Part 4

The South Indian terms for cross-cousin and brother- and sister-in-law are complicated by the presence of distinctions dependent on the sex and relative age of those who use them, but these complications do not disguise how definitely the terminology would follow from the cross-cousin marriage. Thus, to take only two examples: a Tamil man applies the term _maittuni_ to the daughters of his mother’s brother and of his father’s sister as well as to his brother’s wife and his wife’s sister, and a Canarese woman uses one term for the sons of her mother’s brother and of her father’s sister, for her husband’s brother and her sister’s husband.

So far as we know, the cross-cousin marriage is not now practised by the vast majority of those who use these terms of relationship. If the terminology has been the result of the cross-cousin marriage, it is only a survival of an ancient social condition in which this form of marriage was habitual. That it is such a survival, however, becomes certain when we find the cross-cousin marriage still persisting in many parts of South India, and that among one such people at least, the Todas,[20] this form of marriage is associated with a system of relationship agreeing both in its structure and linguistic character with that of the Tamils. I have elsewhere[21] brought together the evidence for the former prevalence of this form of marriage in India, but even if there were no evidence, the terminology of relationship is so exactly such as would follow from the cross-cousin marriage that we can be certain that this form of marriage was once the habitual custom of the people of South India.

[20] Rivers, _The Todas_, 1906, pp. 487, 512.

[21] _Journal Royal Asiatic Society_, 1907, p. 611.

While South India thus provides a good example of a case in which we can confidently infer the former existence of the cross-cousin marriage from the terminology of relationship, the evidence from North America is of a kind which gives to such an inference only a certain degree of probability. In this case it is necessary to suspend judgment and await further evidence before coming to a positive conclusion.

I will begin with a very doubtful feature which comes from an Athapascan tribe, the Red Knives[22] (probably that now called Yellow Knife). These people use a common term, _set-so_, for the father’s sister, the mother’s brother’s wife, the wife’s mother and the husband’s mother, a usage which would be the necessary result of the cross-cousin marriage. Against this, however, is to be put the fact that there are three different terms for the corresponding male relatives, the two kinds of father-in-law being called _seth-a_, the mother’s brother _ser-a_, and the father’s sister’s husband _sel-the-ne_. Further, the term _set-so_, the common use of which for the aunt and mother-in-law seems to indicate the cross-cousin marriage, is also applied by a man to his brother’s wife and his wife’s sister, features which cannot possibly be the result of this form of marriage. These features show, either that the terminology has arisen in some other way, or that there has been some additional social factor in operation which has greatly modified a nomenclature derived from the cross-cousin marriage.

[22] See Morgan, _Systems ..._, Table II.

A stronger case is presented by the terminology of three branches of the Cree tribe, also recorded by Morgan. In all three systems, one term, _ne-sis_ or _nee-sis_, is used for the mother’s brother, the father’s sister’s husband, the wife’s father and the husband’s father; while the term _nis-si-goos_ applies to the father’s sister, the mother’s brother’s wife and the two kinds of mother-in-law. These usages are exactly such as would follow from the cross-cousin marriage. The terms for the sister’s son of a man and the brother’s son of a woman, however, differ from those used for the son-in-law, and there is also no correspondence between the terms for cross-cousin and any kind of brother- or sister-in-law. The case points more definitely to the cross-cousin marriage than in the case of the Red Knives, but yet lacks the completeness which would allow us to make the inference with confidence.

The Assiniboin have a common term, _me-toh-we_, used for the father’s sister, the mother’s brother’s wife and the two kinds of mother-in-law, and also a common term, _me-nake-she_, for the mother’s brother and the father’s sister’s husband, but the latter differs from the word, _me-to-ga-she_, used for the father of husband or wife. The case here is decidedly stronger than among the Red Knives, but is less complete than among the Crees.

Among a number of branches of the Dakotas the evidence is of a different kind, being derived from similar nomenclature for the cross-cousin and certain kinds of brother- and sister-in-law. Morgan[23] has recorded eight systems, all of which show the features in question, but I will consider here only that of the Isauntie or Santee Dakotas, which was collected for him by the Rev. S. R. Riggs. Riggs[24] and Dorsey[25] have given independent accounts of this system which are far less complete than that given by Morgan, but agree with it in all essentials.

[23] _Loc. cit._

[24] _Dakota Grammar, Texts, and Ethnography: Contributions to North American Ethnology_, Washington, vol. ix.

[25] Preface to above.

In this system a man calls the son of his mother’s brother or of his father’s sister _ta-hang-she_ or _tang-hang-she_, while his wife’s brother and his sister’s husband are _ta-hang_ or _tang-hang_. Similarly, a woman calls her cross-cousin _she-chay-she_, while her husband’s brother and her sister’s husband are called _she-chay_. The terms for brothers-in-law are thus the same as those for cross-cousins with the omission of the suffix _she_. One of these resemblances, that when a woman is speaking, has been cited by Professor Kroeber[26] as an example of the psychological causation of such features of relationship as I am considering in these lectures. He rejects its dependence on the cross-cousin marriage and refers the resemblance to the psychological similarity between a woman’s cousin and her brother-in-law in that both are collateral relatives alike in sex, of the same generation as the speaker, but different from her in sex.

[26] _Op. cit._, p. 82.

As we have seen, however, the Dakota correspondence is not an isolated occurrence, but fits in with a number of other features of the systems of cognate peoples to form a body of evidence pointing to the former prevalence of the cross-cousin marriage.

There is also indirect evidence leading in the same direction. In Melanesia there is reason to believe that the cross-cousin marriage stands in a definite relation to another form of marriage, that with the wife of the mother’s brother. If there should be evidence for the former existence of this marriage in North America, it would increase the probability in favour of the cross-cousin marriage.

Among a number of peoples, some of whom form part of the Sioux, including the Minnitarees, Crows, Choctas, Creeks, Cherokees and Pawnees, cross-cousins are classed with parents and children exactly as in the Banks Islands, and exactly as in those islands, it is the son of the father’s sister who is classed with the father, and the children of the mother’s brother who are classed with sons or daughters. Further, among the Pawnees the wife of the mother’s brother is classed with the wife, a feature also associated with the peculiar nomenclature for cross-cousins in the Banks Islands. The agreement is so close as to make it highly probable that the American features of relationship have been derived from a social institution of the same kind as that to which the Melanesian features are due, and that it was once the custom of these American peoples to marry the wife of the mother’s brother. Here, as in the case of the cross-cousin marriage itself, the case rests entirely upon the terminology of relationship, but we cannot ignore the association in neighbouring parts of North America of features of relationship which would be the natural consequence of two forms of marriage which are known to be associated together elsewhere.

I am indebted to Miss Freire-Marreco for the information that the Tewa of Hano, a Pueblo tribe, call the father’s sister’s son _tada_, a term otherwise used for the father, thus suggesting that they also may once have practised marriage with the wife of the mother’s brother. The use of this term, however, is only one example of a practice whereby all the males of the father’s clan are called _tada_, irrespective of age and generation. The common nomenclature for the father and the father’s sister’s son among the Tewa thus differs in character from the apparently similar nomenclature of the Banks Islands and cannot have been determined directly, perhaps not even remotely, by marriage with the wife of the mother’s brother. This raises the question whether the nomenclature of the Sioux has not arisen out of a practice similar to that of the Tewa. The terms for other relatives recorded by Morgan show some evidence of the widely generalised use of the Tewa, but such a use cannot account for the classing of the wife of the mother’s brother with the wife which occurs among the Pawnees. Nevertheless, the Tewa practice should keep us alive to the possibility that the Sioux nomenclature may depend on some social condition different from that which has been effective in the Banks Islands in spite of the close resemblance between the two.

The case for the former existence of the cross-cousin marriage will be much strengthened if this form of marriage should occur elsewhere in North America. So far as I am aware, the only people among whom it has been recorded are the Haidahs of Queen Charlotte Island.[27] It is a far cry from this outpost of North American culture to Dakota, but it may be noted that it is among the Crees who formerly lived in the intermediate region of Manitoba and Assiniboia that the traces of the cross-cousin marriage are most definite. This mode of distribution of the peoples whose terminology of relationship bears evidence of the cross-cousin marriage suggests that other intermediate links may yet be found. Though the existing evidence is inconclusive, it should be sufficient to stimulate a search for other evidence which may make it possible to decide whether or no the cross-cousin marriage was once a widespread practice in North America.

[27] Swanton, _Contributions to the Ethnology of the Haidahs, Jesup North Pacific Expedition_, 1905, vol. v., pt. i., p. 62. Miss Freire-Marreco tells me that the cross-cousin marriage occurs among some of the Hopi Indians.

I can only consider one other kind of marriage here. The discovery of so remarkable a union as that with the daughter’s daughter in Pentecost and the evidence pointing to a still more remarkable marriage between those having the status of grandparent and grandchild in Fiji and Buin have naturally led me to look for similar evidence elsewhere in Melanesia. Though there is nothing conclusive, conditions are to be found here and there which suggest the former existence of such marriages.

When I was in the Solomons I met a native of the Trobriand Islands, who told me that among his people the term _tabu_ was applied both to grandparents and to the father’s sister’s child. I went into the whole subject as fully as was possible with only one witness, but in spite of his obvious intelligence and good faith, I remained doubtful whether the information was correct. The feature in question, however, occurs in the list of Trobriand terms drawn up for Dr. Seligmann[28] by Mr. Bellamy, and with this double warrant it must be accepted. It is a feature which would follow from marriage with the daughter’s daughter, for by this marriage one who was previously a father’s sister’s daughter becomes the wife of a grandfather and thereby attains the status of a grandparent. The feature exists alone, and, further, it is combined with other applications of the term which deprive it of some of its significance; nevertheless, the fact that a peculiar and exceptional feature of a Melanesian system of relationship is such as would follow naturally from a form of marriage which is practised in another part of Melanesia cannot be passed over. Standing alone, it would be wholly insufficient to justify the conclusion that the marriage with the daughter’s daughter was ever prevalent among the Massim, but in place of expressing a dogmatic denial, let us look for other features of Massim sociology which may have been the results of such a marriage.

[28] See _The Melanesians of British New Guinea_, Cambridge, 1910, p. 707.

In Wagawaga[29] there is a peculiar term, _warihi_, which is used by men for other men of their own generation and social group, but the term is also applied by an old man or woman to one of a younger generation. Again, in Tubetube[30] the term for a husband, _taubara_, is also a term for an old man, and the term for the wife is also applied to an old woman. These usages may be nothing more than indications of respect for a husband or wife, or of some mechanism which brought those differing widely in age into one social category, but with the clue provided by the Trobriand term of relationship it becomes possible, though even now only possible, that the Wagawaga and Tubetube customs may have arisen out of a social condition in which it was customary to have great disparity of age between husbands and wives, and social relations between old and young following from such disparity in the age of consorts.

[29] _Ibid._, pp. 482 and 436.

[30] _The Melanesians of British New Guinea_, Cambridge, 1910, p. 482.

In Tubetube there is yet another piece of evidence. Mr. Field[31] has recorded the existence in this island of three named categories of persons, two of which comprise relatives with whom marriage is prohibited, while the third groups together those with whom marriage is allowed. The grandparents and grandchildren are included in one of the two prohibited classes, so that we can be confident that marriage between these relatives does not now occur. The point to which I call your attention is that the class of relative with whom marriage is allowed is called _kasoriegogoli_. _Li_ is the third person pronominal suffix, and we do not know the meaning of _kasorie_, but _goga_ is the term used in Wagawaga and Wedau for the grandparents, its place being taken by the usual Melanesian term _tubu_ in Tubetube. The term _kasoriegogoli_ applied to marriageable relatives thus contains as one of its constituent elements a word which is probably the ancient term for grandparent in the island, since it is still used in this sense in the closely allied societies of the mainland.

[31] Rep. Austral. Ass., 1900, viii., 301.

We have thus a number of independent facts among the Massim, all of which would be the natural outcome of marriage between persons of alternate generations. To no one of them standing alone could much importance be attached, but taken in conjunction, they ought at least to suggest the possibility of such a marriage, a possibility which becomes the more probable when we consider that the Massim show clear evidence of the dual organisation of society with matrilineal descent which is associated with the granddaughter marriage of Pentecost and the Dieri of Australia. It adds to the weight of the evidence that indications of this peculiar form of marriage should be found among a people whose social organisation so closely resembles that in which the marriages between persons of alternate generations elsewhere occur.

I have no time for other examples. I hope to have shown that there are cases in which it is possible to infer with certainty the ancient existence of forms of marriage from the survival of their results in the terminology of relationship. In other cases, differences of culture or the absence of intermediate links make it unjustifiable to infer the ancient existence of the forms of marriage from which features of terminology might be derived. Other cases lie between the two, the confidence with which a form of marriage can be inferred varying with the degree of likeness of culture, the distance in space, and the presence or absence of other features of culture which may be related to the form of marriage in question. Even in the cases, however, where the inference is most doubtful, we have no right dogmatically to deny the origin of the terminology of relationship in social conditions, but should keep each example before an open mind, to guide and stimulate inquiry in a region where ethnologists have till now only scratched the surface covering a rich mine of knowledge.

LECTURE III

Thus far in these lectures I have been content to demonstrate the dependence of the terminology of relationship upon forms of marriage. In spending so much time upon this aspect of my subject I fear that I may have been helping to strengthen a very general misconception, for it is frequently supposed that the sole aim of those who think as I do is to explain systems of relationship by their origin in forms of marriage. Marriage is only one of the social institutions which have moulded the terminology of relationship. It is, however, so fundamental a social institution that it is difficult to get far away from it in any argument which deals with social organisation. In now passing to other examples of the dependence of the terminology of relationship upon social conditions, I begin with one in which features of this terminology have come about, not as the result of forms of marriage, but of an attitude towards social regulations connected with marriage. The instance I have now to consider is closely allied to one which Professor Kroeber has used as his pattern of the psychological causation of the terminology of relationship.

Both in Polynesia and Melanesia it is not infrequent for the father-in-law to be classed with the father, the mother-in-law with the mother, the brother-in-law with the brother, and the sister-in-law with the sister. The Oceanic terminology of relationship has two features which enable us to study the exact nature of this process in more detail than is possible with our own system. Oceanic languages often distinguish carefully between different kinds of brother- and sister-in-law, and, if it be found that it is only certain kinds of brother- or sister-in-law who are classed with the brother or sister, we may thereby obtain a clue to the nature of the process whereby the classing has come about. Secondly, Oceanic terminology usually distinguishes relationships between men or between women from those between persons of different sex, and there is a feature of the terminology employed when brothers- or sisters-in-law are classed with brothers or sisters in Oceania which throws much light on the process whereby this common nomenclature has come into use.

The first point to be noticed in the Oceanic nomenclature of relationship is that not all brothers- and sisters-in-law are classed with brothers and sisters, but only those of different sex. Thus, in Merlav, in the Banks Islands, it is only the wife’s sister and a man’s brother’s wife who are classed with the sister, and the husband’s brother and a woman’s sister’s husband who are classed with the brother, while there are special terms for other categories of relative whom we include under the designations brother- and sister-in-law. Similar conditions are general throughout Melanesia. If, as Professor Kroeber has supposed, the classing of the brother-in-law with the brother be due to the psychological similarity of the relationships, we ought to be able to discover why this similarity should be greater between persons of different sex than between persons of the same sex.

If now we study our case from the Banks Islands more closely and compare the social conditions in Merlav with those of other islands of the group, we find definite evidence, which it will not now be possible to consider in detail, showing that sexual relations were formerly allowed between a man and his wife’s sisters and his brothers’ wives, and that there is a definite association between the classing of these relatives with the sister and the cessation of such sexual relations. If such people as the Melanesians wish to emphasise in the strongest manner possible the impropriety of sexual relations between a man and the sisters of his wife, there is no way in which they can do it more effectually than by classing these relatives with a sister. To a Melanesian, as to other people of rude culture, the use of a term otherwise applied to a sister carries with it such deeply-seated associations as to put sexual relations absolutely out of the question. There is a large body of evidence from southern Melanesia which suggests strongly, if not conclusively, that the common nomenclature I am now considering has arisen out of the social need for emphasising the impropriety of relations which were once habitual among the people.

The second feature of Melanesian terminology which I have mentioned helps us to understand how the common nomenclature has come about. In most of the Melanesian cases in which a wife’s sister is denoted by a term otherwise used for a sister, or a husband’s brother by a term otherwise used for a brother, the term employed is one which is normally used between those of the same sex. Thus, a man does not apply to his wife’s sister the term which he himself uses for his sister, but one which would be used by a woman of her sister. In other words, a man uses for his wife’s sister the term which is used for this relative by his wife. This shows us how the common nomenclature may have come into use. It suggests that as sexual relations with the wife’s sister became no longer orthodox, a man came to apply to this woman the word with which he was already familiar as a term for this relative from the mouth of his wife. The special feature of Melanesian nomenclature according to which terms of relationship vary with the sex of the speaker here helps us to understand how the common nomenclature arose. The process is one in which psychological factors evidently play an important part, but these psychological factors are themselves the outcome of a social process, viz., the change from a condition of sexual communism to one in which sexual relations are restricted to the partners of a marriage. Such psychological factors as come into action are only intermediate links in a chain of causation in which the two ends are definitely social processes or events, or, perhaps more correctly, psychological concomitants of intermediate links which are themselves social events. We should be shutting our eyes to obvious features of these Melanesian customs if we refused to recognise that the terminology of relationship here “reflects” sociology.