The Growth of the Marriage Relation. 71 



Spencer and other writers. Instead of promiscuity, we find 

 that the most uncivilized peoples liave certain rules which 

 restrict the operation of the sexual instinct, and reduce its 

 importance as a factor in the formation of the marriage 

 relation. Those restrictions are natural or human, accord- 

 ing to their origin, and the former may fitly be termed a 

 natural restraint on promiscuity. 



It has been found, by a study of the marriage regulations 

 in force among various peoples, that individuals regarded 

 as closely related by blood are not permitted to intermarry. 

 This rule is so widespread that I have no hesitation in 

 asserting it to be general. It was in operation among the 

 ancients, and it is recognized by all peoples of the present 

 day, however low they may be in the scale of civilization. 

 There are certain exceptions, which, however, are so few 

 that they show how general must be the rule. This may 

 be illustrated by the fact that the Australian aborigines 

 have a most elaborate system of kinship, based on the 

 division of the tribes into classes and totems, with which 

 is associated a series of marriage regulations whose object 

 is to prevent the intermarriage of persons who are of the 

 same blood. All the Australian tribes have the utmost 

 abhorrence of consanguineous marriages, and the Dieyeri, 

 one of the most uncultured of them, profess to explain the 

 origin of the subdivision of the tribe into families or totem 

 groups, as intended to prevent such marriages. Moreover, it 

 has been shown by the Hon. L. H. Morgan that a system of kin- 

 ship similar to that of the Australians, though, with certain 

 variations, is in vogue among nearly all the non- Aryan peo- 

 ples of the globe. Wherever kinship is traced preferably 

 tlirough either the male line or the female line, the rule 

 that persons related through the father or through the 

 mother, as the case may be, cannot intermarry, is strictly 

 enforced. It is usually extended so as to exclude from 

 tlie marriage relation persons who are nearly connected 

 through the other parent, although not regardeed as of kin. 

 This extension is shown where, as among nearly all the 

 Australian tribes, marriage with a half-sister is prohibited, 

 although she belongs to her half-brother's intermarrying 

 group. 



The rule of non-intermarriage of persons related by 

 blood, which probably arose in the very infancy of the race, 

 throu.ijch a natural feeling against the intermarriagre of 



