[94] Ross, Western Civilisation and the Birth-Rate. Am. Jour. of Soc. XII, 610, March 1907.
CHAPTER IX
Economic Changes and the Divorce-Rate
So long has society been accustomed to accepting as final the laws and customs arising out of earlier social conditions, that changes brought about by new conditions, and contrary to the accepted scheme of things arouse a widespread concern. There is no better illustration of the conflict between the new and the old than the present tendency to divorce, and the steady pressure of our social institutions to combat this tendency.
It did not take primitive man long to see that organization was essential to preservation. Only the best organized tribes could survive in a struggle; and the closer the organization, the greater the advantage when contending with outside or hostile forces. The basis of tribal organization was the family, and the tribes with the best organized families in a growing society proved the most effective in the tribal life.
When the family became a recognized unit of stability—either for methods of warfare or economic reasons—forces arose tending to establish sentiments opposed to divorce. It was of primary importance that these sentiments should be accepted as a code of morality in a loosely organized society. It is when the larger organization, such as the state, is not strong enough to maintain its own stability, that it is of the utmost importance that the units composing it should be compact and self reliant. Only in a highly organized, socialized society, can the family be viewed as a compact with the welfare of its individual members as its sole motive for existence.
In primitive times the unity of the family was of the utmost importance to the men of the tribe as well as to the women. The permanency of the marriage relation was essential to the preservation of society, for the state could not assume the function of protection in contradistinction to the protection afforded by the male head of the family. It is only in peaceable communities where the occupations of the people are principally industrial that a social consciousness arises, making possible a non-militant social compact looking toward the individual’s welfare as part of the community welfare.
It was important, too, that the head of the family should assume the responsibility of caring for the helpless. If this were not so, the care of the offspring would be shifted from the family to the tribe or state. Irrespective of the moral practices within the family, or the form of marriage, it was essential to maintain the family unity for the care and the protection of children.
On the other hand it was important for the women to be attached to some household, and recognized as a permanent part of it. If not, in cases where their rights were entirely overlooked, they would be forced to return to the households of their fathers. Consciously or unconsciously the members of the tribe appreciated the importance of creating moral sentiments fostering family responsibilities on the part of the individual.
Divorce in the past was essentially a masculine institution. The state arose out of the desire to protect property rights of the individual. Women did not possess property to any considerable extent and so were denied the privileges arising therefrom. They were considered by both father and husband as property and all property rights inhering in them as in lands and cattle. That is, the status of women did not necessarily make them property, but the property right possession involved was responsible to a marked measure for their status.
In many primitive tribes women neither fought nor cared for the herds and all their activities resolved themselves into personal services. Hence, more than one wife was a luxury to a husband for she was a real economic burden.