at these relations
have materially changed in the previous course of human development, and
that the changes have taken place in even step with the existing systems
of production, on the one hand, and of the distribution of the product
of labor, on the other, it is natural and goes without saying that,
along with further changes and revolutions in the system of production
and distribution, _the relations between the sexes are bound to change
again_. Nothing is "eternal," either in nature or in human life; eternal
only is change and interchange.

As far back as one may go in the development of human society, the horde
is found as the first human community. True enough, Honeger mentions in
his "General History of Civilization" that even to-day in the little
explored interior of the island of Borneo, there are wild people, living
separately; and Huegel likewise maintains that, in the wild mountain
regions of India, human couples have been discovered living alone, and
who, ape-like, fled to the trees as soon as they were met; but there is
no further knowledge on the subject. If verified, these claims would
only confirm the previous superstition and hypothesis concerning the
development of the human race. The probability is that, wherever human
beings sprang up, there were, at first, single couples. Certain it is,
however, that so soon as a larger number of beings existed, descended
from a common parent stock, they held together in hordes in order that,
by their joint efforts, they might, first of all, gain their still very
primitive conditions of life and support, as well as to protect
themselves against their common enemies, wild animals. Growing numbers
and increased difficulties in securing subsistence, which originally
consisted in roots, berries and fruit, first led to the splitting up or
segmentation of the hordes, and to the search for new habitats.

This almost animal-like state, of which we have no further credible
antiquarian proofs, undoubtedly once existed, judging from all that we
have learned concerning the several grades of civilization of wild
peoples still living, or known to have lived within historic times. Man
did not, upon the call of a Creator, step ready-made into existence as a
higher product of civilization. It was otherwise. He has had to pass
through the most varied stages in an endlessly long and slow process of
development. Only via ebbing and flowing periods of civilization, and in
constant di