Note (return) — SEX AND PRIMITIVE SOCIAL CONTROL

Numerous survivals of the older system are also found among the Hebrews. The servant of Abraham anticipated that the bride whom he was sent to bring for Isaac might be unwilling to leave her home, and the presents which he carried went to Rebekah's mother and brother.109 Laban says to Jacob, "These daughters are my daughters, and these children are my children;"110 the obligation to blood-vengeance rests apparently on the maternal kindred;111 Samson's Philistine wife remained among her people;112 and the injunction in Gen. 2:24, "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife," refers to the primitive Hebraic form of marriage.113 Where the matriarchate prevails we naturally find no prejudice against marriage with a half-sister on the father's side, while union with a uterine sister is incestuous. Sara was a half-sister of Abraham on the father's side, and Tamar could have married her half-brother Amnon,114 though they were both children of David; and a similar condition prevailed in Athens under the laws of Solon.115 Herodotus says of the Lycians: