Edward Westermarck opens his comprehensive study by establishing sociology as an empirical science that must treat social phenomena with the same systematic rigor as organic nature. Rejecting the prevailing anthropological dogmas of his era, which assumed that early human societies lived in states of unrestricted sexual communism, Westermarck argues that marriage is a primordial institution deeply rooted in the biological necessities of the species. Through extensive comparative analysis of both animal behavior and human ethnography, he traces the roots of marriage back to the fundamental requirements of parental care and the protection of offspring.
The central argument rests on the proposition that because human infants experience a uniquely prolonged period of dependency, the continuous presence and cooperation of both parents—or at least the protective role of the father—was an absolute prerequisite for survival in ancestral times. Westermarck systematically dismantles the hypothesis of primitive promiscuity advanced by scholars like Bachofen, McLennan, and Morgan. He demonstrates that alleged survivals of group marriage, such as the classificatory systems of relationship or customs granting temporary rights to guests and rulers, are frequently misinterpreted and do not point to a universal stage of communism in women.
A significant portion of the inquiry is devoted to the psychology of jealousy and the near-universal human demand for sexual exclusivity and female chastity. Westermarck argues that male jealousy and the deep-seated aversion to incest are natural instincts shaped by natural selection rather than artificial constructs of advanced civilization. By examining the customs surrounding courtship, the prohibition of marriage between near kin, and the various forms of marital unions from monogamy to polygyny and polyandry, the author constructs a robust framework for understanding how social institutions evolved.
Ultimately, the work concludes that monogamous and durable unions are the most natural and prevalent forms of human marriage, closely linked to the progressive elevation of women's status and the refinement of altruistic emotions. Westermarck's rigorous methodology and vast accumulation of cross-cultural evidence reshaped the anthropological landscape, providing a durable counterweight to theories of social evolution that derived human institutions from hypothetical stages of unbridled license.
