D. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RITUAL (continued 2)

In the Ruku-Ruku[40] of the Fiji Islanders we find three gradations,—those of uninitiated youths, grown-up men, and old men. In the Purrah[41] there were two gradations, consisting respectively of those over thirty and of those over fifty years. In the Egbo[42] Society there are eleven degrees, into which membership may be purchased one after the other in an ascending scale. In Old Calabar[43] there are five classes.

In the Purrah we are dealing with an exceedingly intricate complex, in which military and judicial functions are quite prominent. The age factor seems secondary and artificial. In the Egbo there is no age factor at all. In the Ruku-Ruku an age factor exists. Owing to the social value of the Ruku-Ruku, all individuals seem to be potential members at birth. At the same time, the oldest members always have specific functions to perform. In this way two groups are formed. Those who do not belong to these two groups belong to the third group. All that can be said here is, that a society has utilized a rough age factor for specific purposes. That in reality the entire tribe is divided into three divisions, is due to the fact that all the members of the tribe are members of the society. This is therefore not a phenomenon that has any general significance in the evolution of society, but is purely and simply a phenomenon of certain secret societies. The threefold division is not due to a persistence of a former threefold division of the tribe, but grew out of the needs of a specific society. The same remarks hold for the twofold division of members in the Purrah. Similarly the four and eight degrees found among the Ojibwa Midewiwin are due to a development within the society. To-day practically all the members of the tribe belong to the Midewiwin, and the tribe may be said to be divided into four divisions. (However, in this case the main element, that of the association of a certain age with a certain degree, does not exist, because there is no fixed age at which a man buys admission into the higher degrees.)

It will consequently be necessary to determine the significance of degrees in each particular case before any general significance can be attached to them.

3. Exclusion of Women.—The admission of women into a society is, according to Schurtz, a secondary feature. This followed directly from his negative position with regard to women’s Geselligkeitstrieb, and from his assumption that societies were merely transformed men’s associations, which in turn were transformed age groups. The question of the Geselligkeitstrieb of women hardly lends itself to any accurate discussion, as, generally speaking, women have not been surrounded by those conditions which played an important part in developing that trait among men. In our own civilization, where men and women are to a certain extent subjected to the same conditions, a large number of women societies has developed, and large numbers of women have been admitted into men’s societies. Among us, this admission of women is due to the fact that they are now in the same industries that men are. However, there are manifold factors which can and do bring about the admission of women into men’s societies or their exclusion therefrom. The nature of some societies may exclude men, just as it may exclude women. A soldiers’ society will exclude women, because women are not soldiers. Similarly a sewing society will probably exclude men. The exclusion of women will therefore depend upon the specific functions of a society; but the right of women to participate in certain activities will again depend upon the manner in which each specific culture area separated the spheres of action of men and women.

The possibility of infinite variation must force upon us the conclusion that we can only begin to investigate the reasons for the exclusion or admittance of women when we have a clear understanding of the ideas each tribe possesses with regard to the specific functions of the men and women. This determination is in a large number of cases utterly impossible, because we are in no position to know whether the reasons now given are historically the true ones. If, for instance, in a men’s college fraternity women are debarred on the ground that the fraternity is interested in fencing, card-playing, etc., which are occupations of men, historically this is not the true reason. Originally fraternities were merely social gatherings of individuals who attended a college. There were no women students to admit. To-day, when women attend the colleges, wherever new fraternities arise, women are admitted. It is thus apparent, that, in the absence of historical evidence, we must be extremely careful in interpreting the reason for this exclusion.

In Melanesia, for example, women are entirely excluded from the societies. However, in Melanesia, societies are associated with a multitude of religious and social functions in which women are not permitted to participate. In other words, the Melanesians draw the line of demarcation between the activities of men and women along these lines. If, for instance, in the New Hebrides, women have nothing to do with the funeral and mortuary rites, and a secret society is intimately connected with such rites, then we ought not to be surprised that women are not admitted into the society. It seems to me, therefore, that we should make much better progress in our study of this phenomenon in Melanesia and in Polynesia, if we were first to examine whether either the conceptions of the tribe, or the nature of the specific society, or the cultural elements with which it was associated, debarred women from membership.

A few examples from Africa will emphasize this point even more forcibly, and at the same time indicate along what lines the respective spheres of men’s and women’s actions are drawn there. In the Purrah Society, women are excluded. The society has general war and judicial functions which do not come within the domain of women, according to the ideas of the tribe. In the Attonga Society[44] of Senegambia, only women are admitted, and the society is associated with mortuary rites. In the Dschengu we have another women society connected here with the cult of some water deity.[45] In the region around the mouth of the Ogowe there are a number of powerful women societies associated with various elements.[46]

If we now proceed to Schurtz’s contention, that women societies are merely imitations of men’s societies, we shall see that, as a general statement, this is as unjustified as is his interpretation that the admission of women into societies is a secondary feature. That it is true in a number of cases, is unquestioned. However, when, as in Africa, we see a very strong tendency for the formation of societies, and see at the same time a very large number of women societies, it seems far more justifiable to assume that the women societies are formed in response to the same tendencies as those of men. To judge from parallels in other parts of the world, it is extremely likely that women will form societies wherever men show a strong tendency to do so. A number of factors may, however, interfere with a development of such societies. For instance, it is quite plausible that where, as among the Melanesians, a strong society-forming tendency existed, and women did not participate in it, some strong reason existed which might perhaps be ascribed to the fact that women do not there participate in those rites that are almost universally associated with societies.

In North America there are numerous examples of women belonging to men’s societies. A cursory examination will bring out what were the possible factors at work there. In the Objibwa-Menominee Midewiwin, women are admitted. Now, in the Ojibwa-Menominee culture, women may become shamans as well as men, and the society based on shamans will naturally include both sexes. If there are fewer women than men, this is because fewer women become shamans. In the Winnebago Medicine Dance, wealth and certain requirements possessed by both men and women are the only essentials for admission; and both sexes can accordingly become members. In the present Sore-Eye Dance, women are admitted. Formerly the same society, known as the Night Dance, excluded women. The reason is very simple. Formerly, supernatural communication with the night spirits was essential for membership, and owing to the specific associations attached to these night spirits, women never obtained visions from them. When subsequently it was no more essential to have had a vision, and membership could be purchased by any one, women were admitted. Among the Blackfoot, women are part members of the religious society, because, according to Blackfoot ideas of property, the former have a part in the medicine-bundle of the man. The possession of the medicine-bundle is necessary for admission into the society.[47] It is thus apparent that the explanation for the exclusion of women from a society must lie in a large number of factors, not the least important of which is the nature of the specific ideas of property and the respective spheres of activity of men and women.

4. Functions of the Society.—Our analysis of the five ceremonies has clearly established the differences in the functions of the societies. To Schurtz these differences were due to developments from one historically primary function. His line of argument is a direct consequence of his assumption that secret societies have developed from the men’s associations.

If we glance at the West African, the Melanesian, the Polynesian, North American, and our own societies, we see that their functions are legion. Now, it can be demonstrated that where the whole or a large part of the tribe is included in a society, that society will possess many of the functions of the tribe, because individuals are primarily carriers of their culture, and secondarily members of a society; or, it might be better said that these two functions of an individual are so inextricably connected that they cannot be thought of apart. It can also be demonstrated that specific societies have associated with them a variety of functions. In each case we are dealing with the same phenomenon. The number of possible combinations is practically infinite. It is, however, a suggestive fact that certain functions of a society are distributed over large areas. In Melanesia, for instance, the most constant functions of societies seem to be those connected with mortuary rites and ancestor worship. In Africa, again, they are primarily judicial and administrative. In the case of our five North American ceremonies, they are religious and magical. For the latter our explanation lay in assuming that we were dealing there with a common cultural background. The same explanation holds true for Melanesia and Africa. In other words, societies, like all other social units in which an individual takes part, must necessarily associate themselves with the cultural background in which they are set.

5. Conclusion.—The study we have undertaken can only indirectly be considered an examination of Schurtz’s theories. What we have attempted is the analysis of a number of ceremonies, in order to discover what tendencies were operative in their growth. These examples, combined with others taken from the South Seas and Africa, have demonstrated clearly that there exist in the world certain general ideas that may associate themselves with any type of social and ceremonial organization. Ceremonies in origin historically distinct may thus come to possess general and often specific resemblances. It is consequently of extreme importance, in any scheme of social reconstruction, to determine first whether the common elements in the ethnological data compared are not due to such a convergent evolution.

FOOTNOTES: