the ethnological notebooks of karl marx - Marxists Internet Archive

into the normal progress of development, (p. 70) Even under communalmarriage, a warrior who had captured a beautiful girl in some maraudingexpedition would claim a peculiar right to her, and, when possible, wouldset custom at defiance (!) There are other cases of the existence ofmarriage under two forms; and there is, therefore, no real difficulty inassuming the co-existence of communal marriage and individual marriage... A war captive ... was in a peculiar position: the tribe had noright to her; her capturer might have killed her if he chose; if he preferredto keep her alive he was at liberty to do so; he did as he liked, and thetribe was no sufferer.” (70, 71)He (McLennan) also considers that marriage by capture followed, andarose from that remarkable custom, namely, of marrying always out of the tribe,for which he has proposed the appropriate name of exogamy. I believethat exogamy arose from marriage by capture etc.” (72) Lubb. weiss2 also nichts v. d. Basis - der gens | die innerhalb d. tribe existirt, so wenigwie McLennan, obgleich er einige facts citirt, die ihm d. Sache unterd. Nase reiben, u. sie in d. That etwas kitzelten.Lubb. schreibt nun d. McLennan ab, um zu zeigen “how widely ‘capture’,either actual or symbolical, enters into the idea of marriage. Mr. McLennanwas, I believe, the first to appreciate its importance. I (Lubb.) havetaken some of the following evidence from his valuable work, adding,however (!), several additional cases.” (jß. Great, greatest Lubb.!) If weassume the case of a country in which there are four certain neighbouringtribes, who have the custom of exogamy, and who trace pedigrees throughthe mother, and not through the father - . . . after a certain time the resultwould be that each tribe would consist of four septs or clans, representingthe 4 original tribes, and hence we should find communities in whicheach tribe is divided into clans, and a man must always marry a woman ofa different clan. (75)Among agricultural tribes, and under setded forms of government, thechiefs often have very large harems, and their importance even ismeasured by the number of their wives, as in other cases by that of theircows or horses. (104)“Among many of the lower races relationship through females is the prevalentcustom” , daher “ the curious (!) practice that a marts heirs [aber sie sind jadann nicht the marts heirs; diese civilisirten Esel können ihre eignenconventionalities nicht los werden] are not his own, but his sister'schildren.” (105) Thus when a rich man dies in Guinea, his property,excepting the armour, descended to the sister's son, expressly, accordingto Smith (Smith's “ Voyage to Guinea" p. 143. See also Pinkerton's Voyagesv. XV, p. 147, 421, 528); Astley's Collection of Voyages, v. II, p. 63, 265),on the ground(Pragmatisirung!) that he must certainly be a relative.” (105)Battel (in Pinkerton's Voyages, v. XVI, p. 330) mentions that the town ofLongo (Loango) is governed by 4 chiefs, which are sons of the king’s340