SECOND All Y JEXUAL CHARACTERS. 671 



early betrothals; and, lastly, the low estimation in which 

 women are held as mere slaves. These four points must 

 be considered in some detail. 



It is obvious that as long as the pairing of man or of 

 any other animal is left to mere chance, with no choice 

 exerted by either sex, there can be no sexual selection; and 

 no effect will be produced on the offspring by certain indi- 

 viduals having had an advantage over others in their court- 

 ship. Now, it is asserted that there exist at the present day 

 tribes which practice what Sir J. Lubbock by courtesy 

 calls communal marriages; that is, all the men and women 

 in the tribe are husbands and wives to one another. The 

 licentiousness of many savages is no doubt astonishing, but 

 it seems to me that more evidence is requisite, before we 

 fully admit that their intercourse is in any case promiscu- 

 ous. Nevertheless, all those who have most closely studied 

 the subject,* and whose judgment is worth much more 

 than mine, believe that communal marriage (this ex- 

 pression being variously guarded) was the original 

 and universal form throughout the world, including 

 therein the intermarriage of brothers and sisters. 

 The late Sir A. Smith, who had traveled widely 

 in S. Africa, arid knew much about the habits of 

 savages there and elsewhere, expressed to me the strongest 

 opinion that no race exists in which woman is considered 

 as the property of the community. I believe that his judg- 

 ment was largely determined by what is implied by the 

 term marriage. Throughout the following discussion I 

 use the term in the same sense as when naturalists speak of 

 animals as monogamous, meaning thereby that the male is 

 accepted by or chooses a single female, and lives with her 



*Sir J. Lubbock, " The Origin of Civilization," 1870, cbap. iil, 

 especially pp. 60-67. Mr. M'Lennan, in bis extremely valuable 

 work on " Primitive Marriage," 1865, p 163, speaks of tbe union of 

 the sexes "in tbe earliest times as loose, transitory, and in some 

 degree promiscuous." Mr. M'Lennan and Sir J. Lubbock have col- 

 lected inucb evidence on tbe extreme licentiousness of savages at 

 tbe present time, Mr. L. H. Morgan, in bis interesting memoir on 

 tbe classificatory system of relationsbip ("Proc. American Acad. of 

 Sciences," vol. vii, Feb., 1868, p. 475), concludes tbat polygamy 

 and all forms of marriage during primeval times were essentially 

 unknown. It appears, also, from Sir J. Lubbock's work, tbat Bacb- 

 ofen likewise believes that communal intercourse originally pre- 

 vailed. 



