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Show XXIV BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY of marriage among certain tribes, and have assumed that this was the initial form of mating among primitive peoples: later researches have shown that, in the lowest of the four great culture stages, mating is regulated by the females and their male consanguineal kindred, so that marriage by capture of brides can not occur; yet there is a step early in the stage of paternal organization in which a certain form of marriage by capture has arisen in America, and may easily have become prominent on other continents. When tribes are in that unstable condition of amity resulting in peaceful interludes between periods of strife- a stage characteristic of savagery and much of barbarism- the intertribal association frequently results in irregular matches between members of the alien tribes; commonly such mating is punished by one or both tribes, though among many peoples there are special regulations under which the offense may be condoned- e. g., the groom may be subjected to fine, to running the gauntlet, to ostracism until children are born, etc. Yet while both bride and groom incur displeasure and even risk of life through such matches, there is a chance of attendant advantage which may counterbalance the risk; for it frequently happens that the groom, especially if of the weaker tribe, eventually gains the amity and support of his wife's kinsmen, while in some cases the eldermen and elderwomen of one or both tribes recognize the desirability of a coalition which can tend only to unite the deities of both, and so benefit each in greater or lesser measure. Researches among the American aborigines have already shown that, so far as this continent is concerned, exogamy and endogamy are correlative, the former referring to the clan and the latter to the tribe or other group; they have also shown that the limitations of exogamy and the extension of endogamy are ingenious devices for promoting peace; and it is now becoming clear that intertribal marriage, whether by mutually arranged elopement or by capture of the bride, may be a means of extending endogamy and uniting aliens, and thereby of raising acculturation from the piratical plane to that of amicable interchange. The applications of the law of piratical acculturation are innumerable. In the light of the law it becomes easy to understand how inimical tribes are gradually brought to use |