344 SEXUAL SELECTION: MAN. [Part H. 



classificatory system which so strongly leads to the belief 

 that communal and other extremely loose forms of mar- 

 riage were originally universal. But, as far as I can see, 

 there is no net-essity on this ground for believing in abso- 

 lutely promiscuous intercourse. Men and women, like 

 many of the lower animals, might formerly have entered 

 into strict though temporary unions for each birth, and in 

 this case nearly as much confusion would have arisen in 

 the tenns of relationship as in the case of promiscuous in- 

 tercourse. As far as sexual selection is concerned, all that 

 is required is that choice should be exerted before the par- 

 ents unite, and it signifies little whether the unions last 

 for life or only for a season. 



Besides the evidence derived from the terms of rela- 

 tionship, other lines of reasoning indicate the former wide 

 prevalence of communal marriage. Sir J. Lubbock in- 

 geniously accounts ^ for the strange and widely-extended 

 habit of exogamy — that is, the men of one tribe always 

 taking wives from a distinct tribe — by communism hav- 

 ing been the original form of marriage ; so that a man 

 never obtained a wnfe for himself unless he captured her 

 from a neigliboring and hostile tribe, and then she would 

 naturally have become his sole and valuable property. 

 Thus the practice of capturing wives might have arisen ; 

 and from the honor so gained might ultimately have be- 

 come the universal habit. We can also, according to Sir 

 J. Lubbock,* thus imderstand "the necessity of expiation 

 for marriage as an infringement of tribal rites, since, ac- 

 cording to old ideas, a man had no right to appropriate to 

 himself that which belonged to the whole tribe." Sir J. 

 Lubbock further gives a most curious body of facts show- 

 ing that in old times high honor was bestowed on women 

 who were utterly licentious ; and this, as he explains, is 



' Address to British Association ' On the Social and Religious Condi- 

 tion of the Lower Races of Man,' 1870, p. 20. 



