The Evolution of Marriage and of the FamilyLetourneau, Ch. (Charles)
Science
The Evolution of Marriage and of the Family
Letourneau, Ch. (Charles)
Families; Marriage
V. _The Clan and the Family._--The European family has not been the
“cellule” of societies--The primitive clan.
I. _The Clan among the Redskins._
In the preceding chapter we have seen the nature of Redskin exogamy, on
which it has sometimes been attempted to construct theories of conjugal
evolution applicable to the entire human race. As a matter of fact, the
North American Indians marry within their tribe; they are therefore
endogamous as regards the tribe, but they do not take their wives from
their own clan, and consequently they are exogamous as regards this
clan. But the clan being composed of real or supposed blood-relations,
the exogamy of the Redskins is actually nothing more than our own
prohibition, very much extended, of marriages within certain degrees of
kinship.
There is really nothing here which resembles marriage by capture, so
often classed with exogamy; but the latter may very easily co-exist
with the former, and may even be the general rule in more savage
tribes. It prevailed, we are told, among the Caribs[928] to such a
degree that the wives did not speak the same language as their husbands.
How was the American tribe originally formed? Either consanguineous
hordes have ranged themselves side by side, or, which is more
probable, a horde, becoming too numerous, has swarmed. Analogous
groups, proceeding from it, have formed large families, remaining
all the while attached to the original stock, but constituting,
nevertheless, distinct communities, confederated with each other and
with the primitive clan, which at length became indistinguishable
from the others. The whole of these clans taken together represent a
tribe. If the clans are too numerous, they group themselves in twos,
or threes, etc., within the bosom of the tribe, and thus form what in
primitive Greece were called _phratries_, the bond between them being
a lesser degree of kinship. At first, marriage was prohibited within
the phratry, and afterwards exogamy was restricted to the clans. The
clans composing the phratry had festivals in common, and considered
themselves bound to aid each other in revenging wrongs.[929] The clan,
or _gens_, is a group of persons united by a closer consanguinity, but
in the female line. The children of the women of the clan remain in
the clan of their mother. “The woman bears the clan,” say the Wyandot
Indians,[930] just as our ancestors said, “The womb dyes the child.”
Each clan has its _totem_ (a tortoise, bear, eland, or fox, etc.). In
the “long houses” of the Iroquois, or in the Pueblos, the members of
each clan even had a common habitation, in which each family had its
own cell; but the members of this cell-family belonged to different
clans, as the husband was not of the same clan as his wife, and
sometimes did not inhabit the same dwelling. We have heard it said many
times that “the family is the social cellule.” Now this is evidently
false in regard to the American tribe, and to all tribes that are
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