[BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE V.--For the law and custom of divorce among uncivilized peoples the best analysis and the most painstaking classifications are given by Post in his _Entwicklungsgeschichte des Familienrechts_ and the first volume of his _Afrikanische Jurisprudenz_, supplemented by the more general notices contained in his various other writings. The subject is also well treated, with the usual minute citation of authorities, in the twenty-third chapter of Westermarck's _Human Marriage_. The fourteenth chapter of Letourneau's _L'évolution du mariage et de la famille_ is interesting and suggestive, but his analysis is defective; and in this connection, as elsewhere, the author is inclined to take too pessimistic a view of the juridical character of early society. Further general or special discussion may also be found in many of the works already described in previous Bibliographical Notes, especially in those of Wake, Starcke, Spencer, Mason, Unger, Bastian, Friedrichs, Smith, Krauss, Wilken, Riedel, Henrici, Bernhöft, Rehme, Hellwald, Klemm, Ratzel, Waitz, Fritsch, Munzinger, Sarasin, and the numerous papers of Kohler. For the Chinese, in connection with the books enumerated in Bibliographical Note IV, read Legge, _Life and Teachings of Confucius_ (3d ed., London, 1872); Doolittle, _Social Life of the Chinese_ (New York, 1867); and Alabaster, _Chinese Criminal Law_ (London, 1899). The literature relating to the Eskimo and the red Indians of America, mentioned in Bibliographical Note IV, yields many important notices of divorce usage. In addition read Thwaite's valuable paper on the Winnebagoes, _Wisconsin Hist. Collections_, XII (Madison, 1892). For reference to the divorce institutions among Greeks, Romans, Hebrews, and Early Germans see Bibliographical Note XI.]
Few of the results of recent research are more surprising than the revelation of the existence among low races of elaborate systems of unwritten law covering, often in a very orderly and comprehensive way, most of the divisions which one ordinarily associates with "civilized" jurisprudence.[724] This is especially true of the law of divorce. The investigations of various scholars, notably those of Kohler, Letourneau, Westermarck, and Post, have disclosed among the barbarous or even savage races of mankind a careful attention to detail, a stability, and often a respect for equity, in the customary rules relating to the dissolution of marriage, which western prejudice is scarcely prepared to find; while other peoples commonly looked upon as civilized, but relatively non-progressive, such as the Chinese, are sometimes quite capable of teaching us valuable lessons in this regard.