Evolution of the Japanese


Show Summary

The Japanese family is a maze of "nominality." Full-grown young men and women are adopted as sons and daughters, in order to maintain the family line and name. A son is not a legal son unless he is so registered, while an illegitimate child is recognized as a true son if so registered. A man may be the legal son of his grandmother, or of his sister, if so registered. Although a family may have no children, it does not die out unless there has been a failure to adopt a son or daughter, and an extinct family may be revived by the legal appointment of someone to take the family name and worship at the family shrine. The family pedigree, therefore, does not describe the actual ancestry, but only the nominal, the fictitious. There is no deception in this. It is a well-recognized custom of Old Japan.2

2Gulick, S.L.n/an/an/an/a, , 214–215 (Fleming H. Revell & Company. By permission).

Related Resources

None available for this document.

Download Options


Title: Evolution of the Japanese

Select an option:

*Note: A download may not start for up to 60 seconds.

Email Options


Title: Evolution of the Japanese

Select an option:

Email addres:

*Note: It may take up to 60 seconds for for the email to be generated.

Chicago: Evolution of the Japanese in Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, ed. Thomas, William I. (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1937), Original Sources, accessed April 18, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=WKY5EX3CH2UK7HX.

MLA: . Evolution of the Japanese, in Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, edited by Thomas, William I., New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1937, Original Sources. 18 Apr. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=WKY5EX3CH2UK7HX.

Harvard: , Evolution of the Japanese. cited in 1937, Primitive Behavior: An Introduction to the Social Sciences, ed. , McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York. Original Sources, retrieved 18 April 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=WKY5EX3CH2UK7HX.