ers to present the case
for mother-right as clearly and concisely as possible. The point we
have now reached is this: while mother-right does not constitute or
make necessary rule by women, under that system they enjoy
considerable power as the result (1) of their organised position under
the maternal marriage among their own clan-kindred, (2) of their
importance to the male members of the clan as the transmitters and
holders of property.

It is necessary to remember the close connection between these
mother-right customs and the communal clan, which was a free
association for mutual protection. This is a point of much interest.
As we have seen, the undivided family of the clan could be maintained
only by descent through the mothers, since its existence depended on
its power to retain and protect all its members. In this way it
destroyed the solitary family, by its opposition to the authority and
will of the husband and father.

These conclusions will be strengthened as we continue our examination
of mother-right customs as we shall find them in all parts of the
world. I must select a few examples only and describe them very
briefly, not because these cases offer less interest than the complete
maternal families already examined, but because of the length to which
this part of my inquiry is rapidly growing. The essential fact to
establish is the prevalence of mother-descent as a probable universal
stage in the past history of mankind, and then to show the causes
which, by undermining the dominion of the maternal clan, led to the
adoption of father-right and the re-establishment of the patriarchal
family.

Let us begin with Australia, where the aboriginal population is in a
more primitive condition than any other race whose institutions have
been investigated. I can notice a few facts only from the harvest of
information brought together by anthropologists and travellers. The
tribes are grouped into exogamous sub-divisions, and each group has
its own land from which it takes a local name. Each group wanders
about on its own territory in order to hunt game and collect roots,
sometimes in detached families and, less often, in larger hordes, for
there seems to be a tendency to local isolation. A remarkable feature
of the social organisation is found in the more advanced tribes,
where, in addition to the division into clans, the group is divided
into male and female classes. All the members of such clans regard
themselv