The question of the position of women during the mother-age a disputed one—Bachofen's opinion—An early period of gynæocracy—This view not accepted—Need for unprejudiced opinion—Women the first owners of property—Their power dependent on this—Further examples of mother-right customs—The maternal family in Australia—Communal marriage—Mother-right in India—The influence of Brahmanism—Traces of the maternal family—Some interesting marriage customs—Polyandry—Examples of its practice—Great polyandrous centres—The freedom enjoyed by women—The causes of polyandry—Matriarchal polyandry—The interesting custom of the Nayars—The Malays of Sumatra—The ambel-anak marriage—Letter from a private correspondent—It proves the high status of women under the early customs of mother-descent—Traces of the maternal family among the Arabs—The custom of beena marriage—Position of women in the Mariana Islands—Rebellion of the husbands—Use of religious symbolism—The slave-wife—Her consecration to the Bossum or god in Guinea.
IV.—The Transition to Father-right
The position of women in Burma—The code of Manu—Women's activity in trade—Conditions of free-divorce—Traces of mother-descent in Japan—In China—In Madagascar—The power of royal princesses—Tyrannical authority of the princesses of Loango—In Africa descent through women the rule—Illustrations—The transition to father-right—The power passing from the mother into the hand of the maternal uncle—Proofs from the customs of the African tribes—The rise of father-right—Reasons which led to the change—Marriage by capture and marriage by purchase—The payment of a bride-price—Marriage with a slave-wife—The conflict between the old and the new system—Illustration by the curious marriage customs of the Hassanyeh Arabs of the White Nile—Father-right dependent on economic considerations—Résumé—General conclusions to be drawn from the mother-age—Its relation to the present revolt of women—The bright side of father-right.
CHAPTER VI[ToC]
THE MOTHER-AGE CIVILISATION
I.—Progress from Lower to Higher Forms of the Family Relationship
"The reader who grasps that a thousand years is but a small period in the evolution of man, and yet realises how diverse were morality and customs in matters of sex in the period which this essay treats of" (i.e. Mother-Age Civilisation), "will hardly approach modern social problems with the notion that there is a rigid and unchangeable code of right and wrong. He will mark, in the first place, a continuous flux in all social institutions and moral standards; but in the next place, if he be a real historical student, he will appreciate the slowness of this steady secular change; he will perceive how almost insensible it is in the lifetime of individuals, and although he may work for social reforms, he will refrain from constructing social Utopias."—Professor Karl Pearson.