Primitive Society. By E. S. Hartland. (Methuen. 6s. net.) This
is a very able and interesting statement of the case for descent through the mother as the rule of primitive society. Mr. Hartland is a well-known exponent of the matriarchal theory, as opposed to Maine's belief that the early family was ruled absolutely by the father, through whom descent was traced. He surveys in a series of concise and lucid chapters the evidence gathered from primitive peoples in Australia, the Pacific, Africa, India, and other parts of the world, and he certainly builds up a strong argument. Some of the facts cited might have a different interpretation, but anthropologists in general are much less ready to question the matriarchal or matrilineal theory than they were even twenty years ago. It is not seriously suggested, of course, that women ruled in the primitive society ; the contention is that after a hypothetical period of promiscuity the family began to take shape, and that the first visible and recognized head of the family was the mother, and not the father.
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