第 3 节
作者:
着凉 更新:2021-02-19 19:25 字数:9321
consanguinity has seemed to be revived by theories which are
sometimes called generally theories of Nationality; and of which
particular forms are known to us as Pan…Sclavism and
Pan…Teutonism。 Such theories are in truth a product of modern
philology; and have grown out of the assumption that linguistic
affinities prove community of blood。 But wherever the political
theory of Nationality is distinctly conceived; it amounts to a
claim that men of the same race shall be included; not in the
same tribal; but in the same territorial sovereignty。
We can perceive; from the records of the Hellenic and Latin
city…communities; that there; and probably over a great part of
the world; the substitution of common territory for common race
as the basis of national union was slow; and not accomplished
without very violent struggles。 'The history of political ideas
begins;' I have said elsewhere; 'with the assumption that kinship
in blood is the sole possible ground of community in political
functions; nor is there any of those subversions of feeling which
we emphatically term revolutions so startling and so complete as
the change which is accomplished when some other principle
such as that; for instance; of local contiguity establishes
itself for the first time as the basis of common political
action。' The one object of ancient democracies was; in fact; to
be counted of kin to the aristocracies; simply on the ground that
the aristocracy of old citizens; and the democracy of new; lived
within the same territorial circumscription。 The goal was reached
in time both by the Athenian Demos and by the Roman Plebs; but
the complete victory of the Roman popular party was the source of
influences which have not spent themselves at the present moment;
since it is one of the causes why the passage from the Tribal to
the Territorial conception of Sovereignty was much more easy and
imperceptible in the modern than in the older world。 I have
before stated that a certain confusion; or at any rate
indistinctness of discrimination; between consanguinity and
common subjection to power is traceable among the rudiments of
Aryan thought; and no doubt the mixture of notions has helped to
bring about that identification of common nationality with common
allegiance to the King; which has greatly facilitated the
absorption of new bodies of citizens by modern commonwealths。 But
the majesty with which the memory of the Roman Empire surrounded
all kings has also greatly contributed to it; and without the
victory of the Roman Plebeians there would never have been; I
need hardly say; any Roman Empire。
The new knowledge which has been rapidly accumulating of late
years enables us to track precisely the same transmutation of
ideas amid the smaller groups of kinsmen settled on land and
forming; not Commonwealths; but Village…Communities。 The
historian of former days laboured probably under no greater
disadvantage than that caused by his unavoidable ignorance of the
importance of these communities; and by the necessity thus
imposed upon him of confining his attention to the larger
assemblages of tribesmen。 It has often; indeed; been noticed that
a Feudal Monarchy was an exact counterpart of a Feudal Manor; but
the reason of the correspondence is only now beginning to dawn
upon us; which is; that both of them were in their origin bodies
of assumed kinsmen settled on land and undergoing the same
transmutation of ideas through the fact of settlement。 The
history of the larger groups ends in the modern notions of
Country and Sovereignty; the history of the smaller in the modern
notions of Landed Property。 The two courses of historical
development were for a long while strictly parallel; though they
have ceased to be so now。
The naturally organised; self…existing; Village…Community can
no longer be claimed as an institution specially characteristic
of the Aryan races。 M。 de Laveleye; following Dutch authorities;
has described these communities as they are found in Java; and M
Renan has discovered them among the obscurer Semitic tribes in
Northern Africa。 But; wherever they have been examined; the
extant examples of the group suggest the same theory of its
origin which Mr Freeman ('Comparative Politics;' p。 103) has
advanced concerning the Germanic village…community or Mark; 'This
lowest political unit was at first; here (i。 e。 in England) as
elsewhere; formed of men bound together by a tie of kindred; in
its first estate natural; in a later stage either of kindred
natural or artificial。' The evidence; however; is now quite ample
enough to furnish us with strong indications not only of the mode
in which these communities began; but of the mode in which they
transformed themselves。 The world; in fact; contains examples of
cultivating groups in every stage; from that in which they are
actually bodies of kinsmen; to that in which the merest shadow of
consanguinity survives and the assemblage of cultivators is held
together solely by the land which they till in common。 The great
steps in the scale of transition seem to me to be marked by the
Joint Family of the Hindoos; by the House…Community of the
Southern Sclavonians; and by the true Village…Community; as it is
found first in Russia and next in India。 The group which I have
placed at the head; the Hindoo…Joint Family; is really a body of
kinsmen; the natural and adoptive descendants of a known
ancestor。 Although the modern law of India gives such facilities
for its dissolution that it is one of the most unstable of social
compounds; and rarely lasts beyond a couple of generations;
still; so long as it lasts; it has a legal corporate existence;
and exhibits; in the most perfect state; that community of
proprietary enjoyment which has been so often observed; and (let
me add) so often misconstrued; in cultivating societies of
archaic type。 'According to the true notion of a joint undivided
Hindoo family;' said the Privy Council; 'no member of the family;
while it remains undivided; can predicate of the joint undivided
property that he; that particular member; has a certain definite
share。。。。 The proceeds of undivided property must be brought;
according to the theory; into the common chest or purse; and then
dealt with according to the modes of enjoyment of the members of
an undivided family。' (Per Lord Westbury; Appovier v。 Rama Subba
Aiyan; 11 Moore's Indian Appeals; 75。) While; however; these
Hindoo families; 'joint in food; worship; and estate;' are
constantly engaged in the cultivation of land; and dealing with
its produce 'according to the modes of enjoyment of an undivided
family;' they are not village…communities。 They are only
accidentally connected with the land; however extensive their
landed property may be。 What holds them together is not land; but
consanguinity; and there is no reason why they should not occupy
themselves; as indeed they frequently do; with trade or with the
practice of a handicraft。 The House…Community; which comes next
in the order of development; has been examined by M。 de Laveleye
(P。 et 8。 F。 P。; p。 201); and by Mr。 Patterson ('Fortnightly
Review;' No。 xliv。); in Croatia; Dalmatia; and Illyria; countries
which; though newer to us than India; have still much in common
with the parts of the East not brought completely under Mahometan
influences; but there is reason to believe that neither Roman law
nor feudalism entirely crushed it even in Western Europe。 It is a
remarkable fact that assemblages of kinsmen; almost precisely the
counterpart of the House…Communities surviving among the
Sclavonians; were observed by M。 Dupin; in 1840; in the French
Department of the Ni鑦re; and were able to satisfy him that even
in 1500 they had been ac