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diff --git a/78927-h/78927-h.htm b/78927-h/78927-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7b8de2c --- /dev/null +++ b/78927-h/78927-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1354 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + Strange Marriage Customs | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + text-indent: 1em; + margin-bottom: .49em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} +@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} +table.autotable { border-collapse: collapse; } +table.autotable td, +table.autotable th { padding: 0.25em; } + +.tdl {text-align: left;} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-indent: 0; +} /* page numbers */ + +figcaption {font-weight: bold;} +figcaption p {margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: .2em; text-align: inherit;} + +/* Images */ + +img { + max-width: 100%; + height: auto; +} +img.w100 {width: 100%;} + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + +/* Transcriber's notes */ + +.tnote { + border: dashed 1px; + font-size: smaller; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + padding-bottom: 0.5em; + padding-top: 0.5em; + padding-left: 0.5em; + padding-right: 0.5em; +} + +.x-ebookmaker .tnote { + margin-left: 0; + margin-right: 0; +} + +.ph2, .ph3, .ph4 { + text-align: center; + text-indent: 0; + font-weight: bold; +} + +.ph2 { + font-size: x-large; + margin: 0.75em auto; +} + +.ph3 { + font-size: large; + margin: 0.83em auto; +} + +.ph4 { + font-size: medium; + margin: 1.12em auto; +} + +p.halftitle { + font-size: 1.5em; + font-weight: bold; + text-indent: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +ins { text-decoration: none; } + +.illowp45 { width: 45%; max-width: 100em; } + +.x-ebookmaker .illowp45 { width: 100%; } + + </style> +</head> + +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78927 ***</div> + + +<figure class="figcenter illowp45" id="cover"> +<img alt="" class="w100" src="images/cover.jpg" id="img_images_cover.jpg"> +</figure> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</span></p> + +<p class="ph2">LITTLE BLUE BOOK NO. 1436</p> +<p class="ph3">Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius</p> + +<h1>Strange Marriage Customs</h1> + +<p class="ph2">Leo Markun</p> + +<p class="ph3">HALDEMAN-JULIUS PUBLICATIONS</p> +<p class="ph3">GIRARD, KANSAS</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</span></p> + +<p class="ph3">Copyright, 1929,</p> +<p class="ph3">Haldeman-Julius Company</p> + +<p class="ph4">PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span></p> + + <p class="halftitle">STRANGE MARRIAGE CUSTOMS</p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_MATCHMAKER"> + THE MATCHMAKER + </h2> +</div> + +<p>Our young people seem to be fully capable of +choosing their own mates. At any rate, they +feel that they are, and they deeply resent interference +on the part of others. Such a condition +has not always existed. It does not exist +everywhere even now.</p> + +<p>For one thing, parental authority means comparatively +little in twentieth-century America. +Mothers and, to a lesser extent, fathers, are +honored chiefly by the singing of sentimental +songs and the giving of useless presents on certain +days of the year. In China, the worship of +parents and ancestors is still important. In +New England, not many centuries ago, it was +a serious and sometimes a capital offense to +rebel against authority. In some of +the most highly civilized countries of ancient +times, the paterfamilias had the right of life +and death over his offspring. His authority +might last until his death. It was usually unimpaired +until the child was married. Then +the girl became the subject (under some codes, +virtually the slave) of her husband. The boy +became the head of a new family, though he +owed respect and perhaps certain duties of +obedience to his own father.</p> + +<p>With strong paternal or parental authority +goes usually the privilege of marrying off the +children, whose tastes and inclinations may or +may not be consulted. Right now in the United +States, in families of old American stock, there +are mothers strong-willed enough to impose +their notions of what constitutes a suitable husband +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span>upon their daughters. “Mother knows +best” in matrimonial as well as in other matters, +and is able to carry out her desires. Of +course, the motives of the domineering parent +may be selfish or not. He or she may be unselfish +and still cause a calamitous marriage +by bringing together young people who are +temperamentally unsuited for each other. On +the other hand, inexperienced boys and girls +who are free to choose for themselves often +become the victims of an evanescent infatuation. +From the point of view of, say, Dorothy +Dix, the moral is that parental experience +should generally be called upon for advice, +though the absolute veto, except as to children +who are really too young to marry, is hardly +desirable. Granting this, it may still be argued +that only the companionate marriage offers +a genuine solution to many problems of +our time.</p> + +<p>Of the general evolution of marriage I have +already written, and here I shall consider for +the most part matters not discussed in Little +Blue Book No. 83. With the companionate marriage +and other allied questions, a number of +Little Blue Book authors have dealt. It may +be well to say here, though, that unfamiliar +and consequently strange marriage customs +should be interesting to us not merely as stray +curiosities, but primarily because they throw +light on our own manners and morals. Rice +is thrown at our weddings without any magical +intent, but still because the showering of grain +upon bride and groom has been at other times +and is in other lands considered a means of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span>promoting fertility. We see little of the chaperon, +and when we do see her we hardly realize +that she takes the place of the duenna, the +eunuch at the seraglio door, and other guards +charged with the duty of seeing that persons +of the opposite sexes not married to one another +shall be kept apart.</p> + +<p>The matchmaker has his (or her) place in +the economy of things when young people +eligible for marriage have insufficient opportunity +to meet each other socially, and especially +when more or less complex contracts dealing +with economic goods, or with questions of +precedence and social status, are involved. +Thus, the marriage of kings and princes has +often hinged upon delicate diplomatic negotiations. +A prince of Wales may dance with +stenographers and flirt with actresses, but is +likely to marry a princess after consulting ministers +of state. He had better not fall in love +with an Italian princess unless she can be +persuaded to become a Protestant or he is willing +to renounce his right to succeed to the +throne. His limitation in this regard is set by +an act of Parliament.</p> + +<p>Pecuniary considerations have often been +primary problems in amateur and professional +matchmaking. The connection between love +and money is an old one, though not one which +existed at the earliest stages of human development. +Money was first used in a comparatively +recent period, and the objects of capital which +it represents are little known to simple savages. +Whatever the nature of the tie men +formed with women when human beings first +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span>appeared may have been, we may be sure that +it did not depend upon the accumulation of +goods. The marriage for money must, then, +be considered a by-product of civilization.</p> + +<p>So far as the matchmaker deals with +money, he is an agent of a familiar sort. For +example, there are peoples among whom it is +customary for the father to think of his daughter +as a piece of valuable property. His whole +interest is to receive as much as possible for +her in cows or weapons or silver. What his +daughter will think of her husband is for him +a matter of no importance. The purchaser +must be able to pay for what he is getting, and +he must be trustworthy if there are to be deferred +installments. The tribe or the community +often limits the circles from whom the husband +may be drawn, but it may limit still more +the marketability of objects other than daughters.</p> + +<p>This is the extreme form of the economic motive +in arranging matches. When the husband +is “bought,” and in most instances when a +bridal price is paid, the person or persons receiving +the money pays some attention to the +desirability of the marriage from the points +of view other than the pecuniary one. The +matchmaker consequently becomes something +more than a business agent. In fact, he often +officiates by virtue of his position. That is, he +may act because he is a chief or a priest. Or +he may be a relative charged with this delicate +duty. Whether or not he receives any +compensation depends upon the usages of the +community.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span></p> + +<p>Newly married young women make up most +of the matchmakers with us. To be sure, +cynics say that the sex as a whole is engaged +in a conspiracy to deprive bachelors of their +freedom. When men who have just been married +talk to their friends who are still single +about the advantages of matrimony, it is sometimes +assumed that they are motivated by the +desire to assuage their misery in accordance +with the familiar principle. However, the amateur +matchmaker can derive no direct (at least, +no economic) benefit from his efforts in ordinary +cases. Rather he is confronted with the +necessity of buying engagement and wedding +presents for the beneficiary (if you prefer, for +the victim) of his work.</p> + +<p>The two chief enemies of marriage are the +religious ideal that there is something holy about +celibacy and the economic state in which a wife +or wives and their offspring are expensive to +maintain. Among the early Hebrews, neither +the one nor the other existed. It was considered +a divine duty to “increase and multiply,” +and wives and children were ordinarily +put to work at agricultural tasks. The position +of bachelors and spinsters consequently +became anomalous, and matchmaking was considered +a meritorious act. The medieval and +modern Jews have been for the most part an +urban people. This fact and their living to a +large extent in predominantly Christian communities +has meant the decline of polygyny +among them, but orthodox Judaism still favors +fruitfulness.</p> + +<p>During the medieval period of oppression +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span>and massacres, it was all but miraculous—some +rabbis and ministers say it was only because of +the direct intervention of God—that the Jewish +people survived. Allowing amply for recruits +from without, as of the Chazars, a Turkish +body living in what is now southern Russia, we +must see that survival depended upon fecundity. +The personal hygiene of the Jews, it is +true, was better than that of their Christian +neighbors; but we must not fail to give due +credit to the matchmaker.</p> + +<p>Perhaps only one Jewish youth survived in +a town after a particularly bloody massacre, +and the nearest family of his faith was a hundred +miles off. It was, then, considered a particularly +meritorious act of piety to find him +a wife. Soon there arose a professional class +of <i>shadkans</i> or <i>shadchans</i>, who enjoyed a legal +status at least as early as the twelfth century. +In the early days, these men were mostly rabbis +and persons engaged in the study of Talmudic +law and theology. It was considered +improper for them to derive pecuniary benefits +directly from their learning, but the matchmaking +profession seemed a dignified way for +them to earn a <ins title="Original has 'livilihood'" id="livelihood">livelihood</ins>. Old scrolls record +the fact that some of the most famous rabbis +of the Middle Ages were <i>shadchanim</i>.</p> + +<p>The matchmaker’s fee was usually a percentage +of the dowry, which it was to his interest +to make as large as possible. After a time, +the haggling and indecorous competition which +arose drove most of the learned men out of +the profession, which was no longer held to be +so honorable as in the earlier time.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span></p> + +<p>The <i>shadchan</i> has survived among Jews to +this day, chiefly in the Slavonic countries and +elsewhere among immigrants from them. In +old-fashioned families, the girls are not permitted +to mingle freely with boys. Negotiations +for their marriage are carried on by the +parents, usually with the assistance of common +friends or a matchmaker. In America, +the <i>shadchanim</i> are mostly located in the East +Side of New York. They advertise in the Yiddish +newspapers, announcing their office hours +and setting forth their ability to provide professional +men, businessmen and honest workingmen +for maidens and widows. A matrimonial +bureau has recently been opened in a +magnificent apartment house on the Grand +Concourse in the Bronx. Others are found +wherever there are large Jewish communities.</p> + +<p>The American-born Jew is not particularly +likely to patronize the professional matchmaker, +since he can meet girls freely in dance +halls and in the homes of his friends, just as +Gentiles can. There are, indeed, young lawyers +and physicians and dentists who appreciate +that their education entitles them to large +dowries, and who feel that they can find the +best selection of beauty and the money that goes +with it by visiting a <i>shadchan</i>. There are more +or less wealthy Jewish merchants in small +cities with daughters to marry off, but only +non-Jewish neighbors. It is the matchmaker +who wages a vigorous war against assimilation +and for his commission.</p> + +<p>The <i>shadchan</i> has often appeared in fiction, +and almost always as a comic character. It is +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span>his business to convince the prospective bridegroom’s +family and friends that he is in touch +with the most beautiful and desirable of all +womankind. If she is hunchbacked, her hump +is ignored or else set forth as a slight curve +which is but an added embellishment. A first-rate +matchmaker can convince a hesitating +swain that a one-legged girl is more desirable +than she would have been if God had given her +two.</p> + +<p>There is an anecdote about a matchmaker +who finally brought a modest youth to be inspected +by a beautiful virgin’s parents. Whatever +the young man said about himself, the +<i>shadchan</i> made out to be a ridiculous understatement. +Thus, “Well, I manage to eke out +a living” was followed by an indignant, “Why, +he’s a millionaire!” “I come of a pretty good +fam—” was interrupted by “I tell you all his +relatives are great scholars.” Then the youth +was unlucky enough to sneeze, and he apologetically +explained, “I got a little cold.” +“Pfui,” shouted the matchmaker, “a little cold! +Why, he’s got consumption.”</p> + +<p>It would be unfair to suggest that all Jews +look upon marriage as a money-making venture, +or that only Jews take such an attitude +in the countries of European culture. After +all, matrimonial papers and correspondence +bureaus do flourish in the land of the kleagle, +the evangelist, and the holy King James Bible. +The rich widow is held out as a bait for the +yokel’s ten cents in stamps, and sometimes +for all the money he has in the bank as well.</p> + +<p>In higher circles of society, Americans often +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span>purchase titles for their daughters. I do not +doubt that the heart of a baron or a marquis +can palpitate in honest and passionate love +for a sugar or an asbestos princess. It is convenient, +though, that the <i>vons</i> and <i>des</i> do not +become similarly enamoured of vivacious Yankee +misses whose pas do not cut coupons +and whose mas do not patronize the opera.</p> + +<p>It is hardly necessary for me to inquire into +the morality of marrying money. <i>Mores</i> depend +upon time and place. In Germany and +Austria-Hungary, before the Great War, it was +expected that military officers who were not +independently wealthy should choose brides +who were. According to Bloch, the <i>Geldehe</i> +or marriage for money was common also in +the higher middle class and in the aristocracies +of noble birth and finance. The impoverishment +of the nobility in several European countries +since the war and the rise of profiteers +and successful speculators anxious to win social +prestige have operated in many instances +to make pecuniary considerations primary in +marriage. With the French, the <i>dot</i> or dowry +has been and still is very important.</p> + +<p>Travelers have found matchmakers at work +in Korea and Siam as well as (among non-Jews) +in a number of European countries. The +go-between in Mohammedan lands is usually +an old woman. Westermarck lists a number of +peoples at low levels of culture who employ +matchmakers. They include a variety of Indian +tribes in the two Americas, Philippine +Islanders, Formosans, Africans, and natives of +the mountains in the north of India.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span></p> + +<p>It is a widespread custom, too, for the young +<ins title="Original has 'men'" id="man">man</ins> in love, even if he is free to choose for himself, +to ask his parents or other relatives to +do his wooing for him. A Koryak youth is expected +to do this, but he may declare his own +intentions if the match he intends to make is +disapproved by his parents. In such case, he +is not supposed to say anything. Instead, he +proposes by entering the house of his prospective +father-in-law and doing such of the housework +as becomes a man in his part of the +world. It is good etiquette for the host to +remain as silent as he.</p> + +<p>Clearly, genuine or conventional bashfulness +is at the bottom of such a custom. Sexual modesty +is, in fact, at least as common with savages +and barbarians as it is with civilized +people, although the manifestations of it are +not entirely the same. Therefore, a matchmaker +may be required to bring together shy +young people even if the economic aspects of +matrimony are simple.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHILD_MARRIAGES"> + CHILD MARRIAGES + </h2> +</div> + +<p>In recent years, much publicity has been +given to the prevalence of infant and child +marriages in India. This particular indiscretion +of Mother India is, at any rate, not very +new. The Law of Manu, which was established +perhaps three thousand years ago, provides +that a father may marry his eight-year-old +daughter to a man of twenty-four and his +daughter of twelve to a man of thirty. But, in +truth, the usual age of marriage for females +has gone down in modern times, though it is +now tending to go up somewhat.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span></p> + +<p>It is the general opinion in the Orient that +every able-bodied adult should be married, and +girls are held to be adult when they have +reached the age of puberty. The people of +India, especially the Hindus, feel that it is a +disgrace for a girl to remain single after she +is twelve or thirteen. Of the unmarried females +among them, only a very small proportion +are over the age of fifteen. A great many +Hindu girls become wives before reaching the +age of five. While the average marriage age +for males is somewhat higher than that for +females, it is by no means unusual for infant +boys to become husbands.</p> + +<p>The marriage of infants is not general everywhere +in India, certain regions in the center +of the empire bringing up the average for the +country as a whole. It is confined almost entirely +to the Mohammedans and the Hindus, +especially the latter. When we come to consider +children, girls over the age of twelve +and boys over fifteen, the matter is somewhat +different. The Christians and the Animists of +India regard them as entirely ripe for matrimony. +Child marriage is least common among +the Buddhists.</p> + +<p>When very young boys and girls are married, +they do not ordinarily proceed at once +to live together as husband and wife. In this +respect, however, usage varies throughout the +country, and there is no doubt that cohabitation +sometimes occurs before the wife has +menstruated.</p> + +<p>Obviously, children who are married off +long before reaching years of discretion, sometimes +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span>before they have learned simple measures +of self-control, do not choose their husbands +or their wives for themselves. It may +be that the desire of the parents to preserve +their authority in so important a matter is +chiefly responsible for maintaining the custom. +There are other factors, some of them +historical. India was for many centuries the +seat of devastating wars. Now one and now +another conqueror came into the land, and +attractive virgins made up an important part +of the spoils. Married women were less attractive +and therefore more secure.</p> + +<p>Hypergamy, too, has probably played an +important part in the development of extremely +early marriage. This requires girls to marry +into a higher sub-caste than their own, or at +least forbids them to marry into a lower sub-caste. +By greatly narrowing the circle of lawful +bridegrooms, it stimulates foresight on the +part of parents. The fathers and the mothers +of female children who disregard the rule are +themselves reduced in status. While boys and +men are not allowed to marry outside the +caste, they may take girls from subdivisions +lower than their own without penalty.</p> + +<p>It naturally arouses pity in the hearts of +Europeans and Americans to see child brides +of six or eight put through ceremonies of which +they do not understand the import and led +into ways of living for which they are evidently +far too young. We are told about little girls +nearly fainting for lack of air while the wedding +guests gather about to have a good look. +Still, the accustomed is seldom the horrible, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span>and it is improbable that the women of India +resent the custom half so much as the benevolent +ladies from abroad do.</p> + +<p>To the imperialists who use child marriage +as an argument in favor of the maintenance +of British rule in India, it may be <ins title="Original has 'opposite'" id="apposite">apposite</ins> to +point out that the English have themselves +practiced it even in what we are wont to +think of as modern times. From the thirteenth +to the seventeenth centuries, it was fairly common +in the higher social ranks. In 1564, a +three-year-old boy was married to a girl of +two. Neither could do much talking, and the +witnesses in whose arms they were held during +the ceremony made most of the responses for +them. In Scotland, it was not until 1600 that +the age limit was set at fourteen for males +and twelve for females. It is at these points +that the law of Great Britain now sets the age +of puberty, though a change is impending.</p> + +<p>When the diplomacy of Europe was chiefly +a matter of negotiation between monarchs, +young princes and princesses were often used +as pawns. It sometimes happened that children +were betrothed at two or three to cement +alliances or to consolidate realms. History +has carried down to us the tears of at +least one young princess whose mother flogged +her for declaring that she did not like the man +who had been chosen as her husband and that +she would not go to him under any consideration.</p> + +<p>The age of consent in Great Britain and in +most parts of the United States was quite low +until the second half of the nineteenth century. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span>This situation encouraged, if not child marriage, +the exploitation of girls by unscrupulous +parents. Many children were prostitutes +or concubines. In the 1850’s, two thousand +New York prostitutes were asked, “How old +will you be next birthday?” The answers +ranged all the way up to 77 years, but the +most frequent answer was 20; 268 girls said +they were nineteen years old, 258 were or professed +to be eighteen, 143 said they were seventeen, +62 gave their age as sixteen, seventeen +as fifteen, and two as fourteen. It is highly probable +that many of the younger girls added to +their actual years. Some decades later, there +were brothels in New York in which most of +the prostitutes were only ten or eleven. In +the year of Our Lord in which I write, a reverend +gentleman resident in one of these +United States has been sent to the penitentiary +for marrying a child of ten though already possessing +a wife several times as old.</p> + +<p>The average marriage age advances as we +move from south to north. It is higher in the +city than in the country and among the educated +than among those who have little schooling. +Puberty generally sets the lower limit, for +the marriage of children who have not yet +reached it is almost always treated as a mere +betrothal. Perhaps we may set up the generalization +that the age of marriage tends to +vary inversely with the value attached to chastity +and the fear that unmarried girls will be +unduly tempted. It is said that child marriage +became commoner in India after the Dravidians +came in, bringing the custom of premarital +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span>promiscuity with them. There is another factor, +the value attached by religion and current +morality to sexual indulgence. The Israelites +glorified fecundity, the Mohammedans and the +Hindus have attached sanctity to acts that +Christian preachers denounce as sinful. During +the Middle Ages, a pretty large part of the +Christian population was sworn to celibacy, +while the men of Islam were marrying early +and often. Of course, there were many illegitimate +births in western Europe. Who knows, +this fact may be responsible for the fact that +Christian civilization was not supplanted by +the barbarous bathhouses and libraries and +laboratories of the dread worshipers of Allah.</p> + +<p>In medieval Europe, the apprentices had to +defer marrying. The students too helped to +swell the ranks of the unmarried. However, +the great bulk of the population consisted of +farm laborers, who could provide for their +wives about as well at sixteen as at twenty-six. +Among the Jews there were many students, +but special provision was made for them. +It was usual for them to live at the expense of +their fathers-in-law for some time after the +marriage. This custom was important a generation +or two ago, and no doubt it still survives +in some Polish communities.</p> + +<p>The Industrial Revolution has raised the usual +age at which Europeans marry, and also it has +increased the proportion of unmarried adults. +The average age of men and women marrying +for the first time in England and Wales between +1876 and 1885 was respectively 25.9 and +24.4, while for 1906-1910 the averages were 27.2 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span>and 25.6. However, the tendency in Great +Britain and in the United States is not toward +a constantly upward movement in these figures. +Conditions which enable young people +to earn good wages bring them down. In the +“upper” classes, marriages are usually more +retarded than in the “lower” ones. The higher +standards of living maintained by the former +probably account for part of the difference, +although there is a counterbalancing element +in hereditary wealth: the rich man’s son seldom +needs to worry about how he is to support +a wife, at least, if his father is satisfied with +his choice. On the other hand, he may wait +until he has inherited the family fortune before +marrying the woman he wants. It may +be that the poor, who are generally accused +of being improvident, prove the truth of the +charge by getting married while they are quite +young.</p> + +<p>Schmoller has estimated that, under normal +circumstances, about half the population of a +country would consist of married people, widows, +and widowers. This does not hold true of +either Europe or the United States, because +many live and die single. Wherever law or +custom fixes monogamy as the only form of +marriage, it is, indeed, inevitable that there +shall be either bachelors or spinsters, for the +number of marriageable males is never exactly +equal to that of marriageable females. The excess +of females amounts, in Europe, to about +three per cent. Special conditions such as +arise out of a great war make the difference +in numbers still greater.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span></p> + +<p>But there are bachelors as well as spinsters +in Europe. There are monks as well as nuns, +unmarried rakes as well as prostitutes. In +short, what some are pleased to consider normal +conditions do not exist. According to the +figures given by Iwan Bloch, the percentage +of people who have reached the age of fifty +without marrying is 3 in Hungary, 9 in Germany, +13 in Austria, and 17 in Switzerland. +For the period 1886-1890, the official statistics +of England and Wales show that 60 out of +every 100 inhabitants over the age of fifteen +were or had been married. The number in Belgium +was 56, the lowest in Europe. It was 61 +in Germany, 62 in the United States, 64 in +France, 76 in Hungary. Of these, from eight +to ten had been widowed. The variations from +one country to another point chiefly to economic +factors.</p> + +<p>Feminism, or, wider than this, a general +tendency arising out of the constantly growing +freedom and power of women, seems to be advancing +the marriage age and adding to the +proportion of celibates in almost all the civilized +countries of the world. It is this, without +much doubt, which will put an end to the infant +marriages of India. From one point of +view, feminism is a moral movement. More +important, it depends upon the economic +changes of the last few centuries. The Christian +churches, both Catholic and Protestant, +until quite recently, strove to maintain women +in an inferior position. The orthodox Jew still +gives thanks to God for making him something +better than a woman, while the Jewess meekly +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span>praises him for making her what he thought +it right that she should be. In the Middle +Ages, when these prayers were written and +seemed perfectly natural, the position of +women among Jews seems to have been considerably +higher than it was among Christians +and Mohammedans. It was the Renaissance, +which was essentially a revolt against medieval +other worldliness, that gave women something +much better than chivalric glorification, the +right to develop freely, to study, to live for +themselves.</p> + +<p>The Renaissance grew out of the beginnings +of the Commercial Revolution. That the time +was not altogether ripe for it is shown by the +coincident and essentially opposite movement +of the Reformation or Protestant Revolution. +The Renaissance was choked, but it did not die, +and it rose up once more in the Enlightenment. +Again there was a development of feminism, +frowned upon by the leaders of the religious +revival that spread through Europe +after the downfall of Napoleon and flickered +out as the prudery of the Victorian age.</p> + +<p>If marriage for money must be considered a +by-product of civilization, it is possible to contend +that it belongs only to the upper savage +and the barbarous stages. That is to say, it is +characteristic neither of the lowest (simplest) +peoples nor of the most highly civilized. With +both these classes, the position of women is +comparatively advantageous.</p> + +<p>In early days, however, it is highly probable +that the women had no objection to “child +marriage.” I put these words within quotation +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span>marks for two reasons. First, though most anthropologists +have been coming over to Westermarck’s +views that primordial man was accustomed +to live in families not essentially different +from our own, this still remains unproved. +Secondly, young people who have reached the +age of puberty are considered adults in savage +and barbarous communities. They are circumcised +or submitted to other initiation rites and +then admitted to the full privileges of men +and women.</p> + +<p>Now, in such countries as the United States +and Great Britain, we feel differently about +girls of thirteen. We consider them immature, +and we believe that they should play and go +to school. Our changed attitude is largely the +result of conditions brought about by the machine +age. As to the hygienic advantages and +disadvantages of marriage or its sexual equivalent +for such young girls, I suppose there is +room for difference of opinion. We hear that +the women grow old quickly in those countries +where marriage takes place early, but probably +this is because the ripening is naturally advanced +in most of them. Other interesting +questions arise in this connection. For example, +are the children of a fourteen-year-old and +of a fifteen-year-old mother inferior mentally +and physically to those born of older women? +The matter is not easily solved. Even if scientists +were more free than they are to experiment +with human beings, they could not easily +establish the equality of “other things” necessary +in bringing about valid results.</p> + +<p>In the First Book of Kings, there is revealed +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span>one reason for child marriage that has been of +some importance. “Now King David,” the +story goes, “was old and stricken in years; +and he was covered with clothes, but he did +not get warm. Therefore his servants said to +him, ‘Let there be sought for my lord the king +a young virgin, and let her stand before the +king, and let her cherish him, and let her lie +in thy bosom, that my lord the king may get +heat.’ So they sought for a fair damsel +throughout all the coasts of Israel, and found +Abishag a Shunammite, and brought her to the +king. And the damsel was very fair, and she +cherished the king and ministered to him; but +the king knew her not.”</p> + +<p>This is rather puzzling to the modern reader. +Why was it necessary to warm the aged monarch +with a virgin, especially since we are +told explicitly that there was no sexual intercourse? +Why would the ancient equivalent of +our modern hot-water bottle not have served +the purpose just as well? We have here a +magic practice or a bit of superstition. King +David’s advisers believed that close propinquity +between a young and vigorous person +and an old and feeble one would bring about +a transfer of energy from the former to the +latter. A chaste maiden was held to be particularly +desirable as the subject. Late in the +eighteenth century, a well-known German physician, +J. P. Frank, remarked that there might +be something in the old belief. When Henry +James wrote <i>The Sacred Fount</i>, he made the +flow of beauty and of wisdom between people +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span>much exposed to each other an important element +in his story.</p> + +<p>Belief in the special sacredness of virginity +is still widespread. It takes some curious +forms, as in parts of Jugoslavia, where the +peasants think that venereal disease can be +cured by intercourse with a maiden. In primitive +communities, when the magical effects +supposed to be derived from virgins is sought, +very young girls are usually chosen. Ploss-Bartels +has called it a regular symptom of simple +culture that undeveloped females are married +or exploited. This is an exaggeration; but, +so far as the statement is true, it largely reflects +the King David superstition.</p> + +<p>The Guatos of Brazil are said to sell their +daughters between the ages of five and eight +or nine. A traveler asked one of the Indians +how he could treat such a child as his wife, +and the answer was, “She only sleeps at my +side because she is my property, and I will not +cohabit with her until she is twice as large.” +However, he later learned that this was not +the case. Similar cases have been reported +from widely separated parts of the world. In +Celebes, it is said that Europeans sometimes +conform to the native practice sufficiently to +lease girls of twelve or thirteen. In the New +Britain Islands, girls of ten or twelve are married +to men of twenty-five or thirty.</p> + +<p>In some of the islands of the Pacific, it is +common for fathers to betroth their unborn +children. The Fijians and the Samoans used +occasionally to arrange marriages between infant +girls and middle-aged or elderly men. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span>More often, the Pacific islanders affiance children +to each other. In one region, it is customary +for the engaged boy to be taken into +the care of his future wife’s family at the same +time that his own parents take care of the +engaged girl. Elsewhere, the betrothed female +child is taken to her future husband’s home +even though the rule may be that he is not to +have any social intercourse with her whatsoever, +as much as a passing word being forbidden.</p> + +<p>While the girls (except in the instances +where some of them serve as celibate priestesses +or as prostitutes) marry young among +practically all simple peoples, this is not always +the case with the boys. For example, there is +a part of Dutch New Guinea where the young +men live together in a communal house, their +erotic life being homosexual. Wherever it is +common for the older and wealthier men to +have large seraglios, the younger and poorer +ones may be compelled to do without wives.</p> + +<p>While most American Indians married +young, there were a few tribes in which it was +considered proper for men to wait until they +were twenty-five or thereabouts. Moreover, +many savage and barbarous communities require +young men to undergo certain tests before +they can join the ranks of the married. +They may have to show that they are good +fishermen or hunters or that they are skilled +in certain handicrafts or that they are courageous +and skilled in war.</p> + +<p>There are Australian tribes in which men +under thirty, if they are determined to marry, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span>must take old women. The young girls go to +the elders of the community. It is said that +gray hairs in the beard are prerequisite to marriage +among the Arunta and the Loritja. There +are some simple communities where sexual indulgence +is easy outside of marriage, and here +there are more likely to be large classes of +bachelors over the age of twenty. But it is +usually desirable to have a home and children, +who support the father in his old age and +feed his ghost or pray for the repose of his +soul after he dies.</p> + +<p>There is a fairly widespread belief among +the simpler peoples that chastity is requisite +to the fullest exercise of magical and physical +powers. Accordingly, the men may have to +sleep apart from their wives for a certain period +before leaving on an expedition of hunting +or war. But if the soldiers of the village or +tribe must be constantly on the alert, it is sometimes +held necessary for them to remain unmarried. +This does not always imply their entire +abstinence from sexual relations. However, +the soldiers are usually discharged from +active service at thirty or thirty-five. For a +long period in Roman history, military men +were required to remain unmarried. Most of +them seem to have had concubines, in some +instances the same women who had been their +wives before their entrance into the army.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="FORBIDDEN_MARRIAGES"> + FORBIDDEN MARRIAGES + </h2> +</div> + +<p>With us, just as with savages and barbarians, +there is an inner circle of relatives with whom +we may not mate, an outer circle beyond which +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span>we may not go. Thus, in modern civilized +countries, brothers do not marry sisters, +mothers do not marry sons. There are jurisdictions +in which the marriage of first cousins is +forbidden. As to the outer circle, it sometimes +engirdles the whole of humanity. We +are, however, familiar with narrower limits, +since we have in the United States laws forbidding +white people to marry Negroes and +sometimes members of other races as well. Besides, +lines are drawn by custom and religion. +Catholics seldom marry Protestants, pious +Jews practically never marry Gentiles. There +was a time when orthodox Quakers did not +allow their children to woo Hicksites. Even +in America, there are important class distinctions. +A millionaire’s daughter may elope with +the chauffeur, but her father and his friends +are not likely to be pleased about it. The son +of a first family is not expected to marry a +girl from the wrong side of the gasworks.</p> + +<p>We may define endogamy as the requirement +of marrying within a certain group. The +laws and customs which forbid “mixed marriages” +are endogamous. Exogamy is the rule +prohibiting the marriage of those who are considered +too closely related. The crime forbidden +by exogamy we call incest. In most civilized +countries, there are comparatively few degrees +of relationship which are considered incestuous. +In primitive communities, very distant +cousins and persons whose blood ties are +imaginary may be forbidden to marry.</p> + +<p>The most general rule of incest forbids a +father to marry his daughter, a mother to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span>marry her son. It seems to be “universally +prevalent in mankind,” according to Westermarck. +Rivers says, “We know of no people +who allow marriage between mother and son.” +He thinks that matrimony between father and +daughter is sometimes legal. The authorities +do not deny that there are cases of mother-son +as well as father-daughter cohabitation. In +fact, they exist in Europe and the United +States. The debatable matter is whether or not +they are ever recognized and approved by custom.</p> + +<p>We have a number of accounts, from various +parts of the American continents, of Indian +tribes in which our rules of incest do not hold. +Thus, a traveler in Ecuador tells us that Pioje +widows often take their sons as second husbands, +and that widowers take their daughters. +Some of the Tinne Indians marry sisters and +daughters. And similar cases are reported from +Africa, Asia, and other parts of the world. If +these are incestuous, at least incest is treated +as a very mild offense in the communities +where they occur. And we know that there +was a time when the priests of Persia advocated +marriage between near relatives as a religious +duty. In short, the comparative study +of exogamy confirms the general rule that +there is absolutely no moral principle upon +which all mankind agrees. There are, indeed, +some fairly well defined ethical principles; and +it may be true that the human repugnance toward +intimate relations with a father or +mother, with sons or with daughters, which is +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span>widespread though not universal, arose originally +out of an animal instinct.</p> + +<p>Marriage between brother and sister is not +a great deal commoner. It has perhaps occurred +most commonly in the case of monarchs. +The Pharaohs and the Ptolemies of Egypt +seem to have believed that they could find +women <ins title="Original has 'sufficently'" id="sufficiently">sufficiently</ins> exalted to be their queens +only in the daughters of their own fathers and +mothers. The chieftains of Hawaii had similar +ideas. Among the Incas of Peru, the Singhalese, +the Persians, and a few other peoples, the kings +were privileged to marry full sisters.</p> + +<p>In some of these countries, persons of lower +rank are also reported to have contracted such +matrimonial alliances. Much more frequent are +weddings between half-brothers and half-sisters. +In our own century, a king of Siam has +had two queens, both his half-sisters. Usually +the relationship in such marriages is through +the fathers, perhaps because paternity is more +difficult to prove than maternity. In ancient +Athens, it was legally permissible to marry a +half-sister. According to some authorities, +she might not be the child of the same mother. +There are several stories in the Bible about +unions between half-brother and half-sister. +Abraham says of Sarah, “And yet she is my sister; +she is the daughter of my father, but not +the daughter of my mother; and she became +my wife.”</p> + +<p>The propriety of marriage between cousins, +between uncle and niece, and between aunt and +nephew, varies greatly from one country to another +and sometimes within the community +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span>according to religious belief and social rank. +The Jewish code permits an uncle to marry +his niece, but treats a union between aunt and +nephew as incestuous. There is a tribe in the +Caucasus where a mother’s sister, but not a +father’s sister, may be married. Marriage with +a first cousin is by some peoples considered +highly meritorious. By others it is strictly forbidden. +It is against the law in a few European +countries and in some of our states, but +is usually possible with some little extra trouble. +The objection to it seems to be derived +chiefly from the old law of the Christian +church, although it may be eugenically unsound +in certain instances. The prohibition against +marrying a nephew or a niece is commoner +than that against the marriage of cousins german. +There does not seem to be any civilized +country where remoter cousins are forbidden to +marry, except a few influenced by the Eastern +church.</p> + +<p>In the simpler communities, exogamy often +has reference to a large class, such as a phratry +or sub-tribe or clan. Whether the members of +these subdivisions are what we should call close +relatives or not, marriage between them is forbidden. +Some of the Iroquois Indians had a +complicated system of clans, of which half were +in one group and half in another. It used to +be forbidden to marry any person within the +group to which one belonged; that is to say, +about half the tribe was ineligible. More recently, +exogamy has been confined to the clan +alone, or to about one-eighth of the tribe. Other +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span>Indians have had similar laws, varying greatly +in detail.</p> + +<p>There are regions in various parts of the +world where known relatives, no matter of +what degree, are unable to marry legally. The +old penal law of China provided that anybody +marrying a person bearing the same name +as himself should be severely beaten, and the +marriage declared invalid. Elsewhere, cousins +of seven degrees or less are held to be within +the incest circle. Clan exogamy is found in +most of the Australian tribes, with complications +which we might otherwise believe to be +beyond the capacity of the natives; and violations +have until recent times been usually punishable +with death.</p> + +<p>In the early days of Rome, marriages within +the sixth degree were treated as incestuous. The +degrees were computed by counting back to +the common ancestor and then down again. +Thus, second cousins were related in the sixth +degree; parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, +grandparent, parent, and the cousin. In +the Eastern or Orthodox branch of the Christian +church, second cousins were forbidden +to marry, only the seventh degree being considered +sufficiently removed. In the Western +or Roman Catholic church, the prohibition extended +at one time to sixth cousins. It no +longer exists beyond the degree of third cousins, +and dispensations for those who are more +closely related are common.</p> + +<p>Adoption and the spiritual relationship existing +between godfather and godchild (sometimes +also between close relatives of the two) +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span>have been at various times and in many places +barriers to marriage. In Great Britain, it was +not made possible until 1907 for a man to wed +his deceased wife’s sister. Such a wedding is +also forbidden by the Catholic canon law.</p> + +<p>However, the levirate (from the Latin <i>levir</i>, +brother-in-law), which is a custom according +to which a dead man’s brother must inevitably +under certain circumstances marry his widow, +has been very widespread. Among the Hindus +and some others, the obligation arises if the +dead man has left no children behind. The Bible +has two laws on the subject. In Leviticus: “And +if a man shall take his brother’s wife, it is an +unclean thing: he has uncovered his brother’s +nakedness; they shall be childless.” In Deuteronomy: +“If brethren dwell together, and one +of them die, leaving no child, the dead man’s +wife shall not marry a stranger; her husband’s +brother shall go unto her, and take her as his +wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s +brother to her. And the firstborn that she +bears shall succeed in the name of his brother +who is dead, that his name shall not disappear +in Israel.”</p> + +<p>It is sometimes said that the law of Leviticus +sets up a general rule, to which an exception +is made in Deuteronomy. More likely, there +was an actual change in custom. Later still, +the rabbis frowned upon levirate marriage +even in cases of childless death. The exposure +to shame provided for brothers-in-law who fail +to marry as directed in Deuteronomy has become +a merely formal ceremony among orthodox +Jews. The widow loosens her brother-in-law’s +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span>shoe (this and his foot must be clean, +according to rabbinic law) and spits on the +ground before him. The levirate often encourages +polygamy, for the duty of marrying a +dead brother’s sister may exist even when one +already has a wife or two.</p> + +<p>Among various peoples, marriage between +cousins has been especially stimulated. Sometimes +it is possible to get a cousin as a wife +without charge, while others must be paid for. +Or, as among the desert Bedouin, the first +cousin has an option to purchase at a reduced +rate. In certain Hindu communities, a man is +supposed to marry his sister’s daughter, even +if she happens to be older than himself.</p> + +<p>The caste system of India greatly limits the +circle from which a wife or a husband may +be chosen. There are sub-castes, and under +certain circumstances bride and groom may +have to belong to the same one. Sometimes +hypergamy, which has already been explained, +makes the matter still more complicated.</p> + +<p>In general, caste or class as a matter of +endogamy is of importance not only in India. +In parts of Africa, the blacksmiths never intermarry +with the rest of the population, taking +only smiths’ daughters as their wives. Free +men have often been forbidden to marry slaves, +though not necessarily to cohabit with them. +Medieval knights were not accustomed to make +the daughters of serfs their wedded wives. +Modern noblemen marry untitled women only +for especially good reasons. Monarchs are expected +to enter into full matrimony with persons +of royal or princely rank.</p> + + + + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<div class="tnote"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Transcribers_note"> +Transcriber’s Note +</h2> + +<p>Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.</p> + +<p>Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice.</p> + +<p>Spelling was retained as in the original except for the following changes:</p> + +<table class="autotable"> +<tbody> +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Page <a href="#livelihood">8</a>: “to earn a livilihood”</td> +<td class="tdl">to</td> +<td class="tdl">“to earn a livelihood”</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Page <a href="#man">12</a>: “for the young men”</td> +<td class="tdl">to</td> +<td class="tdl">“for the young man”</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Page <a href="#apposite">15</a>: “it may be opposite”</td> +<td class="tdl">to</td> +<td class="tdl">“it may be apposite”</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl">Page <a href="#sufficiently">28</a>: “could find women sufficently”</td> +<td class="tdl">to</td> +<td class="tdl">“could find women sufficiently”</td> +</tr> +</tbody></table> + +</div></div> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78927 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/78927-h/images/cover.jpg b/78927-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..34229d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/78927-h/images/cover.jpg |
