Note 554 — Chapter IV · RISE OF THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT

This fact is overlooked by McLennan, who, though maintaining that exogamy originates in wife-capture, still believes that the reduction of capture to a system is due to the influence of exogamy. Westermarck, op. cit., 389, makes the same oversight; though, of course, the horror of close intermarriage, in case of inability to purchase, might lead to the occasional breach of custom in the form of wife-stealing.