The Universal KinshipMoore, J. Howard (John Howard)
Philosophy
The Universal Kinship
Moore, J. Howard (John Howard)
Evolution; Human beings; Sociology
of the facts associated with aboriginal marriages. A marriage in
high life is a sort of epitome of the evolution of the institution.
The coyness and hesitancy of the woman in accepting the offers of
her proposed spouse are the lineal descendants of the original
reluctance of her savage sisters. The wedding-ring is the old token
accepted by the woman when she gave her pledge of bondage. The
coming of the groom with his aids to the marriage is a figurative
marauding expedition. The honeymoon is the abduction. And the
charivari and missile-throwing indulged in by friends and relatives
on the departure of the wedded twain is a good-humoured counterfeit
of the armed protest made by relatives of old when a bride-snatcher
came among them.[5]
The vestiges found everywhere in the mental and social phenomena of
man and other animals have arisen as necessary facts in the process
of mental evolution. _They are the vermiform appendices of the mind_.
8. One of the strongest reasons for a belief in the physical
evolution of animal species is that furnished by individual
evolution. Each individual animal recapitulates in a wonderful
manner the phylogenesis of its species. Now, it is extremely
significant that a similar parallel exists in the case of mental
evolution. Each individual mind ascends through a series of mental
faculties which epitomises in a remarkable manner the psychogenesis
of the animal kingdom.
The human child is not born with a full-grown mind any more than
with a full-grown body. It grows. It exfoliates. It ripens with the
years. It begins in infancy at the zero-point, and in manhood or
womanhood may blaze with genius and philanthropy.
But the mind of the child not only unfolds: it unfolds in a certain
order, the more complex parts and the more civilised emotions
invariably appearing last. The initial powers of the newborn babe
are those of sensation and perception. The babe cannot think. It has
no feeling of fear, no affection, no sympathy, and no shame. It can
see, and hear, and taste, and feel pain and satisfaction—and these
are about all. Even these are vague and confused. In a week the
perceptions are more sharp and vivid, more distinct and orderly.
Memory arises. Memory is the power of reproducing past impressions.
At three weeks the emotions begin to sprout. The first to make their
appearance are fear and surprise. When the babe is seven weeks old
the social affections show themselves, and the simplest acts of
association are performed. At the age of twelve weeks jealousy and
anger may be expected, together with simple exhibitions of
association by similarity. At fourteen weeks affection and reason
dawn. Sympathy germinates at about the age of five months; pride and
resentment germinate at eight months; grief, hate, and benevolence
at ten months; and shame and remorse at fifteen months.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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