Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/296

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284 Rev i CIVS.

between members of tribal or caste groups on the condition that a man must take his wife from a group of equal or lower rank than his own, while a woman must marry a man from a group of equal or higher rank than her own. The distribution of hypergamy in India suggests that it was primarily a custom of the Rajputs, perhaps not merely the representatives of the old warrior caste, but also of the people in general in that part of India, including the Brahmans who were associated with the Rajputs : with few exceptions, wherever this institution is now found in India it is derived from the Rajputs. Dr. Rivers associates it with the interaction between an immigrant and an indigenous population, and its conditions were (l) the existence among the invaders of a sentiment against the union of their women with the indigenous inhabitants of their new home ; (2) the presence of a relatively large number of women of the invaders, though absolutely less in number than the men, this being due to the small distance of the place of settlement from the original source of migration ; and (3) the warlike charac- ter of the invaders and their superiority in equipment over the indigenous people, which allowed them to satisfy their own desire for union with the indigenous women without giving their own women in return.

Epilogomena to the Study of Greek Religion. By Jane Ellen Harrison, Hon. Litt.D., Hon. LL.D. Cambridge : The University Press. 1 921. Price 3s. 6d. net.

In this brochure Miss Harrison gives, as a supplement to her Avell-known studies on Greek Religion, the " Prolegomena " and ■" Themis," a summary of her admirable work continued for many years. It is divided into three parts : Primitive Ritual, Primitive Theology, The Religion of To-day. vShe discusses, in order, the ritual of riddance and induction ; totem, tabu and -exogamy ; initiation ceremonies ; the medicine-man and king- god ; the fertility play or year drama ; collective group- -emotion ; the biological function of theology ; asceticism. Anything Miss Harrison has to say on these subjects deserves respectful attention, and if this little book tempts students