[432] For instance, SPENCER, _Principles of Sociology_, I, 672, 688.
[433] See the enumeration of polygynous peoples in WESTERMARCK, _op. cit._, 431-35; SPENCER, _op. cit._, I, 682, 683; WAKE, _Marriage and Kinship_, 181 ff.; MASON, _Woman's Place in Primitive Culture_, 222 ff.
[434] HELLWALD, _Die mensch. Familie_, 366 ff.; GROSSE, _Die Formen der Familie_, 104 ff.
[435] See the lists of monogamous peoples in WESTERMARCK, _op. cit._, 435-38; and compare DARWIN, _Descent of Man_, 591; POST, _Familienrecht_, 73; LETOURNEAU, _L'évolution du mariage_, chap. xi; and especially GROSSE, _Die Formen der Familie_, as above summarized, chap. ii.
[436] SARASIN, _Die Weddas von Ceylon_, I, 457-75. These investigators, sustaining Westermarck's view of social evolution, regard the monogamy of the Veddahs as a typical primitive institution. Of course, as KOHLER, _Zur Urgeschichte der Ehe_, 10 ff., 14 ff., urges against Westermarck and the Sarasin brothers, the accumulation of a great number of examples of peoples among whom monogamy prevails does not necessarily constitute proof of the original condition of man. It is possible, for example, that the Veddahs are far advanced beyond their former condition, or, conversely, that they are a degraded race. Still the existence of these examples of the single pairing family among barbarous and savage men, as well as those found among the anthropoid mammals, puts the burden of proof on the other side. At any rate, it must not be lightly assumed that this kind of evidence has been used more critically by the adherents of the theory of promiscuity than by those who take the opposite view.
Where polygyny exists it is sometimes the chiefs alone who are "permitted to have a plurality of wives." Besides, just as in the case of polyandry, "almost everywhere it is confined to a very small part of the people, the majority being monogamous." It is so "among all Mohammedan peoples, in Asia and Europe, as well as in Africa." Ninety-five per cent. of the Mohammedans of India, for instance, are said to be monogamists; and in Persia, it is reported, only "two per cent. of the population enjoy the questionable luxury of a plurality of wives." Among the American aborigines monogamy is the rule. Although polygyny widely exists among them, seldom are more than two wives found.[437] Indeed the numerical proportion of the sexes throughout the world renders it impossible for polygyny to become the general practice.[438]