n, added to his wives and servants by capture or purchase,
and established the patriarchal system. Descent henceforth was
reckoned in the paternal line, and society had become patronymic
instead of metronymic. It must not be supposed that this change
occurred very suddenly. It may have taken many centuries to bring it
about, but as the man learned his part in procreation and his power in
society, he delighted in his self-importance to lord it over the woman
and her children. The marriage relation ceased to be free and
reciprocal. The wife no longer had a choice in marriage. Bought or
captured, she was no longer wooed for a companion, but was valued
according to her economic worth. As population pressed, the
domestication of plants followed the taming of animals, but the
agricultural settlement of the family only made the woman's lot
harder, for she was the burden bearer on the farm.

35. =Polygyny.=--a better term than polygamy--was the inevitable
result of the patriarchal system. Man made the law and the law
recognized no restraint upon his sexual and parental instincts.
Improvements in living added to the resources of the family and made
it possible to maintain large households of wives, children, and
slaves. Polygyny had some social utility, because it increased the
number of children, and this gave added prestige and power to the
family, as slavery had utility because it provided a labor force; but
both were weaknesses in ancient society, because they did not tend in
the long run to human welfare. Polygyny brutalized men, degraded
women, and destroyed that affection and comradeship between parents
and their offspring that are the proper heritage of children. Wherever
it has survived as a system, polygyny has hindered progress, and
wherever it exists in the midst of monogamy it tends to break down
civilization.

Another variety of marriage that has been less common than polygyny is
polyandry. It is a term that signifies the marriage of one woman to
several husbands, and seems to have occurred, as in the interior of
Asia, only where subsistence was especially difficult or women
comparatively few. Neither polygyny nor polyandry were universal, even
where they were a frequent practice. Only the few could afford the
indulgence, much the largest percentage of the people remained
monogamous.

36. =Conflict and Social Selection.=--The supreme business of the
social group is to adapt itself to the conditions that affect