It is a common opinion that marriage by purchase supersedes wife-capture as a later and higher stage of development. Such apparently is the view of McLennan, who regards the purchase-contract as of late origin and as the principal means by which the transition from the maternal to the paternal system of kinship and to the individual family was brought about.[555] Post declares that bride-purchase is a universal phase of development, more advanced than that of wife-capture;[556] and he agrees with McLennan in regarding it as a mark of transition.[557] A similar position is taken by Heusler, Lippert, Kulischer, and also by Kohler;[558] while Spencer, without asserting that either is a stage through which marriage among all peoples has passed, thinks that purchase is the usual substitute for violence as civilization progresses. "We may suspect," he says, "that abduction, spite of parents, was the primary form; that there came next the making of compensation to escape vengeance; that this grew into the making of presents beforehand; and that so resulted eventually the system of purchase."[559]
It requires little argument, of course, to show that robbery per se is a less civilized method of acquiring property than contract. That is as true among ourselves now as it has ever been among savages. For particular individuals, even for particular tribes, a transition from rape to contract, as the result of moral development, will of course take place. It by no means follows, however, that the one method has succeeded the other as a general stage for all mankind, or indeed for a single community. Even if we admit that "barter and commerce are comparatively late inventions of man"[560]—an assumption which, though probable, still requires proof—rape is not the necessary alternative in getting property, much less in getting a wife.
It is highly significant that wife-capture, real or pretended, is usually found side by side with wife-purchase. They appear together among peoples exceedingly low in the scale of progress; while marriage by purchase very frequently occurs among rude races where capture, unless as a mere symbol, is not found at all. Thus in Africa purchase is very common, and it is occasionally accompanied by actual or pretended rape.[561] So likewise real capture and wife-purchase coexist in various parts of Europe, Asia, and America; and wherever ceremonial capture occurs among races not far advanced in civilization it is almost invariably combined with marriage by purchase, or its allied forms, marriage by serving, gift, or exchange.[562]
If, now, the cases in which capture and purchase appear together be carefully examined, decisive evidence is disclosed that the purchase contract is really the normal form of marriage, while capture is usually, if not always, merely an exceptional, even illegal, means of procuring a wife. It is not surprising, for instance, that uncivilized races, with well-established marital institutions, should occasionally steal women from hostile tribes. Thus the Macas Indians of Ecuador "acquire wives by purchase, if the woman belongs to the same tribe, but otherwise by force."[563] In Australia wives are often, perhaps usually, procured by exchange or purchase; and a girl is generally betrothed when a child, sometimes as soon as she is born.[564] Actual woman-capture exists. But, as shown by Mr. Howitt's researches and those of Spencer and Gillen, marriage with a captured woman is only permitted when the captor and the captive belong to groups which may legally intermarry. Death is sometimes the penalty for violation of the class rules in this regard. The result is that in Australia woman-stealing "amounts merely to a violent extension of the marital rights over a class in one tribe to captured members of the corresponding class in another tribe." Furthermore, if the native songs prove the existence of wife-stealing, they also bear witness in the most decisive manner to love and choice in Australian marriage.[565]
Very often capture and purchase are found united in such a way that they seem almost to be contending with each other for the mastery.[566] This union occurs in two general forms: either the woman elopes or is carried off without the guardian's consent, and a reconciliation is subsequently effected through payment of the bride-price or the rendering of a composition; or else the stipulation of the price is made before the abduction. In the latter case it is plain that we are dealing merely with ceremonial capture; in the former case the significant fact is that we have to do with a breach of the law.[567] A price is paid for the stolen woman because, like other property, she has an economic value; or a penalty is rendered in order to escape the blood-feud. Frequently, however, even when abduction occurs without the consent or knowledge of the girl's friends, the subsequent procedure in arranging the price or the penalty is strictly regulated by custom; and this fact may perhaps be regarded as a further proof that the forms under consideration, in special instances, represent a transition from capture to contract. Among the Galela and Tobelorese,[568] for example, when a man wishes a woman of a hostile tribe or family, he causes her to be abducted, as she goes out for water or wood, by twenty or more of his female friends, who bind her, if she resists, and bear her away to his house. Should the relatives of the girl attempt a rescue by force, the villagers assemble and try to effect a reconciliation. Pending the stipulation of the bride-money, the girl is allowed to escape to her home, where she is carefully watched. On the third day the friends assemble to discuss the price. If the woman has not lived with the man, she may then refuse him; otherwise the payment of the price is finally arranged.[569] In case of elopement it is the custom among the same people for the lovers to fly to the forest or to take refuge in a "prahu" on the sea, where they remain a month. On their return they are received in the house of the girl's parents. If the lover pays the bride-money, the woman follows him to his house; otherwise he must remain with his wife, and the children legally belong to the mother.[570] With the Bataks of Sumatra good form requires that the bridegroom should leave behind a weapon, a piece of clothing, or some similar article as a token that he has abducted the bride. Thereupon, when the bride-money is paid the marriage is regarded as legally complete. Should no token be left, however, the rape is illegal and the culprit may receive punishment.[571]
Very naturally elopement or abduction most frequently takes place when it is difficult or impossible to bring about the marriage in the legal or customary way. Either the parties belong to groups between which jus connubii does not exist; or the lover is too poor to pay the price demanded for the bride; or else the parents refuse their consent. Here we have an example of the operation of simple motives with which society, at all times and in all places, has been familiar. Such marriages, it has been pointed out, are usually marriages of inclination at least on the side of the lover, as opposed to the conventional marriage by purchase.[572]
It appears, then, so far as present investigation enables us to determine, that there is not sufficient evidence for assuming that wife-capture, except in isolated cases, has generally grown into marriage by purchase. As a rule, even among the lowest races, foreign or warlike capture is an exceptional method of procuring wives; while bride-stealing at home, though the symbol may sometimes be sanctioned, is merely looked upon as illegal or even immoral;[573] and, therefore, with advancing civilization it yields to contract as the highest means of effecting a marriage.[574]
Having now considered its relation to capture, let us next notice the significance of wife-purchase as a social institution.
The custom of giving a compensation for a bride, though not universal, exists or has existed among a vast number of peoples in various stages of progress; and it often survives as a mere symbol in the marriage ceremony. Kulischer, indeed, declares that actual wife-purchase can now be discovered only among a few savage races.[575] But this assertion seems to be wholly inconsistent with the facts. Recent researches, notably those of Post, Kohler, Westermarck, and various American scholars, place it beyond question that taking a wife, as the prosaic result of an ordinary bargain, is a familiar institution in many parts of the world.[576] Husband-purchase also appears, but examples of it are exceedingly rare.[577] Several methods of buying a wife are in use. The simplest way, says Westermarck, is "to give a kinswoman in exchange for her." This method is found in Sumatra;[578] and the Australian male "almost invariably obtains his wife or wives, either as the survivor of a married brother, or in exchange for his sisters, or later on in life for his daughters."[579] Much more general is the custom, sometimes distinguished with the name of "marriage by service," in which the bridegroom earns his bride by serving her father. "This practice, with which Hebrew tradition[580] has familiarized us, is widely diffused among the uncivilized races of America, Africa, Asia, and the Indian Archipelago."[581] In America, as elsewhere, the custom takes a variety of forms. Among the Mayas the young husband is required to build a house opposite the home of his bride and live in it five or six years while he works for her father. If the service is not faithfully performed, he is dismissed, and the father-in-law gives his daughter to another.[582] In Yucatan the term of service is three or four years; and so stringent is the requirement that it is regarded as highly unseemly to shirk the duty.[583] According to Martius, with whom Souza mainly agrees,[584] the Brazilian native usually gains his first wife by serving her father. For him he goes hunting and fishing. He helps him build his hut, clear the forest, bring wood, and make canoes, weapons, and nets. During this period the lover continues to dwell with his own relatives, but tarries the whole day at the house of his wished-for bride.[585] If his suit is successful, either he may take up his abode for a while with his wife's family, or he may at once set up a separate hut for himself. Among the Guaycurûs the son-in-law dwells permanently with the woman's parents, but from the moment of the marriage they avoid speaking with him; and this custom of "bashfulness," often regarded as a survival of wife-capture and so indirectly of mother-right, prevails very widely in America and in other lands.[586] Service, though merely as proof of manly worth, appears also among the Seri, "probably the most primitive tribe in North America." The "would-be groom is required to enter the family of the girl and demonstrate (1) his capacity as a provider and (2) his strength of character as a man, by a year's probation."[587] Among the Kenai of the far north the lover must perform a year's service for his bride. "The wooing is in this wise: early some morning he enters the abode of the fair one's father, and without speaking a word proceeds to bring water, prepare food, and to heat the bath-room." When asked why he performs these services, "he answers that he desires the daughter for a wife. At the expiration of a year, without further ceremony, he takes her home, with a gift; but if she is not well treated by her husband, she may return to her father, and take with her the dowry."[588] In some places the service must all be rendered in advance; in others, the girl is received on credit and the man serves the required term after the marriage—a familiar example of each of these methods being afforded by the case of Jacob and Laban's daughters.[589] Moreover, as already seen, sometimes it is only the first or chief wife who is earned by service, the later ones being bought in exchange for property in the more usual way.
According to Spencer, the "obtaining of wives by services rendered, instead of by property paid," is a "cause of improvement in the treatment of women," and constitutes therefore a "higher form of marriage," developing "along with the industrial type" of society. "Obviously, a wife long labored for is likely to be more valued than one stolen or bought;" and the long association of the lovers during the time of service is likely to foster more refined sentiments than the "merely instinctive;" to imitate "something approaching to the courtship and engagement of civilized peoples."[590] But, on the other hand, without denying that these results may follow, Westermarck forcibly objects that "industrial work promotes accumulation of property, and consequently makes it easier for the man to acquire his wife by real purchase." Serving for wives is prevalent among such rude races as the Bushmans and Fuegians. Hence it seems "almost probable that marriage by services is a more archaic form than marriage by purchase; but generally they occur simultaneously."[591]