignore a possible cousinship. One cause is that some factor
in self-interest or otherwise allowed such relationship to remain
unrecognised, although existent, and another is that, as cousinship
did not exist at all, there could be no recognition, or, as Mr. Morgan
puts it, ‘his sister’s son is also his son because his sister is his
wife.’ To determine which is correct certainly seems difficult, and the
whole thing has evidently been considered a most stubborn fact for the
opponents of promiscuity.
That Mr. Morgan should have seized it in support of his theory, and
that the theory should be so largely accepted, is not astonishing.
Happily the great value of his ensuing argument as regards tribal
development is in no way impaired if it can be shown, as we hope to do,
that there is no necessity for an hypothesis of promiscuity to explain
the terms in the Malayan table, which apparent need seems primarily to
have led Mr. Morgan to evolve the idea of his primitive group. In fact,
it becomes evident that, if we can furnish a clue as to how a sister’s
son came also to be a brother’s son, without having recourse to the
theory of an incestuous union of brothers and sisters, we at least
discount the need of Mr. Morgan’s ‘consanguine family,’ in which such
incest is supposed to be a most characteristic and essential feature.
We hope to prove that the terms which misled him are more apparent than
real as proofs of any real affinity in blood, and that the original
conception in causal connection was something quite apart.
Sir John Lubbock (Lord Avebury) has observed that the lower the
_milieu_ of a social status the less we see of the individual and the
more of the group. In the case before us the individual as such does
not exist at all, and there is only question of the group in its
relation to its component classes. To confound one with the other led
to Mr. Morgan’s error.
There was much, in fact, in Mr. McLennan’s shrewd remark in criticism
of Mr. Morgan’s theory that he did not seek the origin of the system
of nomenclature in the origin of the classification of the connected
persons, and that he courted failure in attempting to solve the problem
by explaining the relationships comprised in the system in detail.’[8]
But it seems to me that Mr. McLennan fell into the same error when he
contented himself with the misleading analogies which a comparison
with the Nair family system presented. These, however striking, are,
as we shall find, simply the result of the fact that class or communal
marriage was the common trait of the polyandrous and the Cyclopean
family, nor can I see that Mr. McLennan followed his own excellent
advice as regards the possible identity in origin of nomenclature and
classification; if he had so done, his acute mind could not have failed
in a resolution of the whole problem, whereas his final resume of the
argument is in terms which I profess to be quite unable to grasp.
Before entering into the matter ourselves, we must keep in mind our
affirmation as to the axiom which must, in my opinion, guide us in
all research into the hidden causes of early social evolution. All
innovations, as we have said, in the regulation of society, all novel
legislative procedure so to speak, will be found to have relation to
the sexual feelings in jealousy. This already is the genesis of the
primal law, and, in each case of avoidance, we have found jealousy the
leading factor. It is the same in the case before us. Bearing this
in mind, let us then follow Mr. McLennan’s advice as to seeking the
origin of the classification of connected persons. Now what would be
the family economy of the primitive group, and who are its component
individuals, whose interests, in sexual matters, are likely to clash,
and whose mutual relationship in this respect demanded distinction in
furtherance of regulation of their respective rights?
The original primitive type of family, which we have called ‘the
Cyclopean,’ has disappeared, giving place to a higher form, which, by
the inclusion of male offspring, has permitted the existence of several
generations in presence. The component individuals, speaking of one sex
only, would be old males, males, and young males representing three
generations. It is the interests of these generations, which, in sexual
matters and in choice of food, &c. would be likely to clash, for we
may be sure that the seniors, as with actual savages, would desire the
lion’s share. Distinction then being necessary, it would naturally,
as with individuals, be based on relativity of age, seniority within
certain limits confering priority. Thus gradually each generation, as
indeed with actual lower races, would, _qua_ generation, come to be a
distinctly defined class with certain separate rights and obligations.
In this simple necessity of a classification of the connected
persons, we see the origin of the classificatory system itself, as an
institution. Divers interests, as between seniors and juniors, demanded
strict demarcation, and the limits of a generation furnished the
required lines to mark them.
The very natural distinction by relativity of age was simply, as with
individuals, utilised as the requisite machinery in regulation of
mutual rights of the individual himself. His rights are a matter of
concern simply within his generation, in which the relation is purely
paternal and communal, with the sole reservation of rights conferred by
seniority.
Even when later denominative expression was given to the idea of
a generation, terms almost identical of male, old male, and young
male are used, as there is no desire to convey any idea of personal
kinship, and there is merely in view reference to relativity of age
of a class in relation to the group. Later, as Mr. McLennan says (p.
277): ‘Whatever class names primitively signified, Kiki would come to
mean child, Kina parent, Moopuna grandchild, Kapuna grandparent, but
originally no such idea of kinship was in view.’ The classificatory
system evolved itself simply as the result of a desire to define
certain rights, and the division by generations was the most natural
and feasible for the purpose. But the very simplicity and paucity
of the original terms show that it was applied to any simple group
form. In fact, we are here dealing with that primitive form which
bound people together, by the mere tie of residence and locality, and
was purely exogamous in habit. Now when we consider that this fixed
relativity of age by generation was originally evolved in view of the
relations within such a family, we can imagine that complications
might arise from such arbitrary definitions, when, later, this family
expanded into the numerically large tribe composed of two intermarrying
totem clan groups [phratries].
Primitively, doubtless, as between the classes, the genetic idea as
regards sexual matters was (as still with savages in questions of
food) to favour the seniors and defend their rights in defining each
one’s status. But actually, with the decay of incest, it would become
what it is as among lower races, where nothing is more remarkable
than the strict interdict upon any union between members of different
generations.[9]
It is evident that hence complications might arise perplexing to the
savage mind. For instance, we may expect to find cases where the niece
is an adult, whilst the aunt is still an infant, and yet marriage
between the former and the son of the latter is obligatory, as they
are cousins of the same generation. Here, probably, we have a clue to
one of the most bizarre facts in anthropology, where the universal
rule as to sexual connection between generations seems to be wantonly
disobeyed, although in reality the reverse may be seen to be the case
on examination. It is recorded of the Keddies of Southern India that
a very singular custom exists among them, a young woman of sixteen or
twenty years of age may be married to a boy of five or six years. She,
however, lives with some other adult male (perhaps a maternal uncle or
cousin), but is also allowed to form a connection with the father’s
relatives, occasionally it may be the boy’s father himself, i.e. the
woman’s father-in-law! Should there be children from these liaisons,
they are fathered on the boy husband. When the boy grows, the wife is
either old or past child-bearing, when he in turn takes some other
boy’s wife in a manner precisely similar to that in his own case and
procreates children for the boy husband.
By the classificatory system, as each in fact is a member of the
same generation, they are born husbands and wives. The enforced
virginity of the wife, implied under such conditions, entailed a
celibacy incompatible with all lower ideas. It is easy to imagine
the compromise between his conscience and his desires which a savage
would make in such a case when favoured (or forced) by circumstances
of environment, for it is unknown elsewhere. The infant nephew goes
through the ceremony of marriage, which, by a fiction, being thus
legally consummated, the wife is left free to follow her desires.
These, however, are by no means allowed to run riot. They are regulated
in a fashion of which, although the peculiarity is noted by the authors
of the extract, the full significance can only be appreciated in
connection with our hypothesis. She formed indeed connections outside
of her husband, but solely with those of the legally eligible totem.
As I believe the Keddies have male descent, these would be sons of the
father’s sister, or sons of the mother’s brother, or again with the
latter himself, who was her father-in-law, whereas union with the sons
of the father’s brothers, or of the mother’s sisters, as being of the
same totem, would not take place--and this we find to be the actual
fact, as evidence proves.
But still other complications will be found to arise as the effect of
the original concept of the classificatory system when brought face
to face with new and advanced social order, which will have closer
relation to our present argument. The distinctive feature in the
economy of the primitive group in its relation to all other groups
was mutual hostility. The instinctive distrust of strangers would be
accentuated by the habitual hostile capture of females, for such
groups, except in the case of the incest between father and daughter,
were yet purely exogamous. But such mutual hostility implies isolation
of each community. Thus all law evolved, as we have said, would be
purely with a view to regulation of the internal economy of a single
consanguine group alone. Now in such a group, the division into
generations of old male, male, and young male implied (although not as
yet understood as between generations) the relationship of parents and
children. Each generation is either child or parent to the other. As
marriage is communal,[10] all the fathers in one generation are fathers
to all the children in the next indiscriminately, and conversely these
children recognise as fathers all the males of the senior generation.
It follows that the relationship of all the members of a generation
is purely fraternal, all are brothers and sisters to each other, and
in this consanguine family they were really either actually so, or at
least half brothers and half sisters.
Between these the primal law of celibacy between brother and sister
as such embraced the whole generation. Now as long as the family was
thus simply constituted, no friction would arise. The brothers, in
common, captured and married in common some outside female,[11] and
their children constituted solely the next generation. The sisters were
either stolen or emigrated to other groups; but we have seen that a
moment would come when this process ceased to be universal. The sister
came to remain in her own group, and she was joined by some outside
suitor; with the advent of their children, who are cousins to the
others, would arise dire perplexities, in view of the old law.
We may now begin to see more distinctly, in the fact of the presence
of the cousins, the resolution of the problem as to how a sister’s
son came to be also a brother’s, and we will find that Mr. Morgan was
not the first to be baffled by the problem. It was too intricate for
primitive man at any rate. When first presented to him, we may surmise
that he, in fact, refused to recognise it as a problem at all. Since
the beginning of things in the group, as constituted by all tradition,
the children of one generation were children of another simply, and
nothing more. That as a result of the presence of the outside male,
some intricate process of scission had occurred, and things were not
as they seemed, was an idea far too abstract to be readily seized. All
in a generation had been ever, to early man, brother and sister, and
brother and sister they should continue.
We have seen in a past chapter that it was actually to the interest of
senior male group-members, while incest reigned, that this condition
of things should endure. It put at their sole disposal the daughters
of their brothers-in-law, and in the primal law placed a ban on
sexual intercourse between all the younger male and female members,
as constituting them brothers and sisters. As a factor in this case,
however, the effect of incest was more or less temporary. The real
agent in the tardy or non-recognition of the cousinship thus created,
was the conservative force of old habit and tradition. We must remember
that, in so early a group, personal descent as such was in no way
recognised. Mere local contiguity alone constituted the sense of
relationship, exogamy for instance took the form of local exogamy,
for as all within a locality were (locally) relations, so all outside
were, as strangers, free in marriage. While then so strong a sense of
the value of contiguity continued, and was in practice, the evolution
of an idea of non-relationship of two individuals with a common
habitat would be too complex. Again, a recognition in fact implies a
vast modification of the whole organisation of the group, which thus
contains in cousins the elements of marriage within itself. But this is
the latest and highest type of group and constitutes the tribe. We can
understand that such a step was not taken at once by early man. Even
when recognised we know that definition lags behind the event.
Thus in such a case as cited, and at the stage we are studying, if we
find two cousins in presence, who are yet unrecognised as cousins,
then, if nomenclature has taken place, we should find exactly the terms
employed in the Malayan table which misled Mr. Morgan. A sister’s son
would be termed the brother’s son, simply because the individual was
as yet ignored, although existent, as a cousin, as members of the same
generation they were brother and sister. Classes by generations alone
were recognised.
Now as regards the validity of our assumption that relativity in age
served as a means to determine privilege as to wedlock, proof can be
furnished by certain nomenclatory features, as between members of a
class or generation, to be found in the Malayan table in _Ancient
Society_ and elsewhere. This will afford, incidentally, strong negative
proof of our theory as to non-union between brother and sister. It will
also incidentally furnish the strongest negative evidence that, so far
from brother and sister living in incest, as Morgan holds, brother and
sister were regarded as quite apart in the sense of any sexual relation
between them. It will be seen that there is a profound distinction made
in address between inter-marriageable people and those between whom
celibacy is enjoined.
Both Mr. Morgan and Mr. McLennan have drawn attention to the
peculiarities in the terms of address as between ‘brothers’ and as
between ‘sisters.’ It is curious that the full significance of the
phenomena therein presented escaped two such keen intellects. We find
here that terms of address as between persons of the same sex and of
the same generation, and _ergo_ brothers or sisters, present the very
remarkable features that
(1) ‘The age of the person spoken to compared with that of the speaker
plays a very important part in the matter of denomination.’
(2) ‘Such names refer not to the absolute age of the person addressed.’
(3) ‘The relationships of brother and sister are conceived in the
twofold form of elder and younger, and not in the abstract, and there
are special terms for each among the Seneca Iroquois.’
(4) ‘There is no name for brother and sister (Malayan system). On the
other hand, there are a variety of names for use in salutations between
“brother” and “sister” according to the age and sex of the person
speaking in relation to the age and sex of the person addressed.’
(5) Among the Eskimo the form of the terms of relationship appears to
depend, in some cases, more on the sex of the speaker than on that of
the person to whom the term refers.
(6) In Eastern Central Africa, if a man has a brother and a sister, he
is called one thing by the brother, but quite a different thing by the
sister.
We will now illustrate the idea more completely by an extract of terms
from the table of Hawaiian relationships in _Ancient Society_. An older
or a younger brother is to a sister simply addressed or mentioned
by the general term Kaiku nana, but to her, in address or mention
of an older or a younger sister, they are respectively Kaik a’ana
and Kaika-i-na. Again, an older or a younger sister is to a brother
collectively Kaikuwaheena, but to him an elder or a younger brother is
respectively Kaiknana and Kaikaina.
Now in view of our argument as regards the origin of these diversities
in some sexual feelings, it is a most significant feature in these
details of the terms of address that the expression of the relativity
of age between the speakers is confined solely to the intercourse
between members of the same sex. That a brother is the senior or the
junior of Ego is carefully noted, but a sister is simply and vaguely
a sister. Why? simply because whereas, by virtue of the primal law,
no possible question whatever of mutual interest in sexual matters
could possibly arise between a brother and a sister, on the other
hand friction might hourly occur between brothers or between sisters.
In fact, if our theory is correct, then, as questions of sexual
privilege or precedence could cause jealousy between members of the
same sex, distinctions would be necessary by definition of seniority
when address took place between these, and in these cases alone, and
this indeed we find to be the fact. As conclusive evidence we would
cite the further important fact that these very same distinctions of
senior and junior are used, _inter se_, between all those of the same
totem [phratry] as now existing, but are never employed for their
tribal cousins of the other totem [phratry]. And the reason is the
same. The latter naturally do not marry (in groups formed of only two
classes) [phratries] into the same totem [phratry] as the former,
and thus there is no cause for jealousy or necessity of definition,
whereas individuals of the same totem [phratry] are _ipso facto_ group
[potential] husbands of the same group [potential] wives, or are at
least eligible in marriage with the same totem groups [phratries], and
hence necessity for the exact definition by age of each one’s rights.
Thus, as with other laws or institutions we have traced, we find
a desire for distinction as regards rights in sexual union to be
the genetic cause of the classificatory system both as regards the
generation and its component members.
In all periods of transition which a process in change in progress
implies, we expect to find cases where the conservative force of
tradition from the past has delayed recognition of the too novel
present, and we discover that circumstances have moved too rapidly for
the intelligence of the times. If we keep this fact in view, we have
thus seemed to find a natural explanation of the knotty point which
was the cause of dispute between Mr. Morgan and Mr. McLennan,[12] and
we may thus venture to say that each was both wrong and right in his
views of the classificatory system in general. Each has mistaken a part
for a whole, and they were ignorant that they were upholding two sides
of the same question. Mr. Morgan was in error in assuming the system’s
too intimate connection with a determination of affinities in blood,
in relation to which primarily, as we hope to have shown, it had
really neither purpose nor aim, as also in his too hasty assumption of
a consanguine family founded on brother and sister incest, based on a
mere conjectural solution of a verbal detail, an assumption which he
himself acknowledges had no other foundation.
Mr. McLennan was in error in maintaining that the classificatory
system concerned terms of address alone. To quote his own words:
‘What duties or rights are affected by the “relationships” comprised
in the classificatory system? Absolutely none; they are barren of
consequences, except indeed as comprising a code of courtesies and
ceremonial addresses in social intercourse.’ On the other hand, as
we have tried to show, the system had precisely both intention and
effect in regulation, as regards sexual feeling, which is the strongest
passion in nature. And yet each disputant again was right in a degree,
for, in later times, the classificatory distinctions really served
as terms of address as regards the clan [tribe?], whilst again the
primitive terms, which simply describe generations of persons in their
relation to the group, were afterwards, by philological transmutation,
to come to have a more definite meaning expressing the sense of the
personal parent.
NOTE TO CHAPTER VIII
_Group Marriage_
The idea that ‘group marriage’ exists among the dusky natives of
Australia, and that ‘the group is the social unit as regards marriage’
(as explained in the earlier part of this book), was introduced by
Messrs. Howitt and Fison in their _Kamilaroi and Kurnai_ (1880).
Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, in their _Natives of Central Australia_
(1899), support the views of Messrs. Fison and Howitt. ‘Under certain
modifications group marriage still exists as an actual custom,
regulated by fixed and well recognised rules, amongst various
Australian tribes’ (p. 56). ‘Individual marriage does not exist either
in name or practice in the Urabunna tribe’ (p. 63). Mr. Crawley
argues, on the other hand, that individual marriage does exist among
the Urabunna, ‘though slightly modified’ (_Mystic Rose_, p. 482). For
each ‘slight modification,’ the husband’s consent must be obtained. The
system is regarded by Mr. Crawley, not as a survival of promiscuity,
more or less modified, but as an ‘abnormal development.’ He believes in
individual marriage, as, from the earliest known times, ‘the regular
type of union of man and woman.’ ‘One is struck by the high morality of
primitive man’ (pp. 483-484).
What Mr. Atkinson meant by saying that ‘marriage is communal,’ I do
not understand, as, on his theory, sexual jealousy must have prevented
each man of a generation, in a group, from being equally the husband
of each woman, not his sister. The young braves are supposed to bring
in women captives from without, and to marry them ‘communally,’ Then
what becomes of jealousy? They ought rather to have fought for their
captive, on the principles of a golf tournament, the survivor and
winner taking the bride. Mr. Atkinson never saw his work except in his
manuscript, and might have made modifications on such points as this,
where he seems to me to lose grasp of his idea, as in his theory of
recognition of the children of ‘the outside suitor,’ he seems to bring
male descent into action at a period when, as he asserts elsewhere, it
was not yet recognised by customary law. On the Keddies (p. 287) I have
no information, the author giving no reference. A. L.
[Footnote 1: _Ancient Society_, p. 384, Lewis H. Morgan.]
[Footnote 2: _Ibid._ p. 402.]
[Footnote 3: _Ibid._ p. 409.]
[Footnote 4: _Ibid._ p. 385.]
[Footnote 5: _Ancient Society_, p. 391, Lewis H. Morgan.]
[Footnote 6: _Kamilaroi and Kurnai_, Lorimer and Fison. Cf. note at end
of chapter. I have already stated my objections to the theory of ‘group
marriage.’--A. L.]
[Footnote 7: ‘Totems arose to distinguish cousins as such.’ This
implies that the totem name was assigned to each group for a definite
social purpose, the regulation of degrees of kin. But, on any feasible
theory of the ‘totem’ it ‘came otherwise,’ and was only used as a
mark of kinship _after_ it had come, just as a place name might have
been used, had it been equally convenient. On the system of descent
of the totem on the female side, A (man), an Emu, marries B (woman),
a Kangaroo. Their sons and daughters are Kangaroos. C, one of the
sisters, marries D, a Witchetty Grub, her children are Kangaroos. E,
C’s brother, marries F, a Frog, _his_ children are Frogs, and may, as
far as the totem rule goes, marry their cousins, C’s children, who are
Kangaroos.--A. L.]
[Footnote 8: _Studies in Ancient History_, McLennan, p. 269 _et seq._]
[Footnote 9: The most distinctive feature to-day in the inter-relations
of generations is a most strict ordinance to celibacy between members
of different generations.]
[Footnote 10: How can marriage be communal, granting Mr. Atkinson’s
views about sexual jealousy?--A. L.]
[Footnote 11: Where is sexual jealousy?--A. L.]
[Footnote 12: Cf. Mr. Tylor, _J. A. I._ xviii. 3, 265, who expresses
the same opinion.]
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A
ORIGIN OF TOTEMISM
In the following village sobriquets from the south-western counties of
England the people are styled ‘eaters of’ this or that.[1]
ENGLISH VILLAGE SOBRIQUETS
Eaters
Ashreigney -- Dog-eaters
Morchard -- ‘Burd’-eaters
Roseash -- Whitpot-eaters
Sandford -- Cheese-eaters
Moreton -- Tatie-eaters
Paignton -- Pudding-eaters
Churston -- Liver-eaters
Compare with these the following sobriquets of Siouan old totem kins,
counting descent in the male line.
SIOUAN NAMES OF GENTES
Eaters
Eat the scrapings of hides
Eat dried venison
Eat dung
Eat raw food
Among the Sioux we have also noted the sobriquets
_Non-Eaters of_
Deer
Buffalos
Swans
Cranes
Blackbirds, etc.
These sobriquets of non-eaters are probably totemic: the Deer kin does
not eat deer, nor does the Crane kin eat cranes, and so on. Totem kins
are named from what they do not eat; many totem kins with male descent
are nicknamed from what they do eat, or are alleged by their neighbours
to eat.
GROUP SOBRIQUETS IN ORKNEY.
In the following letter, which I owe to the kindness of Mr. Duncan
Robertson, we read that, in Orkney and Shetland, local sobriquets are
derived from what the people are alleged to eat. The tradition is, Mr.
Robertson informs me, that each group is named after the edible plant
or animal which it brought when engaged in building the Cathedral of
Kirkwall.
Crantit House, St. Ola, Orkney,
Jan. 29, 1903.
Dear Mr. Lang,--My tyrannical doctor won’t let me out
yet, so that I have not been able to collect all the
information I should like to get for you about the
Orkney nicknames--or ‘bye-names,’ as they are called
here.
Here follows the list as taken from Tudor’s _The Orkneys
and Shetland_, with alterations:
I. MAINLAND OR POMONA
Kirkwall Starlings
St. Andrews Skerry-scrapers
Deemess Skate-rumples
Holm Hobblers
Orphir Yearnings
Firth Oysters
Stromness Bloody-puddings
Sandwick Assie-pattles
Harray Crabs (of old, sheep)
Birsay Hoes = dog-fish
Evie Cauld kail
Rendall Sheep-thieves
II. SOUTH ISLES
Hoy Hawks, Auks or Tammynories
Walls Lyars (Manx Sheer-water)
Burray Oily Bogies = the skin
buoys used for herring
nets
South Ronaldshay
a. Grimness Gruties
b. Hope Scouties (Skuas)
c. Widewall Witches
d. Herston Hogs
e. Sandwick Birkies
f. South Parish Teeacks (Lapwings)
III. NORTH ISLES
Gairsay Buckies
Wyre Whelks
Egilsay Burstin Lumps
Rousay Mares
Shapansey Sheep
Stronsay Limpets
Sanday Gruelly Belkies
North Ronaldshay Selkies = Seals (also called
‘Tangie Whessos’) and ‘Hides’
Eday Scarfs = Shag or small Cormorant
Westray Auks = the common Guillemot
Papa Westray Doundies = spent Cod
These are all the names I know or can hear of in Orkney.
I wrote to Mr. Moodie Heddle of Cletts on the subject,
as I knew him to take a great and intelligent interest
in all such topics; and I have a most interesting
letter from him, of which I shall give you the gist.
He says he has no doubt that the origin of the names
is that which you suggest, though some of the names do
not at first sight appear to bear this out. _Kirkwall
‘Starlings’_ are easily accounted for, assuming that
there have always been as many starlings about Kirkwall
as there are now. They may well have been eaten by the
townsfolk. I have tried them, and their breasts are not
at all bad.
_Skerry-scrapers_.--The allusion here is to men who
live off shell fish, ‘dilse,’ etc. off the skerries.
There are--or were--excellent oysters on the St. Andrews
skerries. Mr. Heddle tells me he has heard a woman
insulting a man by saying she supposed he would soon
leave no limpets in a certain bay, meaning that he was
too lazy to work for his living.
_Skate-rumple_ is, of course, the skate’s tail. Deemess
is the nearest land to a famous piece of water for
skate, known as ‘the skate-hole.’
_Holm ‘Hobblers’_ I do not understand, but shall make
some further inquiries. I have an idea it is a reference
to some bird; Mr. Heddle thinks it has something to do
with seals, but neither of us knows.
_Yearnings_ are, of course, the dried stomachs of calves
used for making cheese.
_Oysters_.--The bay of Firth was famous for its oysters
till the beds were overfished and destroyed some thirty
years ago.
_Stromness ‘Bloody-puddings’_--Mr. Heddle suggests that
the people bled their cattle twice or thrice a year and
made ‘puddings’ of the blood. This, of course, was done
in the Highlands at one time.
_Assie-pattles_.--Either those who lay in the ashes
or, Mr. Heddle suggests, who ate cakes baked in the
ashes. Before iron girdles came much into use cakes
were baked on flat stones; and there is a hill, known
as ‘Baking-stone Hill,’ where the people used to come
for stones that would not split in the fire. The peats
used in Sandwick have a very red ash, which colours all
persons and things near it.
_Harray ‘Crabs.’_--Harray is the only parish in Orkney
which does not touch the sea, and the name is given in
irony. The old ‘tee-name’ is said to have been ‘sheep.’
The story is told that some fishermen passing through
Harray dropped a live crab. The men of Harray could not
make it out at all, and sent for the oldest inhabitant,
who was brought in a wheel-barrow. After gazing at the
monster for a few moments he exclaimed: ‘Boys, hid’s a
fiery draygon; tak’ me hame!’
I suspect there is some other tee-name than
‘sheep-thieves’ for the Rendall people, but will try to
find out and let you know.
_Hoy ‘Hawks’_--Mr. Heddle, who was formerly proprietor
of Hoy, says he thinks ‘auks’ must have been the
original word, as he believes ‘tammy-nories’ was the old
name. ‘Auk’ is Orcadian for the common guillemot, and a
‘tammy-norie’ is a puffin. Both of these birds abound in
Hoy.
Mr. Heddle also tells me that the old name of ‘Lyars’
for the people of Walls was to a great extent replaced
by ‘Cockles.’ The ‘lyars’ were very common in Walls at
one time, and were esteemed a great delicacy, but, Mr.
Heddle tells me, were to a great extent killed out by
the brown rat. He himself remembers men being bitten by
rats when putting their hands into holes to look for
young ‘lyars.’ Some three generations back enormous
numbers of cockles were taken and eaten by the people of
Walls, and they seem to have been called ‘Cockles’--or,
I presume, ‘eaters of cockles’--in consequence.
_Oily Bogies_.--I hardly see how this can have been
‘eaters of.’ There might have been some old story to the
effect that the Burray men stole and ate these buoys,
but I never heard it.
South Ronaldshay has names for every district, which no
other island but the Mainland has.
_Gruties_ is, Mr. Heddle says, equivalent to
‘Skerry-scrapers’--people who get their living from the
‘grut’ or refuse left in bights by the tide. (‘Grut,’
see Norse _gröde_ = porridge or gruel.)
_Scouties_ may be derived from the skua, though Mr.
Heddle gives an unpresentable derivation. The word
_Birkies_ he did not know the meaning of, but asked two
or three people, who all said the Sandwick people were
so called ‘because Sandwick was such a place for tangles
coming ashore, and the people had such a habit of eating
what they called “birken” tangles, i.e. the stout or
lower ends of the large thick tangles.’
_Burstin Lumps_ are a sort of preparation of oatmeal,
once a very favourite dish in the Isles.
_Rousay ‘Mares’_--There is an old tale of a Rousay man
who, being a coward, killed his mare and hid inside her
from his enemies. Mr. Heddle sends me an old rhyme on
the subject:
As the Rousay man said to his mare:
‘I wish I were in thee, for fear o’ the war;
I wish I were in thee without any doubt,
Were it Martinmas Day before I cam’ out.’
The North Ronaldshay people did eat seals. Why _Hides_
I do not know. Mr. Heddle here suggests it may have had
to do with witchcraft, in which skins and especially
seals’ flippers were much used. Within the last ten
years a man pulled down and rebuilt his byre because of
some ‘ongoings with a selkie flipper.’
The names are very old and must be of Scandinavian
origin.
Yours sincerely,
DUNCAN J. ROBERTSON.
In addition to these names of ‘eaters,’ simple names of animals, we
have shown in the text, are as commonly given to English villages as
totemic names are given to the totem groups of savages.
ANCIENT HEBREW VILLAGE NAMES
In Robertson Smith’s _Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia_ (p. 219)
he says: ‘I have argued that many place-names formed from the names of
animals are also to be regarded as having been originally taken from
the totem clans that inhabited them.’ Now where totemism is a living
institution I know no instance in which a locality is named from ‘the
totem clan that inhabits it.’ The thing cannot be where female descent
prevails, as many totems are then everywhere mixed in each local group.
Where male descent prevails we do, indeed, get localities inhabited by
groups mainly of the same totem name. But their tendency is to let the
totem name merge in the territorial title, the name of the locality, as
Messrs. Spencer and Gillen prove for the Arunta and Mr. Dorsey for the
Sioux.
Having found no instance where a totemic group gives its totem name
to the locality which it inhabits, I was struck by a remark of Dean
Stanley in his _Lectures on the History of the Jewish Church_ (p. 319,
1870). He there mentions the villages of Judah which were the scenes
of some of Samson’s adventures (Joshua xv. 32, 33; Judges i. 35). The
villages of Lebaoth, Shaalbim, Zorah, respectively mean Lions, Jackals,
and Hornets. Nobody eats any of these three animals, and they may be
names of totem groups transferred to localities--though of this usage
I know no example among savage totemists--or they may merely be old
Hebrew village sobriquets, as in England and France.
On consulting the _Encyclopædia Biblica_, under ‘Names’ (vol. iii.
3308, 3316) we find that ‘there can be no doubt that many place-names’
in Palestine ‘are identical with names of animals.’ Those ‘applied to
towns’ (we may read villages probably) are much more common in the
south than in the north. We have Stags, Lions, Leopards, Gazelles,
Wild Asses, Foxes, Hyænas, Cows, Lizards, Hornets, Scorpions, Serpents,
and so on. These may have been derived from old totem kins, though
I think that theory improbable, or from the frequency of hornets or
scorpions in this or that place, or the villagers’ sobriquet may
have become the village name. The last hypothesis has hitherto been
overlooked. The frequency of animal and plant names in the Roman
_gentes_, Fabii (Beans), Asinii (Asses), Caninii (Dogs), is an instance
that readily occurs. These may be survivals of totemism or of less
archaic sobriquets, while the totem names themselves, as we have
argued, may have had their origin in sobriquets.
[Footnote 1: _Western Antiquary_, vol. ix., pt. ii., p. 37, August,
1899.]
APPENDIX B
THE BA RONGA TERMS OF RELATIONSHIP
The hypothesis that the Australian terms of relationship, as they
now exist, really denote status in customary law, may perhaps derive
corroboration from the classificatory system as it appears among the
Ba Ronga, near Delagoa Bay. Here the natives are rich, industrial,
commercial, and polygamous to the full extent of their available
capital. Polygamy, male kinship, and wife purchase, with elaborate
laws of dowry and divorce, have modified and complicated the terms of
relationship. They are described by an excellent authority, M. Henri
Junod, a missionary.[1]
M. Junod has obviously never heard of the ‘classificatory system’
among other races, and his explanation of certain ‘avoidances,’ such
as between the husband and his wife’s brother, father, and mother, is
probably incorrect (turning, as it does, on the laws of wife-price
and divorce), though it appears now to be accepted by the Ba Ronga
themselves. But what more concerns us is the nature of terms of
relationship. These terms denote status in customary law, determined
by sex and seniority. Among the Basuto, ‘a man is otherwise related
to his sister than to his brother; his children are related to their
paternal otherwise than to their maternal uncles and aunts,’ and to
their cousins in the same style. Relative seniority, entailing relative
social duties, is also expressed in the terms of relationship. The
maternal aunt, senior to the mother, is ‘grandmother.’ The children of
my father’s brother and of my mother’s sister, are my ‘brothers’ or
‘sisters;’ the children of my maternal uncle and paternal aunt are not
my ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters.’ The children of a man’s inferior wives
call the chief wife ‘grandmother,’ and the other wives, not their
mother, ‘maternal aunts.’[2] The son of my wife’s sister is my ‘son,’
because I may succeed to her husband on his death, and his father
calls me ‘brother.’ The maternal uncle is the mere butt of his nephew,
the uncle’s wives are the nephew’s potential wives: he is one of the
heirs to them. This kind of uncle (maternal) is not one of the tribal
‘fathers’ of the nephew, but the paternal uncle is, and is treated with
the utmost respect. In brief, each name for a ‘relationship’ is a name
carrying certain social duties or privileges, dependent on sex and
seniority.
We have no such customary laws, and need no such names--the names are
the result and expression of the Basuto customary laws. Had we such
ideas of duty and privilege, then they would be expressed in our terms
of relationship, which would be numerous. My maternal uncle would have
a name denoting the man with whose wife I may flirt. The wife of my
brother-in-law is the woman whom I must treat with the most distant
respect. If I am a woman, my father’s sister’s husband (my ‘uncle by
marriage’) is a man whose wife I may become, and so forth endlessly.
Consequently there is a wealth of terms of relationship, just because
of the peculiarities of Ba Ronga customary law.
[Footnote 1: _Les Baronga_, Attinger, Neufchâtel, 1898, pp. 82-87.]
[Footnote 2: _Op. cit._ pp. 487-489.]
INDEX
Aboriginal man, Mr. Darwin’s view of, 209;
Mr. Atkinson on, 220
Affinity, degrees of, prohibiting marriage, 188;
most stringently applied by least civilised races, 2;
differences of opinion among students of the question, 2;
existing laws not an indication of primitive rules, 2;
Australian anomaly, 88
Age distinction and the classificatory system, Mr. Atkinson on, 290
Altruism, possible germ of, in nascent man, 232
American ethnological terms, 10
Andrews, Judge, on Hawaiian marriage relationships, 98
Animal guardians among savages, 131
Annamese family relationships, Dr. Westermarck on, 240
Anomaly, totem, among the Arunta, 85
Anthropoid adult males unsocial, 220
Aristotle and early human society, 7
Arunta tribe of Central Australia, 2, 11;
descent reckoned in the male line, 15, 69;
supposed ignorance of procreation, 20;
a ‘marriage ceremony,’ 24;
reincarnation superstition, 31, 139;
totem marriage-prohibition now extinct, 41;
totem common to both phratries, 46, 56;
totem groups preceded phratries, 61;
Mr. Spencer on the introduction of exogamy, 61;
totem influence, 61;
traditions as to change of custom, 67;
Mr. Frazer’s opinion of the tribe, 68;
intermarry with the Urabunna, 69;
theory of evolution, 70; totemism, 70;
belief in reincarnation, 71; totem eating, 71;
Dr. Durkheim’s views, 72;
opinion of Spencer and Gillen, 73;
marital relationship, 74;
relations of totems and phratries, 74;
myths, 75; Dr. Durkheim on, 75;
Messrs. Spencer and Gillen’s opinions, 76, 77;
institution of marriage regulations, 78;
phratries and totems, 81;
Dr. Durkheim’s views on the phratry, 82;
totemic divisions, 83;
origin of the anomalous marriage system, 85;
philosophy of souls, 86;
relationships prohibiting marriage, 88;
curiosities of affinity, 88;
terms of relationship, 93;
relationship customs, 96; legislation, 108;
legend regarding marriage limits, 108;
class system with male descent, 120;
totems and magic, 196, 198
Atkinson, Mr., his speculations on human origin, 3;
on primitive man’s polygamy, 4;
his theories and the Biblical account, 7;
disbelief in early promiscuity, 9;
views on the effect of sexual jealousy, 9, 18, 30;
his opinion on exogamy and totemism, 17;
his exogamous marriage hypothesis, 18;
his ‘primal law,’ 19;
on the origin of the ‘classificatory system,’ 108;
on New Caledonian totems, 136;
and the custom of avoidance, 212, 264;
on the origin of exogamy, 212, 238;
aboriginal man polygamous, 220;
man’s distinction in the primal law, 225;
prolonged infancy in nascent man, 230;
origin of maternal love, 231;
possible germ of altruism, 232;
earliest evolution of law, 236;
wives procured by capture, 244; editor’s note thereon, 248;
development from the group to the tribe, 250;
effect of female sexual jealousy, 256;
extinction of the patriarchal family, 261;
survivals of transition period, 264;
clan (phratry) relationship, 269;
editor’s note on avoidances, 278;
the classificatory system, 280, 285;
on the original purpose of totems, 282;
on local contiguity constituting relationship, 289;
on age distinction and the classificatory system, 290;
on group marriage and the classificatory system, 292
Attic plant names, 205
Australia, marriage divisions in, 38;
consanguineous marriages forbidden, 40;
tribal variations of custom, 41
Australian group marriage, Messrs. Spencer and Gillen on, 293
Australian, native, society not primitive, 3;
complexity of social rules, 3, 4;
low state of culture, 4; divinities, 5;
languages and customs, 6; commerce, 6
Australian tribal division, Mr. Fison on, 42;
the author’s view, 43
Australian sex protectors, 144
Avebury, Lord, on racial customs, 12; on totemism, 122;
on totem origin, 123; on communal marriage, 124;
vague terminology, 126, 130; on relationships, 128
‘Avoidance,’ custom of, Mr. Atkinson on, 212; origin of, 276
Avoidance between father-in-law and son-in-law, 268; its origin, 269
Avoidance of mother-in-law, 270, 277; Mr. Crawley on its origin, 278
Bachofen’s views on maternal kin-names, 9
Baiame, Australian divinity, 5, 29, 138, 184
Banks Island, two class divisions in, 178
Ba Ronga terms of relationship, 301
Barter between Australian tribes, 6
Basuto customary law, 301
‘Bisection’ a misleading term, 36
Bishop, Rev. A., on Hawaiian marriage relationships, 98
Blood kinship implied by totem name, 193
Breeding between sire and daughter, effect of, 223
British Columbia clan totems, Mr. Hill Tout on, 152
Brother-and-sister ‘avoidance,’ 213; in Australia, 216
Brother-and-sister ‘avoidance,’ Dr. Westermarck on, 240
Brother-and-sister marriage, primitive, Mr. Morgan on, 281
Bull-roarer, palæolithic, 5; miniature, discovered in France, 5;
Mr. Frazer’s bibliography of, 5 _n_
Calabar ‘bush-souls,’ 143
Camerons of Glen Nevis properly MacSorlies, 8.
Chattan, Clan, crest of the, 163
Clan, definition of, 11
Clan (phratry) relationship, Mr. Atkinson on, 269
Clandestine intercourse preliminary to marriage, 265
Class system, the, 35; and Mr. Morgan, 89
Class system with male descent among the Arunta, 120
Class and generation correspond, 112
Class names, Herr Cunow on, 113, 118; Dr. Durkheim on, 118;
Mr. Mathews on, 119
Classes, Mr. Morgan’s view of their origin, 92
Classificatory system, Mr. Atkinson on the, 108, 285;
division by generations the most natural one, 286;
age distinction, 290; and group marriage, 292
Classificatory terms, 100
Codrington, Dr., and totem descent, 135;
on Melanesian ancestor-worship, 150;
on social systems in Melanesia, 177;
his totem theory controverted, 181
Commerce, Australian inter-tribal, 6
Communal marriage, Mr. Morgan’s theory, 90; Lord Avebury on, 124
Consanguineous marriages forbidden among Australian tribes, 40
Contiguity, local, constituting relationship, Mr. Atkinson on, 289
Crawley, Mr., on promiscuous sexual relationship, 9;
on the origin of prohibited marriages, 18;
on jealousy in the family, 19;
on the matriarchal theory, 20;
his theory of exogamy, 23;
his view of marriage among savages, 24;
on the prevention of incest, 26;
on terms of relationship, 95;
on marriage by capture, 249;
on mother-in-law avoidance, 278
Cult of the totem, 136
Cunow’s, Herr, opinion on ‘class’ and ‘phratry,’ 37, 112;
on class names, 113;
regards the ‘horde’ as the original stage of society, 114;
his theory of exogamy, 115;
on local totem groups, 116;
his class-name theory opposed by Dr. Durkheim, 118
Daramulun, Australian divinity, 5
Darwin, Mr., his theory of primitive polygamy, 4;
his views on sexual jealousy, 9;
opposed to theory of promiscuity, 99;
on primitive man, 209
Dieri, the, 41; myths, 65, 66, 91, 139, 159, 163;
piraura custom, 95, 105
Diet, effect of, on sexual appetite, 227
Distribution of totems in the ‘phratries,’ 55
Divine intervention, savage and civilised ideas, 91
Domesticated animals in palæolithic age, 4, 5
Dorsey, Mr., his definition of clan, 11;
on totem descent, 135;
and North American Indian group names, 172
Dual relationship, tribal and individual, 88
Durkheim, Dr., on marriage relationship, 19 n;
on blood and totem superstition, 57 n;
on Arunta totemism, 72;
on Arunta ‘phratries’ and marriage, 73;
on the relation of totem and phratry, 74, 82;
on Arunta legends, 75;
on totemic divisions, 83;
on Arunta anomalous marriage system, 85;
opposes Herr Cunow’s theory of class names, 118;
on totem descent, 135
Early belief in mutual danger of mankind, 24
Eguilles, Marquis d’, and Kanaka relationship names, 137
Egypt, royal intermarriage, 1, 262
Egyptian totemic myths, 201
Endogamy, meaning of, 12
English village sobriquets, 173, 295
Erman, Adolf, on Yakut avoidance, 275
Euahlayi, the, 29; Mrs. Langloh Parker on the, 186 n; myth, 66
Evolution of primal law of avoidance, Mr. Atkinson on the, 210
Exchange, commercial, among Australian tribes, 6
Exogamy, meaning of the term, 10;
anterior to totems, opinions on, 17;
Mr. McLennan’s theory, 21;
Mr. Crawley’s theory, 23;
Dr. Westermarck’s theory, 33;
Mr. Morgan’s theory, 33;
the author’s theory, 34;
the result of evolution, 53;
Mr. Frazer’s earlier ideas on, 57;
objections to, 59; his later theory, 62;
advantages of the system now proposed, 63;
ignored by theorists on group totemism, 160;
Mr. Atkinson on origin of, 212, 238;
earlier view quoted, 212
Exogamy among the Arunta, 61
Exogamy and totemism, Mr. Taylor’s view, 17
Exogamy, local, origin of, 31
Family, the, its antiquity, 1; secured by dread of aberrations, 1;
laws and customs vary, 1; uncivilised races and prohibited
marriages, 2;
present-day institutions no guide to prehistoric customs, 2;
conjectures as to primitive state, 4; patriarchal family the
original social unit, 7; descent counted through the maternal
line, 8, 21;
suggestions as to early promiscuity, 9;
promiscuity prevented by sexual jealousy, 9;
totemism, 14; family group or ‘fire circle,’ 14, 17;
exogamous tendencies, 17; Mr. Crawley on the effect of jealousy,
19;
matriarchal theory, 20; Mr. McLennan’s theory of family exogamy,
21;
Mr. Crawley’s theory, 23
Father--and--daughter avoidance, Veddah, 274
Father-in-law and daughter-in-law, customs concerning, 272, 275
Father-in-law avoidance, Mr. Atkinson on, 263, 277
Female infanticide in first stages of society, 21
Fijian ‘totem gods,’ 137
Fison, Mr., on Kamilaroi marriage laws, 28;
and the class system in Australia, 37;
on Australian tribal division, 42;
controverted by the author, 43;
on the origin of totems, 45;
on the change of totems, 48;
on the origin of exogamy, 65, 97;
his suggestion of Divine intervention, 91;
on terms of relationship, 95;
quotes Mr. Lance on communal marriage, 106
Fison and Howitt, Messrs., on totemism, 16;
their theories insufficient, 51;
hypothesis as to Greek totemism, 203
Fletcher, Miss Alice, on totem origin, 151;
on Omaha magical societies, 198
Folk-lore illustrative of totem group names, 169
France, miniature palæolithic bull-roarers found in, 5
Frazer, Mr., bibliography of the bull-roarer, 5;
regards the Arunta as primitive, 20, 68;
his early ideas of the exogamous phratry, 57;
objections to them, 59;
his later theory of exogamy, 62;
his view that totems did not influence marriage, 68;
on the arrangement of totems in phratries, 74;
on Arunta legends, 76;
names several varieties of totem, 132;
his theories as to totem origin, 143;
on the group totem, 144;
on the personal totem, 145
Freeman, Mr., and the patriarchal family, 7
Gaidoz and Sébillot MM., on unfriendly sobriquets, 168
Ganowanian gentes, 92
Ghost-worship, Melanesian, 182
Gillen, Mr., _see_ Spencer
Gournditch Mara tribe, 195
Greek totemic myths, 201
Greek totemism, Messrs. Fison and Howitt’s hypothesis, 203
Grey, Sir George, on totems in Western Australia, 144
Group marriage, 89; supposed survivals of, 104
Group marriage and the classificatory system, Mr. Atkinson on, 292;
editor’s comments, 293
Group marriage, Australian, Messrs. Spencer and Gillen on, 293
Group names, theory as to, 166;
originated outside the group, 168, 171
Group totem, the hereditary, 160
Group totems, Mr. N. W. Thomas on, 148
Guatemala Indian nagual, 144
Haddon, Mr., on totem origin, 156
Hawaiian marriage relationships, 98
Hawaiian terms of relationship, 93
Hebrew village names, ancient, 300
Hesiod and early human society, 7
Horde, the foundation of Herr Cunow’s theory, 114;
its division, 115
Hose and McDougall, Messrs., on Sarawak beliefs, 153
Hottentot marriages, Dr. Westermarck on, 240
Howitt, Mr., his ethnological nomenclature, 10 n;
and the class system in Australia, 37;
his opinion on Australian marriage customs, 41;
his views on the primary class divisions, 46;
considers totemism too old for theorising, 49;
regards the undivided commune as a probable hypothesis, 65;
_see also_ Fison
Human origin, Mr. Atkinson’s speculations on, 3;
Biblical account differs from Mr. Atkinson’s,
not from Mr. Morgan’s hypothesis, 7
Human society, limit of historical research into origins of, 2;
progress of, 3; obscurity of the subject, 3
Hunter River totems, Mr. Rusden on, 148
Incas of Peru, royal intermarriage, 1
Incest to marry within totem name, 16
Incest, prevention of, Mr. Crawley’s theory, 26
Individual totems, Mr. N. W. Thomas on, 148
Infancy prolonged in nascent man, Mr. Atkinson on, 230
Infanticide, female, and exogamy, 21
Jealousy the cause of exogamy, 19
Jealousy, sexual, the motive power in social changes, 272
Jevons, Mr., on totems, 134; on the Attic social system, 206
Junod, M. Henri, and the Baronga terms of relationship, 301
Kamilaroi, the, 35 n
Kamilaroi group laws, Mr. Mathews on, 46
Kamilaroi interphratry marriages, 56
Kamilaroi marriage laws, Mr. Mathews on, 27;
Mr. Fison on, 28
Keddies (Southern India), marriage custom among, 286
Kennedys of Galloway, 7
Kin name, maternal, 8
Kingsley, Miss, on the Calabar ‘bush-souls,’ 143
Kinship among the earliest human groups, 19
Kurnai women and the sex totem, 146
Kyontha social customs, Dr. Westermarck on, 246 n
Kyonthas, avoidance among the, 275
Lance, Mr., on communal marriage survival, 106
Lang, Mr. G. S., quoted by Lord Avebury, 126
Lifu terms of relationship, 94, 100
Local exogamy, its origin, 13
Long’s, J., mention of ‘totam,’ 131 n
Macdonnells of Moidart and Glengarry, 7
McGee, W. J., his ethnological terminology, 11 n;
his views on the evolution of society, 52
McLennan, Mr. Daniel, on the origin of exogamy, 63;
on the phratries of Northern Victoria tribes, 64
McLennan, Mr. Donald, on exogamy and totemism, 14, 16, 17
McLennan, Mr. J. F., 3;
his views on maternal kin-names, 9;
his definition of exogamy, 10, 12;
his view of the most archaic marriage law, 13;
his opinion of kinship, 19, 20;
his theory of exogamy, 21;
the theory untenable, 22;
his views of ‘primitive groups,’ 31;
and exogamous phratries, 37;
considers totemism anterior to exogamy, 44;
on totem kins, 55;
on terms of relationship, 95;
on marriage by capture, 267;
his criticism of Mr. Morgan’s classification theory, 284;
remarks thereon by Mr. Atkinson, 284
MacSorlies part of Clan Cameron, 8
McUlrigs (Kennedys) of Galloway, 7
Magical societies, 197
Maine, Sir Henry, his ‘Ancient Law,’ 7;
on the evolution of tribes and states, 7
Malayan relationship system, Mr. Morgan on, 90, 281
Mandeville, Sir John, referred to, 24
Man’s distinction from other creatures, Mr. Atkinson on, 225
Marital relations among the Arunta 74
Marriage among savages, Mr. Crawley’s view of, 24
Marriage by capture, Mr. Atkinson on, 244, 266;
editor’s remarks on Mr. Atkinson’s views, 248;
Mr. McLennan on, 267
Marriage ceremony, Arunta, 24
Marriage, communal, Mr. Morgan’s theory, 90;
Lord Avebury on, 124
Marriage custom of the Keddies of Southern India, 286
Marriage divisions in Australia, 38
Marriage, group, 89; supposed survivals of, 104
Marriage laws, totemic and civilised, 87
Marriage regulations among the Arunta, 78
Marriage within the totem name prohibited, 16
Maternal kinship, 8
Maternal love, origin of, Mr. Atkinson on, 231
Mathews, Mr. John, on aboriginal jealousy, 9 n
Mathews, Mr., on Australian inter-tribal barter, 6;
on prohibited marriages, 27;
on group marriages, 35 n;
on marriage divisions in Australia, 38;
on class names, 119; on totem names, 120
Matriarchal theory, 20
Melanesian ghost-worship, 182;
sacrifices, 183
Melanesian social system, 176
Menomini myth, 66
Mincopies (Andamanese), 9
Modern theories of totem origin: Mr. A. H. Keane’s theory, 140;
Mr. Max Müller’s theory, 141;
Mr. Herbert Spencer’s theory, 142;
Mr. Frazer’s theories, 143;
Mr. N. W. Thomas’s theory, 148;
Dr. Wilken’s theory, 150; Miss
Alice Fletcher’s theory, 151;
Mr. Hill Tout’s theory, 152;
Messrs. Hose and McDougall’s theory, 153;
Mr. Haddon’s theory, 156:
an objection to these theories, 159;
the author’s conjecture, 161
Modification of sexual habit, Mr. Atkinson on, 227
Morgan, Mr., on human origin, 7;
his criticism of Mr. McLennan’s terms, 13 n;
his theory of exogamy, 33;
and exogamous phratries, 37;
his theory quoted by Mr. Fison, 65;
and the class system, 89;
his theory of communal marriage, 90;
the theory inexplicable, 91;
his views on the origin of classes and totems, 92;
on terms of relationship, 93;
on communal marriage in Hawaii, 98;
his theory opposed by Darwin, 98;
on primitive brother-and-sister marriage, 281
Mother kin, 20
Mother-and-son avoidance, Veddah, 274
Mother-in-law, ‘avoidance’ of, 277;
Mr. Atkinson on, 213;
Mr. Crawley on its origin, 278
Mother-in-law, customs concerning, 272, 273, 275
Müller, Mr. Max, and totem origin, 141
Mungun-ngaur, Australian divinity, 5
Munro, Dr., on primitive man, 4
Myth, savage, and scientific hypothesis, coincidence of, 76
Myths, Arunta, 75;
Greek and Egyptian totemic, 201
Nairs of Malabar, 22
Narrinyeri totem eaters, 179
Nascent man a solitary polygamous male, 220;
younger males expelled from family, 220;
absence of a paring season, 226;
effect of diet on sexual function, 227;
prolonged infancy, 230;
maternal love, 231;
retention of adult son in family, 232;
distinction between females in the family circle, 236;
rule of ‘avoidance,’ 237;
primal law the parent of exogamy, 238;
the editor’s view, 238;
sexual relations between sire and daughter, 251;
widows of the polygamous husband, 252;
introduction of outside males, 254;
effect of female sexual jealousy, 256;
recognition of cousinship, 257;
interchange of sisters, 258;
division of the group, 260
Nature-worship, Lord Avebury’s synonym of totemism, 122
New Caledonia, separation of brother and sister, 214;
infanticide of twins, 215; avoidance in, 275
New Caledonia totems, 136
New Caledonian totem belief, 143
New Caledonian tribes, hostility between, 167
New Hebrides, North, class divisions in, 178
Nooreli, Australian divinity, 5, 138
North American Indian group names, 172
Northern Victoria, tribal tradition of, 64
Nyarongs, Sarawak, 153
Omaha magical societies, 197; Miss Alice Fletcher on, 198
Omaha manitus, Miss Fletcher on, 152
Omaha totem groups, 196
Origin of avoidance, Mr. Atkinson on, 276
Origin of classes and totems, Mr. Morgan’s view, 92
Origin of totemism, theories regarding the, 49, 50;
Lord Avebury on, 123
Orissa, avoidance in 275
Orkney, group sobriquets in, 296
Palæolithic man, Dr. Munro on, 4, 5;
possessed religous belief, 5
Palæolithic remains found in France, 5
Parker, Mrs. Langloh, on the Euahlayi, 186 n.
Patriarchal family first social unit, 7;
Sir Henry Maine’s opinion, 7;
Mr. Freeman’s concurrence, 7;
absent from ‘non-Aryan’ races, 8
Persian royal marriages, 262
Peruvian Incas’ marriages, 1, 262
Pfeil, Count von, on inter-tribal hostility, 168
Phratria, the Attic, 205
Phratries, 35; intended to produce exogamy, 53
Phratries and totem groups, relative antiquity, 35
Phratries and totems of the Arunta, 81
Phratries and totems, relations of, 74
Phratry, Herr Cunow on the development of, 116
Phratry names usually totemic, 116
Phratry, origin of the, Mr. McGee’s view, 52;
Mr. Howitt’s theory, 53;
Mr. Frazer’s ideas, 57
Piets, royal, counted descent through female line, 21
Pinaru, Dieri headman’s title, 105
Piraungaru arrangement, 105; among the Urabunna, 106
Pirmaheal, Australian divinity, 5
Plant names, Attic, 205
Pollux on the Attic genos, 206
Polyandry in Malabar, 22
Polyandry supposed origin of maternal kin-name, 9
Polygamy probable institution of primitive man, 4
Polygyny and monogamy, Mr. Darwin’s group basis, 64
Powell’s, Major, ethnological terminology, 10 n;
use of the word ‘totem,’ 132
‘Primary divisions’ totemic and exogamous, 43;
Mr. Howitt’s hypothesis, 46;
probably the result of amalgamation, 181
Primitive brother-and-sister marriage, Mr. Morgan on, 281
Primitive man, opinions on, 4
Pristine groups necessarily small, 164;
governed by sexual jealousy, 165
Prohibited marriages, Arunta, by affinity, 88
Pundjel, Australian divinity, 5
Qat, Melanesian object of prayer, 184
Relationship by generations, 90;
Mr. Morgan’s theory, 93
Relationship constituted by local contiguity, Mr. Atkinson on, 289
Relationship terms, origin of, 102;
difference of meaning between savage and civilised, 102;
family and tribal significance, 103;
express status, 129
Relationships, Lord Avebury on, 128
Relationships, Arunta, which preclude marriage, 88;
curious distinctions, 88
‘Religion,’ Mr. Crawley’s definition of, 23
Reverence for totems, nyarongs, and naguals, 186
Ridley, Rev. W., and Australian exogamous phratries, 37
Robertson, Mr. Duncan, on group sobriquets in Orkney, 296
Roman traditions as to tribal origin, 8
Roth, Dr., and Australian native customs, 6 n;
on the evolution of classes, 114
Rusden, Mr., on the Hunter River totems, 148
Sacred animals in savage society, 131
Sacrifices, Melanesian, 183
Samoan ‘totem gods,’ 137
Sarawak, nyarongs in, 153
‘Second master,’ Urabunna wife’s, 104;
not a survival of communal marriage, 105
Selwyn, Bishop, quoted as to Melanesian ghost-worship, 182
Sex protector, Australian, 144
Sex totem, killing a, 146
Sexes mutually dangerous, savage beliefs, 19, 24
Sexual family relations common to all animals, 224
Sexual functions, modification of, Mr. Atkinson on, 227
Sexual jealousy, Mr. Atkinson on, 220, 272, 276
Sexual jealousy the pause of exogamous marriage, 18
Siouan gentes, Mr. Dorsey on, 172
Siouan gentes, names of, 295; probably totemic, 175
Siouan tribes, 11
Smith, Mr. Robertson, and totemism, 17;
on prohibited marriages, 27
Sobriquets, English village, 295;
Siouan, 295; Orkney and Shetland, 296;
Ancient Jewish, 300
Social changes the result of sexual jealousy, Mr. Atkinson on, 272
Social rules, growth of, in the tribe, 107
Social system of Melanesia, 176
Solomon Islands, no division into kindreds, 178;
exogamous groups, 179
Son-in-law, customs concerning, 272, 273, 275
Spencer, Mr., on the origin of totemism, 60, 142;
on exogamous groups in the Arunta tribe, 61;
his reason for their introduction, 62;
inconclusive statements, 62;
his latest hypothesis regarding totemism, 68
Spencer and Gillen on aboriginal jealousy, 9;
on totem groups, 15 n, 16;
on Urabunna descent, 20;
and the Arunta marriage ceremony, 24;
on the class system in Australia, 37;
on changes of tribal custom, 67;
and ‘communal marriage,’ 69;
on Arunta totem eating, 73;
on Arunta marital relations, 74;
on totems and phratries, 74;
on Arunta legends, 76, 77;
on marriage regulations, 78;
on tribal and individual relationships, 89;
on terms of relationship, 95;
on ‘classificatory’ terms, 100;
on Urabunna customs, 101;
on totem origin, 141;
on brother-and-sister ‘avoidance,’ 216;
on Australian group marriage, 293
State, origin of the, Sir H. Maine on, 7
Status implied by relationship terms, 101
‘Stealthy’ intercourse preliminary to marriage, 265
Supremacy of women, supposed period of, 9
Sutherland crest, 163
Tankerville, Lord, on the Chillingham Park bulls, 222
Terminology, the author’s, 37 n; Mr. Fison’s, 38 n
Terminology, confusing, 10, 44, 126, 130
Terms of relationship, Mr. Morgan on, 93;
origin of, 102;
family and tribal significance, 103
Thlinket ideas of totems, 139
Thomas, Mr. N. W., on totemism, 148
Totem, restricted meaning of the word, 133;
original word doubtful, 135;
cult, the, 136;
origin probably not religious, 137
Totem alliance, Mr. Jevons on, 134
Totem eating, Arunta, 71
Totem group names, folk-lore illustrative of, 169,
Totem groups, local, 15;
heterogeneous, 30;
Mr. Morgan on the origin of, 92
Totem groups and magic, Arunta, 196, 198
Totem groups and phratries, relative antiquity, 35
Totem influence among the Arunta, 61
Totem kindreds, 10, 12
Totem name a bar to marriage, 16;
liable to change, 48;
origin forgotten, 184;
implies blood kinship, 193
Totem prohibition of tribal marriage, 35
Totemic divisions of the Arunta, 83
Totemic influence on the Keddies’ marriage customs, 287
Totemic myths, ancient Greek and Egyptian, 201
Totemic rules differ from civilised marriage laws, 87
Totemic system and exogamy, 80
Totemism, Lord Avebury on, 122
Totemism among the Arunta, 68
Totemism and exogamy, 16
Totemism dying in Melanesia, 184
Totemism, group, exogamous, the author’s conjecture, 161
Totemism, origin of, 14, 131;
theories regarding, 49, 50;
Mr. Spencer on, 60
Totems and phratries, relations of, 74
Totems, classification of, by Mr. Frazer, 132
Totems, distribution of, in the ‘phratries,’ 55
Totems, Mr. Fison on the origin of, 45
Totems, original purpose of, Mr. Atkinson on, 282
Tout, Mr. Hill, on totem origin, 152
Tribal and individual relationship, 88
Tribal custom, Messrs. Spencer and Gillen on, 67
Tribal divisions totemic in origin, 54
Tribal heterogeneousness, 8
Tribe, origin of the, Sir H. Maine on, 7;
definition of the word, 11;
an aggregation, not a division, 98;
not a primitive institution, 103;
growth of social rules in the, 107
Turanian gentes, 92
Tylor, Mr., on exogamy and totemism, 17;
considers descent through female line the more archaic, 21;
his researches into laws of marriage and descent, 109;
on the word ‘totem,’ 131 n;
on Fijian and Samoan totemism, 137;
supports Dr. Wilken’s theory of totem origin, 150
Urabunna tribe of Central Australia, 1, 10; tribal divisions, 11;
marriage restrictions, 12; descent through the female line, 20,
69;
exogamous and totemic division, 54; intermarry with the Arunta,
69;
communal marriage among, 69; less developed than the Arunta, 75;
terms of relationship, 93; status implied by relationship terms,
101;
Spencer and Gillen on customs, 101; marriage laws, 104;
‘second masters’ of married women, 104; Piraungaru custom, 105
Veddahs, avoidance of father and daughter, 274; of mother and son,
274
Victoria, Northern, tribal tradition of, 64
Village names, ancient Hebrew, 300
Village sobriquets, English, 173, 295
Westermarck, Dr., on promiscuous sexual relationship, 9;
on the matriarchal theory, 20;
on ape etiquette, 25;
his theory of exogamy, 33;
on terms of relationship, 95;
on brother-and-sister avoidance, 240;
on Annamese and Hottentot relationships, 240;
on marriage by Rapture, 248
Western Australia totem, Sir George Grey on, 144
Wilken’s, Dr., theory of totemic origin, 150;
depends on the patriarchal theory, 151
Witchetty Grub, Australian totem, 170
Woeworung, the, 41; myths, 66, 139, 159, 163
Women, supremacy of, supposed period of, 9
Women, dominion of, 20
Yakuts, avoidance among the, 275
Zapotecs and their tona, 144
Zulu superstition, 136, 143