the American ethnologist L. H. Morgan, who for many years lived among
the exogamic Indians as one of them, and thus came into direct contact
with exogamy. Morgan assumed that sexual promiscuity was general at a
very early period in the history of mankind, and that exogamy was
instituted for the deliberate purpose of preventing cohabitation between
blood relations, particularly between brothers and sisters, as was
previously customary. This struck promiscuity at the root; it removed
its worst peculiarity, and resulted at the same time in a powerful
movement towards the establishment of sexual monogamy.
Frazer, in supporting Morgan's theory, relies exclusively on the
Australian natives, who, according to him, though extremely primitive
savages, "carry out the principle of exogamy with a practical
astuteness, logical thoroughness, and precision such as no other race
shows in its marriage system."
Frazer finds that the effects of the Australian marriage class system
are in complete harmony with the deeply rooted convictions and feelings
of the natives as regards sexual intercourse, and concludes that the
successive tribal subdivisions have been brought about deliberately in
order to avoid marriage of blood relations. According to him, it is not
going too far to assert that "no other human institution bears the stamp
of deliberate purpose more clearly than the exogamous classes of the
Australians. To assume that they serve only accidentally the purpose
that they actually fulfil, and which is approved by them unreservedly,
would be to test our credulity nearly as much as if we were told that
the complicated mechanism of a watch has originated without human
design."
Nearly all Australian tribes have the system of division into marriage
classes. Every tribe consists of two main groups (called in
ethnographical literature phratries or moieties), and each of these
groups is again divided into two, four, or eight classes. Sometimes the
phratries and classes have special names, but not always. In the latter
case it may be assumed that the names have been lost, while the division
of the tribes into marriage groups remains. These groups are strictly
exogamous. In no case are the members of the main group of the tribe
(phratry) or of the same class allowed to marry each other. Only members
of two given classes may marry, and their children are again assigned to
given classes. Among some of the tribes there exists paternal descent,
among others maternal descent. Which of the two modes of descent
prevails in Australia can hardly be determined. Among some tribes
property is inherited in the female line. Other rights of the female sex
connected with mother descent are unknown. An example of the Australian
marriage classes is given here, namely, that of the tribe Warrai, who
live on the railway line running from Port Darwin to the south. Among
this tribe indirect paternal descent is the custom; _i.e._, the children
belong to the main group (phratry) of the father, but to other marriage
classes.
Phratry I. | Phratry II.
--------------+----------------
Adshumbitch | Apungerti
*Aldshambitch | *Alpungerti
--------------+----------------
Apularan | Auinmitch
*Alpularan | *Alinmitch
The female marriage classes are marked with an asterisk.
Each member of a certain male marriage class may only marry a member of
a marriage class of the other phratry, placed opposite in the table.
Thus, for instance, an Adshumbitch man marries an Alpungerti woman, an
Apungerti man an Aldshambitch woman, etc. The children always belong to
the phratry of the men, but to another marriage group of theirs. Thus,
for instance, the boys born from the union of an Adshumbitch man with an
Apungerti woman belong to the Apularan class, and the girls born of this
marriage belong to the Alpularan class. Further complications arise in
consequence of the totem system, which exists among most of the
Australian tribes. As the local groups of a tribe are numerically weak
and consist of members of all marriage classes, the choice of mates is
restricted to quite a small number of persons, being further limited to
a great extent by the marriage of girls in childhood. But even when
adults marry, they can rarely decide according to their own will, but
are dependent on the circumstances of relationship. On the northern
coast of Australia the marriage class system does not exist, but exogamy
exists there, the members of certain local groups not being allowed to
marry each other. The now extinct tribes in the south-east of the
continent also had no marriage class system.
But it still remains a mystery how it was found out that marriages of
blood relations were harmful. One objection is, that some of the
Australians are ignorant of the process of generation; they do not even
know that pregnancy is the result of cohabitation. It is also doubtful
whether the Australian natives can in any case be considered as typical
representatives of primitive man. If this were so, all mankind would
still be in a very low state of civilisation, for the Australians appear
incapable of progressive development. And further, if exogamous classes
were purposely instituted in order to prevent cohabitation between blood
relations, how is it that other people also are excluded from sexual
intercourse who are not blood relations? Frazer's comparison with a
watch is also badly chosen. We must take into consideration the
intellectual stage of development of mankind at the time when exogamy
arose, and when the watch was invented. Even if we do not admit that
exogamy was instituted with a conscious purpose, this does not by any
means, as Frazer says, do away altogether with will and purpose from the
history of human institutions. There is no need to doubt that the
Australian system of exogamy became more and more complicated through
the deliberate action of man.
Frazer himself assumes that the Australians had an aversion to
cohabitation between brothers and sisters even before it was definitely
fixed by binding rules. Sexual aversion between parents and children,
according to him, is universal among them, whether there be in vogue the
two-, four- or eight-classes system, _i.e._, whether incest between
parents and children is expressly forbidden or not. "In democratic
societies like those of the Australian natives, the law sanctions only
thoughts that have already been long the mental possession of the
majority of people." Hence the agreement of the marriage class system
with the feelings of the people becomes explainable.
Since the aversion to sexual intercourse within certain classes was
already in existence before the formation of marriage classes, the
classificatory system being merely the formal expression of it, we have
to find some explanation for it. For the appearance of this aversion
marks the real beginning of exogamy, which cannot be explained by the
complicated system of the Australians. It is possible that the sexual
aversion towards blood relations is already a characteristic trait of
the human race before its truly human development, and that it may have
to be looked upon as an instinct. This is the opinion of F. Hellwald,
which has also been upheld of late by A. E. Crawley. It is assumed that
among brothers and sisters, as among boys and girls who have lived
together from childhood, the pairing instinct generally remains in
abeyance, because the conditions are wanting that are likely to awaken
this instinct. Courting the favour of a person of the other sex is the
process that gradually brings about the sexual excitement necessary for
union. The possibility of sexual excitation between people who have
lived together from childhood is decidedly lessened through habituation,
if not completely inhibited. In this respect brothers and sisters reach
already at puberty that state towards each other to which people married
for a long time approach gradually, through the constant living
together and the exhaustion of youthful passion. If brother and sister
sometimes show passion for each other, it is generally the result of the
same circumstances that are necessary to arouse it under normal
conditions, _e.g._, a long separation. As the absence of sexual
attraction between brother and sister who have grown up together is a
natural thing, it is strange that cohabitation between them should have
to be specially prohibited and enforced by strict measures among
primitive peoples. The explanation, according to Crawley, is simple. "In
many departments of primitive life we find a naïve desire to, as it
were, assist Nature, to affirm what is normal and later to confirm it by
the categorical imperative of custom and law. This tendency still
flourishes in our civilised communities, and, as the worship of the
normal, is often a deadly foe to the abnormal and eccentric, and too
often paralyses originality. Laws thus made, and with this object, have
some justification, and their existence may be due, in some small
measure, to the fact that abnormality increases _pari passu_ with
culture. But it is a grave error to ascribe a prevalence of incest to
the period preceding the law against it." All the facts tend to show
that the most primitive people procured their wives by friendly
arrangements. From this standpoint it would be most practical if each
tribe were divided into two groups, the men of each group marrying wives
from the other group. This state of affairs is actually to be found
among many uncivilised peoples that are divided into two exogamous
groups or phratries. It has still to be discovered how this bipartition
arose. It is unthinkable that a division into two groups was
intentionally brought about by the members of the groups for the purpose
of preventing marriages between blood relations of a certain grade. No
tribe has ever been divided in such a manner; the division must
therefore be explainable in another way. The phratries are large
families (in the broad sense of the word); they descend from families
(in the narrower sense of the word), reciprocally supplying each other
with wives. The names of the phratries are generally unintelligible, in
contradistinction to the names of the totem groups, and therefore most
probably older. The totem groups, of which a phratry consists, are to be
considered as younger branches of the original double family, which have
arisen through wives being taken from other groups whose children again
received the name of their mothers. If it should be asked why the
members of two phratries should constantly intermarry, it should be
pointed out that among communities in the lowest stage of civilisation
women are not easily procurable, and the force of external circumstances
would favour the unions just mentioned (Crawley, pp. 54 _et seq._).
A biological explanation of the origin of exogamy is given by Herbert
Risley. Without basing it on the assumption that primitive people have a
knowledge of the harmfulness of incest, he gives the following
exposition: "Exogamy can be brought under the law of natural selection
without extending it too far. We know that among individuals or groups
of individuals there exists a tendency to vary in their instincts, and
that useful variations (such as are suitable to the conditions of life)
tend to be preserved and transmitted by inheritance. Let us assume now
that in a primitive community the men varied in the direction towards
choosing wives from another community, and that this infusion of fresh
blood was advantageous. The original instinct would then be strengthened
by inheritance, and sexual selection would be added in the course of
time. For an exogamous group would have a greater choice of women than
an endogamous one, ... and in the competition for women the best would
fall to the strongest and most warlike men. In this way the strengthened
exogamous groups would in time exterminate the endogamous neighbours, or
at least take away their best marriageable maidens. Exogamy would spread
partly through imitation, partly through the extermination of endogamous
groups. The fact that we cannot explain how it came about that the
people varied in the aforesaid direction is not fatal to this
hypothesis. We do not doubt natural selection in the case of animals
because we cannot give the exact cause of a favourable variation."
E. Westermarck holds a similar theory about the cessation of incest. He
thinks that "among the ancestors of man, as among other animals, there
was, no doubt, a time when blood relationship was no bar to sexual
intercourse. But variations here, as elsewhere, would naturally present
themselves; and those of our ancestors who avoided in-and-in breeding
would survive, while the others would gradually decay and ultimately
perish. Thus an instinct would be developed which would be powerful
enough, as a rule, to prevent injurious unions. Of course it would
display itself simply as an aversion on the part of individuals to union
with others with whom they lived; but these, as a matter of fact, would
be blood relations, so that the result would be the survival of the
fittest. Whether man inherited the feeling from the predecessors from
whom he sprang, or whether it was developed after the evolution of
distinctly human qualities, we do not know. It must necessarily have
arisen at a stage when family ties became comparatively strong, and
children remained with their parents until the age of puberty or even
longer."
It may be surmised that the impulse towards the appearance of the
exogamous tendency arose through economic progress, which led to an
increase of the means of existence, and this in its turn produced a more
friendly relationship between neighbouring groups that previously had
quarrelled about food. The men thus came into contact with strange
women, and this awakened a heightened sexual feeling, in other words the
instinct which is said to have led to the avoidance of incest. Thus
among the peoples on a very low economic level (_e.g._, the Pigmies) no
laws for the prevention of incest are to be found, a fact that may be
held to confirm this idea. Primitive people could in any case not
understand the harmfulness of incest, while it is certain that strange
members of the opposite sex could exert a stronger attraction, and thus
render the sexual impulse permanent, which previously was periodical, as
among the animals.
V
BIRTH AND FETICIDE
The slow increase in the population of primitive peoples, which is also
to be noticed wherever the conditions of life have not been influenced
by European settlers and missionaries, is chiefly due to the want of
proper midwifery, and no less to the frequent practice of abortion. The
opinion is often met with, particularly in older writings, that among
primitive people childbirth is extremely easy. But more extended
knowledge has shown how dangerous childbirth is for the primitive mother
also. Though childbirth is a natural physiological process, it does not
always pass off quite without danger, no less under natural conditions
than among highly civilised peoples. Primitive people know full well
that the hour of childbirth is the hardest time in a woman's life, but
not all have progressed far enough in the knowledge of physiology to be
able to render efficient assistance to the woman in labour. Some people
leave her, incredible as it may seem to us, without any assistance,
either through indifference to life or through a superstitious fear of
the mystery of life. Such cases are, however, very rare exceptions.
Sometimes means are used for furthering the birth that are not only
inefficacious, but actually injurious. Often, however, delivery is
actually furthered by the assistance given. Internal manipulation is
seldom resorted to, and operations are still more rare. R. W. Felkin's
report about the operation of Cæsarian section among the negroes in
Uganda seems to be unique. Ploss and Bartels have compiled a great deal
of information about childbirth among primitive people. We add here some
examples from the later literature.
Feticide occurs most likely among all primitive peoples to a larger or
lesser degree, and injures them accordingly. The reasons are the same as
with us: inability to support a large number of children or aversion to
the worries of child-rearing. Unmarried girls procure abortion usually
because the child might be a hindrance to a future marriage,
particularly when the father of the expected child jilts the mother.
Still pre-marital births are not always considered a disgrace among
primitive people. The abortives resorted to are generally inefficacious,
though some native peoples have discovered really effective remedies.
Külz (p. 18) says quite rightly, "It is to be assumed that woman
everywhere, even in a low state of civilisation, has her attention
directed to the occurrence of involuntary premature birth by often
recurring effective causes. Such external causes are not very remote
from the mechanically and medically produced abortions. We only need to
think of the fact that among all primitive peoples the chief work in the
fields falls to the women, and that it is just heavy labour that has the
tendency to interrupt pregnancy. It required only some little thought
to discover this frequently observed coincidence and to learn from the
involuntary interruption of pregnancy how to produce it voluntarily....
In the same way the production of abortions by poisons can easily be
derived from a rational application of chance remedies producing
corresponding involuntary effects.... Just as primitive man discovered
many medicinal plants by repeatedly partaking of them, so he also found
out the specific use of some of these for feticide. This could happen
the more readily as among abortive remedies in use there were many that
in a way served him as food and condiment, such as nutmeg, or the papaia
kernels, or others that he used at the same time for poisoning fish, or
others, again, like the aperient _Cajanus indicus_, which in moderate
doses acts medicinally, in large doses, however, as an abortive."
The use of poisons and mechanical feticide not only brings about
limitation of offspring, but often results in the death of the mother.
Where they are very prevalent they contribute greatly to the scarcity of
women, with all its attendant biological disadvantages. The contact of
primitive people with Europeans generally increases the frequency of
abortions. This is due partly to the desire for hiding the results of
sexual intercourse with strangers, partly to the incitement to loose
living which the acquaintance with European culture sometimes brings
about.
How defective the state of midwifery is among primitive people is shown
by many accounts in newer works of ethnology. Thus the missionary Endle
writes (p. 41): "The native tribes of Assam and Burma have no special
midwives. Every old woman may perform the duties of a midwife, and she
does it without payment. There is no information about the treatment of
the woman during parturition. The navel cord is generally cut off with a
bamboo knife. The Katshári do not perform this with one cut, but make
five cuts in the case of a boy and seven for a girl. The mother is
considered unclean for several weeks after her confinement. This is also
the case among many races of Southern and Eastern Asia, and in other
parts of the world. Isolation even before the confinement sometimes
occurs, and is due to the belief that women in this state are unclean."
Among the savage tribes of Formosa the birth of a child passes off so
lightly that the lying-in woman is able to go on with her work on the
following day. She only avoids heavy labour in the field for a month.
After the birth certain superstitious ceremonies, according to old
customs, are performed, such as driving away the devil, etc. Among many
tribes twins are held to be a misfortune, and the second child is
therefore killed. This also occurs frequently in other places (W.
Müller, p. 230).
Among the Igorots of Bontoc (Philippines) the woman works in the field
almost to the hour of her confinement. There are no festivities or
ceremonies connected with the birth. The father of the child, if he is
the husband of the woman, is present, as is also the woman's mother, but
no one else. The parturient woman bends her body strongly forward,
holding firmly on to the beam of the house, or she takes up an
animal-like position, so that hands and feet are on the ground.
Medicines and baths are not resorted to for hastening the labour pains,
but the people present massage the abdomen of the labouring woman. About
ten days after the birth her body is washed with warm water. There is no
special diet, but the mother refrains from field work for two or three
months. If twins are born, it is believed to be due to an evil spirit
who has had connection with the woman whilst she was asleep. No blame is
attached to the mother, but the quieter of the children (and when both
children are quiet, the longer one) is buried alive near the house
immediately after birth. Abortion is practised by married women as well
as by single girls, if for some reason the child is not wanted. The
mother warns her unmarried daughter against abortion, telling her that a
girl who produces abortion will not get a faithful husband, but will
become the common partner of several men. The foetus is driven off in
the second month of pregnancy by hot baths and massage. Abortion is not
considered a disgrace (Jenks).
Among the Kayan of Borneo there are everywhere older women who serve as
midwives. One of them is called in good time to the pregnant woman. She
examines her abdomen from time to time, and pretends to be able to give
the child the right position. She hangs some magical remedies about the
living room, and applies various remedies externally. The pregnant woman
follows her usual occupation until the labour pains commence. Then the
midwife and other old relatives or friends assist her. The husband may
also remain in the room, but he is prevented by a screen from seeing the
parturient woman, who gets hold tightly of a cloth hung over or in front
of her. The pains are generally of short duration, rarely lasting more
than two or three hours. In order to prevent the rising of the child,
the women bind a cloth tightly round the abdomen of the parturient
woman, and two of them press firmly on the womb on either side. After
the delivery of the child the navel cord is cut with a bamboo knife. If
the after-birth does not follow soon, the women become anxious; two of
them lift up the patient, and if that has no result, the navel cord is
fastened to an axe in order to prevent it from re-entering the body, and
presumably also to hasten the delivery of the after-birth. Internal
manipulations are not resorted to. The after-birth is buried. If the
child is born with a caul, the caul is dried, pounded into powder, and
used in later years as medicine for the child. If the labour pains are
exceptionally severe or long-lasting, or if an accident happens, the
news travels rapidly. Everybody is overcome by fear, as the death of a
parturient woman is particularly dreaded. The men and the boys take
flight. If death actually ensues, most of the men remain in hiding for
some time, and the corpse is quickly buried by old men and women who are
least afraid of death.
The pregnant women of the Punan of Borneo continue with their usual work
until the arrival of labour pains, and they resume it immediately after
the confinement. To assist delivery the body is tightly bound above the
womb. Nothing further is known about special help (Hose and McDougall,
II., pp. 154, 185).