246 S. E. Peal — Communal Barracks of Primitive Races. [No. 3, 



The Communal Barracks of Primitive Races. — By S. E. Peal, Esq. 

 Plates I and II. 

 [Received ; Read November 2], 



Among the many social problems relating to the early history of 

 our race which at the present day engage the attention of anthropolo- 

 gists, there are probably few which surpass in interest that of the 

 origin of " Marriage." 



The institution of the " family," with its attendant maternal and 

 paternal duties, is so closely interwoven with all human history and 

 customs that it is generally, and perhaps with some reason, taken to 

 have been the normal form of development from the very first. 



But in these days when the doctrine of evolution has taken such 

 a firm hold of the scientific world, it is hardly necessary to point out 

 that sooner or later, we may have to reconsider the entire question, 

 guided by the light of recent discoveries. 



In our endeavour to unravel the earlier phases of social life, 

 we naturally look amongst the more savage races for traces of the 

 social condition of our ancestors, piecing together slowly and carefully 

 the relics of customs still surviving here and there, which may tend 

 to throw light on this obscure and difficult question, drawing there- 

 from such deductions as experience teaches may be safe and legitimate. 



From a careful study of the evidence recently accumulated, there 

 can be little doubt that very much has yet to he learnt regarding the 

 earlier forms of sexual relation. 



MacLennan, to whom we owe so much on the question of "Primi- 

 tive marriage," has endeavoured to shew that "marriage by capture" 

 probably arose from paucity of females, due to infanticide, and that 

 really some form of monogamy had always existed, but more recent 

 evidence seems to shew that Sir John Lubhock's view is more likely 

 to be correct, i. e., that while marriage, or the private right to one 

 particular woman by any man, arose by capture, this early stage of 

 social development was possibly preceded by one of complete sexual 

 liberty, as in a horde. 



The relics of such a stage of sexual communism seem to survive 

 far more extensively among savage and semi-civilized races in our day 

 than is generally supposed, especially in the Indo-Pacific and Austra- 

 lian regions, and the object of the present note is to draw attention to 

 the large stores of information on this question already in hand, but 

 so far unutilized. 



Letourneau, in his " Evolution of Marriage," in the contemporary 

 science series, has exhaustively traced for us the earlier stages of 



