A History of Matrimonial Institutions (Vol. 1-3). George Elliott Howard

A History of Matrimonial Institutions (Vol. 1-3) - George Elliott Howard


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of Sociology, 110 ff.; and the literature cited below on the Australian class-systems, and on the works of Morgan and Spencer.

      The custom, found among Egyptians, Tibetans, Wotjäken, American Indians, and other peoples, permitting girls freely to prostitute themselves before marriage is similarly put in evidence: Herodotus, II, 121, 124, 125, 126; IV, 176; V, 6; Post, Grundlagen, 187; Geschlechtsgenoss., 29-31; Familienrecht, 346; Buch, Die Wotjäken, 45 ff.; Kohler, in ZVR., V, 335 (Wotjäken); Bernhöft, op. cit., 165, 166; Giraud-Teulon, op. cit., 52, 53; Unger, Die Ehe, 12, 13; Hellwald, Die mensch. Familie, 220 ff., 343; Waitz, Anthropologie, II, 112, 113 (Africa); Ratzel, Hist. of Mankind, II, 128 (Brazil and ancient Peru); Pratz, Hist. de la Louisiane, II, 386 (Natches Indians); Stevenson, in XI. Rep. of Bureau of Eth., 19, 20 (the Sia); Turner, ibid. XI, 189 (the Innuit).

      Among the Todas, after a marriage is arranged, the bride has a proof-time of a night and a day. On the "expiry of this brief honeymoon," the damsel is required to make up her mind "either to accept or reject her suitor."—Marshall, A Phrenologist amongst the Todas, 212.

      "Exchange of wives" is common among the Eskimo. "For instance, one man of our acquaintance planned to go to the rivers deer hunting in the summer of 1882, and borrowed his cousin's wife for the expedition, as she was a good shot and a good hand at deer hunting, while his own wife went with his cousin on the trading expedition to the eastward. On their return the wives went back to their respective husbands." Sometimes in such cases the women are better pleased with their new mates and remain with them. "According to Gilder (Schwatka's Search, 197) it is a usual thing among friends in that region to exchange wives for a week or two almost every two months." Egede (Greenland, 139) says such temporary exchanges take place at festivals. So also at Repulse Bay, at certain times there is said to be a "general exchange of wives throughout the village, each woman passing from man to man till she has been through the hands of all, and finally returned to her husband."—Murdoch, "Point Barrow Expedition," IX. Rep. of Bureau of Eth., 413. Cf. Turner, "Ethnology of Ungava Dist.," ibid., 189. The loaning of wife or daughter to a guest, or the prostitution of the wife for hire, appears among some South American tribes: Martius, Ethnographie, I, 118; idem, Rechtszustande, 65.


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