The history of human marriage
by Edward Westermarke.
Page 23
I do not propose to discuss marriage in all its aspects, but shall, in the main, restrict myself to the following subjects : — the origin of marriage and questions connected with it, such as sexual periodicity, the various groups of facts which have been regarded as evidence of primitive promiscuity (alleged instances of peoples living in promiscuity, pre-nuptial unchastity, the jus primae noctis, religious prostitution, the lending and exchange of wives, feasts at which promiscuous intercourse is indulged in, the classificatory system of relationship, mother-right), and masculine jealousy ; the frequency of marriage and the marriage age; celibacy; sexual modesty, which has a bearing both on celibacy and on some marriage customs; courtship and its various features; primitive means of attraction; sexual selection as influenced both by preferences and aversions, and the endogamous and exogamous rules which are rooted in the latter ; the methods of contracting a marriage, such as capture, consent, and the giving of a consideration for the wife either in the form of the exchange of bride for bride, or of service, or of true purchase, or of gifts, or of the exchange of presents; the marriage portion; marriage rites; monogamy, polygyny, polyandry, and group marriage and other group-relations; the duration of marriage and the rules relating to its dissolution.
Page 106
Legends of this sort can no more be regarded as evidence of primitive promiscuity than the second chapter of Genesis can be quoted in proof of primitive monogamy. They may be simply due to the tendency of the popular mind to ascribe almost any great institution to a wise legislator or ruler, if not to direct divine intervention. But at the same time I do not deny that they may be an echo of social conditions in the past. The story in the Mahabharata may allude to the laxity of morals among the non-Aryan people of India and the Himalayas, as the polyandry of the five Pandavas is probably an allusion to their polyandrous practices. Lassen fixed the abode of the Uttarakurus beyond that great mountain chain. The Athenian legend, again, has been represented as a survival of mother-right; but that matrilineal descent once prevailed in Greece is an hypothesis which has been strongly contested. Mr. Rose suggests that the legend in question may be “the theory of primitive promiscuity, no less a theory and no more a fact because stated by an anthropologist who lived 2000 years ago.” He adds that any one who has read Lucretius or Ovid knows how much in favour this theory was among Greek scientists.
The History of Human Marriage. Volume I, 5th edition (1921)
The History of Human Marriage. Volume II, 5th edition (1921)
The History of Human Marriage. Volume III, 5th edition (1921)