XXIV BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



of inarriao-e among' certain tribes, and have assumed that this 

 was the initial form of mating among primitive peoples: later 

 researches have shown that, in the lowest of the four great cul- 

 ture stages, mating is regulated by the females and their male 

 consanguineal kindred, so tliat marriage by capture of brides 

 can not occur; yet there is a step early in the stage of pater- 

 nal organization in which a certain form of marriage by cap- 

 ture has arisen in America, and may easily have become 

 prominent on other continents. When tribes are in that unsta- 

 ble condition of amity resulting in ])eaceful interludes between 

 periods of strife — a stage characteristic of savagery and much 

 of barbarism — the intertriljal association frequently results in 

 irregular matches between members of the alien tribes; com- 

 monly such mating is punished by one or both triljes, though 

 among many peoples there are special regulations under which 

 the offense may be condoned — e. g., the groom may be sub- 

 jected to fine, to running the gauntlet, to ostracism until chil- 

 dren are born, etc. Yet while Ijoth Ijride and groom incur 

 displeasure and even risk of life through such matches, there 

 is a chance of attendant advantage which niay counterbalance 

 the risk; for it frequently happens that the groom, especially 

 if of the weaker tribe, eventually gains the amity and support 

 of his wife's kinsmen, while in some cases the eldermen and 

 elderwomen of one or both tribes recognize the desirability of 

 a coalition which can tend only to unite the deities of both, 

 and so benefit each in greater or lesser measure. Researches 

 among the American aborigines have already shown that, so 

 far as this continent is concerned, exogamy and endogamy are 

 correlative, the former referring to the clan and the latter to 

 the tribe or other group; they have also shown that the limi- 

 tations of exogamy and the extension of endogamy are inge- 

 nious devices for promoting peace; and it is now becoming 

 clear that intertribal marriage, whether by mutually arranged 

 elopement or by capture of the bride, may be a means of 

 extending endogamy and uniting aliens, and thereby of rais- 

 ing acculturation from the piratical plane to that of amicable 

 interchange. The apjjlications of the law of piratical accultura- 

 tion are imuimerable. In the light of the law it becomes easy 

 to understand how inimical tribes are gradually brought to use 



