The Descent of Man

into strict though temporary unions for each
birth, and in this case nearly as much confusion
would have arisen in the terms of relationship
as in the case of promiscuous intercourse. As
far as sexual selection is concerned, all that is
required is that choice should be exerted before
the parents unite, and it signifies little whether
the unions last for life or only for a season.
Besides the evidence derived from the terms of
relationship, other lines of reasoning indicate
the former wide prevalence of communal marriage.
Sir J. Lubbock accounts for the strange
and widely-extended habit of exogamy—that
is, the men of one tribe taking wives from a
distinct tribe,—by communism having been the
original form of intercourse; so that a man never
obtained a wife for himself unless he captured
her from a neighbouring and hostile tribe,
and then she would naturally have become his
sole and valuable property. Thus the practice of
capturing wives might have arisen; and from