consanguinity that still existed in Hawaii during the first part of the
19th Century, in name only, but no longer in fact. On the other hand,
according to the American Indian system of consanguinity, a brother and
sister can never be the father and mother of the same child--a thing,
however, permissible in the Hawaiian family system. Probably the
consanguine family was the state that, at the time of Herodotus, existed
among the Massagetae, on the subject of which he reports: "Each man
received a wife, but all were allowed to use her." And he continues: "At
any time a man desires a woman, he hangs his quiver in front of his
wagon, and cohabits, unconcerned, with her.... He at the same time
sticks his staff into the ground, a symbol of his own act....
Cohabitation is exercised in public."[3] Similar conditions Bachofen
shows have existed among the Lycians, Etruscans, Cretans, Athenians,
Lesbians and Egyptians.
According to Morgan, the consanguine family is supervened by a third and
higher form of family relationship, which he designates as the Punaluan
family. _Punalua_, "dear friend," "intimate companion."
Cunow, in his above named book, takes exception to Morgan's views that
the consanguine family, which rests on the organization of marriage
classes by generations, preceded the punaluan family as an original
organization. Cunow does not see in the consanguine family the most
primitive of all social forms, until now discovered. He sees in it
merely a middle form, that takes its origin in the generation groups; a
transition stage toward the pure gentile organization, on which, as a
graft, the division in age classes, belonging to the consanguine family
system, still continues for a time in altered form, along with the
division in totem-groups.[4] Cunow explains further: The division in
classes--every individual, man or woman, carries the name of his or her
class and generation group totem--does not serve to exclude sexual
intercourse between collateral, but to prevent cohabitation between
relatives in the ascending and descending line, between parents and
children, aunts and nephews, uncles and nieces. Terms such as "aunt,"
"uncle," etc., he designates as grade-names.
Cunow furnishes the proofs for the correctness of the views in which he
differs from Morgan on some points. But, however he may differ from
Morgan in single instances, he emphatically defends him against the
attacks of Westermann and others. He says:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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