With regard to Sir J. Lubbock’s interpretation of these customs, as acts of expiation for individual marriage, Mr. McLennan remarks that they are not cases of privileges accorded to the men of the bridegroom’s group only, which they should be, if they refer to an ancient communal right.[383] It may also be noted that, in Nukahiva, the license was dependent upon the will of the bride. Moreover, the freedom granted to the wedding guests may be simply and naturally explained. It may have been a part of the nuptial entertainment—a horrible kind of hospitality, no doubt, but quite in accordance with savage ideas, and analogous to another custom, which occurs much more frequently; I mean the practice of lending wives.
Among many uncivilized peoples, it is customary for a man to offer his wife, or one of his wives, to strangers for the time they stay in his hut. Even this practice has been adduced by several writers as evidence of a former communism.[384] To Sir John Lubbock it seems to involve the recognition of “a right inherent in every member of the community, and to visitors as temporary members.” Were this so, we should certainly have to conclude that “communal marriage” has been very prevalent in the human race, the practice of lending wives occurring among many peoples in different parts of the world.[385] But it is difficult to see how the practice could ever have been in any way connected with communism in women for all men belonging to the same tribe. It is not always the wife that is offered; it may as well be a daughter, a sister, or a servant.[386] Thus the people of Madagascar warn strangers to behave with decency to their wives, though they readily offer their daughters;[387] and it is asserted that a Tungus “will give his daughter for a time to any friend or traveller that he takes a liking to,” and if he has no daughter, he will give his servant, but not his wives.[388]
It can scarcely be doubted that such customs are due merely to savage ideas of hospitality. When we are told that, among the coast tribes of British Columbia, “the temporary present of a wife is one of the greatest honours that can be shown there to a guest;”[389] or that such an offer was considered by the Eskimo “as an act of generous hospitality;”[390] or, that “this is the common custom when the negroes wish to pay respect to their guests,”[391]—I cannot see why we should look for a deeper meaning in these practices than that which the words imply. A man offers a visitor his wife as he offers him a seat at his table. It is the greatest honour a savage can show his guest, as a temporary exchange of wives—a custom prevalent in North America, Polynesia, and elsewhere[392]—is regarded as a seal of the most intimate friendship. Hence, among the Greenlanders, those men were reputed the best and noblest tempered, who, without any pain or reluctance, would lend their friends their wives:[393] and the men of Caindu, a region of Eastern Tibet, hoped by such an offering to obtain the favour of the gods.[394] Indeed, if the practice of lending wives is to be regarded as a relic of ancient communism in women, we may equally well regard the practice of giving presents to friends, or hospitality in other respects, as a remnant of ancient communism in property of every kind.