The Position of Woman in Primitive Society Part 15

It now remains to consider a new field of inquiry; and that is the abundant evidence of mother-right to be found in folk-lore, in heroic legends, and in the fairy-stories of our children. There is a special value in these old-world stories, that date back to a time long before written history. They belong to all countries in slightly different forms. We have regarded them as fables, but there was never a fable that did not arise out of truth--not, of course, the outside truth of facts, but from that inward truth of the life and thought of a people, which is what really matters. I cannot, then, do better than conclude the evidence for the mother-age by referring to some few of these myths and legends.

In order to group the great ma.s.s of material I will take first the creation myths. One only out of many examples can be given. The Zuni Indians, who, it will be remembered, are a maternal people, give this account of the beginning of the world. We read how the Sun-G.o.d, withdrawing strength from his flesh, impregnated the great waters, until there arose upon them, waxing wide and weighty, the "Fourfold Mother-earth" and the "All-covering Father-sky."

"From the lying together of these twain, upon the great world water, so vitalising, life was conceived, whence began all beings of the earth, men and creatures, in the four-fold womb of the world. Thereupon the Earth-mother repulsed the Sky-father, growing big and sinking deep into the embrace of the waters below, thus separated from the Sky-father, in the embrace of the waters above." The story states, "Warm is the Earth-mother and cold the Sky-father, even as woman is warm and man is cold." Then it goes on, "'So is thy will,' said the Sky-father, 'yet not alone shalt thou helpful be unto our children';" and we learn how the Sky-father a.s.sisted the Earth-mother. "Thus in other ways, many diversed, they worked for their offspring."[230]

[230] Cushing, _Zuni Creation Myths_.

There is one reflection only I desire to offer on this most beautiful maternal version of the creation legend. Here we find complete understanding of the woman's part; she is the one who gives life; she is the active partner. The Sky-father is represented as her agent, her helper. Why should this be? Contrast this idea with the patriarchal creation story of the Bible.

"And the Lord G.o.d said, It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.... And the Lord G.o.d caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof: and the rib which the Lord G.o.d had taken from the man made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And the man said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."[231]

[231] Gen. ii, 18, 21-23.

I would again a.s.sert my strong belief that in the religious conception of a people we find the true thoughts and the customs of the period in which they originated. A patriarchal people could not have given expression to a creation myth in which the female idea prevailed, and the mother, and not the father, was dominant. For men have ever fashioned the G.o.ds in their own human image, endowing them with their thoughts and actions. The sharp change in the view of woman's part in the relationship of the s.e.xes is clearly symbolised in these creation myths. Yes, it marks the degradation of woman; she has fallen from the maternal conception of the feminine principle, guiding, directing, and using the male, to that of the woman made for the man in the patriarchal Bible story.

Another group of legends that I would notice refer to the conflict between the right of the mother and that of the father in relation to the children. These stories belong to a period of transition. In ancient Greece, as we have seen, the paternal family succeeded the maternal clan. In his _Orestia_, aeschylus puts in opposition before Pallas Athene the right of the mother and the right of the father.

The chorus of the Eumenides, representing the people, defends the position of the mother; Apollo pleads for the father, and ends by declaring, in a fit of patriarchal delirium, that _the child is not of the blood of the mother_. "It is not the mother who begets what is called her child; she is only the nurse of the germ poured into her womb; he who begets is the father. The woman receives the germ merely as guardian, and when it pleases the G.o.ds, she preserves it." Plato also brings forward this view, and states that the mother contributes nothing to the child's being. "The mother is to the child what the soil is to the plant; it owes its nourishment to her, but the essence and structure of its nature are derived from the father." Again the Orestes of Euripides takes up the same theory, when he says to Tyndarus: "My father has begotten me, and thy daughter has given birth to me, as the earth receives the seed that another confides to it."

Here we trace a different world of thoughts and conceptions; the mother was so little esteemed as to be degraded into the mere nourisher of the child. These patriarchal theories naturally consecrated the slavery of woman.[232]

[232] McLennan, _Studies_, "Kinship in Ancient Greece"; Letourneau, _Evolution of Marriage_, pp. 336-337, and Starcke, _The Primitive Family_, pp. 115-116.

Another point strikingly ill.u.s.trated by many of these ancient legends is the struggle for power between the two s.e.xes--a struggle that would seem to have been present at all stages of civilisation, but always most active in periods of transition. One out of many examples is all that I can give. In Hawaii, worship is given to the G.o.ddess Pele, the personification of the volcano Kilauea, and the G.o.d Tamapua, the personification of the sea, or rather, of the storm which lashes the sea and hurls wave after wave upon the land. The myth tells that Tamapua wooed Pele, who rejected his suit, whereupon he flooded the crater with water, but Pele drank up the water and drove him back into the sea.[233]

[233] Starcke, pp. 249-250, citing Bachofen's _Antiquarische Briefe_, Vol. I, p. 140.

Here a brief digression into the early mythologies may be made, although this question of the connection between mother-right and religious ideas is one on which I have already enlarged. The most primitive theogony is that of Mother-Earth and her son. G.o.ddesses are at first of greater importance than G.o.ds. The Earth-mother springs from chaos, and in the beginning her children have no father.[234]

Traces of such a G.o.ddess are to be found in many ancient religions.

Afterwards as a modification, or rather a development, of the Earth-mother, we have the G.o.ddesses of fertility. This idea arose with the development of agriculture, and was closely connected in the primitive mind with the s.e.x functions. Demeter is of this type; and there are many of these mother-deities who once were universally worshipped. Virgin G.o.ddesses are a much later creation, and must be connected with the patriarchal ideals for women. The original G.o.d-idea symbolised as woman is the free mother; she is the source of all fertility; she is the G.o.ddess of love. The servants of these G.o.ddesses were priestesses, or at a later date men dressed as women. At first the G.o.ds, in so far as they had any existence, appear in the form of temporary lovers of the G.o.ddesses; they are very plainly the transitory male element needful for fertilisation, and then destined to disappear.[235] We find very early the brother as the husband and dependent of the Mother-G.o.ddess. Thus Isis did not change or lose her independent position after her marriage to her brother Osiris; her importance as a deity remained always greater than his.[236] Only at a much later stage--the patriarchal stage--was the wandering lover-G.o.d or dependent brother-spouse raised to the position of authority of the All-Father. We may find in the religious s.e.xual festivals, common to all civilisations, abundant confirmation of these facts. As one ill.u.s.tration out of many that might be chosen, I will refer to the account given by Prof. K. Pearson[237] of the festival of Sakaes, held in Babylon in honour of the great G.o.ddess Mylitta, who was essentially a mother-G.o.ddess of fertility. The festival lasted for five days in the month of July. It was presided over by the priestess of the G.o.ddess, who represented the G.o.ddess herself. She sat enthroned on a mound which for the time was the sanctuary of the deity, with the altar with oil and incense before her. To her came the G.o.d-lover represented by a slave, who made homage and worshipped. From her he received the symbols of kingly power, and she raised him to the throne by her side. As her accepted lover and lord of the festival, he remained for five days, during which the law of the G.o.ddess prevailed.

Afterwards on the fifth day the G.o.d-lover was sacrificed on the pyre.

The male element had performed its function.

[234] K. Pearson, _Chances of Death_, Vol. II, Essays on the Mother-age Civilisation, etc. Many of the facts given in this chapter are taken from these illuminative essays.

[235] K. Pearson, _Ibid._, p. 102.

[236] _The Truth about Woman_, p. 198.

[237] _Ibid._, pp. 109-110.

I cannot leave this subject without emphasising the importance of these erotic-religious festivals, once of universal occurrence. They afford the strongest evidence of the early privileged position of women in the relationships between the two s.e.xes. It is, I think, impossible to avoid giving to this a matriarchal interpretation. For it is by contrasting the religious-s.e.x standpoints of the maternal and the paternal ideals that the inferior position of women under the later system can be demonstrated. Moreover, in much later periods, and even to our own day, we may yet find broken survivals of the old customs. Ill.u.s.trations are not far to seek in the common festivals of the people in Germany and elsewhere, and as I have myself witnessed them in Spain, a land which has preserved its old customs much more unchanged than is usual.[238] One example may be noted in England, which would seem to have a very ancient origin; it is given by Prof.

K. Pearson.[239] "The Roman _Lupercalia_ held on February 15 was essentially a worship of fertility, and the privileges supposed to be attached to women in our own country during this month--especially on February 14 and 29--are probably fossils of the same s.e.x-freedom."

[238] See _Spain Revisited_, and _Things Seen in Spain_.

[239] _Ibid._, p. 158.

Pa.s.sing again to the old legends, we find not a few that attempt to account for both the rise and the decline of the custom of maternal descent. I will give an example of each. Newbold relates that in Menangkabowe, where the female line is observed, it is accounted for by this legend--

"Perpati Sabatang built a magnificent vessel, which he loaded with gold and precious stones so heavily that it got aground on the sands at the foot of the fiery mountains, and resisted the efforts of all the men to get it off. The sages were consulted, and declared that all attempts would be in vain until the vessel had pa.s.sed over the body of a pregnant woman. It happened that the Rajah's own daughter was in the condition desired; she was called upon to immolate herself for the sake of her country, but refused. At this juncture the pregnant sister of the Rajah boldly stepped forward, and cast herself beneath the prow of the vessel, which instantly put itself in motion, and again floated on the waves without injury to the princess. Whereupon the Rajah disinherited the offspring of his disobedient daughter in favour of the child of his sister, and caused this to be enrolled in the records of the empire as the law of succession in time to come."[240]

[240] Newbold, _Account of the British Settlements in the Straits of Malacca_, Vol. II, p. 221.

The second ill.u.s.tration is taken from the quarrel between Pallas Athene and Poseidon to which already I have referred. The myth tells us--

"A double wonder sprang out of the earth at the same time--at one place the olive tree and at another water. The people in terror sent to Delphi to ask what should be done.

The G.o.d answered that the olive tree signified the power of Athene, and the water that of Poseidon; and that it remained with the burgesses to choose after which of the two they would name their town. An a.s.sembly was called of the burgesses, both men and women, for it was then the custom to let the women take part in the public councils. The men voted for Poseidon, the women for Athene; and as there were more women than men by one, Athene conquered. Thereupon Poseidon was enraged, and immediately the sea flowed over all the lands of Athens. To appease the sea-G.o.d, the burgesses found it necessary to impose a threefold punishment on their wives. They were to lose their votes; the children were to receive no more the mother's name, and they themselves were no longer to be called after the G.o.ddess."[241]

[241] McLennan, _Studies_, "Kinship in Ancient Greece," p.

235.

The origin of these myths is perfectly clear. There is no reason to force their interpretation by regarding them as historical evidence of a struggle taking place between the maternal and the paternal custom of tracing descent;[242] rather they are poetical explanations, plainly invented to account for women's predominance at a time when such power had come to be considered as unusual. The same may be said of many of these old myths. Man's fancy begins to weave poetic inventions around anything he considers abnormal or is not able to understand. The idea or custom for which an explanation is being sought must, however, have been present for long in the common life and thought of the people. Without realising this, all these old stories become unintelligible. I believe they have been greatly misinterpreted in the thought of writers bound by patriarchal ideas.

[242] This is done by Bachofen, and also, to some extent, by McLennan.

The limitation of my s.p.a.ce does not allow me to enter into the great amount of evidence provided by these mythical stories of the privileged position of women. One instance, however, may be referred to as an ill.u.s.tration. We find a wide range of stories connected with the mythical Amazons. Now, if I am right, the frequency of these legends among so many races points to the acceptance of the Amazon heroines as an historical fact. Fancy, without doubt, wove the details of their stories, occurrences would be chosen or imagined to give colour to the narratives, but such poetic inventions, with all their repet.i.tions, all their reproductions of what is practically one situation, would take only definite form from conditions so impressed on the popular mind by facts that must have had a real existence.

Bearing this in mind, special significance attaches to a discovery recently made by Prof. d'Allosso. In the ancient necropolis of Belmonte, dating from the iron age, are two very rich tombs of women warriors with war chariots over their remains. Prof. d'Allosso states that several details given by Virgil of the Amazon Camilla, who fought and died on the field of battle, coincide with the details on these tombs. The importance of this discovery is thus very great, as it certainly seems to indicate what I am claiming--that the existence of the Amazon heroines, leaders of armies and sung by the ancient poets, is not a poetic fancy, but an historic reality.[243]

[243] See _The Truth about Woman_, p. 228.

I must turn now to the last group of evidence that I am able to bring forward; to find this we must enter that realm of fancy--the world of fairyland. We shall see that this land has its own customs, and its own laws, entirely at variance with all those to which we are accustomed. How is this to be explained? These stories are founded really on the life of the common people, and they have come down from generation to generation, handed on by the storytellers, from a time long before the day when they were ever collected and written in books. It is the popular and social character of these stories that is so important; they are records of customs and habits long forgotten, but once common in the daily life of the people. In them the past is potent with life, and for this reason they claim the most careful and patient study. I speak of the most familiar stories that we have regarded as foolish fables. Nowhere else can we gain so clear and vivid a picture of the childhood of civilisation, when women were the transmitters of inheritance and the guardians of property.

Let me try to prove this. I have before me a collection of these folk-stories, gathered from many countries. Now, the most popular story (whose theme occurs again and again, the details varied in the different renderings) is concerned with the gaining of a princess as a bride by a wooer, usually of humble birth. This lover to obtain his wife achieves some mighty deed of valour, or performs tasks set for him by the parents of the bride; he thus inherits the kingdom through the daughter of the king. Hans, faring forth to seek his luck; the Dummling in the Golden Goose story; the miller's son, who gained his bride by the wit of his cat, and Aladdin with his magic lamp are well-known examples of this story. The Scottish and Irish legends are particularly rich in examples of these hero lovers. a.s.sipattle, the dirty ash-lad, who wins the fair Gemdelovely and then reigns with her as queen and king, is one of the most interesting. Similar stories may be found in the folk-lore of every country. Ash-lad figures in many of the Norwegian tales. There is a charming version in the Lapp story of the "Silk Weaver and her husband," where we read, "Once upon a time a poor lad wooed a princess and the girl wanted to marry him, but the Emperor was against the match. Nevertheless she took him at last and they were wed together."[244]

[244] K. Pearson, _The Truth about Woman_, p. 70 _note_.

This "fairy theory" of marriage is really the maternal or _beenah_ form: such a marriage as was made by Jacob and is still common among all maternal peoples. The inheritance pa.s.ses through the daughters; the suitors gain their position by some deed of valour or by service done for the bride's family; sometimes it is the mother who sets the task, more often it is the father, while, in some cases, the girl herself imposes the conditions of marriage. It is possible to trace a development in these stories. We can see the growth of purchase-marriage in the service demanded by the parents of the bride, this taking the place of the earlier custom of the bridegroom proving his fitness by some test of strength. Again, those stories in which the arrangement of the marriage remains with the mother or with the girl, and not with the father, must be regarded as the older versions. This change appears also in the conditions of inheritance; in some cases the kingdom pa.s.ses at once with the bride, in others the half of the kingdom is the marriage portion, while in the later stories the full authority to rule comes only after the death of the king. But always sooner or later the daughter of the king conveys the kingdom to her husband. The sons of the king do not inherit; they are of much less importance than the daughters; they are sent forth to seek their own fortunes. This is the law where the inheritance pa.s.ses through the daughter.

This law of female inheritance must at one time have been universal.

We are brought, indeed, constantly back to that opinion--so amply evidenced by these folk-relics. In the old West country ballad "The Golden Vanity" or "The Lowland's Low," the boy who saves the ship from the Spanish pirate galleon is promised as a reward "silver and gold, with the skipper's pretty little daughter who lives upon the sh.o.r.e."

Similarly in the well-known folksong "The Farmer's Boy," the lad who comes weary and lame to the farmer's door, seeking work, eventually marries the farmer's daughter and inherits the farm. Again, d.i.c.k Whittington, the poor country lad, who faithfully serves his master in London, marries his employer's daughter. This theme is very frequently found in ballads, romances, and dramas; in all cases the way to fortune for the lover is through marriage--the daughter carries the inheritance.

Let us take a.s.sipattle of the Scottish legend as a type of these hero wooers. He is represented always as the youngest son, held in contempt by his brothers, and merely tolerated by his parents. He lies in the ashes, from which he gains his name. Some emergency arises; a great danger threatens the land or, more often, a princess has to be delivered from a position of peril. a.s.sipattle executes the deed, when his brothers and all others have failed; he frees the land or rescues the king's daughter, and is covered with honour. He marries the princess and inherits the kingdom. a.s.sipattle always begins in the deepest degradation, and ends on the highest summit of glory. There is a special interest in this story. The reader will not have failed to notice the similarity of a.s.sipattle with Cinderella. In both stories the circ.u.mstances are the same, only the Ash-lad has been replaced by the Cinder-girl. There is no doubt which version is the older:[245]

the one is the maternal form, the other the patriarchal.

[245] In this connection, see K. Pearson in the essay already quoted, p. 85 _et seq._

The setting of these stories should be noticed. We see the simplicity of the habits and life so vividly represented. All folk-legends deal with country people living near to nature. So similar, indeed, are the customs depicted throughout that these folk-records might well be taken as a picture of the social organisation among many barbarous tribes. I should like to wait to point out these resemblances, such, for instance, as the tendency to personify natural objects, the identification of human beings with animals and trees, found so often in the stories, as well as many other things--the belief in magic and the power of wise women. And what I want to make clear is the very early beginning of these folk-tales; they take us back to the social inst.i.tutions of the mother-age. Thus there is nothing surprising to find that kingdoms and riches are won by hero-lovers, and that daughters carry the inheritance. This is really what used to happen.

It is our individual ideas and patriarchal customs that make these things seem so strange.

I wish I had s.p.a.ce in which to follow further these still-speaking relics of a past, whose interest offers such rich reward. In his essay "Ashiepattle, or Hans seeks his Luck" (_The Chances of Death_, Vol.

II, pp. 51-91), Prof. Karl Pearson has fully and beautifully shown the evidence for mother-right to be found in these stories. To this essay the reader, who still is in doubt, is referred. All that has been possible to me is to suggest an inquiry that any one can pursue for himself. It is the difficulty of treating so wide and fascinating a subject in briefest outline that so many things that should be noticed have to be pa.s.sed over.

The witness afforded by these folk-stories for mother-right cannot be neglected. For what interpretation are we to place on the curious facts they record? Are we to regard this maternal marriage with descent through the daughter, and not the son, as idle inventions of the storytellers? Do these princesses and their peasant wooers belong to the topsy-turvy land of fairies? No: in these stories, drawn from so many various countries, we have echoes of a very distant past. It is by placing the customs here represented by the side of similar social conditions still to be found among primitive maternal peoples, that we find their significance. We then understand that these old, old stories of the folk really take us back to the age in which they first took form. We have read these "fairy stories" to our children, unknowing what they signified--a prophetic succession of witnesses, pointing us back to the ripening of that phase of the communal family, before the establishment of the individual patriarchal rule, when the law was mother-right, and all inheritance was through women.

I would add to this chapter a notice I have just recently lighted on[246] of the ancient warrior, Queen Meave of Ireland. She is represented as tall and beautiful, terrible in her battle chariot, when she drove full speed into the press of fighting men. Her virtues were those of a warlike barbarian king, and she claimed the like large liberty in morals. Her husband was Ailill, the Connaught king; their marriage was literally a partnership wherein Meave, making her own terms, demanded from her husband exact equality of treatment. The three essential qualities on which she insisted were that he should be brave, and generous, and completely devoid of jealousy.

[246] "Ancient Irish Sagas," _Century_, Jan. 1907.