A History of Matrimonial Institutions, Vol. 1 of 3

by George Elliott Howard

[252] On wife-purchase and initiation, as a means of transition to the paternal system, see McLennan, Patriarchal Theory, 232-38.

[253] Thus, in Guinea, according to Bosman, in ordinary marriages, even when the wives were purchased, the children belonged to the mother. "It was customary, however, for a man to buy and take to wife a slave, a friendless person ... and consecrate her to his Bossum or god." In this case the "children would be born of his kindred and worship."—Bosman, Description of Guinea, 161; McLennan, op. cit., 235, 236.

[254] Mason, Woman's Share in Primitive Culture, 222; Rockhill, Land of the Lamas, 213, 339; Marshall, op. cit., 210 ff., 217, 219.

[255] An "appointed daughter" is one assigned by contract in marriage to bear an heir to her father who has no son. In the Niyoga a son is begotten upon the wife, in the lifetime of the husband, by a person appointed for that purpose. The levirate and other like expedients existed also among the Hindus: Ordinances of Manu, IX, 53, 57-69, 97, 143 ff.; Burnell and Hopkins, 253 ff.; "Gautama," Sacred Books of the East, II, 267 ff.; Mayne, Hindu Law and Usage, chap. iv; McLennan, Patriarchal Theory, 268, 286 ff.; Leist, Alt-arisches Jus Gentium, 122, 123; Jolly, The Hindu Law of Partition, 144-66; idem, Rechtliche Stellung der Frauen bei den alten Indern, 36-38 (levirate). For the Hebrew form of the levirate, see Deuteronomy 25:5-11, where the brother is required to "perform the duty of an husband's brother to the widow." The book of Ruth contains many illustrations of primitive family custom. Sir Henry Maine, Early Law and Custom, chap. iv, regards the Niyoga, the levirate, and similar expedients for supplying a male heir, as fictions, under the influence of the worship of male ancestors, for maintaining the agnatic family. J. D. Mayne explains the Niyoga on the theory that the lord and owner of the wife is the lord of the child, physical paternity not being essential; and the levirate is an extension of the Niyoga. McLennan, op. cit., 266-339, criticises the theories of the two last-named writers. See also Kohler, Zur Urgeschichte der Ehe, 153; Hellwald, Die mensch. Familie, 262, 274, 470; Schneider, Die Naturvölker, I, 25; II, 461; Achelis, Entwicklung der Ehe, 36 ff.; Redslob, Die Levirats-Ehe bei den Hebräern, 1 ff.; Starcke, Primitive Family, 141-58, 159-70 (inheritance by brothers); Spencer, Principles of Sociology, I, 679-81; Letourneau, L'évolution du mariage, chaps. xii, xv; Fison and Howitt, Kamilaroi and Kurnai, 146, 147; Wake, Marriage and Kinship, 171-78, 436 ff.; especially Westermarck, Human Marriage, 3, 510-14, who cites the literature. Various examples are mentioned in ZVR., III, 394-407, 419, 420; VI, 280 (Germany); VIII, 242; X, 81; XI, 237.

[256] McLennan, Studies, I, 23, 72, 73, passim.

[257] Ibid., I, 127-40, 50-71.

[258] Principles of Sociology, I, 641 ff. In general for criticism and summary of McLennan's views see Morgan, Ancient Society, 509-21; Maine, Early Law and Custom, 106 ff., 123, 124, 150, 192-228; Giraud-Teulon, Origines du mariage, 102 ff., passim; Smith, Kinship and Marriage, 80, 118, 121, 129 ff., 230; Fison and Howitt, Kamilaroi and Kurnai, 23 ff., 67, 101 ff., 130 ff.; Lubbock, Origin of Civilization, 102, 109, 130, 143 ff., passim; Schurman, The Ethical Import of Darwinism, chap, vi; Mason, Woman's Share in Primitive Culture, chap, x; Starcke, Primitive Family, 94 ff., 128 ff., 141 ff., passim; Wake, Marriage and Kinship, 14 ff., 58 ff., 134 ff., 253 ff., 297 ff., passim; idem, "Primitive Family," Jour. Anth. Inst., August, 1879; Kautsky, in Kosmos, XII, 258 ff.; Westermarck, Index; Spencer, Various Fragments, 70 ff.; Gomme, "Primitive Human Horde," Jour. Anth. Inst., XVII, 118-33; who is criticised by Wake, "Primitive Human Horde," ibid., November, 1887, 276 ff.

[259] Such is the view of Lubbock, Origin of Civilization, 103, 129, 134, 135; Westermarck, Human Marriage, 466, 472, 473, 547; Fison and Howitt, op. cit., 133 ff., 171 ff., 190, 357; Wake, Marriage and Kinship, 75 ff. "It is not proved that the tribes which practice child-murder put to death the female infants by preference."—Starcke, op. cit., 131 ff. Such is also the opinion of Fison and Howitt, loc. cit.; Lubbock, op. cit., 103; Darwin, Descent of Man, II, 364, 591-93; and Giraud-Teulon, op. cit., 110-16. See also Smith, Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, 129, 130, 279-85; Friedrichs, "Familienstufen," ZVR., X, 219-37; Ploss, Das Kind, II, 243-64; idem, Das Weib, I, 250, 251; Grosse, Die Formen der Familie, 36; Schneider, Die Naturvölker, I, 297 ff.; Martin, Hist. de la femme, 3 ff.; and various examples in ZVR., VII, 355, 374; IX, 14 ff. (Todas); X, 122; XI, 427 (Kamerun); Brouardel, L'infanticide (Paris, 1897); Marshall, A Phrenologist amongst the Todas, 108 ff., 190 ff.; Nelson, "The Eskimo about Bering Strait," in XVIII. Rep. of Bureau of Eth., Part I, 289; Chamberlain, The Child, etc., 110 ff.

In his second series of Studies, 74, 111, McLennan defends his view as to the prevalence of female infanticide and presents a mass of facts relating to it among many peoples. Farrer, Early Wedding Customs, 224, denies that infanticide is the cause of exogamy.

[260] Spencer, op. cit., I, 646.