§ 322. And here we come in sight of a truth on which poUticians and philanthropists would do well to ponder. The salvation of every society, as of every species, depends on the maintenance of an absolute opposition between the regime of the family and the regime of the State.
To survive, every species of creature must fulfil two conflicting requirements. Daring a certain period each member must receive benefits in proportion to its incapacity. Afl^^ that period, it must receive benefits in proportion to ite capacity. Observe the bird fostering its young or *ht' mammal rearing its litter, and you see that imperfection and inability are rewarded; and that as ability increases, the aid given in food and warmth becomes less. Obviondy this law that the least worthy shall receive most, is essentw' as a lav/ for the immature: the species would disappear m * generation did not parents conform to it. Now mark wliat is, contrariwise, the law for the mature. Here individuals gain rewards proportionate to their merits. The strong, the swift, the keen-sighted, the sagacious, profit hj their respective superiorities— catch prey or escape enemies as the case may be. The less capable thrive less, and on the average of cases rear fewer offspring. The least capable disappear by failure to get prey or from inability to escape. And by this process is maintained that average quality of the species which enables it to survive in the struggle for existence with other species. There is thus, during mature life,' an absolute reversal of the principle that ruled during immature life.
Already we have seen that a society stands to its citizens in the same relation as a species to its members (§ 277); and the truth which we have just seen holds of the one holds of the other. The law for the undeveloped is that there shall be most aid where there is least merit. The helpless, useless infant, extremely exigeant, must from hour to hour be fed, kept warm, amused, exercised; as during childhood and boyhood the powers of selfpreservation increase, the attentions required and given become less perpetual, but still need to be great; and only with approach to maturity, when some value and efficiency have been acquired, is this policy considerably qualified. But when the young man enters into the battle of life, he is dealt with after (» contrary system. The general principle now is that the benefits which come to him shall be proportioned to his merits. Though parental aid, not abruptly ending, may still sometimes soften the effects of this social law, yet the mitigation of them is but partial; and, apart from parental aid, this social law is but in a small degree traversed by private generosity. Then when middle life has been reached and parental aid has ceased, the stress of the struggle becomes greater, and the adjustment of payment to service more rigorous. Clearly with a society.
742 THE D0MS8TIC RSLiLTIOKS.
as with a species^ sarviyal depesnds on conf ormitj to boA (A tliese antagonist principles. Import ia^io the &mily tk* law of the society^ and let children from infancy upwards hare lif e-snstaining flnppliee proportioned to tiieir lif e^iustaining labours^ and the society disappears forthwith bj death of all its jonng. Import into the tBociety the law of the family^ and let the li&-8nstaining sapplies be inversdj proportioned to the life-sustaining labours, aod die sodetr decays from the increase of its least worthy nembers aod disappearance of its most worthy members: it must (ail to hold its own in the struggle with other societies, whicb allow play to the natural law that prosperity shall vaiy as efficiency.
Hence the necessity of maintaining this oardinal distinction between the ethics of the Family and tiie ethics of the State. Hence the fatsd result if family disintegration goes so far that family-policy and state-policy become oonfased. Unqualiiied generosity must remain the principle of the family^ while offspring are passing through their early stages; and generosity more and more qualified by justice^ must remain its principle as offspring are approacbing mataritj. Conversely, the principle of the society must erer be, justice, qualified by generosity in the indiyidual acts of citizens, as far as their sereral natures prompt; and nnqpalified justice in the corporate acts of the society to its members. However fitly in the battle of life among adults, the strici proportioning of rewards to merits may be tempered bt private sympathy in favour of the inferior; notidug bat evil can result if this strict proportioning is so interfered with by public arrangements^ that demerit pnofits at the expense of merit.
§ 323. And now to sum up the several oondnsioas, related though heterogeneous, to which our survey of the family has brought us.
That there are connexions between polygyny and the THS FIXILT. 743 militatiit type and between monogamy and the indostrial type, we fonndi^od evidence. Partly &e xfHAtioxk between militancy and lK>lygyBy is entailed by the stealing of women in war; and parfiy it is entailed by the mortality <d males and TesnMng snrplas of females where war is censttant. In societies advanced enongh to have soiaae indnstrial organissation, l&e militant classes remain polygynons^ while the indnstrial classes beoome generally moBDgamoas; And an ordinary trait of the despotic raler, evolved by habitual militancy, is the possessioii of numerous wives. Further, we foxmd that ^r&n, in European history this illation, at first not manifest, is to be traced. Conversely, it was shown that with increase of industriahiess and consequent approach to equality of the sexes in numbers, anonogamy becomes more general, beoanse erteosive polygyny is rendered impracticable. We saw, too, tint there is a congruity between that oompulsory oo-operation whidi is the organizing principle of tho militant type of society, and that compulsory co-operation oharaetorizing the polygynous houseiiold; while with the industrial type of society, orgaoiaed on the principle of Toluntary co-operation, there harmonises that monogamie union which is an essential condition to vohmtaiy domestic co-operation. Lastly, these relationships were clearly Aown by the remarkaUe fact that in different parts of the world, among difEerent races, there are primitire societies in other respects unadvanced, which, exceptaonai in being peaceful and industrial, are also exceptional in being monogamie.
Passing to the txmsideration ol tho &mily under its social:ispects, we examined certain oumont tiieories« These imply that in the beginning thens were settled marital rdations, which we have seen is not ihe iaat; that there was at first descent in the male line, wlueh the evidence di^roves; that in the eariiest groups thn^ was definite aabordination to a head, which is not a sustainable propdeition. Further, the contained assumptions that originally there 744 THE DOMESTIC BSLATIONS.
was an innate sentiment of filial obedience, p^ng & roo^ for patriarchal « authority, and that originally family connexion afforded the only reason for political combinatioiii are at variance with accounts given us of the undviliiei Recognizing the fact that if we are fully to understand the higher forms of the family we must trace them np from those lowest forms accompanying the lowest social state, we saw how, in a small separated group of persons old and young, held together by some kinship, there was, under the circumstances of pastoral life, an establishing of male descent, an increasing of cohesion, of subordination, of co-operation, industrial and defensive; and that acquirement of structure became relatively easy because domestic government and social government became identical: the influences &vouring each conspiring instead of conflicting. Hence the genesis of a simple society more developed than all preceding simple societies; and better fitted for the composition of higher societies.
Thus naturally origiuAting under special conditions, the patriarchal group with its adapted ideas, sentiments, customs, arrangements, dividing in successive generations into sub-groups holding together in larger or smaller clusters according as the environment favoured, carried its organization with it into the settled state; and the efficient coordination evolved within it, favoured efflcient co-ordination of the larger societies formed by aggregation. Though, as we are shown by partially-civilized kingdoms existing in Africa and by extinct American kingdoms, primitive groups of less evolved structures and characterized by another type of family, may form compound societies of considerable size and complexity; yet the patriarchal group with its higher family type is inductively proved to be that out of which the largest and most advanced societies arise.
Into communities produced by multiplication of it, the patriarchal group, carrying its supremacy of the eldest male, its system of inheritance, its laws of property, its joint worship of the common ancestor, its blood-feud, its complete subjection of women and children, long retains its individuality. But with these communities as with communities otherwise constituted, combined action slowly leads to fusion; the lines of division become gradually less marked; and at length, as Sir Henry Maine shows, societies which have the family for their unit of composition pass into societies which have the individual for their unit of composition.
This disintegration, first separating compound family groups into simpler ones, eventually afEects the simplest: the members of the family proper, more and more acquire individual claims and individual responsibilities. And the wave of change, conforming to the general law of rhythm, has among ourselves partially dissolved the relations of domestic life and substituted for them the relations of social life. Not simply have the individual claims and responsibilities of young adults in each family, come to be recognized by the State; but the State has, to a considerable degree, usurped the parental functions in respect of children, and assuming their claims upon it, exercises coercion over them.
On looking back to the general laws of life, however, and observing the essential contrast between the principle of family life and the principle of social life, we conclude that this degree of family disintegration is in excess, and will hereafter be followed by partial re-integration.
CHAPTER X, TOE JSTATVS OF ITOMSYT.
§ SSAt. PiSBHAFS in no way is ike moal progress flf bbbkind more clearlj aboivii^ than by coufarasfcing the positios of women among savages with their positicMi among Ube most advaAoed of the civilized. At the one extreme a troatmpnt of them cruel to the utmost d^gi^ee bearable; and at t^* other extreme a treatment which, in certain directioas gives them preoedenoe over men.
The only limit to the bnitality women aro sobjected to by nen of the lowest races, is the inability to lire and piv* pagate under greater. Clearly^ ill-usage^ under-feeding, and over-working, may be pashed to an extent which, i' Dot immediately fatal to the wom^i, inocfjacitates them foi rearing children enough to maintain the population; an^^ disappearance of the aodety follows. Both diredly and indirectly such excess of harshness disables a tribe from holding its own against other tribes; since, besides greatly augmenting the mortality of children, it causes inadequate nutrition, and therefore imperfect developmenti of those which survive. But short of this, there is at first no check to the tyranny which the stronger sex exercises over the weaker. Stolen from another tribe, and perhaps made insensible by a blow that she may not resist; not simply beaten, bnt speared about the limbs, when she displeases her savage owner; forced to do all the drudgery THE STATUS OF ^WOKIN. 74 and bear all ihe burdens, 'while die has to care for and carry about her children; and feeding <m what is left after the man has done; the woman's snfferings are carried &s far aa» consists with snTriyal of herself and her o&pring.
It seems not improbable that by its Jietionfl and reactions, this treatment makes these relations of the sexes difficnlt to dbange; since chfonic ill-usage produces physical inferiority, «ad physical inferiority tends to exclude those feelings which nnght d&eck ill-«sage. Very generally among the lower races, &e f emaLes are ewea mope unattractive iu aspect thaai the ii»les. It is rraaarked of the Puttooahs, whose men are diminntiT« and whose woman are fltiU more so, that ^* the men aire far from being handsonie, but the palm of ugliness must be awarded to the women. The latter are hard-worked and apparently ill-fed." Again, of the inhabitants of ihe Corea, GutzlafE says — " the females arc very ugly, whilst the male sex is one of the best formed of Asia * ^ * women are treated like beasts of burden; wives may be divorced nndei* the sUghtest pretence.^' And for the kindred contrast habitually found, a kindred cause may habitually be assigned: the antithetical cases fusnishod by such uncivilized peoples as the Ealmudcs and Khirghie, whose women, less hardly used, are better looking, yielding additional evidence.
We must not, however, conclude, as at first sight.seems proper, that this low status of women among the radest peoples, is caused by a callous selfishnuBs existing in the males and not equally present in the females. When we learn that whero torture of enemies is the custom, the women out-do the men — when we read of the csruelties perpetrated by the two female Dyak diiefs described by Rajah Brooke, or of the horrible deeds which Winwood Beade narrates of a blood-thirsty African queen; we are shown that it is not lack of will but lack of power which prevents primitive women from displaying natura equally l^^ital with those of primitiye men. A sayageness common to the two.
748 THE DOMESTIC RELATIOKS.
necessarily works out the results we see under the oondi tions. Let us look at these results more closely.
§ 325. Certain anomalies may first be noticed. Etcb among the rudest men^ whose ordinary behaviour to their women is of the worst, predominance of women is not unknown. Snow says of the Fuegians that he has '' seen one of the oldest women exercising authority over the rest of kr people '/* and Mitchell says of the AustraliaQS that old men and even old women exercise great authority. Then we hare the fitct that among various peoples who hold their women in degraded positions, there nevertheless occar female rulers; as among the Batta people in Sumatra, as in Madagascar, and as in the above-named African kingdom. Possibly this anomaly results from the system of descent in the female line. For though under that system, property and power usually devolve upon a sister's inalo children; yet as, occasionally, there is only one sister and she has no male children, the elevation of a daughter may sometimes result. Even as I write, I find, on looking into the evidence, a significant example. Describing the Haidahs of the Pacific States, Bancroft says: — ** Among nearly all of them rank is nominally hereditary, for the most part by the female line. * * * Females often possess the right of chieflainship.''
But leaving these exceptional &cts, and looking at the average facts, we find these to be just such as the greater strength of men must produce, during stages in which the race has not yet acquired the higher sentiments. Numerous examples already cited, show that at first women are regarded by men simply as property, and continue to be so regarded through several later stages: they an* valued as domestic cattle. A Chippewayan chief said to Heame:— " Women were made for labour; one of them can cany, or haol, ^ much as two men can do. They also pitch our tents, make and mend THE STATUS OP WOMEN. 749 our dothing, keep us warm at night; and, in fact, there is no such thing as travelling any considerable distance, in this country, without their assistance."
And this is the conception usual not only among peoples so low as ihese^ but among peoples considerably advanced. To repeat an illustration quoted from Barrow, the woman '^ is her husband's ox^ as a Kaffir once said to me — ^she has boen bought^ he argued^ and must therefore labour^'; and to the like efEect is Shooter's statement that a Kaffir who kills his wife '^can defend himseU by saying — 'I have bought her once for all.' '' As impb'ed in such a defence^ tbe obtainment of wives by abduction or by purchase, maintains this relation of the sexes. A woman of a conquered tribe^ not killed but brought back alive^ is naturally regarded as an absolute possession; as is also one for whom a price has been paid. Commenting on the position of women among the Chibchas^ Simon writes — ''I think the fact that the Indians treat their wives so badly and like slaves^ is to be explained by their having bought them.'' Fully to express the truths however^ we must rather say that the state of tilings^ moral and social^ implied by the traffic in women, is the original cause; since the will and welfare of a daughter are as much disregarded by the father who sells her as by the husband who buys her. The accounts of these transactions, in whatever society occurring, show this. Describing the sale of his daughter by a Mandan, Catlin says it is " conducted on his part as a mercenary contract entirely, where he stands out for the highest price he can possibly command for her." Of the ancient Yucatanese we read that " if a wife had no children, the husband might sell her, unless her father agreed to return the price he had paid." In East Africa, a girl's ^'father demands for her as many cows, cloths, and brass-wire bracelets as the suitor can afford. * * * The husband may sell his wife, or, if she be taken from him by another man, he claims her value, which is ruled by what 750 TO! B0MI8TIG JUOJLTIOSS.
she would fistaiL in the slttreMnorltoft.'^ Of courae iriiere women are ezcbongeable for oxen or o Aer beaste^ ibey are regarded as equally witlioat personal rights.
The degradation thej* are subject to imrktg phuea of human evolution in whiek egonm » mH^eckBd bj altruism, is, however, most viiidl j Aewn b^ Ae tiPMi'rfyi of a deceased man^ wives to- his idatiivs akm^ with other properfy. Already, in § 996, svodky ezaaqdos of this have been given; and many others m%ht be added. Smiik says of the l&ppuch^s that ^ a widow, by the deatk of her husband becomes her own mistress, unless be may basve left grown-up sons by anoAer wife, in whicb case aiie beoomes their common coneubine, bein^ vegaorded a» a. ciiatlel diaturally befenging to the heirs of the- cstafke/^ Thus recognizing the trath that aa Ibnpas woowm oontinue to be stolen or bought, tdheir hioBaa infividMalitaes are ignored, let us observe the diviaiom of UboHar that ie« suits between the sexes; determined pavtly b^ tfaia oBqualified despotism of men and partly by A» IJmitatiomr wkack certain incapacities of women entail.
^ 32'6'. The slave-clossm a priraitifv society coosiBts of the women; and the earliest division of kbovr is thai which arises between them and their masters. For a Isag titmt no other division of hkbour exists. Of eovse i»«^^»g more is to be expected amou^ su<A tow waatdeaag' gronps as Tasmanians, AustraEans, FnegiaiUF, Anrh—a nuinii, Bvahmen. Nor do we find any advaaee in Hiis respect made by the higher hunting races, sudtas the;Cbmanches> Ghippewas, Dacotahs, etc.
Of the occupatrons thus divided, Ae males put upon, the females whatever these are not (fisablcRi from doing by ia^ adequate strength, or agility, or skzlL While &e xaen among the now*extinct l^ismaniaBS- acUed tO' Ae food only that furnished by the kangaroos they chased, ttie wonifln climbed trees for opossums, dug up roots' with sticks, gn^ied TBJi auaosi ov women. 751 £oE sbdl-isl^ drred fbir oj^aitora^c an.d fished^ in. addition to looking after iheiF dkSdrox; snd th«re nowezkta akinfibed a^KXEtionmeBt aoEnan^ th«^ FnegiaBS, JkBdamaaese^ Anstsra* liaBR Where Hib. iood coasiata wkollj oir nuunlj^of the greator mamimla^t&e men. catck and the women caary. We read of the Gbip|Mnraa that. '^ when the men kill anj large beast^ Ae woman aire. ahraeps sent to briiog: it to the tent *'; of the* CottaBBshes,. tiuat Urn women ^' often accompany their husbands in hunting. He kills the game^ they batdier aad transport the meat, dreaa the ddnsy etc.''; of thaEaqmrnanx, that when t&e num haa ^hireaght his. kootjr to land^ he tioaUeB himaelf no further abooi it; for it would be a stigma on his chaiactery if k&ao mneh aa drew^a seal ont of the water.'^ Though^ in these- caaea>aii escnse made is that the exhaostioa caoaed by the dbaae ia great; yet^ when we read that tiia Esqmmans women, excepting the* woodwork, " build the honaes aid tents, asod thon^ they hare to carry stones almost, heavy eneogtt to break their backs> the men look on witik t&e^ greatest iaaenszbility, net. stirring a finger to assist them^'^ we. eaoaaot aocqit the excuse, aa adequate. Further, it is the* custom with theee low races, nemadne or semicnomadic: in tibear hahita^ to give the finales the task of transporting the baggage. A Taenuuxian woman often had piled on all the othe? burdens she eazried when tramping, '* sundry spears and waddws not secpiirod for pcesent seryice^^'; and tiia like hofpeoB wiA zaceai considerably higher, both aenu^agrienltund and pastoral* A Damaora'a wiEe '^carriea his things whoa he moYea fronL pierce to place.'' When the Tnpia migrate, all the household atoek is taken to the new abode by the feuudes: '' the busbaadonly took his weapons, and the wife,'' says MaregratE, ^ ia loaded like a mule.'' Similaciy, enmierating the labours of wivea among the- aboriginea of Sooth BraaiY, Spix and Martins say — ^'Hhey are also the 'beaats of burden''; and in Kke maimer Dobriahoffer writest — *^ tbe luggage being all coa&-mitted to the women, the Abipones travel armed with a spear 7o2 THJB DOMESTIC fiEIATIONS.
alone^ tliat they may be disengaged to fight or hunt, if occasion requires/' Doubtless the reason indicated in die last extract^ is a partial defence for this practice^ so general with savages when travelling; since^ liable as they are to beat any moment surprised by ambushed enemies, £sttal results would happen were the men not ready to fight on die instant. And possibly knowledge of this may join the force of custom in making the women themselves uphold the practice, as they do.
On ascending to societies partially or wholly setUed^ ssd a Uttle more complex, we begin to find considerable dirersities in the division of labour between the sexes. Usually the men are the builders, but not always: the women erect the huts among the Bechuana^, Kaffirs, Damaras, as also do the women of the Outanatas, New Guinea; and aometiIne^ it is the task of women to cut down trees, though nearlT always this business falls to the men. Anomalous as it seems, we are told of the Coroados, that " the cooking of the dinner, as well as keeping in the fire, is the business of the men **; and the like happens in Samoa: " the duties of cooking devolve on the men'' — ^not excepting the chiefs. Mostly among the uncivilized and semi-civilized, trading is done by the men, but not always. In Java, according to Baffler, " the women alone attend the markets and conduct all the business of buying and selling.'^ So, too, according to Astley, in Angola the women *' buy, sell, and do all other things which the men do in other countries, whilst their liasbands stay at home, and employ themselves in spinning, weaving cotton, and such like effeminate business.'' hi Ancient Peru there was a like division: men did the spinning and weaving, and women the field-work. Agskj according to Bruce, in Abyssinia '^ it is infamy for a man to go to market to buy anything. He cannot cany water or bake bread; but he must wash the clothes belonging to both sexesj and, in this function, the women cannot help him." And Petherick says thaL among the Arabs ''the IHE STATUS OF WOMEN. 753 females repudiate needlework entirely^ the little they require being performed by their husbands and brothers."
From a general survey of the &cts^ multitudinous and heterogeneous^ thus briefly indicated, the only definite conclusion appears to be that men monopolize the occupations requiring both strength and agility always available — ^wai* and the chase. Leaving undiscussed the relative fitness of women at other times for fighting enemies and pursuing wild animals, it is clear that during the child-bearing period^ their ability to do either of these things is so far interfered with, both by pregnancy and by the suckUng of in&nts, that they are practically excluded from them. Though the Dahomans with their army of amazons, show us that women may be warriors; yet the instance proves that women can become warriors only by being practically unsexed; for, nominally wives of the king, they are celibate, and any unchastity is fatal. But omitting those activities for which women are, during large parts of their lives, physically incapacitated, or into which they cannot enter in considerable numbers without fatally diminishing population, we cannot define the division of labour between flie sexes, further than by saying that, before civilization begins, the stronger sex forces the weaker to do all the drudgery; and that cdong with social advance the apportionment, somewhat mitigated in character, becomes variously specialized under varying conditions.
As bearing on the causes of the mitigation, presently to be dealt with, we may here note that women are better treated where circumstances lead to likeness of occupations between the sexes. Schoolcraft remarks of the Chippewayans that ''they are not remarkable for their activity as hunters; which is owing to the ease with which they snare deer and spear fish; and these occupations are not beyond the strength of their old men, women, and boys; " and then, he also says that " though the women are as much in the power of the men as other articles of their property, they c c c 754 THi w>iamc BiULTion.
MTQ alwafs ooaBaltod, and powmm a revy qoBsideraUe influiix ia ihm tnfio with EuopesB^ and otlier importaiii ooaoenu." We read* too> in Lawk and Glarki^ that "amoag tke ClataopB and ChiiwookBj who lire upoa fiah and tooti^ whkh the wooien are equally expert with the OMQ in pfoewiag, the fomer have a lank and infliMinoe rerj laidy foiiiid among IndJanw* The females are permitted to ipeak freely betove the men, to whom, indeed, thflj ■ometimeH address themaelTes in a tone of authority/' Then, 9gBm^ Bancroft tells as that ** in the proYinoe of Caebi^ women aconnnpaiiy the men, fighting hy their side and aometiiaeB even leading the r^JXi" and of this same people he also quotes Wafer as saying that ''their husbands are very hind and loving to them. I never knew an Indian beat his wife, or give her any hard words/' A kindred meaning spears traeeaUe in a fact supplied by the DahomanSt among whom, sanguinary and utterly unfeeling as they axe, the participation of women with men in war, goes along with a social siaittf much higher than usual; for Bnrtoa telk ns that in Dahomey " the woman is officially superior, but under other conditions she still suffers from }» }» A piobable further canse of improvement in the treatment of women may here he noted: I refer to the obtaining of wivee by services rendered^ instead of by property paid. The practice which Hebrew tradition acquaints ns with in the case of Jacob> proves to be a widely diSosed practice* It is general with the Bhils, Gonds, and Hilltribes of Nepaul; it obtained in Java before Mahometanism was introduced; it was common in Ancient Peru and Central America; and among snndiy existing American races it still occurs. Obviously, a wife long laboured for is likely to be more valued than one stolen or boaght. Obviously, too^ the period of service, during which the betrothed girl is looked upon as a future spouse, affords room for the growth of some feeling higher than tiie merely tSM STATUS Off WOMEN. 75& •