THE INTEGRATION OF THE SEXES MARRIAGE 27 1 



nations whose civilization is spreading over the world, and 

 the tendency for all nations taking over this type of civihza- 

 tion, whether Christianized or not, is to adopt monogamy, 

 for example, Turkey. So it is clear that monogamy is asso- 

 ciated with a dominant contemporary world culture, and 

 is being carried along with it. If we disregard this recent 

 phenomenon and review the pagan and non-Christian 

 peoples of the world, a different picture greets us. Polygyny 

 now far exceeds other forms. Monogamy is next, however, 

 after which come polyandry and group marriage. It is 

 difficult to be exact, because of the varying nature of our 

 information, but there seems httle doubt that polygyny 

 leads by a wide margin. On this ground, the views of Wester- 

 marck are opposed by some authorities who claim that not 

 monogamy, but polygyny, was the original and is still the 

 natural form of marriage. They say that "by nature man 

 is a polygynous animal." Yet, origins to human customs 

 are for the most part past finding out. Some have sought 

 the answer in man's mammalian background, but some 

 animals are monogamous, some polygynous, and some 

 promiscuous. Our knowledge of the gorilla and other primates 

 is not very specific on family matters, but there is reason to 

 suspect them to be polygynous when conditions permit. 



The one thing we can be sure of is that marriage is univer- 

 sal. Each nation and primitive community not only works 

 toward the standardization of a marriage system, but gives 

 its sanction to each marriage in a fixed procedure. This is 

 the marriage rite or ceremony. It occurs in the presence 

 of the relatives of the contracting parties, at least those of 

 the bride, who have given their assent to the procedure. 

 It is the business of those present to see that the require- 

 ments of the group as to eligibility have been met by the 

 candidates. Marriage is so intricately meshed into the 

 life of the community that the situation is always complex, 

 but one function the ceremony serves is to give notice to 

 the community that a marriage has been entered into. 



PROMISCUITY 



At the outset we cited promiscuity as the antithesis of 

 marriage. True promiscuity implies no union other than the 



