stoms,
forms of marriage and the family, still to be found among primitive
peoples, scattered about the world. These early forms of the sexual
relationship were once of much wider occurrence, and they have left
unmistakable traces in the history of many races. Further evidence is
furnished by folk stories and legends. In peasant festivals and dances
and in many religious ceremonies we may find survivals of primitive
sex customs. They may be traced in our common language, especially in
the words used for sex and kin relationships. We can also find them
shadowed in certain of our marriage rites and sex habits to-day. The
difficulty does not rest in paucity of material, but rather in its
superabundance--far too extensive to allow anything like adequate
treatment within the space of a brief and necessarily insufficient
chapter. For this reason I shall limit my inquiry almost wholly to
those cases which have some facts to tell us of the position occupied
by women in the primitive family. I shall try to avoid falling into
the error of a one-sided view. Facts are more important here than
reflections, and, as far as possible, I shall let these speak for
themselves.

In order to group these facts it may be well to give first a rough
outline of the periods to be considered--

1. A very early period, during which man developed from his ape-like
ancestors. This may be called the pre-matriarchal stage. With this
absolutely primitive period we are concerned only in so far as to
suggest how a second more social period developed from it. The idea of
descent was so feeble that no permanent family groups existed, and the
family remains in the primitive biological relation of male, female
and offspring. The Botocudos, Fuegians, West Australians and Veddahs
of Ceylon represent this primitive stage, more or less completely.
They have apparently not reached the stage where the fact of kinship
expresses itself in maternal social organisation.[100] A yet lower
level may be seen among certain low tribes in the interior of
Borneo--absolutely primitive savages, who are probably the remains of
the negroid peoples, believed to be the first inhabitants of Malaya.
These people roam the forests in hordes, like monkeys; the males carry
off the females and couple with them in the thickets. The families
pass the night under the trees, and the children are suspended from
the branches in a sort of net. As soon as the young are capable of
caring for them