Note 546 — Chapter IV · RISE OF THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT

Of course, Spencer's reply to McLennan, already mentioned, is most important; and his argument has not been overthrown: Principles of Sociology, I, 652-56. Cf. Westermarck, Human Marriage, 388, who favors Spencer's view; and Grosse, Die Formen der Familie, 107, 108, who accepts coyness as a partial explanation, though he believes that the symbol of capture may also be due in some cases to the honor of having wives taken in war, while frequently it may represent in a realistic way the release of the woman from paternal authority and her subjection to the husband's power. Hellwald, Die mensch. Familie, 287 ff., rejects Spencer's explanation, regarding the forms of ceremonial rape as survivals of real capture, marking the transition to wife-purchase and the paternal system; and Lippert, Kulturgeschichte, II, 86 ff., 92 ff., holds a similar position.