祖先崇拝の意味
(だが)それと同時に、年配の女性(婦人)は、家庭内ではほぼ専制的な権力を行使することができた。彼女(年とった女性)の息子や嫁は、皆一つ屋根の下に住み、嫁は完全にその老婦人に従属していた。中国では、今日にいたるまで(注:本書『結婚論』の出版は1929年であり,ラッセルは1920年から1921年まで中国の北京大学の客員教授であった。)、若い嫁が姑による虐待によって自殺に追い込まれることが稀ではない。そして、いまだに中国で見られることは、ヨーロッパやアジアの文明化した地域の至るところで、ごく最近まで普遍的に見られたことにすぎない。イエス・キリストが、私が(この世に)やってきたのは,息子を父親に、嫁を姑に刃向かわせるためであると言った時、彼は極東で今なお見られる(見いだせる)、まさしくこういった家庭のことを考えていたのである。父親が最初に、自分の優れた力で獲得した権力は、宗教によって強化された。そして、宗教は、その大部分の形式において、神(gods 神々)は政府(Government 統治する者)の味方であるという信仰である、と定義できる。 祖先崇拝、あるいはそれに類似したものは、非常に広範囲に行われていた。キリスト教の宗教理念(思想)には、すでに見たように、父性の威厳が充満している。君主制や貴族制度の社会組織や相続制度は、どこを見ても、(男系の)世襲制度(paternal system)に基づいていた。古代では、経済的動機がこの制度をささえていた。創世記を見ると、男たちがどんなに多くの子孫をほしがっていたか、また、多くの子孫ができると、それがどんなに有利であったかがわかる。息子が殖えることは、羊や牛の群れが殖えることと同様に有利なことであった。それこそが,当時,エホバが人間に「産めよ! 増やせよ!」と命じた理由であった。 |
Chapter III Patriarchal SystemsFathers, having discovered the fact of their existence, proceeded everywhere to exploit it to the uttermost. The history of civilization is mainly a record of the gradual decay of paternal power, which reached its maximum, in most civilized countries, just before the beginning of historical records. Ancestor worship, which has lasted to our own day in China and Japan, appears to have been a universal characteristic of early civilization. A father had absolute power over his children, extending in many cases, as in Rome, to life and death. Daughters throughout civilization, and sons in a great many countries, could not marry without their fathers' consent, and it was usual for the father to decide whom they should marry. A woman had in no period of her life any independent existence, being subject first to her father and then to her husband. At the same time an old woman could exercise almost despotic power within the household; her sons and their wives all lived under the same roof with her, and her daughters-in-law were completely subject to her. Down to the present day in China it is not unknown for young married women to be driven to suicide by the persecution of their mothers-in-law, and what can still be seen in China is only what was universal throughout the civilized parts of Europe and Asia until very recent times. When Christ said he was come to set the son against the father and the daughter-in-law against the mother-in-law, He was thinking of just such households as one still finds in the Far East. The power which the father acquired in the first instance by his superior strength was reinforced by religion, which may in most of its forms be defined as the belief that the gods are on the side of the Government. Ancestor worship, or something analogous, prevailed very widely. The religious ideas of Christianity, as we have already seen, are impregnated with the majesty of fatherhood. The monarchic and aristocratic organization of society and the system of inheritance were based everywhere upon paternal system. In early days economic motives upheld this system. One sees in Genesis how men desired a numerous progeny, and how advantageous it was to them when they had it. Multiplication of sons was as advantageous as multiplication of flocks and herds. That was why in those days Yahveh ordered men to increase and multiply. |