The practice of polygyny has been wide spread among practically all peoples from the stage of barbarism up, though limited to the prosperous and well-to-do. Where it failed of legal sanction it frequently existed in the more or less illegal form of concubinage. It is not surprising, on this account, that in many cases it has received the explicit sanction of re ligion as in the cases of Mohammedanism and Mormonism. But among all peoples it has tended to die out with the coming of higher civilization, for the reason that it obviously in volves the subjection and degradation of woman, the lack of paternal care of the chil dren and the placing of a premium upon the more brutal instincts of human nature, espe cially in the male.
Polyandry (Greek, °many husbande).— The union of one woman with several men is a rare form of marriage found at present prac tically only in Tibet and among some of the mountain tribes of India, though within his toric times it existed in Arabia. Apparently polyandry has never been a wide-spread form of marriage in the human species, as the in stinctive jealousy of the male works against it; and There is no reason for supposing, as Mc Lennan supposed, that primitively it was uni versal. On the contrary, it seems to exist only under such economic and social conditions as might lead to the suppression of male jealousy. Thus the difficulty of one man supporting a family has in the barren regions of Tibet led to the toleration of polyandry. In the same region there seems to be a scarcity of women, which also favors the practice of polyandry.
The most common form of polyandry is the fraternal or Tibetan form, in which a group of brothers have a common wife, the oldest brother being the head of the household and the puta tive father of all the children. Among the Nairs of India, however, a non-fraternal form of polyandry exists.
Monogamy (Greek, °single marriage).— Polygyny and polyandry, as we have seen, have always been exceptional forms of marriage. The prevalent form of marriage among all peoples and in all ages has been some form of monogamy, the union of one man and one woman. This has been so largely by biological necessity, as under normal conditions the num ber of males and females in any given popu lation is relatively equal. The instincts of man have also to some extent favored monogamy, especially the instinct of sex jealousy. Eco nomic conditions also have rarely made it possible for a man to support more than one wife and her children. Besides such biological and economic reasons for the existence of monogamy, however, it has manifest social superiorities to any other form of marriage.
It is much more favorable to superior care and upbringing of children, as under monogamy both husband and wife commonly unite in the care of the child. It develops affections and emotions of a more altruistic type, and it makes the bonds of the family life more definite and strong. For these reasons monogamy favors the developmtnt of higher types of morality and of civilization generally. Its association with higher types of civilization is, therefore, not an accident. At its hest, the monogamic family presents such superior unity and har mony that it is best fitted of all the forms of marriage to work in harmony with higher civil ization.
The Marriage all peo ples, savage as well as civilized, legal marriage is usually accompanied by some form of cere mony which expresses the sanction of the group upon the union. This ceremony is usually of a magical or religious character, though in a few peoples it is apparently purely social. Betrothal is also, among the more ad vanced peoples, frequently an occasion for some sort of religious or social ceremony.
The Freedom of Choice in Westermarck presents considerable evidence to show that among primitive peoples marriage was originally based on the mutual attraction and consent of the parties. Almost always the male is the wooer. The female accepts or re jects her lover, and thus plays the decisive role in sex selection. The same phenomena of courtship also appear very generally among the animals. There is no reason for supposing that different conditions existed among primitive men. The common practices of wife capture and wife purchase must be regarded as ex ceptional conditions developed in later stages of civilization. Marriage thus began in free choice, but among many peoples passed through stages of wife capture, and of wife purchase, under the dominance of family or tribal inter ests becoming only gradually in modern times again a matter of free individual choice.
Marriage by Capture and by Among predatory and warlike tribes marriage by capture is often common; indeed, on ac count of the social and military honor at tached to wife capture, it sometimes comes to be the favorite form of marriage. We know of no people, however, among whom wives are regularly captured outside the tribe. Mani festly such a social state would be practically impossible, even though wife capture was so cially favored.