A History of Matrimonial Institutions, Vol. 1 of 3Howard, George Elliott
History
A History of Matrimonial Institutions, Vol. 1 of 3
Howard, George Elliott
Families; Marriage -- History
[303] _Early Law and Custom_, 204, 205, note.
[304] WESTERMARCK, _op. cit._, 115; MANTEGAZZA,
_Die Hygiene der Liebe_, 405; _cf._ MAINE, _op. cit._,
204.
[305] _Op. cit._, 115.
[306] _Ibid._, 115-17. Thus in Tibet but one of the husbands was
usually at home; and among the Todas betrothals are made with the
condition that each of the husbands should live with the wife a
month by turns: _ibid._, 116.
[307] See the elaborate investigation of WESTERMARCK,
_op. cit._, chaps, xiv, xv, especially 334 ff.
According to Westermarck, the strongest objection to ancient
promiscuity "is derived from the psychical nature of man and other
animals."[308] The third or psychological argument therefore
alleges the universal prevalence of sexual jealousy among the
races of men.[309] Darwin declares that this passion is found
among all male quadrupeds with which he is acquainted; and comes
to the conclusion, therefore, that "looking far enough back in the
stream of time, and judging from the social habits of man as he
now exists, the most probable view is that he aboriginally lived
in small communities, each with a single wife, or if powerful with
several, whom he jealously guarded against all other men."[310]
That jealousy is unknown among "almost all uncivilized peoples" is,
indeed, asserted by many adherents of the horde theory.[311] But a
mass of evidence relating to savage and barbarous races in all parts
of the world shows that such assertions are without foundation. In
many tribes the suspected wife is exposed to the vengeful fury of
the jealous husband. For example, among the California Indians,
according to Powers, "if a married woman is seen even walking in
the forest with another man than her husband she is chastised by
him;" and "a repetition of the offense is generally punished with
speedy death."[312] So "among the Creek 'it was formerly reckoned
adultery, if a man took a pitcher of water off a married woman's
head and drank of it.'"[313] Women, we are told, are held in little
esteem among the Innuit on the coast of Labrador; yet "the men are
very jealous," and death is often the penalty for adultery on the
part of either spouse.[314] Magalhães, who visited "more than a
hundred villages" among "thirty tribes" of Brazilian natives, some
of them "already half civilized and others still entirely free from
any participation in our institutions, ideas, and pre-conceived
notions," records as a result of his observations that "there exists
in the Indian family all grades from institutions strict to a degree
exceeding anything history tells us about down to the community of
women.... Thus I know tribes where there is no marriage, and I know
others in which a woman committing adultery is punished by being
burned."[315] Moreover, he emphatically warns us that he is speaking
here of the "uncatechised" native, not yet demoralized by missionary
influence.[316] According to Dobrizhoffer, the Abipones of Paraguay
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