490 SYSTEMS OF CONSANGUINITY AND AFFINITY 



hold it was a positive advance upon the previous condition, tending to check pro- 

 miscuous intercourse, and to. relieve society from some of the evils of intermarriage 

 amongst blood-relatives. It also tended to develop still further the idea of the 

 communal family, and to move society in the direction of marriage between single 

 pairs. Its reformatory character is plainly indicated by the fact that it imposed 

 upon the several brothers, who shared their wives in common, the joint obligation 

 of their defence against the violence of society, the necessity for which would be 

 apt to exist in such a state of society as this custom presupposes. 



V. The Malayan System of Relationship. 



This system has been sufficiently explained. It holds the rank of a domestic 

 institution, and takes its place in the series as the basis of the Turanian and Gano- 

 wanian systems. The argument, when fully developed, tends very strongly to 

 show that this form of consanguinity must have prevailed over Asia at the epoch 

 of the institution of the tribal organization. 



VI. The Tribal Organization. 



It is to be inferred that this institution was designed to work out a reformation 

 with respect to the intermarriage of brothers and sisters, from the conspicuous manner 

 in which it accomplishes this result. Its necessity is demonstrated by the state of 

 society revealed by the Malayan system. The origin of this ancient wide-spread and 

 most remarkable institution seems, from the stand point of this discussion, to find 

 a full explanation, the first yet found in all respects adequate and satisfactory. It 

 is not supposable that it came into existence all at once as a completed institution ; 

 but rather that it was of organic growth, and required centuries upon centuries for 

 its . permanent establishment, and still other great periods of time for its spread 

 amongst existing nations. The existence of this organization, with the prohibition 

 of intermarriage in the tribe, implies the antecedent intermarriage of blood relatives, 

 together with a knowledge of its evils. From the very constitution of society, in 

 the primitive ages, into small and independent bands the introduction of the 

 tribal organization, with the prohibition of intermarriage, would make neighboring 

 bands dependent upon each other for wives, and thus produce a radical change of 

 social condition. For this and other reasons it seems extremely probable that it 

 can only be explained as a reformatory movement. It was probably the greatest 

 of all the institutions of mankind in the primitive ages, in its influence upon human 

 progress, particularly toward the true family state, as well as the most widely dis- 

 tributed in the human family. This also gave the Turanian system of relationship. 



VII. The Turanian System of Relationship. 



This has elsewhere been sufficiently explained. With the changes in parentage 

 thereby introduced the necessary additional materials are supplied to demonstrate 

 its origin from the nature of descents. It fixes the seventh great epoch in the 

 progress through barbarism, and becomes one of the permanent landmarks of man's 

 advancement toward civilization. We cannot fail to notice the extremely ancient 

 date at which the Turanian system must have become established. 



VIII. Marriage between Single Pairs. 



The observations made upon the previous customs and institutions have reference 

 to the condition of the body of the people. Instances of marriage between single 



