iii8tiacti^qft'---iiutiates ^OBictU^ approaduflg to the coort* Asp mod eagsigemsat of civilized peoplea* Bat the factft dhiefly to be B0ted are^^Bsmt, that this modifioationy piacii--eable with diftcnl^ juacny the xadest piedotoiy tribes^ hecomes gzedaally mon practicable as there asise established isdnstries aflEoidiag spheres in whiofa services may be re&dwed; and^ second^ Aatit is the poerer members of the efiBamwniiiy, oecnpied in labour and uoaUe to buy their wives^ am/OQg whom the sobstitattioii of service for pvrohase will most pievailr the implication being that this higher form of marriage into which the iodostrial class is led^ developa akmg witk the iadnrttial lype.
And now we are introduced to the general question — Whai connezioa is there between the stattkB of women and the type of sodal organisation?
{ 327. A partial answer to this question was reached when we oonckided that there axe natural associations between militancy and polygyny and between industviahiess and monogamy. For as polygyny implies a low position of women, while monogamy is a pre-reqnisite to a high positioED. of women; it follows that decrease of militancy and increase of industrialness^ are general concomitants of a rise in their position. This conclnsien appears also to be coi^fmons wiiih the &et jnst observed. The truth that among peoples otherwise inferior, the position of women is relativdy good where their occupations are nearly the same as those of men, seems allied to the wider truth that their positic» becomes good in proportion as warlike activities are i^placed by iisdastrial activities; since, when the men fight while the women work, the difEerence of occupatien is greater than when both are engaged in productive labours, however unlike such labours may be in kind. From general reasons for alleging this connexion, let us now pass to more special reasons.
As it needed no marshalling of evidence to prove that 756 TUK DOMESTIC RELATIONS.
the chronic militancy characterizing low simple faribes, habitually goes with polygyny; so^ it needs no marshalling of evidence to prove that along with this chronic militancy there goes a brutal treatment of women. It will suffice if we here glance at the converse cases of simple tribes whidi are exceptional in thei]^ industrialness and at the same time exceptional in the higher positions held by women among them. Even the rude Todas, low as are the sexual relations implied by their combined polyandry and polygyny, and little developed as is the industry implied by their semisettled cow-keeping lif e^ furnish evidence: to the men and boys are left all the harder kinds of work, and the wives "do not even step out of doors to fetch water or wood. which « * « is brought to them by one of their hnabands;'' and this trait goes along with the trait of peacefulness and entire absence of the militant type of social stmctare.
Striking evidence is furnished by another of the Hill-tribes — ^the Bodo and Dhimdls. We have seen that among peoples in low stages of culture, these furnish a marked case of non-militancy, absence of the political organization which militancy develops, absence of class-distinctions, and presence of that voluntary exchange of services implied by industrialism; and of them, monogamous as already shown, we read — ''The Bodo and Dhinffls use their wives and daughters well; treating them with confidence and kindness. They are free from all out-door work whatever." Take, again, the Dyaks, who though not without tribal fends and their consequences, are yet without stable chieftainships and military organization, are predominantly industrial, and have rights of individual property well developed. Though among the varieties of them the customs differ somewhat, yet the general fact is that the heavy out-door work is mainly done by the men, while the women are gesierally well treated and have considerable privileges. Witli their monogamy goes regular courtship, and the girls choose their mates; St. John says of the Sea Dyaks that THE STATUS OF WOMEN.. 757 " Husbands and wives appear to pass their lives very agreeably together;'' and Bajah Brooke names Mukah as a part of Borneo where the wives close their doors^ and will not receive their husbands^ unless they procure fish. Then, as a marked case of a simple community having relatively high industrial organissation^ with elective head^ representative council, and the other concomitants of the type, and who are described as '^ industrious, honest, and peace-loving,'' we have the Pueblos, who, with that monogamy which chaitM^terizes their family relations, also show us a remarkably high status of women. For among them not simply is there courtship, and choice exercised by girls — ^not simply do we read that " no girl is forced to marry against her will, however eligible her parents may consider the match,'' but sometimes, according to Bancroft, '' the usual order of courtship is reversed; when a girl is disposed to marry she does not wait for a young man to propose to her, but selects one to her own liking and consults her father, who visits the parents of the youth and acquaints them with his daughter's wishes."
On turning from simple societies to compound societies, we find two adjacent ones in Polynesia exhibiting a strong contrast between their social types as militant and industrial, and an equally strong contrast between the positions they respectively give to women: I refer to Fijians and Samoans. The Fijians show us the militant structure, actions, and sentiments, in extreme forms. Under an unmitigated despotism there are fixed ranks, obedience the most profound, marks of subordination amounting to worship; there is an organized military system with its grades of officers; the lower classes exist only to supply necessaries to the warrior classes, whose sole business is war, merciless in its character and accompanied by cannibalism. And here, along with prevalent polygyny, carried among the chiefe to the extent of from ten to a hundred wives, wo find the position of women such that, not only are they, as 9Se TAB mmsne mAnonB.
araosg ike lowest aavugcs, '^KHfo better Ifcui beMfa of berdeV aaid not onlj ottf Hwy b&BoId at pTnennm^ boi a mn may kill and eat Iub wife ^ he pieases. Goninrrinae, in SanKM the tjpe of tfe x«gidaluig Byotem kas become is a eoiMideraUe degree zadoflilrial, Tbere is mpiueentatife govenuBBBtj and cbieftaina^ exertSsing anAority niider cobsidenble restraint^ are portlj eleetiye; wfaile the indortriBl orgaoization is so far developed that there are fmnMBjiam and apprentioes, there is p^rment for labour, and thofe ire even strikes, with a radimeBtary trades-izniomsBa. And hoc, beyond that imfHroFement of women's Haius implied hj limitation of th^ labours to the l^hter kinds whOe mei take the heavier, there is the improvement imjdied by the fact that *' the hnsband has to provide a dowry, as well a^ the wife, and the dowry of each most be pretty neirijof eqnal valae,'' and by the fnot that a oonple who have lired together for years, make, at separation, a fair division of Ife property. Of otiier compound soeietieB fit for comparison, I may name two in America, North and BcvA, the Iroquois and the Auraucanians. Thongh these, alike in degree of composition, were both formed by oomfaioataon in war against civilized invaders; yet, in their social stroctores, they differed in the respect that the Avraocaniaiv^ became decidedly militant in their reg^olative orgaanition, while ihe Iroquois did not give tiheir regulative or* ganiiation the militant form; for the governing agancieFy general and local, were in the one personal and heredifaury and in the other representative. Now thongh these two peoples were much upon a par in the division of laboor between the sexes — ^the men limiting themselves to war, tk^ chase, and fishing, leaving to the women tiie labours of i^ field and the house; yet along with Ae freer political type of the Iroquois there went a freer domestic type; as diown by the facts that the women had separate proprietuy rights, that they took with them the children in oases of separation, and that marriages were arranged by the I mothers No defim'te evMeoce either my ii ftmadied bj the doably^mpwmtl nociettes of Awaent Amenca. The poKtial organiBation of Kesieo «a» in a hagh ^gree miUtaat in type; Imt akmg witti it flwi* Wt m elaborate iadiistml otgmiaation, witt extennre dmsioii of laboar and conaide«ble oonuBercial iBteraoime; ani, excepting in the polygyny and concubinage of the npper clawes, and occasional inheritance of wives as property, ti^ position of women appears to have been not bad. Tl^e l-femvian nation, which, though less sangninary in its obi serronces, had the militant stractnre carried out far more eonqdetdy, so that its indrotrial organization formed part rtf the political organization, gave a lower ttatus to women,; who did the hard work, and who, in the upper ranks at least, had to sacrifice themselves on the deaths of tiiett Irasbaiids.
The highest societies, ancient and modem, are many o€ them rendered in one way or otber unBt tor comparisons. In some cases tlie evidence is inadequate; in some cases we know not wliat the antecedents hate been; in some cases the facts liave been confused by agglomeration of different societies; and in all cases the co-operating influences have increased in nnmber. Concerning tbe moist ancient ones, of which we know least, we can do no more than say that the traits presented l>y them are not inconsistent with the view here set f ortli. The Accadians, who before reaching that height of civilization at which phonetic writing was achieved, must liave existed in a settled popti-Ions state for a vast period, mnst have therefore had for %x, vast period a considerable industrial organization; and vt. seems not improbable tbat during such period, being paw«^^^ in comparison with, ivandering tribes aronnd, their •o^V^jA life, little perturbed by enemies^ was substantially pruMm^w^^ Hence there is no i3icon.gmity in the fact tbat -Ckkey shown by their records to bave given their won tively high status -• "wives owned property, and i&e of mothers was especially enjoined by their laws. Of the Egyptians something similar may be said. Their earhest wall-paintings show as a people far advanced in arts, indostry, observances^ mode of life. The implication is irresistible that before the stage thos depicted^ there most hare been a long era of rising civilization; and since this era was passed in an isolated fertile tract, mostly snrroimded by such nomadic hordes only as the deserts ooold snpport, the Egyptians were relatively strong, and may not improbably have long led a life largely industrial. So that though the militant type of social stractore evolved dnring the time of their consolidation, and made sacred hj their form of religion, continued; yet industrialism must have become an important factor, inflnendng greatly tbdr social arrangements, and diffusing its appropriate sentiments and ideas. And the position of women was relatively good. Though polygyny existed it was unusual; matrimonial regulations were strict and divorce difficult; " married couples lived in full community;'' women shared m social gatherings as they do in our own societies; in sundij respects they had precedence given to them; and, in tlie words of Ebers, " many other facts might be added to proTC the high state of married life/' Ancient Aryan societies illustrate well the relationship between the domestic regime and the political regime. The despotism of an irresponsible head, which characterizes the militant type of structure, characterized alike the original patriarchal family, the cluster of &milies having a conmion ancestor, and the united clusters of families forming the early Aryan community. As Mommsen describes him, the early Roman ruler once in office, stood towards citizens in the same relation that the father of the family did to wife, children, and slaves: " the regal power had not, and could not have, any external checks imposed upon it by law: the master of the community had no judge of his acts within the communiiy, any more than the honse- THE STATUS OF W0M8K. 761 &tlLer liad a judge within his household. Death alone terminated his power /^ From this first stage^ in which the political head was absolute^ and absoluteness of the domestic head went to the extent of life and death power over his wife, the advance towards a higher status of women was doubtless, as Sir H. Maine contends, largely caused by that disintegration of the family which went along with the progressing union of smaller societies into larger ones effected by conquest. But though successful militancy thus furthered female emancipation, it did so only. by thereafter reducing the relative amount of militancy; and the emancipation was really associated with an average increase of industrial structures and activities. As before pointed out, militancy is to be measured not so much by success in war as by the extent to which it occupies the male population. Where all men are warriors and the work is done entirely by women, militancy is the greatest.
The introduction of a class of males who, joining in productive labour, lay the basis for an industrial organization, qualifies the militancy. And as the industrial class, at first consisting though it does wholly of slaves, increases in proportion to the militant class, the total activities of the society must be regarded as more industrial and less militant. In another way the same truth is implied, if wo consider that when a number of small hostile societies are consolidated by triumph of the stronger, the amount of fighting throughout the area occupied becomes less, although the conflicts now from time to time arising with neighbouring larger aggregates may be on a greater scale. This is clearly seen on comparing the ratio of fighting men to population among the early Romans, with the ratio between the armies of the Empire and the number of people included in the Empire. And there is the further fact that the holding together of these compound and doubly-compound societies eventually formed by conquest, and the efficient co-operation of their parts for military purposes, itself im- 762 TSB Dcoasnc shahoiis.
plies an increased dcrvdopment of tiie inAoBtrial tion. Great armies oarrying^ on op«ratioi» at the ptripkny of a gpreat tenitoxy^ imply a nnmennxs woildi^ popuslMO, a consideralde division of labomTy and good appfiueoB for transferring BnppUes: lite sustaining and distribvtuig systems must be well devdoped before large milituit stractures can be worked. So tiiat tUs diaislegxaiMm of the patriarchal &mily, and consequent esnancqiatioi ^ woraen, which went along with growtk of &b Bonian Snpire^ really had for its concomitant a devoiupMcaat of Ae indosiarial organization.
§ S28. In other ways a like relation of causa and oBeoiis shown ns daring the progress of Earopmn aocHties aw Boman times.
Respecting the Hei^tue of women in mefissval Eoropei Sir Heniy Maine says >— ** There cm be no aerioas qnestioa tikat, in its iilliBSita wmSk^ disraptkxa of ilia Bonuoi Empiie wss veiry nahmmnhie to Hie penonal and pn^zietaiy liberty of women. I pnzpoaely sa^ 'in its nUimite zesult,' in order to avoid a learned controYenQr as to their poatuc nnder purely Teutonic costom/' Now leaving open the question whether this oondnnoii applies "beyond those parts of Europe in which inslits* tions of Boman origin were least affected hj those d Germanic ori^n, we may^ I think^ on contrasting ^ condition of things before the fall of the Empire and the condition after^ infer a connexion between this decline is the staius of women and a return to greater militancy. For while Roman power held together the populations of larg*^ areas^ there existed throughout them a state of comparatiye internal peace; whereas its failure to maintain sobordination was followed by universal warfare: prodacing from time to time larger aggregates and again dissolutioiis of them, until the disintegration had reached the stage in which there existed numerous feudal governments mutnaOy hostile. And then^ after that decline in the position of ns vBOum op mmnr. 78S w<nneft wiiidli aoeompamed iiiis ratrognde increMe of mSitanc^, I3i6 sabaeqa^it iaproremefit in their pcMntioa Treot aiong wi4ih i^gregaiSon of sBiaUer f eadiJ! gofwnaients into hirger o&es^ wludi Itad fhe reeolt timt wiIUxl tiie consolidated territorieB the amoimt of dtfhsed figbtiag decreased.
Comparisons between the chief oiriliBed nations as noir existing^ yield renfications. Note^ finite t3ie tact, significant of the relation between pofitical despotism and domestic despotism, thai, according to Legonv6, Napoleon I. saM to ihe Council of State " xm man doit avoir un empire abs^a sar les actions de sa femme ''; and that sondiy pFovisions of the Code, as intrepreted by Pothier, carry out this dictum.
Further, note that, according to de S6gmr, &e positioQ of women in France declined under the Empire; and that " it was not only in ihe hi^er ranks that this nullity of women existed. * « « The habit of figliting filled men with a kind of contempt and aspenty which made them often forget even the regard which they owed to wesSkness/' Passing over less essential oontrssta now presented by the leading Enropean peoples, and considering chiefly the siaius as displayed in the daily lives of the poorer rather than the richer, it is mamfest that the mass of women have harder lots where militant organisation and activity predominate, than they hare where there is a predominance of industrial organization and activity. The sequence observed by travellsrB in Afiica, that in pro* portion as the men are occupied in war more labour falls on tho women, is a sequence wiubh both France and Germany show us. Bocial snstentation has to be carried on; and necessarily the more males are drafted off for military service, the more femalea most be called on to fill their places as workers. Hence the extent to which in Garmauy women are occupied in rough ont*of-door tasks — digging, wheeling, carrying burdens; hence the extent to which in France heavy field-operations are shared in by 764 THi Doxssnc bxultionb.
women. Tbat the English housewife is less a dmdge ihan her German sister^ tiiat among shopkeepers in Ehi^land she is not required to take so large a share in the basiness ss she is among shopkeepers in FrancOj and that in ESngland the out-of-door work done by women is both smaller in quantity and lighter in kind^ is clear; as it is dear that thib difference is associated with a lessened demand on thei male population for purposes of offence and def enoe« And then there may be added the fact of kindred meanings that in the United States^ where till the late war the degree of militancy had been so small^ and the industrial type of social structure and action so predominant^ women hare I'eached a higher status than anywhere else.
Evidence furnished by existing Eastern nations^ so tai as it can be disentangled^ supports this view. China^ with its long history of wars causing consolidations, dissolntions. re-consolidations^ etc.^ going back more than 2,000 years b.c^ and continuing during Tartar and Mongol conquests to be militant in its activities and arrangements, has, notwithstanding industrial growth, retained the militant type of structure; and absolutism in the State has been accompanied by absolutism in the family, qualified in the one as in the other, only by the customs and sentiments which industrialism has fostered: wives are bought; concnbinage is common among those adequately well off; widows are sometimes sold as concubines by fathers-in-law; and women join in hard work, sometimes to the extent of being harnessed to the plough; while, nevertheless, this low stattis is practically raised by a public opinion that checks the harsh treatment legally allowable. Similarly Japan, which, passing through long periods of internal conjiict ending in integration, acquired an organization completely militant, under which political freedom was unknown, showed a simultaneous absence of freedom in the house* hold — ^buying of wives, concubinage, divorce at mere wiD of husband, crucifixion or decapitation for wife's adultery; THE STATUS OP WOMEN. 765 whild^ along with tlie growth of industrialism characterizing the later dajrs of Japan, there went such improvement in the legal status of women that the husband was no longer allowed to take the law into his own hands in case of adultery; and now, though women are occasionally seen using the flail, yet mostly the men, according to Sir Rutherford Alcock, " leave their women to the lighter work of the house, and perform themselves the harder out-door labour/' § 329. It is of course difficult to generalize phenomena into the genesis of which there enter factors so numerous and involved — character of race, religious beliefs, surviving customs and traditions, degree of culture, etc.; and doubtless the many co-operating causes give rise to incongruities which qualify somewhat the conclusion drawn. But, on summing up the several arguments, we shall I think see that condusion to be substantially true.
The least entangled evidence is that which most distinctly forces this conclusion upon us. Bemembering that nearly all simple uncivilized societies, having chronic feuds with their neighbours, are militant in their activities, and that their women are extremely degraded in position, the fact that in the exceptional simple societies which are peaceful and industrial, there is an exceptional elevation of women, almost alone suffices as proof: neither race, nor creed, nor culture, being in these cases an assignable cause.
The connexions which we have seen exist between militancy and polygyny and between industrialness and monogamy, present the same truth under another aspect; since polygyny necessarily implies a low status of women, and monogamy, if it does not necessarily imply a high staiuSf is an essential condition to a high status.
Further, that approximate equalization of the sexes in numbers which results from diminishing militancy and increasing industrialness, conduces to the elevation of women; 9V6 TBI soHnnc siLiTioau.
m frofottiom m tka Wfplj of miks avaikble for CMfijiug Oft aooHil snatentfttioii moreaM% tha labour of Borini mmibmMmi UHa Ian hea¥ilj on die females. Aad it mtf be acUed lliat tike aoeietieB in wIbcIl the Borplns of xaaka UrniB aaede amolaUe, undertakes the harder kboars, mad m, veUeriBf Ike females from andae physical tax, anabkw them to prodnoe more and better ofcprmg; will^ eiker Ainga eqaal, gain in the stmgig^ for existenee with societies in which the w6men are not thns relieved by the men: whence an average tendency to the spread cf aociatiea in which the staiuM of women is improved.
Thm% ifl the faot^too, that the despotism distingoiahing a eommnaity oigaaiaed toit war» is essentially connected with deqKitifln in the hooaehold; while^ conversely, the freedom whieh oharacteriaea public life in an industrial commnnity, natimlly danRtacizea also the aooompaaying private life. In the one case oompnlaoiy co-operation prevails in both; in the other case volontaiy ce-operation prevails in both.
By the moral contrast we are shown another face of the same fsct. Habitnal antagonism with, and destmotion of, foes, seacs the ympathim; while daily exchange of poodnets and services among citiaeais, puts no obstacle to increase of feUow-f ediag. And the altroiam which grows with peaceful co-operation, amdioratea at once the life withont the household and the life within the honaehold.*^ • 'Sm kte tD U iiatii in iti pauper plMa, md m hd^ fhat I hmc onoellgd itenotgrpc pbtot to bring it iiit I haw nufe witb a ftrikui^ wwoAoatioii in the jnafe-iMMd work of Mr. W. Mattiea WilliMui, F.RjLS^ F.CS^ 7%rtmffh Narwojf ^nUi LadAfa, Ha m^ " there are no people In the worid, however refined^ awong whom tiie lelatife poeition of nmn and wmnan ie moro emNvable to the laMar tiMii aBoag the Lappa.** After girii^ evidence from pereonal ohewailion* he aeka the leaaon, eafdng:— " Ii it becanae the men are not warrion? • • • Thej have no eoldien^ Agb^ ne hattlea, either with ontside foreignen, or between the variooi tribee and ftunniei among themaelvofl. • • • In spite of tMr wretched hn«i» tMr dirtf hgm, their primi. tive cbtfaingr, their igannMe ef Iitentafe» art, «d ecM»e, thej rwA above no in the higheet eleaMnt of tme €iviliaatioa» the moeal element; and all the militarf nationa of the world may stand nncovered before them ** (pp. 162-3}.
CHAPTEE XI.
TH£ STATUS OF CHUiDBIH.
§ 330. That brates^ however f erocioixs^ treat their off* spriiig tenderly^ is a £&iniliar &ct; and tbat tenderziesB to o&pring is shown by the most brutal of mankind, is a fact qnite congmons with it. An obvions eQq>1anation of this seeming anomaly exists. As we saw that the treatment of women by men cannot pass a certain degree of harshness without causing extinction of the tribe; so here, we may see that the tribe must disappear unless the love of progeny is strong. Hence we need not be surprised when Mouat tells us that the Ani^ATnATi Islanders ''show their children the utmost tenderness and affection;^ or when we read in Snow's account of the Fuegians that both sexes are much attached to their offspring; or when Sturt describes Australian fathers and mothers as behaving to their little ones with much fondness. Affection intense enough to prompt great self-sacrifice, is, indeed, especially requisite under the conditions of savage Hfe, whiqh render the rearing of young difficult; and maintenance of such affection is insured by the dying out of families in which it is deficient.
But this strong parental love is, like the parental love of animals, very irregularly displayed. As among brutes the philoprogenitive instinct is occasionally suppressed by the desire to kill, and even to devour, their young ones; so among primitive men this instinct is now and again over- 768 THE DOMESTIC BEIATIONS.
ridden by impulses temporarily excited. Thns^ tbongii attached to their offsprings Australian mothers, when in danger^ will sometimes desert them; and if we may beliere Angas^ men have been known to bait their hooks with the flesh of boys they have killed. Thns^ notwithstanding thoir marked parental affection, Fuegians sell their cbildren for slaves; thus, among the Chonos Indians, a father, though doting on his boy, will kill him in a fit of anger for an accidental offence. Everywhere among the lower races we meet with like incongruities. Falkner, while describing the paternal feelings of Patagonians as very strong, sap they often pawn and sell their wives and little ones to the Spaniards for brandy. Speaking of the children of the Sound Indians, Bancroft says they " sell or gamble them away.'' According to Simpson, the Pi-Edes ** barter their children to the Utes proper, for a few trinkets or bits of clothing.'' And of the Macusi, Schomburgk writes, ''the price of a child is the same as the Indian asks for his dog/' This seemingly-heartless conduct to children, often arises from the di£Bculty experienced in rearing them. To it the infanticide so common among the uncivilized and semi-civilized, is, of course, mainly due — ^the burial of living infants with mothers who have died in childbirth; the putting to death one out of twins; the destruction of younger children when there are already several. For these acts there is an excuse like that commonly to be made for killing the sick and old. When, concerning the desertion of aged people by wandering prairie tribes, Catlin says — "it often becomes absolutely necessary in such cases that thej should be left, and they uniformly insist upon it, saying, as this old man did, that they are old and of no further nse, that they left their fathers in the same manner, that ther wish to die, and their children must not mourn for them"— when, of the Nasoopies^ Heriot tells us that in his old age 'Hhe father usually employed as his executioner, the son who is most dear to him " — ^rv'hen, in Kane, we read of the THE STATUS OF CDILDBBN. 769 Assineboine chief who ''killed his own mother,'* becansej being " old and feeble/' she '* asked him to take pity on her and end her misery"; there is suggested the conclasion that as destruction of the ill and infirm may lessen the total amount of suffering to be borne under the conditions of savage life, so may the destruction of infants, when the region is barren or the mode of life so hard that the rearing of many is impracticable. And a like plea may be urged in mitigation of judgment on savages who sell or barter away their children: the needs of the younger ones possibly, in some cases, prompting this sacrifice of the elder.
Generally, then, among uncivilized peoples, as among animals, instincts and impulses are the sole incentives and deterrents. The stattis of a primitive man's child is like that of a bear's cub. There is neither moral obligation nor moral restraint; but there exists the unchecked power to foster, to desert, to destroy, as love or anger moves.
§ 331. To the yearnings of natural affection are added in early stages of progress, certain motives, partly personal, partly social, which help to secure the lives of children; but which, at the same time, initiate differences of static between children of different sexes. There is the desire to strengthen the tribe in war; there is the wish to have a future avenger on individual enemies; there is the anxiety to leave behind one who shall perform the funeral rites and continue oblations at the grave.
Inevitably the urgent need to augment the number of warriors leads to preference for male children. On reading of such a militant race as the Chechemecas, that they ''like much their male children, who are brought up by their fathers, but they despise and hate the daughters; " or of the Panches, that when " a wife bore her first girl child, they killed the child, and thus they did with all the girls bom before a male child; " we are shown the effect of this desire for sons; and everywhere we find it leading D D D 770 THS POMXSnC BSLATIOtrS.
eitiier to desisnctioii of dangliters, or to low estimation mi ill-treatment of them. Through long ascending stages of social Hfe the desire thns arising persists; aa instance tiie statement of Herodotus^ that every Persian prided himself on the number of his sons^ and it is eren said that an annml priase was given by the monarch to the Persian who could show most sons living. Obvionslj the social motive, thus ooming in aid of the parental motive^ served to raise ihe status of male children above that of female.
A reason for the care of sons implied in the passage of Ecclesiasticits which says^ ''he left behind him aa avenger against his enemies/' is a reason which has weighed with all races in barbarous and semi-civilized states. The sacred duty of blood-revenge^ earliest of recognised obligations among men^ survives so long as societies remain predominantly warlike; and it generates an anxiety to have a male representative who shall retaliate upon those from whom injaries have been received. This bequest of quarrels to be fought out, traceable down to recent times among so-called Christi€»i8, as in the will of Brantdme, has of course all' along raised the value of sons, and has so put upon the h«rsh treatment of them, a check not put upon the harsh treatment of daughters: whence a further differentiation of status*