The “four generations” of the Chinese, comprising those who are regarded as near relatives, have their counterpart in the family organisation of most so-called Aryan peoples. The Roman Propinqui—that is, parents and children, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, nephews and nieces, first cousins (consobrini) and second cousins (sobrini)—exactly corresponded to the Anchisteis of the Greeks, the Sapindas of the Hindus,[105] and the “Syngeneis” of the Persians.[106] The persons belonging to these four generations stood in a particularly close relationship to each other. They had mutual rights and duties of various kinds. In early times, if one of them was killed, the survivors had to avenge his death. They were expected to assist each other whenever it was needed, especially before the court. They celebrated in common feasts of rejoicing and feasts for the dead. They had a common cult and common mourning. In short, they formed an enlarged family unit of which the individual families were merely sub-branches, even though they did not necessarily live in the same house.[107] In India we still meet with a perishable survival of this organisation. “In the Joint Family of the Hindus,” says Sir Henry Maine, “… the agnatic group of the Romans absolutely survives—or rather, but for the English law and English courts, it would survive. Here there is a real, thoroughly ascertained common ancestor, a genuine consanguinity, a common fund of property, a common dwelling.”[108] The Gwentian, Dimetian, and Venedotian codes likewise represent the homestead and land of the free Welshman as a family holding. “So long as the head of the family lived,” says Mr. Seebohm, “all his descendants lived with him, apparently in the same homestead, unless new ones had already been built for them on the family land. In any case, they still formed part of the joint household of which he was the head. When a free tribesman, the head of a household, died, his holding was not broken up. It was held by his heirs for three generations as one joint holding.”[109] So also among the subdivisions of ancient Irish society there was one which comprised the “near relatives,” the Propinqui of the Romans.[110] Many of the South Slavonians to this day live in house communities each consisting of a body of from ten to sixty members or even more, who are blood-relations to the second or third degree on the male side, and who associate in a common dwelling or group of dwellings, having their land in common, following a common occupation, and being governed by a common chief.[111] Among the Russians, too, there are households of this kind, containing the representatives of three generations; and previous to the emancipation of the serfs in 1861 such households were much more common than they are now.[112] The ancient Teutons are the only “Aryan” race among whom the joint family organisation cannot be proved to have prevailed.[113]
[105] Baudhâyana, i. 5. 11. 9:—“The great-grandfather, the grandfather, the father, oneself, the uterine brothers, the son by a wife of equal caste, the grandson, and the great-grandson—these they call Sapindas, but not the great-grandson’s son.” Laws of Manu, ix. 186:—“To three ancestors water must be offered, to three the funeral cake is given, the fourth descendant is the giver of these oblations, the fifth has no connection with them.” Cf. Jolly, ‘Recht und Sitte,’ in Bühler, Grundriss der indo-arischen Philologie, ii. 85.
[106] Brissonius, De regio Persarum principatu, i. 207, p. 279. Leist, Alt-arisches Jus Civile, i. 47 sqq.
[107] Klenze, ‘Die Cognaten und Affinen nach Römischem Rechte in Vergleichung mit andern verwandten Rechten,’ in Zeitschr. f. geschichtliche Rechtswiss. vi. 5 sqq. Leist, Alt-arisches Jus Civile, i. 231 sqq. Rivier, Précis du droit de famille romain, p. 34 sqq.
[108] Maine, Dissertations on Early Law and Custom, p. 240.
[109] Seebohm, English Village Community, p. 193. Idem, Tribal System in Wales, p. 89 sqq.
[110] Maine, Early History of Institutions, p. 90 sq. Leist, Alt-arisches Jus Civile, i. Anhang i.
[111] Krauss, Sitte und Brauch der Südslaven, pp. 75, 79 sqq. Maine, Dissertations on Early Law and Custom, p. 241 sqq. Utiešenović, Die Hauskommunionen der Südslaven, p. 20 sqq. Miler, ‘Die Hauskommunion der Südslaven,’ in Jahrbuch d. internat. Vereinigung f. vergl. Rechtswiss. iii. 199 sqq.
[112] Mackenzie Wallace, Russia, i. 134. von Hellwald, Die menschliche Familie, p. 506 sq. Kovalewsky, Modern Customs and Ancient Laws of Russia, p. 53 sq.
[113] See Leist, Alt-arisches Jus Civile, i. Anhang i.