Buddhist India c8.3

c8.3

We have learnt in recent years that among primitive peoples all over the world there exist restrictions as to the *connubium* (the right of intermarriage), and as to *commensality* (the right of eating together). Customs of endogamy and exogamy, that is, of choosing a husband or wife outside a limited circle of relationship, and inside a wider circle, were universal. A man, for instance, may not marry in his own family, he may marry within his own clan, he may not marry outside the clan. Among different tribes the limits drawn were subject to different customs, were not the same in detail. But the limits were always there. There were customs of eating together at sacred tribal feasts from which foreigners were excluded;