Evening star., 1932-10-25
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
!. C.. M.

i. u. M.
MANS ROUGH ROAD: Backgrounds
and Bearings From Mankind's Ex-
perience. BY A. G. Keller. professor
OF the Science of Society. Yale Uni
versity. Yale University Press. New
York: Frederick A. Stokes Co.
There can be much profit to man
kind from the experience of travelling a
rough country. Not many varieties of
rut and washout lie ahead on the trail
that have not been encountered from
the very outset"
Profit, both present and future, lies
In the experiences of others, so we have
been told. Accepting this, DR.. Keller
thinks it useful thing to do, to show
us where we have been, in order to
know better where we are going. Where
and how did we get the familiar and
unquestioned commonplaces Of social
life today? Industry. marriage, religion,
| intellectual means Of advance in schools
and other agencies of cultural pleasure
, and profit? They began somewhere
somehow. Where and how?
The account is too long. too full. too
rough" for the faithful and direct at
| tention that it deserves. That is, here
and In this connection. About all that
can be done Is to take up in something
OF the authors intent one or more of
! our inclusive institutions, those that in
volve everybody. For the sake of seeing
how they really did get a start, how
they did survive Not even this, the
point either, so much as it is to remind
readers who have overlooked the fact
| that mere Is study Of profound im-
mediate importance by a scholar of dis
tinction. Even this not the clear call
to it either. That lies in the personality
OF the writer, in the turn OF word, in
the rugged fortnight push Of the mind,
| IN the Meeting smile and in the CLINT
| OF humor that sharpens of usually into
| wit itself. Hardly sounds like a scien-
| tlst- teacher. at that. But the days
are growing brighter for readers, since
this new order of man elects to remain
human being for the benefit of the
populace in respect to the modern won-
man here. You would better sit down
| beside him.
The thoroughgoing reader will set
out with the opening of this study to
nno out all manner of beginnings. Liv-
ing on the soil and little by little dis
covering its sustaining power. banding
INTO groups and developing therefrom
the elements of industry and govern
ment, turning their very natural fears
into one or another form of placating
worship and Precipitation, until out CT a
maze OF superstitions religion itself was
evolved
But since little can be done here, sup
pose we take the topic IN which every
| n Of t,tc etc IT, ~,
advance has an interest, either ant!ci-
patory or rueful. The most familiar of
modern institutions is marriage How
did 1t come about? What stages has it
passed through to meet its present
status? Where is it going, If anywhere?
Being OF the human tribe and. there
fore, immeasurably impressed with its
Importance over the rest of creation, we
of that tribe have invested matrinony
with deal of implication and cere-
monial rite that are entirely justifiable
Why, certainly. But the Scientist ap-
proaches this very vital and generally
ergrossng matter from another angle
than that of the mountain of revela-
| tion. 1rdubitably he says, the human
| is OF the animal creation and. up to
certain point, partakes Of the nature Of
the whole class. Even plant life comes
into the general scheme. Male and fe-
male possessed by very special form Of
hunger. Reproduction. That is the
, foundation upon which the involved in
stitution of marriage rests. The author
reminds readers that all peoples. save
the very crudest, have had proper tre-
ditional ways of entering wedlock. Just
how have they been welded, all along
the line, and why have the ceremonie
been just the ones that they have been?
r@rrr ffvV1n fta hN--
and girls had nothing whatever to do
with their own marrying. The group
looked after that, the community. At
certain time there were traditional cere-
monies and a predeStined allotment
made wherein the individual had no
voice 1t was the public that had ccn-
Germ in this union, not a mere paltry
pair of young folks. In very slight
way, since society itself was matter
of small units, each marriage was an
official enactment.
That is but the beginning of trans
action, so involved as society advanccs
as to seem unbelievable today. as to
seem silly nonsense today. Yet frag-
ments of old, old marriage customs hold
today.
The ring. the veil the giving away
OF the bride are all leftovers from an
immea surably ancient past. ElopemcntS
run back many centuries to hundred
other forms Of mock-resistance on the
part Of the bride to deliver herself to
the bridegroom No doubt lot of the
modern behavior of the girl who is
being sought in wedlock goes back to
beginnings as old, even as "maidenly
modesty" In the old days there was
wife barter" and bride price" Quite
easy to believe, reading here. that these
,r;< rlyAA
the prices that went with their transfer
to the husband. These prices, in the
course of time. became dowries, name,
and fact, holding to this day. One. too,
in which the modern bride is not devoid
of pride. Surviving custom that, no
doubt serves many good turn today.
as it served many a good turn. though
somewhat different, in that older dey.
In places and times when political
power is of dynastic scope, the subject
of legitimacy is of deep consequence.
And all along this rough road OF
man-in-marrisg there is literally a
host of customs, varying in form from
time to time, from place to place, but
all of them bent to the common end Of
pure line of descent In this connec-
ton chastity became political prcb-
lem and social urgency, not merely
personal matter of conscience and good
taste Courtship is no longer what it
used to be. The proposal, so easy and
cnly half-worded now. was then pub
lie ordeal The wedding-well that. il!
publicity, solemnity. ostentation, has
perhaps held its own with the ancient
ways better than these other ancientries
have. The rights of woman in mar
riage, and to an extent out of it. ere
here set out for the modern woman's
attention. What were her property
rights along the back reaches of this
rough" road CT matrimony? Not any
thing to brag about at first, or even
later: The woman could own that
which the man did not desire-female
gear, dresses and hairpins, for instance.
Later, when the dowry plan begins, the
wife may hold on to that which she
brought to the household.