m frofottiom m tka Wfplj of miks avaikble for CMfijiug Oft aooHil snatentfttioii moreaM% tha labour of Borini mmibmMmi UHa Ian hea¥ilj on die females. Aad it mtf be acUed lliat tike aoeietieB in wIbcIl the Borplns of xaaka UrniB aaede amolaUe, undertakes the harder kboars, mad m, veUeriBf Ike females from andae physical tax, anabkw them to prodnoe more and better ofcprmg; will^ eiker Ainga eqaal, gain in the stmgig^ for existenee with societies in which the w6men are not thns relieved by the men: whence an average tendency to the spread cf aociatiea in which the staiuM of women is improved.
Thm% ifl the faot^too, that the despotism distingoiahing a eommnaity oigaaiaed toit war» is essentially connected with deqKitifln in the hooaehold; while^ conversely, the freedom whieh oharacteriaea public life in an industrial commnnity, natimlly danRtacizea also the aooompaaying private life. In the one case oompnlaoiy co-operation prevails in both; in the other case volontaiy ce-operation prevails in both.
By the moral contrast we are shown another face of the same fsct. Habitnal antagonism with, and destmotion of, foes, seacs the ympathim; while daily exchange of poo- dnets and services among citiaeais, puts no obstacle to increase of feUow-f ediag. And the altroiam which grows with peaceful co-operation, amdioratea at once the life withont the household and the life within the honaehold.*^ • 'Sm kte tD U iiatii in iti pauper plMa, md m hd^ fhat I hmc onoellgd itenotgrpc pbtot to bring it iiit I haw nufe witb a ftrikui^ wwoA- oatioii in the jnafe-iMMd work of Mr. W. Mattiea WilliMui, F.RjLS^ F.CS^ 7%rtmffh Narwojf ^nUi LadAfa, Ha m^ " there are no people In the worid, however refined^ awong whom tiie lelatife poeition of nmn and wmnan ie moro emNvable to the laMar tiMii aBoag the Lappa.** After girii^ evidence from pereonal ohewailion* he aeka the leaaon, eafdng:— " Ii it becanae the men are not warrion? • • • Thej have no eoldien^ Agb^ ne hattlea, either with ontside foreignen, or between the variooi tribee and ftunniei among them- aelvofl. • • • In spite of tMr wretched hn«i» tMr dirtf hgm, their primi. tive cbtfaingr, their igannMe ef Iitentafe» art, «d ecM»e, thej rwA above no in the higheet eleaMnt of tme €iviliaatioa» the moeal element; and all the militarf nationa of the world may stand nncovered before them ** (pp. 162-3}.
CHAPTEE XI.
TH£ STATUS OF CHUiDBIH.
§ 330. That brates^ however f erocioixs^ treat their off* spriiig tenderly^ is a £&iniliar &ct; and tbat tenderziesB to o&pring is shown by the most brutal of mankind, is a fact qnite congmons with it. An obvions eQq>1anation of this seeming anomaly exists. As we saw that the treatment of women by men cannot pass a certain degree of harshness without causing extinction of the tribe; so here, we may see that the tribe must disappear unless the love of progeny is strong. Hence we need not be surprised when Mouat tells us that the Ani^ATnATi Islanders ''show their children the utmost tenderness and affection;^ or when we read in Snow's account of the Fuegians that both sexes are much attached to their offspring; or when Sturt describes Aus- tralian fathers and mothers as behaving to their little ones with much fondness. Affection intense enough to prompt great self-sacrifice, is, indeed, especially requisite under the conditions of savage Hfe, whiqh render the rearing of young difficult; and maintenance of such affection is insured by the dying out of families in which it is deficient.
But this strong parental love is, like the parental love of animals, very irregularly displayed. As among brutes the philoprogenitive instinct is occasionally suppressed by the desire to kill, and even to devour, their young ones; so among primitive men this instinct is now and again over- 768 THE DOMESTIC BEIATIONS.
ridden by impulses temporarily excited. Thns^ tbongii attached to their offsprings Australian mothers, when in danger^ will sometimes desert them; and if we may beliere Angas^ men have been known to bait their hooks with the flesh of boys they have killed. Thns^ notwithstanding thoir marked parental affection, Fuegians sell their cbildren for slaves; thus, among the Chonos Indians, a father, though doting on his boy, will kill him in a fit of anger for an accidental offence. Everywhere among the lower races we meet with like incongruities. Falkner, while describing the paternal feelings of Patagonians as very strong, sap they often pawn and sell their wives and little ones to the Spaniards for brandy. Speaking of the children of the Sound Indians, Bancroft says they " sell or gamble them away.'' According to Simpson, the Pi-Edes ** barter their children to the Utes proper, for a few trinkets or bits of clothing.'' And of the Macusi, Schomburgk writes, ''the price of a child is the same as the Indian asks for his dog/' This seemingly-heartless conduct to children, often arises from the di£Bculty experienced in rearing them. To it the infanticide so common among the uncivilized and semi-civilized, is, of course, mainly due — ^the burial of living infants with mothers who have died in childbirth; the put- ting to death one out of twins; the destruction of younger children when there are already several. For these acts there is an excuse like that commonly to be made for killing the sick and old. When, concerning the desertion of aged people by wandering prairie tribes, Catlin says — "it often becomes absolutely necessary in such cases that thej should be left, and they uniformly insist upon it, saying, as this old man did, that they are old and of no further nse, that they left their fathers in the same manner, that ther wish to die, and their children must not mourn for them"— when, of the Nasoopies^ Heriot tells us that in his old age 'Hhe father usually employed as his executioner, the son who is most dear to him " — ^rv'hen, in Kane, we read of the THE STATUS OF CDILDBBN. 769 Assineboine chief who ''killed his own mother,'* becansej being " old and feeble/' she '* asked him to take pity on her and end her misery"; there is suggested the conclasion that as destruction of the ill and infirm may lessen the total amount of suffering to be borne under the conditions of savage life, so may the destruction of infants, when the region is barren or the mode of life so hard that the rearing of many is impracticable. And a like plea may be urged in mitigation of judgment on savages who sell or barter away their children: the needs of the younger ones possibly, in some cases, prompting this sacrifice of the elder.
Generally, then, among uncivilized peoples, as among animals, instincts and impulses are the sole incentives and deterrents. The stattis of a primitive man's child is like that of a bear's cub. There is neither moral obligation nor moral restraint; but there exists the unchecked power to foster, to desert, to destroy, as love or anger moves.
§ 331. To the yearnings of natural affection are added in early stages of progress, certain motives, partly personal, partly social, which help to secure the lives of children; but which, at the same time, initiate differences of static between children of different sexes. There is the desire to strengthen the tribe in war; there is the wish to have a future avenger on individual enemies; there is the anxiety to leave behind one who shall perform the funeral rites and continue oblations at the grave.
Inevitably the urgent need to augment the number of warriors leads to preference for male children. On read- ing of such a militant race as the Chechemecas, that they ''like much their male children, who are brought up by their fathers, but they despise and hate the daughters; " or of the Panches, that when " a wife bore her first girl child, they killed the child, and thus they did with all the girls bom before a male child; " we are shown the effect of this desire for sons; and everywhere we find it leading D D D 770 THS POMXSnC BSLATIOtrS.
eitiier to desisnctioii of dangliters, or to low estimation mi ill-treatment of them. Through long ascending stages of social Hfe the desire thns arising persists; aa instance tiie statement of Herodotus^ that every Persian prided himself on the number of his sons^ and it is eren said that an annml priase was given by the monarch to the Persian who could show most sons living. Obvionslj the social motive, thus ooming in aid of the parental motive^ served to raise ihe status of male children above that of female.
A reason for the care of sons implied in the passage of Ecclesiasticits which says^ ''he left behind him aa avenger against his enemies/' is a reason which has weighed with all races in barbarous and semi-civilized states. The sacred duty of blood-revenge^ earliest of recognised obligations among men^ survives so long as societies remain predomi- nantly warlike; and it generates an anxiety to have a male representative who shall retaliate upon those from whom injaries have been received. This bequest of quarrels to be fought out, traceable down to recent times among so-called Christi€»i8, as in the will of Brantdme, has of course all' along raised the value of sons, and has so put upon the h«rsh treatment of them, a check not put upon the harsh treatment of daughters: whence a further differentiation of status* The development of ancestor-worship, which, enjoining sacrifices to be made by eadi man at the tombs cf his immediate and more remote male progenitors, imjd^ anticipation of like sacrifices to his own ghost by hxs son, initiates yet another motive for cherishing sons— adds to the parental regard for diildren a feeling which t^s in favour of males rather than of females. The effects of €bis motive are at the present time shown us by the Chinese; among whom the death of an only son is especiany la- mented, because there will be no one to make offerings ai the grave, and among whom the peremptory need for a son hence arising, is held to justify the taking of a costcabine» THE STATUS OiT CHILDSXIT. 771 thongh^ ''if a person lias sons by his wife (for daughters never enter into the accoant) it is considered derogatory to take a handmaid at all/' Oa recalling Egyptian wall- paintings and papyri^ and the like evidence furnished by Assyrian records^ showing that sacrifices to ancestors were performed by their male descendant — on remembering, too, that among ancient Ayrans, Hindu, Greek, Roman, the daughter was incapable of this function, and that sons were, therefore, required for maintaining the family-cult; we are shown how this developed form of the primitive religion, while it strengthened filial subordination, added an incentive to parental care— of sons but not of daughters.
In brief, then, the relations of adults to young among human beings, originally Uke those among animals, began to assume higher forms under the influence of the several desires — to obtain an aider in fighting enemies, to provide an avenger for injuries received, and to leave behind one who should administer to welfare after death: motives which, strengthening as societies passed through their early stages, gradually gave a certain authority to the claims of male children, though not to those of females. And thus we again see how intimate is the connexion between miH* tancy of the men and degradation of the women.
§ 332. Here we are introduced to the question — ^what relation exists between tibte staitta of children and the form of social organization? To this the reply is akin to one given in the last chapter; namely, that mitigation of the treatment of children accompanies transition from the mili- tant type to the industrial type.
Those lowest social states in which o&pring are now idolized, now killed, now sold, as the dominant feding prompts, are everywhere the states in. which hostilities with surrounding tribes are chronic. This absolute dependence of progeny on parental will, is shown whether the militancy is that of archaic groups or that of groups higher in struc- 772 TH£ DOMESTIC BSIATIONS.
ture. In the Utter as in the former, there exists that lite and death power over children which is the negation of all rights and claims. On comparing children's staius in the rudest militant tribes, with their status in militant tribes which are patriarchal and compounded of the patriarchal, all we can say is that, in these last the still-surviving theory becomes qualified in practice; and that qualification of it increases as industrialism grows.
Ite Fijians, intensely despotic in government and fere- oious in war, furnish an instance of extreme abjectness in the position o£ children. Infanticide, especially of femaleS) reaches nearer two-thirds than one-half; they '* destroy their infants from mere whim, expediency, anger, or indolence "; and, according to Brskine, " children have been offered by the people of their own tribe to propitiate a powerful chief/' not for slaves but for food. A sanguinary warrior race of Mexico, the Chechemecas, yield another example of excessite parental power: sons " cannot marry without the consent of parents; if a young man violates this law « « « the penalty is death.'* By this instance we are reminded of the domestic condition among the Ancient Mexicans (largely composed of conquering cannibal Chechemecas), whose social organization was highly militaat in type, and of whom Clavigero says — 'Hheir children "Were bred to stand so mnch in awe of their parents, that even when grown up and married, they hardly durst speak before them." b Ancient Central America family rule was similar; and in Ancient Peru it was the law '^ that sons should obey and serve their fathers until they reached the age of twenty* five.'* If we now turn to the few cases of uncivilized and semi- civilized societies that are wholly industrial, or predominantly industrial, we find children, as we found women, occupying much higher positions. Among the peaceful Bodo and Dhimals, ''infanticide is utterly unknown;" daughters are treated ''with confidence and kindness;" and when THE STATUS OB" CHILDKKN. 778 marriages are being arranged, there is a ^^ consulting the destined bride:" to which add the reciprocal trait that ''it is deemed shameful to leave old parents entirely alone.'* The Djaks, ftg^in, largely industrial and having an unmili- tant social structure, yield the fact stated by Brooke, that "the practice of infanticide is rare," as well as the facts before named under another head, that children have the freedom implied by regular courtship, and that girls choose their mates. We are told of the Samoans, who are more industrial in social structure and habit than neighbouring Malayo-Polynesians, that infanticide after birth is unknown, and that children have the degree of independence implied by elopements when they, cannot obtain parental assent to their marriage. Similarly with the Negritos inhabiting the island of Tanna, where militancy is slight and there are no pronounced chieftainships: of them we read in Turner that ''the Tannese are fond of their children. No infanticide there. They allow them every indulgence, girls as well as boys.'' Lastly, there is the case of the industrious Pueblos, whose children were unrestrained in marriage, and by whom, as we have seen, daughters were especially privileged.
Thus with a highly militant type there goes extreme subjection of children, and the status of girls is still lower than that of boys; while in proportion as the type becomes non-militant, there is not only more recognition of children's claims, but the recognized claims of boys and girls approach towards equality. ' § 883. Kindred evidence is supplied by those societies which, passing through the patriarchal forms of domestic and political government, have evolved into large nations. Be the race Turanian, Semitic, or Aryan, it shows us the same connexion between political absolutism over subjects and domestic absolutism over children.
In China the destruction of female infants is common; "parents sell their children to be slaves"; in marriage "the 774 THS DOMESTIC SELATIOKS.
parents of tho girl always demand for their child a price''; and ''forced marriages often produce the moat tragic n- suits." " A union prwnpted aolelj hy kve would be a monstroua infraction of the duty of filial obedience, and a predilection on the part of a female as heinous a crime as infidelity/' " Their maxim is^ that^ as the Emperor should haye the care of a &ther for his people, a father should hare the power of a soyereign oyer his family/' Meanwhile it is obaeryable that this legally-unlimited paternal power de- scending from militant times, and persistingf along with tbe militant type of social structure, has eome to be qualified b practice by sentiments which the industrial type fosters: infanticide, reprobated by proclapoation, is excused oslj on the plea of poyerty, joined with the need for rearing a msk child; and public opinion puts checks on the actions of those who purchase children. With that militant t^ of social structure which, during early wars, became higUj deyeloped among the Japanese, similarly goes great S&i subjection. Mitford, qualifying preyious statements, adnuts that needy people '^sell their children to be waitresses, singers, or prostitutes;^' and Sir Rutherford Alcock sap that '^ parents, too, haye undoubtedly in some cases, if not in all, tiie power to sell their children.** It maj be added m that the subordination of young to old irrespectiye of sex, i» greater than the subordination of females to males; br abject as is the slayery of wife to husband, yet, after his death, the widow's power "oyer the son restores the Mance and redresses the wrong, by placing woman, as the mother, far aboye man, as the son, whateyer his age or rank.** ^^ the like holds among the Chinese.
How among the primitrye Semites the father exercised capital jurisdiction, and how along wiHi this there went a lower 9tatti8 of girls than of boys, needs no proof. But as further indicating the parental and filial relation, I in&7 name the fact that children were considered so much the property of the father, that they wore seized for his debts THK STATUS OF CfilLDRSK. 775 (2 Kmgs iv. i.; Job xidv. 9); also the fact that selling of daughters was authorized (Exodus xxi. 7); also the fact that injunctions respecting the treatment of children re- feorred exdosivelj to paternal benefit: as instance the reasons given in Eeclesiasiicus, chap, zxx.^ for chastisement of sons; and the further fact that in Deuteronomy txx. 18, stoning to death is the appointed punishment of a rebellious son. Though some qualification of paternal absolutism arose during the later settled stages of the Hebrews, yet along with persistence of the militant type of government there continued extreme filial subordination.
Atreacty in the chapter on the Family, when treating of the Bomans as illustrating both the social and domesiie organization possessed by the conquering Aryans during their spread into Europe, something has been implied re- specting the staJtua of children among them. In the wox^ of Mommsen, relatively to the father, '^ all in the household were destitute of legal rights — ^the wife and child no less than the bullock or the slave.'' He might expose his children: the religions prohibition which forbade it '' so fiur as concerned all the sons — deformed births excepted — and at least the first daughter,'' was without civil sanction. He ''had the right and duty of exercising over them judicial powers, and of punishing them as he deemed fit, in lif^ and limb." He might also sell his child. It remains to say that the same implied development of industrialness which we saw went along with improvement in the position of women during the growth of the Roman Empire, went along with improvement in the position of children. I may add that in Greece there were allied jnanifestations of paternal absolutism: a man could bequea& his daughter, as he could also his wife.
§ 334. If, again, we compare the early states of existmg European peoples, characterized by chronic militancy, witifai their later states, characterized by a militancy that had 776 THE DOMESTIC EEULTIONS.
become less constant and diffused, while industrialism lud grown, differences of like significance meet us.
We have the statement of Gsssar concerning the Celts d (rani, that fathers '^ do not permit their children to ap- proach them openly until they have grown to manhood." In the Merovingian period a father could sell his child, as could also a widowed mother — a power which continued down to the ninth century or later. Under the decayed feudal state which preceded the French Bevolation domestic subordination, especially among the aristocracy, was still such that Chateaubriand says — *' my mother, my sister, and myself, transformed into statues by my father's presence, only recover ourselves after he leaves the room;" and Taine, quoting Beaumarchais and Bretonne, indicates that this rigidity of paternal authority was general. Then, after the Revolution, de S6gur writes: — " Among our good fore- fathers a man of thirty was more in subjection to the head of the family than a child of eighteen is now.'^ Our own history furnishes kindred evidence. Describing the manners of the fifteenth century, Wright says:— ''Young ladies, even of great families, were brougbt up not only strictly, but even tyrannicaUy. * * * The parental authority was indeed carried to an almost extravagant extent.*' Down to the seventeenth century, ''children stood or knelt in trembling silence in the presence of their fathers and mothers, and might not sit without permission.*' The literature of even the last cen- tury, alike by the deferential use of "sir" and "madam" in addressing parents, by the authority parents assumed in arranging marriages for their children, and by the extent to which sons and still more daughters, recognized the duty of accepting the spouses chosen, shows us a persistence of filial subordination proportionate to the politi&l subordina- tion. And then, since the beginning of this century, along with the immense development of industrialism and the correlative progress towards a freer type of social organiza- TH£ STATUS OF CHILDBBN. 777 tioiij there has gone a marked increase of javenile freedom; as shown by a greatly moderated parental dictation^ by a mitigation of panishments^ and by that decreased formality of domestic intercourse which has accompanied the chang- ing of fathers from masters into friends.
Differences having like meanings are traceable between the more militant and the less militant European societies as now existing. Along with the relatively-developed indus- trial type of political organization in England^ there goes a less coercive treatment of children than in France and Germany^ where industrialism has modified the political organizations less. Joined with great fondness for^ and much indulgence of^ the youngs there is in France a closer supervision of them^ and the restraints on their actions are both stronger and more numerous: girls at home are never from under maternal control^ and boys at school are subject to military discipline. Add to which that parental oversight of marriageable children still goes so far that little oppor- tunity is afforded for choice by the young people them- selves. In Germany^ again, there is a stringency of rule in education allied to the political stringency of rule. As writes a German lady long resident in England, and ex- perienced as a teacher, — *^ English children are not tyran- nized over — they are guided by their parents. The spirit of independence and personal rights is fostered. I can therefore understand the teacher who said he would rather teach twenty German [children] than one English child — I understand him, but I do not sympathize with him. The German child is nearly a slave compared to the English child; it is therefore more easily subdued by the one in authority.'* Lastly come the facts that in the United States, long characterized by great development of the industrial organi- zation little qualified by the militant, parental government has become extremely lax, and girls and boys are nearly on a par in their positions: the independence reached being 778 THE DOMESTIC BBLATHni8.
siigIl that yomig ladies often fona their own <nii:l6a of acquaintance and cany on their intimacies without lei or hindrance from their fathers and motibien.
§ 335. As was to be anticipated^ we thus find a series of changes in the ttatus of children parallel to the smes of changes in the status of women.
In archaic societies^ withont law and halving customs ex- tending over bat some parts of life, there are no limits to the powers of parents; and the passions, daily exercised is conflict with brutes or men, are restrained in the relations to cAspring only by the philoprogenitive instinct.
Early the needs for a companion in arms, for an avenger, and presently for a performer of sacrifices, add to tbe fatherly feeling other motives, personal and social, tending to give something like a status ix> male children; M leaving female children still in the same position as are the young of brutes.
These relations of father to son and daughter, arising in advanced groups of. the archaic type, and becoming more settled where pastoral life originates the patriarcbal group, continne to characterize societies that remain pre- dominantly militant, whether evolved from the patriarchal group or otherwise: victory and defeat, which express tiie outcome of militant activity, having for their correlatives despotism and slavery in military organization, in political organization, and in domestic organization.
The status of children, in common with that of women, rises in proportion aa the compulsory co-operation dm- racterising militant activities, becomes qualified by ike voluntary co-operation characterizing industrial activities. We see this on comparing tiie most militant uncivilised peoi^es wi& others that are less militant; we see it oa comparing the early militant states of existing nations wiib their later more industrial states; we see it on comparing nations that are now relatively militant with those that are THE STATUS OF CHILDEBN. 779 now relatively industrial. And we are especially shown it by the fact that in primitive uncultured societies which are exceptionally peaceful^ the status of children is exceptionally high.