136 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



is doubtless a primary fact." Now, though among lower races, sons, 

 while young, may be subordinate, from lack of ability to resist, yet 

 that they remain subordinate when they become men cannot be as- 

 serted as a uniform, and therefore as a primary, fact. In a former 

 paragraph it will be seen that obedience does not characterize all types 

 of men. When we read that the Mantra " lives as if there were no 

 other person in the world but himself;" that the Carib "is impatient 

 under the least infringement " of his independence ; that the Mapuche 

 "brooks no command;" that the Brazilian Indian begins to display 

 " impatience of all restraint at puberty " we cannot conclude that 

 filial submission is an original trait. When we find that, by many 

 savages, parents, when they become burdensome in age, are killed or 

 left to starve; that by some, as the Gullinomeros, "old people are 

 treated with contumely, both men and women ;" and that by other 

 savages boys are not corrected for fear of destroying their spirit we 

 cannot suppose that subjection of adult sons to their fathers charac- 

 terizes all types of men. When from Bancroft we learn that to the 

 Navajos of North America, " born and bred with the idea of perfect 

 personal freedom, all restraint is unendurable," and that among them 

 " every father holds undisputed sway over his children until the age 

 of puberty ; " when we learn that, among some Californians, children 

 after puberty " were subject only to the chief;" that among theLow- 

 er-Californians, " as soon as children are able to get food for them- 

 selves, they are left to their own devices ; " and that among the Co- 

 manches male children "are even privileged to rebel against their 

 parents, who are not entitled to chastise them but by consent of the 

 tribe " we are shown that in some races the parental and filial rela- 

 tion early comes to an end. So far from supposing that filial obe- 

 dience is innate, and the patriarchal type a natural consequence, the 

 evidence points rather to the inference that the two have evolved 

 hand-in-hand under favoring conditions. 



Again, referring to the way in which originally common ancestral 

 origin was the only ground for united social action. Sir Henry Maine 

 says : 



*" Of this we may at least be certain, that all ancient societies regarded them- 

 selves as having proceeded from one original stock, and even labored under an 

 incapacity for comprehending any reason except this for their holding together 

 in political union. The history of political ideas begins, in fact, with the as- 

 sumption that kinship in blood is the sole possible ground of community in po- 

 litical functions." 



Now, if by " ancient societies " are meant those only of which records 

 have come down to us, and if the "history of political ideas" is to 

 include only the ideas of such societies, this may be true ; but if we 

 are to take account of societies more archaic than these, and to in- 

 clude under political ideas those of other peoples than Aryans and 



