290 A NATUBALI8T IN CELEBES ch. xi 



and meaning is lost or forgotten (43). It ■would indeed 

 be strange, if capture marriage had been formerly a common 

 practice, among the ancestors of the present Minahassers, 

 that no trace of it remains in any of their numerous cere- 

 monies, stories, myths, and legends which have been 

 brought to light. Moreover, the position of woman in 

 strict patriarchal families is a definite one. She is little 

 more than a slave in the household, she possesses no 

 property, has no claim upon the children, and cannot under 

 any circumstances claim a divorce. She is in fact nothing ' 

 more nor less than a portion of her husband's property. 

 Such a position is one from which woman cannot free 

 herself for countless generations. In fact, it seems that 

 when a race of people has once regarded its women in 

 such a light it is never afterwards able to replace them on 

 the same platform as the men. Even in England and in 

 other European countries, women are not considered to be 

 capable of taking the same part in politics, in the pro- 

 fessions, and in many other phases of social life as the men. 

 Why ? Because in the dim and distant past, a past which 

 is revealed to us only in the shreds and patches of ancient 

 history and in relics, our ancestors had capture mar- 

 riages, and their family life was strictly patriarchal. It 

 is not an exaggeration to say that there are comparatively 

 speaking very few women in Europe at the present day who 

 hold anything like the same position in the family and in 

 the State as the women of the Pueblo Indians of America, 

 the Padangers of the highlands of Sumatra, or the Dyaks. 

 The fact that in Minahassa the wife is on an equality 

 with her husband in the household, and in commercial 

 matters, and very probably was at the commencement of 

 the century in affairs of State as well, points to another line 

 of evolution of their social institutions than through the 

 strictly patriarchal one. 



