6. Exogamy and Endogamy. — Marriage by capture, it is held b\^ Lubbock and others of his class, led to the practice of exogamous marriages. We are, however, of the opinion that the great prevalence of infanticide (q. V.) among savages, especially the destruction of female infants, caused a paucity of women, and made it neces- sary to secure wives from hostile tribes. On this ground we can easily explain the predominance of exogamy over endogamy. Among the Khonds, intermarriage between members of the same tribe, we are told by jNI'Pherson {Account of the Religion of the Khonds, p. 57), is considered incestuous, and punishable with death. Many savage races have even established something of a caste distinction for this piu-pose. Thus, e. g., the Kalmucks are divided into four great nations or tribes, subdivided again into many smaller clans. The com- mon people do not marrj' within three or four degrees of relationship. But no member of the noble class can marry within his own tribe ; his wife must be a noble, and of a different stock (Bergmann, Streifereien, iii, 155). The Circassians are forbidden to marry within their own fraternities, though these sometimes comprise sev- eral thousand members. Formerly such a marriage was considered as incest, and punished by drowning : now a fine of two hundred oxen, and the restitution of the wife to her parents, are exacted (Bell, Journal of a. Res- idence in Circassia, i, 347). The Yurak Samoyedes of Siberia consider all the members of the tribe as rela- tions, however large the tribe, and forbid marriage within the tribe limits (Latham, Descriptive Ethnol- ogy, ii, 455). The system among the North Amer- ican Indians is very similar. The tribal afliliation of each person is distinguished bj' his tolem, generally some animal sacred to the tribe. Marriage is forbidden between persons of the same tolem. Lafitau considers each nation as divided into clans, whose members are spread indiscriminately through the nation, and says that no clansman could marry a member of his own clan. Every child was considered as belonging to the clan of its mother (i, 558). The Indians of Guiana have similar customs. The Brazilian Indians vary, some be- ing exogamous, others endogamous in their customs. Among the Tinne Indians of the North the same rule holds. A man who marries a woman of his own tribe is laughed to scorn, and considered as marrj-ing his own sister, even if she belong to a separate division of the tribe {Xotes on Tinneh, Smithsonian Report, 1866). In India the custom prevails to a considerable extent, and is of very ancient origin, the Institutes of ]\Ianu pre- scribing that a ''twice-born" man shall not marry s. woman related to him within the sixth degree, or one bearing his family name (ch. iii, § 5). The Battas of Sumatra enforce this custom of exogamy by a mode of punishment which we should imagine would effectually secure its observance. They punish those who impi- ously marry within the tribe by cutting them up alive, and eating them, grilled or raw, with salt and red pep- per. They claim that marriage between a man and woman who had common ancestors is higlily criminal (Taylor, Nat. JJist. of Society, i, 122). The principle of
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exogamy is strictly enforced among the Australian tribes. These savages are divided into small tribes, named after the districts which they inhabit. The tribe inhabiting a particular district considers itself the owner thereof, and vigorously resents any intrusion. Yet there are many tribes often found inhabiting the same area quite differently disposed. Thus on the sub- Himalayan ranges are certain tribes which forbid inter- marriage of clansmen, and others which forbid marriage outside of the tribe limits. In some districts, as in the hills on the north-eastern frontier of India, in the Cau- casus, and the hill-ranges of Syria, are found a variety of tribes undoubtedly of the same original stock, yet in this particidar utterly differing — some forbidding mar- riage within the tribe, and some proscribing marriage without it (M'Lennan, p. 147).
7. Polyundry and rolygnia. — The paucity of ;vomen not only reveals to us the reason why exogamy became so generally established among rude nations, but also easily explains the practice o{ 2)olyu?Klri/, which we are told by best authorities exists to a moderate extent among savage races. Lubbock, however, will have it that '• polyandry, or the marriage of one woman to several men at once, is more common than is gener- ally supposed, though much less so than polygamy" (p. 55; compare p. 100). It prevaDs in its most strik- ing form throughout Thibet and in the Himalayan re- gions. It is also met with in Ceylon, among tribes of the north of Asia, and in parts of Africa and Amer- ica. In former times it seems to have ytrevailed still more widely. Tacitus found traces of it among the Germans ; and Strabo tells us that in certain cantons of Media a woman was looked upon with contempt who had less than five husbands (lib. ii, p. 794). Ctsar tells us that in his time polyandry prevailed among the Brit- ons (Be Bello Gallico, lib. v, ch. xiv) ; and other traces of its former existence remain. It occurs in two dis- tinct forms : the ruder, that in which the husbands are not brothers ; the less rude, that in which they are broth- ers. The latter form only prevails in Thibet. In sev- eral other places, as in Ceylon, the two forms coexist. In Thiljct the choice of the wife is the privilege of the elder brother. The number of husbands does not ap- pear to be defined or restricted within fixed limits. The same system prevails throughout the Himalayan re- gions, and generally in Ceylon. Humboldt found this form among the South American savages, and C-Tssar among the ancient Britons. In connection with the polyandry of Ceylon are two distinct forms of marriage — the Djga and the Bina. The first occurs when the wife goes to live in the house or village of her husband ; the second, when the husband or husbands come to live with her. Among the Kandyans, the right of inheri- tance of a woman and her children depends on whether she is a d5ga or a bina wife (Forbes, Ceyloi), i, 333). Among the Kochs, though their marriage is now mo- nogamous, a like system prevails, seeming to point to former polyandry (compare, on the prevalence of poly- andry, M'Lennan, p. 180 sq. ; Lubbock, p. 100 sq.).