are not justified in
assuming that matrilineal descent and matria potestas are due to a
custom of removal.

Inasmuch as patrilocal[15] marriage involves descent of group and tribal
property rights in the male line, it might appear that in rejecting the
hypothesis of a prior stage of matrilocal marriage, we are involving
ourselves in difficulties; for it is clearly not easy to see how descent
could come to be reckoned through the mother, while property descended
through the father. But it is obviously unnecessary in the first place
to regard the individual rights of property as originating
simultaneously or under the same conditions as the rules as to kinship
or even communal property; there is nothing to show how long the present
system of land tenure in Australia has held good, and it is clearly one
which points to a certain growth of population; for if the local group
were remote from their neighbours, there would be little need to
encroach; moreover, the exact delimitation of territory now in practice
is a thing of long growth.

Further consideration however shows that it is only by a confusion of
thought that we can speak of land descending in the male line (that is,
of course, in respect of group rights, not private property, to which we
return later); strictly speaking the descent of landed property is
neither in the male nor the female line but local. A man who removes to
his wife's tribe is, so far as we can see, as truly part owner of the
tribal land as if he were himself a member of the tribe by birth within
its limits. The suggested difficulty, therefore, does not exist, and the
conclusion as to removal customs holds good.

We may now examine the relation of matriliny to the seat of authority in
the family. Questions of potestas naturally range themselves under more
than one head. We have (1) the relation of the husband (_a_) to the wife
and (_b_) to the children; (2) the relation of the mother to the
children, and closely connected with this the influence of the mother's
brother; finally (3) we have the position of the widow, a matter indeed
more intimately connected with inheritance from a legal point of view
but in Australia more closely connected with potestas than in countries
where slavery is a recognised institution.

Small as is our information on Australian jurisprudence, it is certain
that the husband enjoys practically unrestricted rights over the person
of his wife, _pirrauru_ and similar cust