Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-11-02
QUEER MARRIAGE CUSTOMS.

Peoples Who Allow No Acq uain:asee Be-
tween Busb and and Mother-ia Law.
In the snthropologica. section Of the B 1t
ish Association, says the London Globe,
E B. Tylor recently described method
Of investigating the development Of insti-
tutions as applied to laws Of msrriaee
and descent. He ssid:E "With the viaw
Of applying direct numerical method
to anthropology, the writer has COM
piled schedules OF the systems Of mar
risge and descent among some $50 peo-
pies CT the world, 30 IS to ascertain by
mes- Of s method o. adhesion how
FIR -Gch rule coexists or not WITH
other rules, sDd wat have been the
directions Of developmer. from one rule
to another. As test Of the results
to be obtained by this means the bar
bsric custom is examined which forbids
the husband apd wife's parents (thouga
On . friendly footipe) to speak or look 1t
one another or mention one snother'5
names. Some seven'y people prac-
tice this or the converse cuslom
Of the wife and her husbands
relatives being obliged cerem onislly to
cut one another. Ga Classifying tbs
marriage rules OF mankind q marked dis
tinction is found to lie between these
people whose custom Is for the husband
to reside with his wife's family ard these
where he removes her to bis own
home. Il gppears that the avoidance ls-
tom between the husbend and his wlte's
family belongs prepondeTantly Gin four~
teen cases, as compared with eight CON-
pu ed IS likely to happen by chalce) to
the group Of csses where the husband
goes to live with the wlfe's family. This
implies c.sual conIet tien between the
customs Of avoidance and residence, sug.
costing as reason that the husbsnd,
being tn interloper IN the wife's family.
must be treated IS stranger; to use en-
English idiom * pressing the situation,
he Is not recognized 0.her varieties
OF the customs show similar pre-
ponder1nt adaesicns. Another custom,
here called teknonmy, or naming the
parent from the child, prevsils among
more than thirty people; as sn example
Wac mertione d the name CT Rs-Mary, or
father CT Msrg, by which Livingstone vas
generally known in Afr ca. This custom
proves on examination to sdhere closely
TO those OF resldence and avoidsnce, the
three occurring together among eleven
people-.hat liz, more tiaa Six times &c
often as might be expected TO happen by
chance concurrence. Their coDnec don
finds satisfactory explanation in the &C
counts given Of the Cree Indians CT Can
ads, where tie husband lives In his
wiie's house, but never spesks to his
parents-in-law till his frs. child is
born; this el!ers the whole situs-
tiop, for though the father is not 8
member of the family his child Is, and so
confers on him the status CT father Of
so -and-so,' which becomes his rame. the
whole being then brought to 8 logical
conclusion by the family ceasing to
cut him. These etiquettes Of avoid
snce furnish an Indication Of
the direction Of change in
social habits among mankind; there
are eight people (tor instance, the Zalus)
where residence is in the husbands
family, with the accompanying avoid
arces, but at the same time the advoid-
snce is kept up between the husband and
wife's family, indicating thasAt 3 recent
period he may have hsbituaLy lived with
them"