SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading los notice such Books of the week as hays not boss reserved for review in other forms.]
Marriage, Totemism, and Religion. By the Right Hon. Lord Avebury. (Longmans and Co. 4s. 6d. net.)—Lord Avebury de- fends against a variety of attacks the opinions which he has stated on the three subjects named in the title of this book. Generally his theory as to the history of man is that it is an ascent—not by any means a conscious ascent, still a rise brought about by various causes. There is marriage, for instance. How are we to account for the very widely spread practice of exogamy—the rule, i.e., that a man must find his wife outside his own tribe ? It came, some would say, from a prudent desire to avoid the ill consequences of in- breeding. But it is hardly likely that the savage would exercise such a foresight, one to which civilized man has not attained. A. more probable conjecture is this, that the mate acquired by the skill or strength of the individual from outside the tribe was regarded as the peculiar property of the captor, and that this seemed so desirable a state of things, as compared with the com- munal marriage which prevailed as to the women within the tribe, that it became the rale. A man was forbidden to find a wife within the tribe, and compelled to seek one without. Passing by the subject of magic we come to religion. Lord Avebury questions the theory of a primitive pure religion which became overlaid with superstition and immoral practice. He urges that it is a frequent thing to find a savage tribe which has no religious ideas at all—no name, for instance, for a supreme being—and that religion is a part of the development of the human race. This answer to critics seems to us a very able piece of work.
Previous page
