A series of facts was adduced in order to prove that the individual relationship between husband and wife is unquestionably affirmed in the collective ideas of the natives. These facts, chiefly connected with the modes of obtaining wives (also with burial and mourning), implied even more detailed ideas: the affirmation that the husband has a series of individual rights and duties in regard to his wife; in other words that there is a mutual personal appropriation of husband and wife.
From some of the details as to the modes of obtaining wives the idea of individual appropriation can be clearly gathered. The family disposes of the female and benefits thereby; the disposal is effected in infancy, so it appears that the majority of females are always allotted. The individual appropriation is, so to say, a permanent status, extending not only to the married women, but to all females in the tribe. Only a man deeply in love, or impelled by some other desperate reason, attempts to elope with a female or to capture one. This always constitutes a crime, and is either punished or atoned for. Nevertheless, elopement occurs pretty often and has its fixed forms of legalization. This state of things obviously expresses the idea of individual appropriation in the strongest and most certain manner. Individual appropriation is further expressed in a whole system of ties binding the families of the two contracting parties, and especially binding the man to his (future or actual) parents-in-law. In this latter case the ties consist in the first place of obligations, chiefly gifts and the duty of supplying game. These obligations and the widespread custom of exchange of females appear to be a rudimentary form of marriage by purchase. Hence, again, a confirmation that individual marital rights are well known and acknowledged. Marriage by purchase implies a fair knowledge of individual appropriation, and shows that it is highly valued in a given society. In Australia the "bride money" is paid by an individual, not by a group. We find evidence of a number of betrothal and marriage ceremonies which carry in themselves binding powers. Such ceremonies mean that the underlying ideas are deeply rooted in the society where the ceremonies are found. In this case, the underlying ideas are that man and wife are firmly bound to each other by the ceremony. All these facts appear very important. Not only do they indicate that the ideas of the legality or illegality of the marriage contract—those of personal individual appropriation and of a high value attaching to marriage rights—exist in Australia. But it is difficult to reconcile with them the view that individual marriage is in Australia something new, a kind of innovation; that it is considered by the natives as something immoral, illicit, an encroachment of the individual on the rights of the group; and as something unimportant, secondary, merely temporary. On the contrary, as we find it existing, it bears the character of a deeply-rooted institution. All these conclusions have also been drawn independently from the general character and several details of the mourning customs. So that the discussion of these customs afforded another proof that marriage ties are considered very strong, and that the institution of marriage is the object of definite collective ideas, consequently is firmly established in the social organization. It has a social sanction and appears fairly permanent.
These facts suffice formally to define the individual marriage and individual rights of the husband to his wife. To give full context to this definition, and to characterize it more in detail, we must, on the one hand, investigate the general character of the behaviour of the consorts towards each other, and the feelings to which this behaviour points. On the other hand, an attempt must be made to determine the collective ideas expressing this relationship in its legal aspect. There have been, however, considerable difficulties in determining the emotional side of the relation between husband and wife. The results were rather negative; it appeared that we cannot accept either the extreme view of absolute bad treatment and want of affection, or the contrary opinion that the relations are of idyllic character. In general—allowing for a natural variety of feelings—the preponderance of feelings of attachment appears to be the rule. Much clearer are the results reached concerning the husband's actual rights over his wife. His authority is limited in some extreme cases only; and it is difficult to say who would interfere with it and what would be the legal form of such an interference. It may be said, therefore, that the treatment of females in Australia is determined much more by personal feelings than by legal norms, and that the latter only afford protection to the woman in cases of extreme illtreatment. In accordance with what has just been said as to personal feelings, it appears also that the treatment of women was not so exceedingly rough as is usually assumed.
The sexual rights of the husband must rather be understood in the sense that the husband is a proprietor of his wife, who may and occasionally must dispose of her; not in the sense of an inviolable exclusiveness of sexual access. The idea of chastity is absent. And consequently jealousy is not in existence in the sense in which we use that word in our society. But it exists in the form of ideas and feelings affirming the husband's definite right of control over his wife. And the natives highly disapprove of any transgression without the husband's consent and the sanction of custom. All sexual licence is regulated and subject to strict rules. Consequently the ideas on what is right or wrong in sexual matters are fairly well defined. In other words, there is a more or less defined code of sexual morality, which has also its legal aspect, as crimes against it are punished by society in a regulated manner.
In reference to the problems of individual marriage and the individual family, it may be said, however, that the individualistic character of these institutions is not accentuated in the first place by the exclusiveness of sexual rights. In connection with sexual problems an excursus on the Pirrauru customs was made, in order to prove that the relationship involved does not possess the character of marriage. For it completely differs from marriage in nearly all the essential points by which marriage in Australia is defined. And above all the Pirrauru relation does not seem to involve the facts of family life in its true sense.
In order to investigate the latter in detail on a broader basis, that is including both the relations between parents and children and between husband and wife, we entered into a discussion of the relation of the family unit to the territorial distribution of the natives. It was found that the mode of living points to a very complete isolation of each family; some of the tribes live scattered in very small groups—one to three families on an average. Other tribes live in much larger groups, but these are by no means promiscuous and undivided hordes. There are camp rules, which point to the isolation of the family within the local group; and customary rules for the arrangement of individuals within the family, round camp fires and at meals, etc. These rules and the isolation of families are reported especially from the South-Eastern tribes, where we may perhaps assume that the local groups are more numerous. So that over the whole continent the lowest unit of the tribal structure appears to be the individual family.
After a long digression on the concept of family kinship,[960] the facts illustrating the relation between children and parents were surveyed. It was found that the characteristic features of this relationship are parental love and attachment of both father and mother to their children. The close tie between mother and child is set up by the fact of the first cares, suckling and carrying the child. The father is, as a rule, also extremely fond of his children; his relation to them is by no means characterized by any legal authority or tyrannical power, but by his affection. The father as well as the mother treat children of both sexes with extreme leniency, and give them some rudiments of education. Attention was drawn to the fact that the common attachment and extreme fondness of both parents for their children must constitute a strong bond of union between husband and wife. The family unit is nevertheless restricted to parents and children under the age of puberty. For although the ties between parents and children last throughout life, still after reaching puberty the children enter into new relationships, which superimpose themselves on the former ones. These new bonds result for the girl from marriage, for the boy from his entering into the tribal secret society (initiation and life in the bachelors' camp).
The discussion of the economic facts shows that the sexual division of labour is considerably developed; that the man's and the woman's share in the maintenance of the household is quite well defined and diverse. Further we find that the woman's work is of first-rate importance for the economic unity and subsistence of the household.
The careful survey of the facts has led to some conclusions which may be pointed out. Thus, for example, we have been driven to the conclusion that, in considering marriage, the importance of the sexual facts ought not to be exaggerated. In the majority of tribes sexual facts do not seem to play any part in the formation of bonds of kinship. Ideas of consanguinity are absent in these tribes,[961] and herewith the sexual relations between husband and wife lose their chief influence upon the unity of the family. On the other hand, the sexual rights of the husband, although very well determined, are so often crossed by other customs that exclusive access to a woman must not be made a part of the sociological definition of marriage. The importance of the economic features of family life, and of the common affection for children, is much more in the foreground.
Stress has been laid throughout the investigation on the importance of bearing in mind the connection of our special problem with the general structure of society. As said above, each conclusion has been submitted to a kind of test as to whether it stands in agreement or in contradiction with well-established general facts. The main points in which the dependence of the individual family upon social facts has been traced were the connection of the individual family with the territorial and tribal structure, the mode in which land ownership in some cases distinguishes the family as a unit, the influence of economic communism upon the economics of the individual family, etc. But the manner in which society most directly influences any institution lies in the various norms, moral, customary or legal, by which society regulates different aspects of the given institution. The importance of such social rules is emphatically affirmed by Prof. Durkheim: "Une communauté de fait entre des consanguins qui se sont arrangés pour vivre ensemble, mais sans qu'aucun d'eux soit tenu à des obligations déterminées envers les autres et d'où chacun peut se retirer à volonté, ne constitue pas une famille.... Pour qu'il y ait famille, il n'est pas nécessaire qu'il y ait cohabitation et il n'est pas suffisant qu'il y ait consanguinité. Mais il faut de plus ... qu'il y ait des droits et des devoirs, sanctionnés par la société, et qui unissent les members dont la famille est composée.... La famille n'existe qu'autant qu'elle est une institution sociale, à la fois juridique et morale, placée sous la sauvegarde de la collectivité ambiante."[962] Although this opinion is certainly exaggerated,[963] it quite rightly lays stress on the importance of the social regulation of the individual family.[964]