EXOGAMY IN CHINA 113 



Professor Parker in his Comparative Chinese 

 Family Law says: — 



"Now the Chinese Law, both Customary and Statute, Parker, 

 furnishes an immense amount of collateral evidence in Chinese Familr 

 support of Maine's theory that the movement of the L aWg p . 3, 

 progressive societies has hitherto been a movement from 

 Status to Contract, or from families as units to in- 

 dividuals as units. It is particularly fruitful in illustra- 

 tion, perhaps more so even than the Hindoo Customary 

 Laws, which, in truth, of Ancient Laws appear to have 

 been the only ones, besides the Roman and Hellenic 

 Laws, over which Maine had, at the time of his Lec- 

 tures on Ancient Law, obtained a complete grasp. The 

 numerous illustrations are the more valuable inasmuch 

 as China has not yet emerged from Status, and, as 

 regards the Patria Potestas, the Testamentary Power, 

 the position of women and slaves, the fiction of adoption, 

 and the almost entire absence of any written law of 

 contract, remains in the position of the Roman Law — - 

 not of the later Empire, not even of the Antonine era ; 

 not even, again, of the early Empire, or the Republic at 

 its prime ; but of the Roman Law anterior to the publica- 

 tion of the Twelve Tables — 2,200 years ago. In fact, 

 with the Chinese Law, as with the Chinese language, 

 we are carried back to a position whence we can survey, 

 so to speak, a living past, and converse with fossil men." 



The life of primitive man was not that of the care 

 free savage of romance, it was hedged round with 

 restrictions, taboos, the breach of which it was felt, and 

 believed, would bring dire disaster not only on the 

 offender himself but, also> a matter of greater moment, 

 upon his fellows, their women, their flocks and their 

 crops, and call down upon all the vengeance of outraged 

 nature. 



Of such restrictions, that enjoining the avoidance 

 of cohabitation with women of the same tribe, or group 

 of kindred, is found amongst many of the primitive 

 races of mankind, and traces of it amongst the most 

 civilized. This rule of avoidance was first named 

 ''Exogamy" by McLennan who in his "Primitive 

 Marriage," first published in 1865, laid stress upon 

 this avoidance, and its importance as a factor in mould- 

 ing the familv life of man. 



Exogamy was, and is, the first great commandment 

 as to marriage observed by the Chinese Race. In China 

 one cannot marry a wife, or take a concubine, of the 

 same family name as oneself. To read the riddle of 

 Exogamy is the aim of all interested in the origin of 

 human society. Many and varying are the suggested 

 solutions of that riddle; but even Sir J. G. Frazer 



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