MoijKBi GENESIS OF MARRIAGE 285* 



assumption of Westerniarck tliat the course of conjugal development is 

 ratlier from monogamy toward pi'omiscuity than in the reverse direction. 



3. A noteworthy character of ethuogamic union is the absence of cap- 

 ture of either bride or groom. Any semblance of capture would indeed 

 be wholly incongruous with the rigid confinement of union to members 

 of the group ; it would also be incongruous with the exceeding formality 

 and necessary amicability of both preliminary and concomitant arrange- 

 ments. 



4. Another noteworthy character is the total absence of purchase on 

 either part. Although a material condition attends the uuion, it is 

 essentially a test of character, and is applied in such wise as to dignify 

 the feminine element rather than to degrade it like barbaric wife- 

 puriihase; while any semblance of purchase would be incongruous with 

 the economic condition of a tribe practically destitute of accumulated 

 property or even of thrift-sense. 



5. A significant character of ethuogamic union, as exemplified in the 

 type tribe, is the ceremonial or constructive monogamy. While there 

 ai-e obscure (aud presumptively vestigial) traces of polyandry or 

 adelphogamy, and while an intbrmal polygyny is practiced by the chiefs 

 and older warriors, the formal matings are between one man and one 

 woman, and appear to be permanent. 



Now, on comparing these characters with those revealed in the mari- 

 tal customs of other tribes and jjeoples, they are found to betoken a 

 notably provincial aud primitive culture-stage. Perhaps the nearest 

 American api)roach to the Seri customs is found among certain Cali- 

 fornia aborigines, notably the Yurok and I'atawat tribes, who recognize 

 the institution of "half-marriage"; ' but here the material test of Seri- 

 land is replaced by purchase, while no trace of the moral test is found 

 (even as among the Carolina Indians, according to Lawson); moreover, 

 while these tribes discourage alien connections, they are not absolutely 

 eschewed and reprobated as amoog the Seri. Other notably lu'imitive 

 customs, like those so lully described by Spencer and Gillen, Lave been 

 found among the Australian aborigines;- but even here a part only of 

 the marriages are regulated by amicable convention, while others iire 

 effected by (1) charm, (2) capture, aud (3) elopement; and these collat- 

 eral devices imply intertribal relations of a kind incongruous with the 

 ethiuigamie habit and utterly repugnant to the ethuogamic instinct. 

 In both cases, accordingly, the marital customs clearly imply (and 

 actually accompany) a much more highly dittereutiated socialry and 

 economy than that of the Seri. The same is true of that vestigial 

 custom of the Scottish clans known as handfasting, which is, moreover, 

 a direct antithesis of the Seri custom in that it carries a warrant for, 

 rather than an abridgment of, conjugal prerogatives; and the same 



• Conirtbutions to North American Ethnology, vol. m, 1877 (Tribes of California, by Stephen Powers), 

 pp. 56, 98. 

 ^The Native Tribes ot'Ci'iitral Austr;ilia, 1899, pj). .'iai-StiO aud el.sewbere. 



