Introduction to the History of Religions: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IVToy, Crawford Howell
HistoryHistory
Introduction to the History of Religions: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV
Toy, Crawford Howell
Mythology; Religion -- History; Religions -- History; Rites and ceremonies
+430+. Objections may be raised to all these theories. It is doubtful
whether a scarcity of women existed in early times; and supposing that
there were not women enough in a clan for the men of the clan, this
would not stand in the way of men's taking as wives their clan
women.[782] The assumption of primitive sexual promiscuity, likewise,
cannot be said to be distinctly borne out by known facts.[783] Morgan's
theory, however, is not dependent on this assumption--it need only
suppose repugnance to the marriage of blood relations. Such repugnance
granted, the main objection to the theory rests on the difficulty of
supposing savages capable of originating so thoughtful and elastic a
scheme as the exogamous system. This is a point on which it is not
possible to speak positively. The lowest tribes have produced languages
of wonderfully intricate and delicate construction, and, supposing the
process of constructing marriage regulations to have gone on during a
very long period, modifications introduced from time to time, to meet
conditions felt to be important, might conceivably result in such
exogamous systems as are now found.
+431+. As to absence of sexual attraction between persons brought up
together,[784] this seems to be a result rather than a cause of the
prohibition of sexual relations between certain classes of persons. The
argument from habits of the lower animals is indefinite--no general
habit has been proven. In orgies in India and elsewhere no repulsion
appears between persons of the same family. In the ancient world
marriage between such persons was legal and not uncommon.
+432+. The human horde, with its jealous patriarch, appears to be a
creation of the scientific imagination. It, again, was derived by its
author from the procedure of certain beast-herds in which the strongest
male drives away his rivals. It is supposed, however, that in the human
horde the young men, having found wives, are allowed to come back
bringing their wives with them, and these last the patriarch is supposed
not to appropriate. The theory is supported by no facts of actual usage.
+433+. The supposition that the young men of a clan or tribe go off to
seek food, and thus found a new clan, has more in its favor. Being
compelled to seek wives in their new surroundings, they might thus
initiate a habit of outside marriage that would in time become general
usage and therefore sacred. Secession from tribes does occur, and may
have been frequent in prehistoric times, but concerning these times we
have little or no information. It may be said that movements of this
sort would furnish a more probable starting-point for savage customs
than the ideas and schemes mentioned above.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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