Woman in Political Evolution

by Joseph McCabe

In the course of time (the New Stone Age) a higher race appears. It has more skilfully-made implements, rudimentary agriculture, weaving, and pottery, and tamed cattle. In these more advanced groups there was certainly some measure of social organisation, and it would be interesting to know if the control of it was to any extent divided between the sexes.

To learn something of this phase of human development we turn to study the life of the lower races. Far away from the centres of civilisation, in the dense forests of Africa, in the remote islands of the Pacific, in the grim wastes of the Arctic, or in the extreme tips of the continents, we find survivors of the earlier phases of human development. The Australian was cut off from the stimulating contact of higher races a hundred thousand years ago or more. The Fuegians and the Veddahs, the Bushmans and some of the Central Africans, linger at about the same level. The Esquimaux have, in their deserts of ice, stereotyped the next chapter (the New Stone Age) in the story of humanity. Round the frontiers of old civilisations, like India and China, and in remote islands, we find other remnants of the infancy of the race. What can we learn from these fragments of prehistoric humanity about the lot of woman before civilisation began? Is there any general and consistent practice from which we may gather the story of woman’s evolution?

It seems to me, after a careful survey of the voluminous details, that we may make this general statement: Wherever there is an approach to a social or political system, the control of it is in the hands of the men. They may in cases, where we may suspect special circumstances, consult their women on social issues (of trade, or migration, or war), but they are the rulers, and in most cases they take no account whatever of the women’s views. The woman quite commonly rules in the hut, but she is rarely represented in the council, and very rarely attains tribal power. The man generally hunts and fights (sometimes tills the fields and makes the clothes): the woman generally does all the work in or about the home, which is the greater part of the family’s work. In very many cases she is treated respectfully, and is quite equal to her husband in the home—it is not at all true that the lower races always, or nearly always, treat their women as cattle—but the fact remains that she is very rarely equal to him outside the home, in dealing with tribal issues.

If, then, we are to see survivals of primitive customs in the ways of our lowest savages, it seems that this was the very general course of development in early times. Travellers differ so much in competence or in prejudice that one still finds important divergences in different ethnographic writers—the reader who would go more closely into it should compare Letourneau’s Condition de la femme (1903) and Westermarck’s more optimistic Position of Woman in Early Civilisation (1904)—but the above is a fair summary of the accredited facts. It is, however, necessary to remark that we must not too readily regard the ways of savages as unchanged survivals from the infancy of humanity. Even where their material life remains at the level of the Old Stone Age, their customs may have been greatly modified, under the influence, for instance, of superstitious feelings. With that caution we may glance at the position of woman in existing tribes of savages, especially at the lowest grade, such as the Australian natives, the Fuegians, certain tribes of Central Africa, the Bushmans, and the wild Veddahs of Ceylon.

The conflicting statements that are made in regard to the position of woman among the native Australians (of whom only some 20,000 now survive, with greatly altered habits) point to the fact that it differed very considerably in different tribes. It is, however, clear that she was everywhere the great worker of the clan, and nowhere admitted to the tribal councils. Her task it was to make the rude screen of bark that stood for the primitive house, to weave the baskets and the cords, and cook the food. Whether she was the common property of the clan, whether there were group-marriages and promiscuity, even the latest authorities differ. But in the vast majority of cases her lot was pitiable. Initiated to married life with brutal usage, evading child-bearing by such crude means as she had, working far more than the men, and never consulted in tribal affairs, she seems fairly entitled to the name of slave, which Westermarck would refuse her. If there were tribes in which the husband could not kill or cast her off without the sanction of the tribe, it was only a transfer of power from one man to a group of men. If there were tribes in which she had gentler treatment, and might rise to the height of bullying her husband, the general rule was that she bore most of the burden, and waited humbly like a dog for the remains of her husband’s meal.

In Papua, New Guinea, and New Caledonia we seem to have a somewhat more advanced branch of the same primitive stock; but the position of woman does not improve. Here and there we find regions where the brutality has been modified; but, on the whole, the advance towards civilisation has imposed more work on her, and, by removing the comparative protection of the clan, made the husband more despotic than ever. Among the Fuegians and Veddahs, lingering in southern islands at the very lowest level of culture, her lot is less intolerable. They are monogamous, and have no tribal organisation whatever, so that the sexes come nearer equality. The Veddah girl puts her band round the waist of her lover, and the two then rear their family in isolation. The Yahgan girl (the most primitive of the Fuegians) chooses her mate and shares with him the scant and savage existence. There are no social issues for him to appropriate, and the comparative physical equality is her safeguard.

Africa contains an enormous diversity of tribes, and the position of woman varies considerably in them. On the whole, it is true that the simpler the life, the nearer the sexes are to equality; but all generalisation is precarious. Letourneau says that for most of the blacks she is “a lower animal,” and the phrase cannot be greatly qualified. It is quite true that a Hottentot husband dare not take a drink of sour milk in his own house without his wife’s permission, under penalty of a fine, and he is often scolded by her; but it is the Hottentots who buy girls of ten or twelve to add to their harem, and expose them to death when they are prematurely worn. The less advanced Bushman treats his wife with more respect. The Monbuttu woman rules the home and practically owns its furniture. The Kaffir dare not touch his wife’s property, and in some tribes he even admits a woman (the chief’s mother) to the council. Among other tribes of East Central Africa, and among the Berbers and Bedouins of the north, she has fair respect and often influence. There is one happy region in which she may divorce him if he fails to sew her clothes. In Ashantee the king’s sisters could marry (and virtually enslave) whom they willed. In Dahomey the regiment of female warriors was the nerve of the army, and not far behind the males in consumption of alcohol; but they were not allowed to marry.

Africa is a medley of tribes at different points on the upward march, but we may trace a consistency in the various customs. We must not say that women are treated as cattle because they bear all the burdens on the march. The men have to be free to hunt and to fight. Nor must we see a gleam of justice in tribes where the male tills the field and tends the cattle. He has a superstition that they would wither and die at the touch of women. Broadly speaking, the division of labour remains the same; and, what is more to our purpose, the moment tribal organisation arises, and social issues are to be treated, the man appropriates the power. If in one or two cases he admits a woman to his councils, it is a distinct and rare concession.

When we turn to the lower races of Asia we find a result that surprises us in view of Hindoo and Chinese practice. In Polynesia women have a remarkable degree of independence. They may (in Hawaii and the Sandwich Islands) inherit feudal dignity and rule large districts with the same authority and respect as men. Not many years ago a Polynesian princess advertised in a Parisian journal for a cultivated European husband. In the Malay Archipelago the woman is practically equal to the man, and has influence on communal decisions. On the continent of Asia, too, her position is generally good. Among the Indo-Chinese races generally she has a power and respect that the later civilisations seem to have taken from her. The Shans of Burmah allow her to turn her husband away for drunkenness or other misconduct, and retain his property. Among the hill-tribes about India we find her in a good position. The Kondhs expect fidelity from the husband, but not from the wife. She is treated with great respect, has a good deal of influence on tribal affairs, and may leave her husband almost when she pleases. Among the Savaras she has the same liberty, and the simple Todas and the Bheels have a respect for their wives. Even among the isolated and backward tribes of the north (the Chukchis, Kamchadales, etc.) the women are well treated.

It is curious to reflect that, precisely in the continent where civilisation is most stringent in its demand for the subjection of women, the lower races, which are presumed to indicate the earlier phase, are more liberal than in any other part of the world. But I will glance at the last group of lower races before entering upon explanations. The American group is pretty certainly an offshoot from the early Asiatics, and we may be surprised that the position of woman among the Indians is usually described as very low. In point of fact, there seems to be some exaggeration, and the situation is by no means uniform. Among the Seneca Indians the woman ruled the home to such a degree that she would order a lazy husband to roll up his blanket and depart. The Iroquois and Cherokees and others left the decision on an issue of peace or war to the women; but it should be added that the Indian woman was as fierce and vindictive as her husband, and would submit a captive to the most fiendish tortures. The Nootkas consulted their wives on trade matters, the Omahas gave them an equal social standing with men, and the Flatheads and other tribes treated them with some respect. Among the South American Indians the woman’s position was generally bad, and in many cases atrocious; indeed, Letourneau affirms that her tribal influence even in the north was more nominal than real, as the men concealed the more important issues.