was
not due to a licentious view of marriage; far otherwise, it was an
expression of the communism which is characteristic of this
organisation. This fact has been forgotten by many writers, who have
regarded this form of the sexual relationships as a very primitive
development, connected with group-marriage and promiscuous ownership
of women. It is very necessary to be clear on this point. Under the
maternal conditions, nothing is more certain than the equality of
women with men in all questions of sexual morality. In proof of this
it is necessary only to recall the facts we have noted. We find little
or no importance attached to virginity, which in itself indicates the
absence of any conception of the woman as property. Thus no
bride-price is claimed from the husband, who renders service in proof
of his fitness as a lover, not to gain possession of the bride. The
girl is frequently the wooer, and, in certain cases, she or her mother
imposes the conditions of the marriage. After marriage the free
provision for divorce (often more favourable to the wife than to the
husband) is perhaps of even greater significance. There can, I think,
be no doubt that this freedom in love was dependent on the wife's
position of security under the maternal form of marriage.

I hold that the facts brought forward entitle us to claim that the
maternal communal clan was an organisation in which there was a freer
community of interest, far more fellowship in labour and partnership
in property, with a resulting liberty for woman, than we find in any
patriarchal society. For this reason, shall we, then, look back to
this maternal stage as to a golden period, wherein was realised a free
social organisation, carrying with it privileges for women, which even
to-day among ourselves have never been established, and only of late
claimed? It is a question very difficult to answer, and we must not in
any haste rush into mistakes. We found that the mother-age was a
transitional stage in the history of the evolution of society, and we
have indicated the stages of its gradual decline. It is thus proved to
have been a less stable social system than the patriarchate which
again succeeded it, or it would not have perished in the struggle with
it. Must we conclude from this that the one form of the family is
higher than the other--that the superior advantage rests with the
patriarchal system? Not at all: rather it proves how difficult is the
struggle to soci