THE MOTHERS : A STUDY OF THE ORIGINS OF SENTIMENTS
AND INSTITUTIONS. By Robert Briffault. (G. Allen and Unwin. 3 vols., 75s.)—If we can only draw attention to Mr. Briffault's truly monumental work, filling over two thousand pages, we are none the less conscious of its great value for all serious students of anthropology. In the old controversy between the patriarchal and the matriarchal schools, Mr. Briffault takes the side of those who regard primitive society as originating with the mother, and he expounds their view with a prodigious wealth of learning and, moreover, with a literary skill that is rare indeed in scientific treatises. He justifies his argument by beginning with the animal world, and also by ending with a study of the development of modern ideas of modesty and romance—a study which is a really brilliant criticism of conventional beliefs. Mr. Briffault discusses in the fullest detail the history of marriage, and breaks many a lance with Professor Westermarck and other writers on that complex and difficult subject. Then, again, he examines very fully various kinds of primitive religion and especially moon- worship, " the magical origin of queens," and other large topics. His bibliography alone fills two hundred pages. But he is never over-weighted by his learning, and he ends with an eloquent appeal to women to remember that " the compromises that govern the relations of the sexes are those that condition all true human values." Mr. Briffault has made a solid contribution to anthropological literature which deserves to be placed beside Sir James Frazer's Golden Bough.
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