Lorimer Fison

This book has been considered by academicians and scholars of great significance and value to literature. This forms a part of the knowledge base for future generations. So that the book is never forgotten we have represented this book in a print format as the same form as it was originally first published. Hence any marks or annotations seen are left intentionally to preserve its true nature.

This book deals with the history of primitive marriage as that developed by Ferguson McLennan through his work on primitive marriage. Arguing from the prevalence of the symbolical form of capture in the marriage ceremonies of primitive races, he developed an intelligible picture of the growth of the marriage relation and of systems of kinship according to natural laws. "In his ingenious and interesting work on "Primitive Marriage", the words "exogamy" and "endogamy" are used by Mr. McLennan to distinguish the two practices of taking to wife women belonging to other tribes, and taking to wife women belonging to the same tribe. As explained in his preface, his attention was drawn to these diverse customs by an inquiry into "the meaning and origin of the form of capture in marriage ceremonies;" an inquiry which led him to a general theory of early sexual relations..."

A landmark in Australian anthropology when it first appeared in 1880, this is the first major analysis of Aboriginal social structure, adopting a model today termed "social Darwinist." While this theory is now rejected, it exerted tremendous influence on European attitudes for decades.