132 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and polygyny on recalling two facts named in the chapter on " Exog- 

 amy and Endogamy." By members of savage communities, captured 

 women are habitually taken as additional wives or concubines, and 

 the reputations of warriors are enhanced in proportion to the numbers 

 thus obtained. As Mr. McLennan points out, certain early peoples 

 permitted foreign wives (presumably along with other wives) to the 

 military class, when wives from alien societies were forbidden to other 

 classes. Even among the Hebrews the laws authorized such appro- 

 priations of women taken in war. The further direct connection is, 

 that where loss of many men in frequent battles leaves a great surplus 

 of women, the possession of more wives than one by each man con- 

 duces to the maintenance of population and the preservation of the 

 society : continuance of polygyny being, under these circumstances, 

 insured by the conflicts between such societies, which, other things 

 equal, entail the disappearance of those not practising it. To which 

 must be added the converse fact that, in proportion as decreasing 

 militancy and increasing industrialness cause an approximate equali- 

 zation of the sexes in numbers, there results a growing resistance to 

 polygyny ; since it cannot be practised by many of the men without 

 leaving many of the rest wifeless, and causing an antagonism incon- 

 sistent with social stability. Hence monogamy is to a great extent 

 compelled by that balance of the sexes which industrialism brings 

 about. 



Once more, the natural relation between polygyny and predomi- 

 nant militancy, and between monogamy and predominant industrial- 

 ness, is shown by the fact that these two domestic forms harmonize 

 in principle with the two associated political forms. We have seen 

 that the militant type of social structure is based on the principle of 

 compulsory cooperation, while the industrial type of social structure 

 is based on the principle of voluntary cooperation. Now, it is clear 

 that plurality of wives, whether the wives are captured in war or pur- 

 chased from their fathers regardless of their own wills, implies domes- 

 tic ruleof the compulsory type: the husband is despot and the wives 

 are slaves. Conversely, the establishment of monogamy where fewer 

 women are taken in war and fewer men lost in war is accompanied 

 by an increased value of the individual woman, who, even when pur- 

 chased, is therefore likely to be better treated. And when, with fur- 

 ther advance, some power of choice is acquired by the woman, there 

 is an approach to that voluntary cooperation which characterizes this 

 marital relation in its highest form. The domestic despotism which 

 polygyny involves is congruous with the political despotism proper 

 to predominant militancy; and the diminishing political coercion 

 which naturally follows development of the industrial type is congru- 

 ous with the diminishing domestic coercion which naturally follows 

 the accompanying development of monogamy. 



Probably the histories of European peoples will be cited in evi- 



