Marriage

It is important to remember that we have come to regard marriage as defined primarily by parenthood. Now social parent hood in native ideas, behaviour, custom and law is not affected by these various forms of relaxation just described. The children are reckoned as belonging to the legal husband, and in this as in many other ways—economic, legal and religious—these tempo rary relaxations do not seriously disturb the marriage relationship. It must be realised with regard to fatherhood that even where the main principles of physiological procreation are known, savages do not attribute an undue importance to actual physiological paternity (see KINSHIP). It is almost always the husband of the woman who is considered the legal father of her children, whether he be their physiological father or not..

6. Concubinage.

This can be defined as a legalised form of cohabitation, which differs from marriage in that it implies a con siderably lower status of the female partner and her offspring, than that enjoyed by the legal wife. It is a terminological con fusion to speak of concubinage, when there is temporary access to a woman, or exclusively sexual rights in her. On primitive levels of culture real concubinage does not exist. Some similarity to it can be found in the institution of subsidiary wives. In certain polygynous communities there is one principal wife and the sub sidiary ones have a much lower status, as is the case among the Guarani, Central Eskimo, Araucanians, Apache, Chippewa (America) ; Chukchi, Koryak, Yakut (N.E. Asia) ; Marquesas Islanders, Tongans, Tahitians, Maori, Marshall Islanders (Poly nesia) ; Awemba, Wafipa, S.E. Bantu, Herero, Nandi, Yoruba, Ewhe (Africa) ; Ossetes, Kadaras, Khambis (India) ; Battas, Bagobo, Kulaman (Indonesia).

It is not correct to regard the institutions of temporary and limited partnership described above, such as the pirrauru of C. Australia or the protracted exchange of partners among the Eskimo, as concubinage.

7. Prostitution.

The institution of commercial eroticism or prostitution has a very limited range among primitive peoples. It has been reported from Melanesia (Santa Cruz, Rossel Island), Polynesia (Line Islands, Caroline Islands, Easter Island, Hawaii), Greenland, N. America (Omaha), S. America (Karaya, Uitoto, Boro), W. Africa, E. Africa (Banyoro). In its relation to mar riage it begins to play a very important part only in higher cul tures (see PROSTITUTION). On the one hand it provides an easy satisfaction for the sexual appetite to unmarried men or those who for some reason cannot cohabit with their wives. It thus con stitutes an institution complementary to marriage. On the other

hand, in certain communities, of which Ancient Greece is a not able example, i.e., "hetairism," prostitution in a higher and more refined form, allowed some women to devote themselves Ito cul tural pursuits and to associate with men more freely than was possible to those legally married.

On the whole it is rather a subsidiary institution than either a relaxation or a form of sexual preparation. Unlike the other forms of sexual licence, prostitution is neither directly correlated with marriage nor does it affect its integrity so seriously as do the forms of matrimonial relaxation which involve both husband and wife.

8. The Economics of the Household and Family.

We are thus led at all stages of our argument to the conclusion that the institution of marriage is primarily determined by the needs of the offspring, by the dependence of the children upon their par ents. More specially, the mother since she is handicapped at pregnancy and for some time after birth, needs the assistance of a male partner. The role of male associate and helpmate is almost universally played by the husband exclusively, though in some extremely matrilineal societies the wife's brother shares with the husband in some of the responsibilities and burdens of the house hold. The economic as well as the biological norm of a family is thus mother, child and husband—or exceptionally both the husband and the wife's brother.

In the vast majority of human societies the individual family, based on monogamous marriage and consisting of mother, father and children, forms a self-contained group, not necessarily how ever cut off from society. Within the household there is a typical scheme of division in functions, again almost universal. By virtue of natural endowment the wife has not only to give birth to and nourish the children, but she is also destined to give them most of the early tender cares: to keep them warm and clean, to lull them to sleep and soothe their infantile troubles. Even in this the hus band often helps to a considerable degree, prompted by natural inclination as well as by custom. This latter often imposes upon him duties and ritual manifestations such as taboos during the pregnancy of his wife and at childbirth, and performances at the time of confinement, of which the couvade (q.v.) is the most striking example. All such obligations emphasize the father's responsibility and his devotion to the child. Later on in the educa tion of offspring both parents have to take part, performing their respective duties, which vary with the society and with the sex of the children.