The history of human marriage — Themes and Context

A Global Survey of Polygyny

Westermarck devotes considerable attention to polygyny, documenting its practice across diverse societies. He notes that among the Merovingian kings polygyny was frequent, and that a law of Charlemagne suggests it was not unknown even among priests. In modern Europe, he observes, polygyny survived in the custom permitting princes to have many mistresses, a point he borrows from Spencer. The survey extends to Africa, where in Unyoro even a small chief might have ten or fifteen wives, and to Fiji, where chiefs had from twenty to a hundred. Yet Westermarck also records numerous exceptions: the Wyandots and Iroquois restricted themselves to one wife, and among the Karok a man brings obloquy upon himself if he cohabits with more than one woman. These counterexamples are central to his argument that monogamy is not a late development but a widespread and early form.

The Repugnance to Incest

One of Westermarck's most distinctive arguments concerns the repugnance to marriage between near relatives. He proposes that this aversion is not a product of law or custom but an innate psychological disposition, shaped by natural selection. The introductory note by Alfred Russel Wallace highlights this as an ingenious and philosophical explanation. Westermarck supports his claim with evidence from the Veddahs of Ceylon, who are so rigorous in their monogamy that infidelity never seems to occur, and from the Andaman Islanders, where bigamy, polygamy, polyandry, and divorce are unknown. By grounding the incest taboo in evolved instinct rather than social contract, Westermarck challenges the then-dominant theories of Morgan and Lubbock.

Structure and Method

The book's structure reflects Westermarck's method: he assembles a vast compendium of examples, then draws comparative conclusions. The text moves rapidly from one society to another, often within a single paragraph, creating a cumulative effect. For instance, in discussing polygyny, he cites the Finns, the Mormons, the Barôze, and the King of Loango in quick succession. This technique allows him to demonstrate both the prevalence and the variability of marriage customs. However, the excerpts do not reveal how Westermarck organizes his material into larger thematic chapters; the reader encounters a dense weave of evidence without explicit signposting. The work's authority rests on the sheer breadth of its sources, from Emin Pasha to Serpa Pinto, and on Westermarck's willingness to contradict established authorities.

Movement Between Scenes

Westermarck's narrative moves fluidly between historical periods and geographical regions, often without transitional commentary. In one passage, he shifts from the Scandinavian kings to the pagan Russians, then to Finnish poems, and then to the Merovingian kings and Charles the Great. This rapid movement creates a sense of global simultaneity, as if all human societies are available for inspection at once. The effect is both encyclopedic and disorienting: the reader must track the argument across leaps of time and space. Westermarck does not linger on any single case; instead, he uses each as a data point in a larger comparative project. This technique reflects the late nineteenth-century ambition to construct a universal history of human institutions, but it also means that local context is often sacrificed to the comparative frame.

Readers approaching this work should be prepared for a dense, evidence-driven argument that assumes familiarity with the anthropological debates of its time. Westermarck's conclusions are often at odds with those of his contemporaries, and his method of piling example upon example can be taxing. Yet the book rewards careful reading with a nuanced picture of marriage as a human institution, shaped by both instinct and culture. The excerpts suggest that Westermarck is a meticulous if sometimes relentless compiler, and his work remains a landmark in the study of kinship and social organization.

Reading about Westermarck's patient tracing of marriage customs, I remembered my grandmother's stories of her grandmother's arranged match—so distant, yet so familiar. That same quiet awe washed over me with Some Immigrant Neighbors — Background and Themes, where every household’s private ritual felt like a thread in a larger, unspoken fabric. Both books made me feel the weight of tradition, softly.