中国原始社会乱婚说质疑

本文从历史学和人类学的角度 ,重新审视了被众多学者用来证明中国原始社会存在乱婚或杂乱性交的有关古籍和神话传说 ,认为这些资料所反映的情形与人们所下的结论之间存在矛盾。古代学者由于受历史条件的限制 ,对远古先民的两性关系作出了错误的判断 ,而当代学者在用感生神话来解释“知母不知父”的现象时则带有先入为主的倾向 ,忽视了基本的历史事实。文章认为古籍和神话传说中“知母不知父”的现象并非是乱婚或杂乱性交的表现 ,而是反映了远古人类对性交和生育之间的关系缺乏基本的生理常识

Query of the Version of the Group Marriage and Promiscuity in China's Primitive Society

Viewing at angles of history and anthropology, this article reexamines the relevant ancient books and mythic legends that have been cited by scholars to prove the existence of group marriage and promiscuity in China's primitive society and holds that there are contradictions between what reflected by these materials and people's conclusions. Restricted by historical conditions, ancient scholars had made wrong judgement upon the sexual relations among the ancestry in remote antiquity,and affected by the tendency that first impressions are strongest, contemporary scholars' explanation of the phenomenon of "knowing mother, but not knowing father" with myths has neglected some basic historical facts. The article argues that the phenomenon of "knowing mother, but not knowing father" in ancient books and mythic legends were not the manifestation of group marriage and promiscuity, but a reflection that the human beings in remote antiquity were short of physiological elementary knowledge sexsual intercourse and child-bearing.