The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought: Studies of the Activities and Influences of the Child Among Primitive Peoples, Their Analogues and Survivals in the Civilization of To-DayChamberlain, Alexander Francis
Science
The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought: Studies of the Activities and Influences of the Child Among Primitive Peoples, Their Analogues and Survivals in the Civilization of To-Day
Chamberlain, Alexander Francis
Child rearing; Children -- Folklore; Folklore and children
As Westermarck points out, there are "several instances of husband and
wife not living together before the birth of a child." Here belong the
temporary marriages of the Creek Indians, the East Greenlanders, the
Fuegians, the Essenes, and some other Old World sects and peoples--the
birth of a child completes the marriage--"marriage is therefore rooted
in family, rather than family in marriage," in such cases. With the
Ainos of the island of Tezo, the Khyens of Farther India, and with one
of the aboriginal tribes of China, so Westermarck informs us, "the
husband goes to live with his wife at her father's house, and never
takes her away till after the birth of a child," and with more than one
other people the wife remains with her own parents until she becomes a
mother (166. 22, 23).
In some parts of the United States we find similar practices among the
population of European ancestry. The "boarding-out" of young couples
until a child is born to them is by no means uncommon.
_Adoption._
Adoption is, among some primitive peoples, remarkably extensive. Among
the natives of the Andaman Islands "it is said to be of rare occurrence
to find any child above six or seven years of age residing with its
parents, and this, because it is considered a compliment and also a mark
of friendship for a married man, after paying a visit, to ask his hosts
to allow him to adopt one of their children" (498. 57).
Of the Hawaiian Islanders, Letourneau remarks (100. 389, 390): "Adoption
was rendered extremely easy; a man would give himself a father or sons
almost _ad infinitum_." In the Marquesas Islands "it was not
uncommon to see elderly persons being adopted by children." Moreover,
"animals even were adopted. A chief adopted a dog, to whom, he offered
ten pigs and some precious ornaments. The dog was carried about by a
_kikino_, and at every meal he had his stated place beside his
adopted father." Connected with adoption are many curious rites and
ceremonies which may be found described in Ploss and other authorities.
Dr. Friedrich S. Krauss (280) has recently treated at some length of a
special form of adoption symbolized by the cutting of the hair, and
particularly known among the southern Slavonians. The cutting off the
hair here represents, the author thinks, the unconditional surrendering
of one's body or life to another. The origin of the sacrifice of the
hair is to be sought in the fact that primitive peoples have believed
that the seat of the soul was in the hair and the blood, which were
offered to the spirits or demons in lieu of the whole body. The relation
between nurse and child has been treated of by Ploss and Wiedniann
(167), the latter with special reference to ancient Egypt and the
Mohammedan countries. In ancient Egypt the nurse was reckoned as one of
the family, and in the death-steles and reliefs of the Middle Kingdom
her name and figure are often found following those of the children and
parents of the deceased.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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