From John Lubbock 25 March 1867
25 Mar. 67
My dear Mr. Darwin
I do not know whether you have read McLennans “Primitive marriage”.1
He refers the curious practise of Exogamy to the prevalence among certain tribes of female infanticide.
I should have thought that the objection to marriage between near relations might have had much to do with it.2
Can you tell me whether we have any evidence that any animals have an instinctive repugnance to breeding in sin.
Believe me always | Very sincerely | Yours | John Lubbock
C Darwin Esq
Footnotes
Bibliography
McLennan, John Ferguson. 1865. Primitive marriage: an inquiry into the origin of the form of capture in marriage ceremonies. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black.
OED: The Oxford English dictionary. Being a corrected re-issue with an introduction, supplement and bibliography of a new English dictionary. Edited by James A. H. Murray, et al. 12 vols. and supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1970. A supplement to the Oxford English dictionary. 4 vols. Edited by R. W. Burchfield. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1972–86. The Oxford English dictionary. 2d edition. 20 vols. Prepared by J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1989. Oxford English dictionary additional series. 3 vols. Edited by John Simpson et al. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1993–7.
Summary
Discusses the practice of exogamy; asks if any animals have an instinctive repugnance to inbreeding.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5459
- From
- John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- unstated
- Source of text
- DAR 170: 56
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5459,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5459.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 15
