CONTENTS.

[CHAPTER I.]
The Biological Origin of MarriagePAGE
[1-19]
[I.]The True Place of Man in the Animal Kingdom.
[II.]Reproduction.
[III.]Rut and Love.
[IV.]Love of Animals.
[CHAPTER II.]
Marriage and the Family amongst Animals[20-36]
[I.] The Preservation of Species.
[II.] Marriage and the Rearing of the Young among Animals.
[III.] The Family amongst Animals.
[CHAPTER III.]
Promiscuity[37-55]
[I.] Has there been a Stage of Promiscuity?
[II.] Cases of Human Promiscuity.
[III.] Hetaïrism.
[CHAPTER IV.]
Some Singular Forms of Sexual Association[56-72]
[I.] Primitive Sexual Immorality.
[II.] Some Strange Forms of Marriage.
[CHAPTER V.]
Polyandry[73-88]
[I.] Sexual Proportion of Births: its Influence on Marriage.
[II.] Ethnography of Polyandry.
[III.]Polyandry in Ancient Arabia.
[IV.] Polyandry in General.
[CHAPTER VI.]
Marriage by Capture[89-104]
[I.] Rape.
[II.] Marriage by Capture.
[III.] Signification of the Ceremonial of Capture.
[CHAPTER VII.]
Marriage by Purchase and by Servitude[105-121]
[I.] The Power of Parents.
[II.] Marriage by Servitude.
[III.] Marriage by Purchase.
[CHAPTER VIII.]
Primitive Polygamy[122-137]
[I.] Polygamy in Oceania, Africa, and America.
[II.] Polygamy in Asia and in Europe.
[CHAPTER IX.]
Polygamy of Civilised People[138-153]
[I.] The Stage of Polygamy.
[II.] Arab Polygamy.
[III.] Polygamy in Egypt, Mexico, and Peru.
[IV.] Polygamy in Persia and India.
[CHAPTER X.]
Prostitution and Concubinage[154-170]
[I.] Concubinage in General.
[II.] Prostitution.
[III.] Various Forms of Concubinage.
[CHAPTER XI.]
Primitive Monogamy[171-187]
[I.] The Monogamy of Inferior Races.
[II.] Monogamy in the Ancient States of Central America.
[III.] Monogamy in Ancient Egypt.
[IV.] Monogamy of the Touaregs and Abyssinians.
[V.] Monogamy among the Mongols of Asia.
[VI.]Monogamy and Civilisation.
[CHAPTER XII.]
Hebrew and Aryan Monogamy[188-206]
[I.] Monogamy of the Races called Superior.
[II.] Hebrew Marriage.
[III.] Marriage in Persia and Ancient India.
[IV.] Marriage in Ancient Greece.
[V.] Marriage in Ancient Rome.
[VI.] Barbarous Marriage and Christian Marriage.
[CHAPTER XIII.]
Adultery[207-227]
[I.] Adultery in General.
[II.] Adultery in Melanesia.
[III.] Adultery in Black Africa.
[IV.] Adultery in Polynesia.
[V.] Adultery in Savage America.
[VI.] Adultery in Barbarous America.
[VII.] Adultery among the Mongol Races and in Malaya.
[VIII.] Adultery among the Egyptians, the Berbers, and the Semites.
[IX.] Adultery in Persia and India.
[X.] Adultery in the Greco-Roman World.
[XI.] Adultery in Barbarous Europe.
[XII.] Adultery in the Past and in the Future.
[CHAPTER XIV.]
Repudiation and Divorce[228-248]
[I.] In Savage Countries.
[II.] Divorce and Repudiation among Barbarous Peoples.
[III.] The Evolution of Divorce.
[CHAPTER XV.]
Widowhood and the Levirate[249-266]
[I.] Widowhood in Savage Countries.
[II.] Widowhood in Barbarous Countries.
[III.] The Levirate.
[IV.] Summary.
[CHAPTER XVI.]
The Familial Clan in Australia and America[267-284]
[I.] The Family.
[II.] The Family in Melanesia.
[III.] The Family in America.
[CHAPTER XVII.]
The Familial Clan and its Evolution[285-302]
[I.] The Clan among the Redskins.
[II.] The Family among the Redskins.
[III.] The Family in Polynesia.
[IV.] The Family among the Mongols.
[V.] The Evolution of the System of Kinship by Classes.
[VI.]The Clan and the Family.
[CHAPTER XVIII.]
The Maternal Family[303-321]
[I.] The Familial Clan and the Family properly so-called.
[II.] The Family in Africa.
[III.] The Family in Malaya.
[IV.] The Family among the Naïrs of Malabar.
[V.] The Family among the Aborigines of Bengal.
[VI.] The Couvade.
[VII.] The Primitive Family.
[CHAPTER XIX.]
The Family in Civilised Countries[322-340]
[I.] The Family in China.
[II.] The Family among the Semitic Races.
[III.] The Family among the Berbers.
[IV.] The Family in Persia.
[V.] The Family in India.
[VI.] The Greco-Roman Family.
[VII.] The Family in Barbarous Europe.
[CHAPTER XX.]
Marriage and the Family in the Past, the Present, and the Future[341-360]
[I.] The Past.
[II.] The Present.
[III.] The Future.
[Index][361]

PREFACE.

A few preliminary observations in regard to the aim and method of this work may be useful to the reader.

He will do well to begin by persuading himself, with Montaigne, that the “hinges of custom” are not always the “hinges of reason,” and still less those of reality in all times and places. He will do better still to steep himself in the spirit of scientific evolution, and to bear in mind that incessant change is the law of the social, quite as much as of the physical and organic world, and that the most splendid blossoms have sprung from very humble germs. This is the supreme truth of science, and it is only when such a point of view has become quite familiar to us that we shall be neither troubled nor disconcerted by the sociological history of humanity; and however shocking or unnatural certain customs may appear, we shall guard ourselves against any feeling of indignation at them, and more especially against a thoughtless refusal to give credence to them, simply because they run counter to our own usages and morality.

All that social science has a right to ask of the facts which it registers is that they should be authentic; this duly proved, it only remains to accept, classify, and interpret them. Faithful to this method, without which there could be no science of sociology, I have here gathered together as proofs a number of singular facts, which, improbable as they may appear according to our pre-conceived notions, and criminal according to our moral sense, are nevertheless most instructive. Although in a former work I have taken care to establish the relativity of morality, the explanations that I am about to make are not out of season; for the subject of this book is closely connected with what, par excellence, we call “morals.”

On this point I must permit myself a short digression.

No one will pretend that our so-called civilised society has a very strict practical morality, yet public opinion still seems to attach a particular importance to sexual morality, and this is the expression of a very real sentiment, the origin of which scientific sociology has no difficulty in retracing. This origin, far from being a lofty one, goes back simply to the right of proprietorship in women similar to that in goods and chattels—a proprietorship which we find claimed in savage, and even in barbarous countries, without any feeling of shame. During the lower stages of social evolution, women are uniformly treated as domestic animals; but this female live-stock are difficult to guard; for, on the one hand, they are much coveted and are unskilful in defending themselves, and on the other, they do not bend willingly to the one-sided duty of fidelity that is imposed on them. The masters, therefore, protect their own interests by a whole series of vexatious restraints, of rigorous punishments, and of ferocious revenges, left at first to the good pleasure of the marital proprietors, and afterwards regulated and codified. In the chapter on adultery, especially, will be found a great number of examples of this marital savagery. I have previously shown, in my Evolution de la Morale, that the unforeseen result of all this jealous fury has been to endow humanity, and more particularly women, with the delicate sentiment of modesty, unknown to the animal world and to primitive man.