The Philosophical Review/Volume 1/Review: Westermarck - The History of Human Marriage
The first part of this work, including, I believe, about one-fourth of the present volume, was published in Helsingfors, in 1889, as a doctor's dissertation at the University of Finland. It was written in English, so the earlier part stated, in order to reach a larger circle of readers than a book in Swedish or Finnish could do, and because England was found the best place in which to study the subject. Of the list of authorities cited in the present volume containing nearly 1000 titles I have counted about one-sixth, and find ninety English works, forty German, twenty-one French, and twelve in other languages. As the author has been working of late in London, and might possibly be influenced by that in his citations, I turned to another book in the same field but written in Copenhagen, Starcke's Primitive Family, and counted in another part of the alphabet over one-half of his much briefer list of authorities with much the same result. There were seventy-six books in English, forty-four in German, twenty-one in French, and seven in other languages. We are entitled, therefore, to conclude that in this one field of the study of the prehistoric family, probably more than one-half of the literature is in the English language.
In his introduction the author admits that "the various investigators have in many important questions come to results so widely different that the possibility of thus getting any information about the past might easily be doubted" (p. 2), but finds that the fault lies with their method rather than with the material. The proper method is, first, to find the causes of any phenomenon under consideration, and, secondly, to assume that the phenomenon extends beyond the range of our observation in time or space only when the causes are known so to have extended and there is no evidence of counteracting influences. He puts "particular stress upon the psychological causes which have often been deplorably overlooked or only imperfectly touched upon" (p. 5). Marriage is defined as "a more or less durable connection between male and female, lasting beyond the mere act of propagation till after the birth of the offspring" (p. 19). As a confessed "disciple" of Darwin (p. 242), he believes that the cause of marriage or "the tie which joins male and female is an instinct developed through ... natural selection" (p. 20). This is not the sexual instinct, for among animals, and quite probably also with primitive man, that instinct is powerful only at certain seasons of the year. Nor is it the social or gregarious instinct, for the anthropoid apes and lowest savages seem to live in families rather than in larger associations, and the scantiness of food probably compels this. It is rather the parental instinct, whereby the male is induced to co-operate with the female in aiding the offspring to survive. "Marriage is therefore rooted in family rather than family in marriage" (p. 22). Marriage exists among the higher monkeys and "human marriage appears to be an inheritance from some ape-like progenitor" (p. 50). Its development is connected with the decrease in the number of offspring and the lengthening of the period of infancy. The position thus reached is very ably maintained (pp. 51-133) against the many advocates of the opinion that "man lived originally in a state of promiscuity" and the conclusion reached that "there is not a shred of genuine evidence that promiscuity ever formed a general stage in the social history of mankind" (p. 133).
Proceeding to treat of courtship and the means of attraction he thinks it "beyond doubt that men and women began to ornament, mutilate, paint, and tattoo themselves chiefly in order to make themselves attractive to the opposite sex" (p. 172). Dress probably originated in the same way, perhaps aided by the need of protection but not by a regard for decency. "It is not the feeling of shame that has provoked the covering, but the covering that has provoked the feeling of shame" (p. 208).
Among mankind marriage is prohibited between near kin and often between widely different races. On the analogy of the antipathy existing between different species of animals, the latter is explained as based on an instinctive recognition of the commonly increased sterility of hybrids, while the prohibition of marriage between near kin is believed to find its source in the fact that a certain amount of difference between male and female is beneficial to the offspring. Hence an instinctive antipathy to incest has been fostered by natural selection, but the basis on which the instinct works is not kinship by blood but living under the same roof. Where remote relatives live together, the list of prohibited degrees is longer. Hence the basis of exogamy and of the classificatory system of relationship is largely the living together of many kinsfolk between whom marriage comes to be prohibited.
Dr. Westermarck is inclined to accept the theory that "organisms when unusally well nourished produce comparatively more female offspring; in the opposite case more male" (p. 471), and to explain polyandry as due to the scarcity of women in very poor countries. He concludes his volume, "The history of human marriage is the history of a relation in which women have been gradually triumphing over the passions, the prejudices, and the selfish interests of men" (p. 550).
The whole book is able, judicial, and candid, probably the best presentation of the subject with which it deals to be found in any language. The years of work that have gone into its preparation show their fruits on every page. Notwithstanding its excellence, however, one lays it down with a little question whether the reconstruction of the development of the prehistoric family even in its broad lines is possible in the present state of our knowledge or will become possible in the near future. Dr. Westermarck admits that "the sociologist is in many cases unable to distinguish falsehood from truth," but claims that "what is wanting in quality must be made up for in quantity" (p. 4). Not infrequently he draws examples or parallels from civilized peoples and in such cases verification or correction becomes possible. If his authorities have led him into error there, a fortiori will they have done so where the observers are so few and the obstacles to accuracy so many as they are when a civilized man observes the family life of savages.
The author states on the authority of Wappæus (p. 31) that in Massachusetts the births show "an increase twice a year, the maxima falling in March and September." On the basis of the official figures for the last score of years, 1870-1889, the statement is entirely incorrect. In the number of births September ranks fourth and March seventh of the twelve months. He also asserts (p. 35) that "the unequal distribution of marriages over the different months exercises hardly any influence upon the distribution of births," and this is an important point for his hypothesis that "the increase of the sexual instinct at the end of spring or in the beginning of summer is a survival of an ancient pairing season (p. 34). Here, again, we cannot but think that his authorities have misled him. At least in Massachusetts with the exception of the Lenten months of March and April, when there are few marriages but many conceptions, there is apparently a close connection between the number of marriages and the number of conceptions. Neglecting these two months there are nine possible cases of agreement or disagreement, and in eight of these the coincidence is obvious, while in the ninth the divergence is but trifling.
He states (p. 169) that "in Munich the illegitimate births are even more numerous than the legitimate." A single year, thirty years ago, which is all that is given in the authority cited, is not sufficient to warrant so sweeping an assertion. The last figures accessible, those for 1889, make the percentage of illegitimates less than thirty.
"In Japan a man might repudiate his wife. ... But Professor Rein remarks that the Japanese seldom made use of this privilege." The admirable statistics of the Japanese government show that in 1889 there were in Japan 107,478 divorces, or more than three to every ten marriages. And the number in the preceding years was still larger.
Some other errors in the verifiable statements of the author might be pointed out, but these instances may suffice to indicate that traveller's tales about savage peoples, however conscientiously gathered and sifted, form but a questionable basis for a science. Yet this is what the author claims for his subject, that the history of human civilization may be so treated as to constitute it a "science in the highest sense of the term" (p. 1).
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1964, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 59 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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