302 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of the tribe with the family is concerned, may be questioned. In- 

 stead of the former being an aggregation or expansion of the lat- 

 ter, it is highly probable that the primitive tribe is older than the 

 family and the product of promiscuous sexual relations, and that 

 families originated in a subsequent process of domestic differenti- 

 ation. Polyandry and the custom of tracing descent exclusively 

 in the female line would seem to point in this direction. The in- 

 stitution of the family, even in its polygamous form, presupposes 

 a certain ethical element, which can hardly be predicated of pri- 

 meval barbarism. 



So, too, the most prominent feature in the social organization 

 of the anthropoid apes and in all simian communities is the troop 

 or tribe under the leadership of the most powerful male. A band 

 of orang-outangs is doubtless an association of blood-relations, 

 but there is no recognition of patriarchal authority as such and 

 no evidence of distinct divisions into families. The community 

 is a gregarious group of individuals joined in affinity, but not yet 

 separated into single pairs with clearly recognized and jealously 

 defended conjugal rights ; and sovereignty is simply the assertion 

 of superior force, although this constitution of the simian tribe 

 does not entirely exclude the existence and exercise of moral qual- 

 ities in the mutual relations of its members. 



It is, however, a matter of no moment for the further evolution 

 of society, whether, at the beginning, the family expanded into the 

 tribe or was gradually differentiated out of it. The fact remains 

 that the tribe was held together by the cement of consanguinity, 

 and that the authority of the tribal head was derived primarilj^ 

 from the respect and reverence due to him as common progenitor, 

 aided, of course, by his ability to enforce his claims to rulership 

 in case an ambitious and rebellious Absalom should be disposed 

 to question them. So strong and persistent is this sentiment that, 

 even now, the number of a man's noble ancestors is supposed to 

 entitle him, by the grace of God, to sovereignty, or to confer upon 

 him some exceptional privilege and power. 



With the transition from a nomadic to a sedentary social state, 

 an important change takes place. No sooner has a people ac- 

 quired fixed habitations and established permanent settlements 

 than there arises the idea of ownership in the soil, and the chief 

 of the tribe becomes the lord of the land. He is no longer merely 

 the head of an organized body of roving men, but he also claims 

 and exercises jurisdiction over a more or less definitely circum- 

 scribed district or domain and over all persons dwelling within 

 its borders. Tribal sovereignty or chieftainship is thus super- 

 seded by territorial sovereignty or dominion, and with this trans- 

 formation the state, in the modern sense of the term, really begins. 



At this early stage, however, proprietorship in land was not 



