However, philosophers have found that the Seris people do not seem to have thought about this problem.
There is a saying of "Eight Mothers" in Seris society, which means that eight kinds of women can be treated as mothers, including aunt, stepmother, adoptive mother, loving mother, married mother, maiden mother, concubine, and wet nurse. To philosophers, this is an obvious example.
Because some of the eight mothers have no direct relationship with their fathers.
Auntie is the name a concubine's children give to their father's wife. This relationship depends entirely on the father; the same goes for stepmothers and concubines. The meaning of "loving mother" is that when one concubine adopts another concubine's children under the father's instructions, the children call this adoptive mother who takes care of them. Since the key point of emphasis is on the father's instructions, it is also related to the father.
But adoptive mothers and wet nurses do not necessarily have to be related to the father. Even in the absence of a father, a child can still be adopted or nursed. In this way, the father's authority is not a sufficient condition for maintaining the mother's status.
The remaining two are even counterexamples: a married mother refers to a child's mother who has remarried someone else; a chumu refers to a mother who has been abandoned. In both cases, the original parental relationship is legally over. If the relationship between mother and child is maintained by the father, then these two relationships should be canceled immediately.
This problem is not unknown to Seris philosophers.
Confucius's grandson was named Zisi, and his great-grandson was named Zishang. Several generations of the Kong family have had wives, and Zishang's mother also divorced and remarried.
After his mother died, Zishang wanted to go to the funeral, but Zisi stopped him. The disciples asked the reason, and Zisi said that the woman should first be the father's wife, and then the child's mother. If the relationship between husband and wife is severed, then the relationship between mother and child is also severed. Now this woman is no longer his wife, so she is no longer his mother, and there is no need to mourn her anymore.
His way of thinking is what Greek scholars call the father-centered model.
But the problem is that Zisi's theory has not been used by later generations. Great Confucian scholars debated endlessly about how to treat married mothers and pregnant women, but they never reached a unified opinion. In different times and places, everyone often does their own thing.
Finally, the mourning period regulations issued by the government are often a compromise: mourning must be observed, but it does not need to be completed. In short, it is obviously a mess...
This shows that Seris people have paternal authority, but paternal authority is not the only factor. The mother-child relationship itself has been recognized for a long time and has the confidence to bargain. In this case, the customs naturally became what they are now.
In short, the purity of paternal authority is too low.
On the other hand, through some extreme cases, the difference between the two sides can be seen more clearly.
In Greece, there is a widely circulated story that Agamemnon, the commander of the attack on Troy, was killed by his wife in collusion with her lover after returning home. In the Mediterranean world, this seems to be a very common plot, and it happens in reality. Many replicas. But Agamemnon's children were very determined and always wanted to avenge their father.
Agamemnon's youngest son, Orestes, went into exile after his father's death and returned to his hometown when he grew up. With the help of his sister, he successfully killed his mother and her mother's lover, realizing his desire for revenge.
But after that, the Furies continued to pursue him, and Orestes could only continue to flee. Later, Apollo helped him run to Athens and seek asylum from Athena, who then organized a group of the wisest people to judge him.
Apollo himself came to his defense, saying that his father was more important than his mother, so he should be pardoned for his behavior. But the Furies believed that matricide was a serious crime and could not be forgiven. The justices could not agree, split evenly between those in favor and those against. At the critical moment, Athena cast the final vote and declared him not guilty. Orestes was eventually pardoned.
Although it is a fictional myth, this classic story has been cited repeatedly by scholars because it represents people's basic understanding. But, in Seris, there is no such thing.
Cases of mother-killing in revenge for one's father are not unheard of. On the contrary, there were classic cases in the Han Dynasty.
During the reign of Emperor Jing of the Western Han Dynasty, the famous "year-prevention case" occurred. Fang Nian's stepmother Chen killed Fang Nian's father, so Fang Nian avenged his father and killed his mother. Tingwei captured Fang Nian, and according to the law, he was found guilty of "killing his mother" and should be sentenced to death in accordance with the crime of "treason".
But at that time, the concept of revenge was very popular, so Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty summoned Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, who was still the prince at the time, to consult him for his advice.
The prince said that it is said in the Book of Rites that "a stepmother is like a mother." Why do you say "like mother"? It means that after all, she is still different from her biological mother. It is just because of her father that she is regarded as her mother for the time being.
When the stepmother kills the father, it means that the relationship between husband and wife has ended, and the derived relationship between mother and son has also ended. Therefore, killing the stepmother should not be regarded as a "treason" crime of killing one's mother, but should be regarded as an ordinary murder crime.
Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty recognized his point of view, so Fang Nian's crime was reduced, and he was eventually sentenced to beheading and abandoning the city.
The judgment of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was repeatedly quoted in the legal codes of all dynasties and served as a standard reference, which also had a great influence. Even overseas, in the eyes of Greek researchers, it also has extremely rich information content.
The most obvious place is the issue of "stepmother is like mother". What does being like a mother mean? It means "like" mother, which means like mother. So is Rumu a mother? She is "like" a mother, that is to say, even to the end of the struggle, she is still not a mother...
This shows that although the stepmother is the father's legal wife, she is still not the real mother of the first wife's son. She only simulates the mother-child relationship by relying on the parents' marriage relationship. But like the previous example, this difference just proves that in addition to the relationship brought by the father, the blood relationship between mother and child itself also has a certain impact and will be taken into consideration.
Similarly, the verdict of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was actually very "coincident". It was said that the first-degree crime was reduced, but in fact it did not reduce anything. He did not reward Fang Nian's act of revenge and gave him a reduced punishment. Moreover, after clearly analyzing the legal provisions, Fang Nian was still executed.
In this case, it is difficult to say which side the verdict supports. Because judging from the results, the government actually does not support anything, and is even opposed to the act of revenge itself. This model of high control and supremacy of court authority is also not found in Greece - because there are actually no "other parties" here. The positions represented by characters such as Furies, Apollo, Athena, etc. were all replaced by the government.
(End of chapter)
