Note 43 — Chapter V
Reading edition
Tylor’s theory of exogamy. 10. All these theories, it will be observed, base exogamy more or less on the abhorrence of incest. Dr. Tylor,43 on the other hand, represents it as a means by which “a growing tribe is enabled to keep itself compact by constant unions between its spreading clans.” That exogamy may have been a valuable means of advancing political influence is true enough, but, as Dr. Westermarck objects, it does not account for the cases in which inter-tribal cohabitation was repressed by the most stringent penalties, even by death.44