Criminality and economic conditions

by Willem Adriaan Bonger

The clan and the combinations of the different clans were replaced by the state. This was an organization which had for its principal end the maintenance of order as far as possible, in a society in which the interests of different groups, like those of individuals, were opposed to each other, and the regulation of this conflict of interests.[41] This organization is consequently entirely different from the clan, the object of which was to take the interests of the community to [[298]]heart. It is evident that in an organization like this it is the most important and influential class which comes first.

On the one hand, then, the clan loses itself in the state; on the other hand the family, which played but a secondary part while the clan system was at its height, became of greater importance. The clan is divided into “great families” (“Grossfamilien”), i.e. husband, wife, and their unmarried children as well as their male descendants, with their wives and children; and the father is the master of all these persons and all their property. However it is only little by little, and in proportion as we get away from the clan, that the authority of the father becomes unlimited. This form of the family has continued even down to our own day in China and Japan, and was general during the early days of ancient Rome.

In China the woman, whose work is entirely limited to household occupations, has a position which, according to all accounts, is only that of a subordinate. Her whole life is under the direction of her husband; she can never obtain a divorce, while her husband can dissolve the marriage without cause; if he takes her in the act of adultery he has the right to kill her, while he himself may keep concubines. In Japan the position of woman is much the same, and in ancient Rome also, though in the course of time the situation of the Roman woman was improved.

As the method of production became more elaborate and the social life was modified as a consequence, the “great family” disappeared, to be replaced by the modern family, consisting of the husband and wife with their unmarried children. Through the increasing extension of the division of labor the sons could more easily provide for their own needs and withdraw themselves in this way from the paternal authority, and the increasing power of the state favored this tendency by limiting the authority of the father.

The best sources for the study of the first phases of monogamous marriage are furnished by ancient Greece. There absolute submission of the woman to the man still prevailed. After the decease of the husband the woman was under the guardianship of his son. The man could repudiate his wife or give her to another. While he had full liberty to have intercourse with other women, the woman who committed adultery was severely punished. The occupations of the woman were confined to spinning, weaving, and housekeeping; her life was concentrated within the house, though even there her authority was very limited, while outside it had no force whatever.

In comparing the position of woman during the period in question [[299]]with that in the earlier periods (excepting the lower agricultural period) we see that in general her condition is but little ameliorated. Monogamy existed in reality for one of the parties only, since the man was free to keep concubines, while he took every means in his power to prevent the infidelity of his wife, by isolating her from the outer world. Hence it is not true, as some would have us believe, that monogamy is the consequence of an instinct, nor that it is due to a higher degree of culture, made possible by the increased productivity of labor.[42] On the contrary, among the lower agriculturists, much less civilized than the ancient Greeks, the position of women was better than with the latter; being more free, the woman enjoyed in general a higher degree of consideration.

The origin of monogamy is explained only by the modifications that the mode of production has undergone. Through these the man has again taken the most important place in the economic life, it is he who governs and the woman has only to obey him. Thus it is that through the continual increase of private property monogamy sprung up, that is to say the union of a man and a woman with the object of producing legitimate children who might inherit the property of the father.[43]

Since that time monogamy has persisted to our own day. However important the modifications which the method of production has undergone since the rise of monogamy, the fact remains that a certain part of the work necessary to existence belongs still to the work of housekeeping, which, as at other times, is performed by the women. The more important labors, those which give the greater social power to him who executes them, fall upon the man, and from this fact his preponderance still persists.

Though the position of the married woman may be somewhat improved when compared with that at the beginning of civilization, nevertheless a study of existing civil codes (especially of the French civil code and of those for which it has served as a model) shows that the married woman is in general still in a state of great dependence. The woman must obey her husband and follow him wherever he wishes; except where otherwise stipulated in the marriage contract the husband has the management of his wife’s fortune and the income from it belongs to him; it is the man who exercises parental authority; the woman cannot appear in a lawsuit without the assistance of her husband; etc. [[300]]

The difference between the position of the married woman of today and that of former times consists principally in that the consent of both parties is necessary to conclude the marriage, that the husband can no longer repudiate his wife, but can only dissolve the union for important reasons (adultery, cruelty, etc.), and that the woman also, for the same reasons, can obtain separation or divorce.