A History of Matrimonial Institutions, Vol. 1 of 3

by George Elliott Howard

[88] Ibid., 204-14. Cf. Muirhead, Introduction to the Private Law of Rome, 43.

[89] Plutarch, Roman Questions, VI, tells us that "in early times the prohibition of marriage extended as far as the tie of blood; and, if this be received, it involves—since the gentiles considered themselves to be of the same blood—that there could not be marriage between persons of the same gens."—McLennan, op. cit., 206, 207.

[90] Leist, Graeco-italische Rechtsgeschichte, 95, 96, also denies (against Marquardt, Privatleben, I, 22, 29) that the distinctive feature of the Roman family is dependent on the patriarchal authority, since the elements of agnation and paternal power are Aryan. Bernhöft, "Germanische und moderne Rechtsideen im rezipirten röm. Recht," ZVR., IV, 234, holds that Roman agnation does not depend upon blood-relationship, but upon power; and this was an Aryan characteristic; idem, Röm. Königszeit, 69 ff., 94, 201. McLennan's hypothesis is plausible, though not strongly supported by proof. Cf. Starcke, Primitive Family, 101; Wake, Marriage and Kinship, 384, 385.

[91] Such are the isolated facts comprised in the early annals which seem to imply acknowledged kinship in the female line, even precedence of the latter; the fact that the status of slaves, illegitimate children, and the children of concubines was determined by the condition of the mother; the effects of marriage by usus; the supposed evidences of former wife-capture and wife-purchase, marking the transition to the agnatic system; the instances of wife-lending as by the elder Cato; and especially the plebeian element; for cognation, not agnation, prevailed among the plebeians, and possibly among them kinship was at first counted only through the mother; see Dargun, Mutterrecht und Raubehe, 9-13, 14; Mutterrecht und Vaterrecht, 115; Bernhöft, "Zur Geschichte des europäischen Familienrechts," ZVR., VIII, 197-201; "Germanische und moderne Rechtsideen im rezipirten röm. Recht," ibid., IV, 227 ff.; Staat und Recht der röm. Königszeit, 192, 202-7; Giraud-Teulon, Les origines du mariage, 408-26; Sohm, Institutes, 360, 361, notes; Karlowa, Die Formen der röm. Ehe, 1 ff.; McLennan, Patriarchal Theory, 194 ff., 205 ff., 259 ff.

[92] "Die Ehe des römischen Civilrechts (justum matrimonium) war eine formgebundene, durch und durch künstliche Institution."—Dargun, Mutterrecht und Raubehe, 10. Cf. Bernhöft, Staat und Recht der röm. Königszeit, 196 ff.

[93] See, for example, Lippert, Geschichte der Familie, 4, 5; Kohler, in ZVR., IV, 266 ff., who regards Bachofen as the "Altmeister der ethnologischen Jurisprudenz;" and Giraud-Teulon, Mariage et la famille, 146 ff., passim. Cf. Kautsky, in Kosmos, XII, 348.

[94] Delbrück, "Das Mutterrecht bei den Indogermanen," in Preussische Jahrbücher, XCVII, 15, characterizes the work as "fantastic," though resting upon "einer äusserst ausgebreiteten Gelehrsamkeit." Dr. Starcke's criticism is too severe: "We should rather call his 'Mutterrecht' the rhapsody of a well-informed poet than the work of a calm and clear-sighted man of science."—Primitive Family, 243. For the best analysis of Bachofen, see ibid., 241-51. Cf. also Bernhöft, "Zur Geschichte des eur. Familienrechts," in ZVR., VIII, 4, 5; Lubbock, Origin of Civilization, 98 ff.; McLennan, Studies in Ancient History, I, 319-25; Giraud-Teulon, La mère chez certains peuples de l'antiquité, 6 ff.; Zmigrodski, Die Mutter, 178 ff., 196 ff., 311 ff., passim; Schmidt, Jus primae noctis, 31, 36-38, 178, 190; Wake, Marriage and Kinship, 14 ff., 257, 258; Kautsky, "Die Entstehung der Ehe und Familie," Kosmos, XII, 256, 257, 348; Achelis, Die Entwicklung der Ehe, 6 ff.; Posada, Théories modernes, 47 ff., 148; Chamberlain, The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought, 12 ff.

[95] The author first discusses the account given by Herodotus and others of Lycian customs, which account, he declares, contains the clearest and most valuable evidence of the existence and character of Mutterrecht (v). Then follows a similar treatment of the evidence derived from Crete, Athens, Lemnos, Egypt, India and central Asia, Orchomenos and the Minyœ, Epizephyrian Locris, Elis, Lesbos, Mantinea, the Cantabrians, and from the Pythagorean system.

[96] Das Mutterrecht, vi, xviii-xix, xxi, passim.

[97] Ibid., vi. "Wie auf die Periode des Mutterrechts die Herrschaft der Paternität folgt, so geht jener eine Zeit des regellosen Hetärismus voran."—Ibid., xviii. For many illustrations, see the Index at "Aphrodite," "Demeter," and "Apollo," the names of the divinities presiding respectively over the three phases.