Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/30

 14 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

the purpose, the widow unties the shoe, spits, but now on the ground, and repeats the specified words.

The duties attached to family property led to the history, which is very strange to the ideas of the present day, of Ruth's advances to Boaz under the advice of her mother. " It came to pass at midnight" that Boaz "was startled 5 and turned himself, and behold a woman lay at his feet," who had come in " softly and uncovered his feet and laid her down." He told her to lie still until the early morning and then to go away. She returned home and told her mother, who said : " Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall, for the man will not rest until he have finished the thing this day." She was right. Boaz took legal steps to disembarrass himself of the claims of a still nearer kinsman, who " drew off his shoe ;" so Boaz married Ruth. Nothing could be purer, from the point of view of those days, than the history of Ruth. The feelings of the modern social world would be shocked, if the same thing were to take place now in England.

Evidence from the various customs relating to endogamy show how choice in marriage may be dictated by religious cus- tom, that is, by a custom founded on a religious view of family property and family descent. Eugenics deal with what is more valuable than money or lands, namely, the heritage of a high character, capable brains, fine physique, and vigor; in short, with all that is most desirable for a family to possess as a birth- right. It aims at the evolution and preservation of high races of men, and it as well deserves to be strictly enforced as a reli- gious duty, as the Levirate law ever was.

3. Exogamy. Exogamy is, or has been, as widely spread as the opposed rule of endogamy just described. It is the duty, enforced by custom, religion, and law, of marrying outside one's own tribe, and is usually in force among small and barbarous communities. Its former distribution is attested by the survival, in nearly all countries, of ceremonies based on "marriage by capture." The remarkable monograph on this subject by the late Mr. McLennan is of peculiar interest. It was one of the


 * See marginal note in the Revised Version.