Note 436 — Chapter III · THEORY OF THE ORIGINAL PAIRING OR MONOGAMOUS FAMILY

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.