THE STATUS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 439 



wiflely-difFused practice. It is general with the Bhils, Gonds, and 

 Hill-tribes of Nepaul ; it obtained in Java before Mohammedanism 

 was introduced ; it was common in ancient Peru and Central Ameri- 

 ca; and among sundry existing American races it still occurs. Obvi- 

 ously, a wife long labored for is likely to be more valued than one 

 stolen or bought. Obviously, too, the period of service, during which 

 the betrothed girl is looked upon as a future spouse, affords room for 

 the growth of some feeling higher than the merely instinctive initi- 

 ates something approaching to the courtship and engagement of civil- 

 ized peoples. But the facts chiefly to be noted are 1. That this 

 modiftcation, practicable with difficulty among the rudest predatory 

 tribes, becomes gradually more practicable as there arise established 

 industries aifording spheres in which services may be rendered ; and, 

 2. That it is the poorer members of the community, occupied in labor 

 and unable to buy their wives, among whom the substitution of ser- 

 vice for purchase will most prevail ; the implication being that this 

 hioher form of marriage into which the industrial class is led, develops 

 along with the industrial type. 



And now we are introduced to the general question, "What con- 

 nection is there between the status of women and the type of social 

 organization ? " 



A partial answer to this question was reached when we concluded 

 that thei-e are natural associations between militancy and polygyny, 

 and between industrialness and monogamy. For, as polygyny implies 

 a low position of women, while monogamy is a prerequisite to a high 

 position of women, it follows that decrease of militancy and increase 

 of industrialness are general concomitants of a rise in their position. 

 This conclusion appears also to be congruous with the fact just ob- 

 served. The truth that, among peoples otherwise inferior, the posi- 

 tion of women is relatively good where their occupations are nearly 

 the same as those of men, seems allied to the wider truth that their 

 position becomes good in proportian as warlike activities are replaced 

 by industrial activities ; since, when the men fight while the women 

 work, the difference of occupation is greater than when both are en- 

 gaged in productive labors, however unlike such labors may be in 

 kind. From general reasons for alleging this connection, let us now 

 pass to more special reasons. 



As it needed no marshaling of evidence to prove that the chronic 

 militancy characterizing low, simple tribes, habitually goes with po- 

 lygyny, so it needs no marshaling 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 

 which are exceptional in their industrialness, and at the same time ex- 

 ceptional in the higher positions held by women among them. Even 

 the rude Todas, low as are the sexual relations implied by their com- 



