婚姻家庭演化的研究进展

我国学术界关于人类早期婚姻家庭的看法在很大程度上来自19世纪后期摩尔根等人类学家的看法。大致自摩尔根的时代以来,其他一些研究者提出了不同的看法:人类早年盛行非乱伦的群体内乱交,或者实行一夫多妻制,之后才演化出其他种种婚姻家庭制度;没有证据表明人类早期曾存在母权制的阶段,可用性选择理论解释父权制的起源和演化。但应该意识到,人类早年的包括婚姻家庭在内的社会组织形式并没有留下很多实物证据供后人考察,学术界就此提出的种种观点通常都带有较强的猜测性质。

The Chinese academia's viewpoints about early human⁃kind's marriage and family come,to a large extent,from the anthropolo⁃gists such as Levis Morgan in the late 19th century.Roughly since Mor⁃gan's era,some other researchers put forth different opinions:early hu⁃mans were promiscuous(not of incest)or polygamous,and subsequently other marriage systems evolved out.There is no evidence for a stage of matriarchy in early humans,and the origin and evolution of patriarchy can be explained by sex selection theory.But it should be noted that the forms of social organization such as marriage and family have not left much material evidence for us,and various viewpoints about these forms usually are rather speculative.