CHAPTER IV

MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY

IN the examination of the crises in the life of the savage and the passage from one state to another, nothing was said regarding marriage and the family. They belong to other categories; the family is more or less a biological unit, whereas the institution of marriage in early society is perhaps more economic than anything else. Marriage regulates what might be called the legal association of the sexes, and it also assigns to every individual born "a definite place in that society by which his or her social relations to the rest of society are determined."

THE FAMILY ANTERIOR TO HUMAN SOCIETY

The change from a life in the trees to a life on the ground marks the first important stage in the history of the family. A small arboreal primate gave way to man's nearest ancestors, the giant primates, whose great increase in size and weight made life in the trees precarious. The greater bulk meant that more food was needed than could be found above the ground. The increase of weight made hanging from trees impossible and the tail became functionless. It was also no longer needed to maintain balance. When this proto-anthropoid descended to earth, two possible lines of evolution were open to

him. He could either walk on all fours as the baboon has done, or he could assume the erect attitude as has man and the anthropoid apes. This change to a terrestrial life and the erect posture brought about the specialization of hands and feet. The root of the former tail was depressed between the legs and now served another function, the support of the viscera.

This transition to a life on the ground brought with it greater dangers from other animals, and the protective function of the male was stimulated to offset this added risk. These giant apes had a brain capacity far exceeding their progenitors. The increase in the size of the brain probably made necessary a rapid growth in uterine life.

There was also a decrease in the number of offspring at birth. This may have been due to the increase in the size of the head in utero, the pelvis in general being too restricted for multiple offspring. The long period of development after birth brought about a prolongation of helpless infancy with the consequent need for parental care and, more especially, the necessity for paternal solicitude. This prolongation of infancy, coupled with the dangers of a terrestrial life meant co-operation between father and mother, and the family had begun to function.

The anthropoid apes are not gregarious, and, in accord with the theory advanced here, real society does not arrive until the human stage is reached. There is still a large gap between the anthropoid apes and man, more especially in the size and weight of the brain. The cranial capacity of the gorilla, the largest of the apes, is only about one third that of man. Somewhere within the gap articulate speech came into use. With speech

the came to man the possibility of discussion with his fellows. With the large brain there came the power of abstraction, of reasoning back from effect to cause, and of rectifying present conduct from past mistakes. His "learning" could be taught his offspring and thus be an advantage to the next generation.

But we are concerned here only with the family, which is the real unit of society. It grows out of the expression of one of the strongest of man's impulses. It furnishes an instructive basis for altruism and social co-ordination, and brings about the first division of labor. The question of plurality of husbands or of wives merely relates to the form alone. Curiously enough the primary meaning of the word family referred only to the body of slaves and servants who labored for its maintenance. Mommsen uses the phrase "body of servants" as the Latin significance of the term.

The family stands apart as the one human institution where physical and physiological functions, and psychological ones as well, clearly define the status of the two main members of the group, the father and the mother. Self-perpetuation and self-preservation are enlarged into family perpetuation and family preservation, and on these two "proto-positions" hang most of the elements found inherent in early society. The whole structure of the family is based upon these two lines of action. The expression and regulation of the sex impulse must therefore receive attention.

SEX IN EARLY SOCIETY

A great deal has been written regarding the prominence of sex in the lower orders of mankind. Some would have us believe that the savage thinks of little else, and

that the greater part of his time and of his ingenuity is turned towards sexual affairs. The lowest savages can plead "not guilty" to this charge. In the higher stages of primitive society there is often gross sexuality, but the perversions of sexual life are almost entirely absent in the lower types of savagery. The separation of the sexes by the institution of the men's-house, the prevalence of curious marriage relationships, the character of many festivals and many folk-tales, the presence of certain kinds of worship; all these and many more are usually taken as examples of the prominence of sex among primitive peoples. The natural attitude in regard to sex matters and to various bodily functions is a characteristic of uncivilized society. Sex, it is true, does not stand apart as a thing to be hidden. Offenses against our ideas. of modesty and decency do often occur, but it is certainly true that our standard of much which is modest and decent would not pass in primitive society. It can therefore truthfully be said that, taken in the large, the savage is a clean-minded individual, in spite of transgressions against our code of right and wrong. This question of morality will be considered at length in another place.

We may find among peoples of the very lowest cultures a family life not at all unlike that of an ideal American household. Many years ago, I lived in the center of the Guatemalan bush for three periods comprising almost a year in length. My hut was a shelter composed only of a roof. It touched the house of a family group consisting of a mother and three sons. The eldest had two wives; the second, one; and the third was unmarried. There were eight children, and all lived together in this single-room house, consisting, also, of only a roof, with no sides. During the entire time I

was there I heard no word of censure, no wrangling of any kind. In spite of the complication of relationshipsthe multiple wives, the mother-in-law, and the unmarried son-I daily witnessed the life of one of the most ideal family groups I have ever seen. And these people belonged to a tribe which had never come into intimate contact with the Spanish-speaking people of the country. They were, fortunately for my purposes, uncivilized, and perhaps fortunate themselves in this respect.

There are the greatest extremes in the social solidarity of the family as a group. There may be a separation of the unmarried boys and girls from the family, usually inaugurated at adolescence; or there may be a segregation of all the men of the community in the men's-house; and in some cases, this separation exists even at meal times. When, however, we review the differences in the character of the family life in various countries occupied by members of our own race, we realize that family ideals operate within very wide limits. The savages are not the only people who relegate the women to domestic affairs pure and simple, nor is the savage the only person who spends most of his time at his club. Unlike the modern civilized community, however, it is the men, not the women, who take the greatest interest in religious pursuits. Most frequently the women are denied any active part in the worship of the gods.

This is not the time or place to enlarge upon the present status of the modern family where, beyond the mere act of propagation, the activities of some families cease. Day nurseries, nursery schools, kindergartens, and summer camps take away many of the functions of the family. Instruction, deportment, and religion are all usually outside the family at the present time.