276 ANTHROPOLOGICAL MISCELLANEA. THE PRIMITIVE HUMAN HORDE. 66 MR. G. L. Gomme, in his suggestive paper printed in the Journal of the Institute for November last (p. 118) states that the hypothesis there stated is put forward for consideration, and as I take especial interest in the subject discussed, and Mr. Gomme refers to a paper of mine, I propose to critically examine the evidence he furnishes in support of his hypothesis. Before doing so, however, it may be as well to see what is meant by primitive human horde." The idea, if not the phrase, is that of the late Dr. J. F. McLennan, and it is necessary that we should know exactly what we are intended to understand by it. The term horde is used by this distinguished writer to denote a "primitive group" ("Studies in Ancient History," p. 133), and it may be explained by the expression "the earliest human groups" (p. 121). It is evident, therefore, that before we can attach any definite meaning to that term, we must ascertain the characteristics of the "primitive group." They are as follows:: (a.) The absence of any idea of kinship, and at first of consan- (c.) Promiscuity in the sexual relations (p. 134). (d.) Uncertainty of paternity, with kinship through females only gradually recognised (pp. 124–5). (e.) Female infanticide, with scarcity and capture of women (pp. 132-3), resulting in― (f.) Exogamy. We need say nothing about the "modification of promiscuity" to which Dr. McLennan gives the title of the "ruder species of polyandry," or the less rude polyandry which was developed by the help of the system of kinship through females only (p. 138). When a "primitive human horde" is spoken of as equivalent to the "primitive group" or horde of Dr. McLennan, it must be supposed that the former has all the characteristics of the latter. When we examine Mr. Gomme's system, however, we find it is not The characteristics of his primitive horde are as follows: So. : (a.) Recognition by natural instinct of connection between parents and children, although quickly lost, and not used for political purposes (p. 122). (b.) Possession of a totem system or the germs of such a system, with exogamy (pp. 127, 131). (c.) Temporary monandry; no evidence of "utter promiscuity" (d.) Certainty of paternity and maternity, but recognition To these conclusions may be added that an artificially formed organisation based on kinship was developed among migratory hordes, who came into conflict with preceding hordes, and that, owing to scarcity of women, polyandry arose among the former, in combination with descent through females (pp. 131-2). 999 The characteristics of Mr. Gomme's "primitive horde" are clearly very different from those of Dr. McLennan's " primitive group." The essential features of the latter are promiscuity in the sexual relations, absence of the idea of kinship, uncertainty of paternity, and female infanticide, causing scarcity of women and consequent capture, features which are absent from the former. When Mr. Gomme says there is no excuse for using the term ' utter promiscuity,' and " "no reason again to suppose that paternity was uncertain, and was, therefore, incapable of being recognised" (p. 122), he cuts away the basis of Dr. McLennan's theory. On the other hand, according to Mr. Gomme's hypothesis, "the primitive human horde was kept together by outside forces, not by internal arrangements" (p.125), which is hardly consistent with Dr. McLennan's statement' that, though a group of kindred in the rudest stage were chiefly held together by the feeling of kindred, the apparent bond of fellowship between the members of such a group would be that they and theirs had always been companions in war or the chase--joint tenants of the same cave or grove." Again Dr. McLennan says (p. 129) "It is inconceivable that anything but the want of certainty on that point (paternity) would have prevented the acknowledgement of kinship through males," a statement which in advance condemns Mr. Gomme's hypothesis; for this supposes that in the primitive human horde 'both paternity and maternity were certain, and they were fully recognised," although kiuship through females was the earliest to be originated, and was so only in a migrating horde as the result of conflict with a primitive horde. 66 So far, then, from Mr. Gomme having supplied evidence in support of Dr. McLennan's theory of the primitive group or horde, he has formulated something quite different. Let us now examine 1 66 'Studies," page 122, Mr. Gomme quotes a portion of this passage in support of his view of "outside forces," but unfortunately he omits all the words before "fellowship." 66 the arguments by which his hypothesis is supported. Mr. Gomme's primitive horde consists of a group of individuals whose sexual relations were those of "temporary monandry," in which a man choses a woman and is husband to her "just so long as offspring is begotten and requires protection." As soon as the offspring were capable of taking care of themselves the parental tie was snapped and the relationship ceased to be recognised. This group of individuals possessed or developed the principles of totemism and exogamy, and was kept together (1) by a totem organisation and not a blood tie;" and (2) by "the accumulated and accumulating fears of the dangers that surrounded them," which fears found their ultimate expression in a system of nature worship, and not by "internal arrangements." Mr. Gomme remarks that it is impossible to conceive that the union of parents would continue after the offspring were capable of taking care of themselves, and in a note he affirms that "many examples exist in savage society where the parents separate after the birth of a child" (p. 122). It is a pity some of these examples are not given. As a case in point I would refer to the statement of Sir Ed. Belcher' in relation to the Andamanese, of whom it is said that a man and woman separate as a matter of course when their child is weaned, and each seeks a new partner. This is, however, so entirely opposed to the actual facts as now made known by Mr. E. H. Man, that we ought to be on our guard against accepting casual observations of the social customs of savages until they have been verified by careful research by competent enquirers. Mr. Man's testimony as to inarriage among the Andamanese is that " so far from the contract being regarded as a merely temporary arrangement, to be set aside at the will of either party, no incompatibility of temper or other cause is allowed to dissolve the union, and while bigamy, polygyny, polyandry, and divorce are unknown, conjugal fidelity until death is not the exception but the rule" (" Journ. Anthrop. Inst.," Vol. xii, p. 135.) The only systematic use of " temporary monogamy I am acquainted with-isolated cases are almost valueless for the purposes of a general argument-is that recognisd by the natives of North America, who, when first visited by Europeans, had what Mr. Lewis Morgan calls ("Ancient Society," p. 453) the syndyasmian or pairing family. This family was founded upon marriage between single pairs and possessed some of the characteristics of the monogamian family, although the marriage was a matter of convenience and necessity, rather than of sentiment, and it continued only during the will of the parties. The husband "could put away his wife at pleasure, and take another without offence, and the woman enjoyed the equal right of leaving her husband and accepting another, in which the usages of her tribe and gens were not infringed." Not only have the American aborigines this simple pairing family, but, like Mr. Gomme's primitive horde, they possess 1 Curiously enough, Sir John Lubbock cites this case as an instance of "communal marriage."."-"Origin of Civilisation," 3rd ed., page 82. the principles of totemism and exogamy. Their institutions may, indeed, be said to be based on totemism, for the totem is the symbol of the gens, and they possess the gentile institution, or, as it was named by Schoolcraft, the totemic institution, fully developed. The gens is said by Morgan (p. 63) to have been "the instrumentality by means of which society was organised and held together." It answers, therefore, to the totem organisation which kept together Mr. Gomme's primitive horde, and we may assume that the latter was based on the same ideas as the gens. This is an important conclusion, for the gens came into being upon three principal conceptions-the bond of kin, a pure lineage through descent in the female line, and non-marriage in the gens. One of its obligations is not to marry in the gens, and from it springs the practice of exogamy. The existence of the totem organisation in the primitive horde would thus require it to have been bound together by the ties of kin, and the practice of exogamy proves not only that kinship was fully recognised, but that it had such a binding force. When, therefore, Mr. Gomme states that "the horde possessed, or had developed, the principles of totemism and exogamy," it is equivalent to admitting that the primitive group consisted of persons related by blood, who were not allowed to intermarry, and who, like the members of the gens, were bound together by the ties of kinship. The earliest American gentes appear to have preferred descent in the female line, and as women lived with their children among their husband's relations, each gens had members in more than one tribe. It is clear that in such a case the influence of the "outside forces" referred to by Mr. Gomme, would not suffice to keep the group together. With descent in the male line the result might be different, and so, also, where, with descent in the female line, the wife and her offspring reside with her kindred. This was probably the case among the early Arabs, and the Arab tribe may be said to answer as nearly as possible in most respects to Mr. Gomme's primitive horde. Unfortunately, however, for his hypothesis, Prof. Robertson Smith, who accepts Dr. McLennan's views as to the early society, affirms ("Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia," p. 22) that "the tribal bond all over Arabia, so far as our evidence goes, was conceived as a bond of kinship. All the members of a group regarded themselves as of one blood." Elsewhere (p. 227) Prof. Smith declares that "common blood, as indicated by the common totem, is the only permanent bond of union, and manifests itself as such whenever a blood-feud arises." Mr. Gomme endeavours, however, to place his hypothesis on the basis of fact, and he refers to a people of Central (?) Asia, the Abors of Assam, as affording "the most singular specimen of the primitive horde, both in respect of the external forces which keep it together, and of the internal organisation which regulates the conduct of individuals to one another" (p. 127). Those forces are said to be so potent that Abor life must "depend almost entirely upon local, not personal influences," and they are aided in keeping together the group by the totem system, which, however, has not yet been discovered, although it is thought, by analogy to the case of the neighbouring Khasias, to exist within the Abor group. We have seen that the totem is the symbol of a gens based on the bond of kin, but Mr. Gomme mentions, as a definite fact, "which goes far to establishing the theory that they represent a type of the primitive horde," that, although externally the Abors make up one group, "internally there are no traces of the cohesion resulting from the ties of recognised kinship." What is the evidence furnished in support of this assertion? Mr. Gomme deplores that minute examination of the social system of the Abors has not been made, but he tells us that "they are like tigers-two cannot dwell in one den; and their houses are scattered singly, or in groups of two or three over the immense extent of mountainous country occupied by them; " and that whenever a few families of Abors have united into a society, the community is soon broken up by fierce feuds and summary vengeance. But, surely, if these are facts they do not warrant the conclusion that the Abors are entirely free from the ties of kinship." 66 Mr. Gomme finds a close parallel between this people and the Cyclopes, and, notwithstanding their complete geographical and chronological discontinuity, supposes them to "belong to an epoch in human history which witnessed the continuous population of this long stretch of territory by groups of the Abor and Cyclop type." Homer's language about the Cyclopes is said to furnish a short summary of the social condition of the Abors. This people must, therefore, be "a lawless folk, who plant not aught with their hands neither plough," and they can have "neither gatherings for council nor oracles of law," but they dwell in hollow caves and "reck not one of another," denoting that they were not bound together by the tie of recognised kinship (p. 128). Now, what are the actual facts? Mr. H. R. Rowney, who mentions that the Abors cannot live peacefully alongside of each other, states ("Wild Tribes of India," p. 157) that they cultivate rice, cotton, tobacco, maize, ginger, a great variety of esculent roots and pumpkins, the sugar-cane, and opium. Each man's clearing is marked off by upright stones, and they have various agricultural implements, which are probably made by themselves, as they have the art of working iron, and can make bells. We learn further of the Abors, that their tribes form confederated states, and "each community is governed by its own laws, devised and administered on purely democratic principles. The laws are made by the people collected together, every individual having an equal vote. Notwithstanding their independent disposition, absolute obedience is given to the decisions of the assembly of citizens, even where it concerns only the course of daily labour. In fact, they are a law-abiding people, and crimes are considered as public pollutions which require to be atoned for by a public sacrifice, which has ultimately to be paid for by the guilty person (Reclus, "Nouv. Geog. Univ.," Vol. VIII, p. 204; "Evolution of Morality," Vol. I, p. 148). |