Up to a short time ago men of authority asserted that marriage had sprung up from a “state of promiscuity,” the believers in this theory forgetting that even “among animals the most akin to man, this state of promiscuity is rather exceptional.”
Most of the people cited as following this practice have been shown to have individual marriage to the exclusion of other forms. Undoubtedly in many cases what are called group marriages have been mistaken for promiscuity. Almost equally low in the social scale is polyandry, where one woman may have several husbands.
Whatever the origin of marriage, the fact is, however, that the idea of marriage comes after the idea of the child—as in the animal world, the family is established for the purpose of taking care of the children that have been brought into the world.[22]
In Mahabharata, the Indian poem, we are told that marriage was founded by Swetaketu, son of the Rishi Uddalaka; according to the Chinese annals, the Emperor Fou-hi established the custom; the Egyptians ascribed its introduction to Menes, and the Greeks to Kekrops. Nowhere is it assumed as a condition of the race of all time. Its origin, growth, and development are really the origin, growth, and development of the idea of protecting human offspring.
A convincing scientific explanation of marriage, however, has been set forth by Westermarck.[23] Among the great sub-kingdom of the Invertebrata not even the female parent exhibits any anxiety about the offspring. The heat of the sun hatches the eggs of the highest order, the insects, and in most cases the mother does not even see her young.[24]
Parental care is rare among the lowest vertebrata. Among fishes the young are generally hatched without the assistance of the parents. There are exceptions to this among the Teleostei, where the male assumes the usual maternal functions of constructing a nest and jealously guarding the ova deposited there by the female. The male of certain species of the Arius, carries the ova in his pharynx. Nearly all of the reptiles, having placed their eggs in a convenient sunny spot, pay no more attention to them.
With few exceptions, the relations of the sexes of the lower vertebrata can be described as fickle; they meet in the pairing time, part again, and have little more to do with one another.
“The Chelonia form,” says Westermarck, “with regard to their domestic habits, transition to the birds, as they do also from a zoölogical and particularly from an embryological point of view.” He then goes on to show that parental affection in the latter class, not only on the side of the mother but on that of the father, has come to high development. Members of the two sexes aid each other in nest-building, the females bringing the materials and the males doing the work. Other duties which come with the mating season are shared by both, the mother being concerned with incubation and the father aiding her by taking her position when she leaves the nest for intervals, providing her with food which he gathers, and protecting her from dangers. When the breeding season is over and the young have come, a new set of duties is evolved. Young birds are not left alone by their parents, absences being necessitated only by searches for food for all members of the nest. When dangers threaten the nest both father and mother defend it bravely.
