PRIMAL LAW
BY
J. J. ATKINSON
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK AND BOMBAY
1903
TO
ANNABELLA ALLEYNE
Dear Annie,
As you first pointed out to me the facts which are the germ of my Theory of the Origin of Totemism, you are one cause of my share in this book. The other is affection for the memory of the author of 'Primal Law.'
Yours always,
A. LANG.
St. Andrews:
Feb. 13, 1903.
[INTRODUCTION]
The portion of this book called 'Primal Law' is the work of the late Mr. James Jasper Atkinson. Born in India, of Scottish parents (his mother being the paternal aunt of the present editor), Mr. Atkinson was educated (1857-1861) at Loretto School, then managed by Messrs. Langhome. While still young he settled on certain stations in New Caledonia bequeathed to him by his father, and, except for visits to Australia and a visit to England, he lived and died in the French colony. His ingenious mind was much exercised by the singular laws and customs of the natives of the New Caledonian Archipelago and the adjacent isles. These peoples have been little studied by competent European observers—that is, in New Caledonia. Mr. Atkinson wrote an account of native manners before he had any acquaintance with the works of modern anthropologists, such as Mr. Tylor, Mr. McLennan, Lord Avebury, and others. To these he later turned his attention; he joined the Anthropological Institute, and, in the course of study and observation, he discovered what he conceived to be the 'Primal Law' and origin of morality, as regards the family. In his last illness, in 1899, he was most kindly attended by Commander John Haggard, R.N., then Her Majesty's Consul in New Caledonia. Mr. Atkinson's mind, in his latest moments, was occupied by his anthropological speculations, and, through Mr. Haggard, he sent his MS. to his cousin and present editor. I have given to it the last cares which the author himself would have given had he lived. But I have also taken the opportunity to review, in the following pages, introductory to 'Primal Law,' the present state of the discussion as to the beginnings of the rules regulating marriage among savages.
The discussion is now nearly forty years old, if we date it from the appearance of Mr. J. F. McLennan's Primitive Marriage in 1865. Yet, in spite of the speculations of some and the explorations of other distinguished students, the main problems are still in dispute. Was marriage originally non-existent? Was promiscuity at first the rule, and, if so, what were the origins, motives, and methods of the most archaic prohibitions on primitive license? Did man live in 'hordes,' and did he bisect each 'horde' into exogamous and intermarrying moieties, and, if he did, what was his motive? Are the groups and kindreds commonly styled 'totemic' earlier or later than the division into a pair of moieties or 'phratries'? Do the totem-kins represent the results of an early form of exogamous custom, or are they additions to or consciously arranged subdivisions of the two exogamous moieties? Is a past of 'group marriage' or 'communal marriage' proved by the terms for human relationships employed by many backward races, and by survivals in manner and custom?
These are among the questions examined in the introductory chapters that may be read either before or after Mr. Atkinson's Primal Law. To him I am indebted for the conception of sexual jealousy as a powerful element in the evolution of exogamy.
Since my attention was first directed to these topics, I have felt that a clear and consistent working hypothesis of the origin of totemism was indispensable, and such an hypothesis, with a criticism of other extant theories, is here offered. Throughout I have attempted to elucidate and bring into uniformity the perplexing and confused special terms employed in the discussion. Here it should be explained that by 'marriage' in this work I mean permanent cohabitation of man and woman, sanctioned by tribal custom, and usually preceded by some rite or initiation which does not prelude to casual amours. By family or fire circle I mean the partners to this permanent cohabitation, their offspring, and such kinsfolk by blood or affinity as may be members of their camp. In the first sentence of the book I speak of the family as 'most ancient and most sacred,' and I do so deliberately. The primitive association described I take, with Mr. Darwin and Mr. Atkinson, to be 'most ancient,' and to be the germ of the historic family, which is 'most sacred.' But to 'sacred' when I apply the word to the primitive fire-circle I give no religious sense, such as the Greek hearth enjoyed under Hestia, youngest and oldest daughter of Zeus. I mean that the rules given to the primitive fire-circle by the sire were probably the earliest and the most stringent, though not yet sanctioned by a tabu or a goddess.
Such a small circle, and not a promiscuous horde or commune, I conceive, with Mr. Darwin and Mr. Atkinson, to have been the earliest form of human society.
The book deals only with the institutions of races certainly totemistic, and mainly with the Australian and North American tribes, which present totemism in the most archaic of its surviving forms. But little is said, and that tentatively, on the question as to whether or not the ancestors of the great civilised peoples, ancient and modern, have passed through the stage of totemic exogamy, as our evidence is weak and disputable. Too late for citation in the body of the book I read Mr. A. H. Keane's theory of the origin of totemism.[1]
Mr. Keane's theory is much akin to my own as it stood in Custom and Myth (1884) and to that of Garcilasso de la Vega, the oldest of all. Garcilasso (1540-1616), an Inca on the mother's side, describing the animal and plant worship of the low races in the Inca Empire, says 'they only thought of making one differ from another and each from all.'[2] But it may be that he had not totemism in his mind; the passage is not too explicit.
Mr. Keane says: 'And thus the family, the initial unit, segments into a number of clans, each distinguished by its totem, its name, its heraldic badge—which badge, becoming more and more venerated from age to age, acquires inherited privileges, becomes the object of endless superstitious practices, and is ultimately almost deified.... Its origin lies behind all strictly religious notions, and it was at first a mere device for distinguishing one individual from another, one family or clan group from another.[3] Thus among the Piaroas of the Orinoco below San Fernando de Atabapo the belief holds that the tapir, originally the totem of the clan, has become their ancestor, and that after death the spirit of every Piaroa passes into a tapir; hence they never hunt or eat this animal, and they also think all the surrounding tribes are in the same way each provided with their special animal fore-father. It is easy to see how such ideas tend to cluster round the clan[4] or family totem, at first a distinguishing badge, later a protecting or tutelar deity of Protean form. It should be remembered that the personal or family name precedes the totem, which grows out of it, as seen by the conditions still prevailing amongst the very lowest peoples (Fuegians, Papuans of Torres Strait[5]).'
I am indebted in various ways to assistance, chiefly in the interchange of ideas, from Mr. A. C. Haddon, Mr. G. L. Gomme, Miss Burne, and Mr. A. E. Crawley, author of The Mystic Rose. Mr. Crawley kindly read the book, or most of it, before publication, and collaborated most efficiently in the way of suggesting objections. It is not implied that any of these students accept the ideas of the two authors. I regret that it has been found impossible to wait for the publication of a new book by Mr. A. W. Howitt, from which we may expect much new information.
The question of the relations of religion and totemism is scarcely touched on in this work. A certain amount of regard is given to their totem animals and plants by some of the Australian tribes, to the extent of not killing, plucking, or eating them, except under stress of need, but even this is not universal. There also exists, in some cases, a sense of kinship with them. They are not worshipped. That magic is worked for their preservation and propagation, as by the Arunta, proves nothing in the nature of a religious attitude towards them. In my opinion this religious regard for the totem does not appear till ancestor worship, which does not occur in Australia, has made considerable advance and a myth arises that an ancestral spirit or family god is incarnate in the animal which originally was only a totem. If so, totemism is not an element in the origins of religion, but a field later invaded by religion.
On the other hand, Dr. Achelis, of Bremen, writes that to savage man 'animals are his equals. To the ancient worship of animals is added, under the influence of sympathetic emotion, the worship of ancestors and totemism, which sees in a beast worshipped as a god the ancestor of the whole tribe.'[6] Clearly this sentence is replete with errors and confusions. The whole tribe, in Australia, does not regard any animal as its ancestor. No beast is worshipped as a god. No ancestors are worshipped. If the animals are 'his equals,' why did man worship them, and that apparently before the worship of ancestors and totemism arose? In an essay like that of Dr. Achelis on Ethnology and Religion the facts ought to be correctly ascertained.
I have been obliged to place in Appendix A certain facts about group names derived from animals which came late to hand, among them Mr. Robertson's interesting letter on many such names in the Orkneys, and some remarks on village names derived from animals among the ancient Hebrews.
[1] Man, Past and Present, Cambridge, 1899, pp. 396, 397.
[2] Royal Commentaries, i. 47.
[3] The Import of the Totem, Amer. Ass., Detroit, 1897.
[4] M. Chaffanjon, Tour du Monde, 1888, lvi. 348.
[5] Ethnology, pp. 9, 11.
[6] The International Quarterly, Dec.-March, 1902-1903, p. 321.
[CONTENTS]
[THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE FAMILY]
[The family. Theory of Mr. Atkinson]—[Primitiveness in man]—[Recent history of the speculation as to the early human family]—[What is exogamy? Difficulties of terminology]—[Totemism and exogamy]—[Theories of exogamy. Mr. McLellan's theory]—[Mr. Crawley's theory]—[Dr. Westermarck's theory]—[Mr. Morgan's theory]—[Return to the author's theory]
CHAPTER II
[The class system in Australia]—[The varieties of marriage divisions in Australia]—[Mr. Fison on the great bisection]—['Primary classes?']—[The 'primary divisions' are themselves totemic and exogamous]—[The totem difficulty]
CHAPTER III
[American support of the author's hypothesis]—[Deliberate arrangement]—[Totems all the way]—[Distribution of totems in the 'phratries']—[The ideas of Mr. Frazer. His earlier theory]—[Objections to Mr. Frazer's early theory]—[Mr. Spencer's theories of the bisection]—[Advantages of the system here proposed]—[The Arunta]—[Arunta metaphysics]—[Arunta totem eating and traditions]—[Dr. Durkheim on the Arunta]—[The relations of totems and 'phratries' among the Arunta]—[Arunta myths]—[Mr. Spencer on Arunta legends]
CHAPTER IV
[Views of Dr. Durkheim]—[How did the Aranta anomaly arise?]
CHAPTER V
['Group marriage']—[Mr. Morgan and the class system]—[Difficulties of Mr. Morgan's theory]—[Mr. Morgan on terms of relationship]—[How the terms of relationship originally arose]—[Supposed survivals of group marriage]—[Piraungaru and piraura]—[Growth of social rules in the tribe]—[Group marriage and Mr. Tylor's statistics]
CHAPTER VI
[THE CHANGE OF CLASS AMONG THE NEW GENERATION]
[The system of Herr Cunow]—[Classes again]
CHAPTER VII
[Lord Avebury on totemism]—[Lord Avebury on the origin of totemism] —[Communal marriage]—[Lord Avebury on relationships]
CHAPTER VIII
[THE ORIGIN OF TOTEM NAMES AND BELIEFS]
[Sacred animals in savage society]—[Proposed restriction of the use of the word 'totem']—[The word 'totem']—[The totem 'cult']—['Totem gods']—[Savage speculations as to the origin of totemism]—[Modern theories]—[Mr. Max Müller's theory]—[The theory of Mr. Herbert Spencer]—[Mr. Frazer's theories]—[Suggestion of Mr. N. W. Thomas]—[Dr. Wilken's theory]—[Miss Alice Fletcher's theory]—[Mr. Hill Tout's theory]—[Messrs. Hose and McDougall]—[Mr. Haddon's theory]—[An objection to all the theories enumerated]—[Statement of the problem]—[The author's own conjecture]—[The connection between groups and totems]—[No 'disease of language']—[Hypothetical early groups before totemism]—[How the groups got names]—[Illustration from folk-lore]—[How the names became known]—[Totemic and other group names. English and North American Indian]— [Theory that Siouan gentes names are of European origin]
CHAPTER IX
[How the origin of totem names was forgotten]—[Other sources of sacredness in plants and animals]—[Recapitulation]—[An objection answered]—[Other objections answered]—[Totems and magical societies]—[Totem survivals]—[Did the ancestors of the civilised races pass through the Australian stage?]
PRIMAL LAW
CHAPTER I
Mr. Darwin on the primitive relations of the sexes—Primitive man monogamous or polygamous—His jealousy—Expulsion of young males—The author's inferences as to the evolution of Primal Law—A customary rule of conduct evolved—Traces surviving in savage life—The customs of avoidance—Custom of exogamy arose in the animal stage—Brother and sister avoidance—The author's own observation of this custom in New Caledonia—Strangeness of such a custom among houseless nomads in Australia—Rapid decay under European influences
CHAPTER II
Brother and sister avoidance, a partial usage among the higher mammals—Males' attitude to females in a group dominated by a single male head—Band of exiled young males—Their relations to the sire—Examples in cattle and horses—In game-fowl—Strict localisation of animals—Exiled young males hover on the fringe of the parent group—Parricide
CHAPTER III
Effect of the absence of a special pairing season on nascent man—Consequent state of ceaseless war between sire and young males —Man already more than an ape—Results of his prolonged infancy and of maternal love—A young male permitted to live in the parent group—Conditions in which this novelty arose
CHAPTER IV
Truce between semi-human sire and son—Consequent distinction taken between female and female, as such—Consequent rise of habit of brother and sister avoidance—Result, son seeks female mate from without—Note by the editor
CHAPTER V
Results in strengthening the groups which admit several adult males—Disappearance of hostile band of exiled young males—Relations of sire and female mates of young males now within the group—Father-in-law and daughter-in-law avoidance—Rights as between two generations—Elder brother and younger brother's wife avoidances—Note on hostile capture
CHAPTER VI
Resemblance of semi-brutal group, at this stage, to actual savage tribe—Resemblance merely superficial—In this hypothetical semi-brutal group paternal incest survives—Causes of its decline and extinction—The sire's widows of the group—Arrival of outside suitors for them—Brothers of wives of the group—New comers barred from marital rights over their daughters—Jealousy of their wives intervenes—Value of sisters to be bartered for sisters of another group discovered—Consequent resistance to incest of group sire—Natural selection favours groups where resistance is successful—Cousinage recognised in practice—Intermarrying sets of cousins become phratries—Exceptional cases of permitted incest in chiefs and kings—No known trace of avoidance between father and daughter—Progress had rendered such law superfluous
CHAPTER VII
[TRACES OF PERIOD OF TRANSITION AVOIDANCES]
Survivals in custom testify to a long period of transition from group to tribe—Stealthy meetings of husband and wife—Examples—Evidence to a past of jealousy of incestuous group sire—Evidence from teknonymy—Husband named as father of his child—Formal capture as a symbol of legal marriage—Avoidance between father-in-law and son-in-law—Arose in stage of transition—Causes of mother-in-law and son-in-law avoidance—Influence of jealousy—Examples—Mr. Tylor's statistics—Resentment of capture not primal cause of this avoidance—Note on avoidance.
CHAPTER VIII
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'
A.—ENGLISH, ORCADIAN, AND HEBREW VILLAGE SOBRIQUETS
B.—THE BA RONGA TERMS OF RELATIONSHIP