.

The instinct of exogamy first developed in the totem-clan when it
was migratory and lived by hunting, at least among the Australians
and probably the American Indians.

The first condition of the clan was one of sexual promiscuity, and in
_Totemism and Exogamy_ Sir J.G. Frazer has adduced many instances of
periodical promiscuous debauchery which probably recall this state of
things. [159] The evil results which would accrue from in-breeding
in the condition of promiscuity may have been modified by such
incidents as the expulsion of the young males through the spasmodic
jealousy of the older ones, the voluntary segregation of the old
males, fights and quarrels leading to the rearrangement of groups,
and the frequent partial destruction of a group, when the survivors
might attach themselves to a new group. Primitive peoples attached the
utmost importance to the rule of exogamy, and the punishments for the
breach of it were generally more severe than those for the violation
of the laws of affinity in civilised countries. The Australians say
that the good spirit or the wise men prescribed to them the rule that
the members of each totem-clan should not marry with each other. [160]
Similarly the Gonds say that their divine hero, Lingo, introduced the
rule of exogamy and the division into clans before he went to the gods.

At first, however, the exogamous clan was not constituted by descent
through males, but through females. The hypothesis that female
everywhere preceded male descent is strongly supported by natural
probability. In the first instance, the parentage of children was no
more observed and remembered than that of animals. When first observed,
it was necessarily through the mother, the identity of the father
being wholly uncertain. The mother would also be the first parent
to remember her children, her affection for them being based on one
of the strongest natural instincts, whereas the father neither knew
nor cared for his children until long afterwards. Sir J.G. Frazer
has further shown that even now some of the Australian aborigines
are ignorant of the physical fact of paternity and its relation
to sexual intercourse. That such ignorance could have survived so
long is the strongest evidence in favour of the universal priority
of female to male descent. It is doubtful, however, whether even the
mother could remember her children after they had become adult, prior
to the introduction of personal names. Mr. M