of a supporter of
the theory of primitive promiscuity and group marriage is analogous to
that of an evolutionist who can only point to a few more or less useless
peculiarities in the anatomy of man without being able to show
resemblances between them and the corresponding portions of fossil or
actually existing anthropoids. He calls them "vestiges[197]" and insists
that _homo_ is descended from a generalised anthropoid. The mere
assertion of the vestigial character of such bones or organs would
hardly carry conviction unless they could be shown to exist in some
anthropoid in a more fully developed state. Similarly the arguments for
promiscuity and group marriage suffer from incurable weakness, and would
so suffer, even were the basis far more reliable than I have shown to be
the case, unless and until it has been shown by what process and for
what reasons man took each upward step. So far only one writer has
attempted, and that nearly thirty years ago, to trace the course of
human development on the hypothesis of primitive promiscuity, and his
scheme is a house of cards.

The student of sociology is at a disadvantage compared with the
zoologist in not being able to unearth his fossils for comparison with
living forms. He must therefore trace the relationship between living
forms, and, in seeking to discover the earlier stages of human progress,
rely in part on the sociology of the higher mammals, in part on the
possibility of showing a logical scheme of human development. When he
examines the living forms he is of course unable to say whether actually
existing savage institutions are in the main line of human progress or
merely bye-paths embryological or teratological. It may be possible to
show that group marriage exists somewhere on the earth at the present
time. Even if this is so, the theory of primitive promiscuity and group
marriage as stages in the general history of mankind remain mere
baseless guesses until we have a systematic account both of the causes
which led to the various steps, and of the processes by which the
various stages were reached.

FOOTNOTES:

[181] Howitt, p. 205.

[182] p. 214.

[183] p. 217.

[184] pp. 224, 260.

[185] p. 195.

[186] pp. 170, 277.

[187] Also among the Kurnandaburi, the Wonkamira, etc. _Journ. Anthr.
Inst._ XX, 62. General circumcision was a remedy in Fiji when the chief
was ill.

[188] And among the Dieri, according to Gason, _Journ. Anthr. Inst._ XX,