the ethnological notebooks of karl marx - Marxists Internet Archive

(“ W ill” ) ; ebenso conception of “ Contract” (the “ sacredness of promises”etc. sehr wichtig für Pfaffen) Eine Unterabtheilg (published) des SenchusMor, nämlich Corus Bescna chiefly concerned mit “ Contract” u. zeigt sichdarin that the material interests of the Church furnished one principal motivefor (its) compilation. (5 6)Nach d. Brehon law giebts 2 Sorten of “ contract” : “ a valid contract, and aninvalid contract” ... Anciently, the power of contract is limited on allsides ... by the rights of family, distant kinsmen, co-villagers, tribe, Chief,and, if you contract (später mit Christenthum) adversely to the Church,by the rights of the Church. The Corus Bescna is in great part a treatiseon these ancient limitations. (57, 58)4The “ Book of A icill” provides for the legitimation not only o f the bastard,but o f the adulterine bastard, and measures the compensation to be paidto the putative father. The tract on “ Social Connections” appears to assumethat the temporary cohabitation of the sexes is part o f the accustomed ordero f society, and on this assumption it minutely regulates the mutual rightso f the parties, showing an especial care for the rights of the woman,even to the extent of reserving to her the value of her domestic servicesduring her residence in the common dwelling. (59) Dieser tract on “ SocialConnections” notices a “first” wife.5 (61) Dies hält Maine für Kircheneinfluss,kommt aber überall in higher state o f savagery vor, z.B. bei16 1 Red Indians. | The common view seems to have been that (d. christliche)chastity ... the professional virtue of a special class, (monk, bishop, etc)(61) (Die flgden “ Extracts” zeigen, einerseits dass Herr Maine sich nochnicht aneignen konnte was Morgan noch nicht gedruckt hatte, andrerseits,dass er Sachen die sich u. a. schon bei Niebuhr finden, darzustellen suchtas “ pointed out” by the identical Henry6 Sumner Maine! — : “ From themoment when a tribal community settles down finally (dies “ finally” ! absurd,da der tribe, wie w ir sehr7 oft finden,8 having once settled down, migratesde9 nouveau u. settles again, either voluntarily, or forced to do so somewhereelse) upon a definite space of land, the Land begins to be the base ofsociety in place of the kinship. The change is extremely gradual etc.” (72)[Dies zeigt nur, wie wenig er d. point of transition kennt.] E r führt fort:“ The Constitution of the Family through actual blood-relationship is o fcourse an observable fact, but, for all groups of men larger than the Family,the Land on which they live tends to become the bond of Union betweenthem, at the expense of kinship, ever more and more vaguely conceived.”(72, 73) [Dies zeigt, wie wenig die Gens a fact observed by the identicalMaine is!] “ Some years ago I pointed out (“ Ancient Law ” , p. 103 sq.) theevidence furnished by the history of International Law that the notionof territorial sovereignty, which is the basis of the international system, andwhich is inseparably connected with dominion over a definite area of land,very slowly substituted itself for the notion of tribal sovereignty.” (73)Nach Herrn Maine, first: Hindoo Joint Family, 2nd, Household Community of288