is not
much to the point in presence of the fact that nowhere have they
conformed to this standard of existence. Moreover we are entitled to
the argument, which has been the main point advanced in connection
with the anthropological problems we are discussing, that the most
primitive type of man must of necessity be sought for, and can only be
found at the extremes of the migration movement wherever that is
discernible.[354]

The question now becomes, can we by means of recognisable links
proceed from the rudimentary kinless stage of society to the earliest
stage of kinship society? This is a most difficult problem, but it
must be solved. If the rudimentary kinless groups do indeed constitute
a factor in human evolution, they are a most important factor. If they
do not constitute such a factor, they can only be accidental
productions, the sport of exceptional circumstances not in the line of
evolution, and as such they are not of much use in anthropology. It
will be seen, therefore, that the connection between rudimentary
kinless society and the earliest, or representatives of the earliest,
kinship society, is an essential part of an inquiry into origins.

It may be approached first from the conjectural basis. On this basis
it may be asserted that the victorious male of the primary groups
would remain victorious only just so long as he could continue to
adjust the conditions on the primary basis, and preserve his females
to himself. New conditions would arise whenever the limitation of the
food lands produced a degree of localisation of the hitherto movable
groups. There would then have crept into human experience the
necessity for something of common action among a wider range than the
simple group. This is a new force, and social evolution is henceforth
going to operate in addition to, perhaps to a limited extent in
substitution of, the constant movement towards new food lands. The
single male would no longer be the victorious male by himself; and
sharing his power with other males meant the reduction of his power in
his own group. Called away for something more than the defence of his
own primary group of females, he would leave the females with the
practical governance of the primary groups. This tendency would
develop. Wherever the constant movement outwards became stayed by
geographical or other influences, the groups which experienced the
shock of stoppage would undergo change. The female in the various
primar