228 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XX. No. 507 



THE COMMUNAL BARRACKS OF PRIMITIVE RACES. 



BT S. E. PEAL. 



Nowadays, when the doctrine of evolution has taken such a 

 firm hold of the scientific world, and the origin of marriage by 

 capture is occasionally under consideration, it may not be out of 

 place to draw attention to the remarkable communal barracks for 

 the unmarried seen over such a large portion of the earth's surface 

 among primitive races. 



Many anthropologists have come to the conclusion that man 

 has been from the first a pairing animal, and that the family was 

 the primary unit. Mac Lennan, who has given us so much on 

 primitive marriage, has endeavored to show that marriage by 

 capture arose from a paucity of females due to female infanti- 

 cide, and that some form of peaceful monogamy preceded it. 

 But the accumulation of recent evidence tends to show us that, 

 after all, Sir John Lubbock's surmise is possibly correct, i.e., that 

 while marriage, or the private right to one particular female by 

 any man, arose by capture, this stage of social evolution was 

 probably preceded by one of communism, as in a small horde or 

 clan. The existence of these singular communal barracks for the 

 unmarried, as possibly the relics of such a stage, appear not to 

 have been realized by anthropologists, hence it is desirable to draw 

 attention to the large stores of information on this question already 

 in hand but not utilized. 



Letourneau, in his ' ' Evolution of Marriage " (in the Contempo- 

 rary Science Series), has exhaustively traced for us the early 

 stages of marriage and the family among the lower animals, 

 showing that it is by no means a peculiarly human institution. 

 The various and peculiar forms of sexual association, past and 

 present, he has clearly laid before us, but singularly enough has 

 entirely omitted all account of these communal barracks, which 

 apparently are unknown to him. 



Under many forms and innumerable names, these singular social 

 institutions extend from the Himalayas and Formosa on the north 

 to Australia and New Zealand on the south; from the eastern 

 Pacific and Marquesas to the west coast of Africa ; and thus are 

 found among races now classed as distinct, such as Dravidians, 

 Indo-Mongols, Malays, Papuans, Polynesians, Australians, and 

 Africans. Taken by themselves, these barracks for the unmarried 

 are sufiiciently suggestive ; but when we notice that they are but 

 one out of many peculiar social customs found surviving more or 

 less among all these races, the case is doubly noteworthy, first, as 

 evidence of former racial affinity ; second, as an important factor 

 in social evolution generally. 



There seems to be internal evidence that their origin preceded 

 monogamy, or marriage of any kind, and thus that some customs 

 may outlast physical and even linguistic characteristics. As 

 might naturally be expected, there has been marked geographical 

 variation, not only in the barracks, but in the allied social cus- 

 toms, some of which have died out entirely. These customs are: 

 Recognized sexual liberty before marriage, pile dwellings, 

 head hunting, platform burial, aversion to milk, blackening 

 the teeth, the double-cylinder bellows, large canoe war drums, 

 tabu, tattooing, etc. Last, but most important of all, there is 

 the universal tabu of these barracks to the married woman. She 

 is not allowed in or, at times, even near them ; whereas the un- 

 married young women and girls are not thus invariably prohibited, 

 and in not a few cases are expected to sleep in them with the 

 young men. In some races they have special houses or "bar- 

 racks" built for them. 



No doubt much remains to be discovered on this subject; but 

 one thing seems to be already certain, that among all these races 

 having "barracks," and where juvenile sexual indulgence is viewed 

 as a harmless amusement, it was not the " horror of incest " which 

 drove them to exogamy. With regard to these so called "bar- 

 racks," it is necessary to point out that both in structure and 

 function they vary so much that no description of one will cover 

 all, except in so far as the tabu against the married woman is 

 concerned. As a general rule, they are long houses, the recog- 

 nized sleeping-places of the unmarried young men, council-halls 

 devoted also to guests, and at times skull trophies, the guard- 



houses among head-hunting races, and canoe-houses in the Pa- 

 cific. 



Among the more civilized Buddhist shans of eastern Asam, the 

 " Chang" is now a semi-temple, and school-house for boys, tabu 

 to women. Among the Abors the " Mosup," 200 feet by 30 or so, 

 is the young men's sleeping-house, also guest, guard, and council- 

 house; among the less warlike Miri, the "Deri" is very similar, 

 and also the sleeping place of the unmarried young women and 

 girls. The Nogas call them " Pah," and being bead-hunters in 

 many cases, they are placed at the fortified entrances to the vil- 

 lages, being, as usual, on piles. The Mikirs call them " Tarengs," 

 and the Lushais, " Zalbuk ; " in both these cases they are the club- 

 houses of the young men, and, as in most of the other cases, their 

 authority dominates the community, even that of the parents over 

 their offspring after ten or twelve years of age. Under elected 

 heads they control a large amount of communal work, training 

 and discipline of youths, clearing of roads, maintenance of fortifi- 

 cations, bridges, etc. YvJ 



Amongst the Gouds, KoWs, Kols, etc., the "Damkuria" are 

 the sleeping-places for the young men, boys, and girls, where 

 they drum and dance to their heart's content. In Formosa the 

 " Palangkans " are the guest and council-halls, the sleeping-places 

 of the unmarried young men, issuing orders, and, as in all others, 

 tabu to married women. Among the Battaks of Sumatra the 

 " unmarried young men live together in a large house, sometimes 

 of two stories, which is set apart for them." All over Papua we 

 see the Dupu and Marea in every village as guest, council, and 

 skull-houses, the sleeping-places for the young men, and tabu to 

 women and children. In New Zealand the " Wharre Matoro'' is 

 still "the bachelor's hall or barrack, a Polynesian institution;" 

 whari-e meaning house, and matoro, "the advances made by 

 young girls to the other sex.'' In the Louisade Archipelago, the 

 Solomon Islands, and till lately in New Hebrides and Polynesia 

 generally, the feature was common, the "Ti" of the Marquesas, 

 300 X 30 feet, tabu to women, being indeed fully developed ere 

 marriage was common. Mr. J. Thomson tells us in Proceedings 

 of Royal Geographical Society, Dec, 1884, p. 701, that among the 

 Massai, "the boys and girls up to a certain age live with their 

 parents ; at 12 the boys and at 12 to 14 the girls are sent from the 

 married men's kraal to one in which there are only unmarried 

 young men and women. They live in a very indescribable man- 

 ner till married." So pleasant do they find it that they seldom 

 marry till past the prime of life. 



The nomadic Australians are exogamio, and marry by capture 

 or exchange ; yet even here we seem to have a relic of the bar- 

 rack system. Mr. Brough Smyth tells us that " the unmarried 

 young men have a place set aparl for them in each camp." Girls 

 may entertain any of them as lovers till married. A man calls a 

 woman of his own clan " Wartoa," or sister, and cannot marry 

 her. Yet connections of less virtuous character which take place 

 between them do not appear to be considered as incestuous. 

 "Intercourse between the males and females belonging to the 

 same clan appears to be regarded without disfavor," though mar- 

 riage is very strictly prohibited between them. Thus the Aus- 

 tralians, who (as Mr. Horatio Hale observes) are probably a de- 

 generate race, practically live as roving communistic hordes, in 

 which "marriage," or the monopoly of one female of their own 

 clan is impossible (though sexual intercourse is permitted), a 

 " marriage" being possible only by capture or exchange from an- 

 other clan. 



While, therefore, the prevalence of these singular communal bar- 

 racks over such a vast area, and amongst such distinct races is a 

 proof of great antiquity, their being so invariably tabu to the 

 married woman amounts almost to a demonstration that marriage 

 arose by capture. Thus what we now call the "wife," was the 

 private property of the successful warrior. 



As soon as property in captured spoils was recognized by races 

 wherein there was sexual communism and hence less competition 

 for females, the right of the stronger warriors to keep their female 

 spoils (as wives) would be less disputed, and we may be certain 

 that with the power they would have the desire to tabu to such 

 females the communal quarters of the (unmarried) young men. 

 Naturally it is with some reluctance and hesitation that one ac-. 



