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Show 3GO SEXUAL SELECTION : MAN. PART Jl. the worlU. ma.y bo eli vidc<l, according to the an thor just c1not d into two oTcat classes, the classificatory and ' b I . descri ptivc,-the latter being employed by ns. t IS the cla sificatory system which so strongly leads t? tho l>elicf that communal and other extremely loose forms of marriage were originally universal. But as far as I can see, there is no necessity on this ground for believinO' in ab olutcly promiscuous intercourse. 1\Icn and womc~, like many of the lower animals, might formerly have entered into strict though temporary unions for each birth, and. in this case nearly as much confusion would have arisen in the terms of relationship as in the case of promiscuous intercourse. As far as sexual selection is concerned, all that is required is that choi ·o should be exerted before the parents unite, an<l it signifies little whether the unions last for life or only for a season. Besides the evidence derived from the terms of relationship, other lines of reasoning indicate the former wide prevalence of communal marriage. Sir J. Lubbock ingeniously accounts 5 for the strauge and widelyextended habit of exogamy,-that is, tbc men of oue tribe always taking wives from a distinct tribe,-by communism having been the original form of marriage ; so that a man never obtained a wife for himself nnless he captured her from a neighbouring and hostile tribe, aud then she would naturally have become his sole and valuable property. ':rhus the practice of capturing wives might have arisen; and from the honour .·o gained might ultimately have become the universal habit. vV c can also, according to Sir J. Lubbock/ thus understand "the necessity of expiation for mar- ~ Address to British Association 'On the Social o.ud lll'ligious Contlition of the Lower :Haces of M-an,' 1870, p. 20. CIIAL'. XX. IN'l'ETIFERING CAl)SES. 361 " riagc as an infi·ingement of tribal rites, since, accord" ing to old ideas, a man hacl no right to appropriate " to himself that which belonged to the whole tribe." Sir J. Lubbock further gives a most curious body of facts shewing that in old times high honour was bestowed on women who were utterly licentions; and thi~, as be explains, is iut lligiulc, if we admit that promiscuous intercourse was the aboriginal and therefore long revered custom of the tribe.c Although tlw manner of development of the marl'iagc- tie is an ob::;cure subject, as "\Ye may infer hom the divergent opinions on several points between the three antlwrs who have studied it most closely, namely, l\1r. l\forgan, l\fr. M'Lennan, and Sir J. LuLbock, yet from the foregoing and seYeral other lines of evidence it seems certain that the habit of marriage has been gradually developed, and that almo t promiscuous intercourse was once extremely common throughout the world. N cvcrtbelcss from the analogy of the lower animals, more particularly of those wbicl1 come nearest to man in the series, I cannot believe that this habit prevailed. at an extremely remote period, when man had hardly attained to his present rank in the zoological scale. Man, as I have attempted to shew, is certainly descended from some ape-like creature. vVith the existing Quadrumana, as far as their habits are known, the males of sume species are monogamous, but live during only a part of the year with tho females, as seems to be the case with the Orang. Several kinds, as some of the Indian and American monkeys, arc strictly mouoo-amous, and associate all the year round with their "'~ve,. Others are polygamous, as the Gorilla and several 6 ' Origin of Civilisation,' 1870, p. SG. In the several works above • quoted there will be found copious evidence on relationship through tho fomules nlone, or with tho tribe o.lono. |