Page:The evolution of marriage and of the family ... (IA evolutionofmarri00letorich).pdf/330

 Malabar, the pre-eminence of the woman in the family has influenced the political organisation, and thus an entire female feudal system has arisen, the bonds of suzerainty and vassalage reposing on a fictitious polyandry. Thus, in February 1887, the English journals announced that the Sultan of the Laccadives, having become the vassal of England, had notified to his subjects his new position by means of a proclamation, in which he explained that he had ceased to be the husband and subject of his ancient suzerain, the Bibi of Cannanor; for by a special favour the government of Ceylon had consented to admit him to the number of the husbands, that is to say, of the direct vassals, of the Queen of England. We must note that for the Indians of this region the Queen of England is "the daughter" of the East India Company, and lives in a palace in London with many men. And now what is the real value of this polyandric matriarchate? It is surely more apparent than real. Among the Naïrs, as everywhere else, property assures to the man or woman who possesses it an importance in proportion to its value. The Naïr lady then, being a proprietor, is highly esteemed. But it does not follow that this esteem is equal to undisputed domination. Doubtless among the Naïrs the man, as husband, does not exist; nevertheless he is a warrior, and even a very fierce one. But military force has this in common with money, that it is nowhere despised. Therefore, in the family of his sister, the Naïr man is anything but a subordinate. We have just seen this. It is he who governs and brings up the children of his sister by her numerous husbands. He is, in reality, the chief of his sister's family, and what he loses as husband he gains as uncle.

Reduced to their true value, the polyandry and the familial régime of the Naïrs still remain a sociological fact of the greatest interest. It is at once the most complete and the most logical of polyandric systems. In reality, the Naïr marriage does not only or specially include groups of brothers or sisters; full liberty is given to the woman, save only the restrictions of class. There is no attempt, as in Thibet, to create a masculine pseudo-filiation, by arbitrarily attributing such or such children to such or