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
Marriage also, like the family, is said to pass through several
distinct phases of development. Thus, with respect to the number
of persons joining in a household, Friedrichs distinguishes four
"forms" of marriage which, with equal propriety, may be called
forms of the family. These are group-marriage, polyandry, polygyny,
and monogamy, the first three forms having several varieties.[155]
But, as will hereafter appear,[156] it would be rash to infer that
these forms necessarily arise in the order named. Again, with
regard to the way in which it originates, marriage presents a
number of successive stages. According to Kohler,[157] these are
marriage by capture, marriage by purchase, religious marriage,
and civil marriage. That wife-capture generally gives place to
wife-purchase, and this in turn to marriage by gift, and then to
the modern contract between the parents, or later between the
parties themselves, is especially insisted upon. Hildebrand,[158]
however, reverses this order. A measure of progress he finds in what
he regards as the three great industrial stages of human culture:
those of the chase, pastoral life, and agriculture. In the first
stage, not communism, but a tendency toward monogamy prevails.
There is little notion of private property; hence covetousness is
not a motive of social action. Marriages are freely formed through
presents given to the parents, or even without them by simple
agreement of the parties. Later, with the rise of private property,
marriage by purchase and marriage by capture come into existence;
though capture is always exceptional and of comparatively little
importance in the history of marriage.
[155] FRIEDRICHS, "Familienstufen und Eheformen,"
_ZVR._, X, 256-58.
[156] See below, chaps. iii, iv.
[157] "Wie die Ehe aus der Ueberwältigung der Frau durch den
Mann hervorging, und wie sie sich von da aus zum Frauenkaufe
gestaltete; wie sie zur religiösen Heilanstalt wurde und wie
sie von da aus zum geläuterten Rechtsinstitute umbildete, indem
die religiöse Feier nicht mehr obligat blieb, ... lehrt uns das
indische Recht klarer, als jedes andere."--"Indisches Ehe- und
Familienrecht," _ZVR._, III, 342, 343.
[158] HILDEBRAND, _Ueber das Problem einer algemeinen
Entwicklungsgeschichte_, 14 ff., 17 ff.; _idem_, _Recht und Sitte
auf den versch_. _Kulturstufen_, 9 ff.
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