THE INTEGRATION OF THE SEXES — MARRIAGE 281 



marriage would be irregular and so frowned upon, if not 

 dealt with in harsh fashion. But a look back over the htera- 

 ture scarcely warrants such a statement. We may, therefore, 

 entertain serious skepticism concerning the prevalence 

 of marriage only when a child is born, until a more searching 

 investigation makes it clear that such a custom does prevail 

 in a large number of tribes. This is offered as a caution, 

 for there is sufficient evidence that the ever present and 

 necessary children are an important consideration in mar- 

 riage, without falHng back upon such assumed universal 

 practices as the initiation of marriage only after children 

 are born. It may well be, that all such cases are social 

 demands, or that what the group feels should be, is marriage 

 as anticipatory to the rearing of children. Even so inter- 

 preted, however, they are evidences of the universahty of 

 the belief that children and marriage are complementary. 



Some alarm has been felt over such proposals as trial 

 marriage, contract marriage, companionate marriage, etc., 

 all of which have been proposed as checks upon the rising 

 frequency of divorce. The ideas underlying these proposals 

 are not new, but seem to have been tried one time and 

 another. In Scotland, we are told that prior to the Reforma- 

 tion, there was a custom known as "hand-fasting," which 

 was a trial marriage not to exceed a year, at the end of which 

 period the couple married or separated as they desired. 

 The reader of ethnographic literature is well aware that 

 among many primitive peoples the prospective bride and 

 groom, preliminary to marriage, live together as man and 

 wife, often in the hut of the parents of one of the contracting 

 parties. Such a trial marriage tests two important qualifica- 

 tions of the pair, fecundity and ability to support them- 

 selves economically. 



In conclusion, then, it appears that a much stronger 

 claim can be made for the long period of infancy as a deter- 

 mining factor in marriage, than for any other biological 

 factor so far considered. Slow growth is also characteristic 

 of the higher primates and one may expect more exact 

 observations on the gorilla and the chimpanzee to give us 

 further light upon this hypothesis. 



