Note 33 — Chapter I · THE PATRIARCHAL THEORY

The marriage of Jacob with Laban's daughters is the case in point. In "beena" marriage—the name given to the institution in Ceylon—"the young husband leaves the family of his birth and passes into the family of his wife, and to that he belongs as long as the marriage subsists. The children born to him belong, not to him, but to the family of their mother. Living with, he works for, the family of his wife; and he commonly gains his footing in it by service. His marriage involves usually a change of village; nearly always (where the tribal system is in force) a change of tribe—so that, as used to happen in New Zealand, he may be bound even to take part in war against those of his father's house; but always a change of family. The man leaves father and mother as completely as, with the patriarchal family prevailing, a bride would do; and he leaves them to live with his wife and her family. That this accords with the passage in Genesis will not be disputed." Patriarchal Theory, 42, 43. Nevertheless, in this case McLennan is certainly mistaken. We have here to do with that form of wife-purchase called "marriage by service;" see Lichtschein, Die Ehe, 10, 11; the argument of Wake, Marriage and Kinship, 239-44; and Friedrichs, Familienstufen und Eheformen, ZVR., X, 207, 208. "Beena" marriage existed, however, among other Semitic peoples and possibly also among the Hebrews: Smith, Kinship and Marriage, 108, 175-78, 146. It is found also in Africa and in many other places: Wake, op. cit., 149, 299-301; McLennan, op. cit., 43; Westermarck, Human Marriage, 109, 389-90; Tylor, On a Method of Investigating Institutions, 246 ff.; Starcke, op. cit., 78; Hellwald, Die mensch. Familie, 255, 266.