The most striking and significant social facts discovered among the
Seri relate to marriage customs.
As noted repeatedly elsewhere, the tribal population is preponderantly
feminine, so that polygyny naturally prevails; the number of wives
reaches three or possibly four, averaging about two, though the
younger warriors commonly have but one, and there are always a number
of spouseless (widowed) dames but no single men of marriageable age.
So far as could be ascertained, no special formalities attend the
taking of supernumerary wives, who are usually widowed sisters of the
first spouse; it seems to be practically a family affair, governed by
considerations of convenience rather than established regulations—an
irregularity combining with other facts to suggest that polygyny is
incidental, and perhaps of comparatively recent origin.
The primary mating of the Seri is attended by observances so elaborate
as to show that marriage is one of the profoundest sacraments of the
tribe, penetrating the innermost recesses of tribal thought, and
interwoven with the essential fibers of tribal existence. Few if any
other peoples devote such anxious care to their mating as do the
Seri;[319] and among no other known tribe or folk is the moral aspect
of conjugal union so rigorously guarded by collective action and
individual devotion.
[319] Perhaps the closest parallel in this respect is that found in
the elaborate marriage regulations prevailing among the Australian
aborigines, as described by Spencer and Gillen, Walter E. Roth, and
other modern observers.
The initial movement toward formal marriage seems to be somewhat
indefinite (or perhaps, rather, spontaneous); according to Mashém it
may be made either by the prospective groom or else by his father,
though not directly by the maiden or her kinswomen. In any event
the prerequisites for the union are provisionally determined in the
suitor’s family; these relate to the suitability of age, the propriety
of the clan relation, etc.; for no stripling may seriously contemplate
matrimony until he has entered manhood (apparently corresponding with
the warrior class), nor can he mate in his own totem, though all other
clans of the tribe are apparently open to him; while the maiden must
have passed (apparently by a considerable time) her puberty feast. In
any event, too, the proposal is formally conveyed by the elderwoman
of the suitor’s family to the maiden’s clanmother, when it is duly
pondered, first by this dame and her daughter matrons; and later
(if the proposal is entertained) it is deliberated and discussed at
length by the matrons of the two clans involved, who commonly hold
repeated councils for the purpose. At an undetermined stage and to
an undetermined degree the maiden herself is consulted; certainly
she holds the power of veto, ostensible if not actual. Pending the
deliberations the maiden receives special consideration and enjoys
various dignities; if circumstances favor, her kinswomen erect a jacal
for her; and even if circumstances are adverse, she is outfitted with a
pelican robe of six or eight pelts and other matronly requisites. When
all parties concerned are eventually satisfied a probationary marriage
is arranged, and the groom leaves his clan and attaches himself to
that of the bride. Two essential conditions—one of material character
and the other moral—are involved in this probationary union; in the
first place, the groom must become the provider for, and the protector
of, the entire family of the bride, including the dependent children
and such cripples and invalids as may be tolerated by the tribe—i.
e., he must display and exercise skill in turtle-fishing, strength
in the chase, subtlety in warfare, and all other physical qualities
of competent manhood. This relation, with the attendant obligations,
holds for a year, i. e., a round of the seasons. During the same
period the groom shares the jacal and sleeping robe provided for the
prospective matron by her kinswomen, not as privileged spouse, but
merely as a protecting companion; and throughout this probationary
term he is compelled to maintain continence—i. e., he must display the
most indubitable proofs of moral force. During this period the always
dignified position occupied by the daughter of the family culminates;
she is the observed of all observers, the subject of gossip among
matrons and warriors alike, the recipient of frequent tokens from
designing sisters with an eye to shares of her spouse’s spoils, and
the receiver of material supplies measuring the competence of the
would-be husband; through his energy she is enabled to dispense largess
with lavish hand, and thus to dignify her clan and honor her spouse
in the most effective way known to primitive life; and at the same
time she enjoys the immeasurable moral stimulus of realizing that she
is the arbiter of the fate of a man who becomes warrior or outcast at
her bidding, and through him of the future of two clans—i. e., she is
raised to a responsibility in both personal and tribal affairs which,
albeit temporary, is hardly lower than that of the warrior-chief. In
tribal theory the moral test measures the character of the man; in
very fact, it at the same time both measures and makes the character
of the woman. Among other privileges bestowed on the bride during
the probationary period are those of receiving the most intimate
attentions from the clanfellows of the groom; and these are noteworthy
as suggestions of a vestigial polyandry or adelphogamy. At the close of
the year the probation ends in a feast provided by the probationer, who
thereupon enters the bride’s jacal as a perpetual guest of unlimited
personal privileges (subject to tribal custom); while the bride passes
from a half-wanton heyday into the duller routine of matronly existence.
These details were elicited at Costa Rica in 1894 through methodical
inquiries made in connection with the linguistic collection. This
collection was made with the cooperation of Señor Alvemar-Leon as
Spanish-English interpreter, together with Mashém and (commonly) the
clanmother known as Juana Maria. Usually quite a group of Seri matrons
with two or three warriors were gathered about, and to these Mashém
frequently appealed for advice and verification, while they constantly
expressed approval or disapproval of questions and replies, as gathered
through Mashém’s words and mien, in such manner as to afford a fair
index of their habitual thought—e. g., when the Seri vernacular
for “twins” was obtained and the inquiry was extended (by normal
association of ideas) to the term for “triplets”, Mashém collapsed into
moody silence while the rest of the group decamped incontinently with
horror-stricken countenances—thereby suggesting cautious subsequent
inquiry, and the discovery that triplets are deemed evil monsters
and their production a capital crime. It was in one of the earlier
conferences that the first intimations concerning the unusual marital
customs were incidentally brought out; the Caucasian interpreter and
bystanders were diverted by the naive reference to the moral test,
but their expressions were hastily checked lest the native informants
might be startled and rendered secretive; then, during two later
conferences, when Mashém and several matrons were freely participating
in the proceedings, the line of inquiry was so turned as to touch on
various aspects of the marriage custom and bring out all essential
features; so that much confidence is reposed in the accuracy of the
details.[320] The confidence in the verity of the customs was such as
not to be impaired seriously by the fact that no records of coincident
moral tests were known in the voluminous literature of marriage and its
concomitants; nor was it shaken by the still weightier fact that none
of the experienced ethnologists to whom inquiries were addressed during
ensuing months were acquainted with parallel customs—indeed the only
shadow of corroboration thus obtained came in the form of references to
the widespread requirement of continence in war and ceremonies, and to
an affectation of self-restraint for a moon on the part of Zuñi grooms
noted by Frank Hamilton Cushing. Accordingly the facts were announced
in a preliminary paper,[321] and were shown to stand in such relation
to the marital customs of other aboriginal tribes as practically to
demonstrate their validity, and at the same time to locate the Seri
customs on a lower plane of cultural development than any hitherto
definitely recognized.
[320] It may be observed that Kolusio, when visited in January, 1896,
failed to corroborate the descriptions of Mashém and the matrons; but
his failure occasioned little surprise for the reason that he has not
lived with his tribe since early boyhood, and is equally uninformed (or
uncommunicative) concerning the myths, ceremonies, and even the totems
of the tribe.
[321] The Beginning of Marriage, American Anthropologist, vol. IX,
1896, pp. 371-383.
Happily, subsequent researches have resulted in the discovery of
records corroborative of the primitive customs observed by the Seri,
and also of the assignment of serial place to these customs. The most
specific record is that of John Giles (or Gyles), who spent his youth
as a captive among the northeastern Algonquian Indians (probably the
Maliseet or some closely related Abnaki tribe), from August 2, 1689,
to June 28, 1698. Referring to the marital customs of the tribe, he
observed:
If parents have a daughter marriageable, they seek a husband
for her who is a good hunter. If she has been educated to make
_monoodah_ (Indian bags), birch dishes, to lace snowshoes, make
Indian shoes, string wampum belts, sew birch canoes, and boil
the kettle, she is esteemed a lady of fine accomplishments. If
the man sought out for her husband have a gun and ammunition,
a canoe, a spear, a hatchet, a monoodah, a crooked knife,
looking-glass and paint, a pipe, tobacco, and knot-bowl to toss
a kind of dice in, he is accounted a gentleman of a plentiful
fortune. Whatever the new married man procures the first year
belongs to his wife’s parents. If the young pair have a child
within a year and nine months, they are thought to be very
forward and libidinous persons.[322]
[322] Memoirs of Odd Adventures, Strange Deliverances, etc. in
the Captivity of John Giles, Esq., Commander of the Garrison on
Saint George river, in the District of Maine. Written by Himself.
Originally published at Boston, 1736. Printed for William Dodge.
Cincinnati: Spiller & Gates, printers, 168 Vine street. 1869.—P.
45.
This record is of peculiar interest in that it definitely specifies
a custom corresponding with the material test of the Seri, and
unmistakably implies the existence, at least in vestigial or
sentimental form, of a custom corresponding with the moral test of
Seriland; and it is particularly noteworthy as coming from a remote
tribe occupying a distant part of the continent.
A somewhat less specific corroboration is found in Lawson’s account of
the Carolina tribes. He observes:
When any young Indian has a mind for such a girl to his wife,
he, or some one for him, goes to the young woman’s parents,
if living; if not, to her nearest relations, where they make
offers of the match betwixt the couple. The relations reply,
they will consider of it; which serves for a sufficient answer,
till there be a second meeting about the marriage, which is
generally brought into debate before all the relations, that
are old people, on both sides, and sometimes the king, with all
his great men, give their opinions therein. If it be agreed on,
and the young woman approve thereof, for these savages never
give their children in marriage without their own consent, the
man pays so much for his wife; and the handsomer she is the
greater price she bears. Now, it often happens that the man
has not so much of their money ready as he is to pay for his
wife; but if they know him to be a good hunter, and that he can
raise the sum agreed for, in some few moons, or any little
time they agree, she shall go along with him as betrothed, but
he is not to have any knowledge of her till the utmost payment
is discharged; all which is punctually observed. Thus they lie
together under one covering for several months, and the woman
remains the same as she was when she first came to him.[323]
[323] The History of Carolina, etc., by John Lawson (1714), reprint of
1860, pp. 302-303. Attention was called to this passage by Mr James
Mooney.
This record also is peculiarly pertinent, partly in that it practically
corroborates the Seri testimony, but chiefly in that it indicates
definite transition toward a higher culture-plane in which the
primitive material test is at least partially replaced by a commutation
in goods or their equivalents.
* * * * *
On reducing the marital customs of the Seri to conventional terms,
the more prominent features are found to be (1) strict clan exogamy
and (2) absolute tribal endogamy, together with (3) theoretical or
constructive monogamy, coupled with (4) vague traces of polyandry, and
(5) an apparently superficial polygyny, as well as (6) total absence of
purchase or capture of either spouse.
On reviewing the customs in the light of their influence on the
everyday life of the tribe, certain features stand out conspicuously:
(1) Perhaps the most striking feature is the collective character of
the function; for while the movement originates in personal inclination
on the part of the suitor and is shaped by personal inclination on
the part of the maiden, all manifestations of inclination are open
and public (at least to the elders of the two clans involved), while
the personal sentiments on both sides are completely subordinated to
the public interests of clans and tribe as weighed and decided by the
matronly lawgivers and adelphiarchal administratives. Thus neither
man nor maid mates for thonself, but both love and move in the tribal
interests and along the lines laid down by the tribal leaders. (2)
As a corollary or a complement (according to the viewpoint) to the
collectivity of the mating, the next most striking feature is the
formal or legal aspect of the union; for the entire affair, from
inception to consummation, is rigorously regulated by precedents
and usages handed down from an immemorial past. Thus the roots of
young affection are not destroyed but rather cultivated, though the
burgeoning vine and the outreaching tendrils are trained to a social
structure shaped in ages gone and kept in the olden form by unbroken
tradition. (3) A collateral feature of the customs is the necessary
reaction of the requirements on individual character of both groom
and bride; for the would-be warrior-spouse is compelled to display
high qualities of physical and moral manhood on pain of ostracism
and outlawry, so that his passions of ambition and affection are at
once stimulated to the highest degree, while the maiden’s pride of
blood and possession and her sense of regnant responsibility are
fostered to the utmost. The brief preliminary courtship and the long
probationary mating mark an era of intensification in two lives at
their most impressionable stage; and if there be aught in the simple
yet puissant law of conjugal conation—that law whose motive underlies
the world’s song and story and all the pulsing progress of mankind as
the inspiration of most men’s work and most women’s hopes—the vital
intensity of this era passes down the line of blood-descent to the
betterment of later generations. (4) Another collateral feature is the
necessary reaction on clan and tribe; for not only does the individual
character-making raise the average physique and morale of the group,
but the carefully studied restraint of excessive individuality serves
to strengthen still further the tribal bonds and to lift still higher
the racial bar against aliens. The blackest crime in the Seri calendar
is the toleration of alien blood; and no more effective device could be
found for keeping alive the race-sense on which this canon depends than
that virtually sacramental surveillance of sexual intimacy which Seri
usage requires.[324]
[324] The remarkable race-sense of the tribe, with the conjugal
conation in which it seems to root, are discussed ante, pp. 160*-163*.
There is nothing to indicate, and much to contraindicate, that the
Seri are consciously engaged in stirpiculture; yet their social and
fiducial devices would seem to be no less effective in developing
race-sense, with its concomitants, than were those of prehistoric men
in developing the physical attributes of animal associates, such as
the wool-bearing of the sheep, the egg-laying of the fowl, and the
milk-giving of the cow; or the still more striking mental attributes,
such as the servility of the horse, the fidelity of the dog, and the
domesticity of the cat. All these attributes are artificial, though
not consciously so to their producers, hardly even to modern users;
they are by-products of long-continued breeding and exercise, commonly
directed toward collateral ends (as when the horse was bred for
speed, the dog for hunting, and the fowl and cat for beauty); and,
similarly, the Seri race-sense would seem to be largely a by-product
of faith-shaped customs designed primarily to propitiate or invoke
mystical potencies—yet the collateral effect is not diminished because
overlooked in the primary motive.
* * * * *
On scanning the conventional classifications of human marriage in the
light of the Seri customs, it becomes clear that these customs define
a plane not hitherto recognized observationally. For convenience, this
plane and the mode of marriage defining it may, in special allusion
to the correlative race-sense, be styled _ethnogamy_; and the more
systematic characters of this mode and plane of marriage may be
outlined briefly:
1. The most conspicuous character of ethnogamic union, as manifested
in the type tribe, is its absolute confinement to the consanguineal
group. The breach of this limitation is hardly conceivable in the
minds of the group, since aliens are not classed as human, nor even
dignified as animals of the kinds deified in their lowly faith, but
contemned as unclean and loathsome monsters; yet the infraction has a
sort of theoretical place at the head of their calendar as an utterly
intolerable crime. In respect to this character, ethnogamy corresponds
fairly with the endogamy of McLennan, Spencer, and others, i. e., with
the tribal endogamy of Powell.
2. A hardly less conspicuous character of ethnogamic union is the
formality, or legality, accompanying and reflecting the collective
nature of the function. In this respect ethnogamy is the direct
antithesis of that hypothetical promiscuity postulated by Morgan and
adopted by Spencer, Lubbock, Tylor, and others; and the customs of the
type tribe go farther, perhaps, than any other example in verifying
the alternative assumption of Westermarck that the course of conjugal
development is rather from monogamy toward promiscuity than in the
reverse direction.
3. A noteworthy character of ethnogamic union is the absence of
capture of either bride or groom. Any semblance of capture would
indeed be wholly incongruous with the rigid confinement of union to
members of the group: it would also be incongruous with the exceeding
formality and necessary amicability of both preliminary and concomitant
arrangements.
4. Another noteworthy character is the total absence of purchase on
either part. Although a material condition attends the union, it is
essentially a test of character, and is applied in such wise as to
dignify the feminine element rather than to degrade it like barbaric
wife-purchase; while any semblance of purchase would be incongruous
with the economic condition of a tribe practically destitute of
accumulated property or even of thrift-sense.
5. A significant character of ethnogamic union, as exemplified in the
type tribe, is the ceremonial or constructive monogamy. While there
are obscure (and presumptively vestigial) traces of polyandry or
adelphogamy, and while an informal polygyny is practiced by the chiefs
and older warriors, the formal matings are between one man and one
woman, and appear to be permanent.
Now, on comparing these characters with those revealed in the marital
customs of other tribes and peoples, they are found to betoken a
notably provincial and primitive culture-stage. Perhaps the nearest
American approach to the Seri customs is found among certain California
aborigines, notably the Yurok and Patawat tribes, who recognize the
institution of “half-marriage”;[325] but here the material test of
Seriland is replaced by purchase, while no trace of the moral test
is found (even as among the Carolina Indians, according to Lawson);
moreover, while these tribes discourage alien connections, they are
not absolutely eschewed and reprobated as among the Seri. Other
notably primitive customs, like those so fully described by Spencer
and Gillen, have been found among the Australian aborigines;[326]
but even here a part only of the marriages are regulated by amicable
convention, while others are effected by (1) charm, (2) capture,
and (3) elopement; and these collateral devices imply intertribal
relations of a kind incongruous with the ethnogamic habit and utterly
repugnant to the ethnogamic instinct. In both cases, accordingly, the
marital customs clearly imply (and actually accompany) a much more
highly differentiated socialry and economy than that of the Seri. The
same is true of that vestigial custom of the Scottish clans known
as handfasting, which is, moreover, a direct antithesis of the Seri
custom in that it carries a warrant for, rather than an abridgment of,
conjugal prerogatives; and the same might be said also of various
South American, African, and southeastern Asian customs.
[325] Contributions to North American Ethnology, vol. III, 1877 (Tribes
of California, by Stephen Powers), pp. 56, 98.
[326] The Native Tribes of Central Australia, 1899, pp. 554-560 and
elsewhere.
Certain representative North American customs have already been
seriated in connection with the Seri customs, and their relations
are of sufficient significance to warrant recapitulation. The series
begins with the maternally organized and practically propertyless Seri.
Next stand the Zuñi, with an essentially maternal organization, the
vestigial moral test of the groom noted by Cushing, and a concomitant
material test verging on purchase; so, too, monogamy persists, while
the function remains largely collective, and is regulated by the
elders, though the bride enjoys special prerogatives; and the fierce
tribal endogamy is relaxed, though clan exogamy is enforced. Measurably
similar to those of the Zuñi are the marital customs of the peaceful
Tarahumari tribe of northern Mexico and the once warlike Seneca tribe
of northeastern United States, although among both of these more
cosmopolitan peoples the regulations are less closely similar to the
Seri customs than are those of the Pueblo tribe named. Next in order of
marital differentiation stand the Kwakiutl and Salish tribes of British
Columbia, in which the social organization has practically passed
into the paternal stage; here the laws of monogamy, clan exogamy, and
tribal endogamy are materially relaxed, the moral test is lost among
the Kwakiutl and reduced to a curious vestige among the Salish, while
the material test is commuted into the making of expensive presents.
Still more remote from the initial stage is the marriage of the
paternally organized Omaha, among whom tribal endogamy is prevalent but
not absolute, while polygyny is customary; among whom the moral test
seems wholly obsolete, while the material test is completely replaced
by purchase (or at least by the interchange of expensive presents);
and among whom, concordantly, the feminine privileges are few and
the females are practically degraded to the rank of property of male
kindred or spouses. These several customs fall into a natural order
or series definitely coordinated with the esthetic, the industrial
or economic, and the general institutional or social conditions of
the respective tribes; and it is noteworthy that they mark successive
stages in that passage from the mechanical to the spontaneous which
characterizes demotic activity.[327]
[327] Cf. The Beginning of Marriage, op. cit. The conclusion from
the details discussed in this paper is as follows: “Summarizing the
tendencies revealed in this history, it would appear that the course of
evolution [of conjugal institutions] has been from the simple to the
complex, from the definite to the indefinite, from the general to the
special, from the fixed to the variable, from the involuntary to the
voluntary, from the mechanical to the spontaneous, from the provincial
to the cosmopolitan, or, in brief, from the chiefly biotic to the
wholly demotic” (p. 283).
In brief, ethnogamy, as exemplified by the type tribe, accompanies
that strictly maternal organization which marks the lowest known
stage of social development; it accompanies also a rudimentary
esthetic condition in which decorative symbols are restricted to the
expression of maternal relation; it accompanies, in like manner, an
inchoate economic condition characterized by absence of property and
thrift-sense; while its most essential concomitant is extratribal
antipathy too bitter to permit toleration of alien blood, or even of
alien presence save under the constraint of superior force.