The Truth About Woman Part 7

[77] H.O. Forbes, _A Naturalist's Wanderings_, p. 131; quoted by Havelock Ellis, _Psychology of s.e.x_, Vol. III. pp. 33-34.

[78] Darwin, _Descent of Man_, p. 438.

[79] Epinas, _Soc. animales_, p. 326; and Letourneau, _Evolution of Marriage_, p. 14.

[80] Darwin, _Descent of Man_, p. 438; Letourneau, _op. cit._, p. 13.

[81] _Annali del Museo civico di storia naturale di Genova_, t. IX.

fasc. 3-4, 1877, quoted by Letourneau, whose account I give; _op.

cit._, p. 14.

[82] Havelock Ellis, _Psychology of s.e.x_, Vol. III. pp. 18-24, has discussed this question at some length. The brief account I have given is a summary of his view. I take this opportunity of gratefully acknowledging the great help I have gained from the illuminating and valuable works of Mr. Ellis.

[83] These facts are taken from Mr. J. Lewis Bonhote's _British Birds_. I may add that in many species where the s.e.xes are alike the young are quite different from the parents, a fact which seems to have escaped the notice of those who say that the young birds resemble the female. A very curious instance is furnished by the greater spotted woodp.e.c.k.e.r, where the s.e.xes are similar, but the female lacks the red crown of the male; and yet the young _of both s.e.xes_ have this red crown.

[84] This seems to be the position taken by Professor Geddes and J.A.

Thomson in _Evolution of s.e.x_, pp. 4-5.

[85] Several examples are mentioned by Wallace, _Darwinism_, p. 281.

He, however, brings them forward in quite a different connection to prove his theory of the protective duller colours of the female birds.

[86] My facts of the phalaropes are taken from J. Lewis Bonhote's _British Birds_, pp. 314-315.

[87] _Pure Sociology_, p. 331.

[88] Epinas, _Soc. animales_, p. 422.

[89] Audubon, _Scenes de la Nature_, t. Ier, p. 29. I may say, that at the time of writing this, while staying in the country, I have had an opportunity of watching these bands of female turkeys with their young. Their fear at the approach of the strutting noisy male is very manifest. On such occasions they at once seek shelter. I once saw them fly into a church. The females invariably keep together. I have never seen a single mother with her young.

[90] Letourneau, _Evolution of Marriage_, chapter on the "Family among Animals," pp. 29-34, from which these cases are taken.

[91] Epinas, _Soc. animales_, p. 443. In this connection I may mention the fact that in Southern Spain, where the women are noted for their love of their children, I have often seen mothers sitting at their doors for several hours, extracting lice from the heads and bodies of their children. I once saw a beautiful _flamenca_ (Sevillian gipsy) performing this task for her lover.

[92] Letourneau, _Evolution of Marriage_, p. 32.

[93] Darwin, _Descent of Man_, p. 399.

[94] _Ibid._, p. 234.

[95] _Ibid._, p. 455.

[96] J.G. Millais, _Natural History of British Ducks_, pp. 8, 13.

PART II

HISTORICAL SECTION

CONTENTS OF CHAPTER VI

THE MOTHER-AGE CIVILISATION

I.--_Progress from Lower to Higher Forms of the Family Relations.h.i.+p_

Primitive human love--The same domination of s.e.x-needs in man as among the animals--Different conditions of expression--Acquisition of a new element--The individuation of love--s.e.x uninterruptedly interesting--The human need for s.e.xual variety--The personal end of pa.s.sion--Primitive s.e.x-customs and forms of marriage--Superabundance of evidence--An attempt to group the periods to be considered--An early period in which man developed from his ape-like ancestors--Ill.u.s.trations from primitive savages--First formation of tribal groups--Second period--Mother-descent and mother-rights--The position of women--The importance of this early matriarchate--The transitional period from mother-right to father-right--The a.s.sertion of the male force in the person of the woman's brother--This alien position of the husband and father--The formation of the patriarchal family--The change a gradual one and dependent upon property--Civilisation started with the woman as the dominant partner--Traces of mother-descent found in all parts of the world--Evidence of folk-lore as legends--Examples of mother-descent in the early history of England, Scotland, and Ireland--The freedom enjoyed by women--Survival of mother-right customs among the ancient Hebrews.

II.--_The Matriarchal Family in America_

Traces of mother-descent frequent in the American continent--Mother-rule still in force in some districts--Morgan's description of the system among the Iroquois--The customs of Iroquois tribes--Communal dwellings--The authority of the women--The creeping in of changes leading to father-right--The system of government among the Wyandots--Further examples of the s.e.xual relations.h.i.+ps--The interesting customs of the Seri tribe--The probation of the bridegroom--His service to the bride's family--Stringent character of the conditions imposed--The freedom granted to the bride--A decisive example of the position of power held by women--The Pueblos--The customs of these tribes--Monogamic marriage--The happy family relations.h.i.+p--This the result of the supremacy of the wife in the home--Conclusions to be drawn from these examples of mother-rights among the Aboriginal tribes of America--Women the dominant force in this stage of civilisation--Why this early power of women has been denied--A meeting with a native Iroquois--He testifies to the high status and power of the Indian women.

III.--_Further Examples of the Matriarchal Family in Australia, India and other Countries_

The question of the position of women during the mother-age a disputed one--Bachofen's opinion--An early period of gynaeocracy--This view not accepted--Need for unprejudiced opinion--Women the first owners of property--Their power dependent on this--Further examples of mother-right customs--The maternal family in Australia--Communal marriage--Mother-right in India--The influence of Brahmanism--Traces of the maternal family--Some interesting marriage customs--Polyandry--Examples of its practice--Great polyandrous centres--The freedom enjoyed by women--The causes of polyandry--Matriarchal polyandry--The interesting custom of the Nayars--The Malays of Sumatra--The _ambel-anak_ marriage--Letter from a private correspondent--It proves the high status of women under the early customs of mother-descent--Traces of the maternal family among the Arabs--The custom of _beena_ marriage--Position of women in the Mariana Islands--Rebellion of the husbands--Use of religious symbolism--The slave-wife--Her consecration to the Bossum or G.o.d in Guinea.

IV.--_The Transition to Father-right_

The position of women in Burma--The code of Manu--Women's activity in trade--Conditions of free-divorce--Traces of mother-descent in j.a.pan--In China--In Madagascar--The power of royal princesses--Tyrannical authority of the princesses of Loango--In Africa descent through women the rule--Ill.u.s.trations--The transition to father-right--The power pa.s.sing from the mother into the hand of the maternal uncle--Proofs from the customs of the African tribes--The rise of father-right--Reasons which led to the change--Marriage by capture and marriage by purchase--The payment of a bride-price--Marriage with a slave-wife--The conflict between the old and the new system--Ill.u.s.tration by the curious marriage customs of the Ha.s.sanyeh Arabs of the White Nile--Father-right dependent on economic considerations--_Resume_--General conclusions to be drawn from the mother-age--Its relation to the present revolt of women--The bright side of father-right.

CHAPTER VI

THE MOTHER-AGE CIVILISATION

I.--_Progress from Lower to Higher Forms of the Family Relations.h.i.+p_

"The reader who grasps that a thousand years is but a small period in the evolution of man, and yet realises how diverse were morality and customs in matters of s.e.x in the period which this essay treats of" (_i.e._ _Mother-Age Civilisation_), "will hardly approach modern social problems with the notion that there is a rigid and unchangeable code of right and wrong. He will mark, in the first place, a continuous flux in all social inst.i.tutions and moral standards; but in the next place, if he be a real historical student, he will appreciate the slowness of this steady secular change; he will perceive how almost insensible it is in the lifetime of individuals, and although he may work for social reforms, he will refrain from constructing social Utopias."--Professor KARL PEARSON.

Our study of the s.e.xual a.s.sociations among animals has brought us to understand how large a part the gratification of the s.e.x-instincts plays in animal life, equalling and, indeed, overmastering and directing the hunger instinct for food. If we now turn to man we find the same domination of s.e.x-needs, but under different conditions of expression.[97] Man not only loves, but he knows that he loves; a new factor is added, and s.e.x itself is lifted to a plane of clear self-consciousness. Pathways are opened up to great heights, but also to great depths.

We must not, therefore, expect to take up our study of primitive human s.e.xual and familial a.s.sociations at the point where those of the mammals and birds leave off.[98] We have with man to some extent to begin again, so that it may appear, on a superficial view, that the first steps now taken in love's evolution were in a backward direction. But the fact is that the increased powers of recollection and heightened complexity of nervous organisation among men, led to different habits and social customs, separating man radically in his love from the animals. Man's instincts are very vague when compared, for instance, with the beautiful love-habits of birds; he is necessarily guided by conflicting forces, inborn and acquired. Thus precisely by means of his added qualities he took a new and personal, rather than an instinctive, interest in s.e.x; and this after a time, even if not at first, aroused a state of consciousness in love which made s.e.x uninterruptedly interesting in contrast with the fixed pairing season among animals. Hence arose also a human and different need for s.e.xual variety, much stronger than can ever have been experienced by the animals, which resulted in a constant tendency towards s.e.xual licence, of a more or less p.r.o.nounced promiscuity, in group marriage and other forms of s.e.xual a.s.sociation which developed from it.

This is so essential to our understanding of human love, that I wish I could follow it further. All the elaborate phenomena of s.e.x in the animal kingdom have for their end the reproduction of the species. But in the case of man there is another purpose, often transcending this end--the independent significance of s.e.x emotion, both on the physical and psychical side, to the individual. It seems to me that women have special need to-day to remember this personal end of human pa.s.sion.

This is not, however, the place to enter upon this question.

I have now to attempt to trace as clearly as I can the history of primitive human love. To do this it will be necessary to refer to comparative ethnography.[99] We must investigate the s.e.x customs, forms of marriage and the family, still to be found among primitive peoples, scattered about the world. These early forms of the s.e.xual relations.h.i.+p were once of much wider occurrence, and they have left unmistakable traces in the history of many races. Further evidence is furnished by folk stories and legends. In peasant festivals and dances and in many religious ceremonies we may find survivals of primitive s.e.x customs. They may be traced in our common language, especially in the words used for s.e.x and kin relations.h.i.+ps. We can also find them shadowed in certain of our marriage rites and s.e.x habits to-day. The difficulty does not rest in paucity of material, but rather in its superabundance--far too extensive to allow anything like adequate treatment within the s.p.a.ce of a brief and necessarily insufficient chapter. For this reason I shall limit my inquiry almost wholly to those cases which have some facts to tell us of the position occupied by women in the primitive family. I shall try to avoid falling into the error of a one-sided view. Facts are more important here than reflections, and, as far as possible, I shall let these speak for themselves.

In order to group these facts it may be well to give first a rough outline of the periods to be considered--

1. A very early period, during which man developed from his ape-like ancestors. This may be called the pre-matriarchal stage. With this absolutely primitive period we are concerned only in so far as to suggest how a second more social period developed from it. The idea of descent was so feeble that no permanent family groups existed, and the family remains in the primitive biological relation of male, female and offspring. The Botocudos, Fuegians, West Australians and Veddahs of Ceylon represent this primitive stage, more or less completely.

They have apparently not reached the stage where the fact of kins.h.i.+p expresses itself in maternal social organisation.[100] A yet lower level may be seen among certain low tribes in the interior of Borneo--absolutely primitive savages, who are probably the remains of the negroid peoples, believed to be the first inhabitants of Malaya.

These people roam the forests in hordes, like monkeys; the males carry off the females and couple with them in the thickets. The families pa.s.s the night under the trees, and the children are suspended from the branches in a sort of net. As soon as the young are capable of caring for themselves, the parents turn them adrift as the animals do.[101]