ret societies, tribal marks
(totemism, circumcision, tattooing, scarification), and religious
dedication are devices by which, consciously or unconsciously, the
men escape from the tyranny of the maternal system. We cannot assume
that these practices originate solely or largely in dissatisfaction,
for the men would feel the advantage of a combination of interests
whenever brought into association with one another; but these
artificial bonds and their display to the eye are among the first
attempts to synthetize the male forces of the group, and it is quite
apparent that such unions are unfavorable to the continuance of the
influence of women and of the system which they represent. In West
Africa and among some of the negro tribes the initiatory ceremony
is apparently deliberately hostile to the maternal organization. The
youth is taken from the family of his mother, symbolically killed
and buried, resurrected by the priests into a male organization, and
dedicated to his father's god.[155]

Spatial conditions have played an important role also in the
development of societies. Through movements the individual or the
group is able to pick and choose advantageous relations, and by
changing its location adjust itself to changes in the food conditions.
That the success of the group is definitely related to its motor
capacity is revealed by the following law of population, worked out
by statisticians for the three predominant races of modern Europe: In
countries inhabited jointly by these three races, the race possessing
the smallest portion of wealth and the smallest representation among
the more influential and educated classes constitutes also the least
migratory element of the population, and tends in the least degree
to concentrate in the cities and the more fertile regions of the
country; and in countries inhabited jointly by the three races,
the race possessing the largest portion of wealth and the largest
representation among the more influential and educated classes is
also the most migratory element of the population, and tends in the
greatest degree to concentrate in the cities and the more fertile
portions of the country.[156] The primitive movements of population
necessitated by climatic change, geological disturbances, the failure
of water or exhaustion of the sources of food, were occasions for the
expression of the superior motor disposition of the male and for the
dislodgment of the female from her position o