226 swanton: institutional maeriage 



coordinate groups social complexes resulted in many places in 

 which some were considered superior and some inferior — some, 

 in other words, with peculiar privileges which others did not 

 have. Thus, on the north Pacific coast of America we have 

 several small clans known by the opprobrious term "food 

 steamers," and among the Natchez there was a superior caste 

 and a crowd of commons beneath. The patricians and plebeians 

 of ancient Rome present a classic example. Except among the 

 Natchez, where conditions were peculiar, the almost uniform 

 accompaniment of a caste system was endogamy of the higher 

 castes, resulting in enforced endogamy of the lower castes. And 

 naturally where there were several grades as many degrees of 

 marriage preference tended to develop, until it came about that 

 the range of selection was reduced from this cause alone within 

 very narrow limits. A contributing cause particularly active in 

 societies divided into castes is the desire to hold together, and 

 perpetuate the property as well as the privileges of a certain 

 hmited group. Thus, on the north Pacific coast, although group 

 exogamy is strictly enforced, its effects are nullified by the 

 selective inbreeding of two or three clans of the same caste, 

 whereby practically the same bulk of property is kept within 

 the group and so transmitted. 



There were of course various other artificial or institutional 

 limitations placed upon marriage, prominent among which may 

 be mentioned those set by religious creed and sect. While these 

 prohibitions and specifications have resulted from conscious de- 

 terminations at various times, they have become imbedded in 

 the institutional life of the tribe and produce almost instinctive 

 reactions. 



The geographical limits set to intermarriage were and still 

 are to a considerable extent unavoidable; and the racial and 

 tribal limits are both unavoidable and, for the present at least, 

 necessary; but the artificial identification of relationship with 

 groups having no natural connection with it, and the further 

 limitation by caste lines reinforced by economic and rehgious 

 considerations have made marriage an artificial institution in 

 many countries of the civilized as well as the uncivilized world, 



