Part 3

This idea was supported by the system of relationship of the Dieri of Australia which possesses at least one feature similar to those of Pentecost, a fact I happened to remember at the time because Mr. N. W. Thomas[13] had used it as the basis of a _reductio ad absurdum_ argument to show that terms of relationship do not express kinship. The interest of the Pentecost system seemed at first to lie in the possibility thus opened of bringing Melanesian into relation with Australian sociology, a hope which was the more promising in that the people of Pentecost and the Dieri resemble one another in the general character of their social organisation, each being organised on the dual basis with matrilineal descent. When in Pentecost, however, I was unable to get further than this, and the details of the system remained wholly inexplicable.

[13] _Kinship Organisations and Group Marriage in Australia_, Cambridge, 1906, p. 123.

The meaning of some of the peculiarities of the Pentecost system became clear when I reached the Banks Islands; they were of the same kind as those I have already considered as characteristic of these islands. When I had discovered the dependence of these features upon the marriage of a man with the wife of his mother’s brother, it became evident that not only these, but certain other features of the Pentecost system, were capable of being accounted for by this kind of marriage. The peculiar features of the Pentecost system could be divided into two groups, and all the members of one group could be accounted for by the marriage with the mother’s brother’s wife. All these features had the character in common that persons of the generation immediately above or below that of the speaker were classed in nomenclature with relatives of the same generation.

The other group consisted of terms in which persons two generations apart were classed with relatives of the same generation. Since the first group of correspondences had been explained by a marriage between persons one generation apart, it should have been obvious that the classing together of persons two generations apart might have been the result of marriage between persons two generations apart. The idea of a society in which marriages between those having the status of grandparents and grandchildren were habitual must have seemed so unlikely that, if it entered my mind at all, it must have been at once dismissed. The clue only came later from a man named John Pantutun, a native of the Banks Islands, who had been a teacher in Pentecost. In talking to me he often mentioned in a most instructive manner resemblances and differences between the customs of his own island and those he had observed in Pentecost. One day he let fall the observation with just such a manner as that in which we so often accuse neighbouring nations of ridiculous or disgusting practices, “O! Raga![14] That is the place where they marry their granddaughters.” I saw at once that he had given me a possible explanation of the peculiar features of the system of the island. By that time I had forgotten the details of the Pentecost system, and it occurred to me that it would be interesting, not immediately to consult my note-books, but to endeavour to construct a system of relationship which would be the result of marriage with a granddaughter, and then to see how far my theoretical construction agreed with the terminology I had recorded. The first question which arose was with which kind of granddaughter the marriage had been practised, with the son’s daughter or with the daughter’s daughter, and this was a question readily answered by means of a consideration arising out of the nature of the social organisation of Pentecost.

[14] This is the Mota name for Pentecost Island.

The society of this island is organised on the dual basis with matrilineal descent in which a man must marry a woman of the opposite moiety. Diagram 3, in which _A_ and _a_ stand for men and women of one moiety, and _B_ and _b_ for those of the other moiety, shows that a marriage between a man and his son’s daughter would be out of the question, for it would be a case of _A_ marrying _a_. It was evident that the marriage, the consequences of which I had to formulate, must have been one in which a man married his daughter’s daughter.

It would take too long to go through the whole set of relationships, and I choose only a few examples which I illustrate by the following diagram:

This diagram shows that if _A_ marries _e_, _c_, who previous to the marriage had been only the daughter of _A_, now becomes also his wife’s mother; and _D_, who had previously been his daughter’s husband, now becomes his wife’s father. Similarly, _F_, who before the new marriage was the daughter’s son of _A_, now becomes the brother of his wife, while _f_, his daughter’s daughter, becomes his wife’s sister. Lastly, if we assume that it would be the elder daughters of the daughter who would be married by their grandfathers, _e_, who before the marriage had been the elder sister of _F_ and _f_, now comes through her marriage to occupy the position of their mother’s mother.

When, after making these deductions, I examined my record of the Pentecost terms, I found that its terminology corresponded exactly with those which had been deduced. The wife’s mother and the daughter were both called _nitu_. The daughter’s husband and the wife’s father were both _bwaliga_. The daughter’s children were called _mabi_, and this term was also used for the brother and sister of the wife. Lastly, the mother’s mother was found to be classed with the elder sister, both being called _tuaga_.

For the sake of simplicity of demonstration I have assumed that a man marries his own daughter’s daughter, but through the classificatory principle all the features I have described would follow equally well if a man married the granddaughter of his brother, either in the narrow or the classificatory sense. There was one correspondence, according to which both the husband’s brother and the mother’s father were called _sibi_, which does not follow from the marriage with the own granddaughter, but would be the natural result of marriage with the daughter’s daughter of the brother--_i.e._, with a marriage in which _e_ was married by _A’s_ brother.

I hope these examples will be sufficient to show how a number of features which might otherwise seem so absurd as to suggest a system of relationship gone mad become natural and intelligible, even obvious, if it were once the established practice of the people to marry the daughter’s daughter of the brother.

Such inquiries as I was able to make confirmed the conclusion that the Pentecost marriage was with the granddaughter of the brother rather than with the daughter of the daughter herself. After I had been put on the track of the explanation by John Pantutun I had the chance of talking to only one native of Pentecost, unfortunately not a very good informant. From his evidence it appeared that the marriage I had inferred from the system of relationship even now occurs in the island, but only with the granddaughter of the brother, and that marriage with the own granddaughter is forbidden. The evidence is not as complete as I should like, but it points to the actual existence in the island of a peculiar form of marriage from which the extraordinary features of its system of relationship directly follow.

When I returned to England I found that this marriage was not unique, but had been recorded among the Dieri of Australia,[15] where, as I have already mentioned, it is associated with peculiar features of nomenclature resembling those of Pentecost.

[15] Howitt, _Native Tribes of South-East Australia_, pp. 164, 177.

I must again ask, how are you going to explain the features of the Pentecost system psychologically? What psychological resemblance is there between a grandmother and a sister, between a mother-in-law and a daughter, between a brother-in-law and a grandfather? Apart from some special form of social relationship, there can be no such resemblances. Further, if there were such psychological resemblances, why should we know of their influence on nomenclature only in Pentecost and among the Dieri? The features to be explained are definitely known to exist in only two systems of the world, and it is only among the peoples who use these two systems that we have any evidence of that extraordinary form of marriage of which they would be the natural consequence.

* * * * *

I have now tried to show the dependence of special features of the classificatory system of relationship upon special social conditions. If I have succeeded in this I shall have gone far towards the accomplishment of one of the main purposes of these lectures. They have, however, another purpose, viz., to inquire how far we are justified in inferring the existence of a social institution of which we have no direct evidence when we find features of the nomenclature of relationship which would result from such an institution. I have now to enter upon this part of my subject, and I think it will be instructive to take you at once to a case in which I believe that an extraordinary form of marriage can be established as a feature of the past history of a people, although at the present moment any direct evidence for the existence of such a marriage is wholly lacking.

When I was in the interior of Viti Levu, one of the Fijian islands, I discovered the existence of certain systems of relationship which differed fundamentally from the only Fijian systems previously known. Any features referable to the cross-cousin marriage were completely absent, but in their place were others, one of which I have already mentioned, which brought into one class relatives two generations apart. The father’s father received the same designation as the elder brother, and the son’s wife was called by the same term as the mother. As I have already said, my first conclusion was that these terms were the survivals of forms of social organisation resembling the matrimonial classes of Australia, but as soon as I had worked out the explanation of the Pentecost system, it became evident that the Fijian peculiarities would have to be explained on similar lines. At first I thought it probable that the difference between the Pentecost and Fijian systems was due to the difference in the mode of descent in the two places. For long I tried to work out schemes whereby a change from the matrilineal descent of Pentecost to the patrilineal condition of Fiji could have had as one of its consequences a change from a correspondence in nomenclature between the mother’s mother and the elder sister to one in which the common nomenclature applied to the father’s father and the elder brother. It is an interesting example of the strength of a preconceived opinion, and of some measure of the belief in the impossibility of customs not practised by ourselves, that for more than two years I failed to see an obvious alternative explanation, although I returned to the subject again and again. The clue came at last from the system of Buin, in the island of Bougainville, recorded by Dr. Thurnwald.[16] The nomenclature of this system agreed with that of inland Fiji in having one term for the father’s father and the elder brother, but since the people of Buin still practice matrilineal descent, it was evident that I had been on a false track in supposing the correspondence to have been the result of a change in the mode of descent. Once turned into a fresh path by the necessity of showing how the correspondence could have arisen out of a matrilineal condition, it was not long before I saw how it might be accounted for in a very different way. I saw that the correspondence would be the natural result of a form of social organisation in which it was the practice to marry a grandmother, viz., the wife of the father’s father. Not only did this form of marriage explain the second peculiar feature of the Fijian system, viz., the classing of the son’s wife with the mother, but it would also account for several features of the Buin system which would otherwise be difficult to understand.

[16] _Zeitsch. f. vergleich. Rechtswiss._, 1910, xxiii., 330.

If, as shown in Diagram 5, _E_ marries _b_, the wife or widow of his father’s father, he, who had previously been the elder brother of _F_ and _f_, now comes to occupy the position of their father’s father, while _d_, the mother of _E_, will now come to stand to him in the relationship of son’s wife.

I need only mention here one of the features of the Buin system which can be accounted for by means of this marriage. The term _mamai_ is used, not only for the elder sister and for the elder brother’s wife, but it is also applied to the father’s mother; that is, the wife of the elder brother is designated by the same term as the wife of the father’s father, exactly as must happen if _E_ marries _b_, the wife of his father’s father. A number of extraordinary features from two Melanesian islands collected by two independent workers fit into a coherent scheme if they have been the result of a marriage in which a man gives one of his wives to his son’s son during his life, or in which this woman is taken to wife by her husband’s grandson when she becomes a widow. If the practice were ever sufficiently habitual to become the basis of the system of relationship, we can be confident that it is the former of these two alternatives with which we have to do.

If you are still so under the domination of ideas derived from your own social surroundings that you cannot believe in such a marriage, I would remind you that there is definite evidence from the Banks Islands that men used to hand over wives to their sisters’ sons. It is not taking us so much into the unknown as it might appear to suppose that they once also gave their wives to their sons’ sons.

I have taken this case somewhat out of its proper place in my argument because the evidence is so closely connected with that by means of which I have shown the relation between features of systems of relationship and peculiar forms of marriage in Melanesia. I have now to return to the more sober task of considering how far we are justified in inferring the former existence of marriage institutions when we find features of systems of relationship of which they would have been the natural consequence. It is evident that, whenever we find such a feature as common nomenclature for a grandmother and a sister or for a cross-cousin and a parent, it should suggest to us the possibility of such marriage regulations as those of Pentecost and the Banks Islands. But such common designations might have arisen in some other way, and in order to establish the existence of such forms of marriage in the past history of the people, we must have criteria to guide us when we are considering whether a given feature of the terminology of relationship is or is not a survival of a marriage institution.

I will return to the cross-cousin marriage for my examples. The task before us is to inquire how far such features of relationship as exist in Fiji, Anaiteum or Guadalcanar, in conjunction with the cross-cousin marriage, will justify us in inferring the former existence of this form of marriage in places where it is not now practised.

If there be found among any people all the characteristic features of a coastal Fijian or of an Anaiteum system, I think few will be found to doubt the former existence of the cross-cousin marriage. It would seem almost inconceivable that there should ever have existed any other conditions, whether social or psychological, which could have produced this special combination of peculiar uses of terms of relationship. It is when some only of these features are present that there will arise any serious doubt whether they are to be regarded as survivals of the former existence of the cross-cousin marriage.

One consideration I must point out at once. Certain of the features which follow from the cross-cousin marriage may be the result of another marriage regulation. In some parts of the world there exists a custom of exchanging brothers and sisters, so that, when a man marries a woman, his sister marries his wife’s brother. As the result of this custom the mother’s brother and the father’s sister’s husband will come to be one and the same person, and the father’s sister will become also the mother’s brother’s wife.

This form of marriage exists among the western people of Torres Straits,[17] and is accompanied by features of the system of relationship which would follow from the practice. The mother’s brother is classed with the father’s sister’s husband as _wad-wam_, but there is an alternative term for the father’s sister’s husband and there was no evidence that the mother’s brother’s wife was classed with the father’s sister. It seemed possible that the classing together of the mother’s brother and the father’s sister’s husband was not a constant feature of the system of relationship, but only occurred in cases where the custom of exchange had made it necessary. The case, however, is sufficient to show that two of the correspondences which follow from the cross-cousin marriage may be the result of another kind of marriage. If we accept the social causation of such features and find these correspondences alone, it would still remain an open question whether they were the results of the custom of exchange or of the marriage of cross-cousins. The custom of exchange, however, is wholly incapable of accounting for the use of a common term for the mother’s brother and the father-in-law, for the father’s sister and the mother-in-law, or for cross-cousins and brothers- or sisters-in-law. It is only when these correspondences are present that there will be any decisive reason for inferring the former existence of the cross-cousin marriage.

[17] _Rep. Cambridge Expedition to Torres Straits_, vol. v., pp. 135 and 241.

The first conclusion, then, is that some of the features found in association with the cross-cousin marriage are of greater value than others in enabling us to infer the former existence of the cross-cousin marriage where it no longer exists. Next, the probability that such features as I am considering are due to the former presence of the cross-cousin marriage will be greatly heightened if this form of marriage should exist among people with allied cultures. An instance from Melanesia will bring out this point clearly.

In the island of Florida in the Solomons it is clear that the cross-cousin marriage is not now the custom, and I could discover no tradition of its existence in the past. One feature, however, of the system of relationship is just such as would follow from the cross-cousin marriage. Both the wife’s mother and the wife of the mother’s brother are called _vungo_.

Florida is not only near Guadalcanar where the cross-cousin marriage is practised, (the two islands are within sight of one another), but their cultures are very closely related. In such a case the probability that the single feature of the Florida system which follows from the cross-cousin marriage has actually had that form of marriage as its antecedent becomes very great, and this conclusion becomes still more probable when we find that in a third island, Ysabel, closely allied in culture both to Florida and Guadalcanar, there is a clear tradition of the former practice of the cross-cousin marriage although it is now only an occasional event.

Again, in one district of San Cristoval in the Solomons the term _fongo_ is used both for the father-in-law and the father’s sister’s husband, and _kafongo_ similarly denotes both the mother-in-law and the mother’s brother’s wife. This island differs more widely from Guadalcanar in culture than Florida or Ysabel, but the evidence for the former existence of the marriage in these islands gives us more confidence in ascribing the common designations of San Cristoval to the cross-cousin marriage than would have been the case if these common designations had been the only examples of such possible survivals in the Solomons. Speaking in more general terms, one may say that the probability that the common nomenclature for two relatives is the survival of a form of marriage becomes the greater, the more similar is the general culture in which the supposed survival is found to that of a people who practise this form of marriage. The case will be greatly strengthened if there should be intermediate links between the supposed survival and the still living institution.

When we find a feature such as that of the Florida system among a people none of whose allies in culture practise the cross-cousin marriage, the matter must be far more doubtful. In the present state of our knowledge we are only justified in making such a feature the basis of a working hypothesis to stimulate research and encourage us to look for other evidence in the neighbourhood of the place where the feature has been found. Our knowledge of the social institutions of the world is not yet so complete that we can afford to neglect any clue which may guide our steps.

I propose briefly to consider two regions, South India and North America, to show how they differ from this point of view.

The terms of relationship used in three[18] of the chief languages spoken by the people of South India are exactly such as would follow from the cross-cousin marriage. In Tamil[19] the mother’s brother, the father’s sister’s husband, and the father of both husband and wife are all called _mama_, and this term is also used for these relatives in Telegu. In Canarese the mother’s brother and the father-in-law are both called _mava_, but the father’s sister’s husband fails to fall into line and is classed with the father’s brother.

[18] I know of no complete record of the terminology of the fourth chief language of South India, Malayalam.

[19] I take my data from the lists compiled for Morgan by the Rev. E. C. Scudder and the Rev. B. Rice, Morgan’s _Systems ..._, pp. 537-566. These lists are not complete, giving in some cases only the terms used in address. They agree in general with some lists compiled during the recent Indian Census which Mr. E. A. Gait has kindly sent to me.

Similarly, the father’s sister, the mother’s brother’s wife and the mother of both wife and husband are called _atta_ in Telegu and _atte_ in Canarese, Tamil here spoiling the harmony by having one term, _attai_, for the father’s sister and another, _mami_, for the mother’s brother’s wife and the mother-in-law. Since, however, the Tamil term for the father’s sister is only another form of the Telegu and Canarese words for the combined relationships, the exception only serves to strengthen the agreement with the condition which would follow from the cross-cousin marriage.