The family though considered universal in nature found in all types and levels of societies and cultures, yet it is difficult to trace the origin. In the early years of the anthropological history the origin of family, how it emerged in society was much discussed and debated. Followers of the evolutionary theory were of the opinion that family as an institution has evolved just like the society. Lewis Henry Morgan in his work Ancient Society (1877) stated that in the early societies the concept of family was not prevalent. Such societies were nomads and promiscus where free sex relations were prevalent thus, the role of the father was not important and the mother-sib(mother and her own children) was the earliest form of grouping. He stated, ‘The principal institutions of mankind originated in savagery, were developed in barbarism, and are maturing in civilization. In like manner, the family has passed through successive forms, and created great systems of consanguinity and affinity which have remained to the present time. These systems, which record the relationships existing in the family of the period, when each system respectively was formed, contain an instructive record of the experience of mankind while the family was advancing from the consanguine, through intermediate forms, to the monogamian’ (1877:18). Though today, Morgan’s evolutinary scheme is not followed, his work is important as he gave the first classification of five forms of family based on five different types of marriage.
- 1) The Consanguine family : it was founded upon the intermarriage of brothers and sisters in a group. Evidence still remains in the oldest of existing systems of Consanguinity, the Malayan, tending to show that this, the first form of the family, was anciently as universal as this system of consanguinity which it created.
2) The Punaluan family its name is derived from the Hawaiian relationship of Punalua. It was founded upon the intermarriage of several brothers to each other’s wives in a group; and of several sisters to each other’s husbands in a group. But the term brother, as here used, included the first, second, third, and even more remote male cousins, all of whom were considered brothers to each other, as we consider own brothers; and the term sister included the first, second, third, and even more remote female cousins, all of whom were sisters to each other, the same as own sisters. This form of the family supervened upon the consanguine. It created the Turanian and Ganowanian systems of consanguinity. Both this and the previous form belong to the period of savagery. - 3) The Syndyasmian or pairing of family founded upon the marriage of single pairs, without giving the right of exclusive cohabitation to any person over the other. The term Syndyasmian is derived from syndyazo, meaning to pair. It was the germ of the Monogamian Family. Divorce or separation was at the option of both husband and wife. This form of the family failed to create a system of consanguinity.
- 4) The Patriarchal family comprising of marriage of one man to several wives, each wife being secluded from every other. The term is here used in a restricted sense to define the special family of the Hebrew pastoral tribes, the chiefs and principal men of which practised polygamy. It exercised but little influence upon human affairs for want of universality.
- 5) The Monogamian family was founded upon marriage between single pairs, with the married couple having exclusive cohabitation with one another is the essential of the institution. It is pre-eminently the family of civilized society, and was therefore essentially modern. This form of the family also created an independent system of consanguinity (Morgan, 1877: 40-41).
Thus, Morgan believed that family units became progressively smaller and more self-contained as human society developed. His postulated sequence for the evolution of the family, however, is not supported by the enormous amount of ethnographic data that has been collected since his time. For example, no recent society that Morgan would call savage indulges in group marriage or allows brother-sister mating.
Criticism : Westermarck (1853-1936) who had done a detailed study of the institution of marriage concluded that the family emerged due to male possessiveness and jealousy. In his work The History of Human Marriage (1922) he asserted that with the growing concept of property, males started the insititution of family to protect and safeguard their property. This theory was a direct criticism of Morgan’s theory wherein the origin of family was ascribed to the bonding of mother- sib. Westermarck though an adherent follower of evolutionism went a bit too far while postulating the origin of monogamy as he traced it to the mammals and the birds.