the ethnological notebooks of karl marx - Marxists Internet Archive

of whole communities of peasants into villeinage, and through a consequenttransformation o f the legal theory o f their rights. Aber selbst wenn aChief or Lord has come to be recognized as legal owner of the wholetribal domain, or of great portions of it, the accustomed methods ofoccupation and cultivation” are not altered. (102)D . chief Brehon law tract setting forth the mutual rights of the collectivetribe and of individual tribesmen or households of tribesmen in respect163 o f tribal property, is | called the Corus Bescna, printed in the third volumeof the official edition. (103) Das was die ganze Sache verdunkelt ist the“ strong and palpable bias o f the compiler towards the interest of theChurch; indeed, part of the tract is avowedly devoted to the law of Churchproperty and of the organisation of religious houses. When this writeraffirms that, under certain circumstances, a tribesman may grant orcontract away tribal land, his ecclesiastical leaning constantly suggests adoubt as to his legal doctrine. (104)In the Germanic countries, their (d. chrisd. Pfaffen) ecclesiastical societies,were among the earliest and largest grantees of public or “ folk” land.(Stubbs: “ Constitutional History” , v. I, p. 104). The Will, the Contract,and the Separate Ownership, were in fact indispensible to the Churchas the donee of pious gifts. (I.e.) A ll the Brehon writers have a biastowards private or several, as distinguished from collective, property.(io5)Weiter über the “ Tribe” or “ Sept” see “ Ancient Laws of Ireland” , II, 283,289; III, 4 9 -5 1; II, 283; III, 52, 53, 55. Ill, 47, 49. Ill, 1 7 ; III, 5. Dercollective brotherhood of tribesmen, wie der Agnatic Kindred in Rom,some ultimate right of succession appears to be reserved. ( 1 1 1 , 112 )The “Judgments of Co-Tenancy” is a Brehon law tract, noch unpublished(1875), wovon sich aber Herr Maine, der nur d. Ueberset^g kennt, nicht d.Text, so pfiffig war sich vor d. Publication flgdes mittheilen zu lassen:D. tract fragt: “ Whence does Co-Tenancy arise” ? Answers: “ Fromseveral heirs and from their increasing on the land” ; dann bemerkt dertract: the land is, in the first year, to be tilled by kinsmen just as eachpleases; in the second year they are to exchange lots; in the 3d year theboundaries are to be fixed u. the whole process o j severance is to be consummatedin the 10thyear." (112 ) Maine bemerkt richtig, dass d. Zeitbestimmgenideales arrangement des Brehon law giver,14 aber d. Inhalt: “ First a JointFamily (dies statt gens, weil d. Herr Maine d. Joint Family wie sie in Indienexistirt fälschlich als ursprüngliche Form betrachtet), composed of“ several heirs increasing on the land” , is found to have made a setdement.In the earliest stage the various households reclaim the land without setrule. (!) Next comes the system o f exchanging lots. Finally, the portionsof land are enjoyed in severalty.” (113)Herr Whitley Stokes hat dem Maine 2 passages occurring in non-legal Irishliterature mitgetheilt. The “ liber Hymnorum” (soll v. n t Jhdt sein)291