74 The Growth of the Marriage Relation. 



With descent in the male line the same result would follow 

 if the wife left her own tribe to live among her husband's 

 kindred, as is customary with the Turanians. If, in this 

 case, the husband remained after marriage with his wife's 

 family, their offspring would form a separate group of 

 kinsfolk within the wife's tribe. Such apparently has been 

 the origin of the gens or totem group among the American 

 and Australian aborigines. 



The claims of parents and others which constitute the 

 restrictions on marriage due to human agency, are not less 

 real and effective than those arising from the restraints 

 due to consanguinity, on which the rule of exogamy is 

 based. It is possible, however, that the former may not 

 have been in operation from so early a period as the latter ; 

 seeing that in the earliest form of the marriage relation, 

 all the members of a group of persons stood in this rela- 

 tion to all the members of an adjoining group, so that 

 there may not have been any place for restrictions other 

 than those arising from consanguinity. 



Stating now the law in its widest form, we may say that 

 the marriage relation may take any fonn that is consistent 

 with the restrictions from time to time imposed by nature or 

 by man. It is important to notice, with reference to these 

 restrictions, that although their primary operation is to 

 act as restraints on promiscuity, yet that they act also as 

 inducements to marriage. Dr. Starcke, after considering 

 certain supposed examples of promiscuity, observes* that 

 " if marriage were decided by tlie sexual relations, it would 

 be difficult to understand for what reason marriages were 

 contracted in those communities in which an altogether 

 licentious sexual life is permitted to the unmarried." As 

 a fact, however, the restrictions above referred to tend to 

 prevent this licentiousness, as they are intended to do, and 

 thus induce individuals to enter into the legitimate mar- 

 riage relation. There are, however, various active induce- 

 ments which are greatly influential over the formation of 

 that relation. Dr. Starcke remarks that a man connects 

 himself with a woman in order that she may keep house 

 for him, a second motive being that of obtaining children. 

 These motives alone are not sufficient, however, and we 

 must give the first place to the feeling, call it love or sym- 

 pathy, which is the main-sjjring of marriage in civilized 



The rriiuitive Family in its Origin and Development (1889), p. 256. 



