CHAPTER VII.
SOCIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS—conclusion.
3.—FAMILY LIFE.—Relations of the two sexes before marriage—Marriage and family—Theory of promiscuity—Group marriage—Exogamy and endogamy—Matriarchate—Degrees of relationship and filiation—Polyandry—Levirate—Polygamy and monogamy—Patriarchate—Rape and purchase of the bride—Duration of conjugal union—Children—Birth—Nurture—Name of the child and of adults—Initiation, circumcision, etc.—Old men and their fate—Funereal rites—Mourning.
4.—SOCIAL LIFE.—(a) Home life of a people—Economic organisation—The forms of property depend on production—Common property and family property—Village community—Individual property—Social organisation—Totemism—Clan rule—Family rule—Territorial rule—Caste and class rule—Democratic rule—Social morals—Right and justice—Taboo—Retaliation, vendetta, and ordeals—Secret societies—Extra legal judges—Formulæ of politeness—(b) International life of peoples—Absence of sympathetic relations—Hostile relations—War—Arms of offence—Bow and arrows—Arms of defence—Neutral relations—Commerce—Money—Cowry—Transports and means of communication—Primitive vehicles—Navigation.
THE subjects about to be treated are so vast and complicated that it is almost impossible to give an idea of them in a few words and without going into details. So our account will of necessity be somewhat dogmatic, and will only touch on some salient facts of family and social life.
3.—FAMILY LIFE.
The relations of the two sexes are somewhat free among uncivilised and half-civilised peoples so long as there is no formal marriage or birth of a child. In the whole of Oceania, Malaysia, among the Samoyeds, Mongols, and certain Negroes, sexual intercourse between the young people of both sexes is by no means prohibited.[261] Sometimes even, as among the Bavenda for example, the young men and women give themselves up to obscene “games.”[262] Uncivilised peoples among whom the loss of virginity would be considered dishonouring to a girl are somewhat rare (Nias islanders, Igorrotes, Malays of Menangkabau). Most of them treat it with indifference, and among some of them defloration is obligatory before marriage; it is effected artificially or naturally by the parents (Bataks, Pelew islanders), by the matrons (Bissayas of the Philippines), by the priests (Cambodia), and even, it is said, by persons paid for this kind of work.[263] It would be possible to give instances of many other customs which shock our ideas about chastity and marriage. Thus in the Algerian Arab tribe of the Ouled-Naïl, no young girl will find a husband if she has not previously acquired a dowry by regular prostitution. On the other hand, it must not be forgotten that the prostitution of girls before marriage was required by certain cults of antiquity (cult of Aphrodite at Abydos, Ephesus, etc., cult of Mylitta in Babylonia, etc.).
Marriage and Family.—But marriage once contracted, the woman, among almost all uncivilised and half-civilised peoples, is no longer free. From this moment either the husband, the family on the mother’s or father’s side, or the clan, see strictly to the observation of the marriage rules which are in vogue, and the laws, written or unwritten, punish every slip of the woman who was so free before marriage. It is the contrary to what one often sees in our civilised societies. In fine, marriage is above all a social convention, and the form which it takes in different ethnic groups is intimately connected with the social and economic constitution of these groups. The position of woman in society, ideas on conjugal obligations, etc., are entirely subordinated to the ideas which prevail about property and the social organism.