oods, it would be perfectly natural that they
should belong to the women, and descend through them. The inheritance
would be to those most closely bound together, and who lived together
in the same home. Thus it appears that descent through the mother was
founded on social rights, by which the organisation of the family,
such as membership in the group or clan, succession and inheritance
were dependent on the mothers. In this sense it is clear that the term
mother-power is fully justified; it is nearer to the facts than the
term mother-kin.

Further than this I must not go; the first part of my inquiry now has
come to an end. It may seem to the reader that the patriarchal theory,
in a book written to establish mother-right, has received more
attention than was called for. I have discussed it so fully, not only
because of the interest of the subject in proving the errors in the
earlier theories of matriarchy, but because of the insight the
conditions of the primordial group give us into the origin of the
maternal family.

Many of the suggestions made are more or less hypothetical, but not a
few, I think, are necessary deductions, based on what is most probable
to have happened. I am fully aware of numerous omissions, and the
inadequacy of this summary; but if the suggestions brought forward
shall prove in themselves to have merit, it has seemed to me that a
fruitful field of investigation has been opened. Much new ground had
to be covered in this attempt to picture the position of women at a
period so remote that the difficulties are very great. I hope at least
to have cleared away the old errors, which connected mother-descent
with uncertainty of paternity and an early period of promiscuity.

Recognising sexual jealousy as the moving force in brute man, I have
accepted that the primeval family was of the patriarchal type. I have
traced the probable development of the group-family, expanding by
successive steps into larger groups living in peaceful association. In
the earlier stage, whilst the men lived as solitary despots, the women
enjoyed a communal life. It is thus probable that the leading power in
the upward movement of the group developing into the clan and tribe
arose among the united mothers, and not with the father. The women
were forced into social conduct. On this belief is based the theory of
mother-power.

The most important result we have gained is the proof that the
maternal system was framed for ord