Fights took place over these cases between the girl's
relatives--both male and female--and those of the man. The
women were generally the most excited; they would stir up
the men and then assist with their yamsticks. If the girl
was first caught by other than her own relatives, she would
be abused by all the men; but this never occurred when her
parents or brothers were present to protect her.[226]
When we consider the difficulties in the way of young men in getting
wives at home, we should expect that they would make a practice of
capturing women from other tribes; and, indeed, it is well known that
marriage by capture has been assumed to be at the base of exogamy by
both Lubbock and Spencer. But the importance which has been attached
to this form of marriage in the literature of sociology is due to
the fact that these eminent writers have constructed theories on the
assumption that marriage by capture was widespread and important,
more than to anything else. For, to say nothing of the fact that the
theories of both these writers are too weak to stand even if capture
were found to be very prevalent, the evidence from Australia shows
that capture was comparatively little practiced there, although that
country affords most of the examples referred to by writers on this
subject.
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