elopement

• transition from marriage by capture

83:2.2Co­er­cion, not at­trac­tion, was the ap­proach to prim­i­tive mar­riage. In early times woman had no sex aloof­ness, only sex in­fe­ri­or­ity as in­cul­cated by the mores. As raid­ing pre­ceded trad­ing, so mar­riage by cap­ture pre­ceded mar­riage by con­tract. Some women would con­nive at cap­ture in or­der to es­cape the dom­i­na­tion of the older men of their tribe; they pre­ferred to fall into the hands of men of their own age from an­other tribe. This pseudo elope­ment was the tran­si­tion stage be­tween cap­ture by force and sub­se­quent court­ship by charm­ing.

83:2.3An early type of wed­ding cer­e­mony was the mimic flight, a sort of elope­ment re­hearsal which was once a com­mon prac­tice. Later, mock cap­ture be­came a part of the reg­u­lar wed­ding cer­e­mony. A mod­ern girl’s pre­ten­sions to re­sist “cap­ture,” to be ret­i­cent to­ward mar­riage, are all relics of olden cus­toms. The car­ry­ing of the bride over the thresh­old is rem­i­nis­cent of a num­ber of an­cient prac­tices, among oth­ers, of the days of wife steal­ing.

83:2.4Woman was long de­nied full free­dom of self-dis­posal in mar­riage, but the more in­tel­li­gent women have al­ways been able to cir­cum­vent this re­stric­tion by the clever ex­er­cise of their wits. Man has usu­ally taken the lead in court­ship, but not al­ways. Woman some­times for­mally, as well as covertly, ini­ti­ates mar­riage. And as civ­i­liza­tion has pro­gressed, women have had an in­creas­ing part in all phases of court­ship and mar­riage.