Summing up the results reached in this chapter, we may safely say that, although polygyny occurs among most existing peoples, and polyandry among some, monogamy is by far the most common form of human marriage. It was so also among the ancient peoples of whom we have any direct knowledge. Monogamy is the form which is generally recognized as legal and permitted. The great majority of peoples are, as a rule, monogamous, and the other forms of marriage are usually modified in a monogamous direction.
We have still to inquire how the matter stood in early times, and to trace the general development of the forms of human marriage. But, in accordance with our method of investigation, we must first examine the causes by which these forms have been influenced.
[CHAPTER XXI]
THE FORMS OF HUMAN MARRIAGE
(Continued)
It has also been asserted that monogamy is the natural form of human marriage because there is an almost equal number of men and women. But this is by no means the case. The numerical proportion between the sexes varies, and in some cases varies greatly, among different peoples.
In the whole district of Nutka, it seemed to Meares that there were not so many women as men, whereas, further north, the women decidedly preponderated.[2890] Among the Kutchin, according to Kirby, women form the minority;[2891] and they seem to hold the same position among the Upper Californians and Western Eskimo.[2892] But as a rule, among the North American aborigines, the opposite is apparently the case. Thus there are more women than men among certain Eskimo tribes, according to Dr. King; among the natives of the Sitka Islands, according to Lisiansky; among the Californian Shastika, according to Mr. Powers.[2893] The census of the Creeks taken in the year 1832 showed 6,555 men and 7,142 women; that of the Indian population around Lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan, the Upper Mississippi, &c., in the same year, 3,144 men and 3,571 women, excluding children, that of the Nez Percés in Oregon, taken in 1851 by Dr. Dart, 698 men and 1,182 women.[2894] Among the Blackfeet and Shiyann, according to Mr. Morgan—among the Puncahs and some other tribes, according to Mr. Catlin—the number of women is said to be twice as large as that of men, and in some cases even three times as large.[2895]
In Yucatan, according to Stephens, there are two women to one man; among the Guaranies, according to Azara, fourteen women to thirteen men; in Cochabamba, according to Gibbon, even five to one.[2896] Among the Zapotecs and other nations of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the women are greatly in excess of the men;[2897] whereas, among the Tarumas,[2898] Avanos, Maypurs,[2899] and Guanas,[2900] the men are stated to be more numerous than the women. Von Martius says that among the Indians of Brazil, the number varied in some villages in favour of the male sex, in others in favour of the female.[2901]
In Australia the men seem generally to be in the majority.[2902] Speaking of the Australian natives, the Rev. L. Fison says, “I think we may suppose that the number of males generally exceeds that of females among the lower savages; at least, quite a number of observers declare that such is the fact.”[2903] Among the Western Australians, according to Mr. Oldfield, at all times the males are in excess of the other sex.”[2904] Wilhelmi makes a similar statement with regard to several other tribes;[2905] but this rule does not apply to all the Australians. “On Herbert River,” says Herr Lumholtz, “the women are more numerous than the men; this is also the case among the tribes south-west of the Carpentarian Gulf and elsewhere. But, according to accurate observations, the opposite is the case in a large part of Australia.”[2906] In some tribes of the interior, Mr. Sturt found that among children there were about two girls to one boy.[2907]
In Tasmania, according to Breton, the men greatly exceeded the women in number.[2908] So also in Tahiti, where, at the time of Mr. Ellis’s arrival, there were probably four or five men to one woman;[2909] in Maupiti, where the disproportion between the sexes among adults was at the rate of three men to two women;[2910] and in Easter Island, where, according to the estimates of Cook and La Pérouse, the men were twice as numerous as the women.[2911] In the Sandwich Islands, Nukahiva, and some islands belonging to the Solomon Group, the male sex predominated;[2912] and among the Maoris, according to a census taken in the year 1881, there were 24,370 men and 19,729 women.[2913] In Makin Island, of the Kingsmill Group, on the other hand, Wood represented the women as outnumbering the men.[2914] The same was to a very great extent the case in Tukopia;[2915] and d’Albertis says that in Naiabui, a village in New Guinea with 300 inhabitants, “there are more women than men by about a third.”[2916] Both sexes are nearly equally represented at Port Moresby,[2917] and according to Marsden, in Sumatra.[2918] In Sarawak the women are less numerous than the men.[2919]