第 1 节
作者:着凉      更新:2021-02-19 19:25      字数:9322
  Lecture III
  Kinship as the Basis of Society
  The most recent researches into the primitive history of
  society point to the conclusion that the earliest tie which
  knitted men together in communities was Consanguinity or Kinship。
  The subject has been approached of late years from several
  different sides; and there has been much dispute as to what the
  primitive blood…relationship implied; and how it arose; but there
  has been general agreement as to the fact I have stated。 The
  caution is perhaps needed that we must not form too loose a
  conception of the kinship which once stood in the place of the
  multiform influences which are now the cement of human societies。
  It was regarded as an actual bond of union; and in no respect as
  a sentimental one。 The notion of what; for want of a better
  phrase; I must call a moral brotherhood in the whole human race
  has been steadily gaining ground during the whole course of
  history; and we have now a large abstract term answering to this
  notion  Humanity; he most powerful of the agencies which have
  brought about this broader and laxer view of kinship has
  undoubtedly been Religion; and indeed one great Eastern religion
  extended it until for some purposes it embraced all sentient
  nature。 All this modern enlargement of the primitive conception
  of kinship must be got rid of before we can bring it home to
  ourselves。 There was no brotherhood recognised by our savage
  forefathers except actual consanguinity regarded as a fact。 If a
  man was not of kin to another there was nothing between them。 He
  was an enemy to be slain; or spoiled; or hated; as much as the
  wild beasts upon which the tribe made war; as belonging indeed to
  the craftiest and the cruellest order of wild animals。 It would
  scarcely be too strong an assertion that the dogs which followed
  the camp had more in common with it than the tribesmen of an
  alien and unrelated tribe。
  The tribes of men with which the student of jurisprudence is
  concerned are exclusively those belonging to the races now
  universally classed; on the ground of linguistic affinities; as
  Aryan and Semitic。 Besides these he has at most to take into
  account that portion of the outlying mass of mankind which has
  lately been called Uralian; the Turks; Hungarians; and Finns。 The
  characteristic of all these races; when in the tribal state; is
  that the tribes themselves; and all subdivisions of them; are
  conceived by the men who compose them as descended from a single
  male ancestor。 Such communities see the Family group with which
  they are familiar to be made up of the descendants of a single
  living man; and of his wife or wives; and perhaps they are
  accustomed to that larger group; formed of the descendants of a
  single recently deceased ancestor; which still survives in India
  as a compact assemblage of blood…relatives; though it is only
  known to us through the traces it has left in our Tables of
  Inheritance。 The mode of constituting groups of kinsmen which
  they see proceeding before their eyes they believe to be
  identical with the process by which the community itself was
  formed。 Thus the theoretical assumption is that all the tribesmen
  are descended from some common ancestor; whose descendants have
  formed sub…groups; which again have branched off into others;
  till the smallest group of all; the existing Family; is reached。
  I believe I may say that there is substantial agreement as to the
  correctness of these statements so long as they are confined to
  the Aryan; Semitic; and Uralian races。 At most it is asserted
  that; among the recorded usages of portions of these races; there
  are obscure indications of another and an earlier state of
  things。 But then a very different set of assertions from these
  are made concerning that large part of the human race which
  cannot be classed as Aryan; Semitic; or Uralian。 It is; first of
  all; alleged that there is evidence of the wide prevalence among
  them of ideas on the subject of Consanguinity which are
  irreconcileable with the assumption of common descent from a
  single ancestor。 Next; it is pointed out that some small;
  isolated; and very barbarous communities  perhaps long hidden
  in inaccessible Indian valleys; or within the ring of a coral
  reef in the  Southern Seas  still follow practices which it
  would be incorrect and unjust to call immoral; because; in the
  view we are considering; they are older than morality。 The
  suggestion is finally made that if these practices were; in an
  older stage of the world's history; very much more widely
  extended than at present; the abnormal; non…Aryan; non…Semitic;
  non…Uralian notions about kinship of which I have spoken would
  find their explanation。 If; indeed; the conclusion here pointed
  at expresses the truth; and if these practices were really at one
  time universal; it would be an undeserved compliment to the human
  race to say that it once followed the ways of the lower animals;
  since; in point of fact; all the lower animals do not follow the
  practices thus attributed to them。 But; whatever be the interest
  of such enquiries; they do not concern us till the Kinship of the
  higher races can be distinctly shown to have grown out of the
  Kinship now known only to the lower; and even then they concern
  us only remotely。 No doubt several recent writers do believe in
  the descent of one form of consanguinity from the other。 Mr Lewis
  Morgan; of New York; the author of a remarkable and very
  magnificent volume on 'Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity in
  the Human Family;' published by the Smithsonian Institute at
  Washington; reckons no less than ten stages (p: 486) through
  which communities founded on kinship have passed before that form
  of the family was developed out of which the Aryan tribes
  conceive themselves to have sprung。 But Mr Morgan also says of
  the system known upon the evidence actually to prevail among the
  Aryan; Semitic; and Uralian divisions of mankind that (p。 469) it
  'manifestly proceeds upon the assumption of the existence of
  marriage between single pairs; and of the certainty of parentage
  through the marriage relation。' 'Hence;' he adds; 'it must have
  come into existence after the establishment of marriage between
  single pairs。'
  A remark of considerable importance to the student of early
  usage has now to be made respecting the bond of union recognised
  by these greater races。 Kinship; as the tie binding communities
  together; tends to be regarded as the same thing with subjection
  to a common authority。 The notions of Power and Consanguinity
  blend; but they in nowise SUpersede one another。 We have a
  familiar example of this mixture of ideas in the subjection of
  the smallest group; the Family; to its patriarchal head。 Wherever
  we have evidence of such a group; it becomes difficult to say
  whether the persons compiled in it are most distinctly regarded
  as kinsmen; or as servile or semi…servile dependents of the
  person who was the source of their kinship。 The confusion;
  however; if we may so style it; of kinship with subjection to
  patriarchal power is observable also in the larger groups into
  which the Family expands。 In some cases the Tribe can hardly be
  otherwise described than as the group of men subject to some one
  chieftain。 This peculiar blending of ideas is undoubtedly
  connected with the extension (a familiar fact to most of us) of
  the area of ancient groups of kindred by artifices or fictions。
  Just as we find the Family recruited by strangers brought under
  the paternal power of its head by adoption; so we find the Tribe;
  or Clan; including a number of persons; in theory of kin to it;
  yet in fact connected with it only by common dependence on the
  Chief。 I do not affect to give any sim