Page:The evolution of marriage and of the family ... (IA evolutionofmarri00letorich).pdf/312

 already pushed the agnatic system, at least in theory, to its most extreme limits; for they affirmed, he says, that in procreation the part of the father is predominant, and that of the mother only secondary. The general conclusion to be drawn from these very dissimilar facts is, that we should abstain from forming any absolute theories on these great sociological questions of marriage and the family, which are still so far from being elucidated.

III. The Family in Polynesia.

Filiation by the female line seems to be generally adopted, not only in Polynesia, but in many Melanesian or Micronesian archipelagoes. It has been found in the Fiji Islands, at Tonga and the Carolines, etc. But exogamy, even the exogamy of the clan, after the American fashion, appears rare. It existed at Samoa, but in any case it seems not to have been a general custom.

In New Zealand endogamy predominated, and marriage with a woman of another tribe was even prohibited, unless an important political motive could be given as an excuse. Endogamy was also practised in the Hawaian Islands. In the Mulgrave Islands every marriage required the sanction of an assembly of all the friends and relatives, or rather of the whole clan, for the interest of the community was involved in it.

In the Hawaian Islands there existed a confused kinship by classes, analogous to that of the familial clan among the Redskins, but much more gross. Group-marriage of brothers and sisters prevailed, but generally the brothers did not marry their own sisters. As for the names expressing the degrees of kinship, they were names of classes. The Hawaians had no words to express "father" or "mother." They used the word "mkûa," which signifies "parents." To say "father," they added the word "kana," which signifies "male": Mkûa kana, male