is future mother-in-law. Even with us, marriage by
purchase has not died out: it prevails in bourgeois society worse than
ever. Marriage for money, almost everywhere customary among the ruling
classes, is nothing other than marriage by purchase. Indeed, the
marriage gift, which in all civilized countries the bridegroom makes to
the bride, is but a symbol of the purchase of the wife as property.

Along with marriage by purchase, there was the custom of marriage by
rape. The rape of women was a customary practice, not alone among the
ancient Jews, but everywhere in antiquity. It is met with among almost
all nations. The best known historic instance is the rape of the Sabine
women by the Romans. The rape of women was an easy remedy where women
ran short, as, according to the legend, happened to the early Romans; or
where polygamy was the custom, as everywhere in the Orient. There it
assumed large proportions during the supremacy of the Arabs, from the
seventh to the twelfth century.

Symbolically, the rape of woman still occurs, for instance among the
Araucans of South Chile. While the friends of the bridegroom are
negotiating with the father of the bride, the bridegroom steals with his
horse into the neighborhood of the house, and seeks to capture the
bride. So soon as he catches her, he throws her upon his horse, and
makes off with her to the woods. The men, women and children thereupon
raise a great hue and cry, and seek to prevent the escape. But when the
bridegroom has reached the thick of the woods, the marriage is
considered consummated. This holds good also when the abduction takes
place against the will of the parents. Similar customs prevail among the
peoples of Australia.

Among ourselves, the custom of "wedding trips" still reminds us of the
former rape of the wife: the bride is carried off from her domestic
flock. On the other hand, the exchange of rings is a reminiscence of the
subjection and enchainment of the woman to the man. The custom
originated in Rome. The bride received an iron ring from her husband as
a sign of her bondage to him. Later the ring was made of gold; much
later the exchange of rings was introduced, as a sign of mutual union.

The old family ties of the gens had, accordingly, lost their foundation
through the development of the conditions of production, and through
the rule of private property. Upon the abolition of the gens, grounded
on mother-right, the gens, grounded on the father-r