270 HUMAN BIOLOGY 



enough, they do not outlaw monogamy. This is consistent 

 in one way, because it is the woman who is restricted to a 

 union with one man, not the man who is limited to one 

 woman. Long ago, Westermarck demonstrated that mono- 

 gamy was tolerated everywhere, which he considered proof 

 that monogamy was the original natural union of mankind. 

 That this does prove it rrtay be doubted, because a man 

 usually marries one woman at a time; so he would first 

 be monogamous, even though later polygynous. In the 

 same way the first step in polyandry, the form of marriage in 

 which a woman marries several men, may be monogamous, 

 later polyandry and eventually group marriage. It appears 

 then that the forms of marriage are not mutually exclusive 

 in community practice, and that in dealing with the subject 

 it would be fairer to regard the ideal of the community 

 or nation rather than to count all the forms of union observed 

 at a given time. A monogamous tribe would then be one in 

 which other forms of marriage were frowned upon; a poly- 

 gynous tribe one in which that form of marriage was the 

 objective, even though a number of men had but one wife 

 each. Looked at in this way, a census of the world may be 

 taken to see what form of marriage prevails. 



First, we may inquire as to what peoples live, or have 

 been observed to live, without marriage of any kind. For 

 such examples the records of explorers have been searched 

 without success. Everywhere, marriage as a social institution 

 is recognized and enforced, so we can say, with confidence, 

 that marriage is universal. Westermarck and others made 

 this clear long ago. It would seem then that marriage as a 

 social institution is very old, probably the oldest surviving 

 social complex. Not a few social philosophers and historians, 

 as well, have regarded it as the foundation to the whole 

 social structure. Whether this is a justifiable hypothesis 

 or not, we need not pause to consider, but may return to the 

 question of universality. As we have stated, there are four 

 forms of marriage, all of which exist at the present time 

 and that a savage community or a nation consistently 

 approves one of these and frowns upon the antagonistic 

 forms. In a world survey of marriage forms monogamy may 

 appear dominant because it is the form followed by Christian 



