The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-11-24
Current Literature.

TIE ORIGIN OF CIVILIZATION. AND THE PRIMr-
TIVE CONDITION OF Man. By Sir John Lub-
book, Bari, NJ. p, F. R. S.. New York: ID.
Appleton & Co. 1870. PIP. $50
In this work, Sir John Lubbock has made
an important contribution towards the settling
of many disputed questions on points of the
greatest political and social significance. The
subjects OF which IT treats are OF great variety
and interest, and every degree of Importance.
large amount of space is devoted to investi-
eating the method Of progression from what
Is called communal" marriage to 'lndlvldual"
marriage. s'The lowest races" says the
author, shave no institution of marriage; true
"loYe is almost unknown among them, and
marriage in Its lowest phases, is by no means
"a matter OF affection and companionship."
Thus, in India, the Hill tribe OF ChitLigong re-
gard marriage as mere animal aud convent
ent connecton-as the means of getting their
dinner cooked. Among the Nandingoes mar
riage Is merely q form Of regulated slavery.
Husband and wife never laugh or joke to-
"gether." The points OF transition between
this loose and brutal Tie to homogeneous mar
rlagc are marked by increasing particularly
in the marriage ceremonial; polygamy, (due
in some measure to the necessity Of feeding
the children for three or four years with the
mothers milk; polyandry, (much more ire
quent than is generally supposedly communal
marriage, by which tine wife becomes as much
associated with certain classes of her husbands
relatives as with himself; individual IN arriage,
founded on capture; ''exogamy" and the at
tendant habit of female intanticide. The lost
three steps in this chain are due to special
theory of Sir John Lubbock's, In which he Is
at variance with previous investigators. Sir
John Lubbock holds that communal marriage
and Individual marriage by capture existed
side by side at the same time. Owing to the
special and personal privileges attaching to
marriage by capture, the feeling of a connec-
tiou between force and marriage became deep
ly rooted, as also the idea that wife ought
not 10 be taken ont of the same tribe or clan
as her husband. This conception of marriage
is called 'exogamy," and it has largely pre-
vailed among savage races, owing, no doubt,
much of Its popularity to experience of the
value of crossing breeds. The evidence ad-
duced Oil this head is very extensive and high
ly interesting. The frequency of infanticide
In the case of female children is 4 consequence
of the Joint notion Of marriage by capture and
exOgamy. Sir John Lubboca's remarks on the
whole subject may be summed up in his final
conclusion: "Children were not in the earliest
"tmes regarded as related equally to the
"father and mother but The natural progress
'uf ideas is lhat-drst, o child is related TO his
"tribe generally; secondly, to his mother, and
mot to his father; thirdly, to his father, and
mot to his mother; lastly, (and lastly only,)
''that he is related to both." Sir John Lub-
books investigation as to the moral feeling Of
the savage, (Which he believes to be at q lower
ebb than the intellectual, though invariably
present in some Degree in his relation to
law and to right respectively, on primitive
Ideas as to communal ownership of land,
whether for nuating purposes or tlllage, on
laws of inheritance, on laws regulating wills,
and laws for the punishment of crime, are e1-
tremely valuable, and the Westminster ReuieD
goes so far as to say that even when they do
no more than confirm the results of previous
writer's, they supply an exuberant amount OF
illustration of every degree OF interest and
novelty. ef ...se'