GENERAL

H3 v.2

Printed by BALLANTYNE & Co. LIMITED
Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London

CONTENTS

CHAPTER V

RISE OF FATHERRIGHT

The stages through which conjugal relations have passed are not

uniform but dependent on environment and other influences. The

stages to be reviewed therefore are not necessarily consecutive.

Frailty of the conjugal bond. The entertainment of temporary

husbands at the wife's home. Relations beginning with secret

visits by the lover tend to become open and permanent. Cupid

and Psyche. Secret relations between husband and wife. Open

visits by husband. Polygamous visiting husbands. Marriages in

which the husband goes to reside permanently with his wife.

Commutation of the husband's permanent residence in his wife's

family. Husband's probation as a relic of an earlier custom of

visiting. Effect of payment of bride-price. Husband's permanent

residence in his wife's family: its tendency to patrilineal

reckoning. Evolution of fatherright among various peoples of the

Old and New Worlds. Summary: general course of the evolution

of conjugal relations, and reasons for the inevitable decay and

supersession of motherright. The reckoning of kinship through

the father is not founded on blood, but is a social convention.

Pp. 1-100

CHAPTER VI

MARITAL JEALOUSY

Continence not a savage virtue. Female chastity a slow growth from

the limitations imposed by the masculine sense of ownership upon,

the gratification of sexual instincts. In the lower culture jealousy

operates only feebly or within limits. Examination of cases

among matrilineal peoples. Survival of matrilineal freedom into

fatherright. Peoples in a state of transition or where kinship is

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reckoned through both parents: Eskimo. Patrilineal peoples.

Polyandry: the Todas and other peoples of India and the neigh-

bouring countries. Sexual morality. Religious and other ritual

observances. Wide distribution of practices implying defective

jealousy. General indifference to the actual paternity of a child.

Value of children. Fatherright fosters indifference to paternity.

Pp. 101-248

CHAPTER VII

PHYSIOLOGICAL IGNORANCE ON THE SUBJECT OF

CONCEPTION. CONCLUSION

The foregoing considerations lead to the conclusion that paternity was

not understood by early man, and even yet the cause of birth is

more or less of a mystery to some peoples in the lower culture.

Reasons for this ignorance: among others the disproportion of

births to acts of sexual union. Every woman in the lower stages

of culture is accustomed to intercourse. Premature intercourse

very widespread. It is not only unproductive, but it impairs

fertility. Even where the true cause of birth has been discovered

it has been nowhere held invariable and indispensable. In

Australia and a few other countries it is still unrecognised.

Summary of the argument.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX

Pp. 249-286

INDEX

Pp. 287-309

Pp. 311-328